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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump asked him to drop an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn as part of a probe into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. In written testimony released the day before he appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey said Trump told him at a meeting in the White House in February: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.” The testimony puts more pressure on Trump, a Republican, whose presidency has been overshadowed by allegations that Moscow helped him win last year’s election. Some legal experts said Comey’s testimony could strengthen any impeachment case built on obstruction of justice, but U.S. markets shrugged off the news from the testimony for lack of any major disclosures. To build a criminal obstruction of justice case, federal law requires prosecutors to show that a person acted with “corrupt” intent. It does not matter whether the person succeeds in impeding an investigation. While a sitting president is very unlikely to face criminal prosecution, obstruction of justice could form the basis for impeachment. Comey said he had told Trump on three occasions he was not being investigated, confirming an earlier account from the president. Trump, who spent part of Wednesday in Ohio talking about the need to fix the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, ignored reporters’ shouted questions about Comey. On returning to the Oval Office, Trump went into a meeting with top advisers, including chief of staff Reince Priebus. Later, his outside counsel released a statement saying Trump felt “completely and totally vindicated” by Comey’s account. “The president is pleased that Mr. Comey has finally publicly confirmed his private reports that the president was not under investigation in any Russian probe,” Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s attorney, said in a statement. Several congressional committees, as well as the FBI and a special counsel, are investigating whether Russia tried to tilt last November’s election in Trump’s favor, using means such as hacking into the emails of senior Democrats. Trump and the Kremlin have separately denied any collusion. Trump abruptly fired Comey, who was leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe, on May 9. Comey painted a vivid picture for senators of awkward encounters with Trump in seven pages of testimony. Comey described a private dinner in the Green Room of the White House on Jan. 26, where Trump asked him whether he wanted to stay on as FBI director, telling him: “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” “I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence,” Comey said in his testimony, explaining he became concerned that Trump was trying to create “some sort of patronage relationship.” On Feb. 14, after an Oval Office briefing on counterterrorism, Trump asked Comey to stay behind, dismissing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who lingered, and waving off Priebus, who peeked through the door. “When the door by the grandfather clock closed, and we were alone, the president began by saying, ‘I want to talk about Mike Flynn,’” Comey said in his testimony. Trump had fired Flynn the previous day in a controversy over contacts between the retired general and the Russian ambassador to the United States. The FBI has been investigating Flynn as it looks into allegations of links between Russia and the Trump campaign. Comey quoted Trump as telling him: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” On March 30, Trump phoned Comey and asked what “we could do to lift the cloud” of the FBI’s Russia investigation. “He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia,” said Comey, who had briefed Trump on “salacious material” that had arisen in a counter-intelligence investigation. Michael Cohen, a lawyer for Trump, said in a statement that the uncorroborated dossier of compromising material that Russian operatives allegedly collected on Trump has been “debunked.” “Comey’s statement released today needs to be carefully scrutinized as his testimony claims the president was concerned about the dossier,” said Cohen. Cohen, along with Flynn, has been subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee, which is also conducting a Russia probe. Some legal experts said Comey’s written statement could be used to show that Trump engaged in obstruction of justice. “It shows the president was doing everything he could to shut down the Flynn investigation,” said Andrew Wright, a professor of criminal law at Savannah Law School. Bruce Green, a professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, said it would be difficult, however, to show that Trump intended to obstruct justice. Trump could say he was merely vouching for Flynn’s character and voicing concerns about how the probe was interfering with his ability to function effectively as president, Green said. Democrats jumped on the testimony, expressing concern that Trump had inappropriately meddled with the probe. “It’s certainly very possible that this is evidence, in combination with other actions by the president, that could amount to obstruction. It’s certainly an effort to interfere in the investigation,” the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff, told CNN. Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, asked about Trump’s request for loyalty from Comey, said it was “very, very critical” that FBI directors remain “independent.” But Republican Senator Richard Burr, who heads the Senate intelligence panel, said he did not take issue with Trump’s request. “I don’t think it’s wrong to ask for loyalty from anybody in an administration,” Burr said. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has hired outside legal counsel to help with questions from investigators probing alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, a spokesman said on Thursday. Pence has retained Virginia attorney Richard Cullen, who previously served as a U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, spokesman Jarrod Agen said. The Washington Post first reported Pence was hiring counsel. President Donald Trump last month named Marc Kasowitz, a New York-based trial lawyer, as his private attorney for the Russia investigation. Special counsel Robert Mueller and several congressional committees are investigating possible ties between the Trump campaign and suspected Russian efforts to sway the election in Trump’s favor. On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Mueller is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation. “I can confirm that the vice president has retained Richard Cullen of McGuire Woods to assist him in responding to inquiries by the special counsel,” Agen said in a statement. “The vice president is focused entirely on his duties ... and looks forward to a swift conclusion of this matter,” Agen said. | 1 |
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A NEGLECTED wooden pallet is said to be suffering from severe self esteem issues after it failed to be selected for a nearby bonfire by local youths, WWN understands.
The pallet, left unattended for weeks behind a Lidl was not one of 70 pallets chosen to form part of a structurally suspect bonfire pile on a field in the Waterford area of Europe, prompting the pallet to spiral into an existential spiral which saw it question its own self worth.
“I don’t know what I did wrong, but… I’m obviously hideous,” the pallet shared, which until last month had a family of 400 cans of Polish beer living on top of it.
“You see the lads coming, pulling shapes and you think finally, I’ll feel special, feel wanted, but they never chose me. I just wanted to be doused in petrol and consumed by a raging hot fire, like any other of my kind,” added the pallet, who admitted at least a third of him was moderately soggy after being discarded in a puddle.
“Ugh, what’s the point anymore, it’s going to rain so much between now and next Halloween, I’ll be rotten and unlovable by then,” the pallet concluded, full of anguish.
There is some hope for the pallet, however, as a local hipster restaurant which has just opened in the city needs something to serve its food on that isn’t a plate. | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials from so-called sanctuary cities met in New York on Tuesday to discuss their response to threats from the Trump administration to cut off some funding to cities and states that fail to assist federal authorities in arresting illegal immigrants. Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened on Monday to strip U.S. Justice Department grants from cities and other local governments that choose to shield illegal immigrants from deportation efforts under President Donald Trump. His remarks were aimed at dozens of cities and other local governments, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, that have joined a growing “sanctuary” movement aimed at protecting immigrant communities. Tuesday’s meeting in New York marked the second straight day of brainstorming on the immigration issue by leaders of some of America’s biggest urban centers. Public officials, liberal activists and academics from around the country shared information on a host of issues. Topics discussed included when and how to challenge requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold illegal immigrants under arrest, for separate local offenses. Attendees came from California, Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Washington State and elsewhere. Sanctuary cities in general offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants and often do not use municipal funds or resources to advance the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Sanctuary city is not an official designation. Federal records show the Justice Department doled out $1 billion to state governments and $430 million to nonprofits in 2016, but only $136 million directly to cities and counties. Crime is generally lower in sanctuary counties, according to a study presented by University of California San Diego assistant professor Tom Wong. He said the findings echoed those of law enforcement officials themselves, since they have found they are more effective when they can focus on day-to-day policing instead of immigration enforcement. Chicago City Council member Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said that although his city is a sanctuary jurisdiction, immigration agents raided a home there on Monday where eight people, including three children, were sleeping. The agents shot and wounded Felix Torres, though he was not the person agents were seeking, Ramirez-Rosa said. “This guns blazing raid ... is exactly why my city should refuse to comply with ICE, under all circumstances,” he said. | 1 |
(Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts said on Monday he placed a hold on President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration until the agency agrees to reform its process for approving opioid painkillers. Markey wants opioid-approval matters to be reviewed by an FDA advisory committee and believes the committee should consider the risk of addiction and abuse during the approval process. He also wants the agency to rescind approval of OxyContin for children and convene an advisory panel to guide that process. “Last year, the FDA approved a new pediatric use for OxyContin without convening an advisory committee even though its guidelines note that FDA decisions that relate to controversial issues or matters relating to children are particularly well-suited to advisory committee empanelment,” Markey said in a statement. A “hold” is a procedure by which a senator can prevent a measure from being voted on by the full Senate. The nominee, Dr. Robert Califf, a cardiologist and researcher, is widely expected to be approved when the Senate votes on the nomination later this year, although critics argue his ties to the pharmaceutical industry are too close. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, said it had made addressing the opioid crisis “a top priority.” “Work at FDA and across HHS will continue on this important effort,” spokesman Kevin Griffis said in a statement. “HHS will be in touch directly with the Senator regarding his concern.” The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted earlier this month to confirm Califf as FDA commissioner, a position open since Dr. Margaret Hamburg stepped down last February. Califf, who joined the FDA a year ago as a deputy commissioner, previously held senior positions at Duke University, where he founded a large academic research center that received more than half its funding from the drug industry. He has also led multiple large-scale, company-funded clinical trials and published more than 1,200 papers. His interest in streamlining the clinical trial process dovetails with those of patient groups and members of Congress who are eager to see new drugs brought to market faster. U.S. deaths from drug overdoses hit a record in 2014, increasing 6.5 percent to 47,055, propelled by prescription painkiller and heroin abuse, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug overdoses are seen as a major contributor to recently rising death rates among middle-aged white Americans. Since 2000, deaths from powerful, highly addictive opioids have jumped 200 percent, the CDC said, with those addicted to prescription painkillers, such as hydrocodone, increasingly turning to widely available, often cheaper heroin. | 1 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Jersey’s Republican lieutenant governor and a former investment banker running as a Democrat will head to a November face-off to succeed two-term Republican Governor Chris Christie, primary election results showed on Tuesday. The front-runner in the Democratic primary, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive and one-time diplomat Phil Murphy, declared victory about 90 minutes after polls closed. Unofficial results posted on NJSpotlight.com showed him with more than twice as many votes as his nearest rival, former U.S. Treasury Department official Jim Johnson, in a six-way race. “I humbly accept your nomination to be the Democratic candidate for governor of the great state of New Jersey,” Murphy said on Twitter. Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, the Republican favorite to succeed Christie, also held a strong lead over four rivals in her party’s primary, earning nearly half of the votes cast. Election results showed Guadagno with 47 percent of the Republican vote, followed by state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli in second place with 31 percent. The two primary victors will face off in the general election in November to succeed Christie, a once-rising Republican star whose popularity has plunged in recent years. New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states holding gubernatorial elections this year. Earlier indications were that voter interest in the New Jersey gubernatorial primaries was low. Murphy, who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany under former President Barack Obama, significantly out-spent his opponents, loaning $15 million to his own campaign. He was also endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden and the state’s Democratic Party. With Christie frequently out on the stump for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, Guadagno has spent months as acting governor. But she has also had to distance herself from the unpopular Republican incumbent and has sparred with Ciattarelli over her plan to raise taxes on millionaires. While Christie was re-elected with 60 percent of the vote in 2013, his recent approval rating dropped to 20 percent following his frequent absences, the state’s 11 credit-rating downgrades and transportation problems. Christie has also been tarnished by the scandal in which two former aides were convicted for scheming to close down lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 to punish a mayor for failing to endorse Christie’s re-election campaign. | 1 |
Among the high profile companies opposing Trump s seven Muslim country refugee and immigration ban: Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) was down 0.83 percent. Amazon has big operations in the Phoenix area. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Bezos sent a memo to all of his employees stating, This executive order is one we do not support, and the memo listed several actions the company was taking to opposed the order. We re a nation of immigrants whose diverse backgrounds, ideas, and points of view have helped us build and invent as a nation for over 240 years . It s a distinctive competitive advantage for our country one we should not weaken. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) was down 0.23 percent, Apple reported strong earnings Tuesday afternoon. Its shares were up in after-hours trading. Apple has a big data center in Mesa. Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) was down 1.22 percent closing at $55.22 per share, according to Google Finance. Starbucks has an education partnership with Arizona State University.Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz We are living in an unprecedented time, Schultz said in a memo to Starbucks (SBUX) employees. He pledged to hire 10,000 refugees over five years in the 75 countries where Starbucks does business to reinforce our belief in our partners around the world. Yesterday a huge #BoycottStarbucks campaign was started on Twitter and Facebook. Starbucks took a big hit in the stock market today:Here s what we don t need advice from America s wealthiest welfare recipient, Tesla s Elon Musk:The blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily Muslim countries is not the best way to address the country s challenges Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2017Tesla s Elon Musk criticized Trump s temporary travel ban. Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space.And he s built those companies with the help of billions in government subsidies. Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The LA Times. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was down 0.74 percent.Microsoft said it s providing legal advice and assistance to its employees affected by the executive order. We share the concerns about the impact of the executive order on our employees from the listed countries, all of whom have been in the United States lawfully, the tech giant said in a statement.According to Microsoft s general counsel Brad Smith, 76 Microsoft employees are citizens with a U.S. visa from the affected countries.MasterCard Inc. MA, +0.02% CEO Ajay Banga, who was born in India, sent an email to company employees expressing his deep concern over the fracturing society. According to The Wall Street Journal, Banga said MasterCard has been in close contact with employees who ve been affected by the ban and is working to help them and their families. What affects one of us, affects all of us, he wrote. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) one of the few Wall Street firms to speak out against Trump s orders was down 1.96 percent closing at $229.32 per share. Goldman was one of the key drivers for the post-election rally and the Dow hitting 20,000 last week. Early Twitter Inc. TWTR, -0.17% and Uber investor Chris Sacca said he would match donations to the ACLU up to $75,000.Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had this to say about Trump s temporary travel ban:The Executive Order's humanitarian and economic impact is real and upsetting. We benefit from what refugees and immigrants bring to the U.S. https://t.co/HdwVGzIECt jack (@jack) January 28, 2017Uber investor Chris Sacca offered to help the ACLU with any legal charges incurred in their fight against making America more secure:I'm inspired by all who are barely scraping by yet still giving monthly to the @ACLU. Show me your receipts and I'll match 'em to $75k. https://t.co/dej1dXag3a Chris Sacca (@sacca) January 28, 2017 Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) was 0.5 percent. Yeah thanks for your input Mark. We re pretty sure everyone is aware by now of your leftist political leanings. Why didn t you make the same proclamation when Obama banned Iraqi s from coming to the US in 2011? No need to answer, it s a rhetorical question Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) was down 0.36 percent. Netflix Inc. NFLX, -0.08% Chief Executive Reed Hastings, in reaction, said on Facebook that it had been a very sad week. Google parent Alphabet (Nasdaq; GOOGL) was down 0.44 percent.In a staff memo, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the move affects at least 187 of the Internet giant s staff. We re concerned about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the U.S., Google said in a statement. We ll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere. Companies and executives not known for speaking out on political matters, such as Nike Inc. NKE, -0.38% CEO Mark Parker, condemned the ban. In an internal letter Parker mentioned Nike athlete Sir Mo Farah, a Somali-born Olympic gold medalist now living in Oregon. What Mo will always have what the entire Nike family can always count on is the support of this company. We will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of every member of our family: our colleagues, our athletes and their loved ones, Parker s email read.Ford, NYSE Was down .08% Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Mark Fields In a memo to employees, they said they do not support the ban. Respect for all people is a core value of Ford Motor Company, and we are proud of the rich diversity of our company here at home and around the world, they wrote.Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent Kent said in a statement that the Coca Cola (CCHGY) Company is resolute in its commitment to diversity, fairness and inclusion, and we do not support this travel ban or any policy that is contrary to our core values and beliefs. Chobani is not traded on the stock market, but is one of the biggest advocates for importing employers to the US from Muslim majority nations to Twin Falls, ID Chobani CEO Hamdi UlukayaChobani is owned by Turkish Muslim immigrant Hamdi Ulukaya. Chobani has filled 30 percent of its 600 positions at the world s largest Yogurt plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, with refugees resettled in America through a U.S. State Department program carried out in cooperation with the United Nations.Ann Corcoran, author of the Refugee Resettlement Watch blog, said the potential conflict of interest is disturbing and should be questioned by Twin Falls residents. Twin Falls is really a microcosm of what we find going on in so many of the refugee communities across the U.S., where you have people moving in and out of government and the Chamber of Commerce with a vested interest in making sure a meatpacking plant or some other industry has continuous access to refugee labor, said Corcoran. Only in this case we have a blatant example of conflicts of interest by an elected official who is also the head of the Chamber enticing companies to come in and make use of the steady influx of cheap, overseas labor. These are jobs that Americans would be happy to fill but they are forced to compete now with someone from Sudan or Iraq who is used to working for a dollar a week. The local Muslim community in Twin Falls grew out of its mosque and built a new, much larger house of worship last year.Here s Chobani CEO s response to Trump s moratorium on refugees from 7 countries: This is very personal for me, Ulukaya wrote in internal memo to his staff that was obtained by CNN. As an immigrant who came to this country looking for opportunity, it s very difficult to think about and imagine what millions of people around the world must be feeling right now. General Electric GE (NYSE) stock was down .87% CEO Jeff Immelt said, in a memo on the G (GE)employee blog, that he shares the concern felt by his employees and said the company has many employees from the countries named in the ban. These employees and customers are critical to our success and they are our friends and partners, he wrote, adding that GE would stand with them and try to find a balance between security and movement of law abiding people. Immelt was one of 28 business leaders named to a council to advise Trump on manufacturing growth.Trip Advisor CEO Stephen Kaufer Trip Advisor s (TRIP) CEO wrote in a Linkedin post that Trump s immigration ban is not only heartless and discriminatory, but also against the principles that make our country great. Kaufer also said in a tweet that We need to do more, not less, to help refugees, and said the action was wrong on humanitarian grounds, legal grounds, and won t make us safer.' In a separate tweet, he called out Republican lawmakers: You can t sit this one out. We need to do more, not less, to help refugees. Trumps action was wrong on humanitarian grounds, legal grounds, and won't make us "safer." stephen kaufer (@kaufer) January 29, 2017Trump hasn t backed off his order and could change up visa programs used by high-tech companies. Biz Journals, Market Watch | 0 |
Hillary Dillary Dock...
This Rat ran out the Clock
The Fix is in, but she still won't win...
Assange has depleted her Stock. | 1 |
A lawless party whose end always justifies the means Why wouldn t everyone want another lawless President residing over our nation from a party with no morals or respect for the laws of our nation?https://twitter.com/WDFx2EU7/status/792465012585406464 | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) Chief Executive Randall Stephenson on Thursday met in New York with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, an opponent of the company’s acquisition of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N). A spokeswoman for Trump confirmed the meeting after Stephenson was seen entering Trump Tower. Stephenson, who was accompanied by Robert Quinn, AT&T’s senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, would not answer questions from reporters. AT&T said later on Thursday that the company’s $85.4 billion deal for Time Warner was not discussed. “The conversation focused on how AT&T can work with the Trump administration to increase investment in the U.S., stimulate job creation in America, and make American companies more competitive globally,” AT&T said in a statement. During his campaign for the White House, Trump said AT&T’s proposal to buy Time Warner, owner of CNN and the Warner Bros movie studio, was an example of a “power structure” that was rigged against him and voters. “It’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” said Trump, who has repeatedly accused the media of being biased against him and his campaign. Since the election, Trump has not commented publicly on the AT&T-Time Warner deal, but he has been critical of CNN. He sparred with a CNN reporter on Wednesday during a televised news conference. A person briefed on the matter said AT&T requested the meeting with Trump late last week. As Thursday’s meeting was about to get under way, Trump tweeted: “@CNN is in a total meltdown with their FAKE NEWS because their ratings are tanking since election and their credibility will soon be gone.” Representatives from AT&T and Time Warner declined to comment on Trump’s tweet. A Trump transition official told Reuters earlier this month that the president-elect still opposed the deal, which would require antitrust approval by the U.S. Department of Justice. It could also face a review by the Federal Communications Commission, although the companies are considering ways to structure the deal to avoid that. Time Warner shareholders will meet on Feb. 15 to decide whether to approve the merger. | 0 |
WHAT WILL Donald Trump do if he loses the elections in a week and a half from now, as most polls indicate?
He has already declared that he will recognize the results -- but only if he wins.
That sounds like a joke. But it is far from being a joke.
Trump has already announced that the election is rigged. The dead are voting (and all the dead vote for Hillary Clinton). The polling station committees are corrupt. The polling machines forge the results.
No, that is not a joke. Not at all. - Advertisement -
THIS IS not a joke, because Trump represents tens of millions of Americans, who belong to the lower strata of the white population, which the white elite used to call "white trash." In more polite language they are called "blue collar workers," meaning manual workers, unlike the "white collar workers" who occupy the offices.
If the tens of millions of blue collar voters refuse to recognize the election results, American democracy will be in danger. The United States may become a banana republic, like some of its southern neighbors, which have never enjoyed a stable democracy.
This problem exists in all modern nation-states with a sizable national minority. The lowest strata of the ruling people hates the minority. Members of the minority push them out of the lower jobs. And more importantly: the lower strata of the ruling majority have nothing to be proud of except for their belonging to the ruling people.
The German unemployed voted for Adolf Hitler, who promoted them to the "Herrenvolk" (master people) and the Aryan race. They gave him power, and Germany was razed to the ground.
THE ONE and only Winston Churchill famously said that democracy is a bad system, but that all the other systems tried were worse. - Advertisement -
As far as democracy is concerned, the United States was a model for the world. Already in its early days it attracted freedom-lovers everywhere. Almost 200 years ago, the French thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote a glowing report about the "Democratie en Amerique."
My generation grew up in admiration of American democracy. We saw European democracy breaking down and sinking into the morass of fascism. We admired this young America, which saved Europe in two world wars, out of sheer idealism. The democratic America vanquished German Nazism and Japanese militarism, and later Soviet Bolshevism.
Our childish attitude gave way to a more mature view. We learned about the genocide of the native Americans and about slavery. We saw how America is seized from time to time by an attack of craziness, such as the witch hunt of Salem and the era of Joe McCarthy, who discovered a Communist under every bed.
But we also saw Martin Luther King, we saw the first black President, and now we are probably about to see the first female President. All because of this miracle: American democracy. | 0 |
Hillary Rodham Clinton has locked up public support from half of the Democratic insiders who cast ballots at the party's national convention, giving her a commanding advantage over her rivals for the party's presidential nomination.
Clinton's margin over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is striking. Not only is it big, but it comes more than two months before primary voters head to the polls -- an early point in the race for so many of the people known as superdelegates to publicly back a candidate.
"She has the experience necessary not only to lead this country, she has experience politically that I think will help her through a tough campaign," said Unzell Kelley, a county commissioner from Alabama.
"I think she's learned from her previous campaign," he said. "She's learned what to do, what to say, what not to say -- which just adds to her electability."
The Associated Press contacted all 712 superdelegates in the past two weeks, and heard back from more than 80 percent. They were asked which candidate they plan to support at the convention next summer.
The 712 superdelegates make up about 30 percent of the 2,382 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. That means that more than two months before voting starts, Clinton already has 15 percent of the delegates she needs.
That sizable lead reflects Clinton's advantage among the Democratic Party establishment, an edge that has helped the 2016 front-runner build a massive campaign organization, hire top staff and win coveted local endorsements.
Superdelegates are convention delegates who can support the candidate of their choice, regardless of who voters choose in the primaries and caucuses. They are members of Congress and other elected officials, party leaders and members of the Democratic National Committee.
Clinton is leading most preference polls in the race for the Democratic nomination, most by a wide margin. Sanders has made some inroads in New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary, and continues to attract huge crowds with his populist message about income inequality.
But Sanders has only recently started saying he's a Democrat after a decades-long career in politics as an independent. While he's met with and usually voted with Democrats in the Senate, he calls himself a democratic socialist.
"We recognize Secretary Clinton has enormous support based on many years working with and on behalf of many party leaders in the Democratic Party," said Tad Devine, a senior adviser to the Sanders campaign. "But Sen. Sanders will prove to be the strongest candidate, with his ability to coalesce and bring young people to the polls the way that Barack Obama did."
"The best way to win support from superdelegates is to win support from voters," added Devine, a longtime expert on the Democrats' nominating process.
The Clinton campaign has been working for months to secure endorsements from superdelegates, part of a strategy to avoid repeating the mistakes that cost her the Democratic nomination eight years ago.
In 2008, Clinton hinged her campaign on an early knockout blow on Super Tuesday, while Obama's staff had devised a strategy to accumulate delegates well into the spring.
This time around, Clinton has hired Obama's top delegate strategist from 2008, a lawyer named Jeff Berman, an expert on the party's arcane rules for nominating a candidate for president.
Clinton's increased focus on winning delegates has paid off, putting her way ahead of where she was at this time eight years ago. In December 2007, Clinton had public endorsements from 169 superdelegates, according to an AP survey. At the time, Obama had 63 and a handful of other candidates had commitments as well from the smaller fraction of superdelegates willing to commit to a candidate.
"Our campaign is working hard to earn the support of every caucus goer, primary voter and grassroots and grasstop leaders," said Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson. "Since day one we have not taken this nomination for granted and that will not change."
Some superdelegates supporting Clinton said they don't think Sanders is electable, especially because of his embrace of socialism. But few openly criticized Sanders and a handful endorsed him.
