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(Reuters) - Below are people mentioned as contenders for senior roles as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump works to form his administration before taking office on Jan. 20, according to Reuters sources and media reports. Trump has already named a number of people for other top jobs in his administration. Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York City Bob Corker, Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee David Petraeus, retired general and former CIA director who pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information that he shared with his biographer, who he was having an affair with Jon Huntsman, former Republican Utah governor and ambassador to China under President Barack Obama, ran for Republican presidential nomination in 2012 James Stavridis, retired Navy admiral John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, foreign policy adviser to 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney Rex Tillerson, president and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Joe Manchin, Democratic U.S. senator for West Virginia Dana Rohrabacher, Republican U.S. representative of California and senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Alan Mulally, a former CEO at Ford and a former executive vice president at Boeing Kevin Cramer, Republican U.S. representative from North Dakota Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors Heidi Heitkamp, Democratic U.S. senator from North Dakota Joe Manchin, Democratic U.S. senator from West Virginia Gary Cohn, president of Goldman Sachs Group Inc Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp James Connaughton, CEO of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush Rick Perry, Republican former Texas governor Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil Heidi Heitkamp, Democratic U.S. senator from North Dakota Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in Gryphon Investors Cathy McMorris Rodgers, U.S. representative from Washington state and House Republican Conference chair Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Jan Brewer, former Republican Arizona governor Mary Fallin, Republican Oklahoma governor Ray Washburne, CEO of investment company Charter Holdings Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency Ronald Burgess, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Pete Hoekstra, Republican former U.S. representative from Michigan Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York Debra Wong Yang, former U.S. attorney for California’s Central District, appointed by former President George W. Bush Ralph Ferrara, a securities attorney at law firm Proskauer Rose LLP Paul Atkins, a Republican former SEC commissioner who is heading Trump’s transition team for independent financial regulatory agencies, including the SEC Daniel Gallagher, Republican former SEC commissioner John Allison, a former CEO of regional bank BB&T Corp and former CEO of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank Paul Atkins, Republican former SEC commissioner Thomas Hoenig, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp vice chairman Dan DiMicco, former CEO of steel producer Nucor Corp Robert Lighthizer, a Washington trade attorney and former deputy U.S. trade representative during the Republican Reagan administration Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants [APOLOT.UL] Lou Barletta, Republican U.S. representative from Pennsylvania Victoria Lipnic, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission member and former Labor Department official during the George W. Bush administration Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs Group Inc president Mick Mulvaney, Republican U.S. representative from South Carolina David Malpass, former chief economist with investment bank Bear Stearns and a senior Trump adviser who also served in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidential administrations Scott Brown, former Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor Jeff Miller, former Republican U.S. representative from Florida who was chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee The Trump transition team confirmed the president-elect would choose from a list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. | 0 |
Obama s goal of making gun control a reality in the United States of America is one step closer, thanks to this radical judge A Connecticut judge ruled Thursday that a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the gun used in the Sandy Hook shootings, and other companies, can move forward.A Connecticut Superior Court judge denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against the companies involved in the manufacturing, distribution and sale of the rifle used in the deadly 2012 shootings.Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings on Dec. 14, 2012 to kill 26 people in less than five minutes. The families of the victims, which included 20 children, have sued the maker, distributor and seller of the rifle, arguing that the military-style gun should have never been available for civilians to purchase.Connecticut State Judge Barbara Bellis rejected the gun companies argument that a 2005 federal law can protect gun businesses from civil lawsuits.Remington Arms Co., the manufacturer of the rifle, is named in the suit. Also named is Camfour Inc., a distributor of firearms, and the now-defunct Riverview Gun Sales, a dealer in East Windsor, Conn., that sold the rifle to the Lanza s mother in 2010. Via: Washington ExaminerNolan Finley, The Detroit News The lawsuit, filed by nine victim families, claims Remington is liable for making and selling to the public a rifle unfit for civilian use.The claim plays right into the anti-gun lobby s latest end-around of the Constitution. It follows the strategy laid out in last week s Democratic debate by Hillary Clinton, who wants to open up both gun manufacturers and gun retailers to product liability lawsuits.While Clinton chortles derisively whenever it s pointed out that the threat of such litigation would become an effective ban on gun sales, and ultimately on gun ownership, that is precisely the desired outcome.Clinton s charge that gunmakers enjoy unique protection from liability isn t true. All manufacturers of defect-free, legal goods enjoy a broad shield against damage resulting from the intentional misuse of their products.Still, gun opponents compare firearm manufacturers with automakers, who are routinely sued when their cars and trucks are involved in a fatal accident. But those suits center around product malfunctions or design flaws. If someone gets drunk and plows an automobile into a group of children at a bus stop, the automaker is only liable if something was defective on the vehicle that contributed to the carnage.The weapons used by Lanza were not defective. The were misused. Neither the manufacturer nor the retailer, who is also being sued, sold them to Lanza. The emotionally troubled teen took them without permission from his mother s home. A negligence case could be made against the mother. She should not have allowed her deranged son access to her extensive arsenal; I m all for holding gun owners responsible for properly securing their firearms.Unfortunately, his mother was Lanza s first victim.Judge Barbara Bellis permitted the suit against Remington to proceed based on her gross misunderstanding of firearms.She agreed with the plaintiff s attorneys depiction of the Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle as a military weapon not intended for civilian use.That s just wrong. The difference between the Bushmaster and a common hunting rifle is cosmetic. It looks more lethal, but it operates the same way, firing one bullet with each pull of the trigger. It s not a machine gun; it doesn t fire rounds in bursts.If the military were to arm its soldiers with Bushmasters, it would lose every battle.Lanza used legal weapons that were sold within the strict confines of Connecticut s gun laws, but taken without the owner s permission.If that becomes the flimsy standard for manufacturer and retailer liability, as both this lawsuit and Hillary Clinton hope, it will be the end of gunmaking and sales in this country. And that s just what backers of this strategy want. | 1 |
A teacher at a school in Wels in upper Austria simply changed the hymn God s love is so wonderful to Allah s love is so wonderful .An angry father confronted the local school board, demanding they correct the lyrics, But you can not just rewrite a text! There is huge uproar in Vogelweide primary school in Wels. The 4th year class teacher (where a majority of the children are Muslim) created a text by hand: throughout the entire hymn, the word God was replaced in handwriting by the word Allah .After the incident was brought to the attention of the School Inspector Karin Lang, he immediately corrected the situation with the teacher concerned and the school principal.Via: krone.at | 1 |
Oops! Hillary and her race-baiting campaign team are NOT going to want the Black community to see this video Donald Trump doesn t want to give the Black and minority communities a hand-out he wants to give them self-respecting JOBS. He wants to see every American reach their full potential regardless of the color of their skin. This is a concept so foreign to the Democrat Party that the only response they re able to come up with is falsely accusing Trump of being a racist and hoping it sticks. For decades, the Democrats have been able to get away with falsely labeling Republicans But Donald Trump is NOT your average Republican, and he s about to bring down the Democrats false narrative like a house of cards.Enjoy:https://youtu.be/7U6Pp5iflTs | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic leaders in Congress on Monday called for the Congressional Budget Office to conduct a full analysis of Republicans’ latest healthcare bill aimed at repealing and replacing Obamacare, not just a slimmer budgetary analysis. “Republicans are reportedly hoping to rush to a vote with only a scant budget assessment, before the CBO can expose the full consequences of the legislation for working families, without any hearings or committee markups,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and two top committee Democrats said in a letter. | 0 |
