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HOUSTON (Reuters) - Venezuela s former oil czar Rafael Ramirez said on Wednesday the government would make one of its worst political moves if investigators target him in an anti-corruption purge, which is gaining traction ahead of the country s 2018 presidential election. Friction between Ramirez and President Nicolas Maduro reflect growing rifts in the Socialist Party once firmly united under late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. This comes amid a deep economic recession and financial sanctions imposed by the United States on what it considers a dictatorship. Ramirez, who spoke with Reuters from an undisclosed location after being pushed out last week as Venezuela s ambassador to the United Nations, said he is waiting for the right time to return to his country. The 54-year-old engineer also said he has not yet decided if he will launch a run in the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election, in which Maduro is expected to seek another term. Ramirez, who led state-run oil company PDVSA for a decade under Chavez, said he has not been approached by Venezuelan or U.S. prosecutors investigating corruption cases linked to PDVSA and its subsidiaries. Some of those probes focus on incidents that occurred under his watch as one of Chavez longest serving officials. I have not been involved in any act of corruption. I have been very careful to follow internal control mechanisms, he said. Thus far, the expanding corruption probe by the state prosecutor s office has resulted in authorities accusing over 100 people, including two former PDVSA presidents who also served as oil ministers under Maduro. Ramirez said he is prepared to fight back if investigators target him or his close family, some of whom served as advisors of the Venezuelan government in international arbitration cases. That scenario would be offbeat. Who aims to attack my family is going to find me, he said. He added that he trusts Venezuelan institutions will confirm his family members have faithfully served Venezuela, not charging the government for their work. One of Ramirez s relatives, Diego Salazar, was detained last week under accusations of corruption and money laundering. Still, Ramirez said accusations from corruption scandals should not be taken lightly because they hurt PDVSA s reputation and its ability to recover from a deep production decline. The country s oil output has fallen this year to its lowest level in almost three decades, down 1 million barrels per day from its 2013 level. But he also criticized the government s focus on PDVSA in its corruption accusations, while excluding public institutions that oversaw a long-standing currency control system used to convert and distribute billions of dollars coming from exports. The company should be investigated without subjecting its employees to a moral lynching, he said. I will believe that a corruption probe is genuine when it includes the whole Venezuelan economy. Ramirez in 2014 submitted an economic plan to the government before moving to his position in the United Nations. But no action was taken due to the central government s lack of confidence in him, he said. In the following years, the government s failure to take needed actions, which also has been criticized by analysts and the opposition, have led to a greater financial instability, spiraling inflation and mounting debt, which Maduro is now struggling to restructure. Economic action has to be taken with urgency, he said. A lack of motivation among PDVSA s workers, delayed crude output due to infrastructure problems and a very low currency exchange rate impacting PDVSA s cash flow also have to be addressed, he said. | 0 |
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ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The war against Islamic State in Iraq may soon be over but providing humanitarian aid to Iraqis is becoming more difficult as new political and cultural divides open up, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said. Jan Egeland also warned that members of the international coalition which helped Baghdad in its three-year campaign against Islamic State could now drastically reduce their humanitarian budget for Iraq following the militants defeat. More than 3 million people displaced by Islamic State-related violence in the last three years have still not returned home. A rift between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurds following a September referendum on independence has created a fresh wave of displacement. New political, cultural and sectarian divides seem to be popping up, Egeland told Reuters during a visit to Iraq. There are too many cleavages in Iraq. We don t need more roadblocks and certainly not more violence. The NRC runs one of the largest foreign aid operations in Iraq. Islamic State s self-declared caliphate effectively collapsed in July when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces re-took Mosul, the group s de facto capital in Iraq, after a gruelling nine-month battle which reduced much of it to rubble. Nearly one million people fled Mosul since 2014, but only one third of its residents have so far been able to return, aid groups say. Iraqi government officials have estimated it will take at least five years and billions of dollars to rebuild Mosul alone. There s one thing we should have learned in Iraq it is that we cannot spend countless billions of dollars on military campaigns and then not spend the smaller sums needed to make it safe for people in the future, Egeland said. This is a time of decision-making: will we stay and help people recover and rebuild their lives next year? Or will we prematurely think the job is done? The international community must not abandon the millions of people who are still displaced, Egeland said. That would be not only shameful but shortsighted. (This version of the story was refiled to amend Egeland s title) | 1 |
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will provide Myanmar with $25 million for development projects including prefabricated houses in troubled Rakhine state to enable the return of Rohingya Muslims who have fled the area, the foreign ministry said on Thursday. More than 600,000 Rohingya have escaped to Bangladesh after attacks by insurgents on Myanmar security forces in August triggered a military crackdown that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing. The international community demands the Rohingya be allowed to go home in safety, and Bangladesh and Myanmar have begun talks on repatriation, but huge doubts remain about the Rohingya ever being able to return in peace to rebuild homes and till fields. India, which is concerned about the influx of the refugees into its territory, has stressed economic development of the Rakhine region as a way to help lower tensions. Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held talks with Myanmar leaders on Wednesday and signed a memorandum of understanding to support development of Rakhine and help create jobs. This is intended to help the Government of Myanmar achieve its objective of restoration of normalcy in Rakhine State and enable the return of displaced persons, the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement. Under this MoU, Government of India proposes to take up, among others, a project to build prefabricated housing in Rakhine State so as to meet the immediate needs of returning people. India will spend $25 million over the next five years on development of the impoverished region, foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said. Besides housing, the proposals include building schools, healthcare facilities and building bridges and roads. India has been trying to promote economic cooperation with Myanmar to try to push back against China s expansive involvement in infrastructure development across south Asia. Beijing has also stepped into the Rohingya crisis and proposed a three-phase plan including a ceasefire, bilateral talks and then tackling poverty long-term. | 0 |
By BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley T he resistance to a Hillary Clinton presidency has already begun. Activists gathered in Chicago “to strategize the fight against police violence, neoliberalism and imperialism,” all of which promise to be hallmarks of her administration. The Black Misleadership Class plays its usual, toadying role. “The liars who said they would hold Obama’s feet to the fire are repeating their empty words and hoping no one pays attention.” “All forms of mass action must be used to deprive Clinton of support or claim of a mandate.” The Hillary Clinton administration, Slick Willie part II, will bring catastrophe unless there is constant agitation waged against it. The same woman who bragged that her party platform was progressive now brags that Republicans endorse her. The situation is urgent but there is no need to despair or to reinvent the wheel. There are groups across the country engaging in protest and they show a clear path for a liberation movement. This columnist joined with 200 activists in Chicago for the Right to Exist, Right to Resist [3] conference organized by the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS USA). The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Police Oppression, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice, Peoples Organization for Progress, Bayan USA, Chicago Teachers Union, US Palestinian Community Network, Committee to Stop FBI Repression and others met to strategize the fight against police violence, neoliberalism and imperialism. If it is true that no person is an island then no struggle should be waged in isolation. The people of Ferguson, Missouri received support from Palestine during their rebellion against police occupation. The neoliberal onslaught that privatizes education and closes schools also deprives Flint, Michigan of clean water and its democratic rights. American imperialism threatens all life on this planet with its constant provocations against Russia and China which risk world war. “The black “misleaders” are silenced yet again by a prospective Democratic presidency.” Moore: A former Bernie Sanders supporter and recent 100% convert to Hillary—in the name of what? Good proof that liberals are forever blind to much of the world’s realities. This presidential election repeated the sleight of hand which presents the Democrats as the party which defends us from the barbarians. Donald Trump is the foil used to fool millions of people into believing that the errand boys and girls of neoliberalism can also be the guarantors of human rights. Hillary Clinton’s administration will be disastrous for black Americans in particular. The black “misleaders” are silenced yet again by a prospective Democratic presidency. They will not speak up against Hillary Clinton any more than they did against her husband or Barack Obama. They said nothing when Bill Clinton ended the 60-year long entitlement to government benefits. They said nothing when he used the war on drugs as an excuse to lock up thousands of black people with draconian prison sentences. They said nothing when Obama wouldn’t allow those people to request their freedom or when he declined to prosecute even one killer cop. They say nothing when American presidents wage wars of aggression all over the world. We can expect more going along to get along when “two for the price of one” becomes a reality. WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO THREAD FOOLS RUSH IN . This presidential election repeated the sleight of hand which presents the Democrats as the party which defends us from the barbarians. Donald Trump is the foil used to fool millions of people into believing that the errand boys and girls of neoliberalism can also be the guarantors of human rights . Not only must activists do their utmost to fight back against the real life Lady MacBeth but they must call out those who falsely claim to be in their camp. The liars who said they would hold Obama’s feet to the fire are repeating their empty words and hoping no one pays attention. They must be exposed right now and again after election day because they will surely make good on their history of appeasement. The Right to Exist, Right to Resist conference took place on the second anniversary of Laquan McDonald’s murder at the hands of Chicago police. McDonald was only 17 years of age, a child according to American law. His death, the existence of the Homan Square secret prison and other instances of torture and brutality resulted in demands for community control of the police. “She may bring the mothers of police murder victims on to the stage but she has said nothing about ending the death toll.” Chicagoans are struggling to establish an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council [4] (CPAC). Black community control of the police is a mobilizing issue all across the country. The demands began under Obama and must continue after Hillary Clinton takes office. She may bring the mothers of police murder victims on to the stage but she has said nothing about ending the death toll. That task is left for activists who know better than to expect any justice from her. Millions of Americans struggle financially and are displaced by gentrification or fear the police or want to keep their public schools open. But in 2016 they have been led astray by one of the most cynical presidential campaigns of all time. Hillary Clinton preferred Donald Trump as her rival because she was likely to lose to any other Republican. She then used the man she wanted to run against to rally otherwise skeptical voters to her side. The ego maniacal Trump performed as expected and is driving all but dead-ender right wingers to Hillary’s side. There must be no celebrating when her victory is announced. That is the moment when the fights must begin in earnest. All forms of mass action must be used to deprive her of support or claim of a mandate. The champion of the ruling classes cannot be allowed to claim the progressive mantle. That title belongs to the people who met in Chicago and marched in memory of Laquan McDonald. Frederick Douglass’ advice to “Agitate, agitate, agitate,” must still be followed. If not Hillary Clinton will privatize Social Security and find a rationale to start one last disastrous war. She will be stopped only if we assert our right to exist and right to resist. Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/organizing_in_age_of_hillary | 0 |
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Etihad Airways flight traveling from Abu Dhabi to Sydney made an emergency landing at Australia s Adelaide Airport early on Saturday after a warning indicator activated in the cockpit. Crew on board Etihad flight EY450 landed the plane at 5 a.m. (1830 GMT) at Adelaide Airport, in the state of South Australia. The Boeing 777 passenger jet had 349 passengers on board who disembarked via emergency exits, according to online news service Adelaide Advertiser. A technical fault with a cargo hold air recirculation fan had been found, Etihad Airways told Reuters in an email. Etihad Airways apologizes for the inconvenience. The safety of our guests and crew is of paramount importance, it said. Australia s ABC News had reported that a smoke alarm had activated. Passengers would make their onward journeys via other airlines due to crew rest requirements, the airline said. Saturday s Etihad flight EY451, from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, had been canceled and passengers would be rescheduled on later Etihad services out of Sydney, the airline said. It was the second incident this year for the Etihad flight that connects Australia s biggest city with the hub of Abu Dhabi, where passengers transit for worldwide destinations. In July, four men were arrested in Sydney over an Islamist plot to attack the flight. One of the men sent his unsuspecting brother to catch the July 15 Sydney to Abu Dhabi flight carrying a bomb hidden in a meat-mincer. | 1 |
Report Copyright Violation Planet nine might be pulling our solar system out of alignment Astronomers have speculated for years that there could be a large planet in the outer reaches of our solar system, but no such object has ever been directly observed. However, the harder we look, the more plausible the existence of “planet nine” becomes. Astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of Caltech have added another piece of evidence to the debate. Their observations indicate that planet nine could be causing a “wobble” in the solar system. | 0 |
Somebody doesn t like a certain person affecting her ratings but does Megyn underestimate the popularity of the Don? On Friday s The Kelly File on the Fox News Channel, host Megyn Kelly debated Andy Dean, a former president of Trump Productions and a supporter of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, over whether or not it would have been appropriate for Trump to defend President Barack Obama when asked about the Muslim problem in America and singling out the president at a campaign rally in New Hampshire early this week.Dean likened it to Obama s lack of rhetoric regarding Jeremiah Wright, the controversial pastor of Chicago s Trinity United Church of Christ, who made derogatory statements about the country following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.Kelly was not satisfied with Dean s response and asked him if he was uncomfortable. Transcript as follows:MEGYN KELLY, HOST OF THE KELLY FILE : We want to start with Andy Dean, he s the former president of Trump Productions and worked with Mr. Trump for seven years. Andy, thank you for being here tonight.ANDY DEAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF TRUMP PRODUCTIONS: Thank you.KELLY: So, what is officially is the defense being offered by the Trump campaign on this?DEAN: Well, look, I think it was a question that was asked at a town hall forum, and Donald as you can tell kind of shrug his shoulders and laugh a little bit. Because it s a pretty aggressive question. But as far as what Donald thinks, I mean, we all know that President Obama went to Reverend Jeremiah Wright s church. And what religion that is, I m not sure because we remember Reverend Wright saying, God damn America. That s in the Bible. I read the Bible. I have not seen that passage yet. So, I think more than anything, there s just confusion on our end as to why one tiny question is some sort of big media controversy right now.KELLY: You know, it s because the guy a couple reasons. Number one, he seem today be condemning Muslims as a group, as opposed to radical Muslims. Number two, he said that Barack Obama DEAN: The questioner was, not Donald Trump.KELLY: Yes. The questioner.DEAN: The questioner was, not Donald Trump.KELLY: Right. Exactly.DEAN: Correct.KELLY: And then number two, he said the questioner that Barack Obama is a Muslim and that he s not a citizen of this country. And Donald Trump did not correct him or challenged him on other one.DEAN: Well, that s not correct. We know that Barack Obama is a citizen of this country, one of the reasons why we have definitive proof is that Donald Trump got Barack Obama s long form birth certificate.KELLY: Why didn t he say that?DEAN: And once he produced that, there s been no controversy since. And it is, Megyn, for a second here. It s pretty impressive, if you look at Donald Trump s pure negotiating skill, then nobody on planet earth was able to produce this document until Donald turned this into an issue and then Barack Obama (CROSSTALK)KELLY: So then, he s in the best position to turn onto that man and say, we know he s a citizen sir, we know that. Because I pushed for him in the release and he did. And that question has been resolved. Period. Let s move on.DEAN: Okay. Well, Megyn, he could have said that, but by that exact same logic, think of this, why didn t Barack Obama according to that same logic stand up at Jeremiah Wright s church and say, hey Jeremiah, not God damn America.KELLY: Not a good question. Not a good question.DEAN: America isn t no, it s the exact same thing.KELLY: Barack Obama is not running for office. Donald Trump is.DEAN: Sorry, he wasn t running for office in 2007 and 2003 KELLY: See, he won the office. And he s now the sitting president.DEAN: Correct.KELLY: So that fish has swum. That ship has sailed.DEAN: Okay, but it s a parallel argument. Megyn, I m sorry. This is a rough night, I guess.KELLY: Well, that s a deflection, Andy.DEAN: That s not making any sense.KELLY: That s a deflection.DEAN: It s not a deflection. It s an exact parallel.KELLY: You seem to be dodging. Are you uncomfortable on this issue? Why can t you answer whether DEAN: What is it Megyn? Please get specifics.KELLY: Okay. I will. Why didn t Donald Trump look at him and say he is not a Muslim. He is an American citizen. I m the man who made him produce his birth certificate.DEAN: I think that could have been an answer as to why, you know, and Donald answered the questions at a town hall. I think indeed the perfect politically correct answer at every moment to satisfy the media. You know, I m not a genius. I can t figure that out.KELLY: That s okay. That s a reasonable response.DEAN: Thank you.KELLY: All the stuff about, why didn t Barack Obama stand-up was a deflection. We got to it eventually.DEAN: No, it s not. It s was an exact parallel argument, actually, Megyn.KELLY: Oh, I ll let the viewers decide.DEAN: When you re-watch this, we ll see that. Okay, great.KELLY: I ll look forward to doing just that later.DEAN: You got it.Via: Breitbart News | 1 |
Time: Investigating Hillary is an Attack on All Women November 1, 2016
Good morning. It's Tuesday.
Who's up for another silly attempt to claim that Hillary Clinton is only being investigated for her rogue email setup because she's a woman? This gem comes from Robin Lakoff, a Berkeley professor in sustained incoherence and special pleading.
Hillary Clinton’s Emailgate Is an Attack on Women
'It's not about emails; it's about public communication by a woman’
I am mad. I am mad because I am scared. And if you are a woman, you should be, too. Emailgate is a bitch hunt, but the target is not Hillary Clinton. It’s us.
The only reason the whole email flap has legs is because the candidate is female. Can you imagine this happening to a man?
His name was General Petraeus. Thank you. Have a nice day.
Clinton is guilty of SWF (Speaking While Female), and emailgate is just a reminder to us all that she has no business doing what she’s doing and must be punished, for the sake of all decent women everywhere. There is so much of that going around.
That escalated quickly. And incoherently. Also I'm pretty sure it's not the 20s or whatever decade Robin is parodying or channeling. But yes, Hillary Clinton is only in this mess because she's a woman. It has nothing to do with anything else. That must be why Albright and Rice weren't in the center of similar scandals.
If the candidate were male, there would be no scolding and no “scandal.” Those very ideas would be absurd. Men have a nearly absolute right to freedom of speech. In theory, so do women, but that, as the creationists like to say, is only a theory.
Emailing classified information on your server to avoid transparency regulations is not free speech. It's illegal for both public officials of both genders.
But here’s Hillary Rodham Clinton, the very public stand-in for all bossy, uppity and ambitious women. Here are her emails. And since it’s a woman, doing what decent women should never do—engaging in high-level public communication—well, there must be something wrong with that, even if we can’t quite find that something.
Illegally... emailing... classified... information. | 1 |
Donald Trump, the actual Republican candidate for president, now endorsed by his party leaders, openly said he wants to exclude someone from a government job because of his race and ethnicity.
As the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, Trump said he wants to disqualify the federal judge overseeing the Trump University case because of his "Mexican heritage" and membership in a Latino lawyers association:
Mr. Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had "an absolute conflict" in presiding over the litigation given that he was "of Mexican heritage" and a member of a Latino lawyers' association. Mr. Trump said the background of the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, was relevant because of his campaign stance against illegal immigration and his pledge to seal the southern U.S. border. "I'm building a wall. It's an inherent conflict of interest," Mr. Trump said.
This is pure racism. There's no subtlety, no dog whistle, no coded language.
Somehow this isn't too surprising. Trump is, after all, the presidential candidate who launched his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants criminals and "rapists," and he proposed banning all Muslims from entering the US.
And with this latest remark, Trump is just turning the thinly veiled subtext into text. He had already previously brought up Curiel's Mexican heritage, suggesting that there was a conflict of interest because of it but not saying it quite so explicitly.
Reading this, it's hard for me, a Hispanic American, to avoid feeling a little personally insulted. This suggests that Trump would probably dismiss my opinion — indeed, this article — because of my name. Yet millions of Americans — and a major political party — want him to be president, despite his clear racism.
Maybe the media plays a role here. After all, instead of calling it like it is, CBS News, MSNBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times have called Trump's comments about Curiel "racially charged" and "racially tinged," the weasel words the media typically uses to describe racism. It makes one wonder: What would it take for them to finally call Trump or his remarks just plainly racist? If claiming a qualified, vetted judge shouldn't be able to do his job because of his race and ethnicity isn't racist, then what the hell is?
Perhaps the problem is Hispanic people are vastly underrepresented in media. As the journalism organization ASNE found, racial minorities make up less than 13 percent of the field — despite making up about 38 percent of the total US population. That might make it harder for a lot of journalists to see just how racist Trump's remarks are.
If that's the case, maybe it would be helpful for the predominant white journalists in the field to consider: If President Barack Obama or President Marco Rubio said all white people should be banned from acting as judge in a court case against him, would that be considered racist? And how is that any different from what Trump is doing?
There should be no doubt about it now: Donald Trump is racist. He wants to exclude people from government jobs because of their race and ethnicity. That is the literal definition of racism. The media shouldn't shy away from pointing that out, and the people supporting Trump should know that's exactly what they're supporting. | 1 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia expects all terrorists in Syria to be destroyed by the end of the year and then plans to keep enough troops in the country to prevent any new conflict, the Interfax news agency cited a prominent Russian senator as saying on Monday. We will leave in Syria only those troops necessary to avert a possible repeat of this terrorism, the agency quoted Viktor Bondarev, the head of the upper house of parliament s defense and security committee, as saying. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday failed to advance four separate measures aimed at curbing gun sales, the latest display of congressional inaction after a mass shooting. Eight days after a gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State killed 49 people in an Orlando, Fla. nightclub, the Senate deadlocked, largely along party lines, on amendments to block people on the federal terrorism watch list from buying guns and to close loopholes in background check laws. Families of gun violence victims looked on from the Senate chamber as the votes were held. Further action on gun safety measures or mental health provisions seemed unlikely before the fall election, given the rush to finish a series of spending bills and the relatively limited time that Congress will be in session before November. In addition, the four gun measures were attached to legislation that contains several other thorny issues, such as the question of whether to take passports away from terrorism suspects, which suggests there will be little chance for further debate. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, has been working on a compromise, disliked by both party leaders, that would bar the sale of guns to terrorism suspects who appear on either the government’s list or the selectee list of people who receive additional scrutiny at airports. That bill, which is not as broad as the Democratic measure that failed on Monday, could surface later in the week. Partisanship and the power of the gun lobby played a large role in the amendments’ failure. Democrats structured their bills in a way that was almost certain to repel Republicans, while Republicans responded with bills equally distasteful to Democrats. Democrats vowed to hammer Republicans during the campaign this fall. “Our constituents see a disturbing pattern of inaction,” Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor on Monday. “Sadly, our efforts are blocked by the Republican Congress, who take their marching orders from the National Rifle Association. ” Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, introduced one of the failed measures, which could have prevented anyone on the federal terrorism watch list and other terrorist databases from buying firearms or explosives. Democrats tried unsuccessfully to pass the measure after the shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. in December. “It’s time for us to stand up,” Ms. Feinstein said. Republicans, arguing that the list of people affected would be too broad and that the measure would not offer proper due process, put forward a competing measure. That amendment would have required the government to delay, during a review period, the purchase of a gun by anyone who is a terrorism suspect or has been the subject of a terrorism investigation within the last five years. “No one wants terrorists to be able to buy guns or explosives,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said on the Senate floor on Monday. The two other measures that failed included one offered by Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who led a filibuster last week to make a point on guns. His measure sought to tighten background checks for most gun buyers. Republicans offered a measure that was more focused on the mental health system. The Obama administration, which has been pushing for a variety of new gun control legislation, vowed to press on. “The view of the administration is that the American people should be engaged in the debate,” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said on Monday. “So the fact that this is something that is being actively debated and considered in the Senate does represent incremental progress. ” Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has largely supported the positions of most Republicans, who want to preserve gun rights. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has made her support for gun control a central tenet of her campaign. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Mrs. Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, voted with the party from the Senate chamber, looking glum as colleagues came to greet him. The votes were taken on the same day that the Supreme Court declined to hear a Second Amendment challenge to a Connecticut law, enacted in 2013 after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, that bans many semiautomatic rifles. The Senate measures seemed doomed almost as soon as they were offered. After the Sandy Hook massacre, a bipartisan background check measure failed, even though Democrats controlled the Senate. Democrats, now in the minority, replaced that measure with the amendment sponsored by Mr. Murphy, which would have expanded background checks to all gun sales except loans and gifts between family members. Republicans said it was too broad. And even Senator Jon Tester of Montana, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, voted against it. Some Republicans in tough fights had to consider each measure carefully. One of them, Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, said the measures to prevent terrorism suspects from getting guns were inadequate, but voted for both. While the politics of gun control tend to recede in general election campaigns, the Orlando shooting has brought the issue back to the front burner. “We will keep pushing,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, “until they see the light. ” | 0 |
Donald Trump is looking for a veep with the political experience Trump lacks, while Hillary Clinton is looking to diversify the ticket.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (l.) stands with Sen. Elizabeth Warren at a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 27. According to campaign insiders, Senator Warren is on the shortlist to be Mrs. Clinton's running mate.
According to insiders, Donald Trump wants a running mate who has what he lacks – political experience –while Hillary Clinton is putting a premium on competence and diversity.
Yet the presidential rivals are running strikingly similar processes for tapping their vice presidential picks: relying on prominent Washington lawyers to comb through the background of top contenders, seeking guidance from a small circle of trusted advisers and family members, and weighing their personal chemistry with prospects.
Mr. Trump, a wealthy businessman who has never held public office, is mulling a small number of political veterans. He's seriously considering former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, according to people with direct knowledge of the vetting process.
"We're vetting a lot of good people, and we have a lot of interest in people that want to leave high positions and do this," Trump said Thursday.
The right VP candidate could help bring party leaders, Republican voters, and big donors into the Trump fold, all people the campaign desperately needs ahead of the general election.... With more than 60 percent of voters feeling unfavorable about Trump at the end of June, the right VP pick could help voters feel more positive about the Republican ticket.
But in light of their own low favorability ratings, Ms. Hinckley wrote, "Gingrich and Christie might not be the ones to do it."
The presumptive Republican nominee appears less concerned about diversity, considering only white men over age 50 for the role. His campaign chairman said that Trump is not interested in choosing a woman or minority for the sake of appealing to a particular segment of the electorate.
Former Secretary of State Clinton has said she wants a running mate who is well-prepared to become president, and Democrats say she's giving priority to diversity and has been weighing women, Hispanic candidates, and black candidates — a nod to the voting blocs Democrats need to win in presidential elections.
Top contenders for the Democratic ticket include Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of Washington's most prominent female lawmakers; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, a telegenic 41-year-old Hispanic politician; and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a white man over 50 from a swing state.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, one of two black senators, was also being considered, though it's unclear whether he is still in the running.