"I've heard him talk about many subjects and I can't say there is anything I disagree with," said Chad Nodland, a DNC member from North Dakota who is backing Sanders.
However, Nodland added, if Clinton is the party's nominee, "I will knock on doors for her. There are just more issues I agree with Bernie."
Some superdelegates said they were unwilling to publicly commit to candidates before voters have a say, out of concern that they will be seen as undemocratic. A few said they have concerns about Clinton, who has been dogged about her use of a private email account and server while serving as secretary of state.
"If it boils down to anything I'm not sure about the trust factor," said Danica Oparnica, a DNC member from Arizona. "She has been known to tell some outright lies and I can't tolerate that."
Still others said they were won over by Clinton's 11 hours of testimony before a GOP-led committee investigating the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton's testimony won widespread praise as House Republicans struggled to trip her up.
"I don't think that there's any candidate right now, Democrat or Republican, that could actually face up to that and come out with people shaking their heads and saying, `That is one bright, intelligent person,"' said California Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas. | 0 |
This post was originally published on this site Vyacheslav Volodin
© Mikhail Metzel/TASS
ST. PETERSBURG, November 24. /TASS/. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA) elected speaker of Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) Vyacheslv Volodin the assembly’s chairman at its 9th plenary session on Thursday, a TASS correspondent reported. The decision was taken unanimously.
Earlier in the day, the CSTO PA Council recommended to elect Volodin its chairman. His candidacy was proposed by speaker of Kazakhstan’s Majilis (lower house of parliament), Nurlan Nigmatulin.
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Editor's note: The following column appeared in The Hill newspaper and on TheHill.com.
#BlackLivesMatter is fast becoming its own worst enemy.
It lacks an agenda, it is antagonizing the black community’s top white political allies, including Democrats running for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, and it is not finding common ground with any of the Republican majority in Congress.
The catalyst for the movement was outrage over the deaths of young black men like Freddie Gray, Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police officers who arguably used excessive, even deadly force. But where is the list of solutions to the injustices it so often decries?
The movement’s failure to get its collective act together carries real danger for the political clout of the African-American community in the 2016 elections and beyond.
With the movement potentially discouraging black American trust in Democrats, #BlackLivesMatter is increasing the odds of a sharp drop in black voter turnout in 2016. Already Democrats privately worry that without President Obama on the ballot, the black vote will decrease the turnout needed to keep the White House and win back the Senate.
That is more likely to happen if black voters get caught up in the anger that the BlackLives movement has directed at the political structure. The potential absence of black voters who have become discouraged — about a quarter of the nation’s Democrats — would be more devastating than any Republican plan to require voter identification, reduce the number of polling places in black neighborhoods or cut back on early voting.
When BlackLives activists denounce the Democratic National Committee for issuing a resolution in support of police reform, they are hurting themselves with party officials. When they say that all political parties try to “control or contain” black liberation, they are also damaging faith in the political system, especially among young people.
When they interrupt Democrats running for the presidential nomination, such as Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, they are alienating longtime political allies and their supporters. When they videotape Hillary Clinton after she generously agrees to meet with them privately — in an apparent attempt to embarrass her — they are distancing themselves from the likely Democratic nominee. And imagine how local and state officials will react now to any request for a meeting with the group.
Meanwhile, they are not finding common cause with Latinos, even as immigrants are being attacked by the Republican candidates for the presidential election. Have you seen BlackLives interrupting Donald Trump’s events? Where is the outreach to Republicans?
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is one the most outspoken leaders in either political party on the racial inequities of prison reform. “I see an America where criminal justice is applied equally and any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color is repealed,” he said in his announcement speech. If change is the goal, where is the alliance with the senator?
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, has declared on the campaign trail that “the war on drugs has been a failure.” He told an audience last month “everyone makes mistakes” and that society needs to “reach out” and “embrace those people and say, ‘If you’re not a violent offender, if you’re not dealing drugs to our children, we need to get you treatment rather than prison.’ ”
Earlier this year, the Brennan Center for Law and Justice published a collection of essays highlighting the bipartisan consensus among national politicians that there is a need for sentencing reform, called Solutions: American Leaders speak out on Criminal Justice. Clinton, O’Malley, Paul, Christie and fellow presidential candidates Jim Webb, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker and Marco Rubio each penned essays for the Brennan Center on the need for reform.
And it’s not just those running for the Oval Office — leading congressional Republicans like Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Tea Party favorite Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) have all endorsed proposals to relax the federal sentencing laws. Grassley has said he wants to move on a bill this year to do just that.
A bipartisan bill, the Safe, Accountable, Fair, and Effective (SAFE) Justice Act authored by Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, has about three-dozen bipartisan co-sponsors in the House already. If #BlackLivesMatter protesters were chanting “Pass the SAFE Justice Act now!” they could find themselves in position to make significant change. Somehow they are blind to the opportunity.
It has been said that politicians see the light once they feel the heat. If only the energy and passion of #BlackLivesMatter protesters could be harnessed in something constructive rather than destructive.
Lobby Congress, hold voter registration drives, quiz candidates on their plan for sentencing reform, but don’t heckle the candidates and incite violence by calling for cop-killing. The movement could be critical to securing and mobilizing black support for criminal justice reform that actually would improve black lives.
I am reminded of something my father, who trained boxers, once told me.
He said even the best fighters know fear is like fire. It can cook your food and light your home. It can also burn your house down and kill you. The key to controlling fear or fire is turning it to a constructive purpose.
Now if only #BlackLivesMatter will harness its own fire into the urgent cause of criminal justice reform.
Juan Williams is a co-host of FNC's "The Five," where he is one of seven rotating Fox personalities.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin feels cautious optimism about the prospects for an improvement in U.S.-Russian relations after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, a Kremlin spokesman said on Thursday. “The conversation itself is extremely positive,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters, referring to Lavrov’s meeting with Trump on Wednesday. Peskov said the Kremlin viewed the prospects of a thaw “with cautious optimism.” “We have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said. | 0 |
Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump has been thumbing his nose at the music industry by playing whatever damned songs he wants at his campaign rallies and even at the Republican convention. Now, the stars have had enough and they put together a music video for John Oliver telling Trump (and other politicians), Stop Using Our Songs. Several musicians have complained after the Trump campaign, without permission, used their music during rallies, but the issue really cared to a head during the opening night, and again during the closing night, of the Republican National Convention.Generally at a political convention, the nominee doesn t make an appearance until the final night, but Trump graced the stage on night one, with Queen s We Are the Champions blaring from the arena speakers. The irony of opening the most LGBT unfriendly convention in history with a song sung by a man who died of AIDS didn t get by the remaining members of the band, who told Trump and the world that they did not approve:An unauthorised use at the Republican Convention against our wishes Queen Queen (@QueenWillRock) July 19, 2016Apparently, none of that mattered to the Trump campaign or to the Republican party, because they ended the show with another unauthorized song, but that one might not have been so bad. It was the Rolling Stones You Can t Always Get What You Want, which seemed, more than anything, to be pointed at all the Republicans who are refusing to endorse the nominee.That s not the first time whoever is in charge of Trump s playlist has seemed to troll him. Once, during a rally, REM s It s the End of the World As We Know It accompanied the candidate onto the stage.John Oliver, who, fortunately, has the production budget of HBO and was able to put together a super group of sorts of pissed off musicians. The group included Usher, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Bolton, Josh Groban, John Mellencamp, Heart s Nancy and Ann Wilson, Sheryl Crow and Imagine Dragons Dan Reynolds.In the style of charity singles such as We Are The World, Ann Wilson begins the song with the words: It s that time of year, campaign season s here. Michael Bolton sings: You wave and point make your speeches while balloons fall everywhere. Usher continues: But we notice something s wrong and it s gone on way to long/ So we re asking you right now/ Stop using our songs! It might seem appealing, but you re just stealing, they sing in front of American flags, baseball stadiums and Mount Rushmore.Source: Daily MailThe video did show one song that could be used by Trump, although the cat might object. Here s the hilarious video:Featured image via video screen capture | 1 |
Changes in Rainfall Threaten Food Production Posted on Oct 31, 2016
By Jan Rocha / Climate News Network Cattle farming and roads are major causes of deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon region. (Kate Evans/CIFOR via Flickr)
SÃO PAULO—The UN’s latest State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report warns that rainfall patterns will have changed so drastically by the end of this century that agriculture, forestry and fishing will all be seriously affected.
“It will become more and more difficult to harvest crops, rear animals and manage forests and fisheries in the same places and in the same way as before,” says the report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
And that is a major concern for regions such as Latin America that are economically dependent on agriculture, and the Caribbean, which is heavily reliant on fisheries.
In Brazil’s northeast, for example, rainfall is expected to decrease by 22%, while in the southeast of South America, which covers parts of Chile and Argentina, it could increase by 25%. Rainfall changes
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The report says these changes in rainfall mean “that the capacity to face shortages or excesses of water will be fundamental in the efforts to improve productivity in a sustainable way”.
A separate study carried out earlier by the FAO, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the Latin American Integration Associatio n (ALADI) shows that agriculture accounts for 23% of regional exports, employs 16% of the economically active population, and contributes 5% to regional GDP.
The SOFA 2016 report predicts that climate change will bring more drought and increases in temperature that will reduce productivity in tropical and sub-tropical regions. It foresees more salinisation and desertification in the arid areas of Chile and Brazil, while along the Pacific coastline some fish species will move further south. “The capacity to face shortages or excesses of water will be fundamental in the efforts to improve productivity in a sustainable way”
In the Caribbean, the greater frequency of storms, tornadoes and cyclones will harm aquaculture (the farming of aquatic organisms such as crustaceans, molluscs, and aquatic plants) and fisheries, and temperature changes could alter the physiology of freshwater fish species and cause the sinking of coral reef systems.
Forested areas could be transformed into savannas, while Amazonia will face the risk of frequent fires. In Central America, climate change could lead to 40% of mangrove species being at risk of extinction.
The report notes that although governments in the region see a reduction in deforestation as the main method of combating climate change, forests continue to be converted for farming and cattle breeding, which are the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the region. Causes of emissions
These emissions have three main causes. In 2014, they were: enteric fermentation—the product of the digestive systems of ruminants (58%); manure deposited in areas of pasture (23%); and artificial fertilisers (6%).
The FAO warns that climate change would affect food production, reducing not only the amount available but the variety of foodstuffs. Extreme events in areas of large-scale production will have severe implications for trade, affecting the international supply of food.
The report concludes that the climate changes it foresees would affect food and nutritional security in the region, causing abrupt variations in the incomes of families who depend on agriculture, or, where there is a fall in demand for paid rural labour, a reduction in their capacity to buy food.
The effects could also include big changes to the diet of the population, with a fall in food variety and in healthy foods, leading to poorer nutrition.
All in all, the FAO report offers a fairly bleak perspective if countries continue on their present path of sleepwalking into the future, with many governments unaware of or unwilling to face up to the challenges of climate change.
Jan Rocha is a freelance journalist living in Brazil and is a former correspondent there for the BBC World Service and The Guardian. TAGS: | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three Republican U.S. lawmakers called on Friday for Robert Mueller to resign as special counsel investigating Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, the latest in a series of conservatives’ criticisms of the FBI and Justice Department during the probe of how Moscow may have influenced the campaign. Representatives Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs and Louis Gohmert accused Mueller of a conflict of interest because he was director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation when former President Barack Obama’s administration approved an agreement allowing a Russian company to buy a Canadian company that owned 20 percent of U.S. uranium supplies. President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans have been calling for an investigation into the Uranium One deal, amid news of Mueller’s first indictments of Trump associates as the special counsel investigates allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow. Moscow denies any effort to influence the election, and Trump has dismissed the investigation as a “witch hunt.” On Monday, the day the indictments became public, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said a special counsel should be appointed to investigate Democrats over the uranium deal. Another group of Republican lawmakers, including House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte launched an investigation last week to examine issues including the role of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 opponent, in the uranium deal. Democrats have dismissed the Republicans’ activities as a partisan effort to distract from Mueller’s probe and from efforts to ensure that a foreign government, Moscow, does not influence future U.S. elections. Gaetz, Biggs and Gohmert are all members of the House Judiciary Committee, which has oversight over the FBI and Department of Justice. Gaetz has called for investigations of issues related to Clinton previously, including accusing former FBI Director James Comey of colluding with Mueller on the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s emails. | 0 |
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A NATIONWIDE appeal, led by fed up parents, has been launched which is pleading with children to ‘cut the shit’ and refrain from acting the maggot as the midterm draws to a close.
Maggotry, to give it its technical name, can involve children doing anything from refusing to eat their vegetables to burning down their own homes as part of a bog-standard temper tantrum.
“I’d use stronger language than maggot, but then my eldest would repeat it round the clock like the little bollocks he is,” explained exhausted father Peter Varley, who looked fairly stressed out if we’re being honest.
While not citing specific maggot-based behaviour, parents presumed anyone who has seen a child out and misbehave in public would get the picture.
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask, I’m running on 2 hours sleep for the last 11 years, just a slight reduction in the levels of outright dickheadedness from my two boys would be much appreciated,” shared mother of two Shona Laffin, “the midterm has been a testing time,” added Laffin, who was so fed up with the playacting that she’s convinced the midterm is actually 47 weeks long.
The campaign has received the support of Gardaí, who earlier this year began a crackdown on children who failed to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.
It is believed children were unavailable to comment as they were either scrawling on the walls with crayon or swiping a naggin from the drinks cabinet. | 1 |
Remember when Valerie Jarrett signed with a Hollywood talent agency? Well, we think she thinks she s a BIG deal now. How do we know? She charges $30K to speak! Who would pay a penny to hear this commie speak?A college in her hometown would pay this except they re going broke!That s a whopper of a bill for a university in her hometown that s going broke. There was an outcry when is was discovered that she would speak and charge $30K. Someone came forward to donate the fee but wouldn t it have been a great move on her part to donate the money to the failing university?Valerie Jarrett found herself in hot water in her adopted hometown for agreeing to take a $30,000 speaking fee from a public university that s going broke, a new report said Tuesday.President Obama s longtime adviser and confidante eventually waived the fee for delivering a commencement address at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago after an outcry over the hefty payment, Politico reported.The university shut down over spring break and also announced unpaid furlough days for staffers, the most recent in a string of measures taken to fight financial woes caused by a lengthy partisan state budget debate.The Chicago Sun-Times first reported the details in Jarrett s contract, and that a private donor agreed to pay her fee once university leaders raised objections. While keenly aware of the financial challenges in Illinois, we were not aware of the specific issues facing Northeastern Illinois University or that a donor would be paying for the speaking fee, Amy Brundage, a Jarrett spokeswoman, told Politico. Jarrett notified [University] President [Richard] Helldobler this morning that she will not be accepting a speaking fee for the commencement address. Jarrett looks forward to addressing the graduates and other members of the NEIU community next month. NEIU board members were not amused about the deal paying so much for a speaker at a time the school is cutting programs and struggling to survive.Read more: NYP | 1 |
Have you heard of Dr. William Thompson? If you haven’t, you’re not alone. His story was completely ignored by mainstream media outlets, the same way that they recently ignored the fact that the Pentagon paid a PR firm half a billon dollars to make fake terrorist/news videos. Dr. William Thompson is a longtime senior CDC scientist. He has published some of the most commonly cited pro-vaccine studies — studies which purport to show absolutely no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, for example. Two studies he and his co-author published in 2004 and 2007 (CDC studies) were the most commonly cited studies used by the scientific community to debunk the controversy surrounding the MMR vaccine/autism link. ( Thompson, et al. 2007, Price, et al. 2010 , Destefano, et al. 2004 ) The study concluded that “the evidence is now convincing that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine does not cause autism or any particular subtypes of autism spectrum disorder.” ( source ) A decade later, Dr. Thompson came out publicly admitting that that it was “the lowest point ” in his career when he “went along with that paper.” He went on to say that he and the other authors “didn’t report significant findings” and that he is “completely ashamed” of what he did, that he was “complicit and went along with this,” and regrets that he has “been a part of the problem.” ( source )( source )( source ) A study with revised information and no data omission was published by Dr. Brian Hooker (a contact of Dr. Thompson) in the peer reviewed journal Translational Neurodegeneration, and it found a 340% increased risk of autism in African American boys receiving the Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine on time. The study has since been retracted during the same time of this controversy. You can read the full study HERE , although, unsurprisingly, it has since been retracted. Thompson’s attorneys, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Bryan Smith of Morgan & Morgan, also released a statement from Dr. Thompson, which mentioned Hooker: “ I have had many discussions with Dr. Brian Hooker over the last 10 months regarding studies the CDC has carried out regarding vaccines and neurodevelopmental outcomes including autism spectrum disorders. I share his belief that CDC decision-making and analyses should be transparent.” ( source ) Even pro-vaccine politicians were contacted, as these documents were sent to Congress. One of them reads as followed, as illustrated by congressman Bill Posey : “The [CDC] co-authors scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the [MMR vaccine] study. The remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into the meeting room and reviewed and went through all the hard copy documents that we had thought we should discard and put them in a huge garbage can.” CDC Blocking Testimony Disconcertingly, Thomas Frieden (see picture above), the Director of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), has blocked Dr. Thompson’s attempt to testify on scientific fraud and the destruction of evidence by senior CDC officials. Attorneys Smith and Kennedy have been seeking to have Thompson testify on medical malpractice, specifically with regard to fraud in a series of studies that found no link between vaccines and autism, which are cited earlier in the article. Mr. Kennedy writes that, according to Thompson, “for the past decade his superiors have pressured him and his fellow scientists to lie and manipulate data about the safety of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal to conceal its causative link to a suite of brain injuries, including autism.” Ecowatch , Dr. Frieden said that “Dr. William Thompson’s deposition testimony would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC or HHS [Health and Human Services].” Despite the fact that Thompson revealed a casual link between vaccines and autism, or autistic features, Frieden stated that “Dr William Thompson’s deposition testimony would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC or HHD.” The case seeking the testimony of Dr. Thompson is from the family of 16-year-old Yates Hazlehurst. A lawsuit is currently underway implying that Yates is autistic as a result of vaccine administration that occurred in 2001. Related CE Article With More Information
The Top 6 Reasons Why More Parents Are Choosing To Not Vaccinate Their Children Some Quotes That Really Make You Think “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.” – ( source )( source ) Arnold Seymour Relman (1923-2014), Harvard Professor of Medicine and Former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Medical Journal “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine” Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime Editor in Chief of the New England Medical Journal ( source ) “The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.” Dr. Richard Horton, the current editor-in-chief of the Lancet ( source ) | 1 |
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, in 2012 approximately 51 percent of all immigrant households collected welfare: HOW THE USDA Helps Illegal Aliens Get FREE Benefits Paid For By YOU! This is a problem. A lot of American households also collect welfare, and that is a problem as well.A liberal newspaper claims it has obtained copies of two of President Donald Trump s upcoming executive orders that if implemented would once and for all stop immigrants from leeching off the American taxpayer.Obtained by The Washington Post, the orders would reportedly deny admission to any alien who is likely to become a public charge and set up standards for determining whether an alien is deportable for having become a public charge within five years of entry. The underlying goal would be to make the U.S. immigration system more merit-based, so those with the potential to contribute to the country would be welcome, whereas those more likely to be a burden to the American taxpayer would be kept out.According to New York magazine, the order would also bar undocumented immigrants from accessing the child tax credit, even when their children are U.S. citizens, which would be a huge blow to illegal immigrant families hoping to cash in on their anchor babies.The simple fact is that as a sovereign nation, the United States reserves the right to demand the very best from anyone who aspires to live here. It is a fact that the U.S. actually has much more lenient immigration policies than a large number of Western countries that liberals profess to admire. Try immigrating to Canada or Western Europe if you don t believe it.If an immigrant works hard, obtains citizenship and leads a good life but is later laid off and needs to collect welfare for a bit, that s one thing. But when someone immigrates here and then immediately boards the welfare train, that is another and it s a problem that President Trump hopes to finally resolve.For entire story: Conservative Tribune | 1 |
The weekly Wednesday Oil follies from 10:20 (starting with the pre-report misdirection fake-out) to 11:15 are a now-familiar occurrence, and should be viewed, IMO, as a mild 55 minute weekly annoyance, an artifact of just how poor intraday volume/liquidity remains, rather than the main driver of today’s action. Similar to post-FOMC action thru 2:30, it merely allows stops to be run so that machines can enter pre-planned directional trades for greater profit, in this case a powerful Russell short was the main goal (the index lacks a big oil presence). So, we’ll agree to disagree on this one, but I always enjoy your comments. | 1 |
Platinum Games is bringing Nier: Automata, the sequel to action RPG Nier, to the Playstation 4 on March 7 as players fight extraterrestrial machines as android protectors of humanity. | 0 |
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia hit back on Thursday at U.S. criticism over its decision to expel a U.S.-funded pro-democracy group, accusing Washington of political interference and describing American democracy as bloody and brutal . Prime Minister Hun Sen, the strongman who has ruled Cambodia for more than three decades, has taken a strident anti-American line in the increasingly tense run up to a 2018 election. The U.S. State Department criticized Cambodia s decision to expel the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Wednesday and a statement from the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh questioned whether Cambodia was a democracy. In an open letter on Thursday, the Cambodian government asked whether the United States was coming to Cambodia to help or hinder the Khmer people and blamed it for contributing to the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Cambodians are well aware of what a democratic process means. You do not need to tell us what it is, the letter said, describing U.S.-style democracy as bloody and brutal . We wish to send a clear message again to the U.S. Embassy that we defend our national sovereignty, it added. Tensions have risen anew in Cambodia, with rights groups and the United Nations expressing alarm and the opposition accusing Hun Sen of persecution ahead of next year s election. After the government s order to expel the NDI and a threat to shut a newspaper founded by an American journalist if it didn t pay back taxes immediately, the U.S. State Department voiced concern at the government curtailing freedom of the press and civil society s ability to operate . Government supporters have threatened to protest at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, the pro-government Fresh News web site reported on Thursday. The protests are likely to be in large scale against the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh like in the 1960s because of the American interference in Cambodia s sovereignty, it said, citing an anonymous government source. The spillover from the U.S. war in neighboring Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s helped bring to power the Khmer Rouge regime, whose rule was marked by the genocide of at least 1.8 million Cambodians through starvation, torture, disease and execution. Hun Sen, the former Khmer Rouge commander who is one of China s closest regional allies, has warned of a possible return to war if his party doesn t win elections. In a statement on its website on Wednesday the NDI called on Cambodia to reconsider its decision to shut it down. The institute said it worked with all major parties and that its work was strictly nonpartisan . NDI President Kenneth Wollack said the NDI has fulfilled all legal obligations for registration. Hun Sen has also targeted local media in what rights groups say is a growing crackdown ahead of the election. Cambodia s ministry of information on Wednesday revoked the license of a local radio station for selling air time to the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. The station also rents out space to the U.S. government-financed Voice of America (VOA) English news outlet. | 0 |
BOWIE, Md. - The last time Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) spoke at a historically black college around here, it didn't go well.
Paul spoke at Howard University nearly two years ago, a trip that was filled with fumbles. He bungled the name of Edward Brooke, a Howard graduate who was the nation's first black Senator elected since Reconstruction, and asked if the audience knew the NAACP was founded by Republicans.
Friday, he came here to Bowie State University, another historically black college -- and this time, he came as a politician who seemed to have found his footing when it came to talking about race.
Paul was greeted with a standing ovation and his points were peppered with applause from the audience, a cross-section of races and ages. And some people liked what he had to say.
Shaniah Haskins, an 18-year-old freshman criminal justice major at Bowie State, said she'd wanted to hear Paul's views on the system.
"The simple fact is he'd change things for minorities based not just on race, but on other factors," including economic status, she said. "He actually seems like he has a lot of ideas."
Over the past few years, Paul has made criminal justice reform one of his signature issues. More recently, he's tied the call for reducing arrests and changing sentencing laws to the situation in Ferguson, Mo.
Speaking just days after the release of a scathing Department of Justice report that showed the Ferguson police department engaged in a systemic pattern of racial discrimination -- and the shooting of two officers -- Paul focused his remarks again Friday on reforming the criminal justice system. He spent about an hour at Bowie State University, about 18 miles from Washington. The visit there underscored one of Paul's goals as he ramps up to a universally expected announcement that he will run for president: reaching out to young and African-American voters.
Paul evoked Martin Luther King's "Two Americas" speech, and said that the split still exists, and by not reforming the criminal justice system the nation will stay divided.
"There is still significant segregation in our society," Paul said.
In Ferguson, Paul said, there are about 10,000 more arrests each year than the total population of the city. The frustration that is boiling over isn't only due to the killing of an unarmed black teenager by police there, or the death of a black man selling loose cigarettes in New York City, but because of longstanding disparities in the criminal justice system. .
"It isn't just about what happened this year. It's about this building up," he said. "I call it an undercurrent of unease in this country. There are still two Americas."
Paul's remarks are likely a preview of how he will handle issues of race and criminal justice should he jump into the presidential race. He often speaks of a trip he made to Ferguson last year, where he met with community leaders. He discussed it, unease he said he found in Ferguson and King's speech at a dinner for the American Prospect Magazine last month.