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that his administration would “do all it can” once he takes office on Jan. 20 to help increase freedom and prosperity for Cuban people after the death of Fidel Castro. But his initial reaction to Castro’s death sidestepped whether the incoming president would make good on a threat made late in his White House campaign to reverse President Barack Obama’s moves to open relations with the Cold War adversary. Obama used his executive powers on a series of steps to ease trade, travel and financial restrictions against Cuba, arguing it was time to try diplomacy after the half-century-long economic embargo against Cuba had failed to shake the regime. Trump’s first statement on Cuba policy since the Nov. 8 election, issued from his Palm Beach, Florida, resort where he and his family were spending the weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday, did not address whether he would roll back Obama’s measures because of concerns about religious and political freedom in Cuba. “Though the tragedies, deaths and pain caused by Fidel Castro cannot be erased, our administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty,” Trump said in the statement. “While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve,” he said. Trump has just begun to fill out the top ranks of his national security team, and has not yet named his top diplomat - the secretary of state - who will play a major role in formulating policy on Cuba. He last week named Mauricio Claver-Carone, a political lobbyist who has strongly criticized Obama’s efforts to normalize relations with Cuba and supports maintaining the U.S. embargo against the island, to his transition team at the U.S. Treasury Department. The agency is responsible for enforcing U.S. trade and travel restrictions on Cuba. Claver-Carone is director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee. Claver-Carone was not immediately available for comment on Saturday. Trump’s initial statement was viewed by some to mark a softening from his rhetoric on Cuba policy late in the campaign, one U.S. intelligence official told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “This may be one place where his business interests prod him to take a more pragmatic course, even if that angers the hard-core, anti-Castro elements of both parties,” the official told Reuters. A second U.S. official noted the foreign policy advisers Trump has named thus far are not known to have any particular interest in Cuba. That may mean Trump’s economic team will have more sway over Cuba policy, which could lead to a more pragmatic approach, the second official said. An aggressive policy by Trump would close off lucrative opportunities to U.S. businesses and hand them to European or Asian firms, and would hurt companies like American Airlines (AAL.O), due to start commercial flights to Havana on Monday for the first time in half a century. Trump - a New York businessman and former reality TV star with an unconventional approach to politics - started his campaign saying he was open to lifting the long-standing embargo on trade with Cuba. In January, he said on Fox News that he was in favor of “opening it up” with Cuba, but wanted a better “deal” than Obama had made, comments he repeated in a debate with Republican rivals in March. “I would want to make a strong, solid, good deal because right now, everything is in Cuba’s favor,” Trump said in March, saying he would “probably have the embassy closed” in Havana until a new deal was made. When Obama visited Cuba later that month, Trump said in an interview with CNN that he “probably” would continue to normalize economic and diplomatic relations with Cuba, and would even open a Trump hotel in Cuba if the conditions were right. “I think Cuba has certain potential, and I think it’s OK to bring Cuba into the fold, but you have to make a much better deal,” he said, noting he was worried Cuba would sue the United States for reparations for damage caused by its decades-long embargo on Cuba. Cuba policy was not part of a major foreign policy address Trump delivered in April. After he secured his party’s nomination, his position shifted to a more traditional Republican position. At a Miami rally in September, Trump said he would roll back Obama’s Cuban policy reforms unless Cuban leaders allowed religious freedom and freed political prisoners. “The next president can reverse them, and that I will do unless the Castro regime meets our demands,” Trump told supporters. His vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, also took a hard line. “Let me make you a promise,” Pence said in Miami just days before the election. “When Donald Trump is president of the United States, we will repeal Obama’s executive orders on Cuba.” On Saturday, Pence tweeted: “The tyrant Castro is dead. New hope dawns. We will stand with the oppressed Cuban people for a free and democratic Cuba. Viva Cuba Libre!” Trump will face pressure to reverse Obama’s orders on Cuba from a bloc of mostly Republican Cuban-American lawmakers that has worked to keep tight restrictions on trade and travel with Cuba for years. They believe Cuba’s government is still too repressive to ease economic and travel restrictions. “The dictator has died, but the dictatorship has not,” said U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American who ran against Trump to be the Republican presidential candidate. “The future of Cuba ultimately remains in the hands of the Cuban people, and now more than ever Congress and the new administration must stand with them against their brutal rulers and support their struggle for freedom and basic human rights.” But some Republicans want to continue with Obama’s opening. U.S. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, a leading Republican anti-embargo voice, said on Saturday that “more frequent and consequential ties between Cubans and Americans” would more likely boost income and sap the strength of the Castro government. Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor, who represents a Tampa, Florida, district with a significant Cuban population, said she thinks Castro’s death could make it easier for the Trump administration to change its Cuba stance. “While Fidel Castro was alive, there was an emotional impediment for greater engagement” from the Cuban exile community in Miami, Castor told Reuters. “That emotional impediment now is gone,” she said. | 1 |
Last November, the UNC campus was full of angry students who were unhappy with Trump s election On November 23rd of last year, UNC protesters gathered at the iconic Old Well on the campus, chanting Donald Trump can go to Hell, but we are going to the Well. The intersection, normally taken over by students to celebrate sports victories a few times a year, was soon occupied by dozens of protesters chanting lines like black lives matter, water is life, and love trumps hate. What s gotten into our youth? Why so angry and why so unAmerican?Via: Campus Reform | 1 |
From day one of Donald Trump s failure of a presidency, it was perfectly clear that the former reality television star thought he was a king and expected America to roll over and do whatever the hell he wanted. Unfortunately for the unworthy POTUS, his presidency is panning out a lot differently than he imagined, and he s just been sent another great big f*ck you by the United States.Trump s voter fraud conspiracy has just been dealt a major blow and suffered a humiliating defeat, as every single state in America is refusing to give up the voter data that Trump is demanding. According to The Washington Post: In a rare display of bipartisanship, officials in nearly every state have said they will partially or fully refuse to comply with President Trump s voting commission, which has encountered criticism and opposition after issuing a sweeping request for voter data nationwide. Even as some of the resistance centers on Trump and members of his commission, the broader responses from the states indicate a strong and widespread belief that local officials should be managing elections and that the White House s request for volumes of information went too far. That s right America as a whole united and agreed that what Trump wanted was unconstitutional or illegal, and made moves to protect Americans private data. This is not only extremely embarrassing for Trump, but it also reveals that his administration is increasingly lazy and sloppy, having not even bothered to look and see if their request for the voter data was legal by state law!Unlike Trump and his incompetent team, the majority of America is not so reckless and willing to bow down to a complete idiot. This will go down in the books as yet another one of Trump s failures, as he is once again defeated by the checks and balances he thought he could overrun with his dictator-style leadership. Way to go, America!Featured image via Drew Angerer / Getty Images | 1 |
New York State Police are looking into a possible sighting of two convicted murderers who escaped from an upstate New York maximum-security prison two weeks ago.