A running mate rarely shifts the trajectory of a presidential race, but it's still among the most important decisions nominees face during the general election, and their choice is viewed as a reflection of their priorities and values.
Clinton has veteran Democratic lawyer James Hamilton overseeing her selection process, with input from longtime confidants John Podesta and Cheryl Mills. Clinton is expected to begin meeting with candidates herself next week, according to two Democrats with knowledge of the process.
Given Clinton's decades in the public eye, her advisers don't expect her selection of a running mate to change her electoral prospects significantly. But one Clinton aide said it was important that her running mate help tell the "story" of her candidacy.
Clinton has increasingly said her campaign is about Americans being "stronger together" — a phrase intended to convey the importance of a diverse country fighting for common goals.
Aides who have worked in senior White House posts under President Obama and former President Bill Clinton have also been emphasizing the need for personal chemistry, noting that a strained relationship between a president and vice president can be destructive in the West Wing.
Clinton and Trump face fast-approaching deadlines as they evaluate their choices.
Trump has said he plans to announce his running mate at the Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Cleveland in just over two weeks — but the campaign has also considered pushing up the date. A person familiar with Trump's decision-making process said the one-time reality television star is weighing how to maximize the suspense of his choice. He might do it showbiz-style at the convention.
Trump has spent weeks discussing his options with his adult children, business associates, and even friends from his country clubs. A.B. Culvahouse, a lawyer who has overseen vice presidential vetting for previous GOP nominees, sent vetting paperwork to top contenders late this week.
While the businessman has made clear he'll tap a political veteran for the post, those close to him say that's not the only element.
"He's not going to pick someone he doesn't personally like," according to one person with knowledge of the process. Like others who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, they were not authorized to discuss the vice presidential process publicly.
The businessman has a close relationship with most of the vice presidential finalists. He's less familiar with Governor Pence, though Marc Lotter, a spokesman for the Indiana governor, has said the two plan to meet this weekend.
In choosing a political veteran, Trump would not be sending a message only to voters, but to the numerous GOP leaders who are wary of his candidacy.
"That would soothe some concerns — but not all of them," said Kevin Madden, a former adviser to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee.
Clinton is expected to wait until after the Republican convention to announce her running mate, allowing her to use her pick to distract from any boost Trump receives from the GOP gathering. She and her running mate will be nominated at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia the last week in July.
Lemire reported from Erie, Penn. Associated Press writer Steve Peoples contributed to this report. | 1 |
Lady Gaga and Julianne Moore are speaking out after the horrific terror attack that left at least 58 people dead and 515 injured in Las Vegas on Sunday night.The Hollywood stars both took to Twitter on Monday, demanding that politicians get to work on enacting stricter gun control laws in the wake of the tragedy, which is now the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.I mourn this senseless loss of life. What will it take, #Congress, for you to act? @Everytown @MomsDemand #endgunviolence https://t.co/6HpuWk9ZLe Julianne Moore (@_juliannemoore) October 2, 2017 Cheap sound bites don t protect innocent lives, read a tweet on Moore s account, as she pointed out this is the eighth mass shooting just this year.It s okay to use guns in violent movies that make money for actresses like the hypocrite, Julianne Moore (see photo below), it s just not okay with her for everyday Americans to use guns to hunt or in self-defense.Lady Gaga took a more direct approach in getting her message out, tweeting at the President and Speaker of the House while stating that blood in on the hands of the men and women of Congress.Prayers are important but @SpeakerRyan @realDonaldTrump blood is on the hands of those who have power to legislate. #GunControl act quickly. https://t.co/bXZQ7enuEp xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) October 2, 2017Shortly after Lady Gaga blamed President Trump and Congress for the deaths of at least 58 and over 500 injured concertgoers in Las Vegas, she tweeted that she was trying to connect us all through inner peace. Wow! How most Americans don t need that kind of sick inner peace. My intention is to connect us all through inner peace. I believe we can calm inflammation in the world by calming each other. #meditation pic.twitter.com/6cUbvdsW09 xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) October 2, 2017Gun control Gaga is no stranger to using guns on stage as props, in fact, she s used them quite regularly, but who s counting in Hollywood? After all, it s not about what celebrities do with guns, it s what the little people (the ones who watch their movies and purchase their music) do with guns that matters to them Nice gun Gaga Gaga is clearly crazy for guns on stage Nice Rolling Stones cover Gaga where d you get the guns?In addition to offering up their condolences and prayers, President Trump and Speaker Ryan also ordered that all flags be flown at half-mast to pay tribute to the victims.That was not enough however for Gaga, who when first commenting on the attack wrote: This is terrorism plain and simple.Terror bares no race, gender or religion. Democrats & Republicans please unite now #guncontrol. Daily Mail | 0 |
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has interviewed several top prospects for the post of Chair of the Federal Reserve. A nomination could come within weeks as the term of current Chair Janet Yellen ends in February 2018. Yellen will meet with Trump about the job on Thursday. (For a graphic on the next chair of the Federal Reserve, click tmsnrt.rs/2yqJh2I) He faces a choice between two continuity candidates, Yellen and Governor Jerome Powell, and a clutch of outsiders, including Gary Cohn, currently his top economic advisor, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, and Stanford University economics professor John Taylor. Here are short profiles of the candidates: Gary Cohn, 57, Director of the National Economic Council Experience: Longtime Goldman Sachs employee and president and chief operating officer of the Wall Street bank from 2006 to 2017. Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, American University Policy positions: Cohn’s current job as director of the NEC has given him little reason to comment on monetary policy, but he has worried in the past that the Fed has been “constrained” by the actions of other central banks trying to keep their currencies weak. In his own words: “If we woke up tomorrow and every central bank in the world raised their interest rates by (3 percent), the world would be a much better place.” Pros to candidacy: A practitioner’s understanding of financial markets at a time the Fed is attempting to unwind its bond portfolio bought after the 2008 financial crisis The trust of the White House and many congressional Republicans given Cohn’s high-profile role in the Trump administration Cons to candidacy: No formal economics background at a time when the Fed leans ever more on econometric models to decipher mixed signals in inflation and employment data A decades-long career at Goldman Sachs and a personal fortune worth at least $260 million, which could raise eyebrows when it comes to confirmation by the Senate, where members on both sides see the investment bank as a symbol of financial industry excess Criticism of Trump in the wake of Charlottesville, Virginia, protests Jerome Powell, 64, Federal Reserve Governor Experience: Lawyer and investment banker; partner in private equity firm Carlyle Group from 1997-2005; Senior Treasury official under George H.W. Bush; Fed Governor since 2012 (appointed by President Obama) Education: Bachelor’s degree in politics, Princeton University; Law degree from Georgetown University Policy positions: Powell has never dissented while at the Fed, and in line with Yellen supports slowly raising interest rates as long as the economy continues growing and inflation is expected to rise. He advocates easing some aspects of the Dodd-Frank regulations and has discussed ways to revise the Volcker Rule. In his own words: “The Committee has been patient in raising rates, and that patience has paid dividends ... I would view it as appropriate to continue to gradually raise rates.” Pros to candidacy: An uncontroversial pick for the position, could be the compromise who both replaces Yellen and provides continuity Only Republican currently on the Board of Governors, has already helped guide the economy in its recovery and would likely get bipartisan support in Congress Familiarity with markets and financial regulation may be considered a plus Cons to candidacy: As a current Fed member identified with the more centrist wing of the Republican Party, may not provide enough of a change if Trump decides to replace Yellen Expertise is less in formal economics and more in markets and financial regulation, which may seem too much of an overlap with the new vice chair for supervision, Randal Quarles John Taylor, 70, Senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution Experience: Undersecretary of Treasury for international affairs in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005; member of Council of Economic Advisers under presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush Education: PhD in economics, Stanford University Policy positions: Developer of the eponymous “Taylor Rule” for setting interest rates, Taylor feels the Fed should transition to a rules-based policy in order to make its decision-making “predictable-transparent-accountable.” In his own words: “It is very important to have a basic understanding of the monetary policy strategy. The FOMC should be required to adopt and explain its monetary strategy, and then compare that strategy with monetary policy rules that are out there in a transparent way.” Pros to candidacy: A trained economist whose elegantly simple research in the 1990s transformed the debate over how central banks set rates Support among key Capitol Hill Republicans who feel the Fed has too much discretion Well known in central banking circles, even if his ideas are not universally supported Cons to candidacy: A long-term member of the central banking and academic cliques Trump may want to disrupt Advocacy of rule-based policy may land with a thud in an institution that thrives on consensus and judgment Break with Yellen and current policy framework could disrupt markets if Taylor insists on broad reform Kevin Warsh, 47, Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution Experience: Fed governor from 2006 to 2011; economic adviser to President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2006; M&A lawyer at Morgan Stanley for seven years Education: Bachelor’s degree in public policy, Stanford University; Law degree from Harvard University Policy positions: Warsh feels the Fed should not try to fine-tune the economy and argues policymakers have too much discretion. He feels the Fed should aim for inflation between 1 and 2 percent, effectively lowering its inflation target. In his own words: “We should not accept the Fed’s newfound conviction that a very low neutral equilibrium real short-term interest rate (r*) is a fixed feature of future monetary policy ... The central bank and the academic community should engage in a fundamental rethinking of the Fed’s strategy, tools, governance, and communications.” Pros to candidacy: Former banker and for several years former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s right-hand man on financial markets, has a familiarity with Wall Street Wife Jane Lauder Warsh is a daughter of cosmetics magnate Ron Lauder, a longtime friend of Trump Served on the president’s economic advisory council before it disbanded Cons to candidacy: May be seen as too hawkish by a president who calls himself a “low interest rate person” Not an academic economist like Yellen or Bernanke but has still maintained U.S. monetary policy needs a full makeover Worried about inflation even as the 2008 financial crisis hit, and quit the Fed over its second round of bond-buying, a possible black mark against his judgment given the success of the “quantitative easing” program Even while quitting over Fed bond buying, never dissented on FOMC decisions Janet Yellen, 71, Federal Reserve Chair Experience: Also served as a Fed governor, President of the San Francisco Fed, and the Fed’s vice chair from 2010 to 2014 Education: PhD in economics, Yale University Policy positions: Yellen steered the Fed towards “gradual” rate increases and a slow reduction of its balance sheet, dependent on evidence of a continued economic recovery. She argues that post-crisis financial regulation has made the economy more stable without sacrificing growth. In her own words: “My colleagues and I may have misjudged the strength of the labor market ... or even the fundamental forces driving inflation ... How should policy be formulated in the face of such significant uncertainties? In my view, it strengthens the case for a gradual pace of adjustments.” Pros to candidacy: After a career in the Fed system and four years as its head, has earned the trust of markets and shown she can shift policy without major disruption A growing economy, low unemployment, and strong stock markets make the case for continuity, while Trump has said publicly he feels she is doing a good job Cons to candidacy: Could be seen as a Democratic holdover by a President who may want to put his own stamp on the Fed Feels the core regulations approved after the financial crisis should remain intact, a possible friction with the administration’s deregulatory bent Some Republican leaders want the Fed to have less discretion over monetary policy, an idea Yellen resists | 0 |
During the crazy 2016 presidential election, scores of Hillary-backers from the across the nation and numerous Hollywood elites vowed to pack up and leave the United States if Rep Comment on this Article Via Your Facebook Account Comment on this Article Via Your Disqus Account Follow Us on Facebook! | 1 |
21st Century Wire says ISIS inspired. Assad s barrel bombs. We are at war with ISIS. We are only arming the moderate rebels. The Russians are bombing hospitals. ISIS claims responsibility for stabbing in Minnesota. We must save 100,000 children in Aleppo from Assad and the Russians! Lies, lies, and more lies. All paid for by the US taxpayer. Watch: | 1 |
Hollywood is having kittens over US President Trump s recent snub of the Paris Climate Agreement. Especially upset are the elite cadre of multi-millionaire celebrities, along with various and sundry billionaires like Elon Musk, who still believe the earth is heating up because of anthropogenic global warming, aka man-made Co2. Already, the EU has rejected Donald Trump s offer to renegotiate the Paris Agreement, opting instead to bypass Washington DC by working with US CEOs, city mayors and state governors to implement the climate accords.What Hollywood, Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders and the rest, will not tell you is that the earth is already entering a global cooling phase which could lead to a mini ice age. Unlike trace warming over a 500 year period, a cooling phase can radical alter the viability of normal life in the Northern Hemisphere, including frosts that will lead to the failure of large parts of the agriculture sector which can lead to severe food shortages which can make food scarce and much more expensive.More on this report from Lifezette .Leonardo DiCaprio on his private yacht, incredibly worried about global warming.Todd Barnes LifezettePresident Trump s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord has sparked widespread hysteria in juice bars and luxury spas across Hollywood.As a candidate, Trump vowed to cancel the Paris climate deal slamming what he called draconian climate rules. The Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States, the president told a gathering Thursday in the Rose Garden.House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the president s decision and thanked him for withdrawing from this bad deal. The Paris climate agreement was simply a raw deal for America, Ryan said. Signed by President Obama without Senate ratification, it would have driven up the cost of energy, hitting middle-class and low-income Americans the hardest. But some of Hollywood s most esteemed scientists fear the president s decision will put the nation on a slippery slope to the hothouse an apocalyptic future with melting igloos and polar bears unable to put their Coca-Colas on ice. If this is true he will have the death of whole nations on his hands, warned scientist-actor Mark Ruffalo. People will be looking to the USA for retribution for what they loose [sic]. I wonder which nation will be the first to spontaneously combust Iceland? Liechtenstein? Beauty and the Beast star Josh Gad took a break from playing make-believe to ponder our fate. Our children & our grandchildren have all just been handed a dark future because of a man who tweets at 3:00 AM & doesn t trust science, Gad tweeted.Cher, who apparently has some sort of graduate level degree in climatology, posted a bizarre rant, suggesting the nation has been held hostage by Insane DICTATOR. Don Cheadle, known for his esteemed role as a Juicy Burger s employee in the 1985 film Moving Violations, decided to bring Trump s little boy into the debate. Today, our planet suffered, declared Leo DeCaprio on Twitter. If you care about your kids maybe reconsider your #ParisAgreement decision. Barron will thank you when he sees you, whenever that is, Cheadle tweeted.Leonardo DeCaprio, who became a famous Hollywood star because of an iceberg, was devastated by the news. Today, our planet suffered, he declared on Twitter.Do you feel his pain, America? I suspect he will evacuate to some far-flung, exotic island in a private jet to mend his wounded psyche Continue this story at LifezetteREAD MORE CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Climate Change FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
Bob Schieffer is an old-school newsman. There s no doubt that the former Face the Nationhost leans left, but he is still capable of reporting, you know, the news. That is too much for denizens of the modern MSM to tolerate.On today s Reliable Sources on CNN, Schieffer reported the glaringly obvious truth: that President Trump gave a good speech in Saudi Arabia today. Guest host John Berman had to push back: you know, Bob, though, that there will be people who look at that last comment you made and say you re normalizing the president. Schieffer gave the perfect response: he wasn t trying to normalize Trump, he was trying to do what reporters [are supposed to] do: report.Watch: | 0 |
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An Argentine submarine with 44 crew on board was missing in the South Atlantic two days after its last communication, prompting the navy to step up its search efforts late on Friday in difficult, stormy conditions. The ARA San Juan was in the southern Argentine sea 432 km (268 miles) from the Patagonian coast when it sent its last signal on Wednesday, naval spokesman Enrique Balbi said. The emergency operation was formally upgraded to a search-and-rescue procedure on Friday evening after no visual or radar contact was made with the submarine, Balbi said. Detection has been difficult despite the quantity of boats and aircraft involved in the search, Balbi said, noting that heavy winds and high waves were complicating efforts. Obviously, the number of hours that have passed - two days in which there has been no communication - is of note. The navy believes the submarine, which left Ushuaia en route to the coastal city of Mar del Plata in Buenos Aires province, had communication difficulties that may have been caused by an electrical outage, Balbi said. Navy protocol would call for the submarine to come to the surface once communication was lost. We expect that it is on the surface, Balbi said. The German-built submarine, which uses diesel-electric propulsion, was inaugurated in 1983, making it the newest of the three submarines in the navy s fleet, according to the navy. President Mauricio Macri said the government was in contact with the crew s families. We share their concern and that of all Argentines, he wrote on Twitter. We are committed to using all national and international resources necessary to find the ARA San Juan submarine as soon as possible. Argentina accepted an offer from the United States for a NASA P-3 explorer aircraft, which had been stationed in the southern city of Ushuaia and was preparing to depart to Antarctica, to fly over the search area, Balbi said. A Hercules C-130 from the Argentine Air Force was also flying over the operational area. Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Britain and South Africa had also formally offered assistance. | 0 |
The world’s grocery carts could soon be filled with more and more products from one global colossus. Food, beverage and companies have been seeking merger partners to obtain greater scale and efficiencies as consumers, particularly younger shoppers, eschew the boxed and jarred foods of their parents’ generation. Now, one such recently merged giant, Kraft Heinz, has set its sights on the biggest target to date: Unilever, the home of Dove soap and Axe body spray, Ben Jerry’s ice cream and Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Kraft Heinz disclosed on Friday that it had made a $143 billion takeover offer for Unilever. If completed, it would be the largest merger since the British wireless provider Vodafone’s $183 billion acquisition of Mannesmann of Germany in 2000. Unilever said it had spurned the offer, which it said “fundamentally undervalues” the company. Still, that is not expected to end the matter. Pressed by growing competition from upstarts and changing consumer habits, food and giants will have little choice but to seek deals. And 3G Capital, the Brazilian investment firm that bought Heinz, then Kraft just two years ago, has the resources and the good will of Wall Street to continue to pursue Unilever. It also has the support of Warren E. Buffett, who has previously collaborated with 3G and is expected to provide financing in any deal with Unilever. A combination of Kraft Heinz and Unilever would create an empire of hundreds of household names, with more than $82 billion in sales. Kraft Heinz’s geographic strength in North American sales would complement Unilever’s stronger sales in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Asia. Kraft Heinz executives have “said they really want to develop and have an international platform for those Kraft Heinz brands,” said Brittany Weissman, an analyst with Edward Jones in St. Louis. “I think Unilever would give them that international platform to get those brands out overseas. ” But a merger would be certain to draw antitrust reviews by regulators from many countries. “Market power would be much increased, as the major supermarkets would have little choice but to buy from the merged business,” John Colley, a professor of practice in strategy and leadership at Warwick Business School in Coventry, England. Kraft Heinz approached Unilever about a potential deal in the last few weeks, according to people briefed on the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations. Among its pitches, these people said, was that the combined company would maintain headquarters in the United States, Britain and the Netherlands. That could prove important amid rising nationalist sentiment, given Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and an election approaching in the Netherlands. Kraft Heinz, with 3G behind the wheel, has long been considered the most likely to drive a wave of consolidation in the food industry. Friday’s disclosure followed speculation late last year that Kraft Heinz might make an offer for Mondelez International, the maker of Oreos and Ritz crackers Shares of Mondelez, and those of companies like General Mills and Campbell Soup that had been seen as potential targets, fell on Friday in part because of disappointment over news of the Unilever bid. Shares of Kraft Heinz surged nearly 11 percent. The Brazilian principals of 3G have led a buying spree over two decades to become a global force in food and beverages. In doing so, they have won the admiration of no less a business eminence than Mr. Buffett. They took a small Brazilian brewing company and eventually transformed it into InBev, the gorilla of beer. They moved into fast food by buying Burger King, then merging it with Tim Hortons, Canada’s foremost purveyor of coffee and doughnuts. And with Mr. Buffett’s help, they bought Heinz in 2013, transforming a staid American ketchup legend into a lean maker of condiments and canned soups. Two years later, in 2015, they bought Kraft to become even bigger. Now — almost two years after the Kraft deal — 3G and Kraft Heinz are casting their eyes on Unilever, which is the seller of packaged food worldwide and the maker behind Procter Gamble. Unilever, which is based in London and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has embraced sustainability measures aimed at reducing the company’s environmental impact and improving customers’ health. It has also moved to update its products with younger, hipper names by buying like Dollar Shave Club and the cleaning products maker Seventh Generation. And the company has built an important presence in developing countries, which now account for some 58 percent of its revenue. Still, Unilever has been weighed down by slowing sales in the last year, prompting some analysts to call for additional cost cuts. Combining with Kraft Heinz would leave the company in the hands of masters of who have won praise from Mr. Buffett. At Burger King, for example, executives disposed of luxurious corporate offices, the corporate jet and even workers’ personal printers. At Kraft Heinz, that approach has helped lead to profit margins of about 30 percent, compared with roughly 15 percent at Unilever. Unilever said that Kraft Heinz’s bid was valued at roughly $50 a share, for an 18 percent premium to the target company’s closing price on Thursday. The offer consists of $30. 23 a share in cash and 0. 222 in shares in the combined company. Under British takeover rules, Kraft would have until March 17 to announce its firm intention to make an offer for Unilever or it would have to walk away. Shares of Unilever jumped in Friday trading in London after The Financial Times’s Alphaville blog reported the offer. A deal for Unilever would be expensive by any measure, particularly because Kraft Heinz already has nearly $30 billion in debt on its books. But Kraft Heinz has argued in private that it has healthy cash flows that could easily service the additional debt that would help finance the bid. Potentially further bolstering Kraft Heinz’s firepower is Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which helped finance 3G’s $23 billion purchase of Heinz and its merger with Kraft. Some analysts, however, were cautious on the prospects of a Unilever sale. Raphael Moreau, an analyst with Euromonitor in London, said that Unilever might ultimately be willing to pursue a smaller deal with Kraft to offload some of its food brands. “While creating synergies in sauces and soups could be a rationale for such a deal, a combination of Heinz and Hellmann’s in mayonnaise could struggle to be given approval by competition authorities,” Mr. Moreau said. And some British lawmakers have already criticized Kraft Heinz’s approach, pointing to Brexit and the decline in the pound as paving the way for “fire sales” of British companies. The chairman of Parliament’s business committee, Iain Wright, said on Friday that “a lot of very good British companies will be subject to fire sales without taking into account their performance and quality. ” | 0 |
Listening to Zeke Emanuel, awkward brother of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is always a study in the absurdities of politics. This guy is supposedly the architect of Obamacare but he s just one big jackwagon.Can you believe we ve had people like this determining the healthcare policy for all Americans? He s now providing cover for the failing Obamacare exchanges. Aetna is the latest to essentially withdraw from all but four of the state exchanges for which it had been providing health insurance under Obamacare. Not a success but you wouldn t know it from all the finger pointing going on with this putz.HERE S ZEKE TRYING TO BLAME HIS FAILURE ON POLITICS NICE TRY BUT WE RE NOT BUYIN IT: | 0 |
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Assimilate or go hungry Human rights lawyers descend in 5 4 3 2 1 COPENHAGEN, Denmark A Danish city has ordered pork to be mandatory on municipal menus, including for schools and daycare centers, with politicians insisting the move is necessary for preserving the country s food traditions and is not an attack on Muslims.Frank Noergaard, a member of the council in Randers that narrowly approved the decision earlier this week, says it was made to ensure that pork remains a central part of Denmark s food culture. Denmark is a major pork producer and it is the most popular meat, but it is forbidden to Muslims and Jews. Most of the asylum-seekers who have arrived in the country in the past months are Muslim.Noergaard, a member of the anti-immigration, populist Danish People s Party that proposed the council motion, said Thursday that it wasn t meant as a harassment of Muslims, but added that he had received several complaints about too many concessions being made to Muslims in the small, predominantly Lutheran country. The signal we want to send here is that if you re a Muslim and you plan to come to Randers, don t expect you can impose eating habits on others. Pork here is on an equal footing with other food, Noergaard told The Associated Press. He said that halal meat, vegetarian dishes and diets for diabetics would still be available.In 2013, then-Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt lashed out at some nurseries after they started serving halal-butchered meat instead of pork because Muslim children had refused to eat it. Via: AP Newsh/t Weasel Zippers | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York appeals court issued a ruling on Tuesday that apparently made it highly unlikely that a state fraud case against Trump University, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s venture, will be heard before the Nov. 8 general election. The mid-level appeals court ruled that Trump’s lawyers can argue to the state’s highest court that the fraud claims against Trump University brought by the state attorney general should be dismissed. Trump suffered a legal setback in the case in March when the appeals court allowed multimillion-dollar fraud claims against the now-defunct venture to proceed. The claims are part of a state lawsuit filed in 2013 that accuses Trump University of misleading thousands of people who paid up to $35,000 for seminars to learn the billionaire businessman’s real estate investment strategies. The trial judge in the case had been waiting to hear whether the mid-level appeals court, the Appellate Division, First Department, in Manhattan, would give Trump permission to go to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. “It’s no surprise that Donald Trump is using every legal option to avoid standing trial for operating a sham for-profit university,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement responding to the ruling. “As our lawsuit makes clear, Mr. Trump’s phony university defrauded thousands of students through an illicit scheme that cost them millions of dollars,” Schneiderman continued. “I am confident that the Court of Appeals will agree with the lower court’s unanimous decision to reject virtually all of Mr. Trump’s claims.” Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization, said, “We are pleased with the court’s decision and look forward to going to the Court of Appeals.” Garten has said the claims are “without merit and baseless” and that almost all those who participated in the programs filled out written surveys giving the seminars high ratings. Class actions are pending in California on similar claims by Trump University students. One of those cases is scheduled for trial on Nov. 28. The fraud claims against Trump University were an issue early in the Republican primary campaign. With Trump allowed to appeal the pretrial rulings to the state’s highest court, it is very unlikely the New York case will be resolved before November’s election. It takes an average of 12 months from the time an appeal is allowed for the Court of Appeals to hear oral arguments in a case, according to court spokesman Gary Spencer. A decision on whether or not the fraud claims can proceed would normally take another month and, if not dismissed, the case would then go back to the trial court. In the March decision, Schneiderman was allowed to proceed on fraud claims that require proof of intent to defraud and those that do not. The court also ruled that the statute of limitations for the claims stretches back to 2007 instead of 2010. The program stopped taking students in 2010. | 1 |
The comments on her Facebook page are praising the attacks. It s a plethora of Alahu Akbars. Unbelievable!This woman has over 1 million followers on Facebook!TRANSLATED FROM ARABIC SHE PRAISES THE TACTICS OF THE SUICIDE BOMBERS: Video bombing from another angle.. doesn t show the officer embrace (suicide)The detonation centre mainly inside away from the gate of the metal detector and explosives!! (halfway through the second 17)Suicide s alleged decided to blow himself up in the 2 security officials veiled and undo blast inside the church.. in addition to high morals to go through the gate of explosive explosive detection.. Obviously, there are increasingly sophisticated in ethics ( Bombers) Her Facebook Page: Ayat OrabyThe second video she posted from the bombing in Egypt is a different angle. She claims in her Facebook post that this is all fake and made up by the Christians. Wow!Kick her a** out of the U.S.! | 1 |
A German federal state is considering forbidding the deportation of all migrants who happen to witness, or are victims of, “right wing” crimes when in Germany. [Brandenburg’s state parliament became the first in Germany to offer migrant victims of crime extra rights last year, after a rise in recorded “right wing” attacks. The new measure is being pushed by the Ministry of the Interior. “In addition to consistently preventing and prosecuting criminal offences, special protection of the victims and special care are necessary if the victims are people of foreign origin” proclaimed a decree of the Ministry of the Interior, issued in December 2016. It is argued that new arrivals are uniquely vulnerable, without support networks in Germany, and deportation could make their lives harder. The regional parliament also “decided, among other things, to ask the regional government to make sure that victims of right [wing] violent crimes are offered the possibility of being issued with residence permits and tolerances … ” It is believed this measure could help deter xenophobia and “far right” attacks on migrants, as such activity will only result in more migrants being allowed to stay in Germany. Migrants who commit a crime, or share responsibility for a violent incident when in Germany, will be exempt from the new rule. A resolution issued by the parliament in April 2016, in response to rising numbers of reported “right wing” crime, said “the victims of racist violent acts are migrant women as well as refugees” and argued that “such offences would be particularly difficult if their stay in the Federal Republic is unsecured”. According to the decree, crimes linked to the “right wing” in Brandenburg increased by 23 per cent in 2015 — the year the Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany’s borders to more than 1 million irregular migrants. According to Die Welt, the populist, migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been critical of the new proposed policy. | 0 |
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey plans to change the name of the street where the embassy of the United Arab Emirates is located to Fakhreddin Pasha, the historical figure at the center of a diplomatic row caused by a retweet, the state-run Anadolu agency said on Saturday. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahayan retweeted last week accusations that Ottoman forces led by Fakhreddin Pasha stole money and manuscripts from Medina in 1916 during World War One when the city was under Ottoman rule. Medina is now part of Saudi Arabia. The mayor of the Turkish capital Ankara ordered preparations to change the name of the street where the UAE mission is located to that of the former commander and one-time governor of Medina, Anadolu said. Without naming him, Erdogan suggested on Thursday that the UAE minister was ignorant. The UAE charge d affaires in Ankara was also summoned to the Foreign Ministry over the issue. UAE officials had no immediate comment on dispute. The UAE, a close U.S. ally, sees Erdogan s Islamist-rooted ruling party as a friend of Islamist forces which the UAE opposes across the Arab world. Ties were further strained by Ankara s support for Qatar after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed sanctions on the Gulf nation in June over a dispute in which the Arab states accused Doha of supporting terrorism. Doha denies this. | 0 |