"You're not a part of that," he said to an audience that include billionaire David Koch, "But imagine what it's like to be poor and to get a $100 fine and to have interest added to that and to have it be a $200 fine and we're putting people in jail for civil fines. We've got to figure out what justice is."
At Bowie State, Paul told stories of people who had been put in jail unfairly due to mandatory minimums or because they couldn't afford to fight the system. Sentencing disparities aren't purposeful, he said, but "are actual and real."
Felony convictions, he said, are the "number one" thing that prevent people from voting, and he said that expunging criminal records for minor offenses would help the economy by making it easier for people to get jobs.
"Criminal justice, or the lack of criminal justice, it's not a black or white problem," Paul said. "It's a poverty problem." | 1 |
Surveillance video from a home in Alamogordo, New Mexico, shows three armed suspects fleeing the front of a residence after a foiled home invasion. [The incident occurred Thursday night around 9 pm. According to KOB 4, Alamogordo Police says “three armed men and a woman [tried] to break into a home. ” The woman knocked on the door and the three men approached with weapons once the resident opened it. The homeowner closed the door when the men approached and the men tried to open it, only to look through the glass and see something that set them to flight. In the video, one of the suspects can be seen holding a handgun and another can be seen holding an style rifle. Alamogordo Deputy Chief Roger Schoolcraft said the suspects “headed south on foot” and are currently being sought. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0 |
Patton Oswalt is a comedian, but he s also very seriously worried about the future of this country after the inauguration of Donald Trump.In his Facebook post on Sunday, Oswalt, who heartbreakingly lost his wife this year, is nonetheless worried about the rest of us.So, sixteen days into the reality of Donald Trump being our President-elect, and I m reading New Yorker and Jacobin and Slate and NY Times articles, trying to make sense of just what the fuck happened, and how the fuck do we go forward. The Democratic Party is in shards on the floor right now. I think we re going to have eight years of Trump and his clean-shaven looters scraping out the carcass of the country before fucking off and blaming it on progressives and lesbians and PC and rap music.Oswalt talks about the schadenfreude that seems to be resonating throughout Trump-i-verse. People, according to Oswalt, are telling the comedian that his type of comedy is over and now we have to be subjected to whatever Trumpsters call comedy. Obviously, Oswalt had the perfect answer for that:So many alt-righters (or just people on the right) are failed or frustrated comedians. Just as so many far, far left wingers are. Comedy is too PC! It s not PC enough! It s racist! It shames white men! IT DOESN T FIT TO MY STANDARDS, SO THEREFORE I MUST DESTROY IT!Being funny isn t something everyone is born with, and even the ones born with it have to work and evolve and have humility while they do so. For the untalented but still entitled, there s a gut full of envy to carry around when they see other people getting laughs where they can t.Oswalt went further and compared these times to the rise of the Nazis. He referenced an essay by Clive James, about Egon Friedall, an intellectual who committed suicide before being hauled off by the Nazis.Egon threw himself from his window as the SA men battered down his door, screaming, Watch out! Get out of the way! to the pedestrians as he plummeted.I think I m guessing, I know that Egon sensed something even MORE sinister behind the Nazi uprising. Something fueled not by nationalism or racial pride but by bog-standard showbiz envy.Here s the post in its entirety. It s definitely worth reading and sharing:It s an interesting perspective and if you think about it, conservatism, not just Trumpism, is based on envy. Conservatives are envious of people who have more talent, they are envious of people who they think are getting more attention. They are even envious of those who have much, much less than them.Conservatives try comedy again and again, and with the exception of just a few (like Tim Allen or Larry the Cable Guy), they nearly always fail. Their comedy, like their policies, is mean-spirited. Conservatives punch down while liberals speak truth to power. When conservatives fail, their envy leads to anger. More than anything, though, Trump has made being thin-skinned fashionable. Trump supporters, even after winning, think they are the consummate victims. When victimhood is given power, things can get very dangerous. It s what happened in 1930s Germany and it s what could easily happen in just a few weeks.Featured image via Bryan Bedder/Getty Images. | 0 |
November 6, 2016 210 The attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Nevada has some eerie similarities to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968. Share on Facebook
1968 was a grim year in American history. The Tet Offensive in Vietnam made many people who were never part of the anti-war movement, question why America had entered a deadly war of attrition. In April of that same year, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead.
Into this fray stepped Robert Kennedy, a man whose intelligence, charm, charisma and modern policies came close to putting ice over the fire that was late 1960s America. He consciously stood as an anti-war Democratic in a primary which pitted him against the party’s pro-war establishment led by Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson’s vice president. Although the lesser known Eugene McCarthy also stood as an anti-war candidate, it was Kennedy whose personal fame and personal draw, turned heads and inspired voters more than any other.
But it was not to be. In an America drowning in blood both at home and in the jungles of Vietnam, Robert Kennedy was the victim of an assassination. In the summer of 1968, Kennedy had just won the crucial California primary and was addressing his supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Just after he walked away from the podium, he was shot dead by the Palestinian gunman Sirhan Sirhan.
The images of Robert Kennedy slouched dead on the floor become an iconic reminder that the 1960s for all of its counter-cultural optimism, was politically speaking, a very dark time for America.
Hours ago, Donald Trump, a man who like Kennedy, challenged the pro-war establishment of his party and of Washington itself, was seemingly the victim of an attempted assassination plot. Although certain facts have yet to be revealed, what we do know is that a man making threatening gestures who is said to have had a gun was tackled by Trump’s supporters. Seconds later, security hurried Trump off state and arrested the would-be assassin.
In spite of poor reporting from the ground, there are actually more facts at hand than there are mysteries.
Donald Trump has been vilified and dehumanized by the western mainstream media. His supporters are described as pigs, as the great unwashed, as the talentless, heartless and the stupid. He himself is described as much worse. Hillary Clinton called Trump supporters ‘deplorable’. In a country more ill at ease with itself than at any time since the Vietnam era, these words are very dangerous indeed.
Many sociologists postulate that the reason large sectors of the German population remained aloof and indifferent to the crimes of the fascist regime of the 1930s and 1940s, was because the victims of Hitlerism were purposefully constructed to be less than human by the state. Therefore a dead Russian, dead German Jew or dead Pole was somehow less of an issue than the death of a Hitler loving Teutonic man.
The techniques applied to dehumanising Trump and his supporters are eerily similar. That is why, should any physical harm come to Donald Trump, the mainstream media have blood on their hands as much as any would be assassin.
Two other things became clear. Donald Trump’s supporters warned him to leave for his own safety, they restrained the criminal, putting themselves in danger. It is fair to say, many of the brave men and women at the rally in Nevada were willing to give their lives for the man they support. This demonstrates that Trump’s supporters are not the savages that the mainstream media class them as. They are decent people who are angry at the path their country has taken and they feel a loyalty and fraternal bond with a man who speaks to them rather than at them, above them or around them.
Hillary Clinton and her supporters in the media have put Donald Trump’s life in danger and the look on Trump’s face as he was hurried away by security, showed me a man who loves life, a man who deplores violence and a man who would not want to leave his family behind. I was tragically reminded of the scenes of Gaddafi’s assassination when he begged his executioners, ‘what have I done to you’.
This is not a man who wants war, this is a man who wants to live in a world of peace, with all its joys, its profundities, its frivolities and its rough edges.
I am reminded of the words spoken by Marc Antony at the end of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:
“This was the noblest Roman of them all: All the conspirators save only he did that they did in envy of great Caesar; He only, in a general honest thought And common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the elements So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world ‘This was a man!”
One could say the same of Trump.
Update : The authorities have still not said whether the man in question had a gun or not, but the fact he has been released demonstrates either incompetence in terms of the investigation or that he was a hooligan rather than a would be murderer. Photos of the man emerged and as initial witnesses reported, he clearly looked deranged.
The media has turned this election into a potentially deeply violent affair. All ready they are making the hooligan look like the victim rather than the assailant. This may well not end after the 8th of November. | 1 |
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes . We can’t do this show without your support!!! On this episode, Roqayah and Kumars speak with a married father of one who has spent over ten years as a biologist and environmental protection specialist, planning large scale projects to minimize environmental impacts for several federal agencies. John (not his real name) was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in March and he’s now found himself stuck in between massive gaps in our healthcare system and an out-of-control drug war.
John tells us about his initial diagnosis, a diagnosis that came many months late because of his inability to get the care he needed in a timely fashion. This delay in care happened despite him having some of the best health insurance available as a federal employee. Once diagnosed, John tells us about how he was forced to continue working full-time so as not to lose his life insurance or health insurance policies. Without life insurance, his family would be severely impacted if he should die, and without health insurance, he could not afford the care required to keep him alive. If he were to get insurance on the private market, it would be too expensive to afford, even with his current salary, and the benefits would be severely limited compared to what he currently has.
John also tells us how he is at risk for losing his job (hence the pseudonym) because of his use of medical marijuana, the only treatment that has allowed him to deal with the horrible effects of his cancer and chemotherapy treatments. There are strict rules against federal employees using medical marijuana, even if they work in states where it is legal. Recently, it was announced that random drug-testing would be extended to all federal employees, putting John at-risk for losing his job, his healthcare, and his life insurance. We discuss the pharmaceutical industry’s role in fighting the legitimacy of medical marijuana, as well as their role in perpetuating skyrocketing healthcare costs. We also discuss the importance of writing to government officials to speak out on behalf of John and those in a similar position who are denied life-saving treatment, whether due to cost or due to our indefensible drug laws.
Look for a story from Roqayah in Shadowproof on John’s situation shortly!
The post Delete Your Account – Episode 23: Don’t Get Sick appeared first on Shadowproof . | 1 |
BREAKING : Bay of Pigs Veterans Association Endorses Donald Trump BREAKING : Bay of Pigs Veterans Association Endorses Donald Trump Breaking News By Amy Moreno October 26, 2016 Our vets love Trump.
They know he’s the ONLY one who can fix the broken system.
Our vets are dying in the streets and the hallways of VA hospitals, while illegals and refugees enjoy taxpayer “freebies.”
The ONLY way this will change is by getting rid of the global liberals and voting AMERICA FIRST!
In an emotional meeting, Trump spoke to the Bay of Pigs veterans, who proudly endorsed him.
Donald reassured them all that we would “Make America Great Again.”
One vet, at the end of the clip, can be seen wiping his eyes.
He knows his country is LOST and this is the last chance to get it back.
Don’t let him down, America.
Watch the video: Truly honored to receive the first ever presidential endorsement from the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association. #MAGA #ImWithYou pic.twitter.com/U7xVj1ajMs
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2016 This is a movement – we are the political OUTSIDERS fighting against the ESTABLISHMENT! Join the resistance and help us fight to put America First! Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Movement and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 1 |
Disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner will plead guilty to charges that he sent obscene material to a girl, The New York Times has reported. [Weiner, 52, will enter a guilty plea with the U. S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan on a single charge of sending explicit material to a minor. The girl alleged that he sent her nude photos, shared pornographic videos with her, discussed his “rape fantasies,” and requested that she undress and masturbate during video calls. The crime carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail, although it is likely that the sentence will mean Weiner becomes a registered sex offender, although a final determination is yet to be made. Throughout his political career, Weiner, who is married to close Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, has been embroiled in a number of sexting scandals. The first, exposed in 2011 by the late Andrew Breitbart and dubbed ‘Weinergate,’ led to his resignation from Congress and the issuing of a public apology. Then, in 2013, while running as a candidate for mayor of New York, more photos were published of Weiner sexting another woman under the alias ‘Carlos Danger.’ Despite the revelation, Weiner did not pull out the race and eventually finished fifth with just 4. 9 percent of the vote. Last October, Weiner checked into a sex addiction facility to overcome his urges, although he was reportedly forced to leave early having run out of money to pay for it. Now, Huma Abedin, who last year revealed she was separating from Weiner, is reportedly “working hard” to save the couple’s marriage. According to sources close to the New York Post, Abedin remains “in love” with Weiner, blaming the “pressures of the campaign and presidential race and him drifting off into obscurity” for his latest relapse. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 0 |
21st Century Wire says The US 2016 Presidential Election was a watershed point in 21st century western politics. With the defeat of Hillary Clinton and the near collapse of the Democratic Party, it seems that America s progressive left has lost the ability to relate to much of the working and the middle classes. During the Obama Administration, the party was taken over by the billionaire donor class ruled by Wall Street interests, Silicon Valley svengalis, and the unelected commissariate the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Their failed strategy of total reliance on identity politics at home, and backing Islamist extremism and a New Cold War with Russia abroad has spelled abject failure for the US electorate. Still, the vanguard of the progressive left is still in denial of these realities. However, a new shake-up on the left may already be underway.Last month, America s latest progressive icon, Bernie Sanders had this to say Sanders: "The Democratic Party is an absolute failure." (June 11, 2017)See also: https://t.co/cnrVTiKUnn pic.twitter.com/mJxrguyMyM WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 9, 2017While his candid depiction of a broken political party certainly rings true, it seems that Sanders is avoiding some of the more fundamental aspects of his party s rapid disintegration, namely the left s role in compromising America s reputation internationally by caving in to a largely Neoconservative and globalist foreign policy agenda, as author James Petras explains James Petras Information Clearing House Over the past quarter century progressive writers, activists and academics have followed a trajectory from left to right with each presidential campaign seeming to move them further to the right. Beginning in the 1990 s progressives mobilized millions in opposition to wars, voicing demands for the transformation of the US s corporate for-profit medical system into a national Medicare For All public program. They condemned the notorious Wall Street swindlers and denounced police state legislation and violence. But in the end, they always voted for Democratic Party Presidential candidates who pursued the exact opposite agenda.Over time this political contrast between program and practice led to the transformation of the Progressives. And what we see today are US progressives embracing and promoting the politics of the far right.To understand this transformation we will begin by identifying who and what the progressives are and describe their historical role. We will then proceed to identify their trajectory over the recent decades.We will outline the contours of recent Presidential campaigns where Progressives were deeply involved.We will focus on the dynamics of political regression: From resistance to submission, from retreat to surrender.We will conclude by discussing the end result: The Progressives large-scale, long-term embrace of far-right ideology and practice.Progressives by Name and PostureProgressives purport to embrace progress , the growth of the economy, the enrichment of society and freedom from arbitrary government. Central to the Progressive agenda was the end of elite corruption and good governance, based on democratic procedures.Progressives prided themselves as appealing to reason, diplomacy and conciliation , not brute force and wars. They upheld the sovereignty of other nations and eschewed militarism and armed intervention.Progressives proposed a vision of their fellow citizens pursuing incremental evolution toward the good society , free from the foreign entanglements, which had entrapped the people in unjust wars.Progressives in Historical PerspectiveIn the early part of the 20th century, progressives favored political equality while opposing extra-parliamentary social transformations. They supported gender equality and environmental preservation while failing to give prominence to the struggles of workers and African Americans.They denounced militarism in general but supported a series of wars to end all wars . Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson embodied the dual policies of promoting peace at home and bloody imperial wars overseas. By the middle of the 20th century, different strands emerged under the progressive umbrella. Progressives split between traditional good government advocates and modernists who backed socio-economic reforms, civil liberties and rights.Progressives supported legislation to regulate monopolies, encouraged collective bargaining and defended the Bill of Rights.Progressives opposed wars and militarism in theory until their government went to war.Lacking an effective third political party, progressives came to see themselves as the left wing of the Democratic Party, allies of labor and civil rights movements and defenders of civil liberties.Progressives joined civil rights leaders in marches, but mostly relied on legal and electoral means to advance African American rights.Progressives played a pivotal role in fighting McCarthyism, though ultimately it was the Secretary of the Army and the military high command that brought Senator McCarthy to his knees.Progressives provided legal defense when the social movements disrupted the House UnAmerican Activities Committee.They popularized the legislative arguments that eventually outlawed segregation, but it was courageous Afro-American leaders heading mass movements that won the struggle for integration and civil rights.In many ways the Progressives complemented the mass struggles, but their limits were defined by the constraints of their membership in the Democratic Party.The alliance between Progressives and social movements peaked in the late sixties to mid-1970 s when the Progressives followed the lead of dynamic and advancing social movements and community organizers especially in opposition to the wars in Indochina and the military draft.The Retreat of the ProgressivesBy the late 1970 s the Progressives had cut their anchor to the social movements, as the anti-war, civil rights and labor movements lost their impetus (and direction).The numbers of progressives within the left wing of the Democratic Party increased through recruitment from earlier social movements. Paradoxically, while their numbers were up, their caliber had declined, as they sought to fit in with the pro-business, pro-war agenda of their President s party.Without the pressure of the populist street the Progressives-turned-Democrats adapted to the corporate culture in the Party. The Progressives signed off on a fatal compromise: The corporate elite secured the electoral party while the Progressives were allowed to write enlightened manifestos about the candidates and their programs . . . which were quickly dismissed once the Democrats took office. Yet the ability to influence the electoral rhetoric was seen by the Progressives as a sufficient justification for remaining inside the Democratic Party.Moreover the Progressives argued that by strengthening their presence in the Democratic Party, (their self-proclaimed boring from within strategy), they would capture the party membership, neutralize the pro-corporation, militarist elements that nominated the president and peacefully transform the party into a vehicle for progressive changes .Upon their successful deep penetration the Progressives, now cut off from the increasingly disorganized mass social movements, coopted and bought out many prominent black, labor and civil liberty activists and leaders, while collaborating with what they dubbed the more malleable centrist Democrats. These mythical creatures were really pro-corporate Democrats who condescended to occasionally converse with the Progressives while working for the Wall Street and Pentagon elite.The Retreat of the Progressives: The Clinton DecadeProgressives adapted the crab strategy : Moving side-ways and then backwards but never forward.Progressives mounted candidates in the Presidential primaries, which were predictably defeated by the corporate Party apparatus, and then submitted immediately to the outcome. The election of President Bill Clinton launched a period of unrestrained financial plunder, major wars of aggression in Europe (Yugoslavia) and the Middle East (Iraq), a military intervention in Somalia and secured Israel s victory over any remnant of a secular Palestinian leadership as well as its destruction of Lebanon!Progressives followed Clinton s deep throated thrust toward the far right, as he outsourced manufacturing jobs to Mexico (NAFTA) and re-appointed Federal Reserve s free market, Ayn Rand-fanatic, Alan Greenspan.Like a huge collective Monica Lewinsky robot, the Progressives in the Democratic Party bent over and swallowed Clinton s vicious 1999 savaging of the venerable Glass Steagall Act, thereby opening the floodgates for massive speculation on Wall Street through the previously regulated banking sector. When President Clinton gutted welfare programs, forcing single mothers to take minimum-wage jobs without provision for safe childcare, millions of poor white and minority women were forced to abandon their children to dangerous makeshift arrangements in order to retain any residual public support and access to minimal health care. Progressives looked the other way.Progressives repeatedly kneeled before President Clinton marking their submission to the Democrats hard right policies.The election of Republican President G. W. Bush (2001-2009) permitted Progressive s to temporarily trot out and burnish their anti-war, anti-Wall Street credentials. Out in the street, they protested Bush s savage invasion of Iraq (but not the destruction of Afghanistan). They protested the media reports of torture in Abu Ghraib under Bush, but not the massive bombing and starvation of millions of Iraqis that had occurred under Clinton. Progressives protested the expulsion of immigrants from Mexico and Central America, but were silent over the brutal uprooting of refugees resulting from US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the systematic destruction of their nations infrastructure.Progressives embraced Israel s bombing, jailing and torture of Palestinians by voting unanimously in favor of increasing the annual $3 billion dollar military handouts to the brutal Jewish State. They supported Israel s bombing and slaughter in Lebanon.Progressives were in retreat, but retained a muffled voice and inconsequential vote in favor of peace, justice and civil liberties. They kept a certain distance from the worst of the police state decrees by the Republican Administration.Progressives and Obama: From Retreat to SurrenderWhile Progressives maintained their tepid commitment to civil liberties, and their highly leveraged hopes for peace in the Middle East, they jumped uncritically into the highly choreographed Democratic Party campaign for Barack Obama, Wall Street s First Black President .Progressives had given up their quest to realign the Democratic Party from within : they turned from serious tourism to permanent residency. Progressives provided the foot soldiers for the election and re-election of the warmongering Peace Candidate Obama. After the election, Progressives rushed to join the lower echelons of his Administration. Black and white politicos joined hands in their heroic struggle to erase the last vestiges of the Progressives historical legacy.Obama increased the number of Bush-era imperial wars to attacking seven weak nations under American s First Black President s bombardment, while the Progressives ensured that the streets were quiet and empty.When Obama provided trillions of dollars of public money to rescue Wall Street and the bankers, while sacrificing two million poor and middle class mortgage holders, the Progressives only criticized the bankers who received the bailout, but not Obama s Presidential decision to protect and reward the mega-swindlers.Under the Obama regime social inequalities within the United States grew at an unprecedented rate. The Police State Patriot Act was massively extended to give President Obama the power to order the assassination of US citizens abroad without judicial process. The Progressives did not resign when Obama s kill orders extended to the mistaken murder of his target s children and other family member, as well as unidentified bystanders. The icon carriers still paraded their banner of the first black American President when tens of thousands of black Libyans and immigrant workers were slaughtered in his regime-change war against President Gadhafi Continue this article at Information Clearing HouseREAD MORE POLICE STATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Police State FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1 |
Sen. Ted Cruz ( ) ripped into Tesla CEO Elon Musk Thursday night for his use of a private jet after the tech billionaire tweeted his disapproval of President Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. [Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, took to Twitter to announce that he would be departing from all future presidential councils in protest of President Trump’s decision to pull the U. S. out of the Paris Climate Accord. He assured his followers that global warming is real and that leaving the Paris accords is “not good” for America or the world. Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017, Hours later, Cruz mocked Musk’s outrage, pointing out that he regularly travels around the country in his own private jet. If the billionaire CEO was so dedicated to reducing the world’s carbon output, Cruz snarked, he would choose to fly commercial planes rather than private ones. In support of Paris, CA billionaires pledge to never again fly private, will only fly commercial. — will quit symbolic councils instead. https: . — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 2, 2017, Musk has come under fire previously for his liberal use of his private jet, which he upgraded last year from a Dassault Falcon 900 B to a Gulfstream G650 ER. It was reported in 2010 that Musk took private jets to Washington on at least 12 occasions over the course of two years to lobby the Department of Energy for a loan of $465 million, which Musk’s company Tesla was eventually granted. Around the same time, Tesla also struck deals with the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority that made the company exempt from up to $320 million in California State sales and U. S. taxes. Musk has been a vocal supporter of carbon taxes, saying, “All we are doing [with a carbon tax] is trying to match the inherent subsidy for fossil fuels … on the sustainable energy side. Fossil fuels are already getting a massive subsidy if you believe in global warming. If you don’t then [the subsidy] seems really unfair. If you do then it is like oh we are just trying to correct it. ” Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 0 |
They first arrived in late January, caravans of black Escalades driving along a small street in Jamaica Estates, an upscale neighborhood in Queens, and stopping in front of a modest house that had just been sold at auction: the home where President Trump lived as a boy. Out stepped a stream of people in business suits, according to a neighbor, all speaking Chinese. The visits spiked between the auction and the closing of the sale last week, according to the neighbor, who did not want to be identified because of concerns about her privacy. It was revealed last week that the home had been bought by Trump Birth House, a limited liability company that obscured the identity of the person behind it. But while the buyer’s identity remained unknown, a person with knowledge of the deal said that the new owner, who spent over $2 million for the childhood home of the current president of the United States, is a woman from China. “Why is there an influx of Chinese people interested in this house, of all people?” the neighbor said she recalled wondering. “What do they want?” The house on Wareham Place has become another curiosity in the vast orbit of properties connected to Mr. Trump, even though he last lived in the home, built by his father, Fred C. Trump, when he was 4. The house’s intrigue lies not just in the price it fetched in an auction by Paramount Realty USA — $2. 14 million, more than double the price of comparable houses in the area — but also in the mystery surrounding the buyer. She remains unknown, shrouded behind the limited liability company. A thin trail of documents associated with the sale led first to a office on Main Street in Flushing, Queens, of Michael X. Tang, a lawyer who represents Trump Birth House. In the cramped and bustling office, which, according to its website, specializes in facilitating Chinese purchases of American real estate, a woman at a desk welcomed visitors. “Oh, about the Trump house,” she said. She continued: Mr. Tang declined to comment. Documents show that Mr. Tang was also the lawyer for a seemingly unrelated transaction on a palatial home in Old Westbury, N. Y. which sold for more than $3. 6 million in 2014 to a person named Jiying Wei. The redbrick mansion, tucked at the end of a and abutted by a private tennis court, is a far cry from the modest childhood home of Mr. Trump. But, according to a person with knowledge of the sale, the mansion’s owner is a relative of the woman from China who bought the Trump family home. Standing in the collonaded entryway of her home a few doors down in Old Westbury, a neighbor, who declined to give her name for privacy reasons, deepened the mystery: The only person who lives in the mansion, she said, is the family’s son, a local college student the rest of the family lives in China. The trail at the : The house was empty and the owner could not be reached. “I did have some expectation that the purchaser would be a huge Trump supporter from within America,” Misha Haghani, principal of Paramount Realty USA, said of the Jamaica Estates home. He declined to reveal the identity of the buyer. “But it is entirely possible that the purchaser is a huge Trump supporter from outside of America,” he said. Cathy Han, a real estate agent in New York who specializes in marketing properties to Chinese buyers — including apartments in buildings — said she was not surprised that the home had been purchased by a Chinese buyer. “When I saw it was Trump’s birth house property for sale, I knew immediately it would get a lot of attention from Chinese buyers,” Ms. Han said. “I know he is a controversial figure in the States, but among Chinese people, Trump is a very popular kind of character in China. ” She said the image that Mr. Trump liked to promote of himself as a successful businessman resonated in China. “The whole thing about Trump is he has no experience in politics, but now he is the president of the U. S. A. ,” she said. “The story is like a movie: It’s kind of inspiring, in a way, that a person can rise up to that position. And I think most Chinese people kind of respect that journey. ” The home had been owned by Isaac Kestenberg, purchased with his wife, Claudia, in 2008 for $782, 500. On Election Day last year, as Mr. Trump’s ascendancy seemed possible, Michael Davis, a real estate investor, made an offer on the house, he said, ultimately purchasing it for about $1. 4 million. Neither Mr. Kestenberg nor Mr. Davis knows who bought it this time, they said. The sale to Trump Birth House closed on March 23. “I hope that the broader economy has as much lift from the president’s policies as the president’s childhood home got,” Mr. Davis said. On Tuesday, rain pelted the crocuses popping up outside the home on Wareham Place. The house appeared to have been emptied. Around 1 p. m. a worker arrived in a National Grid van. The new owner couldn’t be found, he said, so he had come to turn off the power. | 0 |