The two men fitting the description of inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt were seen about a week ago in Steuben County, New York, over 300 miles southwest of Dannemora, according to a news release posted late Friday. Two men were seen walking near a rail yard in Erwin on June 13, and then seen the next day in Lindley, New York, heading toward the Pennsylvania border.
Investigators conducted interviews in both communities and have surveillance video that was initially deemed inconclusive and is being sent to Albany for analysis.
It wasn’t clear why authorities waited a week before divulging the information.
State police spokesman Beau Duffy told FoxNews.com Saturday investigators did not wait that long. He said troopers learned about the possible weekend sightings on Tuesday.
He said troopers then sought to verify the sightings over the next two days. Late Friday afternoon, troopers got their hands on the surveillance video.
Duffy said at that point commanders decided to release information on the possible sightings to alert the public and to hopefully generate more leads.
Sweat and Matt used power tools to cut their way out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6. Hundreds of law enforcement officers have been looking for them.
State police say they’re prepared to keep searching for the “long haul.”
Friday, police asked hunters for help in the search for the escaped convicts.
“We’re asking them to review video from wildlife or trail cameras to see if they see anything suspicious,” State Police Maj. Charles Guess said at a press conference at the prison.
Hunters say they are ready to help even if it isn’t hunting season and they still haven't turned their trail cams on to track deer.
State police said Friday they have searched 600 miles of trails leading out of Dannemora, but local outdoorsman Jason Langdon said the wooded area is so vast, searchers still have a lot of work to do.
A correction officer from the prison was also suspended, officials announced Friday. However, officials didn’t have any other information involving the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report | 1 |
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish police reprimanded a man for traveling in a car boot to hide his meeting with Prime Minister Juha Sipila during a government crisis last summer, saying this was breach of the traffic code. A police statement did not name the man in the boot, but in effect indicated the traveler was State Secretary Samuli Virtanen, who is also the deputy to Foreign Minister Timo Soini. The meeting took place in June, a day after Virtanen s co-ruling Finns party had elected anti-immigration hardliners as its new leaders. The government was close to collapse until a group of politicians, including Virtanen and Soini, in the following week walked out of the Finns party and announced they would form a new group. The Finns party was thrown out of the government and the new Blue Reform group kept its cabinet seat. Virtanen has not commented on the case, but lawmaker Tiina Elovaara from Blue Reform said in a blog that Virtanen climbed into the boot to keep the meeting secret at a critical moment. He avoided media attention when the situation was most serious, and the risk of leakage about the parliamentarians transition was too big, Elovaara said. Police said that the man had traveled a few tens of meters in the back of the car, failing to use a safety belt. He had admitted the act to the police. The road from the Prime Minister s residency has little traffic, and only the man was at risk of harm, the police said. The given notification is considered as a sufficient sanction, Inspector Pekka Seppala said. He added that the police had been asked to investigate the case based on information in media reports. | 1 |
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Days after a long-running Indonesian television comedy aired last month, its producers got a letter from the broadcast commission warning that a male character in the show was dressed and behaving like a woman and could violate broadcasting standards. We evaluated the show...we immediately reminded our staff to be careful because we are minimizing LGBT content on our network, said Anita Wulandari Prasojo, head of marketing and public relations at Trans7, the private television station that aired the show Opera van Java last month. She may have to do more than that in the future. Indonesia s parliament is considering national legislation that would ban lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) content from TV screens by the end of the year. The draft bill, which Reuters reviewed, would revise the broadcasting law to scrub content with LGBT behavior . Broadcasts and advertisements that show lesbian, homosexual, bisexual and transgender behavior would be banned. It does not explicitly define LGBT behavior . Lawmakers told Reuters the ban could include dramas with gay characters, traditional folk or comedic performances with cross-dressing or effeminate men, and broadcasts advocating LGBT rights. It would be the latest measure targeting the LGBT community in a rising tide of hostility in the world s third-largest democracy. Indonesian police last week briefly detained 51 people, including eight foreigners, at a gay spa in Jakarta, one of several raids targeting the LGBT community. LGBT is not criminal, but if it enters the public sphere, if it s broadcast to the public, then of course it must be regulated, said Bobby Rizaldi, a member of parliament involved in drafting the law. Another MP, Hanafi Rais, said LGBT is an abnormality . It is destructive for our younger generations. If the content has no educational qualities, and is only for commercial or advertising purposes, then we must reject it, Hanafi said. If the content was aimed at fixing the abnormality , then it would be allowed, he added. The United Nations human rights office on Friday condemned anti-gay crackdowns in Indonesia, Egypt, and Azerbaijan. Arresting or detaining people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity is by definition arbitrary and violates international law, UN human rights spokesperson Rupert Colville told a news briefing. In May, police detained 141 men at another gay sauna, and reportedly strip-searched them before marching them almost naked from the venue into police vehicles. Photos were then shared on social media in what activists considered an abuse of power and violation of privacy. Police have used a controversial anti-pornography law that outlaws any physical display of sexual relations to justify the raids. Activists say the law is too sweeping and can be abused to target the LGBT minority. Homosexuality is not a crime in Indonesia, which has the world s largest Muslim population, except in the ultra-conservative Aceh province which enforces Islamic law. Programs like Opera van Java , are a regular fixture on Indonesian TV. Drawing on Indonesia s traditional performance arts and folk tales, they often depict transgender and transvestite characters. The transgender community, known locally as waria - a contraction of the Indonesian words for woman and man - is largely accepted in most parts of the country. The entertainment industry fears the proposed broadcasting restrictions could end up further discriminating against the LGBT community. This is a serious issue that can impact our industry because it will stifle creativity, said Nanda Persada, head of the Indonesian Association of Managers for Artists. LGBT artists have had to adjust their behavior to avoid sanction. They can t be as expressive, he said. Artists have been told in programming meetings at private TV stations not to be over the top and scripts have had to be rewritten, Persada said. Prominent gay rights activist Dede Oetomo said the draft law was misinformed. It did not take into account local cultures where transgender people are an accepted part of society in which traditional performances, based on ancient myths, can feature transgender characters. It just shows the ruling elite has lost touch with our traditions, Oetomo said. It s already difficult to be LGBT here. ..but in the long run, we will continue to protest and fight, he said. The draft legislation, put forward by the commission on information, is pending approval from a plenary session of parliament later this year. | 0 |