21st Century Wire says Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980 s and has been a featured guest on Patrick Henningsen LIVE at 1100KFNX. In this report, Robert asks due to mainstream media experts who ve fallen to careerism , whom can we trust to deliver us the information to describe the world and its conflicts. (Image Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell addressing the United Nations on Feb. 5. 2003)Robert Parry Consortium NewsThe looming threat of World War III, a potential extermination event for the human species, is made more likely because the world s public can t count on supposedly objective experts to ascertain and evaluate facts. Instead, careerism is the order of the day among journalists, intelligence analysts and international monitors meaning that almost no one who might normally be relied on to tell the truth can be trustedThe dangerous reality is that this careerism, which often is expressed by a smug certainty about whatever the prevailing groupthink is, pervades not just the political world, where lies seem to be the common currency, but also the worlds of journalism, intelligence and international oversight, including United Nations agencies that are often granted greater credibility because they are perceived as less beholden to specific governments but in reality have become deeply corrupted, too.In other words, many professionals who are counted on for digging out the facts and speaking truth to power have sold themselves to those same powerful interests in order to keep high-paying jobs and to not get tossed out onto the street. Many of these self-aggrandizing professionals caught up in the many accouterments of success don t even seem to recognize how far they ve drifted from principled professionalism.A good example was Saturday night s spectacle of national journalists preening in their tuxedos and gowns at the White House Correspondents Dinner, sporting First Amendment pins as if they were some brave victims of persecution. They seemed oblivious to how removed they are from Middle America and how unlikely any of them would risk their careers by challenging one of the Establishment s favored groupthinks. Instead, these national journalists take easy shots at President Trump s buffoonish behavior and his serial falsehoods and count themselves as endangered heroes for the effort.FOILS FOR TRUMPIronically, though, these pompous journalists gave Trump what was arguably his best moment in his first 100 days by serving as foils for the President as he traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday and basked in the adulation of blue-collar Americans who view the mainstream media as just one more appendage of a corrupt ruling elite.Breaking with tradition by snubbing the annual press gala, Trump delighted the Harrisburg crowd by saying: A large group of Hollywood celebrities and Washington media are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom and adding: I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from [the] Washington swamp with much, much better people. The crowd booed references to the elites and cheered Trump s choice to be with the common folk.Trump s rejection of the dinner and his frequent criticism of the mainstream media brought a defensive response from Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents Association, who complained: We are not fake news. We are not failing news organizations. And we are not the enemy of the American people. That brought the black-tie-and-gown gathering to its feet in a standing ovation.Perhaps the assembled media elite had forgotten that it was the mainstream U.S. media particularly The Washington Post and The New York Times that popularized the phrase fake news and directed it blunderbuss-style not only at the few Web sites that intentionally invent stories to increase their clicks but at independent-minded journalism outlets that have dared question the elite s groupthinks on issues of war, peace and globalization.THE BLACK LISTProfessional journalistic skepticism toward official claims by the U.S. government what you should expect from reporters became conflated with fake news. The Post even gave front-page attention to an anonymous group called PropOrNot that published a black list of 200 Internet sites, including Consortiumnews.com and other independent-minded journalism sites, to be shunned.But the mainstream media stars didn t like it when Trump began throwing the fake news slur back at them. Thus, the First Amendment lapel pins and the standing ovation for Jeff Mason s repudiation of the fake news label.Yet, as the glitzy White House Correspondents Dinner demonstrated, mainstream journalists get the goodies of prestige and money while the real truth-tellers are almost always outspent, outgunned and cast out of the mainstream. Indeed, this dwindling band of honest people who are both knowledgeable and in position to expose unpleasant truths is often under mainstream attack, sometimes for unrelated personal failings and other times just for rubbing the powers-that-be the wrong way.Perhaps, the clearest case study of this up-is-down rewards-and-punishments reality was the Iraq War s WMD rationale. Nearly across the board, the American political/media system from U.S. intelligence analysts to the deliberative body of the U.S. Senate to the major U.S. news organizations failed to ascertain the truth and indeed actively helped disseminate the falsehoods about Iraq hiding WMDs and even suggested nuclear weapons development. (Arguably, the most trusted U.S. government official at the time, Secretary of State Colin Powell, played a key role in selling the false allegations as truth. )Not only did the supposed American gold standard for assessing information the U.S. political, media and intelligence structure fail miserably in the face of fraudulent claims often from self-interested Iraqi opposition figures and their neoconservative American backers, but there was minimal accountability afterwards for the professionals who failed to protect the public from lies and deceptions.PROFITING FROM FAILUREIndeed, many of the main culprits remain respected members of the journalistic establishment. For instance, The New York Times Pentagon correspondent Michael R. Gordon, who was the lead writer on the infamous aluminum tubes for nuclear centrifuges story which got the ball rolling for the Bush administration s rollout of its invade-Iraq advertising campaign in September 2002, still covers national security for the Times and still serves as a conveyor belt for U.S. government propaganda.The Washington Post s editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, who repeatedly informed the Post s readers that Iraq s secret possession of WMD was a flat-fact, is still the Post s editorial page editor, one of the most influential positions in American journalism.Hiatt s editorial page led a years-long assault on the character of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson for the offense of debunking one of President George W. Bush s claims about Iraq seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger. Wilson had alerted the CIA to the bogus claim before the invasion of Iraq and went public with the news afterwards, but the Post treated Wilson as the real culprit, dismissing him as a blowhard and trivializing the Bush administration s destruction of his wife s CIA career by outing her (Valerie Plame) in order to discredit Wilson s Niger investigation.At the end of the Post s savaging of Wilson s reputation and in the wake of the newspaper s accessory role in destroying Plame s career, Wilson and Plame decamped from Washington to New Mexico. Meanwhile, Hiatt never suffered a whit and remains a respected Washington media figure to this day.CAREERIST LESSONThe lesson that any careerist would draw from the Iraq case is that there is almost no downside risk in running with the pack on a national security issue. Even if you re horrifically wrong even if you contribute to the deaths of some 4,500 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis your paycheck is almost surely safe.The same holds true if you work for an international agency that is responsible for monitoring issues like chemical weapons. Again, the Iraq example offers a good case study. In April 2002, as President Bush was clearing away the few obstacles to his Iraq invasion plans, Jose Mauricio Bustani, the head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW], sought to persuade Iraq to join the Chemical Weapons Convention so inspectors could verify Iraq s claims that it had destroyed its stockpiles.The Bush administration called that idea an ill-considered initiative after all, it could have stripped away the preferred propaganda rationale for the invasion if the OPCW verified that Iraq had destroyed its chemical weapons. So, Bush s Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton, a neocon advocate for the invasion of Iraq, pushed to have Bustani deposed. The Bush administration threatened to withhold dues to the OPCW if Bustani, a Brazilian diplomat, remained.It now appears obvious that Bush and Bolton viewed Bustani s real offense as interfering with their invasion scheme, but Bustani was ultimately taken down over accusations of mismanagement, although he was only a year into a new five-year term after having been reelected unanimously. The OPCW member states chose to sacrifice Bustani to save the organization from the loss of U.S. funds, but in so doing they compromised its integrity, making it just another agency that would bend to big-power pressure. By dismissing me, Bustani said, an international precedent will have been established whereby any duly elected head of any international organization would at any point during his or her tenure remain vulnerable to the whims of one or a few major contributors. He added that if the United States succeeded in removing him, genuine multilateralism would succumb to unilateralism in a multilateral disguise Continue this report at Consortium News READ MORE US NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire US FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1 |
posted by Eddie Two people who were connected to the Flint water company investigation were both found dead in the space of a week this month. Water Treatment Plant Foreman, Matthew McFarland, and the woman leading the lead poisoning suit, Sasha Avonna Bell, were found dead within days of each other. Vigilantcitizen.com reports: The Flint water crisis began exactly two years ago, on April 2014, when Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water to the Flint River – to which officials had failed to apply corrosion inhibitors. Almost immediately, Flint residents complained about the water’s color, taste and odor. In the following months, numerous water issues arose, with little to no governmental action to fix them. August and September 2014 boil-water advisories were issued by the city due to coliform bacteria detection On August 21, 2014 test showed the city’s water tested high for THMs, a chlorine byproduct of disinfecting water, with which long term exposure has been linked to cancer and other diseases. Though the city stated that the water was safe, the employees of the Flint Public Library declared the water undrinkable after noticing that the water from the faucets and toilets was discolored. On March 2, 2016, it was reported that the state of Michigan blocked Flint from returning to Lake Huron water from the Detroit water system when it agreed to grant the city an emergency loan of $7 million in April 2015 It was discovered that the high levels of lead were due to orthophosphate being omitted from the water treatment process, while using a pH of 7.4 and that the orange water was due to the high concentration of chloride in the Flint River water, which caused excessive corrosion of the cast iron mains pipes. Far from taking decisive action, governments denied that the water was toxic. While the local outcry about Flint water quality was growing in early 2015, Flint water officials filed papers with state regulators purporting to show that “tests at Flint’s water treatment plant had detected no lead and testing in homes had registered lead at acceptable levels.” The documents falsely claimed that the city had tested tap water from homes with lead service lines, and therefore the highest lead-poisoning risks; in reality; the city does not know the locations of lead service lines, which city officials acknowledged in November 2015 after the Flint Journal/MLive published an article revealing the practice after obtaining documents through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. – Robin Erb, Flint doctor makes state see light about lead in water The net result is that over 10,000 children (mostly Black) were exposed to water contaminated with lead. Lead poisoning has devastating effects on the brain: Childhood lead exposure causes a reduction in intellectual functioning and IQ, academic performance, and problem-solving skills, and an increased risk of attention deficit disorder, aggression, and hyperactivity. According to studies, children with elevated levels of lead in the blood are more likely as adults to commit crimes, be imprisoned, be unemployed or underemployed, or be dependent on government services. – Julie Mack, Lead levels elevated for thousands of Michigan children outside of Flint A massive investigation is now underway and lawsuits are being filed. And things are turning uglier. Cover Up Now that the federal government opened an investigation on the issue, news emerging from Flint are downright sordid. First, in March, important documents went missing, the police openly admits that it was an inside job, and that the crime will most likely remain unresolved. Days before the federal government opened an investigation into the Flint water crisis, someone broke into a vacant City Hall office full of documents related to the embattled Michigan city’s water system. Nearly three months later, officials have confirmed that a TV went missing, but little else is known, according to the Flint Journal . Without suspects or a firm handle on what else may have been swiped, authorities told the paper last week that the crime may remain unsolved. No warrants have been issued in the case, but officials don’t shy away from speculative statements that stop just short of conspiracy theories. “It was definitely an inside job,” police chief Tim Johnson told the Journal. “The power cord (to the TV) wasn’t even taken. The average drug user knows that you’d need the power cord to be able to pawn it.” “It was somebody that had knowledge of those documents that really wanted to keep them out of the right hands, out of the hands of someone who was going to tell the real story of what’s going on with Flint water.” Days before the federal government opened an investigation into the Flint water crisis, someone broke into a vacant City Hall office full of documents related to the embattled Michigan city’s water system. – Washington Post, The mystery surrounding missing water files at Flint City Hall: ‘It was definitely an inside job’ On April 16th, Water Treatment Plant Foreman Matthew McFarland (who had been interviewed regarding the water crisis) was found dead at the young age of 43. Cause of death? Unknown. Already reeling from the news of criminal charges against one of its workers in the wake of the Flint water crisis, city workers are now dealing with the sudden death of a foreman at the plant. Water Treatment Plant Foreman Matthew McFarland, 43, of Otter Lake died suddenly on on Saturday, April 16, according to his obituary. The Lapeer County Sheriff’s Department said a friend found McFarland unresponsive at a home in Otter Lake. There were no signs of foul play. An autopsy did not determine a cause of death and police are awaiting toxicology reports. The investigation remains open. “My thoughts and prayers go out to Matt’s co-workers, his family and especially his children,” said Flint Mayor Karen Weaver. “He worked for the City of Flint for more than 18 years and we thank him for his devotion and service.” We all have been brought together by this water crisis and we are all mourning his death,” Weaver said in a statement. “In lieu of flowers, the family has expressed they would appreciate donations to establish a fund for (his children) Vance and Ella’s college expenses.” McFarland’s death comes as Flint’s water plant deals with news that Flint Utilities Manager Michael Glasgow is one of three men facing criminal charges in connection with the city’s water crisis. Glasgow is accused of tampering with evidence when he allegedly changed testing results to show there was less lead in city water than there actually was. He is also charged with willful neglect of office. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employees Stephen Busch and Michael Prysby are charged with misconduct in office, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence and violations of the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office confirmed that McFarland was previously interviewed as part of its ongoing investigation into the city’s water crisis. – mlive, Flint water plant continues to reel with sudden death of foreman A few days later, a 19-year old woman leading the Flint water crisis lawsuit was found shot dead in her home. A culprit was arrested. Was he a patsy? A woman at the center of a bellwether Flint water crisis lawsuit was one of two women who were shot to death inside a townhouse earlier this week. Sasha Avonna Bell was one of the first of a growing number of people to file a lawsuit in connection to the Flint water crisis after she claimed that her child had been lead poisoned. Bell was found dead April 19 in the 2600 block of Ridgecrest Drive at the Ridgecrest Village Townhouses. Sacorya Renee Reed was also found shot to death in the home. An unharmed 1-year-old child was also found inside of the Ridgecrest home when Bell’s body was discovered and was taken into custody by child protective services. Police declined to confirm if it was Bell’s child discovered in the home. “Sasha was a lovely young woman who cared deeply for her family, and especially for her young child,” said her attorney Corey M. Stern. “Her tragic and senseless death has created a void in the lives of so many people that loved her. Hopefully, her child will be lifted up by the love and support from everyone who cared deeply for Sasha.” Bell’s case was one of 64 lawsuits filed on behalf of 144 children by Stern’s firm, New York-based Levy Konigsberg, and Flint-based Robinson Carter & Crawford. The lawsuit named six companies that had various responsibilities with respect to the treatment, monitoring, and safety of the Flint water prior to and during the Flint water crisis, according to her attorneys. The case also named three individual government, or former government, employees who played significant roles in the alleged misconduct that led to the alleged poisoning of thousands of children in Flint, her attorneys claim. The Bell case, however, played an important role in determining the future of the more than five dozen other lawsuits that were filed. – mlive, Woman in leading Flint water crisis lawsuit slain in twin killing. Everything about this story is revolting and dirty facts are emerging from everywhere. However, mass media largely ignores this story. Those that do are flooded with comments about “tin foil hats” and “conspiracy nutters”. It is as if shills are paid kill that story online … or maybe that poisonous lead has already done its debilitating, mind-numbing job. source: | 1 |
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The bones and ashes of Thailand s late King Bhumibol Adulyadej were brought to their final resting places on Sunday, the fifth and last day of an elaborate funeral ceremony that drew hundreds of thousands of mourners to the streets of Bangkok. King Bhumibol, the world s longest reigning monarch when he died last year at the age of 88, ruled Thailand from shortly after World War Two and was revered as a stabilizing figure through coups, protests and natural disasters. The $90 million royal funeral drew mourners clad in black from across the country to Bangkok, where King Bhumibol was cremated on Thursday in an elaborate gold crematorium built for the ceremony outside the Grand Palace. (Interactive Graphic tmsnrt.rs/2leWzcQ) Over 19 million Thais - more than a quarter of the 69 million population - participated in ceremonies by presenting symbolic sandalwood flowers to be burned at temples and crematorium replicas across the country, according to the government. On Sunday, the late king s bones were moved to the Chakri Throne Hall, where royal relics are kept within the Grand Palace in a ceremony that involved senior monks from temples across the country. His son, new King Maha Vajiralongkorn, led the religious rite. On Sunday evening, Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana led the final royal procession on horseback to the Wat Rajabopidh and Wat Bovoranives temples where her grandfather s ashes were placed in keeping with a ceremony steeped in religious symbolism and tradition. Mourners, some in tears, were gathered outside the temples. I will always have him stored in my heart. Whether as pictures, however old and torn, the memory of him will always be kept in my heart, said Chalermporm Prabutr, 72. Wat Rajabopidh was built by the late king s grandfather, King Chualalongkorn, and houses the remains of other royals including the late king s father, Prince Mahidol and the princess mother, Srinagarindra. Some of the late king s ashes were also be laid at Wat Bovoranives, the temple where he entered the monkhood in 1956 after his grandmother s death, a custom for Buddhist males after the death of a relative. Wat Bovoranives is also the center of the more austere strain of Thai Buddhism founded by the late king s great grandfather, King Mongkut. Many Thais have worn black for the past year in mourning for King Bhumibol. The military government has told people to wear bright clothes from Monday, when the mourning period formally ends. | 1 |
While Donald Trump is on a whirlwind world tour, the Russian investigation is beginning to land uncomfortably close to home for Trump. A member of his own family, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, is now reportedly a person of interest. The Washington Post said a senior adviser to Mr Trump was among people investigators wanted to speak to. A New York magazine reporter then said the person in question was Mr Kushner, 36, who is married to Mr Trump s eldest daughter and who flew out of Washington on Friday night to accompany the President on his first official foreign trip.The Post said the person under investigation was close to the President, but did not identify them. However, the number of people who fit such a profile would be very small.Source: IndependentAnnnd another bomb: Russia probe sees a current Trump official as a significant person of interest, WaPo reports. https://t.co/mhFonUx1Wv pic.twitter.com/xjMPuELXVO Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 19, 2017WashPo reports:-person of interest is a WH official 3 officials had confirmed Russia contact 1 of them works at WH, Jared Kushner Ari Melber (@AriMelber) May 19, 2017Jared is the person of interest in the West Wing that the Feds are looking at. What an amazing end to the week! Eric Schmeltzer (@JustSchmeltzer) May 19, 2017Does this mean that an arrest of Kushner is imminent? No. While things have begun escalating rather quickly, The Washington Post reports that criminal charges are likely not near.Right now, all of this is speculative, but when you connect the dots, they connect right to Kushner. It could be that people behind the investigation believe that Kushner is vulnerable and likely to talk. We already know that he made a lie of omission on his security clearance application and forgot to mention a meeting with Russians. This makes him a fairly easy target in the investigation and as one of the few people to have the ear of Trump, he likely knows a lot about all of the Russian ties. He knows where all the bodies are buried, so to speak.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
(Reuters) - The recount effort by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in three U.S. states came to an end on Monday, after weeks of legal wrangling yielded only one electoral review in Wisconsin that favored Republican winner Donald Trump. A federal judge in Pennsylvania rejected Stein’s request for a recount and an examination of that state’s voting machines for evidence of hacking in the Nov. 8 election won by Trump. Meanwhile, Wisconsin election officials said on Monday they had completed their 10-day recount after finding that Trump’s margin of victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton had increased by 131 votes, bringing Trump’s total lead to 22,748. “The final Wisconsin vote is in and guess what - we just picked up an additional 131 votes. The Dems and Green Party can now rest. Scam!” Trump said on Twitter. Stein, who finished fourth, challenged the results in those two states as well as Michigan, where the state’s top court on Friday denied Stein’s last-ditch appeal to keep a recount going. All of those traditionally Democratic strongholds supported Trump over Clinton. Even if all three recounts had taken place, they were unlikely to change the outcome. Stein argued that the use in many Pennsylvania districts of electronic voting machines with no paper trail left the system vulnerable to hacking. In a 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond in Philadelphia said it “borders on the irrational” to suspect hacking occurred in Pennsylvania. He noted that the deadline to certify the state’s electoral votes is Tuesday, making it impossible to hold a recount in time. While there is no evidence of large-scale voting machine hacking, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia targeted Clinton in a series of cyber attacks. Trump has questioned those reports. In response to Diamond’s ruling, Stein said in a statement that Pennsylvanians’ right to have their votes counted had been “stripped from right under them.” Trump won Pennsylvania by more than 44,000 votes and Michigan by more than 10,000 votes, according to the latest figures. Despite winning the national popular vote by more than 2 percent, Clinton would have had to sweep those states to win the presidency under the U.S. Electoral College system, which assigns electoral votes state-by-state rather than by overall national totals. | 0 |
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at a special time tonight 5:30 PM PST | 7:30 PM CST | 8:30 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 with Andy Nowicki host of The Nameless Podcast, Jay Dyer Jay s Analysis, Stewart Howe and Randy J for the 96th episode of BOILER ROOM. Water the kids, put the plants to bed and get your favorite mead horn ready so you can drop deep into the Boiler Room with the crew. Tonight the gang is discussing the myriad of news and main stream media shenanigans that have taken place since the last meeting of the ACR brain-trust know as THE BOILER ROOM.Listen to Boiler Room #96 on Spreaker.Direct Download Episode #96SPECIAL EVENT: Immediately following BOILER ROOM Debate the State: State or No State. Tonight at 7:30 PM PST | 9:30 PM CST | 10:30 PM EST: Jay Dyer versus Adam Kokesh in a 2 hour formal setting of position, response, on the Spearhead Transmission Podcast and Live-Streamed on YouTube.com below and Audio via Alternate Current Radio Network.Download audio version of Jay Dyer vs. Adam Kokesh debate the statePlease like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!Reference Links: | 1 |
THE COST OF THE OBAMAPHONE PROGRAM JUST WENT UP 50%. HERE S WHY:REMEMBER THIS: Everybody in Cleveland have got Obamaphone, keep Obama as president, you know? said Michelle Dowery, an Obama supporter at a 2012 Mitt Romney event, which went viral at the time. He gave us a phone, he s going to do more. You sign up, you on food stamps, you on Social Security, you got no income, you got disability. Mr. Obama has indeed done more.The Federal Communications Commission agreed Thursday to expand the Obamaphone, dubbed the LifeLine Program, to include high-speed Internet access. By doing so, the cost of the program will increase by 50 percent, without any efforts to reduce spending elsewhere, or clamp down on the program s waste, fraud and abuse. Failing a major change in direction, the FCC is preparing to massively expand the size and scope of the Lifeline Program without the necessary inclusion of a hard budget or financial constraints, conservative FCC Commissioner Michael O Reilly wrote in his blog on the commission s website. Such irresponsible action will balloon a program plagued by waste, fraud, and abuse and result in higher phone bills for every American including those already struggling in the current economy. In sum, it s a recipe for disaster, and I can t and won t be part of it, he said.The Lifeline program currently, is rife with waste, fraud and abuse.Read more: WT | 0 |
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa should raise state spending on higher education by around a third to at least 1 percent of gross domestic product, a report commissioned by the presidency and released on Monday found. The recommendation by the commission appointed by President Jacob Zuma came as a senior Treasury official resigned after news reports said he had complained about presidential interference in the budget process, and as state-owned utility Eskom said it was facing serious liquidity issues. South Africa relies on foreign investors to finance its hefty budget and current account deficits. Investors are nervous ahead of important credit rating reviews scheduled this month and with the ruling African National Congress gearing up to elect Zuma s successor as party chief in December. The presidency said on Monday that Zuma would make an announcement on the higher education report once ministers had processed its findings. Zuma set up the commission early last year in response to protests by university students demanding free education. The rand and benchmark bonds weakened after the presidency said it would publish the report on Monday, but they were little changed after its release. Currency traders and analysts said markets were waiting to see how the presidency would react to the report, but they said its recommendations were risky from an economic standpoint. If we start repeating this pattern of recording higher and higher budget deficits we are undoubtedly headed for downgrades, said senior Nedbank economist Nicky Weimar. South African GDP was around 4.3 trillion rand ($296.6 billion) last year, so an increase in government spending on higher education of 0.25 percent of GDP would amount to around $750 million of additional expenditure. The commission also recommended that all university students should be funded through a cost-sharing model, whereby the government would guarantee income-contingent loans issued by commercial banks. Should a student fail to reach a certain income level, the state should repay the tuition loan, it advised. Introducing those measures would make it more difficult for Treasury to rein in a projected budget deficit of over 4 percent of GDP for the 2017/18 fiscal year. But it would be popular among young people and ANC voters, many of whom are dissatisfied that South African society remains deeply unequal more than two decades after the end of apartheid in 1994. South Africa next holds a national election in 2019, and the ANC has seen its electoral majority shrink in elections. South African markets have also been pressured by fears that the independence of financial institutions is under threat. Local media outlet Fin24 cited sources on Monday as saying that Treasury Deputy Director-General Michael Sachs had resigned last week after complaining that Zuma was interfering in the budget process. Treasury confirmed Sachs resignation, saying only that his departure was because he wanted to serve the public sector in a different capacity . International ratings agencies downgraded South Africa s debt earlier this year after Zuma fired respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan in an abrupt cabinet reshuffle. S&P Global and Moody s are expected to review the country s ratings again on Nov. 24, and all eyes are on whether they will downgrade its local-currency rating to junk status after Gordhan s replacement, Malusi Gigaba, unveiled dismal medium-term budget forecasts last month. Downgrades to sub-investment grade could trigger forced selling of up to $12 billion of South African bonds and pile further pressure on the rand, which is already trading at a 12-month low against the dollar. South Africa s debt insurance costs hit a four-month high on Monday, reflecting a greater likelihood of ratings downgrades. | 0 |
Very interesting remarks from a guy who is in up to his neck with the underbelly of the Democrat Party https://youtu.be/_7LzLNgExYk | 1 |
NAIROBI/ABIDJAN (Reuters) - U.S. special forces soldiers were with their counterparts from Niger on Wednesday in the West African nation s volatile southwest, a growing hot-bed of jihadist violence, when the report came in of a raid nearby. The assailants were believed to be led by Dondou Chefou, a lieutenant in a new group operating along the Mali-Niger border and called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. A decision was soon taken to pursue them. The mixed force was ambushed by fighters on dozens of vehicles and motorcycles. Under heavy fire, U.S. troops called in French fighter jets for air support, but the firefight was at such close quarters that the planes could not engage and were instead left circling overhead as a deterrant. The version of events, as told by two Nigerien and two Western sources briefed on the incident, shines a light on Washington s increasingly aggressive Special Forces-led counter-terrorism strategy in Africa and its risk of casualties. Four U.S. soldiers died in the firefight, killed in a country where most Americans were unaware that their army is deployed but where Washington has steadily grown its presence. One soldier s body was only recovered two days later. At least four Nigeriens were also killed and, according to one Niger security source, militants seized four vehicles in the ambush. French helicopters, scrambled after the U.S. call for help, evacuated several soldiers wounded in the clash. A diplomat with knowledge of the incident said French officials were frustrated by the U.S. troops actions, saying they had acted on only limited intelligence and without contingency plans in place. After initially offering only scant details of what happened in the Nigerien desert on Wednesday, the U.S. military s Africa Command said on Friday the soldiers were in the area to establish relations with local leaders. It was not meant to be an engagement with the enemy, Africom spokesman Colonel Mark Cheadle told reporters. The threats at the time were deemed to be unlikely, so there was no overhead armed air cover during the engagement. U.S. forces do not have a direct combat mission in Niger, but their assistance to its army does include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in their efforts to target violent extremist organizations. U.S. military deployments are on the rise in Africa. In May, a U.S. Navy Seal killed in a raid on an al Shabaab militant compound in Somalia became the first U.S. combat death in Africa since the 1993 Black Hawk Down disaster in Mogadishu. In Niger, Washington has deployed around 800 soldiers, runs a drone base in the capital Niamey, and is building a second in Agadez at a cost of around $100 million. U.S. Special Forces help local troops develop counter-terrorism skills to tackle threats from al Qaeda-linked groups, Nigeria s Boko Haram and Islamists who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State. It s a pretty broad mission with the government of Niger in order to increase their capability to stand alone and to prosecute violent extremists, the U.S. military s Joint Staff Director, Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, said on Thursday. Washington has long seen the Sahel as a security threat but involvement increased in the wake of a 2012 occupation of northern Mali by Islamist militants. France led an offensive against the Islamists a year later, and the U.S. government now provides logistical and intelligence support to a 4,000-troop French counter-terrorism operation in the region. The U.S. military organizes an annual, high-profile U.S. drill as well as longer-term, more discreet training of regional forces. But experts say U.S. involvement in the fight does not stop there. It is likely that there are other operations going on aside from just the training operations, said Andrew Lebovich, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. In missions run out of a base in the northern Niger town of Arlit and others like the one that led to the ambush of U.S. troops, sources say they have helped local troops and intelligence agents make several arrests. It is discreet but they are there, a Nigerien security source told Reuters. Analysts are awaiting the political fallout of Wednesday s ambush with some speculating it may spark a reversal of the U.S. stance on a new regional force - known as the G5 Sahel - which France is pushing but which Washington is cool on. Others however like Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, a former top United Nations official in West Africa and Somalia, recall with concern the American pullout following the Black Hawk Down incident. Eighteen U.S. soldiers were killed when Somali militia shot down two helicopters in Mogadishu. In Somalia, they over-reacted and withdrew their troops ... My worry is that after this attack they will also over-react. Trump might just say Why should we die for this? I hope they don t. | 0 |
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce … Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes in order to present this new scene in world history in time-honored disguise and borrowed language. Thus Luther put on the mask of the Apostle Paul, the Revolution of 1789 – 1814 draped itself alternately in the guise of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and the Revolution of 1848 knew nothing better to do than to parody, now 1789, now the revolutionary tradition of 1793-95.