The Department of the Interior has a Twitter account just like pretty much everyone else these days, including government agencies. But it seems that those agencies aren t immune to censorship from our dear, sweet, thin-skinned, narcissistic Cheeto-in-Chief. The Department of the Interior was ordered to shut down its Twitter accounts Friday evening after the National Park Service had the gall to post two, ahem, unflattering tweets.The first has been flying around social media, and has to do with Trump s pathetically dismal crowds, particularly in comparison to Obama s crowds for both of his inaugurations:The second tweet made note of gaps in policy on the new White House website, including scrubbing the site of anything having to do with civil rights, LGBTQ rights, climate change and the ACA.Apparently, it was a Park Service employee who retweeted these things, and either Trump himself couldn t handle it and wanted to show them who s really boss now, or the Dept. of the Interior is afraid enough of Trump to not only delete those two tweets, but comply with an order to shut down their entire Twitter presence. The Washington Post got hold of the email with that order: All bureaus and the department have been directed by incoming administration to shut down Twitter platforms immediately until further notice. It would actually be understandable for them to delete the offending tweets and reprimand, reassign, or even fire the employee responsible. But to have to shut down their entire Twitter presence because of two goddamn tweets from one agency?Welcome to Trump s America.The department has dozens of official Twitter accounts across ten agencies, but that email was described as an urgent directive with which they had to comply.An official with knowledge of the incident sounds a bit like he s been cowed:A government official familiar with the stand-down said the agency is investigating whether the retweets were purposeful, errant or whether we ve been hacked. They were not reflective of Park Service policy, said the official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the directive. The stand-down was precautionary until the agency completes a review of its Twitter accounts, the official said.This is terrifying. This is dictatorial behavior, not the behavior of an incoming president who believes in democracy.Featured image by Alex Wong via Getty Images | 0 |
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Zinke and Brandyburg accompanied Spicer to the podium on Monday where the White House Press Secretary announced that President Donald Trump was donating the salary from his entire first quarter as president to the National Parks Service. It is my pleasure, on behalf of the President of the United States, to present a check for $78,333, to the Secretary of the Interior Ron Zinke, and superintendent of the Harpers Ferry Park Sites, superintendent Brandyburg, Spicer said.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRaLJumoAGoVia: Mediate | 0 |
MIAMI (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday that his departure from office in January might be what it takes to begin to heal the political scars over Obamacare and allow for needed fixes to his signature healthcare law. The 2010 Affordable Care Act tipped off a long and bitter political and legal battle between the White House and Republicans in the U.S. Congress who said the 2010 law creates unwarranted government intervention in personal healthcare and private industry. Republicans have been quick to highlight a recent barrage of negative headlines about rising health insurance premiums and shrinking doctor networks for people participating in subsidized insurance plans offered under the law. Obama acknowledged the law is not working perfectly, but said the problems could be fixed by legislation, encouraging lawmakers to create a government-run health insurance option to help U.S. states where there is little or no competition among private insurers. “Maybe now that I’m leaving office, maybe Republicans can stop with the 60-something repeal votes they’ve taken and stop pretending that they have a serious alternative ... and just work with the next president to smooth out the kinks,” he said in a speech at Miami Dade College. “They can even change the name of the law to Reagancare, or Paul Ryan care,” Obama said, evoking the name of the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives. “I don’t care. I just want it to work.” But Ryan, in a written response, said he would continue to seek to repeal and replace the law. “At this point, one thing is clear: this law can’t be fixed,” Ryan said. Obama was later slated to headline a rally in Florida, a battleground election state, for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Clinton has said she would add a public option and expand tax incentives for healthcare costs. Republican nominee Donald Trump has pledged to repeal and replace the law. The government forecasts 13.8 million people will sign up for Obamacare plans in 2017, up 1.1 million from 2016. There are 10.7 million uninsured people who are eligible for the exchanges but have not enrolled, and about 40 percent of those are young, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said on Wednesday. Obama said that nationwide, not enough young and healthy people have signed up to provide a revenue stream that offsets the costs of covering members with serious illnesses. As a result, several big insurers, including UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N), Aetna Inc (AET.N) and Humana Inc (HUM.N), are pulling out of the online marketplaces selling the subsidized plans, citing bigger-than-expected financial losses. Monthly premium prices have climbed, which further discourages some people from signing up. “Next year will tell whether those are growing pains, or they are more serious issues,” Drew Altman, chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said in an interview. Analysis conducted by the nonpartisan foundation suggests at least 16 million people need to enroll before the online Obamacare insurance marketplaces stabilize. Obama said expanding insurance coverage for millions of people and reforming the healthcare system was a key reason he ran for office. He said he gets letters from Americans every day thanking him for the difference it has made in their lives. The law cut the number of uninsured Americans from 49 million in 2010 to 29 million in 2015. Much of the decline is due to the law’s provision allowing states to expand Medicaid health coverage for the poor. The law also prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage to Americans for existing medical problems, and allowed parents to keep children insured on their health plans until age 26. Some health policy experts on both the political left and right say Congress may be more receptive to bipartisan efforts to fix the Affordable Care Act after Obama leaves office. Some Republican governors who refused to expand Medicaid may also be more willing to do so after the election - a change that would expand coverage for about 4 million people. “I think the piece of Obamacare that people don’t like is Obama,” Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s former Health and Human Services secretary, who oversaw the program’s launch, said in an interview. “This has become a very personal battle about this president, which is I think really unfortunate.” | 0 |
With the news that there may be some undiscovered emails that may or may not be pertinent to anything going on with Hillary Clinton, it only leaves many to speculate what might be in them.One person who is taking his best guess at what a damaging email may look like from Hillary comes from none other than Saturday Night Live co-head writer Chris Kelly. He reveals what he thinks could actually be revealed to make the election close, or worse yet, make Hillary lose.You ll notice a stunning similarity to Hillary s opposition as you read Kelly s best guess at an email: Dear Huma,Psst. Just wanted to let you know I think climate change is fake. Also, women should be punished for abortions. Plus, Mexicans are rapists and criminals, and Muslims (all of them) should be treated like terrorists. Oh, and get this: I haven t paid taxes in years. Like, almost no taxes at all. Alright, gotta run, Tim Kaine wants to chat about how conversion therapy is good. And when we re done, I m gonna grab him by the cock, which I m allowed to do because I m famous.You re a 4 at best,HillaryP.S. What day do I have to be in court for my child rape thing again? Hillary's emails would literally have to say this for it to be a close call. pic.twitter.com/i46k3XeArh Chris Kelly (@imchriskelly) October 31, 2016That s right, exactly word for word can be substituted in as exactly who Donald Trump and Mike Pence actually are. Scary, right? We re living in a nation where people would actually vote for people like that. And people are because apparently people either agree with those sentiments or don t care.Now, if Hillary were to actually have written those things, she would undoubtedly be condemned for all eternity. However, Trump? Nope. He still has support even though he shouldn t.This satirical email and sentiment would be funny if it weren t so damn true, because if Hillary were even half as bad as Trump, she wouldn t stand a chance.Vote blue on November 8th like your life depends on it, because it just may.Featured Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The latest U.S. sanctions imposed on five Russians and Chechens are grotesque and groundless, and Moscow will hit back with tit-for-tat sanctions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed the new sanctions on the five people, including on Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov, for alleged human rights abuses. | 1 |
Do you have an unhealthy skin that is prone to acne, shingles, rosacea and other common women’s skin problems? If so, then it is probably because your body is deficient in certain vitamins. Vitamins... | 1 |
Donald Trump s lewd comments about sexually assaulting women in a 2005 leaked audio tape are wreaking havoc on his presidential campaign. Not only are prominent Republicans distancing themselves from him, but even his own running mate, Mike Pence, looks like he s about to jump ship.First, Pence pulled out of a Wisconsin rally, where Donald Trump said Pence would be taking the place of House Speaker Paul Ryan, who also canceled following the tape s release. Now, Pence has canceled a New Jersey fundraiser for Trump that was supposed to take place today signaling a trend of upcoming disruptions in Trump s campaign schedule. There were supposed to be 250 people at this event, who all paid $50 to attend.This isn t surprising, considering how strongly Pence opposed Trump s disrespectful, misogynistic comments in the 2005 recording. Trump s running mate released a statement that said: As a husband and father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump in the eleven-year-old video released yesterday. I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them. This cancellation is even more questionable considering that on Trump s campaign website, a message showed that all Mike Pence events had been canceled:Trump website The site was later updated with two new events for today in North Carolina instead of New Jersey but this is certainly a strange move for a campaign. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks has not yet returned comment on whether Pence would actually be attending the North Carolina events we wouldn t be surprised if he skipped those, too.It could very well be that Trump s degrading, rape-like comments about how he interacts with women were the final straw for the Republican party, and the final straw for Pence. It s bad enough that Pence and Trump have previously disagreed on several policies and issues but now it seems that Trump has crossed the line and Pence can t stand to represent him any longer.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images | 0 |
Why Is Clinton disliked?
Why the hate for Hillary?
Why do people hate Hillary Clinton so much?
Is it because of partisanship?
Or a hard-fought primary?
Maybe, NBC once suggested, its because shes not a train wreck.
Funny how the answers seem to be everything but the obvious.
We go on endlessly about how untrustworthy she is, while fact checkers rank her as the second-most honest prominent politician in the country. (And her opponent as by far the least.)
We say that she has trouble with transparency, while her opponent refuses to release his taxes and the current administration sets records for secrecy.
We decry her ties to corporations and the financial industry, while supporting a walking tax shelter or mourning the exit of a president whose re-election was funded by a record-shattering Wall Street haul.
We list so very many explanations, all of them complete bullshit.
In truth, the Hillary haters seem to resent her more than disagree with her. They demand to be humored and catered to. They hold her to wildly different standards than her male counterparts. They regard her with an unprecedented degree of suspicion. Above all, they really, really want to see her punished. And an aggressive male presenceeven if dangerously incompetentseems to comfort a great many of them.
Everyone but them knows damn well why.
Bad news for the haters: History is decidedly unafraid of the woman card. It doesnt care how many people will stand on tables today and swear theyd feel the same if she were a man. It will see us for what we area sick society, driven by misogyny and pathetically struggling to come to terms with the fact that women do not exist solely to nurture.
If that answer isnt as nuanced as the average thinkpiece, thats because we, as a people, are not. No matter how many branches have formed, they all emerged from the same seed, planted way back when Bill Clinton first ran for governor. She wouldnt be so suspicious of the press, or so measured in her presentation, or so any one of a thousand other things, if she had been born a man.
The lengths we go to in order to rationalize this all will be seen, in retrospect, as extraordinary.
When the Bush administration was discovered to have erased millions of emails illegally sent by 22 administration officials through private, RNC-owned accounts, in order to thwart an investigation into the politically motivated firing of eight US attorneys, just one talk show covered it that Sunday.
When Mitt Romney wiped servers, sold government hard drives to his closest aides and spent $100,000 in taxpayer money to destroy his administrations emails, it was barely an issue.
When Hillary Clinton asked Colin Powell how he managed to use a Blackberry while serving as Secretary of State, he replied by detailing his method of intentionally bypassing federal record-keeping laws:
I didnt have a Blackberry. What I did do was have a personal computer that was hooked up to a private phone line (sounds ancient.) So I could communicate with a wide range of friends directly without it going through the State Department servers. I even used it to do business with some foreign leaders and some of the senior folks in the Department on their personal email accounts. I did the same thing on the road in hotels.
... There is a real danger. If it is public that you have a BlackBerry and it it [sic] government and you are using it, government or not, to do business, it may become an official record and subject to the law.
Yet the fact that Hillary Clinton emailed through a private server and didnt use it to cover anything up is somehow the defining issue of her campaign. My God, people cry, anyone else would be in jail!
Or is the real scandal that her family runs but does not profit from a charitable foundation awarded an A grade by Charity Watch, a four out of four star rating by Charity Navigator and responsible for helping 435 million people in 180 countries get things like clean drinking water and HIV medication? Because the AP seems super concerned that she encountered people who donated to itspecifically Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunusin her official capacity as Secretary of State.
It should at this point be observed that her opponent is a shameless con artist who has built an empire bilking people with fake businesses, fake universities, fake charities and, now, a fake campaign. Last week, he told a lie every three minutes and fifteen seconds. Oh, and did we mention that he, like so many of his online supporters, is a goddamn Russian stooge? I tried to list all of the dumb, awful stuff that he does every day and I cannot come close to keeping up.
Voters, it seems, are his easiest marks yet.
And it isnt just Republicans. The double standards are even more transparent on the left.
Back in the mid-90s, Clintons persistent unwillingness to hide the fact that she was a thinking human female really freaked the center-left establishment out. Michael Moore observed that, [Maureen Dowd] is fixated on trashing Hillary Rodham in the way liberals love to do, to prove theyre not really liberal. The bashing slowly morphed into a creepy, extraordinary sort of policing.
Since then, Clinton racked up a Senate voting record more liberal than any nominee since Mondale. Her 2008 platform was slightly to Obamas left on domestic issues. Her 2016 platform was barely to the right of self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders.
Yet, we have all heard and seen countless liberal posers passionately decrying her far right voting record, untrustworthy promises or ever-changing policy positions. Jon Stewart recently called Clinton a bright woman without the courage of her convictions, because I dont know what they even are. Because if he doesnt know, she must not have any, right?
In fact, there is a very lengthy trail of public records all pointing in the same direction. If you cant figure out which, maybe the problem is you.
Yet, many on the left who gladly voted for John Kerry, two years after he voted to authorize the Iraq war, now say they couldnt possibly vote for Clinton, because she did, too.
And view her with contempt for opposing same-sex marriage in 2008, while fawning over men like Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, who held the same position at the same time.
Its time to stop pretending that this is about substance. This is about an eagerness to believe that a woman who seeks power will say or do anything to get it. This is about a Lady MacBeth stereotype that, frankly, should never have existed in the first place. This is about the one thing no one wants to admit its about.
Consider, for a moment, two people. One, as a young woman at the beginning of a promising legal career, went door to door searching for ways to guarantee an education to the countless disabled and disadvantaged children who had fallen through the cracks. The other, as a young millionaire, exacted revenge on his recently deceased brothers family by cutting off the medical insurance desperately needed by his nephews newborn son, who at eighteen months of age was suffering from violent seizures brought on by a rare neurological disorder.
What kind of a society treats these two people as equal in any way? What kind of society even considers the latter over the former for its highest office?
Generations from now, people will shake their heads at this moment in time, when the first female major party presidential nomineecompetent, qualified and more thoroughly vetted than any non-incumbent candidate in historyendured the humiliation of being likened to such an obvious grifter, ignoramus and hate monger.
We deserve the shame that we will bear. | 0 |
U. S Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has blasted a new U. N. report that attacks Israeli actions in the Middle East, in what she says is the latest sign of the U. N.’s “unfair bias” in how it handles the conflict. [The report, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, was submitted in response to a resolution by the Human Rights Council — a body which Haley has repeatedly criticized for its own bias and the questionable human rights record of some of its members. The report, titled, “Ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” evaluates Israel’s compliance with a number of U. N. resolutions and reports, including demands to deconstruct its security barrier on the West Bank, which has been credited with massively reducing terrorist attacks. The report adds: The High Commissioner notes the repeated failure to comply with the calls for accountability made by the entire human rights system and urges Israel to conduct prompt, impartial and independent investigations of all alleged violations of international human rights law and all allegations of international crimes. Furthermore, the High Commissioner calls upon Israel to ensure that all victims have access to remedies and reparation. The report also notes previous recommendations, including an boycott call for “investigations of the activities of companies and financial institutions profiting from Israeli settlements, and for such practices to be ended and for reparation to be provided to Palestinians affected. ” Haley took issue with the report’s focus on Israel, noting that it “brushed over” terror attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups attacking Israel, and ignored the human rights abuses of other countries. “This report is just the latest example of the Human Rights Council singling out Israel rather than focusing on the world’s actual human rights abusers,” she said in a statement. “Not only does it undermine the credibility of the Human Rights Council on human rights issues, but it once again highlights the unfair bias of the UN when it comes to the conflict,” she said. Haley also took issue with the recommendation that the U. N. General Assembly ask the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on Israel, something her office says is out of the purview of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Israel’s Ambassador to the U. N. Danny Danon also condemned the report, saying, “This obsession with Israel has crossed all lines. ” Danon accused the office of offering to “advise and support” efforts to create what he called a “blacklist” database of companies working in the region so that the international community could threaten a boycott. The latest report comes a week after Haley visited the Human Rights Council’s headquarters in Geneva and warned that the U. S. could leave the council if it didn’t reform its voting and bias against America’s ally in the Middle East. The same week, Breitbart News reported on an upcoming report by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and submitted in the name of Secretary General Antonio Guterres, blaming Israeli settlements for a host of Palestinian grievances for everything from excessive use of force to building parks in the West Bank so as to “entrench” Israel’s presence. Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY | 0 |
(Reuters) - Irma, now a category 4 , is heading towards the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean and is expected to move near or over the northern part of the region by Tuesday night or Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane Irma is about 320 miles (515 km) east of the Leeward Islands and packing maximum sustained winds of 150 mph(240 km/h), the Miami-based weather forecaster said. Swells generated by Irma will affect the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands during the next several days, the NHC said. | 1 |
WASHINGTON, D. C. — A block in Washington, D. C. was temporarily shut down by law enforcement and a bomb squad dispatched after an apparent backpack was found on a busy street corner. The ordeal lasted over an hour as a man in a bomb suit and another in a vest and helmet took measures to inspect the potential threat. The street was eventually reopened and the item in concern was apparently deemed safe. | 0 |
Here s the evidence of just how much danger we re in:Globalist and one world demon George Soros is mentioned over 50 times in the Wikileaks emails. Doesn t that tell us so much about what the Democrats are up to? Who runs the US? Apparently George Soros.The liberal billionaire funder, who has been tied to a globalist elite pushing the Muslim migrant crisis and multiculturalism onto Western societies, comes up a lot in private discussions between top Hillary Clinton campaign officials.A search by American Lookout showed Soros has been mentioned at least 56 times throughout the 11 batches of emails put out by Wikileaks which show collusion between elites, the mainstream media and the Hillary campaign.Likewise, Soros was directly mentioned in multiple subject headlines on emails, often times requesting a meeting with top Clinton official, John Podesta.Take a look:There s even one email where the Clinton operatives speak of Hillary wanting to please Soros. Who the hell is in charge here? A Hungarian anti-semite?Don t forget that Obama is heavily connected to Soros too.So which will it be for America?Do we choose a puppet like Hillary or a man who refuses to be bought by the establishment?PLEASE CHOOSE FREEDOM! PLEASE CHOOSE TRUMP!Read more: GP | 0 |
WELLESLEY, Mass. (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton assailed the man who beat her to the White House, slamming as “unimaginable cruelty” President Donald Trump’s proposal to cut $3.6 trillion in government spending over the next decade in a speech on Friday. The defeated Democratic candidate did not name the Republican president in her remarks to the graduating class at her alma mater, Wellesley College. But she took several veiled swipes at the businessman-turned-politician, whose budget proposal earlier this week proposed sharp cuts in programs for healthcare and food assistance. “Look at the budget that was just proposed in Washington. It is an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us,” Clinton told a crowd at the all-women’s college, located in Boston’s suburbs. “It grossly underfunds public education, mental health and even efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.” White House officials have described the proposed budget as providing tax cuts that they say would stimulate economic growth and create more private-sector jobs. As with all presidential budget proposals, the proposal was more of a wishlist that is unlikely to be approved in its current form by Congress. Clinton, a former secretary of state, warned against an erosion of accepted standards of truth in U.S. public discourse, and also appeared to be attacking Trump on this issue. “You are graduating a time when there is a full-fledged assault on truth and reason. Just log on to social media for 10 seconds, it will hit you right in the face,” she said, citing hoax online reports that her campaign was tied to a Washington pizzeria that operated a child sex ring. “When people in power invent their own facts and attack those who question them, it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society,” Clinton said. “This is not hyperbole, it is what authoritarian regimes throughout history have done.” She also urged graduates of the liberal-leaning school, which is located in one of the most Democratic states in the country, not to retreat into their own partisan echo chambers, saying, “your learning, listening and serving should include people who don’t agree with you politically.” Clinton has had a long public career since graduating in 1969 from Wellesley. She was first lady during her husband Bill Clinton’s two terms in the White House and was later elected to the U.S. Senate representing New York state. She made an unsuccessful presidential run in 2008 before serving as the country’s top diplomat during President Barack Obama’s first term. Clinton, 69, has gradually returned to the public eye since her upset November defeat, saying that she will not run for office again but will serve as an activist citizen. | 1 |
By Jon Rappoport Before the polls are closed in the states. And already… The networks are tuning up viewers to expect a few key states... | 1 |
How careless are these people? Clinton s right-hand-woman was tossing documents in the back of a staff car! These documents were considered burn bag material which means they were classified! Is this carelessness a sign of the Clinton attitude of being above it all or was Abedin just not aware of the seriousness of her actions?Hillary Clinton s most trusted State Department aide Huma Abedin once left classified papers in the pocket behind the front seat of a staff car she was assigned in India, according to an email released Monday.Abedin wrote to Clinton s personal assistant Lauren Jiloty on July 20, 2009 to ask her to move the material to her trunk so an ambassador wouldn t see them when he rode with her in the back seat.She told Jiloty that the papers consisted of burn stuff, indicating that they were classified documents that belonged among materials that agency rules required employees to place in burn bags for incineration. I m going to have ambassador ride on next drive, Abedin wrote to Jiloty in an email titled Favor. There s a bunch of burn stuff in the pocket of my front seat. Can u put in trunk? she asked. Jiloty responded that she would take care of it.It s unclear how highly classified the material was. Three of the emails Clinton provided to the State Department from the private email server she used exclusively while she was secretary of state were classified at the Top Secret level or above. Unless Abedin planned to violate State Department rules regarding burn bags, the papers she referred to were unquestionably classified materials. The State Department s Foreign Affairs Manual directs that burn bags must contain only the classified material that is to be destroyed. Personal documents, trash, recyclable materials, metal objects (such as binder clips and acco fasteners), string, twine, spiral bindings, cleaning cloths, food, or any other object that is not classified material should not be placed in a burn bag. Abedin wrote to Clinton s personal assistant Lauren Jiloty (pictured above) on July 20, 2009Read more: Daily Mail | 0 |
President Obama on ISIS: They re a bunch of killers with good social media. They are dangerous and they ve caused great hardship to an overwhelming majority of people. Really Barry? They ve caused a great hardship? When someone you love has their head chopped off, or they re burned alive, or nailed to a cross and tortured, or when one of your young daughters is raped repeatedly and then taken away in a cage to be sold to the highest bidding Muslim pedophile as a sex slave do you call that a hardship? Because the rest of America calls it an evil that needs to be exterminated. And guess what Barry? We hired you to protect and defend the citizens of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. We didn t hire you to start a war within our own country by manipulating our young sons and daughters in colleges and universities across America. Where did you get the idea that your top priority as our Commander in Chief was to divide our nation down lines of race and social class? Even the mainstream media is not going to sit back and allow you to lie about our enemies or skew intelligence to hide the fact you are a weak and incompetent leader. The idea that the NYT s would actually expose your lies makes us fear that the situation is even worse than what is being reported.Richard Haas, an American diplomat and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said on Monday there are serious implications if a recent New York Times report suggesting the Obama administration cooked intel on the Islamic State turns out to be true. I hope it s not true. I hope it s not true, Haas said. The principle requirement of intelligence analysts is to speak truth to power. It s not to make them comfortable, it s to make them smart and aware. He continued, If it is true, it d be very interesting to know exactly where the pressure is coming from because it s corrosive. It means you can t then trust what policy is based on. So it is truly, truly a bad thing if, again, it is true. Via: The BlazeMore from the New York Times report:The Pentagon s inspector general is investigating allegations that military officials have skewed intelligence assessments about the United States-led campaign in Iraq against the Islamic State to provide a more optimistic account of progress, according to several officials familiar with the inquiry.The investigation began after at least one civilian Defense Intelligence Agency analyst told the authorities that he had evidence that officials at United States Central Command the military headquarters overseeing the American bombing campaign and other efforts against the Islamic State were improperly reworking the conclusions of intelligence assessments prepared for policy makers, including President Obama, the government officials said.Fuller details of the claims were not available, including when the assessments were said to have been altered and who at Central Command, or Centcom, the analyst said was responsible. The officials, speaking only on the condition of anonymity about classified matters, said that the recently opened investigation focused on whether military officials had changed the conclusions of draft intelligence assessments during a review process and then passed them on.Haas also criticized the White House for downplaying the challenge of defeating the Islamic State in the face of the deadly Paris terrorist attacks. | 0 |