A student at a Michigan high school stood up for his right to wear a Confederate flag shirt to school. There is not a rule against it but the principal felt it would interfere with learning. The effort to cleanse America of our past is in full force. Confederate monuments in different states have been removed and South Carolina removed the confederal flag from its capitol grounds. Do you feel this is freedom of speech or that the flag shouldn t be worn to school? CALEDONIA, Mich. (WOOD) A student at Caledonia High School was outraged when he was told to change his shirt, which showed the Confederate battle flag, or go home Wednesday morning.Donovan Stokes, a junior, said he was approached by the high school principal about his shirt. I wore everything as proper. This is just a shirt; it s the rebel flag. It was bullying. They were bullying me to take off my shirt and I did not have to go home. They cannot send me home. That is losing my education, said Stokes. The principal gave me two options and I requested a letter asking why he had to take the shirt off, she said.The letter stated because of what that flag is used to symbolize by others, we feel it could contribute to a hostile environment for many of our students. Jolene Stokes said she does not believe the shirt would create a hostile environment and her son believes that removing the shirt infringed on his freedom of expression. It s more of like a history thing and it s just a war flag from back in the day, and I don t think it meant anything by it, he said.The school district disagreed, saying it has a responsibility to create a safe and orderly learning environment. Any type of attire that might challenge that, might create disorder or disruption to the environment, we have responsibility to prohibit that attire. We love freedom of speech and we educate kids and we want them to know that they do have the right to stand up and speak their mind and share their opinions and we value that as much as anybody else. At the same time, if that is going to disrupt our educational setting, that has to come first. That climate that we create for students to learn and grow has to come first, so that s why we have to be able to respond the way we are responding, Caledonia Community Schools Superintendent Randy Rodriguez said.Rodriguez said it is especially important during considering the recent discussions in the nation about race and the battle flag. We are in a greater time of sensitivity right now for many reasons that have gone around the country, but also locally. I want all of our children to feel like this is a place that they belong, this is a place that they can learn and we re going to protect them all and we re going love them all, Rodriguez said.Donovan Stokes said he understands why people see the rebel flag as offensive. I can see how people could be offended by it due to the slavery thing, but that s because of the education. We are being taught in schools that this is not right, not just. I understand how people would totally get offended by this. People want to think of this as a hate flag, but this is really a patriotic flag than anything, he said.However, Grand Valley State University Associate Professor of History Scott Stabler said that historically, the flag was a symbol of resistance to the Civil Rights Movement and the battle flag was not the official flag of the Confederacy. It s a historical myth that it symbolizes something other than the Confederacy, which was all about sustaining the idea of human bondage. I think that people that carry the Confederate flag probably in their minds believe it stands for southern heritage, white southern heritage, but I don t think they have any clue as to what southern white heritage is, Stabler said.Stabler believes this situation could be an opportunity for learning. I think it s a point of learning what the student doesn t understand, what the flag might mean to people of African descent even to white people, because it means something to me, too, Stabler said.Stokes ultimately decided to take the shirt off rather than go home. The flag shirt is a tank top and he was wearing another long-sleeve shirt under it.He said a similar incident happened to him in middle school when he wore a belt showing the rebel flag. He said the student handbook does not directly state anywhere that he can t wear that kind of attire. He said he is not a racist and was not at all trying to promote hate or racism.Read more: WoodTV | 1 |
by DML DAILY / November 2, 2016 / SOCIETY / DEVELOPING STORY. BREAKING NEWS – Two police officers are dead in Des Moines , Iowa after they were ambushed early Wednesday morning. The killings were in separate incidents within blocks of each each other. Police are on a manhunt to find the killer identified as Scott Michael Greene. The ambushes both happened as the cops were sitting in their patrol cars. #BREAKING : Police have identified the suspect in fatal shootings of 2 officers as Scott Michael Greene. pic.twitter.com/5ECsApJFcn
— Charly Haley (@charlyhaley) November 2, 2016
FROM FOX NEWS: The shootings occurred within minutes of each other in Des Moines. One Des Moines police officer and another from the suburb of Urbandale were found in their bullet-riddled cruisers, Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek said.
“There’s somebody out there shooting police. There is a clear and present danger to police officers right now,” he said.
“In all appearances it looks just like that, that these officers were ambushed,” Parizek said.
Neither police officer was identified by officials and– as of a 5 a.m.– police were still notifying family members. Parizek said their names and details about their service would be released later Wednesday.
Sign up to get alerts about Dennis Michael Lynch's upcoming Donald Trump film and breaking news. Subscribe | 1 |
Hacking Accusations Against Russia Are Sign of Washington's Desperation
With Putin winning across the board, Washington is struggling to contain its humilitation Originally appeared at Strategic Culture Foundation
The Obama administration is now accusing Russia of cyber-crime and trying to disrupt the US presidential election. The claim is so far-fetched, it is hardly credible. More credible is that the US is reeling from Putin’s stunning humiliation earlier this week.