If you ever wondered where that quote came from, now you know! A fine example from the 2016 election is commentators comparing Clinton to Lincoln.
Stats Watch
NFIB Small Business Optimism Index, October 2016: “The small business optimism index rose 0.8 points in October to 94.9, slightly exceeding expectations and extending a rebound from the 2-year low at 92.6 set in April” [ Econoday ]. “A net 25 percent of owners reported raising worker compensation, a 3 point increase from September. Capital outlays, a leading strength of the index recently and important for future growth, remained at a strong 27 percent, the second highest reading of the recovery.” But the NFIB’s press release says: “Small business owners are rattled by uncertainty and unable to decide whether to expand, whether to hire, or whether to make other important decisions that might boost the economy” [ Econoday ]. And: “the highest level this year” [ Calculated Risk ].
JOLTS, September 2016: “Job openings rose to 5.486 million in September, up from a revised 5.453 million in August but still on the low side of this year’s trend. Hires are down in the September data, to 5.081 million from August’s 5.268 million to suggest that employers are having a hard time filling slots” [ Econoday ]. “With it hard to find the right person for the right job, employers are holding onto their existing employees closely as the layoff rate fell… [I’m so old I remember when you could get training at your job! Good times….] Though hiring is down, these numbers nevertheless will confirm worries that wage inflation may be approaching, that employers will have to offer more to bring in the workers they need.” Time to screw the workers take away the punch bowl, Janet! And: “The data overall suggests that there was a slight cooling in the labour market during the third quarter, but not enough to discourage a December rate increase from the Federal Reserve” [ Economic Calendar ]. And: “[A]nother solid report” [ Calculated Risk ].
Fed Loan Officer Survey: “The latest Federal Reserve senior loan officer survey on bank lending standards reported that standards were basically unchanged for the commercial sector during the third quarter of 2016. There had, however, been some tightening of conditions on Commercial Real Estate (CRE) loans” [ Economic Calendar ]. And: “Bank credit tends to tighten up as the economy slows, which slows lending and makes matters worse.The buzz word is ‘pro cyclical'” [ Mosler Economics ]. As we’ve seen, the bright spot in CRE is supply-chain related, e.g. distribution centers. And that’s a bet on globalization, no?
Shipping: “Investors are following online retailers into warehouses” [ Wall Street Journal ]. “Singapore’s sovereign-wealth fund agreed to pay $2.7 billion for P3 Logistics Parks and its portfolio of European warehouses… in one of the biggest real-estate deals in Europe this year. The high returns on the industrial properties are a big draw, but the bigger attraction over the long term is the growing need for space to serve e-commerce customers in a European market with a limited number of high-quality warehouses. This is the second big buy in logistics for Singapore’s GIC Pte. fund, which bought the Blackstone Group LP’s IndCor Properties and its network of U.S. warehouses. The upheaval in the market likely isn’t over—another Blackstone property, Logicor, is exploring either an outright sale or an initial public offering of a business that owns 660 warehouses in 18 European countries.”
Shipping: “The top U.S. maritime regulator [Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Mario Cordero] says the ongoing consolidation in the shipping industry isn’t leading to collusion to fix freight rates” [ Wall Street Journal ]. Of course not. That’s the purpose of setting up a ginormous cartel, right?
Shipping: “The Port of Oakland said today its October export volumes reached a three-year high, increasing 20 percent over 2015 levels and posting the fourth-largest monthly total in its history” [ DC Velocity ]. “Port executives said that export volumes benefitted from weakness in the U.S. dollar that made U.S. exports more competitive in world markets and a strong agricultural harvest. Oakland is the closet seaport to the verdant growing areas of the Central, Napa, and Salinas valleys, and as a result handles much of the state’s agricultural export cargo. The port reported that containerized import cargo volume increased 2 percent in October. Overall loaded container volume—imports and exports—was up 11.4 percent, the port said.”
Shipping: “[UPS] is buying medical-logistics specialist Marken Ltd., pushing deeper into the highly specialized and very profitable business of healthcare industry deliveries. The move is a play for high-yield business when many traditional industrial and retail customers are opting for slower, cheaper shipping….Closely-held Marken specializes in transporting clinical trial materials and medicine between 49,000 clinical trial locations around the world, work that is particularly sensitive in terms of time and temperature” [ Wall Street Journal ]. “For UPS, it also delivers a bigger entry into a growing market, particularly as aging populations in the developed world spend more on health care and clinical research expands.”
Shipping: “Packaging machinery shipments in U.S. could reach $8.5 billion in 2020” [ DC Velocity ] “[T]he fastest-growing machinery types scored by CAGR through 2020 will be the labeling, decorating, and coding (3.9 percent) and the case handling (2.5 percent) machinery groups. That rapid growth is largely a result of new legislation demanding increased labeling and coding, continuing developments in printing technologies, and the proliferation of SKUs, PMMI said. The other machinery groups include: filling and dosing; bottling line; form, fill, and seal; cartoning; palletizing; closing; and wrapping and bundling.” Fascinating to see the interface between big data and stuff .
Shipping: “Container ship demolition hits record high” [ Journal of Commerce ]. “Shipowners have demolished 4.2 times more 20-foot-equivalent units so far this year than in the same period of 2015, with 500,000 TEUs. Most of the activity has occurred in the last three months, which accounted for 41 percent of the demolition thus far in 2016. The demolition activity in the last three months surprised BIMCO [Baltic and International Maritime Council] positively and it exceeded our initial expectation based on the appalling 2015 demolition activity,’ said Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst, BIMCO. “The advance is a push in the right direction, as demolition activity is one of the essential measures needed to be taken to rebalance the container shipping industry.'”“Rebalance.” No Pakistanis burned to death lately , so we’re good!
Shipping: “Southern California chassis shortages recede as Hanjin boxes are cleared” [ Lloyd’s List ].
Retail: “Panjiva Research Director Chris Rogers told Logistics Management that when specifically looking at import numbers for things like apparel, especially winter clothing, and toys, which are both down, it suggests that retailers are not feeling ‘hugely confident’ about the state of consumer spending. And he added that it is in direct contrast to recent data issued by the National Retail Federation, which is calling for holiday shipping season (the months of November and December) to be up 3.6 percent” [ Modern Materials Handling ]. From October. But still.
Retail: “A recent survey of shoppers weighed in with their answer to the question, “Do you like Black Friday?” Only 14.7% said that they love it, while 50.7% said it was okay. More than a third — 35.3% — said they hated it. A rather staggering 85% of those surveyed either hated Black Friday or didn’t care much about it” [ 247 Wall Street ] ( original survey ). Throw me in the “hate” bucket!
Housing: “It is so interesting to once again see the ‘drive until you qualify’ meme permeating the housing industry. People seem to think this is now a new permanent plateau, a new normal, yet ignore the low home ownership rate and the reality that momentum is turning. But of course many are not paying attention – they are stuck in traffic apparently. Mega commutes, rental Armageddon, and insane prices for crap shacks are all part of the game today” [ Dr. Housing Bubble ]. “If you look at the rise in these mega commutes in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley it shot up in 2010… Something fundamentally shifted here. Of course you have your house humpers saying that this is great and somehow reflects a healthy market but in reality, it simply shows a hyper manic market of people desperate to claw into a crap shack. And many are now having to endure Clockwork Orange like torture in traffic. Many Millennials are simply saying no and are renting closer to work (or living at home with parents).”
Honey for the Bears: “The restaurant recession has arrived” [ MarketWatch ]. “One factor is pressure on discretionary income from the rising costs of staples such as rent, medicine and education. Then there’s the steady rise in the cost of eating out, which has come just as grocery bills are getting cheaper. The cost of food purchased for home use—that is, groceries—has fallen 2.4% in the past year, government data showed in October. That’s the biggest decline over a 12-month period since the end of the Great Recession in 2009… Food costs have shrunk because of a global glut in farm products such as wheat, rice, soy and corn. Then there’s the effect of U.S. producers increasing the size of egg-laying chicken flocks and cattle herds, which has helped bring down the cost of eggs, beef and milk—egg prices alone have tumbled a staggering 50% in the last year.”
The Bezzle: “Amazon.com Inc. could be in the crosshairs of Europe’s taxman” [ Wall Street Journal , “Europe’s Taxman Could Have Amazon in Its Crosshairs”]. “That could be material for Amazon, which operates on thin margins for a large tech company. In 2015, it reported $596 million in profit on $107 billion in revenue—a profit margin of 0.56%.”
Currency: “Taking the nation by surprise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday night announced demonetisation of Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 notes with effect from midnight, making these notes invalid in a major assault on black money, fake currency and corruption” [ The Hindu ].
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 29 Fear (previous close: 26, Fear) [ CNN ]. One week ago: 22 (Extreme Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Nov 8 at 11:22am. Mr. Market’s knuckles were white there, for a bit.
Guillotine Watch
“Amtrak boosts Wi-Fi speed on Acela Express” [ Progressive Railroading ]. Moar cowbell.
News of the Wired
“You Can Have Emotions You Don’t Feel” [ Nautil.us ].
“6 reasons to think twice before moving to Canada” [ MarketWatch ].
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Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here . And here’s today’s plant:
Because it’s all about the lettuce, right?
Readers, Water Cooler is a standalone entity, not supported by the very successful Naked Capitalism fundraiser just past. Now, I understand you may feel tapped out, but when and if you are able, please use the dropdown to choose your contribution, and then click the hat! Your tip will be welcome today, and indeed any day. Water Cooler will not exist without your continued help. Donate | 1 |
John Lester: As a Naval flight officer I held the top secret sensitive compartmentalized information clearance. And that provided me access with materials and information highly sensitive to our war fighting capabilities. Had I communicated this information not following the prescribed protocols I would have been prosecuted and imprisoned. Secretary Clinton, how can you expect those such as myself who are and were trusted with America s most sensitive information to have any confidence in your leadership as president when you clearly corrupted our national security. | 0 |
(Before It's News)
I never thought I would see the day when I reposted something from Michael Moore. Today is the day.
h/t Gerard | 0 |
(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday agreed to revisit a challenge to an Arizona voting law which restricted the ability of advocates to collect absentee ballots by hand. A three judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier upheld the Arizona law, but the full court on Wednesday voted to rehear the case before an 11-judge panel. Five conservative 9th Circuit judges dissented from the decision to rehear the case, saying it was made too close to Election Day. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump wants his campaign finance chairman, Steven Mnuchin, to be his Treasury secretary if he wins next week’s U.S. presidential election, Fox Business Network reported on Thursday, citing sources. Mnuchin, a former partner at Goldman Sachs Group Inc who also founded and runs the hedge fund company Dune Capital Management LP, joined Trump’s campaign in May as his chief fundraiser. Fox Business Network, citing unnamed sources from inside the Trump campaign, said the New York businessman has told his team he wants Mnuchin to lead the U.S. Treasury Department if he wins the Nov. 8 election. Representatives for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump largely funded his own campaign during the primary contest for Republican presidential nomination but moved to join with the Republican National Committee to jointly fundraise his general election campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton. He has still contributed millions of his own funds. Trump has faced a significant fundraising deficit compared with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Trump raised a total of $255 million, including about $56 million of his own money, compared to Clinton’s $513 million for the entire election cycle through Oct. 19. Last week, Trump pledge to donate an additional $10 million of his own personal funds. Mnuchin previously spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs and has helped finance numerous Hollywood movies, according to Bloomberg. He also previously worked for Soros Fund Management LLC, a hedge fund firm led by George Soros, a Clinton backer. Over the years, Mnuchin has donated thousands to Republicans as well as Democrats, according to federal campaign finance records, including to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and her earlier Senate races. Mnuchin, a graduate of Yale University who serves on several boards, resigned last year from the board of CIT Group Inc. | 1 |
A citizenry with no respect for the law or our law enforcement officers is the result of a lawless President who encourages this kind of behavior by making the criminal out to be the victim Police in Melbourne said one of their officers was attacked by a crowd as he tried to make an arrest Saturday.The officer approached Phoenix Low, 22, about an ordinance violation on New Haven Avenue, and Low became combative, police said.The officer tried to arrest Low, at which point he resisted and attempted to run, according to police.Police said as the officer tried to place Low in handcuffs, a crowd surrounded the officer and began to interfere with attempts to arrest Low by yelling, striking and pulling at the officer and the prisoner. The officer used less-lethal force on the crowd.Low was able to break free and run away before being captured again, police said.Low was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting with violence, resisting without violence and open container of alcohol.According to police, this is the second time that a crowd has tried to interfere with an arrest in the past two weeks.Via: wesh.com | 1 |
Though Melissa Ferrer moved into her new home in July, she has refused to paint her sons’ bedroom walls blue. She does not dare get too comfortable, a symptom of her years of homelessness. Ms. Ferrer, 33, is a single mother of five sons. All of them have spent portions of their childhoods in New York City’s shelter system. What made the experience even worse, Ms. Ferrer said, was that her three youngest children — Aiden Soto, 3 Angel Soto, 7 and Justin Ferrer, 8 — are autistic. They also have disorder and anxiety disorders. “It’s not a good life,” she said. “It’s hard and it’s stressful and it hurts. Not only for me to live that life but to see the children living that life and to know you’re not stable. ” Last year, she made a successful bid for affordable housing in the Bronx. But in her haste to move, she signed the rental agreement without proper due diligence. The apartment flooded every time it rained. Mold grew on the walls. The heat did not work. Insulation was shoddy. Bugs wiggled up through broken floorboards, traumatizing Justin, who has an insect phobia. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, and I lived in shelters,” Ms. Ferrer said. “Animals were coming in and my kids, my children, are sleeping, getting bit by ants. ” This summer, with the help of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, one of the eight organizations supported by The New York Times’s Neediest Cases Fund, the family moved into a safer, cleaner home in the Bronx. Drawing from the Neediest funds, Catholic Charities also provided $321 in school clothes for the children. Despite escaping the gloomy shelters and crumbling apartments, a steady beat of chaos remains. On a recent afternoon at the family’s apartment, her sons’ mercurial temperaments were on display. They slammed doors and shouted and wailed in constant fits. Glass trinkets were removed from a coffee table and placed in a less precarious spot. One of her sons repeatedly threw a water bottle around the living room. Another snatched a tablet from his brother as he was watching a video. “God must be giving me the strength, because I don’t know where a woman like me can have so much patience,” Ms. Ferrer said. Her oldest children, Matthew Ferrer, 18, and Javon Murphy, 13, do their part to corral and calm their younger siblings. Ms. Ferrer speaks glowingly about Matthew in particular. He is rarely home, often working a job to keep the house afloat. Her pride is coupled with guilt. “He’s young, he doesn’t have any children,” she said. “He shouldn’t be having to deal with that. ” Ms. Ferrer is responsible for paying the roughly $1, 000 monthly rent. She receives $1, 486 every month in Social Security disability benefits for her three youngest children, $270 in food stamps and $300 that Matthew pitches in from his job. She does not receive child support from her children’s fathers, and because of her autistic sons’ care requirements, she has not worked in more than eight years, since shortly before Justin was born. “I never thought I’d see myself the way I’m seeing myself, struggling so much,” she said. The family’s tight finances are a steady source of anxiety for Ms. Ferrer, who worries her family may once again be without a home. As long as she has one, she is meticulous about keeping it pristine. She said she simply cannot tolerate dirty things. Each morning, she races to get her four children ready. They all attend different schools, riding different buses that arrive at different times. She does it all alone. The children’s fathers cannot be relied on, Ms. Ferrer said, and although she has many family members nearby, they do not help. “You would think, having such a big family, that we’d be together but we’re not,” she said. “Everybody’s in their own world. ” Her stress is visible. Large clumps of her hair have fallen out. She has cut her hair short to make it less noticeable. Her knees and legs ache from spending long hours on her feet, and she has begun to have panic attacks. “I might look 33, but I’ll tell you one thing, inside my body, I don’t feel 33,” said Ms. Ferrer. “I feel like I’m 70 years old. ” She dreams of going on vacation, even for a day or two, but she knows it will not be reality. Instead, respite comes in short doses at the end of the day. When her children are in bed, she showers, reflects and thanks God for giving her and her family another day. “I’m so tired,” Ms. Ferrer said. “Then I’ll get up at five in the morning, and do this all over again. ” | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday repeated his accusation that a Democratic lawmaker had misconstrued private comments from U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. “His comments were misrepresented,” Trump told reporters, when asked about reports that Gorsuch had criticized Trump’s comments on the judiciary during a meeting with Senator Richard Blumenthal. | 0 |
The right is giddy over the fact that President Obama s Kenyan half-brother Malik says he plans to vote for Donald Trump. They shouldn t be. His reasons for voting for the braggadocios billionaire are even worse than the reasons for most Americans.Malik Obama lives in Kenya, but he is eligible to vote in the United States because he sometimes lives in Maryland and he worked there. Rupert Murdoch s New York Post claims that Malik is registered to vote in the United States.Malik is the oldest of the Obama brothers; he s related through their father, but the two men have different mothers. The older Obama, 58, has spent most of his life as a Democrat, but likes Trump s slogan of Mak(ing) America Great Again. He doesn t like Hillary Clinton s email scandal, and he has more than one personal bone to pick with his younger brother.About Trump: I like Donald Trump because he speaks from the heart, Malik Obama told The Post from his home in the rural village of Kogelo. Make America Great Again is a great slogan. I would like to meet him. About Hillary Clinton and the email situation: She should have known better as the custodian of classified information, said Obama.The third reason makes one question whether Malik had been a Democrat at all. The man who reportedly has as many as 12 wives hates the idea of marriage equality. I feel like a Republican now because they don t stand for same-sex marriage, and that appeals to me, he said.Then, it gets a bit more personal. The elder Obama says that he was close, personal friends with ousted and assassinated dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. I still feel that getting rid of Khadafy didn t make things any better in Libya, he said. My brother and the secretary of state disappointed me in that regard. Malik has an even more personal beef with his brother. It s about money. Malik is in charge of the Barack H. Obama Foundation, which named after the Obamas father. The foundation was set up to help people in their native village in Kenya, but it hadn t registered with the state of Virginia, from which it was run. Shortly after the story became public, the IRS approved the foundation s tax exempt status. Fingers pointed at President Obama, but Malik insists his brother didn t help at all, and for that, he seems to resent him. My brother didn t help me at all, said Obama. He wanted me to shut it down when I set it up. He hasn t supported me at all. Oh, and the President also refused to intervene in his older brother s foray into politics, when he ran for governor of his Kenyan county. Malik partly blames his brother for his loss.Here s the video:Trump, in the meantime, is loving it. Wow, President Obama s brother, Malik, just announced that he is voting for me. Was probably treated badly by president-like everybody else! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2016None of this should be terribly surprising. Despite the fact that the two men were best men at each others weddings, Malik got on the birther train. He even questioned whether the President actually shared a father with him. Of course, we can also go birther, asking if Malik is actually registered to vote.Featured image via New York Post screenshot. | 1 |
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark, part of the NATO-led military mission in Afghanistan, said Monday it will send an additional 55 soldiers to the country to boost security efforts after a car bomber attacked a Danish convoy last week. The soldiers will assist the 97 Danish soldiers already in Afghanistan protecting advisers traveling to and from the Afghan military academy near Kabul, Denmark s Ministry of Defense said on Monday. If the Afghan government loses control, Afghanistan will once again become a haven for terrorist groups and we risk another wave of refugees to Europe and Denmark, Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said in a statement. The 55 Danish soldiers will be stationed in Kabul at the beginning of 2018. | 0 |
This is not how Ted Cruz must have envisioned his campaign would end up heading into the nation s very first caucus in Iowa on Monday. His Cruzin to Victory tour bus wasn t exactly the epitome of its name, either. While he visited the Johnson County Fairgrounds earlier, it needed to be towed after getting stuck in the mud.This is very ironic, indeed. Just a bit over a week ago Ted Cruz was quoted as saying, I m not going into the mud with personal insults and attacks (on Donald Trump). Well, Senator, you just went into the mud, quite literally.Pic via InstagramAccording to a report by Phillip Elliott from Time magazine, Cruz had to hitch a ride with aides to his next tour stop while his bus was towed. That s not the kind of image you want to project just before the voters of Iowa nominate the next future President of The United States. It certainly can t be good public relations; draw as many analogies as you must.Pic via Twitter.Cruz needs every bit of good press he can get right now. Virtually every poll shows Donald Trump having a huge lead on him. And Cruz can t afford that. Whoever wins Iowa would get a must needed head start in the race. With Trump up in practically every state, Iowa is the momentum Cruz has been desperately seeking. Unfortunately, the only momentum Cruz is getting right now is coming from the back of tow truck.You d think the Cruz campaign would, at least, try to play damage control and be the first to report it, instead of being outed by the media. It s possible they could have made a joke out of it but they didn t. They didn t even mention it. That s no way to run a campaign. Featured image from Facebook. | 0 |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities said on Tuesday they will aim to identify some 3,000 bone fragments, apparently human, found at the weekend in the northern state of Coahuila, where organized crime has been blamed for the loss of thousands of lives. State prosecutors said they were sending the remains to a genetic laboratory to assess whether they could be linked to people who have disappeared. According to government data, nearly 18,600 people have disappeared since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December 2012. In November, he signed into law a national commission dedicated to finding people who have disappeared. It will add some 469 million pesos ($25 million) to fund search efforts in its first stage. Gang violence has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past decade and authorities are often unable to identify bodies found in mass graves. VIDA, a Coahuila-based group representing 77 people whose relatives have gone missing, found the fragments in a field on Saturday after a tip-off about the location. The group, accompanied by prosecutors, experts and members of the military, also found a metal barrel, gun casings, two buttons and a buckle. VIDA spokeswoman Silvia Ortiz said similar previous discoveries indicated that victims bodies had been dismembered and burned for hours before the bones were broken apart with shovels. State prosecutors said they could not yet determine how many people the bones belonged to, according to a spokesman. | 0 |