By BAR executive editor Glen Ford A n architect of regime-change, coups, no-fly zones, rule of the rich and mass incarceration is about to become Commander-in-Chief, yet the bulk of what passes for the Left is “engaged in a 1930s-style ‘united front’ against a ‘fascism’ that was never a threat in 21st century America.” Donald Trump, the orange menace, didn’t have a chance of becoming president. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is a 21st century fascist and threat to life on Earth. “Trump’s anti-“free trade” stance and opposition to regime change and military confrontation with Russia and China drove most of the Republican-allied section of the ruling class straight into Hillary Clinton’s imperial Big Tent.” Hillary Clinton’s impending — and totally predictable — landslide victory on November 8 will prove only that there never was any danger of a “fascist” white nationalist takeover of the U.S. executive branch of government in 2016. That was always a red (or “orange”) herring, a phony “barbarians at the gate” threat that — as Wikileaks documents [3] confirmed — John Podesta and Hillary’s other handlers fervently hoped would convey “lesser evil” status to their manifestly unpopular candidate. There was nothing particularly devious or out of the ordinary in the Hillary camp’s favoring Donald Trump or, alternatively, Ted Cruz. It is standard Democratic Party practice to position themselves just to the left of the Republicans. In a duopoly electoral system, victory lies in where the cake is cut. By hugging close to the GOP’s flanks, national Democratic candidates can lay claim to a “center-left” spectrum of political space that encompasses a clear majority of U.S. public opinion on most issues. By this calculus, Democrats are supposed to win, unless they are tripped up on the closely related issues of race (failure to “stand up” to the Blacks) and foreign policy (failure to “stand up” to whoever is the designated foreign enemy). There was nothing particularly devious or out of the ordinary in the Hillary camp’s favoring Donald Trump or, alternatively, Ted Cruz. It is standard Democratic Party practice to position themselves just to the left of the Republicans. In a duopoly electoral system, victory lies in where the cake is cut. Race is the trickiest part of the equation, since white supremacy is embedded in the American political conversation, hiding just beneath the surface of most discourse on social and economic policy. “His overt racism probably weakened his appeal to whites.” Trump thought he could win by combining an overt white racist appeal with an anti-corporate message that laid the blame on Wall Street for (white) American job losses and falling living standards. He also calculated — correctly, it turns out — that in the wake of the 2008 economic meltdown, many white Americans were more upset about their own economic and social status than they were angry at Russians; that they wanted regime change at home more than abroad. Both of Trump’s central policies backfired, dooming his campaign. His overt racism probably weakened his appeal to whites, who have given majorities to national Republicans since 1968 but whose self-image is that they are not, as individuals, racist. (Certainly, white women found further reason to reject his candidacy.) Much more spectacularly, Trump’s anti-“free trade” stance and opposition to regime change and military confrontation with Russia and China drove most of the Republican-allied section of the ruling class straight into Hillary Clinton’s imperial Big Tent. At the national level, the duopoly system, as we had known it, virtually ceased to exist – a fact dramatically driven home by the near-universal corporate media rejection of Donald Trump, the candidacy they had done so much to create. The near-collapse of the duopoly system was the great fracture of the 2016 election, a potential historic opening to a far wider space of progressive political struggle, including on the moribund electoral level. With the ruling class gathered in one Big Tent, and the overt racists occupying the imploded shell of the GOP, the system itself was in disarray. What was once two vibrant parties of the ruling class, with a virtual monopoly on the totality of the electorate, had become one ruling class party plus a hollowed-out husk, at least temporarily occupied by white nationalists under the leadership of a narcissistic and incoherent billionaire, yet without enough funds to mount a competitive general election campaign. “The near-collapse of the duopoly system was the great fracture of the 2016 election.” I n these pages, we had been saying since last year that Donald Trump could not win; that Bernie Sanders’ fate would be sealed in the southern primaries; and that, although ruling class money would insure Clinton an election by landslide, it could not buy her legitimacy among a significant section of the Democratic “base,” who would now be pushed to the latrine area of her Big Tent. As we wrote on May 18 [4] of this year: “Outsized fear of Trump is hysteria. These days, the ‘brown shirts’ wear blue. Hillary is the candidate of Wall Street, War and Austerity – not Trump, the racist America Firster. And, he can’t win, anyway – not with tens of millions of ‘moderate’ Republicans and most of the party’s funders rushing into Hillary’s welcoming embrace.” But sadly, hysteria does reign in most of the “left” precincts of America. Those who did not hesitate to kick Hillary when she appeared to be “down” — in those heady days when they imagined it was possible she could lose to Sanders — are terrified to kick her when she is “up” and primed to take the helm of the hyper-power. They are engaged in a 1930s-style “united front” against a “fascism” that was never a threat in 21 st century America, where a different kind of dictatorship of the rich (but also a fascism) has made brown-shirts (and Klansmen) utterly superfluous. These trembling leftists refuse to oppose the modern manifestation of fascism, which is now firmly entrenched in power with Hillary as its champion, in favor of a crusade against an “orange” menace that did not have a ghost of a chance of seizing national power. They have made themselves perfectly irrelevant and useless — except, of course, to the fascists-in-charge. Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/ghost_fascists_vs_real_ones | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it will not comply with a request from President-elect Donald Trump’s Energy Department transition team for the names of people who have worked on climate change and the professional society memberships of lab workers. The Energy Department’s response could signal a rocky transition for the president-elect’s energy team and potential friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain in place. The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and reviewed by Reuters last week contains 74 questions, including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years. Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said Tuesday the department will not comply. “Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people,” Burnham-Snyder said. “We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department,” he added. “We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.” He added that the request “left many in our workforce unsettled.” Andrew Rosenberg, an official at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Energy Department “made the right choice in refusing this absurd and dangerous request. Federal agencies need the best available science to respond to the growing risk of climate change.” Reuters reported late Monday that former Texas Governor Rick Perry is expected to be named by Trump to run the Energy Department. The agency employs more than 90,000 people working on nuclear weapons maintenance and research labs, nuclear energy, advanced renewable energy, batteries and climate science. The memo sought a list of all department employees or contractors who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and benefits of new energy and environmental regulations. It also asked for all publications written by employees at the department’s 17 national laboratories for the past three years. Trump transition officials declined to comment on the memo. “This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies list,” a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be identified because he feared a reprisal by the Trump transition team, had told Reuters. Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, said in a news briefing on Tuesday that the queries “could have been an attempt to target civil servants,” including “scientists and lawyers and other experts who are critical to the success of the federal government’s ability to make policy.” By design, their work transcends the term of any one president, Earnest said. Trump, a Republican, said during his election campaign that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by China to damage U.S. manufacturing. He said he would rip up last year’s landmark global climate deal struck in Paris that was signed by President Barack Obama. Since winning the Nov. 8 election, however, Trump has said he will keep an “open mind” about the Paris deal. He also met with former Vice President Al Gore, a strong advocate for action on climate change. After that meeting, he picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. | 1 |
in: Natural Medicine , Toxins A remarkable study published in the journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology revealed something very special about garlic: it is a natural detoxifier of lead and is not only as effective as a common chelation drug known as d-penicillamine at pulling this metal out of the body but is also much safer. The study was titled, “ Comparison of therapeutic effects of garlic and d-penicillamine in patients with chronic occupational lead poisoning,” and sought to confirm previous research in animals that showed garlic (Allium sativum) is effective in reducing blood and tissue lead concentrations. [1] The study took the measurements of the blood lead concentrations of 117 workers at a car battery plant who were randomly assigned to two groups of garlic (1.2 milligrams of allicin from approximately 1,000 mg of garlic extract, three times daily) and d-penicillamine (250 mg, three times daily) and treated for 4 weeks. Clinical signs and symptoms of lead poisoning were also investigated and compared with the initial findings. The study found: Clinical improvement was significant in a number of clinical manifestations including irritability (p = 0.031), headache (p = 0.028), decreased deep tendon reflex (p=0.019) and mean systolic blood pressure (0.021) after treatment with garlic, but not d-penicillamine. BLCs [blood lead concentrations] were reduced significantly (p=0.002 and p=0.025) from 426.32±185.128 to 347.34±121.056μg/L and from 417.47±192.54 to 315.76±140.00μg/L in the garlic and d-penicillamine groups, respectively, with no significant difference (p=0.892) between the two groups . The frequency of side effects was significantly (p=0.023) higher in d-penicillamine than in the garlic group . Thus, garlic seems safer clinically and as effective as d-penicillamine. Therefore, garlic can be recommended for the treatment of mild-to-moderate lead poisoning. Clearly, despite the near equal reduction in measurable blood lead concentrations in both groups, improvements in various measured clinical manifestations were only found in the garlic group . Also, side effects were higher in the d-penicillamine group. These results clearly indicate the superiority of garlic over the drug and underscore how drug-based interventions often end up ‘normalizing’ target values, e.g. blood lead concentrations, without resulting in improvement in the quality of life or even the objective clinical signs and subjective symptoms of the treated patient; to the contrary, often the patient feels and is much worse off following drug treatment. Last year, a remarkable study published in the journal Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology revealed something very special about garlic: it is a natural detoxifier of lead and is not only as effective as a common chelation drug known as d-penicillamine at pulling this metal out of the body but is also much safer. The study was titled, “ Comparison of therapeutic effects of garlic and d-penicillamine in patients with chronic occupational lead poisoning,” and sought to confirm previous research in animals that showed garlic (Allium sativum) is effective in reducing blood and tissue lead concentrations. [1] The study took the measurements of the blood lead concentrations of 117 workers at a car battery plant who were randomly assigned to two groups of garlic (1.2 milligrams of allicin from approximately 1,000 mg of garlic extract, three times daily) and d-penicillamine (250 mg, three times daily) and treated for 4 weeks. Clinical signs and symptoms of lead poisoning were also investigated and compared with the initial findings. The study found: Clinical improvement was significant in a number of clinical manifestations including irritability (p = 0.031), headache (p = 0.028), decreased deep tendon reflex (p=0.019) and mean systolic blood pressure (0.021) after treatment with garlic, but not d-penicillamine. BLCs [blood lead concentrations] were reduced significantly (p=0.002 and p=0.025) from 426.32±185.128 to 347.34±121.056μg/L and from 417.47±192.54 to 315.76±140.00μg/L in the garlic and d-penicillamine groups, respectively, with no significant difference (p=0.892) between the two groups . The frequency of side effects was significantly (p=0.023) higher in d-penicillamine than in the garlic group . Thus, garlic seems safer clinically and as effective as d-penicillamine. Therefore, garlic can be recommended for the treatment of mild-to-moderate lead poisoning. Clearly, despite the near equal reduction in measurable blood lead concentrations in both groups, improvements in various measured clinical manifestations were only found in the garlic group . Also, side effects were higher in the d-penicillamine group. These results clearly indicate the superiority of garlic over the drug and underscore how drug-based interventions often end up ‘normalizing’ target values, e.g. blood lead concentrations, without resulting in improvement in the quality of life or even the objective clinical signs and subjective symptoms of the treated patient; to the contrary, often the patient feels and is much worse off following drug treatment. Lead exposure is ubiquitous in our modern age, and has been estimated to account for approximately 0.2% of all deaths and 0.6% of disability adjusted life years globally. [2] Exposure to this heavy metal results in harm to the cardiovascular, skeletal, gastrointestinal, kidney, reproductive and nervous systems of the human body. It has been identified to be particularly harmful to infants and children, whose developing nervous systems are far more susceptible to lead toxicity than those of adults. In fact, a 2008 PLoS study found decreased brain volume in adults who had been exposed to lead as children. [3] The standard of care involving drugs such as d-penicillamine is dismal, considering that the chemical has been linked to the following side effects: Anemia, Aplastic | 1 |
He s been Europe s version of the outspoken Ted Cruz for some time now. Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party may be the most disliked member of the European Parliment. But he plows ahead, ignorning the open sneers and insults by his fellow members of the EU Parliment. In what must count as perhaps the worst piece of public policy seen in modern Europe for half a century. When you compound it with an already failing and flawed EU common asylum policy, by saying to the whole world, Please come to Europe. and we saw frankly, virtually a stampede, and we learned that 80% of those that are coming are not Syrian refugees. In fact, what you ve done is opened the door to young, male, economic migrants, many of whom I have to say behave quite in a rather an aggressive manner, quite the opposite of what you would expect to see of any refugee. And yet when that failure is met by objections from countries like Hungary, their opinions are crushed. This isn t a Europe of peace, it s a Europe of division, it s a Europe of disharmony, it s a Europe that s a recipe for resentment. And yet, faced with all this failure, both of you said the same thing today. You said, Europe isn t working so let s have some more Europe, more of the same failing. Well there is I think, a bright star on the horizon. It s called the British referendum. And given that none of you want to concede Britain the ability to take back control of her own borders, a Brexit now, looks more likely than at any other time. We could use about 100 Nigel Farage s in our U.S. Congress .https://youtu.be/GbJp8zxduWk | 1 |
By Justin Gardner As the corporatocracy tightens its grip on the masses – finding ever more ways to funnel wealth to the top – humanity... | 0 |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Leading Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt said on Friday his country did not deserve to be accused of declaring war against Saudi Arabia, saying it was really sad that Riyadh had made such a statement after decades of friendship. We do not deserve, as Lebanese, such accusations, Jumblatt told Reuters by telephone. For decades, we ve been friends. Saudi Gulf affairs minister Thamer al-Sabhan earlier this week accused the Lebanese government of declaring war on Saudi Arabia, lumping Lebanon together with the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi ite group Hezbollah as a hostile party. | 0 |
There s nothing odd about Donald Trump getting blasted day in and day out by the media and those who didn t support him in the first place, but the rate at which Trump gets crucified by his own Republican Party is unprecedented.The latest GOPer to take Trump to the woodshed is Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who pretty much obliterated Trump s presidency today. In several tweets this morning, Wilson brutally blasted Trump by stating the obvious, which many conservatives are still afraid to admit: Trump is Is.Bad.At.Being.President. Pointing out that Trump s poll numbers suck for a reason, here s what Wilson had to say about America s undeserving president: Then, Wilson lashed out at the remaining Republicans that are still defending Trump and standing by him despite all of his failures and shortcomings. In a shocking rant attacking conservatives that refuse to see how dangerous and incompetent Trump really is, Wilson continued: Wilson is 100% right. Trump is NOT presidential material, and he has made very little attempt to actually rise up to the challenge of his new role and responsibilities. His polling numbers alone are the most pathetic we ve ever seen, and many Americans are in complete agreement with what Wilson is saying here.The Republican Party has screwed itself by allowing Trump to succeed. America will remember the GOP as the party forever attached to the least successful, most shameful president the country has ever had. Trump s ties to Russia alone will brand the GOP as the least patriotic political party in existence. The damage Trump has done to the party is irreversible, and Wilson knows it. He s part of the group of Republicans that is increasingly frustrated by what he sees of Trump and the GOP, and clearly, wishes this nightmare would be over already.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1 |
MADRID (Reuters) - The former head of Catalonia and other sacked members of the region s government are in Brussels, where they will make a declaration on Monday afternoon, newspaper La Vanguardia said. Other Barcelona-based paper El Periodico had earlier said Puigdemont was in the Belgian capital, without giving any further detail. | 1 |
a reply to: kruphix Theocracy? Tim Kaine? In September 1980, as violence and civil war erupted throughout Central America, a quiet American left Harvard Law School to volunteer with Jesuit missionaries in northern Honduras. Around him, the United States-backed military dictatorship hunted Marxists and cracked down on the Catholic clergy for preaching empowerment to peasant farmers. But some locals also looked warily on the bearded and mop-haired Midwesterner in their midst. Just a few hours south, the Central Intelligence Agency was using Honduras as a staging ground in its covert war against Latin American communism, with right-wing forces training for operations in El Salvador and Nicaragua. “Some of the people were wondering what’s going on, who is this guy?” Tim Kaine, then a 22-year-old volunteer and now the Democratic nominee for vice president, said in an interview. He understood why. His mentors in the priesthood had also urged him to be wary of friendly American faces. Continue reading the main story Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It was a time of such intrigue and suspicion,” Mr. Kaine said. Far from being a C.I.A. operative, Mr. Kaine was a young Catholic at a crossroads, undergoing a spiritual shift as he awakened to the plight of the deeply poor in Honduras. In its far-flung pueblos, banana plantation company towns and dusty cities, Mr. Kaine embraced an interpretation of the gospel, known as liberation theology, that championed social change to improve the lives of the downtrodden. In Honduras, his recitation of the traditional Catholic mealtime blessing changed to “Lord give bread to those who hunger, and hunger for justice to those who have bread.” Honduran military leaders, American officials and even Pope John Paul II viewed liberation theology suspiciously, as dangerously injecting Marxist beliefs into religious teaching. But the strong social-justice message of liberation theology helped set Mr. Kaine on a left-veering career path in which he fought as a lawyer against housing discrimination, became a liberal mayor, and rose as a Spanish-speaking governor and senator with an enduring focus on Latin America. | 0 |
We are already seeing signs of massive fraud, just business as usual. The good news is that millions will be on the lookout and many more will be recording events and posting them on-line over the next two weeks. Keep up the good work.
Like they if voting was a threat to the elite would not let us do at all. It is all a scam to keep the elite in power and make the masses think consent was given.
Secrete ballots enable all this fraud. | 1 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Iran on Sunday criticized French President Emmanuel Macron over his tough stance toward Tehran and said Paris would soon lose its international credibility if it blindly follows U.S. President Donald Trump. Tensions between Iran and France have risen in recent months after Macron said Tehran should be less aggressive in the Middle East, citing in particular its involvement in Syria s civil war. Macron, unlike Trump, has reaffirmed his country s commitment to the deal Iran signed in 2015 with world powers under which it curbed its disputed nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of most international sanctions. However, he has been critical of Iran s ballistic missile tests and wants to raise the possibility of new sanctions over the program, which Tehran calls solely defensive in nature. To sustain its international credibility, France should not blindly follow the Americans ... The French president is now acting as Trump s lapdog, Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency. Velayati also criticized U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who last week presented pieces of what she said were parts of an Iranian missile supplied to the Tehran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen. She described the objects as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions. This claim shows she lacks basic scientific knowledge and decency. She is like her boss (Trump) as he also says baseless, ridiculous things. Iran has not supplied Yemen with any missile, Velayati said. Tasnim news agency quoted the spokesman for Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards, Ramezan Sharif, as saying on Sunday that they show a cylinder and say Iran s fingerprints are all over it, while everyone knows that Yemen acquired some missile capabilities from the Soviet Union and North Korea in the past . France took a cautious stance on Haley s report. The United Nations secretariat has not, at this stage, drawn any conclusions. France continues to examine the information at its disposal, Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Alexandre Giorgini said on Friday. Saudi Arabia, who has long accused Iran of smuggling missiles to the Houthis and has intervened against them in Yemen s war to try to restore its internationally recognized government, welcomed Haley s report. Iran has one of the Middle East s biggest missile programs and some of its precision-guided missiles have the range to strike its arch-regional enemy Israel. Israel has also called for world powers to take punitive steps against Iran over its missile ambitions. An Israeli cabinet minister said last month that Israel has had covert contacts with Saudi Arabia amid common concerns over Iran. Velayati said on Sunday that reported meetings between Saudi and Israeli officials were no threat to Iran as both countries were weak and insignificant. Last month, the Revolutionary Guards warned Europe that if it threatens Tehran, the Guards will increase the range of missiles to above 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles). | 0 |
Make America work again! White House counselor Kellyanne Conway says people on Medicaid who will lose coverage under the Republican plan to repeal Obamacare could find jobs that provide health insurance.When the Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid coverage, Conway said, that opened it up to healthy people who could theoretically work, Conway told ABC s This Week on Sunday. Obamacare took Medicaid, which was designed to help the poor, the needy, the sick, disabled, also children and pregnant women, it took it and went way above the poverty line to many able-bodied Americans, she said. They should probably find other at least see if there are other options for them. Conway went on: If they are able-bodied and they want to work, then they ll have employer-sponsored benefits like you and I do. .@KellyannePolls: Obamacare opened up Medicaid to "many able-bodied Americans who should at least see if there are others options for them." pic.twitter.com/fzqvuwXrXB ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 25, 2017Via: CNBC | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The latest version of a House Republican bill to replace Obamacare would limit who could receive tax credits to help purchase health insurance, Politico reported on Monday, in an effort to secure the support of the chamber’s conservative wing. Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump have repeatedly promised to repeal and replace former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement but have publicly disagreed about the best way to do so. The House of Representatives is expected to unveil its legislation soon. Under a Feb. 10 draft of the legislation made available to several news outlets, Republicans proposed offering an age-based refundable tax credit regardless of income level. That was resisted by conservatives who called it another entitlement program. Critics also said extremely wealthy people would receive the credit even though they do not need it. In the most recent version of the bill, the tax credits would only be available to those within certain income levels, according to Politico. They would start to phase out for individuals earning $75,000 and households earning $150,000, and would be unavailable for individuals who earn more than $215,000, Politico reported. Republicans had also initially proposed capping exemptions on employer-provided health coverage, a provision that drew the ire of some conservatives who said the bill would remove Obamacare’s taxes only to replace it with another. According to Politico, the latest version of the bill would not include a cap. The bill also delays repealing several of Obamacare’s taxes until 2018, a year later than initially proposed, Politico reported. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump is facing bipartisan pressure to adopt a more presidential tone in his White House run including from Democratic President Barack Obama and Republicans who worry his missteps may do irreparable harm to the party and his campaign. The Republican front-runner came under fire from Obama on Friday over Trump’s recent comments that he would not rule out using nuclear weapons in Europe and that Japan and South Korea might need nuclear weapons to ease the U.S. financial commitment to their security. “The person who made the statements doesn’t know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the Korean peninsula, or the world generally,” Obama told a news conference at the conclusion of a nuclear security summit in Washington. “I’ve said before that people pay attention to American elections. What we do is really important to the rest of the world,” he said. Trump lost ground on the online prediction market after drawing fire for his suggestion earlier in the week, which he later dialed back, that women be punished for getting abortions if the procedure is banned. Those who marveled at Trump’s rise are now warning the New York billionaire that his shoot-from-the-lip approach to campaigning could jeopardize his chance to win the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election. Tuesday could be a turning point when Wisconsin hosts its nominating contest. Trump, 69, trails his leading rival, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, 45, of Texas in the Upper Midwestern state. A Cruz win would make it harder for Trump to reach the magic number of 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination before the Republican national convention in July. The winner will get to claim all of Wisconsin’s 42 delegates. “If he continues to fumble the ball, he risks everything,” said David Bossie, who as president of the conservative group Citizens United has helped to introduce Trump to grassroots activists. “These types of ham-handed mistakes give his opponents even greater opportunity.” But losing the Republican nomination may not keep Trump out of the November election. In excerpts of an interview on “Fox News Sunday” to be aired this Sunday, Trump said he wanted to run as a Republican but declined to rule out a third-party candidacy. Asked what he would do if he didn’t get the Republican nomination, Trump replied: “We’re going to have to see how I was treated.” A businessman and former reality TV show host, Trump has never held public office but hails his mastery of negotiating business deals as the sort of experience a U.S. president needs to be successful at home and abroad. He sent ripples through the Republican Party, which promotes a muscular foreign policy, by declaring NATO obsolete and for asserting that as president he might loosen the ties with longstanding U.S. allies. Trump made a surprise visit on Thursday to the Republican National Committee in Washington where he said he and Chairman Reince Priebus discussed how to unify the party going into the July convention. Priebus also addressed any confusion Trump may have had about delegate allocation rules that will govern the proceedings, a source familiar with the meeting told Reuters. Should Trump fail to win enough delegates to secure the nomination outright in the state-by-state contests ending in June, party delegates will select a nominee at the convention in a complex process of sequential votes. Online predictions market PredictIt said on Friday that the probability Trump will win his party’s nomination has dropped sharply in the past week while the likelihood of a contested convention to choose another candidate has risen. Those Republicans who see in Trump a chance to generate voter turnout beyond party regulars to blue-collar Democrats and win the White House say his detail-free style of campaigning has come back to haunt him and he needs to gear up for a new phase. Trump needs to be less sensitive about attacks from opponents and let some go by without responding, said retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a former Republican presidential candidate who dropped out of the race earlier this year and has since endorsed Trump. “If he can just get beyond that and learn how to bite his tongue and redirect people to something that is important, it will show a level of statesmanship,” Carson said. During the Wisconsin campaign, Trump has relentlessly attacked the state’s governor, Scott Walker, another Republican who dropped out of the presidential race last year and who has endorsed Cruz. Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has offered Trump informal advice, said Trump should replicate the type of performance he gave at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on March 21, when he spoke from a teleprompter and offered a well-thought-out case for strong U.S.-Israeli relations. Gingrich said Trump should make eight to 10 policy speeches in order to give voters “a sense of stability and seriousness.” “He’s gone from being an insurgent that people laughed at and a front-runner that people were amazed by to the potential nominee. That requires you to change your role as all this comes together,” Gingrich said. Alternatively, Trump could start to listen to what he says is his wife Melania’s longtime admonishment: “Darling, be more presidential.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders will compete in Wisconsin on Tuesday on the Democratic Party side. Both have hop-scotched between Wisconsin and New York, which holds its primary on April 19. Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York with national campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, is trying to prevent the Brooklyn-born Sanders, who represents Vermont in the Senate, from eroding support on her home turf. Both candidates will attend a state party fundraising dinner in Wisconsin on Saturday. | 0 |
The top Democrat on the House committee investigating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton s use of a private email system released an email exchange Wednesday between former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Clinton in which he advised her on circumventing State Department servers.The exchange between Clinton and Powell, two days before the start of her tenure as secretary of state, shows Clinton asked him for advice on the use of a BlackBerry. He responded with multiple tips, saying he used a personal computer for government and personal business that wasn t going through the State Department servers. Powell said, I even used it to do business with some foreign leaders and some of the senior folks in the Department on their personal email accounts. The emails were cited in the FBI s notes from their investigation into Clinton s and her aides handling of classified information during her time at the State Department. According to The Wall Street Journal, the FBI quoted some, but not all, of the conversations between Powell and Clinton.Clinton has told federal authorities she didn t follow Powell s guidance, even though she used a private email account to handle government business. FBI Director James Comey recommended no charges be brought against Clinton, but said that she had been extremely careless with classified information.What exactly Powell advised Clinton to do had been a matter of debate, and Powell even recently suggested Clinton s allies were trying to pin the controversy on him. Democrats released the full exchange in a bid to show that Clinton s predecessors did not use official email accounts.In his Jan. 23, 2009, response to Clinton, Powell said he used a personal computer and a PDA.The latest release appears to show that Powell acknowledged he exchanged work-related emails with foreign leaders and State Department officials using a personal device. He said the setup allowed him to bypass the government s computer network. The release of the email by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. came on the eve of a House Oversight hearing in which Republicans are expected to focus on Clinton s use of a private email server and whether the State Department had been forthcoming with Freedom of Information requests.However, Cummings came down on Republicans accusing lawmakers of holding Clinton to a double standard during the investigation into her private email server. If Republicans were truly concerned with transparency, strengthening FOIA, and preserving federal records, they would be attempting to recover Secretary Powell s emails from AOL, but they have taken no steps to do so despite the fact that this period including the run-up to the Iraq War was critical to our nation s history, he said.Read more: FOX News | 1 |
( ZHE ) Having unveiled the first images of its new nuclear missile capable of reaching US soil, Russian President Vladimir Putin is warning today that Washington’s actions are “pushing Russian into a nuclear arms race,” forcing Russia “to develop its nuclear attack systems.” Yesterday, Russia reveals photos of a new highly advanced liquid fuelled heavy ICBM capable of evading anti-missile defences and hitting US territory with 10 tonne nuclear payload.