Since June, US media and supporters of Democrat presidential contender Hillary Clinton have been blaming Russian state-sponsored hackers for breaking into the Democratic party’s database.
It is further alleged that Moscow is stealthily trying to influence the outcome of the election, by releasing damaging information on Clinton, which might favor Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Russia has vehemently denied any connection to the cyber-crime charges, or trying to disrupt the November poll.
Now the Obama administration has stepped into the fray by openly accusing Russia. «US government officially accuses Russia of hacking campaign to interfere with elections», reported the Washington Post.
This takes the row to a whole new level. No longer are the insinuations a matter of private, partisan opinion. The US government is officially labelling the Russian state for cyber-crime and political subversion.
Predictably, following the latest allegations, there are calls among American lawmakers for ramping up more economic sanctions against Russia. While US intelligence figures are urging for retaliatory cyber-attacks on Russian government facilities.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov derided the US claims as «rubbish». He noted that the Kremlin’s computer system incurs hundreds of hacking attempts every day, many of which can be traced to American origin, but Moscow doesn’t turn around and blame the US government for such cyber-attacks.
There are several signs that the latest brouhaha out of Washington is a bogus diversion.
As with previous Russian-hacker claims by the Democrats and US media, there is no evidence presented by the Obama administration to support its grave allegations against the Russian government. Assertion without facts does not meet a minimal standard of proof.
When reports emerged in June – again through the Washington Post – that the Democrat National Committee (DNC) was hacked by Russian agents, the allegation relied on investigations by a private cyber security firm by the name of CrowdStrike. The firm is linked by personnel to the NATO-affiliated, anti-Russian think tank Atlantic Council. Again no verifiable evidence was presented then, just the word of a dubious partisan source.
Back then the Russian scare story, for that’s what it was, served as a useful diversion from far more important issues. Such as the 19,000 emails released from the DNC database showing that the party chiefs had preordained Clinton’s presidential nomination over her Democrat rival Bernie Sanders. Much-vaunted «US democracy» was exposed as a fraud, and so the Washington establishment quickly went into damage-limitation mode by smearing Russia.
It was the whistleblower site Wikileaks, run by Australian journalist Julian Assange, that released the embarrassing emails. It had nothing to do with Russia. Assange has since hinted that his source was within the Democrat party itself.
This is where it gets really explosive. Assange has vowed to release more emails that will prove that Clinton as Secretary of State back in 2011-2012 masterminded the supply of weapons and money to Islamist terror networks in Libya and Syria for the objective of regime change. Furthermore, Assange says that the emails prove that Clinton lied under oath to Congress when she denied in 2013 that she was had any involvement in facilitating arms to the jihadists.
Assange has said that Wikileaks is going to publish the incriminating emails on Clinton’s alleged gun-running to terrorists this month. If the evidence stands up, Clinton could be prosecuted for perjury as well as treason in aiding and abetting official terrorist enemies of the US.
The exposure of an American presidential candidate as being involved in state sponsorship of terrorism while serving as a top government official is a powerful incentive for the Obama administration to find a lurid diversion.
Hence, the latest charges by the US government against Russia as perpetrating cyber-crime and of trying to subvert American democracy.
This is just one more illustration of how irrational and unhinged the US government has become.
Day by day, it seems, leads to more damning revelations of Washington’s complicity in illegal wars, covert subversion of foreign states, and systematic collusion with terrorist networks which have inflicted thousands of deaths on American citizens, among many more thousands of other innocent civilians around the world.
In addition to exposure by sources like Wikileaks, much of revelation about US criminality and state-sponsored banditry has emerged from Russia’s principled military intervention in Syria. Russia’s intervention has not only helped salvage the Syrian nation from a foreign conspiracy of covert war for regime change. Russia’s intervention has also brought into clear focus the systematic links between Washington and its terrorist proxy army working on its behalf in Syria.
Washington’s mask of moral and legal superiority has been ripped from its face. And what the world is seeing is the vile ugliness beneath.
Such is Washington’s ignominious fall from pretend-grace to its grim, odious reality that Vladimir Putin this week was empowered to speak from the moral high ground.
In announcing Russia’s unilateral suspension of a 2002 accord with the US for the disposal of nuclear-weapon-grade plutonium, Putin went much, much further. He gave Washington a list of ultimatums that included the US ending its trumped-up sanctions against Russia, with financial compensation, as well as the scaling back of NATO forces from Russia’s border.
In other words, the Russian leader was talking truth to American power in a way that megalomaniac Washington, with all its ridiculous delusions of «exceptionalism», has never ever heard before.
American pretensions of greatness are eroding like a castle built on sand. Washington’s criminal enterprises and specifically the complicity in terrorism for the supreme crime of foreign aggression are being glaringly exposed.
And now with due contempt, Russia is putting manners on Washington. It must be excruciating the humiliation for the narcissistic American tyrant to be treated with the disrespect that it deserves and which is long overdue.
Moreover, the humiliation is not just in the eyes of the world. The American people can see the true ugly nature of their rulers too. When a giant banner declaring «Putin a peacemaker» was unfurled off Manhattan bridge in New York City this weekend, the popular enthusiasm went viral.
Washington is reeling from Putin’s righteous courage to call it out for what it is. The truth-telling is hard to take for this unipolar unicorn. Its deluded myth-making about its own virtues are being stripped bare.
What’s going on here is a world-class, historic exposure of American power as a nefarious excrescence on humanity.