Milo Yiannopoulos — the infamous internet troll, Donald J. Trump supporter and editor at Breitbart News — has compared Islam to cancer, mocked transgender people and suggested that women who are harassed online should stay off the web. Last July, he was permanently barred from Twitter for violating the platform’s rules against hate speech and harassment. So when Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint at Simon Schuster, gave him a publishing contract, the blowback was swift and furious. There were calls for a boycott of all of the company’s books, a vast catalog of some 2, 000 titles from 50 imprints. Some of Simon Schuster’s authors — including Karen Hunter, Danielle Henderson and Bradley Trevor Greive — denounced the publisher on social media. The Chicago Review of Books said it would not review any of the company’s books this year. The criticism highlights the minefield that publishers face as they try to court an emerging market of young conservatives who identify with extreme stances on issues like immigration and gender equality — positions embodied with devious, irreverent glee by Mr. Yiannopoulos — that they feel are undermining the nation. Many liberals and moderates say, however, those positions amount to outright racism and misogyny. And the issue has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on a lucrative but often overlooked niche within the largely publishing world. Every major publishing house has a conservative imprint — Penguin Random House has two, Sentinel and Crown Forum — and maintains a stable of authors who may not attend literary festivals or mingle at the National Book Awards but command a sizable audience in red state America. Most mainstream publishers try to claim partisan neutrality and publish books across the political spectrum. (Simon Schuster, for example, published Hillary Clinton’s memoir and campaign book, as well as Mr. Trump’s “Crippled America. ”) But occasionally, publishers get dragged into a political scrum. This past weekend, Broadside Books, a conservative imprint at HarperCollins, became embroiled in a controversy involving a CNN investigation that found that one of Broadside’s authors, the conservative radio host and columnist Monica Crowley, had plagiarized numerous passages in her 2012 best seller, “What the (Bleep) Just Happened. ” Ms. Crowley was recently selected by Mr. Trump to serve in a senior communications role at the National Security Council. In defending Ms. Crowley, the Trump transition team called the plagiarism charges “a politically motivated attack,” and described HarperCollins as one of “the largest and most respected publishers in the world,” invoking the company’s stature and reputation as way to lend credibility to the author. But on Tuesday, HarperCollins announced it was withdrawing the digital edition of the book until Ms. Crowley revises it with proper attribution, placing the publishing house in the awkward position of being at odds with the incoming administration. Conservative books have been a blockbuster category for publishers for decades, dating to the rise of radio and cable in the 1980s. The genre exploded during Bill Clinton’s presidency and has thrived in the last eight years, under President Obama, as writers forged a united front as ideological underdogs. For publishers, the books have been reliable cash cows. Bill O’Reilly’s historical “Killing” series has more than 17 million copies in print. In the weeks leading up to the election, the lists were dominated by partisan polemics by Dinesh D’Souza, Michael Savage, Edward Klein and Gary J. Byrne, whose book “Crisis of Character” sold some 247, 000 hardcover copies, according to Nielsen. But now, without conservatives filling the role as the voice of opposition, the urgency and potency of books will almost certainly be diminished. And with the political principles that conservative writers have advocated — the repeal of Obamacare, a crackdown on immigration and the dismantling of environmental regulations — set to become the policy goals of a government, the commercial future of conservative publishing looks far more unsettled. Publishers are proceeding cautiously. After the election, many editors quietly scrapped plans to publish books attacking Mrs. Clinton and canceled other sober reflections on the future of the Republican Party in the wake of a Trump defeat. Some are planning to release fewer titles in 2017. Others are returning to safer topics, like Ronald Reagan or the founding fathers. “Conservative publishing is always a better business when the other side is in power,” said Adam Bellow, the editorial director of a new political imprint at St. Martin’s Press. At the same time, the ideological identity of the right is murkier than it was before Mr. Trump became the nominee and then the making it harder for conservatives to reach a broad readership. Will books that hold Mr. Trump accountable to his campaign pledges alienate his supporters, and will mainstream Republican politicians and pundits appeal to or repel his base? Will voices from more extreme wings of the Republican Party find a bigger foothold in publishing, further cementing their place in mainstream political discourse? In a way, it’s not surprising that a major publisher wants to appeal to Mr. Yiannopoulos’s base of young conservative followers. Mr. Bellow, who read Mr. Yiannopoulos’s proposal but did not bid on the book, said he was open to publishing other new voices from the at St. Martin’s. “Donald Trump has brought into politics a lot of people who were previously excluded, and the boundary of political speech has shifted to the right,” Mr. Bellow said. “This is a new force in American politics, and they deserve to be heard. ” Simon Schuster was far from alone in its willingness to embrace Mr. Yiannopoulos, according to his literary agent, Thomas Flannery Jr. who said “virtually every major conservative imprint expressed interest. ” Threshold — which has published books by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and, recently, Mr. Trump — was appealing to Mr. Yiannopoulos because “they don’t shy away from publishing controversial figures,” Mr. Flannery said. But the fury Simon Schuster has encountered underscores the perils publishers face as they tailor their publishing plans to reflect volatile new political realities. Mr. Yiannopoulos, who is gay and describes himself in interviews as more of a cultural figure than a political one, is unlikely to appeal to older or more religious conservatives. His book “Dangerous” — which will address his relationship to the his role as a crusader and his banishment from Twitter — is more of a memoir than a new conservative manifesto. Marji Ross, the president and publisher of Regnery, a conservative publishing house, said she considered Mr. Yiannopoulos’s book proposal but did not pursue it because she felt it would be too polarizing among mainstream conservatives. “Some of our market would have loved it, and some of our market would have been very uncomfortable with it,” Ms. Ross said. It is a dilemma many conservative writers and editors are now facing. As the political ideology of the right has been injected with populism and nationalism, conservative writers and publishers are wrestling with how to reach a wide audience now that a block of readers that was once reliably in lock step philosophically has splintered. Once dependable formulas for generating best sellers — write a book attacking the Clintons, plug it on Fox News, repeat — may no longer deliver a hit. “The 2016 election turned the political world upside down, and it also turned the publishing world upside down,” said Matt Latimer, a literary agent at Javelin whose clients include conservative writers. “The audience has fractured. A few years ago, a Paul Ryan book was widely embraced by conservative book buyers. Would Trump voters buy a Paul Ryan book today? I don’t know. ” authors are also losing a reliable driver of book sales — the Clintons. Last year, Regnery alone had three books that took aim at Mrs. Clinton, including its first graphic novel, “Clinton Cash,” adapted from the book by Peter Schweizer, and “Hillary’s America,” Mr. D’Souza’s book, which sold more than 200, 000 copies. “We had certainly planned to take advantage of those opportunities if Hillary Clinton had won the election, and we looked at several books that we had signed up or considered the day after the election and thought, well, those aren’t going to work,” Ms. Ross said. “Oftentimes, we have said here that what’s bad for America is good for Regnery book sales. ” Regnery has instead pivoted to courting Trump voters with forthcoming books like “How Trump Won,” by the Breitbart Joel Pollak and Larry Schweikart, and a series of “Deplorables Guides” to issues like immigration, gun control and climate change, using a moniker Trump’s supporters adopted for themselves. “The mood of our market is far, far different with Trump as president than it would have been with Hillary Clinton as president,” Ms. Ross said. “It’s hopeful, but cautious. ” | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two major U.S. rules aimed at curbing corruption and pollution in the energy sector may be entirely wiped from the books by next week, after the Republican-led House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to repeal them. The Senate is expected to take up repealing the rules, both of which were years in the making, as soon as Thursday. Under the virtually untested Congressional Review Act, the Republican-led Congress can vote to permanently undo newly minted regulations. Agencies cannot revisit overturned regulations and timing in the law means any regulation enacted in the Obama administration’s final months are eligible for axing. Required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “extraction rule” was approved this summer to require companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp to publicly state the taxes and other fees they pay to governments. Exxon, and other major energy corporations, fought for years to keep the rule from seeing the light of day. After a series of legal battles the SEC in June 2016 finally completed the rule, which supporters say can help expose questionable financial ties U.S. companies may have with foreign governments. During Wednesday’s debate, Representative Maxine Waters, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, raised concerns that Exxon’s CEO during those fights was Rex Tillerson, just confirmed in the top diplomatic post of Secretary of State. During Tillerson’s confirmation hearings, he raised Democrats’ hackles by saying he did not know Exxon lobbied against U.S. sanctions on Russia, where he did business for years. Republicans say the rule is burdensome and costly for energy companies, and also duplicates other long-standing regulations. On the House floor Republican Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, called the rule part of “a radical leftist elitist agenda against carbon-based jobs.” The stream buffer rule is intended to lessen the amount of waste from mountain-top removal coal mining deposited in local waterways. Republican lawmakers, though, say it is hurting coal jobs by placing unworkable limits on the industry. Democrats, on the other hand, say it cuts down on water pollution. Republicans consider loosening regulation as high a priority as dismantling the Affordable Care Act and rewriting the tax code, according to Kevin McCarthy, the second most powerful Republican in the House. On Thursday, the House will vote on repealing three other rules - on methane on public lands, expanding background checks for some gun purchases, and requiring federal contractors to post information on their workers. In recent weeks, the House has also passed bills to slow down regulatory processes and President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, has issued executive orders trying to shrink the government bureaucracy. | 0 |
Barack Hussein Obama has been in over his head since he first stepped foot in the White House. Our Community Organizer In Chief just found out how unwelcome his Chicago style politics are in the UK UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage told Breitbart that the visit by President Obama, where he threatened to send Britain to the back of the queue if the public voted to leave the European Union (EU), backfired and caused a Brexit Bounce , swaying Britons to vote for Brexit.Comparing the outcome to the American Independence Day, Mr. Farage said: You [Americans] have your Independence Day where in July you celebrate being your own country, governing yourself, having your own courts, controlling your own borders and that s what happened to us yesterday. We have broken away from a political union where our power was being overruled, our courts were being overruled, and we had a complete open border for anybody from southern and eastern Europe, so this is a major historic step. On the EU post-Brexit, he said: We ve not just changed British history. I m sure that the EU project itself will now come tumbling down. I would like to think and hope that right across the globe what we ve done is to prove that people power can beat the establishment. The European Union project has failed. It is dying before your very eyes. It is unwanted, it is unloved, and people across the country are saying what UKIP has been saying for years: We want our country back, we want our democracy back, we want the closest possible relationship with our neighbours. We re happy to have a NAFTA kind of agreement with free trade, but we don t want political union . Asked of any lessons drawn from his own experiences that could be applied during the American presidential elections, Mr. Farage advised: Threatening people insults their intelligence. Don t threaten people repeatedly because if you do in the end they think you re crying wolf and they won t believe you. It s Project Fear, or in the end when Obama came it was Project Threat.Citing Mr. Obama s visit to the UK at the request of Prime Minister David Cameron:The lessons learnt from the Obama visit are fascinating. Here is the most powerful man in the world coming from a country that we have always had huge regard for. And people in Britain listening to Obama said: how dare the American president come here and tell us what to do and it backfired.And I think we got an Obama Brexit Bounce, because people do not want to be told how to think and how to vote. BreitbartWatch here to see how citizens reacted to Obama s threat:https://youtu.be/w-DSGtfWgegRepublican lawmakers warned US President Barack Obama his controversial intervention into the British EU referendum debate threatens to harm the special relationship. During a visit timed to coincide with Queen Elizabeth II s 90th birthday earlier this year, Obama warned that the United States would be in no hurry to agree a bilateral trade deal with a Britain outside the EU. I think it s fair to say that maybe at some point down the line there might be a UK-US trade agreement, but it s not going to happen any time soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done. And the UK is going to be at the back of the queue, he said.Obama s comments caused furore among Leave campaigners, with UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage accusing Obama of talking Britain down. Former Defense Minister Liam Fox dismissed the president s intervention, calling his views largely irrelevant, as he will soon be leaving the White House. Via: RT | 1 |
HOW MUCH ARE YOUR INSURANCE PREMIUMS RISING? THIS INTERACTIVE MAP WILL TELL YOU by IWB · October 27, 2016
Thanks to Obamacare, health insurance premiums are skyrocketing all across America. But how much are premiums rising in your state? This cool interactive map can tell you.
Double click on your state for state average increase/ | 1 |
SHANGHAI — Zheng Ruizhen counted herself among the last holdouts on Lufeng Road. Even as sprang up in recent years to surround her dilapidated home, Ms. Zheng, a schoolteacher, and her husband, Sun Guojian, held firm. He grew up there. Her school was a bicycle ride away. They raised their son there, though he eventually grew so tall that his head grazed the ceiling of his cramped room. When city officials pushed them to sell, they said no. Then came China’s latest property bubble — a frothy surge in prices that could have global repercussions if it pops. In August, an unremarkable piece of land around the corner from Ms. Zheng sold for nearly $2, 000 a square foot, a national record and nearly three times the average land price in Manhattan. Local officials grew more insistent and threatened to tear down their bathroom. Finally, they relented, and Ms. Zheng’s husband signed away the home for a price to be determined later. Then, on Oct. 9, Mr. Sun died of a heart attack, something Ms. Zheng said was perhaps influenced by stress over the pending demolition of their home. Now, as she grieves, she is waiting to hear how much the Shanghai government will offer in compensation — but however much that is, she knows it will not be enough for her to be able to afford to live anywhere close to Lufeng Road. Said Ms. Zheng: “I never expected housing prices in Shanghai would get this high. ” China is in the midst of a dizzying housing bubble. Shanghai’s average housing price is up nearly from a year ago, with prices in major cities like Beijing and Guangzhou not far behind. Chinese consumers are rushing to buy homes before the government steps in with restrictions. When rumors swept through Shanghai that the government would require homeowners to pay more in taxes and down payments to buy additional properties, many couples filed for divorce so that one partner could still be treated as an independent buyer. China has experienced housing booms and busts before. And fervor for real estate among the wealthiest Chinese has already spread far beyond the country’s borders, from Long Island mansions to disused ranches in Texas — many to get their money out of the country. But economists warn that the current boom on the Chinese mainland could be extra difficult to resolve: It comes with a growing amount of debt. household loans — mostly mortgages — have doubled as a share of total official bank lending this year. They accounted for about 40 percent of all new loans in August, contrasted with just 20 percent at the start of the year. The value of new home loans as a percentage of all housing sales has surged to a record high. The loans — largely a byproduct of a flood of Chinese lending to keep the economy growing — are helping the affluent, the middle class and low earners who have dreamed of owning a home, while investors and speculators are piling in, too. Underground lenders — those who operate outside the formal banking system using a variety of new platforms — are also helping to feed the boom. Last month, economists at the Bank of China warned in a report that worsening asset price bubbles were adding to a frothy market that could result in trouble. The day before, Wang Jianlin, a politically connected property and entertainment magnate who is one of the country’s richest people, told CNN that China property was “the biggest bubble in history. ” That could be bad news for the global economy. Many economists estimate that housing and related areas — like construction, cement manufacturing or furniture making — account for roughly of China’s economic activity. But if the bubble pops, that support could disappear quickly. Chinese officials, apparently mindful of the 2008 American housing bust, appear to be aware of the risks of a property bubble. But some economists worry they will be too slow to rein it in. “The risk is that the government is late in cooling the market, the rally spreads to more areas, pushing up household leverage and construction activity, pushing the bubble bigger, which is then followed by a bigger downward correction,” said Tao Wang, the head of China economics at UBS in Hong Kong. Local regulators are already trying to cool things down. In the last few weeks, local authorities have accelerated efforts to tighten housing markets in up to 20 Chinese cities, according to economists at China International Capital Corporation, an investment bank. But in many cases these steps have only added to the rush, as home buyers move in while they can. By her account, Zhang Xia and her husband have enjoyed a happy marriage. Then the rumor swept the city that Shanghai authorities would make it harder for couples with one home to buy more. On a recent Monday, Ms. Zhang, a resident of Shanghai’s Huangpu area, and her husband sat waiting at a local marriage registry office to file for divorce. Shanghai officials continue to deny that they will limit house buying by couples, but Ms. Zhang is among many who do not believe them. “We know the government said this is a rumor, but they also said that a few times before, when the rumor actually came true,” Ms. Zhang said. “Some people even said the fact that the government said it’s a rumor means it’s going to be true. ” Shanghai, China’s financial capital, is at the heart of the property boom. Demand there is so intense that developers now commonly require sizable deposits of cash just to join a lottery to buy a new apartment. Only holders of winning numbers will be offered the chance to buy a unit. One flashy new development in central Shanghai charges a refundable 200, 000 renminbi, or $30, 000, to enter its lottery. “In Shanghai now,” said Wang Jie, a sales manager there, “it’s not like you can buy an apartment just because you have money. ” Back on Lufeng Road, the recently widowed Ms. Zheng and her neighbors try to go about their lives despite the boom going on around them. Men and women play near a house, one of a number of dwellings along the road in various states of disassembly, like a row of rotting teeth. Stray dogs sunbathe and alley cats hunt around piles of red bricks and wooden beams scattered on the street. In recent months, local officials hung red propaganda banners on people’s housing extolling the benefits of selling out. “No more hesitation means no more disappointment,” reads one. Says another: “Requisition and compensation are lawful. Smart alecks will regret it later. ” “Look at those banners,” Ms. Zheng said, shaking her head. “It’s almost like the Cultural Revolution once again. ” Earlier, local officials told Ms. Zheng that the land where her home stands would be used to build supporting facilities for the complex of built by China Vanke, the country’s largest property developer. “They said that when people who live in the in Vanke look down, the view from their windows is our ugly roofs,” she said. “So they have to get rid of us. ” | 0 |
PARIS (Reuters) - The leaders of the European Union s remaining 27 member states are very likely to approve this week the deal struck by their chief negotiator with Britain and move to a second phase of exit talks, a French presidency source said on Wednesday. EU leaders are almost certain to judge on Friday that sufficient progress has been made on the rights of citizens, the Brexit divorce bill and the Irish border to allow negotiations to move to the next phase. The EU executive recommended last week that leaders approve the start of trade talks. | 1 |
A shocking new video has just been released by the Center for Medical Progress, the undercover investigative group that in 2015 released videos showing that Planned Parenthood affiliates have profited from selling the body parts of aborted babies.This latest video is a preview of footage that CMP investigators gathered at the 2014 and 2015 National Abortion Federation conventions, attended by hundreds of members of the abortion industry each year. (The NAF is a major trade group of North American abortion providers, and Planned Parenthood makes up about 50 percent of its members and leadership.)Notice the audience laughing at some of the most vile comments you have ever heard about the killing and dismembering of babies in the womb:https://youtu.be/Sq1ycCmX3uUHere are some of the most horrifying remarks from the brand-new undercover footage. Attendees made some of these comments during official presentations, and others directly to undercover CMP investigators.Dr. Lisa Harris, the medical director of Planned Parenthood of Michigan: Given that we actually see the fetus the same way, and given that we might actually both agree that there s violence in here. . . . Let s just give them all the violence, it s a person, it s killing, let s just give them all that.Dr. Ann Schutt-Aine, the director of abortion services for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (which has been referred to local law-enforcement for criminal charges related to fetal-tissue trafficking): If I m doing a procedure, and I m seeing that I m in fear that it s about to come to the umbilicus [navel], I might ask for a second set of forceps to hold the body at the cervix and pull off a leg or two, so it s not PBA [partial-birth abortion].Dr. Stacy De-Lin, the director of abortion services for Planned Parenthood of New York City: But we certainly do intact D&Es [dilation and extraction, otherwise known as partial-birth abortion, a method that is illegal under federal law].Dr. Uta Landy, the founder of the Consortium of Abortion Providers (CAPS), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA): An eyeball just fell down into my lap, and that is gross! [laughter from the crowd]Talcott Camp, the deputy director of the ACLU s Reproductive Health Freedom Project: I m like Oh my God! I get it! When the skull is broken, that s really sharp! I get it! I understand why people are talking about getting that skull out, that calvarium. Dr. Susan Robinson, an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte: The fetus is a tough little object, and taking it apart, I mean, taking it apart on Day One is very difficult. . . . You go in there, and you go, Am I getting the uterus or the fetus? Oh, good, fetus. [Robinson makes a stabbing sound effect] What have I got? Nothing. Let s try again. Below are some comments from the footage that provide further evidence of Planned Parenthood s involvement in illegally profiting from fetal-tissue trafficking.Dr. Leslie Drummond, an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte (a PPFA affiliate that contracted with a biotech firm to be paid per fetal organ provided): I get a lot of oohs and ahhs from StemExpress [biotech firm]. You know, they re wanting livers. . . . Last week I was in Sacramento, and she said, I need four intact limbs. And I said, you want what?This part of the video should dispel any doubt Americans had about Planned Parenthood selling baby parts for profit:Dr. Stacy De-Lin, the director of abortion services for Planned Parenthood of NYC: But I think a financial incentive from you guys [CMP investigators posing as tissue buyers] is going to be like . . . the people who we have to get this approved from will be very happy about it. Dr. Paul Blumenthal, the former medical director for PP of Maryland: I know Planned Parenthood sells a lot of stuff [fetal organs] to people. Both the NAF and Planned Parenthood sought and obtained a preliminary injunction against the Center for Medical Progress to prevent the release of these undercover videos. That civil suit is currently on appeal. But California s attorney general took matters into his own hands in late March, charging CMP investigators David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt with 14 felony counts of illegally recording confidential communications. The state refuses to name the 14 accusers in the criminal case, even though Daleiden and Merritt have themselves been charged publicly.Read more at: National Review | 1 |
After two days of controversy over Donald Trump s lack of response, attention, or even seeming to notice the four soldiers who died in an ambush in Niger nearly two weeks ago, he finally called the pregnant widow of one of the fallen soldiers, Sergeant LaDavid Johnson. At Miami International Airport, where she awaited the remains of her 25-year-old husband, Myeshia Johnson took the president s 5-minute call.On hand with Myeshia Johnson was Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, the US Representative from Johnson s district. Wilson has been critical of Trump s response or lack of one for longer than this has even been in the national spotlight. Sgt. Johnson s body was left behind after the ambush, and not recovered by the military for two days after the operation. Many questions remain about the ambush, the operation, and the planning that went into the entire effort. Some consider Trump s bluster on calling military families and his attack on President Barack Obama to be a distraction from those questions that have arisen.According to Rep Wilson, the phone call was insensitive and insane, and if accurate, what she conveyed from Sgt. Johnson s widow is possibly the worst thing anyone has ever said to the widow of a soldier, let alone the worst thing a president has said. Trump told Mrs. Johnson, He knew what he signed up for But when it happens it hurts anyway. Those are the words of a man who has either never suffered a loss or has never cared about one.The call was first reported by Ross Palombo, the Washington Bureau Chief for an ABC affiliate in Miami. After Palombo tweeted about the Congresswoman s account of the call, he was contacted by the White House, only for officials to chide him and tell him that the affair was none of his business:BREAKNG: Top White House official tells me about @realDonaldTrump comment to soldier s widow The President s conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private. @WPLGLocal10 Ross Palombo (@RossPalombo) October 18, 2017This kind of response is, unfortunately, just what America has come to expect from the disgusting Donald Trump and his cohorts in the White House.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1 |
Every year GLAAD holds their media awards ceremony to recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives. This year, GLAAD honored Robert De Niro with the Excellence in Media Award.It was during his speech, however, that De Niro took a moment to take a sarcastic jab at those who think middle-aged white men have it bad, and of course, make fun of Donald Trump while he was at it. He said: You think you ve got it bad, LBGT community? I don t think you know what it s like to be really discriminated against I recently turned on the television news and saw this odd guy with little hands, and he was raving. Turns out, the ones being discriminated against are straight, middle-aged white men It makes sense. I ve been losing parts right and left to what used to be called diversity actors. One that really hurts, seeing the role of Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton going to Corey Hawkins. And I can t remember the last time I got a Teen Choice Award. It s not easy being a straight, white man. Of course, he s joking. Being a straight, white man is pretty much winning the lottery when it comes to genetics. Straight, white men start from a point of being respected where most others seem to need to prove themselves. And, of course, he s clearly referencing Donald Trump with his odd guy with little hands who was raving and claiming he s being discriminated against. It s funny because it s true, and it s also funny because he just got his ass handed to him by Robert De Niro.Watch the whole speech here:VIDEO: Robert De Niro accepts the Excellence In Media Award at the #glaadawards https://t.co/FMBl01Q1VY GLAAD (@glaad) May 15, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
Harvard Law School emeritus professor, liberal Democrat, and noted defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz has penned an in the Hill opposing the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the investigation into possible ties between President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government. [Dershowitz makes a case against the special counsel. First, he says, the Trump campaign is not facing criminal accusations. Second, he says, even if collusion were to be found between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, or if Trump were found to have divulged secrets to the Russian foreign minister, none of that would be illegal, and ought to be punished by voters, not prosecutors. Third, he argues, Trump’s decision to fire James Comey does not constitute obstruction of justice, and a special counsel could not impeach him anyway. The only legitimate targets of a special counsel, Dershowitz says, would be “those current and former intelligence officials who willfully leaked classified and highly secret information to the media” over the past several months. He concludes: So what will the special prosecutor be doing? The short answer is that we don’t know and may never know, because he will be operating in secret. His most powerful weapon will be the grand jury, which has the power to subpoena witnesses to be questioned without their lawyers behind closed doors. It is a crime to disclose or leak grand jury testimony (except in special situations). At the end of his super secret investigations, the special counsel has essentially three options: he can issue indictments and prosecute the defendants, he can issue a statement that no indictments are warranted and close down his investigation, or he can issue a report. If he were to issue a report, it would be and based on an investigation not geared towards knowing the whole truth, but rather to develop and present to the grand jury sufficient evidence to show probable cause that a crime may have been committed. The grand jury hears only one side — the prosecutor’s. A report, based on no criminal investigation, is likely to be and incomplete. Dershowitz writes that he would have preferred to see “a investigatory commission to uncover the whole truth” about Russia’s role in the election. Read Dershowitz’s entire here. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 0 |
If you have the time, you should watch every minute of this video. If you can t watch it all, go to the 56 minute mark and watch DePaul University Junior, Katie Danforth give the Black Lives Matter Crybabies get an earful: | 0 |