The Makeyev Design Bureau – the designer of Russia’s heavy liquid fuelled Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (“ICBMs”) – ie. of missiles capable of reaching US territory from Russian territory, has published the first picture of Russia’s new heavy Sarmat ICBM which is due to enter service shortly, probably in 2018.
The picture is accompanied by a short statement which reads
“In accordance with the Decree of the Russian Government ‘On the State Defence Order for 2010 and the planning period 2012-2013,’ the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau was instructed to start design and development work on the Sarmat. In June 2011, the Bureau and the Russian Ministry of Defense signed a state contract for the Sarmat’s development. The prospective strategic missile system is being developed in order to assuredly and effectively fulfil objectives of nuclear deterrent by Russia’s strategic forces. ”
And now today, Putin explains:
*PUTIN: INTERMEDIATE NUCLEAR FORCES TREATY SHOULD BE OBSERVED *PUTIN: RUSSIA, U.S. MUST BREAK VICIOUS CIRCLE OF CONFRONTATION *PUTIN: RUSSIA HAS TO DEVELOP ITS NUCLEAR ATTACK SYSTEMS *PUTIN: U.S. PUSHED RUSSIA TO ARMS RACE IN NUCLEAR SPHERE | 1 |
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Joking that “opposites attract,” Prime Minister Theresa May called on President Donald Trump on Thursday to renew the “special relationship” between Britain and the United States and lead in a new, changed world. In the United States for what will be Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since he took office last week, May signaled a shift in foreign policy, bringing her position more in line with that of Trump. She urged the two countries and their leaders to stand united and confront new challenges, including the rise of economies in Asia that people fear could “eclipse the West,” the threat of Islamic extremism and a resurgent Russia. “So we - our two countries together - have a responsibility to lead. Because when others step up as we step back, it is bad for America, for Britain and the world,” May told members of Republican Party at their retreat in a speech often punctuated by applause from an enthusiastic crowd. “This cannot mean a return to the failed policies of the past. The days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over. But nor can we afford to stand idly by.” Her break with the interventionism that launched wars in Iraq and Afghanistan underscores a change in global politics. It also fits with Trump’s move to put “America first” and scores well with voters in Britain whose feeling of being left behind by globalization helped fuel Britain’s vote to leave the EU last year that propelled May to power. Aware that Brexit will shape her legacy, May welcomed her early visit to the United States, a boost to her attempts to show that Britain can prosper outside the European Union despite criticism at home for cozying up to Trump. On her U.S.-bound flight, May concentrated on similarities with the U.S. leader, who some reporters suggested had a style in stark contrast to her more cautious, restrained approach. “Haven’t you ever noticed ... sometimes opposites attract?” she answered with a laugh. Eager to win favor — and a trade deal — with the new U.S. president to bolster her hand in the divorce talks with the European Union, May said both countries shared many values and that, contrary to his statements that NATO was “obsolete,” Trump had told her he was committed to the U.S.-led military alliance. May said she supported Trump’s “reform agenda” to make NATO and the United Nations “more relevant and purposeful than they are today,” and “many of the priorities your government has laid out for America’s engagement with the world.” But there may be sticking points in Friday’s talks - May said she condemned the use of torture and would stick to UK policy, suggesting Britain may not accept intelligence that could have come from such methods that Trump could reintroduce. “We condemn torture and my view on that won’t change – whether I’m talking to you or talking to the president,” she said when asked what impact it would have if Trump brought back a CIA program for holding terrorism suspects in secret prisons. May will have navigate the middle ground carefully, wary of being criticized as too pro-Trump or alternatively as too negative toward a future trading partner. She has threatened to walk away from the EU if she fails to get a good deal, and some critics say that could give other countries, like the United States, the upper hand in any talks. And the EU might not take kindly to any overly friendly overtures to a president some of the bloc’s main leaders have voiced concern about. Some kind of trade agreement, though, is high on her list of priorities, despite Britain and the United States being at odds over genetically modified organisms, meat production and public procurement and May unable to sign deals until after Brexit. May says she will launch the divorce talks by the end of March by triggering Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which gives up to two years to negotiate an exit deal. Only then can she agree with third countries. Both leaders should use the time to find areas where they could remove trade barriers, May said. “We’re both very clear that we want a trade deal.” | 1 |
As a poll challenger who has witnessed unbelievable blatant voter fraud by Democrats, I can only imagine what this poll worker might have done to cross this Democrat chairman.The chairman of the Essex County Democratic Committee in New Jersey is accused of punching a blind Army veteran following an argument at a polling location during East Orange s council primary last month.Video was released purportedly showing Leroy Jones punching 75-year-old Bill Graves, who was volunteering as a poll worker during the incident on primary day, June 2. I hear this rumbling, Where the blank is Bill Graves? I m gonna kick his butt! Mr. Graves told a local ABC affiliate. You can see on the tape it was intentional. The suspect, identified by Essex County Prosecutors as Mr. Jones, is seen throwing several punches at Mr. Graves following what appears to be a heated confrontation.Mr. Graves and his friends said Mr. Jones attacked him because he was backing a political candidate that Mr. Jones did not support, ABC reported.Mr. Jones, however, said he was defending his wife, who was also working at the polls. Mr. Jones said the veteran got aggressive with his wife during an argument, and she called her husband for help, a local CBS affiliate reported. This man threatened my wife. This man assaulted my wife. This man charged at my wife, Mr. Jones said.Mr. Jones has been charged with simple assault, reports said. Mr. Graves was not charged.Mr. Graves, who is completely blind in one eye and legally blind in the other, said his vision has gotten worse since the attack. Angry, disgusted, because why should I have to run back and forth to the doctor because someone decided to hit me, he told ABC. It s not good, that s all I can say. I m smiling, but I m not laughing. Via: Washington Times | 0 |
The NRA has a new ad out that features Navy Seal Dom Raso speaking about the sacrifices of our military and why he stands for our anthem: I stand for my brothers who can t stand anymore Dom RasoRaso discusses the new commercial with Stuart Varney. The former Navy Seal comments on why he thinks Americans are so p*ssed off about kneeling during the anthem. He says people need to remember the foundation that all of this has been built on.Varney says he thinks the NFL is the big loser in all of this. Raso reiterates that it s the foundation of America and how we should look around and see how far we ve come. Everybody s paying attention It s the timing We couldn t agree more with Raso. Do your protest on your own time. We also believe Raso is correct in assuming some of these players just don t have a clue.This is our favorite sign from last night s game and expresses exactly what Raso is talking about when he says it s the timing . Do your protest on your own time play football! | 1 |
Jerry Heller, a veteran music manager who helped introduce N. W. A to the masses and promoted gangsta rap to a mainstream audience, died on Friday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 75. The Associated Press reported that Mr. Heller’s cousin, Gary Ballen, said he died in a hospital after he had a heart attack while driving. Mr. Heller and Eric Wright, the rapper known as founded Ruthless Records in 1987. A year later, the label released “Straight Outta Compton,” the debut album by the rap group N. W. A, whose members, in addition to were Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, soon to become major figures in as well as DJ Yella and MC Ren. The album was a hit and helped propel West Coast gangsta rap into the national spotlight — and into the center of controversy. Some people said the lyrics of N. W. A and other gangsta rappers glorified violence, while others said they simply reflected the reality of black urban life. N. W. A’s success was . Ice Cube left in 1989, and the group, which Mr. Heller managed, broke up in 1991 amid accusations of mismanagement. Mr. Heller remained close to but Dr. Dre and Ice Cube criticized Mr. Heller publicly. The acrimony did not go away. Speaking to The New York Times in April, Ice Cube accused Mr. Heller of “participating in the destruction” of N. W. A and claimed that he had “little or nothing to do with” the group’s music, adding, “We would never listen to his ideas. ” “Straight Outta Compton,” F. Gary Gray’s 2015 film about N. W. A, also presented Mr. Heller, who was played by Paul Giamatti, in a harshly negative light. Mr. Heller complained that he was depicted as “the ‘bad guy’ in the movie who is solely responsible for the demise of N. W. A” and who withheld money from the group. He sued NBC Universal, which released the movie, and more than a dozen others associated with it for defamation, seeking $35 million in actual damages and $75 million in punitive damages. A judge dismissed most of the lawsuit in June. Mr. Ballen told The Associated Press that the litigation had caused Mr. Heller significant stress. Mr. Heller started his music career in the 1960s as an agent and promoter, working with Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other major rock and RB acts. He set up Elton John’s first performance in the United States, Mr. Ballen told The Associated Press. He was living with his parents after a period of financial trouble when he began working with . Recalling Mr. Heller’s excitement when he heard a cassette recording of N. W. A’s early work, Mr. Ballen said: “As far as I’m concerned, there would never be a Dr. Dre or an Ice Cube if it wasn’t for Jerry getting their first deal, which was really difficult. Nobody wanted to sign them. ” In 2001, Mr. Heller told The Los Angeles Times that he considered gangsta rap “the most important movement since the beginning of rock ’n’ roll. ” Mr. Heller’s later ventures included a label specializing in Latino performers, but he never again achieved the level of success he had with Ruthless Records. In an interview with the website Grantland in 2015, he said that “of all the things that I’ve done, certainly the most important period of my life” was the years he worked with adding, “That was the period I’m most proud of. ” died from complications of AIDS in 1995. This year N. W. A was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which called the group “the most controversial and complicated voices of their generation. ” Gerald Heller was born on Oct. 6, 1940, and raised in Cleveland. He said he faced strong growing up and that his father, the owner of a scrap metal business, spent time with the Jewish mob, Billboard magazine reported. He served in the Army and earned a business degree from the University of Southern California after he was discharged. Mr. Heller’s autobiography, “Ruthless,” written with Gil Reavill, was published in 2006. In addition to Mr. Ballen, Mr. Heller’s survivors include a brother, Ken. | 0 |
HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe on Friday said Zimbabwe will begin compiling a new voter register next week ahead of the 2018 presidential and parliamentary elections, in which the 93-year-old is seeking to extend his 37-year hold on power. Mugabe said in an official government notice that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission would start registering voters on Sept. 14 and would end the process on Jan. 15. Opposition parties have been demanding a new roll for voters and have previously accused Mugabe s ruling ZANU-PF party of manipulating the existing register. ZANU-PF denies these accusations. Mugabe also told the central committee of his ZANU-PF on Friday that his party should galvanize supporters to register anew. He said Western powers were behind the last month s reunification of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change but added that the opposition would still be defeated by ZANU-PF in next year s votes. We know of course they are creatures of the West whose sole purpose is to dislodge ZANU-PF from power. But really, they come together as a bundle then one blow against a bundle will set the bundle in pieces, Mugabe said to applause from ZANU-PF members. | 1 |
Shawn Helton 21st Century WirePresident-elect Donald Trump continues to fill key positions in the White House and in the process, there have already been some controversial cabinet selections. This week the Trump transition team named former Goldman Sachs partner and ex-Soros Fund Management employee (turned Hollywood financier), Steve Mnuchin, as the US Treasury Secretary.The Mnuchin pick, arrives simultaneously as long time billionaire pal of Trump, Wilbur Ross, former head of Rothschild Inc s bankruptcy advisory business, becomes Commerce Secretary.While Trump s cabinet nominees for the White House have not yet been set in stone, the two selections mentioned above represent the type of financial syndicate we ve seen in the Washington swamp for many years. TOO BIG TO FAIL (Photo Illustration Shawn Helton of 21WIRE)The Financial Crisis & Goldman Sachs In April of 2016, Mnuchin was tasked with being the finance chairman of Trump s 2016 presidential campaign, paving the way for another Wall Street insider to head to the White House.In early November, sources close to CNBC floated the idea that formerly scandal plagued JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, was also up for consideration for US Treasury Secretary before Mnuchin, a long time acquaintance of Trump was officially named.The Mnuchin selection appears at odds with Trump s anti-Wall Street campaign rhetoric, as well as his drain the swamp mantra echoed towards the tail end of his presidential run.In fact, the optics of Mnuchin s appointment, seems to strike at the heart of the sub-prime mortgage-backed security lending which led to the 2007-2008 banking crisis.During the economic crash, extremely high risk subprime mortgage-backed securities were crafted from bundled loans. A large amount of these types of mortgages were adjustable rate mortgages, where interests rates would be fixed for a certain number of years, eventually sky rocketing to astronomical increases, subsequently putting the burrower under water as the banks continued to sell these loans to investors. This was a critical aspect that led directly to the foreclosure crisis that swept across the nation in the aftermath of 2008.According to an article featured in the money section of the website of How Stuff Works, we are reminded of the devastating effects of the 2007-2008 crash: In just the month of August 2008, one out of every 416 households in the United States had a new foreclosure filed against it [source: RealtyTrac]. When borrowers stopped making payments on their mortgages, MBSs [mortgage-backed security] began to perform poorly. The average collateralized debt obligation (CDO) lost about half of its value between 2006 and 2008 [source: This American Life]. And since the riskiest (and highest returning) CDOs were comprised of subprime mortgages, they became worthless after the nationwide increase in loan defaults began. Continuing, the article outlines how the hedge-fund Wall Street casino made a fortune by packaging mortgages into bonds to sell to investors: After MBSs hit the financial markets, they were reshaped into a wide variety of financial instruments with different amounts of risk. Interest-only derivatives divided the interest payments made on a mortgage among investors. If interest rates rise, the return is good. If rates fall and homeowners refinance, then the security loses value. In a bold and controversial move, the president-elect s administration by way of Mnuchin, is looking to derail the Dodd-Frank Act, which was put in place in 2010 as a moderate buffer (if at all?) to restrict the type of bank lending that led to the most recent financial crash in 2008. However, naysayers of the protective act say it s much to soft on Wall Street, which is in need of tougher restrictions, as any new deregulation could be seen as an attempt to increase the coffers of larger investment banks.In the passage below, The New American expands on this idea through revelations released by the NY Times: According to the text of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the law is supposed to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end too big to fail, [and] to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts. However, as is usually the case with federal laws, Dodd-Frank does precisely the opposite. In fact, reports the New York Times Gretchen Morgenson:Dodd-Frank actually widened the federal safety net for big institutions. Under that law, eight more giants were granted the right to tap the Federal Reserve for funding when the next crisis hits. At the same time, those eight may avoid Dodd-Frank measures that govern how we re supposed to wind down institutions that get into trouble. MONEY MAN Ex-partner of Goldman Sachs Steve Mnuchin nominated to head the US Treasury. (Image Source: mgtvwten.files.wordpress.com)Although Mnuchin has cited that there s a need to restructure the Dodd-Frank Act because it would bring economic growth to regional banks and potentially open lending up to smaller businesses there is still a fear that this may be a revolving door for the central banks to profit from as well.Zerohedge provides additional background details regarding Munchin s career in banking: Some more on Mnuchin s background: starting his career in the early 1980s as a trainee at Salomon Brothers before moving to Goldman Sachs in 1985, Mnuchin was front and center for the advent of instruments like collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps. He has called securitization an extremely positive development in terms of being able to finance different parts of the economy and different businesses efficiently. The pitfalls of the financing method came later, he s said.Mnuchin s father, Robert Mnuchin, was a partner at Goldman Sachs in the 1960s. The second-youngest of five siblings, Steven attended the prestigious Riverdale Country School and then Yale University, where his roommate was Edward Lampert, who would go on to become a hedge-fund manager and owner of Sears. In addition to Goldman, Mnuchin also worked at Soros Fund Management, whose founder, George Soros, has funded many left-leaning causes. Where it gets even more bizarre is that Mnuchin has donated frequently to Democrats, including to Clinton and Barack Obama. As a hedge fund manager, Mnuchin is part of a group of business people Trump has excoriated. In August, Trump said hedge fund managers were getting away with murder as he touted his proposal to end the so-called carried interest loophole, which gives private equity and hedge fund managers preferential tax treatment. The hedge fund guys didn t build this country, Trump said at the time on CBS Face the Nation. These are guys that shift paper around and they get lucky, he said. They are energetic. They are very smart. But a lot of them they are paper-pushers. They make a fortune. They pay no tax. It s ridiculous. Trump s disdain for Wall Street during his campaign run won t soon be forgotten by his supporters as the president-elect s antithetical banking rhetoric will only be magnified by bringing Mnuchin (along with his banking and hedge fund past) into the fold.Mnuchin s confirmation could be a contentious affair (if only for show) due to money made after his purchase of California s IndyMac following the financial crisis. Bloomberg recently stated the following concerning Mnuchin s role in the aftermath of the banking and housing meltdown: In 2009, during the depths of the financial crisis, Mnuchin joined with a group of former Goldman Sachs colleagues and billionaires to buy the remnants of IndyMac, which had collapsed after bingeing on reckless home loans during the frenzy of California s subprime-mortgage boom. They changed the name to OneWest, turned it around and sold the bank for a big gain last year. Continuing, Bloomberg outlines how Mnuchin may have seized on a financial opportunity but stops short of condemning the US Treasury nominee: It s unclear whether OneWest s practices were worse than those of other banks during the financial crisis or how much blame Mnuchin deserves for problems at a financial institution that was troubled before he bought it.Mnuchin declined to comment through a spokesman. But former OneWest Vice Chairman David Fawer said in a statement that the bank inherited loans from IndyMac with extraordinarily high delinquency rates and worked tirelessly to modify thousands of loans to help homeowners through the financial crisis. The bank has pointed to positive reviews of its foreclosure and loan-modification practices by the Obama Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Interestingly, The Nation reported that Mnuchin purchased the failing IndyMac with an agreement to be reimbursed for costs associated to foreclosures that were financed by the company: The Mnuchin group paid FDIC $1.5 billion for the bank, far less than the value of IndyMac s assets. The FDIC was so desperate to unload IndyMac that Mnuchin and his colleagues were able to obtain, as part of the purchase deal, a so-called shared loss agreement from the FDIC which reimbursed these billionaires for much of their costs for foreclosing on people unlucky enough to have mortgages from IndyMac.Within a year, the group that the Los Angeles Times called a billionaires club of private financiers had paid themselves dividends of $1.57 billion. In other words, the FDIC took much of the risk by subsidizing the bank s troubled assets, while Mnuchin and his colleagues pocketed the profits. Prior to considering Mnuchin, Trump was said to have considered former CEO of BB&T John Allison, an apparently harsh critic of the Federal Reserve banking system. The following was reported by Business Insider on November 28th: Trump will meet with John Allison, the former CEO of the bank BB&T and of the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. There have been reports that Allison is being considered for Treasury secretary. Trump s has on the campaign trail questioned the future of the Federal Reserve s political independence, but Allison takes that rhetoric a step further. While running the the Cato Institute, Allison wrote a paper in support of abolishing the Fed. CABINET PICK President-elect Donald Trump with fellow billionaire investor Wilbur Ross and vice-president-elect Mike Pence. (Image Source: (mediad.publicbroadcasting) Insiders & The White HouseJust as Mnuchin s financial behaviour will be under watch, the same will hold true for the newly tapped Commerce Secretary position to be filled by billionaire investor Wilbur Ross.A brief rundown of some of the more controversial aspects of Ross s past were recently published at Forbes: After an getting an MBA from Harvard, he spent two decades heading Rothschild Inc s bankruptcy advisory business, where he represented investors in Trump s failing Taj Mahal casino in the early 1990s. Ross and Carl Icahn convinced bondholders to strike a deal with Trump, who some investors wanted to push out, which allowed Trump to retain control of the property. Continuing, the article described how Ross invested in distressed coal companies in addition to banking opportunities: During the recession Ross targeted another struggling industry: banking. He invested in troubled banks in England, Greece and Cyprus. He was also part of a group of investors that acquired a 35% stake in the Bank of Ireland during the height of Europe s 2011 debt crisis. He sold the last of his stake in 2014, nearly tripling his initial investment. Ross has also reportedly bet hundreds of millions of dollars on downtrodden oil and gas firms since the price of oil began to slide more than two years ago. Incidentally, Ross has maintained a tough public position on so-called free trade deals like NAFTA and the soon-to-be defunct Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) but real questions still remain about his financial acquisitions during distressed times is he a risk taking business visionary or a financial vulture?Ross has denied being a business liquidator for profit and states that he has worked to rebuild failing businesses.Whatever the case may be, Mnuchin and Ross have touted big corporate tax relief and large tax cuts to the middle class in the US. However, the public should be wary of their dealings with those on Wall Street and any new reform legislation aimed at deregulation.Banking deregulation and reform directed by Wall Street or one of their ilk, should be treated with great suspicion if history is any lesson Below is another look at a passage from a report I complied prior to the election entitled PARTNERS IN CRIME: Goldman Sachs, The Clintons & Wall Street : In one of the most significant financial rulings in the modern era, the Clinton presidency gave big banks like Goldman Sachs the skeleton key to the kingdom by deregulating the investment banking system almost entirely.The Clinton/Goldman Sachs/Wall Street partnership was fully forged after the removal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which banking luminaries cynically named the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 officially titled the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The original Glass-Steagall was a depression-age four-part provision under the Bank Act of 1933 that strictly prohibited securities activities that could be harmful to investors the same sort of rogue speculating and paper fiat fraud which triggered the Great Depression (1929-1941). In fact, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which repealed Glass-Steagall, opened the door for the shadow banking realm outside of regulatory oversight which led to a much higher trading risk, as banks became more interlinked.Simply put: Clinton s repeal of Glass-Steagell removed the firewall between speculative investment banking and regular high street retail and consumer banking which exposed everyone to toxic, subprime ponzi schemes and fake paper products being pushed around the globe by the banking elite which ultimately caused the global economy to crash in 2008. All that can be laid at the feet of one William Jefferson Clinton. And Hillary still claims that, My husband did so well with the economy. Really?In a cross-posted article featured at Huffington Post, Nomi Prins underscored the complicit nature of Wall Street and Washington after the removal of tighter bank regulations under the Clinton administration during the 1990 s: To grasp the dangers that the Big Six banks (JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley) presently pose to the financial stability of our nation and the world, you need to understand their history in Washington, starting with the Clinton years of the 1990s. Alliances established then (not exclusively with Democrats, since bankers are bipartisan by nature) enabled these firms to become as politically powerful as they are today and to exert that power over an unprecedented amount of capital. Rest assured of one thing: their past and present CEOs will prove as critical in backing a Hillary Clinton presidency as they were in enabling her husband s years in office. Prins herself was a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, senior managing director at Bear Stearns, as well as having worked as a senior strategist at the now defunct investment banking firm Lehman Brothers. Following the financial crash in 2007-2008, Prins blew the whistle on the banking world in a book entitled It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street. Prins has become an advocate for the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act since departing from the investment banking world.The media outlet Common Dreams described the merger between Citicorp and Travelers Group (becoming Citigroup), which was dubbed the Citi-Travelers Act on Capitol Hill. It was a conglomeration that went hand in hand with the Clinton administration s influence on banking deregulation marked by the repeal of Glass-Steagall: Then, in 1998, in an act of corporate civil disobedience, Citicorp and Travelers Group announced they were merging. Such a combination of banking and insurance companies was illegal under the Bank Holding Company Act, but was excused due to a loophole that provided a two-year review period of proposed mergers. The merger was premised on the expectation that Glass-Steagall would be repealed. Citigroup s co-chairs Sandy Weill and John Reed led a swarm of industry executives and lobbyists who trammeled the halls of Congress to make sure a deal was cut. At the time, it was the largest financial merger even though it was technically illegal, as stated by the former Bankers of America CEO Kenneth Guenther. In 1999, after 12 attempts in 25 years, Congress passed the Financial Services Modernization Act, which led to the repeal of Glass-Steagall. Both of Trump s finance picks arrive with the all to familiar baggage witnessed within the beltway swamp and if Mnuchin s and Ross s questionable pasts are to be accepted wholesale, it s difficult to imagine insiders of their pedigree turning over a new leaf for the everyday man. The following is a screen shot of a statement released by former Goldman CEO and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson regarding the Mnuchin pick. As a reminder, Paulson presided over the financial crisis and was US Treasury Secretary from 2006-2009. In 2008, amid a flurry of backlash, he authorized a $700 million dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) banking bailout, masking the derivatives scam pulled by Wall Street s top brass:In 2010, CBS News cataloged the long relationship of Goldman Sachs and government, revealing at least four dozen former employees, lobbyists or advisers at the highest reaches of power both in Washington and around the world. It s also worth noting that White House adviser Steve Bannon and adviser Anthony Scaramucci have also worked for banking behemoth Goldman Sachs.Will Washington see more Wall Street friendly policies under Trump? READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