The reaction is understandable: foaming-at-the-mouth, desperate, hysterical and panicked. Accusing Russia of hacking into the American «democratic process» is a wild attempt to divert from the paramount issues: Washington’s exposed descent into a vile morass of its own making; the emperor is a criminal; the people know it; and a genuine world leader like Vladimir Putin has the temerity to lay it on the line to this has-been. | 1 |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders will discuss how to further curb immigration from across the Mediterranean over dinner on Thursday, but are as divided as ever on how to take care of refugees who still make it to Europe. Their chairman, Donald Tusk, proposed creating a new financing tool in the bloc s next multi-year budget from 2021 to stem illegal migration , replacing the ad hoc calls for money that EU states have seen since arrivals peaked in 2015. Despite heavy criticism by human rights groups that it is aggravating the suffering of refugees and migrants on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, the EU is sticking to its policy of providing various kinds of assistance to the governments and U.N. agencies in the Middle East and Africa in order to prevent people making the trek north. While implementing these plans in some places, notably the lawless Libya, is proving difficult, all EU states and institutions in Brussels agree on the approach. However, the question of how to handle refugees who have made it to the EU is as divisive now as it was two years ago. Italy, Greece and other frontline states on the Mediterranean, as well as the rich destination countries such as Germany, want all member states to be obliged to take in a set allocation of asylum-seekers. But several eastern ex-communist EU members reject mandatory quotas, saying accepting Muslim refugees would undermine their sovereignty and security, and the homogeneous makeup of their societies. They want to help instead with money, equipment and personnel for controlling the bloc s frontiers. The Commission is already suing Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for failing to take in their allotment of asylum-seekers from the peak of the EU s migrant crisis in 2015. Recent proposals for future solutions go in opposite directions, giving little hope of a deal by the target date of June. The bloc s current chair Estonia suggested sticking to the obligatory scheme when immigration is extremely high, but adding some flexibility by legislating that the receiving and sending states must agree on any relocation. That plan has been quickly dismissed as a non-starter by diplomats from several EU states. The bloc s executive, the European Commission, proposed that the bloc approve compulsory and automatic relocation for times of mass immigration, but rely on voluntary help in normal circumstances. The European Parliament wants mandatory relocation at all times, regardless of migratory pressures. But now Tusk himself has also come out against quotas, telling EU leaders in a note that they had proven highly divisive and ineffective . The Commission s migration chief, Dimitris Avramopoulos, told a news conference on Tuesday that Tusk s paper was undermining one of the main pillars of the European project - the principle of solidarity . For now, immigration figures remain so low compared to the peak of 2015-2016 that the public pressure on EU leaders to come up with a quick fix has eased. That could yet change, however, with Italy s parliamentary election next spring, coinciding with the start of a new migration season. Germany, currently consumed with trying to form a new government, has long suggested that if no consensus can be reached, an asylum reform could be passed by majority vote - something that would inevitably deepen the divisions and mistrust between member states. | 1 |
If I found out my college-age daughter was attending a Bernie Sanders rally, she would #FeelTheBern when her tuition payments were shut off. And for all of the parents who say it s just a phase or they ll eventually come around, you re not teaching your kids anything. If your child is out campaigning for a declared Democrat Socialist, whose primary goal it is to take what you ve earned and give it to someone else, you should be ashamed of yourself for providing financial support to your self-absorbed child.We live in the greatest nation on earth. It s hard to even fathom that we have a declared Democrat-Socialist even registering in the polls. Here s a great flashback video that was taken in NYC in 1941, and posted by Weasel Zippers. It perfectly illustrates what the pacifist, Socialist Democrat party is all about. Can you imagine what our world would look like today if the majority of Americans took these people seriously?We ve spent the last 7 years watching our President go from nation to nation apologizing for the greatness of America. We don t need another pacifist leading our nation, we need strong leader who will restore our international reputation. We need a President who believes in the greatness of America and will do everything in their power to reverse the damage our current President has done.Make sure you share this video with friends and family. | 0 |
The World Class Grifters aka The Clintons are going on the road to campaign. Does anyone else smell desperation? Can Hillary not stand on her own two feet? Bill is also known as Slick Willy so perhaps Hillary s thinking everyone forgot his sexcapades while in office. This could make for some great political theatre Ol Bubba is the gift that keeps on giving. Just when he thought it was safe to hit the road again, Hillary reminds a new generation of voters why wise and prudent men lock up their wives and daughters when Bubba s in the neighborhoodShe has dispatched Bubba to campaign for her next week in New Hampshire. Bubba knows how to do politics there s nobody better and Hillary, who s a whiz at squeezing boodle from contributors with payback on their minds, hasn t a clue. When she occasionally has a good week, she follows the next with a blunder.Bubba has stepped forward in recent days to take over the retail end of the family business, and was looking forward to doing what he does best. But he forgot to put a leash and a muzzle on Hillary, who decided it was a good time to take on Donald Trump. Not a good idea.She was offended by the Donald s coarseness and rudeness, forgetting who was talking. She pretended to be shocked by the Donald s locker-room swagger, and specifically his mockery of her campaign prowess against Barack Obama in 2008. She was going to beat Obama, the Donald had told a crowd in Grand Rapids. She was going to beat she was favored to win and she got schlonged. She lost. It s not clear whether the lady was offended by the reminder of how she squandered that opportunity, or by his use of obscure Yiddish slang for a man s most precious junk.Nevertheless, the first lady who frequently turned the White House air blue with her muleskinner language played the delicate-flower card as defender of women against the Donald and the Republican war on women. Read more: WT | 0 |
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Two people were shot dead on Friday as Kenyan police tried to disperse opposition supporters marching from an airport alongside the convoy of opposition leader Raila Odinga, a Reuters witness said. | 1 |
Merkel: Worried about Islamisation? Just Sing Christmas Carols Merkel: Worried about Islamisation? Just Sing Christmas Carols By 0 19
Angela Merkel has recommended that Germans who are concerned about Islamisation should play Christmas carols on the recorder to contain any possible threat.
At a national congress of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in Wittenburg the German Chancellor told supporters that it’s up to them to hold off the growth of Islam in Germany, by preserving Christmas traditions.
Addressing points raised by the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party about Islamic law holding values that are antithetical to those of Germans, Merkel conceded: “I know that there are concerns about Islam.”
The CDU politician argued that it’s up to Germans to contain Islamisation in Germany, suggesting they do so by recalling Christian traditions. “How many Christmas carols do we still know? And how many of them are we passing on to our children and grandchildren?” she asked the crowd, rhetorically.
Merkel added: “You just have to copy a few [sheets of carol music], and ask someone who can play the recorder or the flute [to join in]”.
Met with some laughter at her suggestion that a woodwind rendition of Christmas songs could pose a challenge to Islamisation, the Chancellor insisted : “Yes I’m being serious. Otherwise, we will lose a piece of our homeland.”
Merkel’s suggestions were met with scepticism from AfD Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Beatrix von Storch, who co-leads the Eurosceptic party.