Sometimes it takes a wolf to catch a snake.Rudy Giuliani has been making the media rounds over the last two days, bragging that he knew about FBI Director James Comey s letter two days before it went public.That means Giuliani has been getting inside information from the supposedly non-partisan Federal Bureau of Investigation that he has likely been passing on to Donald Trump, which means the FBI appears to be colluding with Trump s campaign to sabotage Hillary Clinton.And during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN Friday night, Giuliani was cornered over it because the only way he could possibly get such information is if a current FBI agent is passing information to him personally, or through someone else. No, I ve spoken to no current FBI agents, Giuliani claimed when asked by Blitzer. Gosh, in the last eight months, nine months, ten months, certainly not about this. Then Giuliani claimed that everything he has been hearing is just hearsay. But that apparently has not stopped him from spewing the hearsay on Fox News and elsewhere in an effort to smear Hillary Clinton. So, I ve had lots of conversations with them and they have told me a lot about the I guess the disagreement between the Justice Department on the one hand and the FBI on the other. But it all comes from former FBI agents and it s all hearsay. But that s hard to believe since Giuliani claimed that he knew about Comey s letter two days in advance and that letter was actually released. It was not hearsay.Blitzer then hit Giuliani with a statement written by Democratic congressmen accusing him of obtaining leaked information from FBI agents.The statement reads: This morning Rudy Giuliani, one of Donald Trump s closest and most vocal campaign advisers, appeared on national television and confirmed that he had obtained leaked information about the FBI s review of Clinton-related e-mails several days before FBI Director James Comey sent his letter to Congress last Friday about this letter. In fact, Mr. Giuliani went even further and bragged about the information that he had obtained stating, Did I hear about it? You re darn right I heard about it. Again, the only way Giuliani could have heard about this is if a current FBI agent leaked the information to him or passed it to him through someone else. Either way, the FBI has a serious breach that is being used to help Donald Trump. That s not correct, Giuliani responded. I ve had no conversations with anyone inside the FBI. I have heard for the last four months a tremendous amount of information about the consternation within the FBI, the fact that FBI agents were very unhappy about the way they were being treated by the Justice Department. But none of it came from any current I haven t talked to a current FBI agent. So Giuliani just admitted that he is getting this information from former agents who are getting the information from current agents.Blitzer actually got Giuliani to claim that he didn t know that Comey was going to release the information he did, and that it came as a surprise, but Giuliani did an about-face only seconds later and said it wasn t a surprise. Seriously, Blitzer did a great job of getting Giuliani to tie himself in knots.The former NYC mayor then repeated his alleged hearsay once again by claiming that he has heard from his sources that FBI agents are angry at the Justice Department for not indicting Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that Director Comey recommended that charges were not warranted.Giuliani then claimed that he read articles about it somewhere, but didn t specify where the articles came from and said he s not sure if they are true.So Giuliani claims that he is talking to former FBI agents, and that what he has heard is merely hearsay that he spreads anyway as if it s the truth, and then he claims that he read this information in articles even though he doesn t know if what he is reading is the truth, and he still repeats it to anyone within earshot.And Wolf Blitzer drove a stake through the heart of Giuliani s bullshit by asking one question. But let me ask you a question, Mayor. If you don t know it s true, why are you suggesting it? Why are you going on national television talking about these issues if you don t know it s true? Giuliani once again touted his FBI sources, only to then be informed by Blitzer that FBI agents sign a form agreeing to never reveal information about investigations and that they have a responsibility to not leak information to people like Giuliani.Here s the video via YouTube.[ad3media campaign= 1302 ]The FBI should be thoroughly investigated by the Justice Department to find out who is leaking information to a private citizen who also happens to be a surrogate for a presidential candidate who will do anything to smear his opponent in an effort to win the election. This is a major breach within the FBI and it definitely looks like the FBI is working with Republicans to persecute Hillary Clinton. People need to be fired for this and the first person to lose their job should be Director Comey.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 0 |
MANILA (Reuters) - More than a week after the Philippines declared victory over pro-Islamic State militants in Marawi, security officials on Friday expressed concern over lone wolf attacks, with Australia issuing a high threat alert about travel to Manila. Skirmishes continued between soldiers and holdouts from the Islamist militant group that seized a lakeside town on the southern island of Mindanao. More than 1,100 people, including 165 troops, were killed in the five-month conflict. One concern after Marawi is the possibility of threats from lone wolves, defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong told reporters, two days after an Uzbek plowed into New York pedestrians and bikers in what U.S. officials called a terrorist act. The army remained on high alert after President Rodrigo Duterte said five cities in Mindanao were potential targets of Islamist militants after their defeat in Marawi, he added. On Friday, the Australian embassy issued a travel advisory, warning of a high threat of terrorist attack in the Philippines, including Manila, the capital. Be alert to possible threats around locations that have a low level of protective security and places known to be possible terrorist targets, it said. It told Australians to reconsider travel plans to eastern Mindanao and avoid its central and western regions. The advisory was similar to one issued early this year, said military spokesman Major-General Restituto Padilla. It was only a reiteration, there is no credible threat, he added. Two days ago, army soldiers killed the righthand man of Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, the emir of pro-Islamic State militants in Southeast Asia, who was gunned down last month. His death hastened the collapse of the Marawi-based militant group, leading to its defeat. | 0 |
He s one of the most recognizable actors of his generation and he s starred in some of the most memorable movies. Yet, he s never won an Oscar that is until Sunday night. Leonardo DiCaprio took in Best Actor at the 88th Annual Academy Awards Sunday night for his role in The Revenant. DiCaprio used the moment to highlight an issue that Republicans have refused to acknowledge: climate change. He said:The Reverent was about man s relationship with the world. 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history. Our production team needed to go to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together, and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyp_DVgT260]It was a night already fueled with emotion and tension after the Academy Awards were called out for not having any African American nominees. Lady Gaga later delivered the performance of a lifetime with her song Till it happens to you, from the documentary The Hunting Ground, which explores rape on college campuses in the U.S., drawing tears and a standing ovation from the audience.The acclaimed actor then received his own standing ovation as the winner for best actor and made his speech as Vice President Joe Biden looked on.Many Republicans have rejected the notion of climate change, preferring instead to cater to big businesses and corporations who have polluted the earth and set temperatures to record levels. Climate change is one of many pressing issues that separate Republicans and Democrats and it makes this election year vital for future policies on climate change. Featured image via video screen capture. | 0 |
A 16-year-old is dead after a group of white thugs threatened to gun him down and chased him until he collapsed and died from an asthma attack.Dayshen McKenzie and his friend Harry met up with the group behind a restaurant and an argument over a girl escalated into threats of violence and a chase that had McKenzie running for his life.According to Harry, The guy said, You got a problem? And my (friend) said, You got a problem? and it went on. They left, and they came back three cars deep. The guy in the first car had a gun. The white thugs literally tried to hunt McKenzie down like a wild animal but he forgot his inhaler that day so when he needed it he didn t have it. But he wouldn t have had an asthma attack in the first place had he not been chased down by a bunch of gun-wielding racists.Former police officer Diane Fatigati came forward as a witness after trying to save McKenzie with the use of CPR. But she was unable to revive the teen. To me, it s murder, she said. They were chasing him that s a crime. You re hunting them because they re black You re calling them a n****r. To me, it s a hate crime. McKenzie s mother, Tisha Richardson is sad and angry over the senseless killing of her son. I want justice for him. Somebody should be held accountable, she said.Needless to say, police are investigating McKenzie s death but yet another young black man is dead at the hands of racists in 21st century America.But we can likely expect even more of these killings if Donald Trump becomes president. After all, he encourages violence and intimidation of black people and has even promised to pay the legal bills for supporters who are arrested when they actually do what Trump tells them to do.In addition, Trump has made racist rhetoric more of a norm that is no longer shocking people like it once did in political campaigns of the past.You can bet white supremacists are salivating at the thought of Trump becoming president because they think they ll have a license to intimidate and kill black people whenever they want without consequences. Because right now, the only way they can do that is to get hired by the police.Featured Image: New York Daily News | 0 |
**Language warning***Many people don t know this, but Andrew Breitbart was the person responsible for outing Anthony Weiner. Andrew s name and reputation were drug through the gutter by every mainstream media outlet known to modern man, but Andrew fought back. He was a modern day Goliath. If Andrew Breitbart didn t expose Anthony Weiner years ago, there wouldn t be any reopening of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton s email. | 0 |
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine soldiers have killed 14 Maoist guerrillas in an offensive south of the capital, Manila, an army officer said on Wednesday, days after President Rodrigo Duterte ended peace talks with the rebels. More than 40,000 people had been killed in nearly 50 years of fighting between the leftist guerrillas and government forces, a conflict that has stunted economic growth in resource-rich rural areas. Duterte, who took power last year, had raised hopes for peace with the communists as well as with Muslim insurgents in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic country, but peace has proved elusive. This is a big blow to their organization, Major Mikko Magisa, executive officer of the army s 202nd Brigade, told reporters, referring to the late Tuesday clash in Batangas province. Five soldiers had been wounded in the 20-minute clash involving army and air force commandoes, he said. The bodies of 13 rebels were found, including a suspected secretary and a platoon leader of the guerrilla unit, he said. One of two wounded rebels who were captured died in hospital. Duterte signed a proclamation ending peace talks with the communists last week after complaining that rebel violence had continued during the negotiations. Talks, which have been held intermittently since 1986, were revived in August last year, and were brokered by Norway. Government troops have been ordered to be on alert for movements by the estimated 3,800 leftist guerrillas, military officials have said. Government troops have in recent months been engaged in the biggest battle in the Philippines since World War Two, with Islamist militants who occupied a southern town for several months. (Amends to show peace has been elusive, paragraph three) | 1 |
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African politician Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Thursday it was fine if the country s white business community declined to endorse her bid to succeed President Jacob Zuma as leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Her priority was to transfer wealth from the white minority to the black majority, who are generally much poorer. Those who opposed the policy were mainly white people or members of the black elite who want to preserve the status quo, she said. If we have to choose between our people having a better life and investment, that s not a choice, she said, when asked about whether her policies could scare away businesses. I m not afraid. I m not afraid of them. But I m not surprised white minority capital is not endorsing me, she said on ANN7 television in a rare interview. ANC delegates will vote for a new party president next month, with Dlamini-Zuma expected to face Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a unionist-turned-millionaire businessman who is more popular with foreign investors. From where I sit, it s looking good. The campaign is going well, said Dlamini-Zuma, who was married to the president. The winner of the party vote will be favorite to become the next president of South Africa, either at an election in 2019, or before if Zuma stands down or is forced out by the new ANC leadership next year. Apartheid in South Africa ended in 1994 but much of the country s wealth resides with the white minority. Successive ANC governments have said they want to empower the majority, though many black people have seen only modest economic gains. Dlamini-Zuma, who has held several cabinet posts and was most recently chair of the African Union, has pledged to tackle poverty and close the gaping racial inequality gap. Some investors are concerned about Dlamini-Zuma s proposed plan of radical economic transformation , which critics have said is a populist term that isn t backed up by solid policies. | 0 |
ANKARA (Reuters) - Leading Turkish and U.S. businesses urged the governments of Turkey and the United States on Tuesday to resolve a series of diplomatic rows that have prompted both countries to cut back on issuing visas to each other s citizens. Turkey has fumed over what it sees as U.S. reluctance to extradite Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of orchestrating an abortive military coup last year, and over U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, seen by Turks as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Gulen denies any connection with the coup bid. The Turkish-U.S. Business Council (TAIK) called on the U.S. and Turkish governments to engage in talks to resolve the rows and prevent harm to both of their economies and citizens. We call on the governments of Turkey and America to enter into discussions to reach a meaningful resolution to the existing differences so that neither of our peoples or economies suffer, TAIK said in a statement. Relations sank to a new low with the arrest of a second U.S. consular worker earlier this month over alleged links to last year s coup attempt. The statement by TAIK, a council comprised of leading Turkish and U.S. corporations such as Ford, Microsoft, and Turkish Airlines, was the latest in a series of appeals to the NATO allies to settle their differences. But President Tayyip Erdogan has not retreated from the row, castigating Washington over democracy issues in comments that may further dim hopes of a resolution. | 0 |
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (Reuters) - In a new twist to his immigration proposals, U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump held out the possibility of legal status for millions of illegal immigrants, but only after many other border enforcement steps are taken. Trump, in remarks to a small group of reporters whom he invited on his plane for the first time since accepting his party’s nomination, said parts of his hardline immigration speech last week in Phoenix had been misinterpreted and that he had in fact softened his position to some extent. The New York businessman said that before considering how to deal with millions of illegal immigrants who are obeying U.S. laws and contributing to American society, he first wants to evict criminal elements like drug smugglers and build a border wall. Any illegal immigrants who want to gain citizenship will have to first return to their home countries first and get in line behind legal applicants, he said. But for those who stay behind, Trump said their cases would be considered at some undefined point. Asked about a potential legal status for this group, Trump did not rule it out. “We’re going to make that decision into the future. That decision will be made,” he said. “The first thing will be to get the bad elements out, the gang members, get ‘em all out. We secure the border. We stop the drugs from coming in, because the drugs are pouring in ... We’re going to build the wall. We need the wall to stop the drugs.” Such a piecemeal approach has been pushed by Republican congressional leaders over the years because it is extremely hard to get a comprehensive immigration reform bill through the U.S. Congress. Trump has struggled to strike the right tone on how he would take on illegal immigration if elected on Nov. 8. After flirting with a softer tone, he stuck to his hardline position in Phoenix last week, saying that anyone in the United States illegally would be subject to deportation. Trump, seated with vice presidential running mate Mike Pence in tan leather seats aboard his private jet, was relaxed for a session with reporters of more than a half hour, clearly feeling better about his campaign after polls showed him closing the gap with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Talking about his recent effort to appeal to African-American voters, Trump was asked if it was difficult to attract black voters since he has raised doubts about whether Democratic President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Trump waved off the question, saying it was an issue he did not want to get into anymore because reporters would seize on it. In 2011 while under fire from Trump, Obama produced his long-form birth certificate to prove that he was, indeed, born in Hawaii. “I don’t talk about it because if I talk about that, your whole thing will be about that,” Trump said. “So I don’t talk about it.” He said his focus for the final two months of the campaign will be mostly about how to create jobs for struggling middle-class Americans.”I’m all about the jobs now,” he said. Trump also pledged to participate in all three presidential debates, saying he considered it an important part of being a candidate. He also said he was fine with the moderators announced last week. | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An equally divided federal appeals court refused to reconsider its landmark decision forbidding the U.S. government from forcing Microsoft Corp and other companies to turn over customer emails stored on servers outside the United States. Tuesday’s 4-4 vote by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan let stand a July 14 decision that was seen as a victory for privacy advocates, and for technology companies offering cloud computing and other services worldwide. But the dissenting judges said that decision by a three-judge panel could hamstring law enforcement, and called on the U.S. Supreme Court or Congress to reverse it. “The panel majority’s decision does not serve any serious, legitimate, or substantial privacy interest,” Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes wrote in dissent. Peter Carr, a U.S. Department of Justice spokesman, said: “We are reviewing the decision and its multiple dissenting opinions and considering our options.” Microsoft had no immediate comment. In the July decision, Circuit Judge Susan Carney ruled that Microsoft could not be forced to turn over emails sought for a narcotics case, but stored on a server in Dublin, Ireland. Though Microsoft is based in Washington state, Carney said the emails were beyond the reach of domestic search warrants issued under the federal Stored Communications Act, a 1986 law. Microsoft was thought to be the first U.S. company to challenge a domestic search warrant seeking data held outside the country. The case attracted significant attention from technology and media companies concerned that a ruling for the government could jeopardize the privacy of customers, and make them less likely to use cloud services if they thought data could be seized. Microsoft’s position was supported by dozens of technology and media companies including Amazon.com, Apple, CNN, Fox News Network and Verizon Communications, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But Tuesday’s dissenters said it should not matter where the emails were stored because Microsoft was a U.S. company. They also said the panel did not properly address the challenges that electronic data storage poses for law enforcement. “It has substantially burdened the government’s legitimate law enforcement efforts; created a roadmap for the facilitation of criminal activity; and impeded programs to protect the national security of the United States and its allies,” Cabranes wrote. The judge expressed hope that the panel’s view of the 1986 law “can be rectified as soon as possible by a higher judicial authority or by the Congress.” The case is Microsoft v U.S., 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 14-2985. | 0 |
Though they are officially non-profit organizations, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, and several other Christian organizations are profiting from lucrative contracts with the federal government to resettle refugees in the United States.Of the 100,000 refugees resettled in the United States in 2014 under the Refugee Resettlement program, an estimated 40 percent were Muslims. BreitbartAs of August 29, 2016, 224 new Syrian refugee arrivals have been reported. That lifts the total this fiscal year to 10,126, of whom 52 or 0.51 percent are Christians; and 9,945 or 98.2 percent, are Sunni Muslims.The Obama administration s goal was to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees in the fiscal year.The number of Christians among the 10,000 was less than half of one percent.Of the 9,902 before Monday s arrivals, just 47 (0.47 percent) are Christians, according to State Department Refugee Processing Center data.The vast majority of the Syrian refugees permitted to resettle in the United States are Sunni Muslims 9,726 of the 9,902, or 98.2 percent. Another 20 are Shi a Muslims, and a further 85 are identified in the data simply as Muslims. CNS NewsIn an exclusive interview President Donald Trump was asked by David Brody of Christian Broadcasting News if he considers it a priority to bring persecuted Christians over to the US from Syria.Trump responded, You know, if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very, very tough to get in to. If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians, and I thought it was very,very unfair, so we are going to help them. Watch Trump s interview with CBN here: Reuters | 0 |
On Wednesday, three young Washington teens received a terrifying lesson from one of the people the NRA says will save us from any and all danger. Kitsap Sheriff s deputies are investigating an incident in which a man held three 13-year-olds at gunpoint while he lectured them about crime in the area.The teens, who were playing an innocent game of basketball in a community court, say the man approached them. According to the kids, he had been dropped off by another man in a silver pickup truck with orange cab lights. He shined a flashlight at the children then pointed a semi-automatic pistol and told them he was not playing around, ordering them face-down on the ground.The Kitsap Sun reports that the man, who is described as a caucasian in his 60s or 70s with white hair, interrogated them about what they were doing, and informed the frightened teens that there had been a rash of car thefts and vandalism in the area. He told the kids he had been asked to investigate by a neighbor.After the interrogation, the pickup truck returned and another white man got, heavyset with grayish hair, got out and shook the kids hands, patting one on the back. The gun-toting gentleman got in the truck and they drove off. Police are still investigating the incident.Unfortunately, this is where we are at in America. Two men, empowered by the NRA and Republicans rhetoric that places them as judge, jury, and executioner, conducted their own firearm-assisted interrogation against three children who had done nothing worse than playing basketball in the evening. Murika.Featured image via CheezCrunch | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday acknowledged that escalating tensions with North Korea were challenging but said diplomatic efforts will continue amid harsh rhetoric and threats of military confrontation. We are quite challenged but our diplomatic efforts continue unabated, Tillerson said in an interview with ABC. We have put in place the strongest economic sanctions ever to have been assembled against (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un. So he is being tested with the sanctions, voices from every corner of the world. | 1 |
ROME — Two powerful earthquakes rattled central Italy on Wednesday, knocking down electrical and telephone lines, damaging buildings and frightening the residents of several towns already unnerved by an earthquake that killed nearly 300 people two months ago. The two quakes — one measuring 5. 4, the other 5. 9, according to Italy’s national volcanology center — were two hours apart on Wednesday evening, and caused damage to a number of buildings in several central Italian towns. They were part of the same seismic activity that began with the Aug. 24 quake in the Apennine Mountains. The epicenters were in the province of Macerata, near the towns of Castelsantangelo sul Nera, Visso and Ussita, but the quakes were felt as far away as Veneto in the north, and even many Romans — including employees of the Foreign Ministry, which was evacuated — took to the streets after buildings began to tremble. The situation is “not so catastrophic” as could have been expected after such a powerful quake, Fabrizio Curcio, the head of Italy’s civil protection department, said at a news conference on Wednesday evening. He said several people had gone to hospital emergency rooms for light injuries and panic attacks. A third quake measuring 4. 6 struck shortly before midnight. “You can understand how these sequences can strain people,” he said. Many people had decided not to spend the night in their homes, he said, so several towns had set up temporary lodgings. Officials said civil protection workers and firefighters, including teams trained to find people in rubble, were on site in the stricken towns to monitor developments. But steady rainfall and darkness made a thorough evaluation more difficult, Mr. Curcio said. “We’ll know more as assistance to the areas continues,” and with the approach of daylight, he added. On Wednesday night, many in the quake zones opted to forgo temporary lodgings and slept in their cars, Italian television reported. Geologists said shocks were to be expected after a strong earthquake like the one that struck in August, which effectively destroyed the town of Amatrice, in the Lazio region, as well as other towns in Umbria and the Marches region. On Wednesday night, at least 30 aftershocks — including the two more powerful tremors — were registered. Carlo Meletti, of the national volcanology center, noted that in past earthquake disasters aftershocks had continued for some six months. “It’s too early to say whether the sequence will continue like today, and whether it will extend to the north,” he said. “What we can say is that it’s part of the same system of faults that began on Aug. 24. ” The Apennines are situated in a highly seismic area, and after each quake, criticism over the failure to better protect buildings there has become a national refrain. Massimo Cialente, the mayor of L’Aquila, the Abruzzo city that was destroyed in a 2009 earthquake, said residents there also felt Wednesday’s quake, even though the epicenter was more than 60 miles away. “It shows we have to do more to secure the country, because we can’t be terrorized every time there is an earthquake that hits 5. 0,” he said. | 0 |
Jake Tapper and the new White House Communications Director went at it this morning. Anthony Scaramucci had the line of the day: I ll Bring CNN a Box of Kleenex When Trump Wins in 2020Anthony Scaramucci: If I said some things about him, when I was working for another candidate, Mr. Trump, Mr. President, I apologize for that. Can we move on off of that. I know you and I have moved on off of that. Jake hasn t moved on off of that, obviously and that s okay Jake, I don t care. But, I m going to be working for you and we re going to serve the American people and we re going to get your agenda out into the heartland where it belongs and we re going to turn this thing into a movement, a bigger movement than we have already.Jake Tapper: I love how you re talking to one specific viewer right now, the most important audience that there is.Anthony Scaramucci: I like talking to him, but you know who else I m talking to? The people I grew up with. They get me and get him.Jake Tapper: I get it. I grew up in a very similar neighborhood in Philadelphia.Anthony Scaramucci: He s gonna win again, Jake. He s gonna win again and I ll bring a box of Kleenex over here to CNN in 2020.Jake Tapper: We don t need Kleenex.Anthony Scaramucci: He s gonna win again Jake. We re going to get this agenda prosecuted. He s gonna win again. | 0 |
BERLIN (Reuters) - A senior member of the pro-business Free Democrat (FDP) party that is likely to be a partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel s new government said in a magazine interview he did not expect the coalition to form before the end of the year. Next week Merkel s conservatives - who remain the biggest bloc in parliament despite losing support to the far right in a September election - are due to start talks on forming a tricky Jamaica coalition with the FDP and the Greens. The alliance, which derives its name from the three parties colors matching the Jamaican flag, is untried at national level and is likely to be fraught with disagreements on issues like migrants, tax, European Union reform and the environment. Asked whether the parties could work together, FDP deputy leader Wolfgang Kubicki told news magazine Der Spiegel: It can succeed. The most important thing is that trust needs to be built between participants and that takes time. That s why it would be illusory to believe we could conclude negotiations by Christmas. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday he was optimistic that Merkel and her conservatives - of which he is a member - would be able to forge a new coalition government before Christmas. [nL8N1MN61D] Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party (CSU) removed a major stumbling block to the coalition talks on Sunday by ending a dispute over migrant policy with an agreement to limit to 200,000 the number of people Germany would accept per year on humanitarian grounds. [nL8N1MJ0EG] But Kubicki said the deal was just a starting point: If the CDU and CSU think their agreement needs to be implemented exactly like that, we ll stand up and leave, he said. Speculation is rife that the FDP will demand the post of finance minister as a price for joining a Jamaica coalition and Kubicki said it was up to FDP leader Christian Lindner to decide whether Lindner would fill that post or be FDP parliamentary floor leader. But Volker Kauder, the CDU s leader in parliament, recently said the Finance Ministry should remain in the hands of his party to further the work of Wolfgang Schaeuble - expected to become parliamentary president. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a member of Merkel s conservatives, urged the parties to be pragmatic. We d be well advised not to be perfectionists in the upcoming coalition negotiations but rather to be open and to build trust that a government will be formed that acts sensibly even during unforeseeable crises, he told newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. | 0 |