Translation: I m so sorry for your loss but wanted to use this moment to point out I won an award for my acting in Nice!Literate translation of Cher s illiterate tweet: My broken heart (emoji translation) goes out to people of France. I was just THERE. France is the world s Treasure box (heart emoji). Spent MANY (misspelled in tweet) July s SIMCER70 s (not sure what that means). won Cannes (misspelled Cannes) Best Actress for Mask My goes out 2PPL OF FRANCE. I Was Just THERE. France is the worlds Treasure box Spent MANNY JULY S SIMCER70swon Canne Best Actress 4 mask Cher (@cher) July 15, 2016 | 1 |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Billionaire Carlos Slim said on Friday that Mexico should not fear Donald Trump, seeing opportunities for his country in the U.S. president’s economic policies, and praising Mexicans for uniting behind their government in talks with the northern neighbor. In a rare news conference, the telecommunications and construction mogul called Trump a negotiator, “not Terminator” and said his repeated attacks on Mexico had united the country, giving President Enrique Pena Nieto “strength” in trade and border security talks. “This is the most surprising example of national unity that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in my life,” said Slim, who turns 77 on Saturday. He compared Mexicans’ response to that when a devastating earthquake that hit Mexico City in 1985. “We have to back the president of Mexico so he defends our national interests.” Slim spoke to reporters after Pena Nieto on Thursday canceled a planned Washington summit with Trump following a tweet by the American that he should stay away unless Mexico agreed to pay for a border wall. Aiming to cool tensions, the two presidents spoke for an hour by phone on Friday, and the battered peso currency strengthened. Trump’s threats to impose steep tariffs on Mexican products have ravaged the peso and spread worries about the economy, which is heavily dependent on the U.S. market. However, Slim, who spoke out against his fellow billionaire during the U.S. election campaign but had dinner with him after the Nov. 8 victory at the polls, said Trump’s policies aimed at growing the U.S. economy would boost Mexico’s growth as well as provide jobs for Mexican laborers living north of the border. “The circumstances in the United States are very favorable for Mexico,” Slim said, adding that he has not had any communication with Trump’s team since the December dinner. “It wasn’t a romance,” he joked about the meeting. Referring repeatedly to Trump’s books and other writings, Slim argued that people should not be surprised at Trump’s actions because it is all in his book “Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America,” which Slim said he had not finished reading. “He’s a great negotiator,” Slim said. He said businesses should not be too worried if Trump’s policies led to the collapse of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) underpinning Mexico’s economy, saying the country could fall back on World Trade Organization tariffs. He said Mexican workers in the United States would benefit from Trump’s planned infrastructure push, but warned that U.S. protectionism and other policies could hurt American consumers. “Among these changes is a return to the past, what a dear friend called ‘regressive utopias’,” he said, calling on the United States to focus on advanced manufacturing. Asked about Trump’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Slim said the best barrier to illegal immigration would be investment that created opportunities and jobs in Mexico. Before the highly-anticipated news conference, speculation had been growing about whether Slim might try to run for president in 2018, but he poured cold water on that talk. “I think I can do more on the business side,” he said. Slim’s largest companies do not have much obvious exposure to any border tax Trump might impose on Mexican imports. His high-profile holding in the New York Times Co, made him a target during the U.S. campaign, when Trump accused him of using the newspaper to try to help Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. Slim’s shares have limited voting rights. Slim on Friday said he had been selling New York Times stock, but his son-in-law later said this was not correct. At the conference he was flanked by two of his sons, Carlos and Marco Antonio, and his son-in-law, Arturo Elias, with other family members watching. Most of the Slim family’s wealth comes from Latin America-focused telecoms giant America Movil. America Movil does have a substantial U.S. business called TracFone which sells prepaid phone plans to customers and rents the networks of big operators. His next largest companies are retail and industrial conglomerate Grupo Carso and Mexico-focused bank Grupo Financiero Inbursa. | 1 |
The house of cards is falling as America eagerly awaits Wikileaks next major dump that promises to expose evidence that should indict Hillary IRS Commissioner John Koskinen referred congressional charges of corrupt Clinton Foundation pay-to-play activities to his tax agency s exempt operations office for investigation, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.The request to investigate the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation on charges of public corruption was made in a July 15 letter by 64 House Republicans to the IRS, FBI and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). They charged the foundation is lawless. The initiative is being led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who serves as the vice chairwoman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees FTC. The FTC regulates public charities alongside the IRS.The lawmakers charged the Clinton Foundation is a lawless pay-to-play enterprise that has been operating under a cloak of philanthropy for years and should be investigated. Read more: Daily Caller | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Tuesday to discuss border security and other issues, the U.S. Department of State said in a statement. The two will meet in Ottawa to discuss U.S.-Canadian coordination on a range of global and regional topics, the statement said. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tillerson and Freeland will confer on North Korea, Ukraine and Venezuela among other issues. Canada and the United States plan to co-host an international meeting on North Korea in Vancouver in January. Pyongyang has continued to test nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The meeting is designed to produce better ideas to ease tensions over North Korea s tests, Canadian officials have said. The two ministers also are likely to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump s demand for revisions to the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico. | 0 |
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Support for the far-right, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party has fallen to its lowest level since surging during the migration crisis of 2015, a government poll showed on Tuesday. The Sweden Democrats approval rating shot to nearly 20 percent in November 2015 after hundreds of thousands of people arrived in Sweden to seek asylum. But a stricter immigration policy has led to a big reduction in numbers, and the issue has slipped from the top of the political agenda. Support for the Sweden Democrats stood at 14.8 percent in November, compared to 18.4 percent in June, Sweden s Statistics Office found in its twice yearly poll for which it interviewed 9,000 people between Oct. 27 and Nov. 28. The government, comprised of the Social Democrats and Greens, had a 36.4 percent approval rating, compared with 35.6 percent in the June poll. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has wooed voters with a pledge to boost spending by almost 44 billion crowns ($5.23 billion) in the budget for 2018 with much of the money going on welfare, education and the police. Immigration is no longer dominating the political debate in Sweden, Jonas Hinnfors, political scientist at Gothenburg University said. Together with the Left Party, which supports the coalition in parliament, the government has 43.4 percent support, up from 41.9 percent in June. At its current level of support, the Sweden Democrats would still have enough clout to block either the centre-left or centre-right blocs from forming a government after the next election in September 2018, should they fail to reach a majority. The Sweden Democrats, shunned by all the major parties due to their far-right roots, have said they would help vote down either a centre-left or centre-right coalition in 2018, making it unclear how either bloc will be able to form a government. | 1 |
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia announced on Friday that passengers traveling on its airlines to the United Kingdom would once again be allowed to carry on electronic devices, reversing a ban put in place earlier this year for security reasons. Passengers will be able to use laptops and tablets in aircraft cabins on flights from the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah starting from Dec.21, the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) said in a statement on its official Twitter account. The United States and Britain implemented curbs on electronic items in the cabin in March on direct flights from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia in response to unspecified security threats. The United States lifted its ban in July on passengers on Saudi Arabian airlines carrying large electronics on board flights bound for America. | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac opened higher on Wednesday, reaching their highest levels in more than a month after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the Trump administration will take up reform of the two mortgage finance agencies in the latter half of 2017. Fannie Mae’s stock price was up over 3 percent at $2.94 a share, while Freddie Mac shares were 3 percent higher at $2.77. | 1 |
SEE MORE ALEPPO UPDATES & EXCLUSIVES HEREThis press conference is an excellent information tool for anyone who has serious questions about the true size and scope of the propaganda war being waged against Syria by governments and media organizations in the US, UK and EU member states. Please share with friends, family and colleagues On December 9, 2016, the permanent mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations presented a panel of speakers who explained in detail what is really happening right now in Aleppo, Syria, and how the western media has intentionally distorted events in Syria over the last 5 years. Panels members include Dr. Bahman Azad, member of the coordinating committee for the Hands Off Syria and Organization Secretary of US Peace Council, and Eva Bartlett, independent Canadian journalist, Donna Nassor, professor and lawyer also part of US Peace Council, and Sara Flounders cofounder of the International Action Center. SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
Being an utter cock no barrier to success 09-11-16 THERE is no ‘glass ceiling’ for utter cocks any more, it has been confirmed. Donald Trump’s election success has been hailed as a victory by the cock, arsehole and bellend communities, who have for centuries struggled to gain acceptance in mainstream society. Total cock Roy Hobbs said: “Farage gave us hope, Trump has given us freedom. No longer will being an utter penis be frowned upon. “I can polish the ‘No Turning’ sign at the end of my driveway with pride, and drive my white 2011 BMW 7 Series right up anyone’s arse without fear of reproach. “The world told me I was wrong. But I was right, or rather if I was wrong it doesn’t matter any more. “I am an utter cock, hear my cry.”
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By now, everyone is used to the rank ignorance and unabashed bigotry that is regularly displayed by Rep. Steve King (R-IA). After all, this is a man who has accused DREAMERS of being drug mules with no evidence, has tweeted overtly white nationalist sentiments, and has suggested that only white people have ever contributed to what he calls western civilization. Here is video of that stunning statement:Now, he is at it again, and this time his target is an especially vulnerable group: Transgender soldiers.Taking to the floor of the House of Representatives during their General Speeches forum a time in which people can apparently say whatever they like, no matter how outrageous King ranted about transgender people in the military, compared gender reassignment to the castration of slaves in the Ottoman Empire, and generally made an ignorant ass of himself like always. After this lengthy and deeply offensive speech, King wound the whole thing up by ranting about how the only reason people will become Navy SEALS now is to get free gender reassignment surgery. He said: And we are thinking that we are going to make the military better while people lining up at the recruitment center who have planned to do sexual assignment surgery and know if I can get into the Navy, army, air force and Marines and become a Navy SEAL and submit to sexual reassignment surgery and go from a man to a woman. By the way, it doesn t look like there will be any women becoming men after going through SEAL training. So let me get this straight. Someone would go through the hell that is SEAL training just to get gender reassignment for free? Why would they do that? Any military member can get treatment under their health insurance provided to them for their brave and selfless service to our great nation.Rep. King, please educate yourself. You are an embarrassment to the people of your state and to the United States of America. Hopefully, one day the folks in your district will wake up and stop re-electing you.Watch video of the latest outrage below:Rep. Steve King promotes conspiracy that trans ppl join military for "free surgery" to "cut 'em up and remake 'em into something different." pic.twitter.com/Ym6v7BUAeX Dominic Holden (@dominicholden) July 14, 2017GOP Rep. Steve King compares transgender troops to Ottoman empire eunuchs who wouldn't fight, says trans people will enlist just for surgery pic.twitter.com/kxoRsBdi7I Dominic Holden (@dominicholden) July 14, 2017Featured image via Darren McCollester/Getty Images | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senior U.S. senators asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday to explain “questionable management practices” at his department that they believe are weakening the country’s diplomatic power, adding to a chorus of concern in Congress. Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen delivered a letter to Tillerson asking him to begin consulting with lawmakers on decisions that have an impact on recruiting, retaining and staffing the State Department, removing a hiring freeze and resuming promotions. McCain is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Shaheen is the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on State Department management. “While we support reasonable steps to improve the efficiency of the State Department, such efforts must be fully transparent, with the objective of enhancing, not diminishing, American diplomacy,” the senators wrote. They said declining morale, recruitment and retention of staff, a lack of experienced leadership and reports that diplomacy is becoming less effective “paint a disturbing picture.” Many members of Congress, Democrats as well as some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, have rejected Trump’s proposal to cut the State Department budget by about 30 percent. Tillerson has embraced the plan, and imposed a hiring freeze while analyzing the agency’s operations and deciding how to reorganize them. On Tuesday, the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee both blasted the agency for cuts in staff and what they described as a failure to have a plan for a proposed organization. The panel’s top Democrat, Senator Ben Cardin, reiterated his concerns on Wednesday. “Our national security is being jeopardized by the employment and career decisions being made at the State Department,” he told reporters. It was not immediately clear how lawmakers could press the administration to change its policies, especially because Trump’s fellow Republicans, most of whom vote consistently with the president, hold majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. A State Department representative said the department had received the letter and would “appropriately respond.” Tillerson has said his reorganization plan aimed to increase efficiency and to cut costs, with a target of saving at least 10 percent, or about $5 billion, over the next five years from fiscal-year 2017 levels. Cardin said the impact of disorganization at the State Department was being felt internationally. “I could mention almost every place in the world,” he said. | 0 |
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While the idiot presstitutes and their brainwashed victims hyper-ventilate about Trump’s lewd talk about women, one consequence of the ignored nuclear arms race restarted by the neoconservatives, who have been in charge of US foreign policy in the 21st century, is the Russian Satan 2, which is reported to be capable of destroying the entirety of a land mass the size of Texas or France with one hit.
The neoconservative foreign policy that has produced this result is obviously a total failure and endangers all life on earth. Hillary Clinton is a representative of this disastrous foreign policy. If Americans and Europeans cannot put into office people who can get along with Russia, there is no future for anyone. Trump is the only one who says he sees no point in conflict with Russia. This is what is important, not lewd talk about women.
Hillary’s lewd talk about Putin –“the new Hitler”–will get us all killed. | 1 |
BUDAPEST/WARSAW (Reuters) - Wary of German Chancellor Angela Merkel s ambition for closer European Union integration, right-wing politicians in the EU s eastern wing are touting her weak election victory as a vindication of their concerns. Eurosceptic governments in Poland and Hungary have been vocal in criticizing Merkel s open-door approach to migration and opposing EU reforms that would transfer more power to the Brussels institutions at the expense of national governments. Poland s foreign minister said Germany s Sept. 24 election, in which Merkel s conservative bloc won the lowest number of votes since 1949, was proof that Berlin would have to heed the concerns of eastern member states. She should focus on maintaining the unity of the European Union, Witold Waszczykowski told Polska the Times newspaper. Mrs Merkel will have to look for new allies and this in turn opens room for maneuver for Polish diplomacy. Today, there is no climate for federalization and there won t be one in the nearest future. Merkel is expected to take months to build a new coalition government, reducing German pressure on Warsaw and Budapest to comply with EU standards. Her most likely coalition allies are the increasingly eurosceptic, pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens - but she also faces a more divided Bundestag lower house, where the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now the third biggest party. Nationalist politicians in the EU s eastern member states hope the rise of the AfD, the first far-right party to enter the Bundestag in decades, will force Merkel to harden her stance on immigration after Germany admitted more than one million migrants and refugees, mostly Muslims, in 2015-16. Hungary has already said German politicians since the election have endorsed its measures to beef up its border security to discourage migrants from entering the EU. About some aspects of illegal migration we are still in debate, but there is full agreement on the principal issue that the protection of the external borders of Europe is very important, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after meeting senior German lawmakers in the city of Stuttgart last week. The head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has invited the leaders of the four Visegrad states - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - to a dinner in Brussels on Oct. 18, ahead of an EU summit, to try to ease tensions between them and wealthier western Europe. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban s Fidesz party and Merkel s CDU-CSU are in the same political family in the European Parliament, and despite Berlin s criticism of his record in government, has welcomed Merkel s election victory. Let s quietly pray every evening for the extension of the mandate of the current chancellor, he said before the election. Orban himself faces an election next April in which he will seek a third consecutive term, and he probably does not want to tackle EU reform issues head-on now, analysts said. Orban s objective is to keep the margin of maneuver open as long as possible: he does not want to face yes-or-no questions like whether to take Hungary into the euro zone or stay on the periphery anytime soon, Botond Feledy, senior fellow at the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy in Budapest. GERMAN-FRENCH AXIS But once Merkel has bedded down a new coalition in Berlin, Budapest and Warsaw can expect a resumption of pressure over their record on democracy and rule of law from a reinvigorated partnership between Germany and Emmanuel Macron s France. Analysts said Merkel and Macron, both keen to overcome EU disunity, may try to pick off more cooperative eastern states such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic in order to concentrate pressure on Poland and Hungary to comply with EU rules. Merkel may also in due course revive her demands on the eastern states to take in more migrants as she seeks to blunt the allure of the AfD at home for conservative German voters. Warsaw, currently under an unprecedented EU investigation over its rule of law standards, is bracing for renewed criticism. We are expecting Merkel to get tough on Poland - definitely not in the next few months while the new government is being formed, but after the domestic dust has settled, a Polish government source added. | 1 |
17 mins ago 2 Views 0 Comments 0 Likes Check Keiser Report website for more: http://www.maxkeiser.com/ In this episode of the Keiser Report Max and Stacy discuss howls at the moon as the Bank of Japan attempts to taper the Tokyo condo market ponzi. They also discuss the newly announced interventions by the UK government in the nation’s deflating property pyramid. In the second half Max interviews journalist and comedy writer, Charlie Skelton, about his observations on the US elections. He concludes that Hillary is the face in the machine of the Matrix and that the craziness is the system. WATCH all Keiser Report shows here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL768A33676917AE90 (E1-E200) http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC3F29DDAA1BABFCF (E201-E400) http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPszygYHA9K2ZtV_1KphSugBB7iZqbFyz (E401-600) http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPszygYHA9K1GpAv3ZKpNFoEvKaY2QFH_ (E601-E800) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPszygYHA9K19wt4CP0tUgzIxpJDiQDyl (E801-Current) Subscribe Like | 0 |
A Democratic Senator decided to close out 2015 by raising a strong awareness of just how bad America s gun violence problem is. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) made a list of every mass shooting, including the number injured or killed, and posted it to his Twitter account. The list can be paged through, with each entry showing the number of injured and dead.Take a few moments and page through the list below. The tragedy that was 2015 becomes quickly apparent.#ICYMI for my year in review I listed out every single mass shooting in 2015. They're all here: https://t.co/bUSKcjHs2x Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015While paging through the list, the reality of our problem with guns becomes undeniable to even the most backwards, gun-toting, Tea Party patriot. Contrasted with a nation like Japan, which averages less than 1 gun death per 100,000 people most years (sometimes averaging so low the statistic is virtually zero), you can see that we simply do not have to live with this as a reality of our society.Many of the incidents that were included never made it to the mainstream media, because they were just not sensational enough. Let s think about that for a minute. In Japan, there was a year when 22 shootings occurred. It became a national scandal. In America, if we had a year with 22 gun deaths, the only newsworthy portion of it would be how America solved its problem with gun violence.Senator Murphy added the following comment to his post:In 2015 there were 372 mass shootings incidents where four or more people where shot, including the shooter. I went through each and every one of them on shootingtracker.com, and tweeted out the stories. In the face of this carnage, there is no excuse for our inaction.Senator Murphy s context is very important. Only incidents where four or more people were shot made his list. There are far more that did not. The total number of shootings for 2015 so far stands at an astounding 52,339, with 13,296 deaths. To add a bit of context to the total, only 1,935 were able to be deemed accidental, which includes most acts of irresponsible use or storage of firearms.Very slowly, things are beginning to change. President Obama has plans, by way of executive order, to increase the requirements for background checks as well as strengthen the requirements for reporting lost or stolen guns. Coupled with California s new initiative allowing state government to seize guns from those deemed a menace to society, 2016 could mark a slight turning point in NRA dominance over gun safety in America.Featured image via senate.gov | 1 |
The owners of teams where NFL players continue to kneel during the national anthem are about to get a very real wake up call as ticket sales and TV viewership continues to tank.Images from NFL stadiums across America have been posted on Twitter, as evidence of how well the player s anti-cop movement is working out for the owners bottom line.More fans attend a local high school football game than the #4 ranked Cleveland Browns vs. the #1 ranked Tennessee Titans game, that was played in the Cleveland stadium:And we are underway #Browns #Titans pic.twitter.com/dcrirhjo6r Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) October 22, 2017The number of empty seats at the Miami vs. the New York Jets game was almost as bad as the half empty Cleveland stadium. by a Miami scribe #NYJvsMIA RT @ArmandoSalguero: Swaths of empty seats here post kickoff. pic.twitter.com/q4Mmdv5UU3 Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) October 22, 2017An article in the Chicago Tribune justified how the underperforming Chicago Bears are consistently able to get away with the mind-boggling rising ticket prices. The Chicago Bears play in the second largest market in the NFL and in the league s smallest stadium. The law of supply and demand dictates that when a relatively small number of seats is available for the most popular sport and team in town, then ticket prices will increase. Thanks to the NFL players decision to kneel during our national anthem, the Bears may not be able to afford to raise the ticket prices, since fans have decided to something more productive with their time than watching a bunch of snowflake football players disrespecting our flag, as a way to support an anti-cop movement that was started by Black Lives Matter.Here s a look at the usually sold out Chicago Bears stadium today:(2/X) RT @lauriekor: Look at all the empty seats #Bears #nfl #emptyseats #chi #CARvsCHI #unreal pic.twitter.com/C5CwhfDx9X Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) October 22, 2017The Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Indiana Colts (the team that Vice President Pence famously walked away from, after the players disrespected our flag during the anthem) game was far from capacity:#NFL #JAXvsIND RT @kimklika: Tons of empty seats at kickoff not surprising pic.twitter.com/65AYCSo3NK Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) October 22, 2017There was a sea of blue (empty blue seats) at the New York Jets Vs. Miami Dolphins game in Miami:#NFL #NYJvsMIA RT @nsbbcom: Nobody cares about jet or dolphins @[me] pic.twitter.com/k6wPSlIRJG Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) October 22, 2017This guy, who goes by the Twitter name Fistful of Doom said it best when he said, You know who isn t winning? The NFL.You know who isn't winning? The NFL. This was kickoff time in Jacksonville. Look at those empty seats! pic.twitter.com/fd7CwOuHk4 Fistful of Doom (@fistfulofdoom) October 15, 2017 | 1 |
LONDON (Reuters) - British aid minister Priti Patel is flying back to London after cancelling a planned trip to Africa, the BBC reported on Wednesday, after local media reported she was facing the sack for not fully disclosing meetings during a holiday to Israel. The BBC quoted unnamed sources as saying that she was on a plane. Some on social media suggested she would arrive in London at around 1500 GMT. | 1 |
LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola s ruling MPLA party has won a general election by taking 61.07 percent of the vote, the electoral commission said on Wednesday, making Jo o Louren o the next president of sub-Saharan Africa s third-largest economy. He will replace Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who steps down after 38 years at the helm but will continue as head of the People s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). The main opposition National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) took 26.67 percent, with the smaller opposition party CASA-CE winning 9.44 percent. Mission accomplished, Louren o told supporters at his party s headquarters in Luanda. We ll produce a better future for the country and the people of Angola, he said in his first comments as president-elect. He is expected to take office on Sept. 21. UNITA, which has repeatedly complained that the electoral process has been non-transparent and illegal, declined to comment after the results on Wednesday. A spokesman told Reuters a statement will be made on Thursday. UNITA has previously said it will appeal the results. Speaking earlier on Wednesday, the spokeswoman for the National Electoral Commission Julia Ferreira rejected the opposition s complaints as having a lack of clarity and objectivity , adding sufficient proof had not been presented. Electoral observers have said the vote on Aug 23 was reasonably free and fair. The head of the African Union s observation mission, Jose Maria Neves, congratulated Angola on a poll he said served as a reference for the continent . Speaking before announcing definitive election results, President of the National Electoral Commission Andr da Silva Neto asked the parties to accept the election results. On the streets of Luanda, cheering and the honking of horns was heard as residents celebrated another electoral win for the MPLA, which has maintained an unbroken hold on power since Africa s second-largest crude producer gained independence from Portugal in 1975. Louren o will be only the country s third president in that time. A quiet 63-year-old more used to army barracks and the closed doors of party politics than the public spotlight, he has denied he will remain in the shadow of his predecessor dos Santos. Louren o has promised to kick-start the economy and has not ruled out deals with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to help restructure it. Angola imports everything from washing powder to long-life milk at huge cost. MPLA will have 150 lawmakers, giving them the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to pass any form of legislation. | 1 |
Congressman Tells Cub Scouts He’ll Vote Trump ‘No Matter What Crazy Things He Says’ (VIDEO) By Richard Marcil on October 27, 2016
New video from a Cub Scout meeting in Kansas shows Representative Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) pledging to support his party’s presidential candidate, Donald Trump – no matter what. “I’m going to be supporting the Republican nominee, no matter what crazy things he says.”