“Yes, I think it’s an excellent idea and it’s nice when… | 1 |
It s two days before Americans head to the polls to choose between an orange, unhinged self-described billionaire and one of the most sane candidates we ve ever had for the presidency. Tensions are high, especially within the campaigns. Trump s campaign is so worried their nominee will tweet something that could lose him the election, they ve blocked him from using the social networking site. When President Obama heard about it, he had no choice but to mock Trump. Apparently his campaign has taken away his Twitter, Obama said during a Florida rally for Hillary Clinton, to laughs. In the last two days, they had so little confidence in his self control, they said: We re just going to take away your Twitter. Now, if somebody can t handle a Twitter account, they can t handle the nuclear code, Obama continued. If somebody starts tweeting at three in the morning because SNL made fun of you, then you can t handle the nuclear codes. Source: The HillHere s the video:President Obama is right. The very fact that Trump can t even be trusted with his Twitter account means that he d be a very dangerous president. He seems incapable of letting even the tiniest slight go. In one now infamous Twitter rant, Trump relentlessly attacked former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, all during a time he was fielding accusations of sexism.The New York Times summed Trump s impulse control issues, which are demonstrated on Twitter, pretty well:The tirade fit a pattern. It is when Mr. Trump is alone with his thoughts, and untethered from his campaign staff, that he has seemed to commit his most self-destructive acts. There has always been this dangerous part of him that will go too far and do something that backfires, said Michael D Antonio, the author of The Truth About Trump, a new biography of the real estate mogul. His worst impulses, he added, are self-defeating. Unfortunately, it s not just the nuclear codes we should be afraid of. Trump is running for the office of one of the premier diplomats in the world. His temperament is completely unfit for that position, or really, for any position that requires dealing with people.Featured image via Brian Blanco/Getty Images. | 1 |
Filmmaker and activist Michael Moore said there is no doubt in his mind that Donald Trump will go through with banning Muslims from the United States, just like he said he would.Speaking to Variety, Moore said that he has already done his grieving over Trump s win, which he saw coming long before it became a reality. I went through my five stages of grief months and months ago when I realized he was going to win, he said.Moore said that he has taken him literally and seriously since day one, which is why he fully expects Trump to do all the horrible things he said he would on the campaign trail, like building a wall along our southern border to keep out all the rapey Mexicans. You do have to take Trump at his word, Moore said. I still hear people say, Oh, he s not really going to build the wall. Oh, he is going to build it. He knows that he s got to deliver at least a version of the wall. This, Moore explained, is why he absolutely believes Trump will go through with enacting his Muslim ban. He s shown how he s going to do it, Moore said. He s going to get away with it by making it a ban on Muslims who come from the following countries. He needs just enough cover for his crowd to say, Oh, he s being reasonable there. He s not banning all Muslims. Moore also said that he was profoundly affected by Meryl Streep s powerful speech denouncing Trump at the Golden Globes. I had tears in my eyes, Moore said. It was so powerfully delivered by the perfect person. She was talking about human empathy. It was not about being a Republican or a Democrat. It was about: Have you no decency, sir? Trump s supporters like to say that they don t take what he says literally. But that is a mistake. As Maya Angelou said, When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. We know who Trump is. And we also know it s going to be a long four years.Featured image via Kevin Winter/Getty Images For AFI | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz, who chairs a House committee with broad investigative powers, on Wednesday announced his plans to leave Congress after the 2018 midterm elections, saying he had no intention of running for any political office. “I have no ulterior motives. I am healthy. I am confident I would continue to be re-elected by large margins. I have the full support of Speaker (Paul) Ryan to continue as Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. That said, I have made a personal decision to return to the private sector,” Chaffetz said in a statement on Facebook. The conservative Republican, who was first elected to the House in 2008 and represents a district in eastern Utah, gained prominence as head of the committee that was investigating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. During the raucous 2016 presidential campaign that pitted Clinton against Trump, Chaffetz distanced himself from the Republican candidate following the public airing of a video last year in which Trump made lewd comments about women. But as Trump appeared to weather that storm and was competitive with Clinton in the homestretch to the Nov. 8 election, Chaffetz moderated his criticism of the New York real estate developer. With Trump in the White House, Chaffetz early this year said he would use his committee chairmanship to continue investigating Clinton. But he refused to look into contacts that Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had with a Russian official amid suspicions that Moscow played a role in influencing the U.S. elections. Flynn has since left his high-level White House job. Chaffetz, 50, had in the past considered running for a Senate seat and in announcing his retirement from the House at the end of his term next year he is leaving open that option. “I may run again for public office, but not in 2018,” Chaffetz said in his Facebook posting. A former Chaffetz aide told Reuters the congressman may seek to run for Utah governor in 2020, though no firm decision had been made yet. | 0 |
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Sunday that the death toll from Hurricane Irma on the Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin has risen to four. In a first estimate on Friday, the government said that two people had died and 34 had been wounded, 11 seriously, as a result of the storm. | 0 |
Baton Rouge became the scene of another police ambush this morning when three men shot and killed three police officers and wounded several others. Authorities have confirmed that the first of three suspects is a Missouri man who was killed after the shooting. Two other suspects were taken into custody in West Baton Rouge Parish and are being questioned by Baton Rouge Police.Meanwhile, Barack Obama is going out of his way to try to convince the world his #BlackLivesMatter terrorists have nothing to do with yet ANOTHER mass shooting of cops in America. It probably isn t a coincidence that three black thugs were recently arrested in Baton Rouge for plotting to kill cops, or that this video surfaced of a black punk in Baton Rouge telling cops he s going to kill them and asking viewers to join him.You OWN this Barack Hussein Obama! From your first beer summit to the George Zimmerman protesters your AG, Eric Holder was caught paying with our taxpayer dollars to your regular visits with #BlackLivesMatter terrorists in OUR White House. Your community organizer built this and there is no one to blame but you and your cronies The #BatonRouge shooter described as black male with body armor https://t.co/OEBlVd7SUr https://t.co/FgjV19sVV2 CBS News (@CBSNews) July 17, 2016Dispatch audio records what happened next as officers were reported down when a man at the scene opened fire, shooting indiscriminately, according to a witness at the scene. Several officers were hit and a massive manhunt began in the area as authorities searched for suspects that were described as wearing all black or camouflage clothing.Police worked an active shooting scene at the B-Quik gas station into the afternoon. Law enforcement confirmed that one of the shooters was dead somewhere close to the store. Police sent a robot into the store to check for explosives after the scene was contained.An alert went out to the public to stay indoors and contact authorities should they spot any suspicious activity or suspects matching the description provided. Two men were stopped in Addis after someone said they were initially spotted heading into the Port Allen Walmart to change clothes. They were stopped by police on LA-1 South at a gas station where the men were taken into custody. A witness at the scene said the vehicle had Texas plates.Via: wbrz | 0 |
November 6, 2016 By 21wire Leave a Comment
Episode #159 of SUNDAY WIRE SHOW resumes this November 6, 2016 as host Patrick Henningsen brings a 3 HOURS special broadcast of LIVE power-packed talk radio on ACR…
LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:
SUNDAYS – 5pm-8pm UK Time | 12pm-3pm ET (US) | 9am-12pm PT (US)
This week’s edition of THE SUNDAY WIRE is on the road broadcasting LIVE from the Valley of the Sun. This week host Patrick Henningsen covers this week’s top stories in the US and internationally. In the first hour we’re joined by a very special guest, Dr Marcus Papadopoulos , founder & editor of UK-based publication Politics First to discuss the US Elections and an evaluation of Trump vs Clinton from an international and foreign policy perspective looking at big bigs like US-NATO and Russian relations as well as the Syrian situation, as well as get his take on the spiralling BREXIT issue currently gripping Great Britain. In the final hour of overdrive, we’ll be rejoined by our esoteric bookmaker, Basil Valentine, for final thoughts on the US Elections, new odds, more voter fraud reports, and and time permitting, some more fun with the #HillaryBettingPool .