BET EL, West Bank (Reuters) - For many in the Israeli settlement of Bet El, deep in the occupied West Bank, Donald Trump’s choice of Jared Kushner as his senior adviser on the Middle East is a sign of politics shifting in their favor. They regard Kushner, whose family’s charitable foundation has donated tens of thousands of dollars to their settlement, as part of a diplomatic rebalancing after what they view as eight years of anti-Israel bias under the U.S. administration of Barack Obama. “He will stand up for our interests. I suppose he will lean in our favor,” said Avi Lavi, 46, who has lived in Bet El for more than 40 years. “He’ll be fair, as opposed to Obama, whose policy leaned always towards the Arabs.” New U.S. President Trump says his son-in-law Kushner, 36, is capable of brokering the “ultimate deal” to deliver peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Roi Margalit, manager of the Bet El Yeshiva, a seminary complex with around 400 students, said Kushner, an Orthodox Jewish father of three, understood the position of Israeli settlers better than previous envoys. “At least now we have someone who knows us,” the 43-year-old added. “He will now have to study the other side (the Palestinians) and see if there is any common ground.” Trump’s pick for Israeli ambassador has sparked particular enthusiasm in the community: David Friedman, who chairs the American Friends of Bet El Institutions fundraising group. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Kushner and Friedman. Kushner, a businessman who built his career on real estate and publishing, has said little about his views about one of the world’s most intractable conflicts, either during the campaign or since Trump took office. The big question for the Palestinians is whether he can be an impartial actor given his family foundation’s past financial ties to Bet El. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been careful to say he looks forward to working with the Trump administration, but others are less optimistic. Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior official at the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the main Palestinian political umbrella body, said Kushner could not be a neutral envoy if he was supportive of Israeli settlements. Hani al-Masri, a political scientist and director of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies, said Kushner would be a representative of Israel rather than of the United States. “If he attempts to resume negotiations, he will seek to hold them at a lower level than previous negotiations. It will be more biased to the Israeli position in an era where Israel is more extreme.” Palestinians want the West Bank and Gaza Strip for an independent state, with its capital in East Jerusalem. Israel has built about 120 settlements in the West Bank. About 350,000 settlers live there and a further 200,000 in East Jerusalem, among about 2.6 million Palestinians. Most countries consider the settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace as they reduce and fragment the territory Palestinians need for a viable state. Israel disagrees, citing biblical, historical and political connections to the land and security interests. Bet El, a community of 1,300 families perched on a hillside where many believe God promised Jacob the land, has been financed in part by donations from American backers. Among its donors have been the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which gave $10,000 in 2003, and the foundation of Charles and Seryl Kushner, the parents of Jared, which gave $38,000 in 2013, U.S. tax records show. The New York-based American Friends of Bet El Institutions hosts dinners to raise funds for the settlement, which overlooks the Palestinian city Ramallah. Kushner has left it up to his father-in-law to comment on what role he might play. “Jared is such a good kid and he’ll make a deal with Israel that no one else can,” Trump told The Times of London newspaper last month. “He’s a natural dealmaker - everyone likes him.” Middle East analysts say the settlement donations by Kushner’s family foundation are not necessarily deal-breakers. After decades of failed negotiations, the real test is whether he is prepared to rethink the way the Middle East peace process is conducted, said Hugh Lovatt, a fellow of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “If he reverts to pushing for a process for the sake of process and diplomatic prestige, then he will prove no more successful than his predecessors,” Lovatt told Reuters. “If he acquiesces to Israeli territorial demands and gives a green light to more settlement activity, he could even do irreparable damage to the prospects of long-term peace.” A key diplomatic factor will be whether the Trump administration commits itself to a two-state solution - Israel and an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side. This remains firmly the goal for the Palestinians and, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israelis. But some of Kushner’s supporters in Bet El appear to be heading in a different direction - and the political voice of hardliners could prove a significant obstacle should peace talks resume. “The two-state solution is a scam,” said Shai Alon, the head of the local council, who describes himself as optimistic about the “Trump era”. “It’s not going to happen.” | 1 |
Baffling the worst terrorist attack in history and you d think American college students would have a clue about why we were attacked. | 0 |
We are supposed to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but instead we have a government of the elite, by the elite and for the elite. Most people do not realize this, but today most members of Congress are actually millionaires. The disconnect between members of Congress and average Americans has never been greater than it is right now, and I think that is a very troubling sign for the future of this nation.Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) are pushing for an amendment to the Constitution to place term limits on lawmakers, arguing the move will help overhaul Washington. The American people resoundingly agreed on Election Day, and President-elect Donald Trump has committed to putting government back to work for the American people, Cruz said in a statement on Tuesday. It is well past time to put an end to the cronyism and deceit that has transformed Washington into a graveyard of good intentions. Under an amendment the two GOP lawmakers filed on Tuesday, House members would be allowed to serve three two-year terms and senators would be able to serve two six-year terms. The HillJohn Conyers Jr., Mich. Jan. 4, 1965 Charles B. Rangel, N.Y. Jan. 21, 1971 Steny H. Hoyer, Md. May 19, 1981 Marcy Kaptur, Ohio Jan. 3, 1983 Sander M. Levin, Mich. Jan. 3, 1983 Peter J. Visclosky, Ind. Jan. 3, 1985 Peter A. DeFazio, Ore. Jan. 6, 1987 John Lewis, Ga. Jan. 6, 1987 Louise M. Slaughter, N.Y. Jan. 6, 1987 Nancy Pelosi, Calif. June 2, 1987 Frank Pallone Jr., N.J. Nov. 8, 1988 Eliot L. Engel, N.Y. Jan. 3, 1989 Nita M. Lowey, N.Y. Jan. 3, 1989 Richard E. Neal, Mass. Jan. 3, 1989 Jos E. Serrano, N.Y. March 20, 1990 David E. Price, N.C. Jan. 7, 1997 Also served 1987-95 Rosa DeLauro, Conn. Jan. 3, 1991 Collin C. Peterson, Minn. Jan. 3, 1991 Maxine Waters, Calif. Jan. 3, 1991 Jerrold Nadler, N.Y. Nov. 3, 1992 Jim Cooper, Tenn. Jan. 7, 2003 Also served 1983-95 Xavier Becerra, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993 Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Ga. Jan. 5, 1993 Corrine Brown, Fla. Jan. 5, 1993 James E. Clyburn, S.C. Jan. 5, 1993 Anna G. Eshoo, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993 Gene Green, Texas Jan. 5, 1993 Luis V. Gutierrez, Ill. Jan. 5, 1993 Alcee L. Hastings, Fla. Jan. 5, 1993 Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas Jan. 5, 1993 Carolyn B. Maloney, N.Y. Jan. 5, 1993 Lucille Roybal-Allard, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993 Bobby L. Rush, Ill. Jan. 5, 1993 Robert C. Scott, Va. Jan. 5, 1993 Nydia M. Vel zquez, N.Y. Jan. 5, 1993 Bennie Thompson, Miss. April 13, 1993 Sam Farr, Calif. June 8, 1993 Lloyd Doggett, Texas Jan. 4, 1995 Mike Doyle, Pa. Jan. 4, 1995 Chaka Fattah, Pa. Jan. 4, 1995 Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Jan. 4, 1995 Zoe Lofgren, Calif. Jan. 4, 1995 As you looked over those lists, you probably noticed that they contain many of the members of Congress that Americans complain about the most.Unfortunately, because the vast majority of these individuals come from states or congressional districts that are basically a lock to vote a certain way, there is very little hope of ever removing them. That means that most of these Congress critters are going to get to keep coming back for as long as they want.No matter which political party you prefer, this should greatly disturb you.Our founders certainly never intended for a permanent class of elitists to rule over us.But that is what we have. Zero Hedge | 1 |
Faced with a growing uproar over the United Nations’ handling of allegations of child sexual abuse by non-U.N. peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has suddenly scrambled to announce an “external, independent review” panel to examine that issue, along with “a broad range of systemic issues related to how the U.N. responds to serious information of this kind.”
Ban, who declared himself “deeply disturbed” by the situation, said on Wednesday his intent was “to ensure that the United Nations does not fail the victims of sexual abuse, especially when committed by those who are meant to protect them.”
In fact, Fox News has learned, Ban’s action was also urged on him two days earlier by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, as U.N. member states dickered in committee over a resolution that criticized Ban for the “perceived lack of timely information” he had provided on the abuse issue and the “lack of protection of whistleblower” associated with the CAR incidents.
At the time of Ban’s announcement, U.S. and European diplomats were still offering up alternative wordings in committee to temper the harsher language.
Ban’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told Fox News that “the need to set up such a review has been in discussion for a long time,” but the specific terms of reference of the inquiry and its membership were not revealed in Ban’s announcement, though he did specify it would look into “the treatment of the specific report of abuse in the Central African Republic.”
According to Dujarric, both the terms of reference and the membership of the probe will be revealed “as soon as possible” –a fairly clear indication that Ban’s sparse announcement was intended more as an initial fire-fighting gesture than a fully-planned response to the sex-abuse crisis.
Another way to look at it is that the U.N.’s top bureaucrat was trying to keep the explosive sex abuse issue from spinning further out of control, amid a gout of document leaks, finger-pointing and U.N. investigations criticized as focused on hushing up leakers than on protecting additional young and starving children in the war-torn CAR from rape, sodomy and other predatory offenses.
Moreover, the CAR controversy is only the latest crest in a swelling critique of the U.N.’s ability to protect the innocent from sex abuse where its blue-and-white flag is flying—a critique that includes a long-suppressed report of U.N.-appointed experts who have decried a “culture of impunity” in U.N. peacekeeping missions when it comes to such crimes.
The latest controversy has been further fueled by U.N. document leaks that raised the possibility of retaliatory collusion by the organization’s independent Ethics Officer; the head of its main independent internal watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS); the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Ban’s top deputy against Anders Kompass, a senior U.N. human rights official who first brought the Central African Republic scandal into the daylight.
That interpretation was strenuously denied by one senior U.N. official, who requested anonymity, while for her part, the U.N. Ethics Officer, Joan Dubinsky, declined comment saying “I don’t believe it is appropriate to comment on leaked documents.”
U.N. spokesman Dujarric told Fox News that an investigation of Kompass by OIOS for “possible staff misconduct,” initiated in March, would nonetheless continue in parallel with the still-unformed inquiry panel. “Any relevant information of a broad systemic nature that will come out of that investigation will be considered by the review,” he declared.
Kompass has already been asked to resign at the behest of the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. He refused.
Kompass was then briefly suspended from his work—until a U.N. tribunal reversed the action-- in conjunction with his investigation by OIOS for passing on transcripts by U.N.-collected testimony from children who described their sexual abuse and exploitation by French and African peacekeepers in the chaos-shattered CAR in 2013 and 2014. The children were aged from 9 to 13.
The troops were from a multinational contingent that preceded the current U.N. peacekeeping mission in CAR—the U.N. forces took over in September 2015-- but were operating with U.N. Security Council approval.
Kompass got the U.N. report on the childrens’ testimony on July 15, 2014. He told a French diplomat about it roughly a week later, and in a written declaration has said he told his immediate superior in the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) about his disclosure “shortly thereafter.”
Kompass has subsequently made no secret of the fact that he passed on the raw testimony to French military authorities by the end of that month, bypassing his own superiors, who said they discovered the action when French investigators approached the U.N. It was more than eight months later that he was asked to resign.
In a wave of claims and counter-claims, U.N. and French officials have each blamed the other for delays in investigating the allegations, but while the U.N. has claimed that it has cooperated fully, its interviewers only answered written questions from the French military probers.
The investigative waters were roiled even further with the publication of internal emails and documents that showed top U.N. officials, including Ethics Office head Dubinsky, along with OIOS head Carman LaPointe, Zaid, and Ban’s chef de cabinet, Susana Malcorra, grappling with how to cope with the Kompass actions.
The documents were published by a non-government organization named AIDS-Free World, as part of a campaign called Code Blue. The campaign calls for an “entirely independent, external Commission of Inquiry, with full access to the U.N. as well as subpoena power, to examine every facet of sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping operations” and an automatic end to diplomatic immunity for any U.N. official or peacekeeper accused of such abuse.
Among the documents were emails that summarized a meeting among the officials on the periphery of a March 19-20 Ban Ki-moon retreat in Turin, Italy, where they agreed to ask Kompass to “document the sequence of events that he believed supported” a claim to whistleblower status—a designation that ultimately is made by the Ethics Officer, independently of other U.N. branches.
Other emails document a dispute within OIOS over who would authorize Kompass’ investigation—a responsibility claimed by Lapointe personally.
The documents also underline a profound confusion among the officials about what they were even supposed to be discussing—for much of the conversation at least some of them believed they were discussing malfeasance in Mali.
CLICK HERE FOR THE CODE BLUE DOCUMENTS.
According to a senior U.N. official, the internal discussions about Kompass and his case were no more than a routine sorting-out of the responsibilities involved in dealing with an employee who had already admitted his actions while simultaneously claiming protected whistleblower status for them.
In the U.N.’s case, establishing that status often involves notification of the established chain of command of perceived wrongdoing before going elsewhere with the information, which Kompass did not do.
At the same time, the official noted, OIOS’ investigations division is a “mess” that is rife with dissention and back-biting, which made its proper functioning nearly impossible.
For critics, however, the same documentation is proof that the ostensible independence of OIOS and the U.N. Ethics Office in investigating wrong-doing and protecting whistle-blowers is only a sham.
“The Code Blue documents show that Malcorra and others at the most senior levels of the UN were entirely indifferent to the welfare of little boys as young as nine years old being subjected to the most egregious sexual abuse,” argues Peter Gallo, a former OIOS investigator who left the organization in March.
“The very essence of whistleblower protection is to protect staff members from retaliatory actions by management, but in the UN, it is now clear that the Ethics Office and management are on the same side.”
“There should be a solid wall between these people,” Paula Donovan, co-founder of AIDS-Free World, told Fox News. “The regulations are very clear. They are supposed to be impartial.” And when they were joined by Zaid—Kompass’ boss—and his deputy “that was completely against the rules.”
Instead, she argued, the evidence points to the conclusion that they were “investigating the best way” to get rid of him.
The propriety of the meetings and emails concerning Kompass was also criticized by Robert Appleton, the former head of investigations for the U.N. Procurement Task Force, a special anti-corruption unit within OIOS that existed between 2006 and 2009.
The communications are “deeply troubling,” Appleton, a highly-regarded former U.S. prosecutor, told Fox News. “Their priorities appear to be quite skewed.”
Among other things, he said, during his tenure at OIOS, “we did not coordinate with the Ethics Office - -other than to recommend that they pursue whistleblower retaliation claims.”
In addition, “OIOS is independent for a reason,” Appleton asserted, “in part so that the process not only is, but appears to be, fair, objective and free of bias and influence.
“Investigations are conducted in confidence so as not to prejudice the process , prejudice the subject, or the outcome, and so as not to create a conflict with the administration that potentially needs to carry on with disciplinary processes following the investigation.”
The same questions of confidence are going to surround Secretary-General Ban’s newly announced “external independent review.”
A spokesman for the Code Blue campaigners, for example, “welcomed” the announcement and then added provisos, starting with “No member of existing U.N. staff should be appointed to investigate nor to act as the investigators’ secretariat,” and the notion that the broader the inquiry, the better.
To be credible, the spokesman added, the inquiry should include an examination of “top members of the Secretary-General’s own staff,” singling out by title Dubinsky, LaPointe and Malcorra.
But there should also be plenty of other grist for the panelists’ work, including a report that OIOS itself has promised to make public by mid-June, entitled an “Evaluation of protection against sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping operations.”
Based on recent U.N. experience, the news it brings is unlikely to be good.
George Russell is editor-at-large of Fox News and can be found on Twitter: @GeorgeRussell or on Facebook.com/George Russell | 0 |
NBA legend and Georgia sheriff’s deputy Shaquille O’Neal told TMZ Sports that the missing Tom Brady Super Bowl LI jersey is an “inside job. ” “It’s an inside job,” Shaq said. “First, I’m checking the ball boys then I’m checking his teammates, the ones that don’t really play a lot … Somebody knows something. ” Brady’s jersey went missing after Sunday’s game, and he has asked for help finding the piece of memorabilia for his collection. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0 |
Yemen This photo provided by the media bureau of the operations command in Yemen shows a Borkan-1 (Volcano-1) missile.
Yemeni army forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees have reportedly launched a locally designed and manufactured ballistic missile towards an area deep inside Saudi Arabia in response to the Riyadh regime’s atrocious aerial bombardments against the crisis-hit Arab country.
Yemeni soldiers and their allies fired a Borkan-1 (Volcano-1) missile towards King Abdulaziz International Airport, located 19 kilometers north of the western Saudi port city of Jeddah, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.
A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, later told the official Saba news agency that the 12.5-meter-long missile had targeted its target accurately and left massive destruction at the airport.
Saudi media outlets, however, reported that the kingdom’s missile systems intercepted and destroyed the solid propellant and Scud-type missile before it could cause any damage.
They said the projectile was launched at 9 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) on Thursday from Yemen’s mountainous northwestern area of Sa’ada.
Also on Thursday, the media bureau of the operations command in Yemen said army soldiers had targeted a gathering of militiamen loyal to resigned president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the Aqaba district of the northern province of Jawf, leaving scores of the Saudi-backed armed men dead. Fire rages after a gathering of militiamen loyal to resigned president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi is targeted by Yemeni army forces in the Aqaba district of the northern province of Jawf, Yemen, on October 27, 2016.
An armored vehicle and battle tank belonging to the mercenaries were also destroyed in the attack.
Separately, a number of Saudi soldiers were killed and injured when Yemeni forces and Popular Committees fighters struck al-Kars base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border region of Jizan.
Saudi Arabia has been engaged in the deadly campaign against Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to bring back the former Yemeni government to power and undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The United Nations puts the death toll from the military aggression at about 10,000. Loading ... | 1 |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s foreign minister said on Thursday that the Lebanese people choose whether to remove their representatives, after the prime minister quit in a weekend broadcast from Saudi Arabia. We are the ones who decided who represents us, and we are the ones who decide to remove them or not, Gebran Bassil said in a tweet. Lebanon believes Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri is being held by Riyadh and plans to work with foreign states to secure his return, a top Lebanese government official said earlier. | 1 |
Republicans' growing unity behind their presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has helped pull him just 1 percentage point behind Hillary Clinton and has placed GOP leaders who resist him in a vulnerable position, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll.
A majority of all likely voters say they are unmoved by the FBI's announcement Friday that it may review additional emails from Clinton's time as secretary of state. Just more than 6 in 10 voters say the news will make no difference in their vote, while just more than 3 in 10 say it makes them less likely to support her; 2 percent say they are more likely to back her as a result.
The issue may do more to reinforce preferences of voters opposed to Clinton than swing undecided voters. Roughly two-thirds of those who say the issue makes them less likely to support Clinton are Republicans or Republican-leaning independents (68 percent), while 17 percent lean Democratic and 9 percent are independents who lean toward neither party.
When asked about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan's decision not to campaign for Trump in the final weeks before the election, two-thirds of Republican-leaning likely voters disapprove of the Wisconsin Republican's move (66 percent), including nearly half who disapprove “strongly” (48 percent). Barely 1 in 5 approve of Ryan's decision (21 percent).
The Post-ABC Tracking Poll continues to find a very tight race, with Clinton at 46 percent and Trump at 45 percent among likely voters in interviews from Tuesday through Friday. The two major-party nominees for president are followed by Libertarian Gary Johnson, at 4 percent, and the Green Party's Jill Stein, at 2 percent. The result is similar to a 47-to-45 Clinton-Trump margin in the previous wave released Saturday, though it is smaller than what was found in other surveys this week. When likely voters are asked to choose between Clinton and Trump alone, Clinton stands at 49 percent, and Trump is at 46 percent, a statistically insignificant margin.
Greater Republican unity has buoyed Trump's rising support, which has wavered throughout the year. Trump's 87 percent support among self-identified Republicans, ticking up from 83 percent last week, nearly matches Clinton's 88 percent support among Democrats. Independents also have moved sharply in Trump's direction, from favoring Clinton by eight points one week ago to backing Trump by 19 points.
Clinton maintains clear edge on qualifications, but not on empathy
Clinton is still widely seen as more qualified for the presidency, leading that measure by an 18-point margin, 54 to 36 percent. She has held a clear advantage over Trump in qualifications throughout the campaign.
But Trump receives more unified backing among those who see him as better qualified. Fully 99 percent of this group supports him, compared with Clinton's 84 percent support among those who see her as better qualified. Seven percent of this group supports Trump, while 4 percent are for Johnson and 2 percent are for Stein.
Clinton also lost a once-large advantage on empathy, a trait on which voters now split 46 percent for her and 43 percent for Trump when asked which candidate understands the problems of people like them. Clinton had led Trump by an eight-point margin on this measure in early September among likely voters and by a 20-point margin among all adults in August.
Clinton has a narrow eight-point edge over Trump on which candidate has stronger moral character, 46 to 38 percent. A sizable 13 percent said that neither candidate possesses this trait. A larger share of Trump supporters than Clinton supporters say that neither candidate has strong moral character (12 percent vs. 2 percent).
Ryan's decision not to campaign for Trump this fall has proved unpopular among his fellow partisans. This comes as Ryan's status as House speaker is in peril because of Republican infighting.
Rejection of Ryan's stance swells to 75 percent among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents who identify as “very conservative” compared with smaller majorities of “somewhat conservative” Republicans (63 percent) and those who are moderate or liberal (56 percent).
Ryan's stand against Trump is being handled differently by several other prominent Republicans. For one, Rep. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has said that even though he could not endorse Trump or his actions, he still plans to vote for the Republican nominee.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a popular Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, has spoken out against Trump, a move that was widely popular with independents and Democrats in the state, but Republicans were split on whether they approved of the decision.
This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone Oct. 25 to 28 among a random national sample of 1,781 adults, including landline and cellphone respondents. Overall results have a margin-of-sampling error of plus-or-minus-2.5 points; the error margin is plus-or-minus-three points among the sample of 1,160 likely voters. Sampling, data collection and tabulation are by Abt-SRBI of New York. | 0 |
What a great photo of President Trump joined by the President of Egypt and Saudi King Salman to inaugurate The Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology.Essentially the center appears to be a Saudi data hub for monitoring multiple media and social media platforms, detecting extremist sentiments and countering the concerning rhetoric with positive social media messaging. In the U.S. we have the NSA cyber command monitoring system. Hoping this will help in the war on ISIS and other terrorists. We ll see | 0 |
For years, Fox News hosts have been spewing racist remarks without consequences but apparently, when the racism is directed against their own African-American employees, the conservative network draws a line.Fox has reportedly fired longtime comptroller Judy Slater for making racist comments to black employees after her behavior was brought to the attention of her bosses.According to The Wrap,Slater, who is white and has worked at Fox for 19 years, was accused of asking one African-American employee if all three of her children were fathered by the same man, according to an individual familiar with the matter. She also referred to African American women as sista and stereotyped African-American employees speech, openly complaining that they mispronounced words, the individual said.In a statement, Fox News condemned Slater s abhorrent behavior and claimed that such behavior is not tolerated by the network. We take any complaint of this nature very seriously and took the appropriate action in investigating and firing Ms. Slater within two weeks of this being brought to our attention. There is no place for abhorrent behavior like this at Fox News. Of course, if Fox News really takes racism seriously, they would oust personalities like Sean Hannity and Bill O Reilly, who have also made racist remarks over the years.Just last October, Hannity literally offered to send President Obama and his family back to Africa even though President Obama and his family are natural-born citizens of the United States.Nobody would have ever said this to any of our presidents who served before Obama, but Hannity did and he should have been fired on the spot.That same month, Bill O Reilly gave the green light to a segment featuring Jesse Watters mocking Asian-Americans. The segment drew instant outrage and condemnation from multiple Asian-American organizations. However, O Reilly is still on the air and Watters was promoted.O Reilly and Watters have often teamed up to reach new heights of racism, including a segment in 2015 aimed at shaming homeless black people.Fox host Jeanine Pirro should also be fired for taking racism and hate to a new level. Not only did she blame Michelle Obama for all the bad things that have happened in the world in a highly disrespectful rant, she told a black Hamilton actor to shut up and stick to hip-hop.So while it s good to see Fox News punishing racists in their ranks, they need to start cleaning house by firing the hosts who spew racism on the air. If Fox News truly takes racism seriously, that s what they need to do. | 0 |
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and France will ask the European Union to consult about the possibility of imposing heavier sanctions on North Korea after its latest nuclear test, Germany s government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday. It is exclusively North Korea, its leadership, and President Kim who are responsible for this provocation, Seibert told a news conference, adding Pyongyang s ambassador would again be summoned to the Foreign Ministry. North Korea is treading all over international law. Berlin was in favor of a diplomatic, peaceful solution to the crisis, he said, adding this required a coordinated response from the entire world - Not just the western world, but Russia and China too. | 0 |
Donald Trump announced he will be running for President as a Republican in 2016. Here s what he had to say about our military and Iran: Nobody would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump nobody. Within our military, I will find the General Patton or I will find General MacArthur. I will find the right guy. I will find the guy who will take that military and make it really work. Nobody nobody will be pushing us around. I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. And we won t be using a man like Secretary Kerry that has no concept of negotiation. Video h/t: Gateway PunditHis announcement can be seen here:Donald on TPA and why Obama is a bad negotiator:Donald on his net worth: | 0 |
Trump’s grandfather was a pimp and tax evader; his father a member of the KKK As they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree; Donald Trump's racism can easily be traced through his lineage. American Herald Tribune Trump’s grandfather was a pimp and tax evader; his father a member of the KKK
Most families of enormous wealth have a dark and sometimes scandalous, even monstrous past. Donald Trump’s clan is no exception to that rule. His grandfather was a pimp and a tax evader, his father a racist who would in the course of his life, clash with New York City Police as a member of the Ku Klux Klan and then as a wealthy real estate magnate, refuse to rent to people of color.