Yoder’s admission is shameful enough on its own. But the worst part is his audience – a group of Cub Scouts, aged 7-10.
The video, taken October 11, was recorded shortly after the release of the now-infamous “ Pussy Tape ” in which Trump brags about sexually assaulting women. Yoder even made a joke about Trump’s scandalous comments: “A-ha! Which parent put him up to that? Is there a hot mic in here? Well, I’m a Republican, so I’m going to be supporting the Republican nominee, no matter what crazy things he says.” A Lesson On ‘Spin’– For the Kids!
Yoder dishonestly suggested that the child was not curious enough to ask the question on his own. But in fact, kids are quite aware of the impending election. An informal survey of teachers found high levels of youth anxiety – especially among racial and ethnic minorities – due to Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric.
His reply also dishonestly implies that he’s somehow obligated to vote along party lines. But the many Republican defections from the Donald Trump camp prove that is untrue. Yoder could have used the opportunity to teach the Scouts that they should always do the right thing, even if it means refusing to do what is easy and expected of you. Instead, he towed the party line.
Perhaps Yoder needs a reminder from the Cub Scouts about where his loyalty should lie. According to the Scout Oath , decent citizens should pledge: “On my honor I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country…” Damage Control
Yoder is running for a fourth term in a suburban Kansas City district. His team is already running damage control on the tape. Yoder spokesperson, C.J. Grover, played the remarks off as evidence of Yoder’s “quick wit.” “Anyone who knows Kevin knows that he utilizes his quick wit to connect with voters. All this video shows is Kevin continues to be out in the community taking all questions from anyone who wants to ask them, whereas his opponent has been hiding in his basement hoping his financial backers in D.C. can steal him a victory.”
Featured image: screengrab via YouTube video . About Richard Marcil
Richard Marcil is a freelance writer. Connect | 1 |
General Boykin spoke at The Awakening 2016 conference and had this to say about the hot topic of gender neutral bathrooms: | 0 |
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ST. PAUL — President Obama, reacting with the same horror as many Americans to a grisly video of a bloody, dying man in Minnesota who was shot by the police, begged the nation to confront the racial disparities in law enforcement while acknowledging the dangers that officers face. “When incidents like this occur, there’s a big chunk of our citizenry that feels as if, because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same, and that hurts, and that should trouble all of us,” Mr. Obama said in a statement on Thursday after arriving in Warsaw for a NATO summit. “This is not just a black issue, not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we all should care about. ” A few hours earlier, Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota, who seemed shaken by the video showing the man, Philando Castile, as he died, also pointed to the role of race. “Would this have happened if the driver were white, if the passengers were white?” he asked. “I don’t think it would have. ” The statements capped a wrenching day that started with widespread replays of the extraordinary video of Mr. Castile’s final moments and the aftermath of the shooting, which his girlfriend had narrated as they occurred live on Facebook. There were demonstrations and a vigil for Mr. Castile, with appearances by members of his family, in St. Paul. But the shooting reverberated far beyond the state. In Dallas, gunfire broke out Thursday evening at a demonstration, turning a vocal but peaceful rally into chaos as two snipers shot at police officers, killing five of them, the police said. Mr. Dayton and members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation asked for the Justice Department to investigate the death of Mr. Castile, 32, who died hours after the department took over the investigation into the fatal police shooting, also captured on video, in Baton Rouge, La. The governor said he had spoken with White House and Justice Department officials. But the department responded that for now, it would leave the investigation to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and would offer assistance. The shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota follow a long string of deaths of black people at the hands of the police — in Staten Island Cleveland Baltimore Ferguson, Mo. and North Charleston, S. C. among others — that have stoked outrage around the country. The encounters, many of them at least partly caught on video, have led to intense debate about race relations and law enforcement. Mr. Obama, in Warsaw, said he felt compelled to follow up a Facebook message with a personal statement about the killings, though he said he could not comment directly on them. “But what I can say is that all of us, as Americans, should be troubled by these shootings, because these are not isolated incidents,” he said. “They’re symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system. ” The president cited the nation’s tortured racial history and current statistics on unequal treatment of the races. Sounding wistful, he said, “maybe in my children’s lifetimes, all the vestiges of that past will have been cured. ” Mr. Castile’s deadly encounter with the police occurred Wednesday night at 9 p. m. in the small city of Falcon Heights, just northwest of St. Paul. The graphic video showed Mr. Castile, who had been shot several times, slumping toward the woman who was recording the scene. As she did so, her daughter sat in the back seat and an officer stood just outside the driver’s side window, still aiming his gun at the mortally wounded man at range. The video is all the more shocking for the calm, clear narration of the woman, Diamond Reynolds, and the fact that she was streaming it live on Facebook. On the video, Ms. Reynolds, who said Mr. Castile was her boyfriend, gives her account of what happened, saying again and again that he had informed the officer that he was carrying a gun, and that he was just reaching for his driver’s license and registration — as the officer had requested — when the officer opened fire. She estimated, at various times, that three, four or five shots were fired. “Please, Officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him,” she said. “You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir. ” Ms. Reynolds’s daughter appears several times in the video. Near the end of the clip, as the two are sitting in the back of a police car and Ms. Reynolds becomes increasingly distraught, the girl comforts her mother. “It’s O. K. Mommy,” she says. “It’s O. K. I’m right here with you. ” Late Thursday night, Minnesota authorities identified the officer who fired as Jeronimo Yanez. They said he is on administrative leave as the investigation continues. Another officer who did not shoot but was on the scene is also on leave. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Mr. Castile’s manner of death to be a homicide, meaning he was killed by another person. In a short statement, the medical examiner said Mr. Castile sustained multiple gunshot wounds and died at 9:37 p. m. in a hospital emergency room, about 20 minutes after he was shot. Mr. Castile had worked in the nutrition services department of St. Paul Public Schools since 2002, and became a supervisor two years ago, the district said in a statement. In recent years, he worked at J. J. Hill Montessori Magnet School, which is part of the district. “He was one of the people you’ve ever met,” said Antonio Johnson, a first cousin of Mr. Castile’s. “This kid has never been in an argument. You could try to argue with him, and he was so nonconfrontational that he’d just laugh. ” Danny Givens, a nondenominational pastor who said he was a friend of Mr. Castile’s, said, “Philando was a very man, personable, smile would light up a room, eyes that just speak volumes of love. ” In its statement, the school district said: “He had a cheerful disposition and his colleagues enjoyed working with him. He was quick to greet former with a smile and hug. ” In the day after the shooting, Ms. Reynolds and her video supplied the only public accounts of the lethal encounter. Officials said they could not offer any details, though they did confirm that a gun — presumably Mr. Castile’s — was recovered from the scene. Mona Dohman, the state commissioner of public safety, who oversees the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, declined to say whether Mr. Castile had a permit to carry a concealed firearm. Mr. Dayton said he was struck by the fact that the video did not show officers making any attempt to render first aid to the dying man, but that they handcuffed Ms. Reynolds and placed her and her daughter in the back of a police car. “The stark treatment I find just absolutely appalling at all levels,” he said. The video of the shooting passed rapidly among Twitter, Facebook and YouTube users, becoming significant news online. The terms #FalconHeightsShooting and #PhilandoCastile were trending on Twitter as news of the encounter spread. Hillary Clinton wrote on Twitter: “America woke up to yet another tragedy of a life cut down too soon. Black Lives Matter. ” Speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, Ms. Reynolds said that Mr. Castile, had just come from having his hair done for his birthday when they were pulled over on Larpenteur Avenue, a major thoroughfare through Falcon Heights, a predominantly white and city of 5, 500 residents. The two officers who stopped them were from the nearby city of St. Anthony, which provides police services under contract to Falcon Heights, One officer approached Mr. Castile, who was driving, and said he had a broken taillight, Ms. Reynolds said. “He tells us to put our hands in the air, we have our hands in the air,” she said. “At the time as our hands is in the air, he asked for license and registration,” which Mr. Castile carried in a wallet in his back pocket. As he is reaching for his back pocket wallet, to produce his license and registration, “he lets the officer know, ‘Officer, I have a firearm on me,’ ” she said. “I began to yell, ‘But he’s licensed to carry.’ After that, he began to take off shots — bah, bah, bah, bah, ‘Don’t move! Don’t move!’ But how can you not move when you’re asking for license and registration? It’s either you want my hands in the air or you want my identification. ” The video, some versions of which were reversed, making it appear that Mr. Castile was in the passenger seat, begins with images of Mr. Castile, who appears to be moaning and moving slightly, his left arm and left side bloody. Ms. Reynolds, who uses the name Lavish Reynolds on Facebook, then pans the camera to her face and says “They killed my boyfriend. ” In the background, one of the officers can be heard shouting: “I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hands up. ” Mr. Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, told CNN that she had taught her son to be extremely cautious when encountering members of law enforcement. “If you get stopped by the police, comply,” Ms. Castile said. “Comply, comply, comply. ” “My son was a citizen, and he did nothing wrong,” she said. “He’s no thug. ” She added, “I think he was just black in the wrong place. ” | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to President Donald Trump by reviving parts of a travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries that he said is needed for national security but that opponents decry as discriminatory. The justices narrowed the scope of lower court rulings that had completely blocked key parts of a March 6 executive order that Trump had said was needed to prevent terrorism attacks, allowing his temporary ban to go into effect for people with no strong ties to the United States. [tmsnrt.rs/2seb3bb] The court issued its order on the last day of its current term and agreed to hear oral arguments during its next term starting in October so it can decide finally whether the ban is lawful in a major test of presidential powers. In a statement, Trump called the high court’s action “a clear victory for our national security,” saying the justices allowed the travel suspension to become largely effective. “As president, I cannot allow people into our country who want to do us harm. I want people who can love the United States and all of its citizens, and who will be hardworking and productive,” Trump added. Trump’s March 6 order called for a blanket 90-day ban on people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and a 120-day ban on all refugees while the government implemented stronger vetting procedures. The court allowed a limited version of the refugee ban, which had also been blocked by courts, to go into effect. Trump issued the order amid rising international concern about attacks carried out by Islamist militants like those in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin and other cities. But challengers said no one from the affected countries had carried out attacks in the United States. Federal courts said the travel ban violated federal immigration law and was discriminatory against Muslims in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Critics called it a discriminatory “Muslim ban.” Ahmed al-Nasi, an official in Yemen’s Ministry of Expatriate Affairs, voiced disappointment. “We believe it will not help in confronting terrorism and extremism, but rather will increase the feeling among the nationals of these countries that they are all being targeted, especially given that Yemen is an active partner of the United States in the war on terrorism and that there are joint operations against terrorist elements in Yemen,” he said. Groups that challenged the ban, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said that most people from the affected countries seeking entry to the United States would have the required connections. But they voiced concern the administration would interpret the ban as broadly as it could. “It’s going to be very important for us over this intervening period to make sure the government abides by the terms of the order and does not try to use it as a back door into implementing the full-scale Muslim ban that it’s been seeking to implement,” said Omar Jadwat, an ACLU lawyer. During the 2016 presidential race, Trump campaigned for “a total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. The travel ban was a signature policy of Trump’s first few months as president. In an unusual unsigned decision, the Supreme Court on Monday said the travel ban will go into effect “with respect to foreign nationals who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.” A lack of a clearly defined relationship would bar from entry people from the six countries and refugees with no such ties. Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin, who successfully challenged the ban in lower courts, said that students from affected countries due to attend the University of Hawaii would still be able to do so. Both bans were to partly go into effect 72 hours after the court’s decision. The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department pledged to implement the decision in an orderly fashion. “We will keep those traveling to the United States and partners in the travel industry informed as we implement the order in a professional, organized, and timely way,” a State Department spokeswoman said. Trump signed the order as a replacement for a Jan. 27 one issued a week after he became president that also was blocked by federal courts, but not before it caused chaos at airports and provoked numerous protests. Even before the Supreme Court action the ban applied only to new visa applicants, not people who already have visas or are U.S. permanent residents, known as green card holders. The executive order also made waivers available for a foreign national seeking to enter the United States to resume work or study, visit a spouse, child or parent who is a U.S. citizen, or for “significant business or professional obligations.” Refugees “in transit” and already approved would have been able to travel to the United States under the executive order. The case was Trump’s first major challenge at the Supreme Court, where he restored a 5-4 conservative majority with the appointment of Neil Gorsuch, who joined the bench in April. There are five Republican appointees on the court and four Democratic appointees. The four liberal justices were silent. Gorsuch was one of the three conservative justices who would have granted Trump’s request to put the order completely into effect. Fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissenting opinion in which he warned that requiring officials to differentiate between foreigners who have a connection to the United States and those who do not will prove unworkable. “Today’s compromise will burden executive officials with the task of deciding - on peril of contempt - whether individuals from the six affected nations who wish to enter the United States have a sufficient connection to a person or entity in this country,” Thomas wrote. The state of Hawaii and a group of plaintiffs in Maryland represented by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the order violated federal immigration law and the Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition on the government favoring or disfavoring any particular religion. Regional federal appeals courts in Virginia and California both upheld district judge injunctions blocking the order. | 1 |
They're not crossing the Rio Grande, they're invading Mexico from the south. < No, Mexico Doesn’t Have A Wall On Its Southern Border—But If Trump Wins It Might Build One > November 6, 2016, 10:55 pm
Many people say Mexico has a wall on its southern border. It doesn’t . It should. And if it did, we Americans wouldn’t have to deal with all the Central Americans coming to our own border. It would be better for both our nations .
Some outlets are reporting Mexico is going to build a wall against migrants. [ Mexico builds its own wall against migrants , by James Fredrick and Jude Webber, Financial Times, September 14, 2016]. (The article is paywalled, but you can access it here ).
But the title is misleading. It’s not a literal wall, but a metaphorical “wall,” and not even an effective one.
The piece takes the view of a Central American planning to come to the United States and claims “Mexico already acts as a formidable barrier.” It also quotes a nun who runs a shelter for illegals in Mexico City . She moans: “Mexico has become a wall for migrants. The current [Mexican] policy is to arrest migrants to stop them from getting to the US border.”
Thus, the term “wall” is a metaphor for “some Central Americans get caught in Mexico and deported back to Central America.” Not very impressive.
The Mexican policy for dealing with its own illegals is a hodgepodge. Though Mexico doesn’t have walls on its borders with Guatemala and Belize, Mexican authorities do detain and deport illegal aliens . And the American government has reportedly put pressure on Mexico to do more. Nonetheless, plenty are still getting through. According to the article, Mexico deported a record 175,000 Central Americans last year, but the United Nations estimates 400,000 enter Mexico annually.
There is a pre-election “surge” of illegals on the U.S.-Mexican border, as migrants want to get in now regardless of who wins. If Hillary wins, they expect amnesty. If Trump wins, they expect The Wall . Illegal immigrants surging to US-Mexico border in race against #ElectionDay . https://t.co/VwFlS1BNRW pic.twitter.com/0OeeKvljLT
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) November 4, 2016
We’ve been told for some time now there is zero net Mexican immigration to the United States [ More Mexicans Leaving Than Coming to U.S., by Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, Pew, November 19, 2015] But this misses the point. Illegals coming across the southern border are coming from Mexico. As Mexico can’t or won’t stop them, we need a barrier on our border with Mexico.
Which brings us to another question. If Trump wins the election and builds The Wall, the Mexican government may be stuck with Central Americans who can’t continue north to the U.S. And they really don’t want that.
In 2012, after the election of current Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto but before his inauguration, his coordinator Arnulfo Valdivia discussed the new administration’s goal in this area. The new Mexican president wanted “to create the necessary filters so that those who cross by the southern border [of Mexico] do not stay stranded in their attempt to cross to the United States. “Valdivia also said a goal was to “diminish the number of indocumentados [illegal aliens] who are concentrated on the northern border [of Mexico] without possibilities of crossing it, forming belts of poverty [in Mexico].”[ Peña quiere `patrulla fronteriza` mexicana , by Miriam Castillo, Milenio , October 9th, 2012]
In other words, if they cross Mexico and get to the United States, we don’t care, as long as they don’t stay in Mexico. And Mexico admits these illegals bring poverty. Indeed, Mexican authorities are quite cynical about this. A new report indicates the Mexican government is granting Haitians 20-day transit documents to reach the U.S. border, resulting in a 1,800% in illegal Haitians c rossing the border in 2016. As Duncan Hunter’s chief of staff Joe Kasper said, “Mexico doesn’t want them, but it’s entirely content with putting migrants—in this case Haitians—right on America’s doorstep.” [ DHS Documents Reveal How Mexico Is Helping Haitians Reach the U.S. Illegally , Numbers USA, October 11, 2016]. Remember this the next time somebody claims Mexico is our partner in securing the border.
But a President Trump who, like the Israelis, shuts down illegal immigration would force Mexico to build a border barrier if they don’t want to be flooded by Central Americans. This is no easy task, given the geographical situation. Mexico’s border with Guatemala alone is 541 miles long—about a quarter the length of the U.S.-Mexican border. It’s sparsely populated and crosses forested regions, rivers, lakes, farmland, pasture, valleys and mountains, some of which are in the 13,000 feet above sea level range.
But where there’s a will there’s a way. Some form of effective fencing could be done depending on the particular ecosystem, by utilizing natural barriers (such as mountains, rivers and valleys) as part of an overall border security plan.
And it’s already being suggested in the Mexican press. A bold editorial in Mañana , a newspaper from the Mexican border city of Reynosa, openly calls for a border wall with Central America Sí al muro fronterizo…Pero en el sur de México [“Yes to the Border Wall…But in the South of Mexico,” July 24, 2016]. It argues Mexico’s borders with Guatemala and Belize “only give us problems because these crossings are utilized for a new invasion, that of Central Americans who utilize our country to cross to the United States”. That’s very provocative language, using the term invasion ( invasión in Spanish).
The editorial also claims Central Americans are deported from the U.S. back to Mexico, even if they’re Central Americans and not Mexicans. The greatest number are supposedly deported to Reynosa, where they wait to try to enter America again. But while they wait, “Many of these migrants, not finding an honest way of earning a living, dedicate themselves to crime, resorting to assault, kidnapping and extortion, and in the worst of cases joining organized crime gangs.”
This Mexican editorial says deported Central American illegals commit crimes in Mexico! What intolerance! It might as well have been written by Trump!
Indeed, the editorial blames Central American illegals for much of the lawlessness of the border region: “Peace and tranquility have ended on the Mexican border and much of that has been due to the Central Americans who are deported from the U.S., backed up with false documents, who stay in Mexican territory.”
The editorial proposes a solution. “Trump’s idea [of a wall] is good [!], but more necessary than constructing a wall on the northern border of Mexico is to make one on the south/southeast border to stop the passage of Central Americans to both countries.” Furthermore, the Mexican government should also demand “migratory documents for the foreigners who enter our country.”
Though this editorial advocates a wall on Mexico’s southern border, not the American southern border, there’s no reason we can’t do both. And it’s unlikely the first will happen unless preceded by the second.
The editors of this paper have guts and are true Mexican patriots. But in order to help Mexican patriots, we need an American patriot in charge of our own country.
American citizen Allan Wall ( him) moved back to the U.S.A. in 2008 after many years residing in Mexico. Allan`s wife is Mexican, and their two sons are bilingual. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here ; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here ; his News With Views columns are archived here ; and his website is here . | 0 |
Our First Lady has taken time out from her self-appointed role as America s Food Nazi to fulfill her new role as First Propagandist in Obama s coordinated Race War on America First lady Michelle Obama used a speech Monday that was supposed to be celebrating the opening of a new museum to instead dig deeper the racial divide that s been growing ever wider during her husband s presidency. Museums and concert halls, she said, just don t welcome non-white visitors especially children the way they welcome whites. Speaking at the new Whitney museum in New York City s meat packing district last week, Obama said she grew up thinking that museums were not places for someone who looks like me. You see, there are so many kids in this country who look at places like museums and concert halls and other cultural centers and they think to themselves, well, that s not a place for me, for someone who looks like me, for someone who comes from my neighborhood. In fact, I guarantee you that right now, there are kids living less than a mile from here who would never in a million years dream that they would be welcome in this museum. And growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I was one of those kids myself. So I know that feeling of not belonging in a place like this. And today, as first lady, I know how that feeling limits the horizons of far too many of our young people. According to Twitchy, Obama s remarks went largely unnoticed outside of the event, until a local radio host reported on Museums as White Spaces. The first lady likely won t be answering that question any time soon. The tone of her speech was eerily similar to her husband s remarks during the launch of My Brother s Keeper Alliance in New York City on Monday. In the wake of racial tension and turmoil that has prompted riots throughout the country, President Obama unleashed some of his most overt commentary on race yet, as documented by Twitchy. Via: BizPacReview | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been reworking student lending since her appointment in February, raising concerns among Democrats that she will undo former President Barack Obama’s overhaul of college financial aid. On Monday, 21 state attorneys general, all Democrats, wrote to Republican DeVos decrying her decision to end the Education Department’s work on reforming loan servicing, steps intended to ensure that borrowers understand their outstanding debt and repayment options. “We should be looking for ways to ease the burden of student debt, not enabling the student loan servicing industry to manipulate and exploit students,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement. Under Democrat Obama, much of the $1.3 trillion business of student lending was moved from banks and other companies to the federal government. Four companies still handle servicing the loans. Last year the department began working on restrictions as well as incentives to ensure those servicers follow the law. In March, the Consumer Federation of America reported that $137 billion in student loans were in default. In an April 11 memo announcing she was stopping reform efforts, DeVos, appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote the process had been riddled with “moving deadlines, changing requirements and a lack of consistent objectives.” “We now find ourselves in a situation where we must promptly address not only these shortcomings but also any other issues that may impede our ability to ensure borrowers do not experience deficiencies in service,” DeVos wrote, according to a version published on the department website. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter from the attorneys general. The head of the Democratic National Committee, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, said DeVos’ decision was intended to boost the profits of big corporations and counteract Obama’s reforms. Republicans say the U.S. government should get out of the business of making student loans. In January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the largest loan servicer, Navient Corp, over allegations it cheated borrowers by deceiving them about repayment options and their rights. Illinois and Washington also sued the company, which was spun off of Sallie Mae in 2014. Navient said the bureau, created under Obama to protect people from fraud, sued because it would not settle a CFPB investigation right before Trump took office. The U.S. Department of Justice sanctioned Navient in 2014 for giving military members wrong information about their loans. | 1 |
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