Donald Trump’s legacy is anything but a rags to riches story. His dad kicked the bucket with $250-$300 million in the bank. The man who wants to ban all people of a particular religion from travel, wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, his was white gold. The only thing more obnoxious than Donald Trump himself, is his family’s money grubbing, bigoted history. The Trumps: Three generations of criminals
Trump’s Grandfather: Pimp and Tax Evader
Donald Trump’s grandfather, Frederick or Frederich Trump, made his money from operating a decadent restaurant and hotel during the Gold Rush at Klondike in the Yukon.
That’s a nice way of saying it.
“Trump made his first fortune operating boom-town hotels, restaurants and brothels”, is more accurate, according to the CBC news report, “Donald says”. Author Gwenda Blair simply wrote, “”The sex.”
Trump’s grandfather was born in Germany, to parents who were employed by a vineyard. He moved to New York City in 1885 where he became a barber. After six years of this, Frederick Trump moved across the United States to Seattle, Washington, where he owned and operated what he referred to as a “decadent restaurant” that was actually called “Poodle Dog” in Seattle’s red light district. Interestingly, the name and concept that had already been established in San Francisco. (He named his restaurant after a dog but would later make money selling horse meat) Around this time Frederick Trump became a US citizen.
A Yukon Sun Newspaper writer described his business: “For single men the Arctic has excellent accommodations as well as the best restaurant in Bennett, but I – sex”.
Trump moved to Monte Cristo, Wash. in 1894, and then four years later, shortly after the Klondike gold rush began, he relocated again to Bennett, British Columbia. Here he ran the “Actic Restaurant and Hotel”. He would next build the “White Horse restaurant and Inn” in Whitehorse, Yukon.
An article published this year by Politico, explains that Frederick Trump sold off his investments and returned to Germany in 1901, as he sensed the end of the gold rush and a subsequent end to prostitution. The following year, he married his former neighbor, Elizabeth Christ in his native German town of Kallstadt. Then he came under heavy scrutiny by the German government,
The country had compulsory military service for men which had to be fulfilled by the age of 35. Donald Trump’s grandfather waited until he was 35 to go back to Germany. He had already amassed great wealth worth well more than half a million US dollars, or 80,000 marks. While his town council was eager to keep Trump and his money, who billed himself as a man who “avoided bars” and led “a quiet life”, other German authorities had a different plan, the Politico article explains. In their view, Trump had relocated to Germany in order to avoid both tax and military-service obligations.
“…the regional authorities refused to let Trump off the hook. Unlike his grandson, who would become too big to fail in business and, more recently, to ignore in politics, Friedrich Trump was not big enough to get away with being a draft-dodger. He and his wife, then pregnant with Fred, Donald’s father, would not be allowed to resume their German citizenship and it would not be extended to their daughter; instead, they were deported—the same fate that Donald would like to impose on undocumented immigrants in the U.S. today.”
The fact that Donald Trump has done so well in the Republican polls is quite amazing, as the party that we think of as conservative, would be expected to shun a man who created exploitative beauty pageants and was born rich strictly because of the nefarious activities of his ancestors.
Trump’s Father: a Lifetime of Racist Practices
Donald Trump has often said he made his money “the old-fashioned way,” and this is true, in that he prospered from racism.
A New York Times article published 01 June 1927, related Donald Trump’s father Fred Trump’s role in a Ku Klux Klan brawl that pitted 1,000 klansmen against 100 New York City Police in Queens. Though he wasn’t officially charged, Fred Trump was one of seven klansmen arrested during the incident. It probably wasn’t very shocking at the time as America’s racist practices were in full swing generations after Abe Lincoln freed the country’s African-American slaves. In fact the mid-20’s saw a peak in KKK activity. Donald Trump would later deny his father’s involvement in the KKK brawl in spite of the fact that it happened two decades before he was born. Fred Trump’s enthusiasm for racist practices never changed until he was forced to do so by the law.
Presidential Candidate Donald Trump joined his father’s real estate company in New York in 1971, and only two years later, the company was served with a civil rights lawsuit that was filed against the Trump organization because it refused to rent to Black people. The Urban League got wind of the racist rental policy and actually sent both Black and White people in to apply for apartments that belonged to complexes owned by the Trumps. What they proved, was that Black people were denied rentals across the board, and only Whites were approved. A Village Voice article by Wayne Barrett, published in 1979, blew the lid off the Trump organization’s brewing pot of racist practices.
“Three doormen were told to discourage blacks who came seeking apartments when the manager was out, either by claiming no vacancies or hiking up the rents. A super said he was instructed to send black applicants to the central office but to accept white applications on site. Another rental agent said that Fred Trump had instructed him not to rent to blacks. Further, the agent said Trump wanted ‘to decrease the number of black tenants’ already in the development ‘by encouraging them to locate housing elsewhere.'”
The article explains that Trump’s reaction was to claim that the suit was a, “nationwide drive to force owners of moderate and luxury apartments to rent to welfare recipients.”
“‘We are not going to be forced by anyone to put people…in our buildings to the detriment of tenants who have, for many years, lived in these buildings, raised families in them, and who plan to continue to live there. That would be reverse discrimination,’ he said. ‘The government is not going to experiment with our buildings to the detriment of ourselves and the thousands who live in them now.'”
Indeed, Trump’s wild, largely uninformed and unintelligent rants are the legacy of men who walked over the backs of other Americans to gain and secure their wealth. This may be symbolic to the American capitalist way, but it falls short of any form of greatness or real human success. As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Related Posts: | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Expanded negotiations against North Korea announced on Thursday would “be very” good if they succeed in cutting off imported goods, and showed lessening support from China toward Pyongyang, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC in an interview on Friday. “I think that move by the Chinese central bank was important... From the physical point of view of limiting the trade ... But even more importantly, it sent a very powerful message to North Korea that China is not being as supportive of them as it had been,” said Ross, who is scheduled to visit Beijing this weekend. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that he might consider withholding billions of dollars of Obamacare payments to health insurers to force Democrats back to the negotiating table on healthcare. Insurers and major medical groups have warned that not funding the payments, called cost-sharing reduction subsidies, which help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income Americans, could wreak havoc in the individual insurance markets. Trump told The Wall Street Journal that by withholding the payments, Democrats will call him to negotiate. Major medical and insurance groups penned a letter to Trump on Wednesday urging him to maintain funding for the subsidies, which amount to about $7 billion a year and are paid directly to insurers. They help cover premiums, deductibles and other medical expenses for about 7 million people who purchase health insurance on the individual health insurance market. House of Representatives Republicans sued the Obama administration for funding the subsidies, which they argue have to be appropriated by Congress. A federal judge in May 2016 ruled in favor of the Republicans, prompting an appeal by the Obama administration. The case is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Major insurers, including Humana Inc and Aetna, have left or announced their intention to leave the Obamacare exchanges, citing multi-million-dollar losses and patient populations that are far costlier and sicker than they expected. They warned that withholding the subsidies would destabilize the market further and leave millions of consumers with little or no choice in picking a health insurance plan. | 0 |
It’s interesting how that’s unfolding. None of the governors are panning out. Texas Governor Rick Perry, whose record running one of the biggest state’s successfully on a Republican platform was no help, dropped out first; followed by the union slaying Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Both had been highly touted as excellent presidential material based on their records. None of the current and former governors, from Bush to Kasich, Christie, Huckabee, Jindal and Pataki, have caught fire either. Between them, they have decades of executive experience and yet they can’t get any momentum. This flies in the face of everything we’ve ever heard about the Republican reverence for state government, for executive experience and the ability to get results from Republican policies.
For a long time it was assumed that Senators were unsuited for the task of the presidency, what with their lack experience “running things.” Not that this stopped them from running for president, but it hadn’t escaped anyone’s notice that until 2008 the last Senator to become president had been elected in 1960. Barack Obama broke that long streak and the Republicans have a handful of Senators to choose from in 2016. Two of the four in the race, Rubio and Cruz, seem to be doing slightly better than the governors, and are at this point seen as “establishment” alternatives, even though neither of them are polling at more than 11 percent. The third, Rand Paul, once touted as the leader of a new libertarian, isolationist Republican Party, has turned out to be irrelevant. The fourth, Senator Lindsay Graham, is a joke.
There you have the vaunted GOP bench — the well-prepared, highly qualified, totally experienced group of veterans, any one of whom the country was supposed to be able to see as president. And Republican primary voters can’t stand any of them. They are, instead, enthralled with two men who have never held public office, and seem not to even understand our system of government or care how it works.
The Hill asked some Republican strategists to explain this phenomenon:
“It’s a different test this time around,” said GOP strategist David Payne. “Experience, executive experience, these aren’t the tests. It’s about the right ideas and the right temperament and coming off as tough. You see how important the debates have been. Style and presentation matter more than ever, more even than if you were a great leader in the past.” […] “Republicans this year don’t want managers, they want transformers,” conservative Iowa radio host Steve Deace, a Cruz supporter, told The Hill. “They don’t want reform, they want revolution. They don’t want a better government, they want a new government. The ground has shifted and the grassroots conservatives have taken the establishment’s preeminence away.”
Say what you will about Trump and Carson, they are both entertaining. But it’s the revolutionary aspect of their candidacies that’s interesting.
It’s not exactly a surprise that Republican voters hate government. It’s been their number one organizing principle for years. In fact, the Sainted Ronald Reagan himself was known for his saying “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” And we know they hate liberals. They have spent decades denigrating the philosophy,the ideology and even the word itself. But until now they haven’t hated the Republican Party. And boy do they hate it.
What seems to have happened is that GOP base voters feel betrayed and disillusioned because they voted for a Republican Congress and that Congress has failed to deliver the agenda on which they ran. First of all, they failed to remove President Obama from office, either through impeachment or at the ballot box in 2012. They also failed to repeal Obamacare,”close the borders,” ban abortion, stop gay marriage, or end political correctness, just for starters. Someone forgot to tell Republican voters that there are three branches of government regulated by checks and balances, and other people in their own party, as well as the opposition party, who have different agendas competing with their own. If you listen to right-wing media and follow what’s being said in the conservative bubble, it’s understandable. They were told that they won a huge mandate, and now they quite logically blame the people who have been making promises they don’t keep. When they listen to these professional politicians running for their party’s nomination, they just hear more of the same — and they don’t want to hear it anymore. They want someone who will assure them that this creaky government system with all those checks and balances, and all the resultant gridlock, will not be a hinderance to achievement of their agenda. They are tired of waiting. And right now they have two presidential candidates who are promising a different way of doing things. Donald Trump is running to be a strongman. It’s all about him “getting the job done” because he’s smarter and tougher than everyone else. (This is a familiar archetype and Trump’s specific relationship to it is fascinatingly explored in this piece by Rick Perlstein, called “Donald Trump and the F-word.”) Ben Carson is a little bit more complicated. He’s running as a quasi-religious leader who will be able to overcome all these obstacles through the same miraculous process that has characterized his life story. (The recent questions about some details of that very famous life story have only resulted in adding martyrdom to his mystique.) In both cases, the people who like them are not merely attracted to the fact that these men are outsiders, but also by qualities that will ostensibly allow them to transcend the normal process of democratic government. Despite their professions of love for the constitution, these voters no longer believe in the system of government that constitution sets forth. It’s still possible that these voters are simply “sending a message” to the powers that be, telling them that they are at the ends of their ropes. That’s certainly what the establishment hopes is happening: Republicans like Cullen, who says he cannot support Trump, Carson or Cruz, say it’s still early, and the party will rally behind they types of candidates it’s nominated in the past. “Some of these guys still look like summer love affairs to me, even if we’re well into the fall now,” he said. “I still think voters will want look to take the polished young man home that they can show off to mom and dad.” That courtly tone sounds as out of place in the Trump era as if he were speaking Elizabethan english. These Republican voters have been listening to talk radio and watching Fox news and reading thousands of Tea Party emails for years and they want a man of action. When they talk about revolution it’s not the white wigged American style. They’re thinking of something much more “top-down.” | 0 |
Her name is M.H. Weibe and she s here to rap about how evil trangender people are, and all that crap. This cartoon Christian s mind was spinnin about her need to protect girls and women from predatory men in dresses in the bathroom. Then Jesus gave her an idea, not a good one it s true, but thanks to the Holy Spirit she knew what she had to do. She stood on a stage and dropped her rhymes, and now she will be mocked till the end of time.Yes, this Christian mother decided to get her point across that transgender individuals do not deserve to be treated equally with a shoddy, pathetic, embarrassing-for-her-three-kids rap song she seems to have hastily thrown together after a combination of methamphetamine use and heavy daydrinking. The song, entitled Gender Bender, is a response to Alberta, Canada adopting legislation that would require schools to allow transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender with which they identify.To most, this makes sense: girls use the girls bathroom and boys use the boys bathroom, no matter what they look like on the outside. But Weibe is of the mindset that Mother Nature doesn t f*ck up and put someone in the wrong body sometimes. To combat something she views as unnatural, she has decided to speak out and good god, it is horrendous.Weibe argues that tax dollars hsould not be spent making sure that children of all walks of life are free from discrimination. After all, she points out, it is only a few who would be protected by new guidelines and who wants to worry about the rights of a few people (6 to 13 children by her count) when a minority in her religious circle have a problem with it? This is just a fender bender, all over sex and gender, she sings in the chorus. Can we pick another issue, than to change our bathrooms for a few? Of course, no changes would be made to the bathrooms just to who can enter them without fear. But, of course, she doesn t care about the facts. The yucky transgenders are invading her bathrooms, after all.Weibe argues that the animal kingdom does it right because they keep their gender in the wild, though she offers nothing to explain how this is relevant. She also seems unaware that numerous species in the animal kingdom do, indeed, change their sexes for reasons that would be considered deeply personal in the human world. Mothers and fathers, the back bone of society, why would we change legislation over notoriety, she raps poorly. If we change the legislation, in a generation will result in anger, pain, frustration. Please citizens, she says, let s sieze the day and pray for children, who are apparently harmed by treating those few with dignity.While she disabled comments on her own upload for obvious reasons, someone else was nice enough to preserve this for posterity and mockery and people in the comment rection tore her to shreds:It s pretty clear that people are not fans, and that we will not be seeing her in a Jay-Z video anytime soon.Featured image via screengrab | 1 |
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Earlier this week, someone claiming his name was Jamie Otis vandalized Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame.”
He pretended to be a construction worker, and attacked the terrazzo and cement star early Wednesday morning with a pickaxe and a sledgehammer. Donald Trump's Walk of Fame star destroyed, police investigate https://t.co/xFfCOdz1iZ pic.twitter.com/qJOsbbjTHp — FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) October 27, 2016
While police searched for Otis, who is likely to be charged with a felony, the star was surrounded by caution tape. Police have monitored the scene as well. But for one homeless woman, that wasn't enough ...
The unnamed woman now stands guard at the star, protecting it from further damage and showing her support for Trump through a number of handwritten signs: Very powerful!Homeless Trump Supporter guards Trump's star on Hollywood Blvd... "20 million illegals and Americans sleep on streets" pic.twitter.com/XsDmiMCUNs — America First! (@America_1st_) October 27, 2016
“20 million illegals and Americans sleep on streets in tents.” Homeless woman guards Trump's Hollywood star, surrounded by iPhone &sack of cheap Forever21 clothes, all foreign-made. — Deplorable KYGrifter (@KyGrifter) October 27, 2016
"Did Hillary have sex with that woman senator Weiner's wife.
Can Americans go to Mexico for jobs housing medicine." A homeless person guards Trumps star in Hollywood. Even the homeless love Trump. #AmericaFirst #MAGA pic.twitter.com/s4sJ1rNElO — Deplorable Vet (@KGBVeteran) October 27, 2016
“You racist mother-f**kers vote Trump.” — Apafarkas Agmánd (@ApafarkasAgmand) October 27, 2016
“U mother-f**kers know!!! Take care home first. Vote Trump. F**k Mexico.” — Sunflower Girl (@X5MSport15) October 27, 2016
According to the LAPD, vandal James Otis was arrested on Thursday. ABC News reported that Otis — heir to the Otis Elevator family and grandson of the man who invented Listerine — remains unapologetic for his actions. He gave a brief statement with his attorney present:
"I'm not at all ashamed of what I've done. What Mr. Trump has done is he's derailed the entire election. I got so upset. I got so frustrated and angry and that's why I did this.
I admitted my mistakes. And I'm now dealing with my consequences. Unlike Mr. Trump who has never admitted what he's done."
Otis also claimed that his intent was to auction off the Trump nameplate after he removed it from the sidewalk, giving the proceeds to the women that Trump has allegedly sexually assaulted. However, he was forced to return the nameplate upon his arrest Thursday. | 1 |
PARIS/NANTERRE (Reuters) - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused two banks on Wednesday of launching a banking fatwa to silence her National Front party by closing bank accounts of hers and her party s. The banks said they had acted within regulatory requirements but declined to offer fuller explanations. Le Pen is smarting from defeat in this year s presidential and parliamentary elections, during which she accused French banks of being politically biased for not lending to her campaigns. This is an attempt to suffocate an opposition party, and no democrat should accept that, Le Pen told a news conference, calling on President Emmanuel Macron and other political parties to back her National Front (FN). Le Pen said the FN would file a complaint against Societe Generale and its subsidiary, Credit du Nord. She also plans a complaint against HSBC for closing a personal account of hers. The FN says Societe Generale closed its accounts earlier this month, and when the central bank ordered a subsidiary, Credit du Nord, to manage an account for the party, the bank refused to process cheque and credit card payments. Societe Generale rejected the accusations. Decisions to open or close a bank account depend purely on banking reasons ... without taking into account any political consideration, it said in a statement. It added that Credit du Nord offered an FN representative banking services required by law but gave no more details. HSBC said it complied with all necessary regulations and could not publicly discuss client relationships. In France, banks are allowed to close accounts with advance notice and do not have to say why. Holding an account is a right, however, and a customer can ask the Bank of France to designate a bank that would be forced to open one. But the designated bank can choose to limit the use of the account to basic banking services. The Bank of France would not comment. The FN has long said it struggled with financing. It came under scrutiny for a 9 million-euro loan it got in 2014 from a now-defunct Russian bank. It spent 12.5 million euros ($14.70 million) on the presidential election alone this year. Party supporters have since been asked to lend it money directly. At her news conference, Le Pen asked party supporters to react to the account closures. Hours later, the hashtag JeQuitteLaSG , or I Leave Societe Generale , was the top trending topic on Twitter in France. Government spokesman Christophe Castaner said the FN should be allowed to have a bank account and use it normally. But I do not know why the bank told its client, the National Front, Thank you and goodbye , so I cannot comment on the substance of the case, he told a weekly news conference. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - He is ready for some quiet time, plans to do some writing and intends to give his successor space to govern, at least on most issues. President Barack Obama gave some insight into his vision for life after the White House during a final news conference on Wednesday in which he praised the role of a free press and shared personal reflections on how his daughters had dealt with the results of the 2016 election. Obama and his family will leave for Palm Springs, California, on Friday after the inauguration of Republican Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. “I want to be quiet a little bit and not hear myself talk so darn much,” said Obama, 55, who wants to write a book during his first year out of office and spend time with his family. Obama, a Democrat who made history in 2008 when he was elected America’s first black president, has said repeatedly he appreciated the example set by his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush, who steadfastly refrained from weighing in publicly with his views after leaving the Oval Office. But Obama made clear there were some issues on which he would not hesitate to speak out - issues “where I think our core values may be at stake,” like new obstacles to voting, “institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press” and any push to deport undocumented people who were brought to America as children. In 2012, Obama said his administration would allow people brought to the United States illegally by their parents to remain in the country on temporary authorizations that allow them to attend college and work - one of the executive actions on immigration that Trump has pledged to undo. “The notion that we would just arbitrarily or because of politics punish those kids, when they didn’t do anything wrong themselves, I think would be something that would merit me speaking out,” Obama said. The Obamas will live in Washington, where Sasha, 15, is finishing high school. Malia, 18, has been accepted to Harvard University but is taking a “gap year” break before starting this autumn. The president and his wife, Michelle Obama, campaigned hard for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last year. The first lady, in particular, made an impassioned case for Clinton, her husband’s first secretary of state, after a leaked recording showed Trump talking openly about groping women. Obama said his daughters did not “mope” or feel cynical after the loss. “They were disappointed. They paid attention to what their mom said during the campaign and believed it because it’s consistent with what we’ve tried to teach them in our household,” Obama said. “But what we’ve also tried to teach them is resilience, and we’ve tried to teach them hope, and that the only thing that is the end of the world is the end of the world.” Similarly, Obama has sought to reassure his staff and others about the election results, in keeping with his cool-headed, dispassionate style. “And so this is not just a matter of ‘No Drama Obama,’ this is what I really believe,” Obama said. “But at my core, I think we’re going to be OK.” | 1 |
Trump and his allies expect us to dismiss the 35-page dossier that details Donald Trump and his team s ties to the Russian government, but a lot of crazy stuff keeps happening that makes it impossible.When it was just former MI6 agent and author of the report Christopher Steele, who is in hiding to protect himself from both Trump and Putin s goons, saying that President Asterisk s closet is overflowing with skeletons (and Russian hooker urine) it was one thing, but the existence of audio and even video of Trump engaging in incriminating acts was confirmed by at least four sources, including one in the American intelligence community. Israeli intelligence officials have also been warned about sharing intel with Trump s administration for fear that it will be leaked to Vladimir Putin. And then there s the little matter of what happened to a gentleman who helped Steele compile his incriminating yet not entirely verified report Oleg Erovinkin was a former general in the KGB and the FSB. He is suspected of feeding information to Steele, and he was found dead in his car on Boxing Day. Russian state-run media initially reported that foul play was involved when Erovinkin s body was found in a black Lexus [and] a large-scale investigation has been commenced in the area. Erovinkin s body was sent to the FSB morgue. Since then, the cause of death has been downgraded to heart attack. The Telegraph reports:Erovinkin was a key aide to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now head of Rosneft, the state-owned oil company, who is repeatedly named in the dossier.Erovinkin has been described as a key liaison between Sechin and Russian president Vladimir Putin. Mr Steele writes in an intelligence report dated July 19, 2016, he has a source close to Sechin, who had disclosed alleged links between Mr Trump s supporters and Moscow.The death of Erovinkin has prompted speculation it is linked to Mr Steele s explosive dossier, which was made public earlier this month. Mr Trump has dismissed the dossier as fake news and no evidence has emerged to support its lurid claims.The Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Erovinkin s body was found in a black Lexus [and] a large-scale investigation has been commenced in the area. Erovinkin s body was sent to the FSB morgue .No cause of death has been confirmed and the FSB continues to investigate. Media reports suggested his death was a result of foul play.It was later claimed he died of a heart attack. Christo Grozev, an expert on Russia-related security threats, believes Erovinkin is the key source to whom Mr Steele refers in his dossier. Insiders have described Erovinkin to me alternately as Sechin s treasurer and the go-between between Putin and Sechin . One thing that everyone seems to agree both in public and private sources is that Erovinkin was Sechin s closest associate, Grozev says. I have no doubt that at the time Erovinkin died, Mr Putin had Mr Steele s Trump dossier on his desk. He would arguably have known whether the alleged story is based on fact or fiction. Whichever is true, he would have had a motive to seek and find the mole, he adds. He would have had to conclude that Erovinkin was at least a person of interest. At this point, it will be difficult for our own intelligence agencies to get to the bottom of this situation. Recently, for example, Trump decided to retain James Comey yes, the guy who interfered in the election on his behalf as the head of the FBI. The Donald also has the power to fire Comey if the ongoing investigation is not positive for Trump. At around the same time as the announcement, the Bureau cleared Michael Flynn of any wrongdoing in his numerous, suspicious calls to the Russian ambassador.Our country is in a bad place and we need more information to correctly determine what is going on with any of this information the current administration and his despotic allies will go to any lengths to hide.Was Erovinkin murdered because of his knowledge of information that could greatly hurt Trump and his BFF Putin? Maybe, maybe not. Putin is exactly the sort of person who has been known to leave a trail of dead journalists in his wake for reporting too much. It s not outside the realm of possibility that he had a former KGB agent murdered for knowing too much.Featured image via Getty Images (Drew Angerer)/Twitter | 1 |
ALBANY, N.Y. (Reuters) - A New York appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a suit seeking to remove Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz from the state’s primary ballot because of his Canadian birth. The New York Appellate Division agreed with the lower court ruling that the suit should be thrown out because it missed the deadline for filing an objection to Cruz’s appearance on the April 19 ballot. Lawyers for Cruz successfully argued that the objectors had filed their petition nearly three weeks late. The appeals judges said they would not address the merits of the case, saying they were “academic.” Roger Bernstein, a lawyer for the petitioners, said his clients intend to appeal the decision. New York residents Barry Korman, 81, of Manhattan, and William Gallo, 85, of Manhasset, had filed the suit, arguing that because Cruz was born in Canada, he is not a “naturally born” citizen as the Constitution dictates for a U.S. president. Cruz has defended himself against similar claims in multiple states, saying he was a U.S. natural born citizen at birth because of his mother’s U.S. citizenship at the time. Cruz was born in 1970 in Calgary, Alberta. | 0 |
— Kombiz Lavasany (@kombiz) October 29, 2016
Here’s Star Wars actor Mark Hamill with some advice for scared Democrats over the news that the FBI is still investigating Hillary Clinton: Don't panic- VOTE! https://t.co/GtvOHEqgut
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) October 28, 2016
Yeah, like we’ll fall for a Jedi mind trick with 10 days to go. Hokey religions and ancient candidates are no match for the FBI (hopefully). Trending | 1 |
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