SUPPORT 21WIRE – SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
Strap yourselves in and lower the blast shield – this is your brave new world…
*NOTE: THIS EPISODE MAY CONTAIN STRONG LANGUAGE AND MATURE THEMES* | 0 |
It was not supposed to end like this for Marco Rubio.
Eleven months ago, he launched his presidential campaign in front of Miami’s Freedom Tower, the Ellis Island for his and other Cuban families. In his rapid rise, young Rubio had been a darling of both the tea party movement and the conservative intelligentsia — the Republicans’ best hope of attracting nonwhite voters.
But then came vulgar Donald Trump. Rubio was savaged on everything from immigration to his height. On Tuesday night, Rubio, his campaign fading, lost his home state of Florida to the bigoted demagogue who makes scapegoats of foreigners and minorities. Bowing to the inevitable, Rubio ended his candidacy.
By the time Rubio’s campaign bus rolled to its final pre-primary stop — an outdoor basketball court here where he played as a boy — only a couple-hundred supporters were on hand, nearly equaled by the number of journalists on death watch.
Before Rubio arrived, a prankster hijacked the microphone and was chased off by campaign aides. When Rubio himself spoke, the sound system failed, so he delivered his valedictory with a bullhorn.
[The GOP establishment has failed. It’s up to voters to deny Trump.]
Rubio’s voice sounded tinny, but his words were rich with nostalgia as he recalled knocking on doors when he ran for city commissioner here. “In between sips of sweet Cuban coffee, I heard the stories of their youth, of the dreams they lost,” he said. “That has carried me every single day throughout this campaign, knowing that my worst days are better than some of the best days that many people in this community have had.”
These are not the best days for Rubio, or for anybody who cares about American democracy. The 44-year-old made mistakes during his campaign: freezing in the New Hampshire debate, failing to take on Trump earlier, then finally attacking Trump by joking about genitalia.
Yet he finished honorably. He spoke reflectively Monday about Trump’s brutal transformation of politics. This message should have been delivered much earlier, but it deserves to be heard even now.
“Leadership is not about going to an angry and frustrated people and saying you should be even angrier and more frustrated, and you should be angry and frustrated at each other,” Rubio told a gym full of Christian college students in West Palm Beach. “That’s called demagoguery. And it’s dangerous.” It leads, he said, to “where we are today, a nation where people literally hate each other because they’re voting for different candidates. . . . And it leaves us incapable of solving problems.”
Trump tore up the norms of decency that remained in American politics, and Rubio expressed puzzlement that it worked. “My whole life I’ve been told being humble is a virtue, and now being humble is a weakness and being vain and self-absorbed is somehow a virtue,” he said. “My whole life I’ve been told no matter how you feel about someone, you respect everyone because we are all children of the same God — and now being respectful to one another is considered political correctness.”
Rubio voiced regret for his own role in the vulgarity, saying he “felt terrible” for joking about Trump’s penis size. Such remorse separates Rubio from Trump, who seems to have no shame as he blurts obscenities, delivers insults and winks at violence. “There are people, I know, who like this stuff because he says what they want to be able to say, [but] presidents can’t say whatever they want to say,” Rubio told the students, mentioning the harm to America’s reputation that Trump has already done. “We’re not a Third World country. We’re the United States of America.”
[Donald Trump just threatened more violence. Only this time, it’s directed at the GOP.]
That’s the welcoming country to which Rubio’s parents immigrated, settling among the shoe-box homes here in Cuban West Miami. “Everywhere I go I tell the story of this community of people, many of whom lost their country in their youth,” Rubio said Monday night in his boyhood park, his kids beside him in the bed of his Dodge pickup.
He spoke, in English, then in Spanish, with the requisite optimism, telling supporters he looked forward to moving his “caja china” — Cuban barbecue — to the White House.
“If there’s no car, we’ll go in a raft!” a supporter said in Spanish.
Another said in English: “Don’t give up, man!”
But Rubio’s speech to his modest band had the ring of a farewell. “I will always be a son of this community. I will always carry with me the hopes and dreams of generations that made possible the dreams of mine,” he said. His candidacy, he said, “was possible because you and I happen to live in the one place on Earth where even the son of a bartender and a maid from West Miami can be president.”
Or at least he can lose to a trash-talking rich guy from Queens.
Read more from Dana Milbank’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Pena Nieto spoke at length on Wednesday following the second powerful earthquake that hit Mexico within the past two weeks, according to the White House. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders gave no other details but said more information would come soon about the call, which came after Mexico was hit by a magnitude 7.1 quake on Tuesday. The two leaders also spoke last week. | 1 |
It s no secret that Russia was behind the election hacks of Donald Trump s political opponents with the express goal of getting Donald Trump elected as well as mobilizing a Kremlin-funded troll army to pose as Trump supporters and spread propaganda on his behalf. But it s almost inconceivable that Vladimir Putin actually got his own hands dirty or is it?Intelligence official now report that Vladimir Putin was not only aware of the attacks on our election (and more specifically, Hillary Clinton), but directly participated in them and by participated, we mean that he orchestrated the entire thing. NBC reports:Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies, the officials said.Putin s objectives were multifaceted, a high-level intelligence source told NBC News. What began as a vendetta against Hillary Clinton morphed into an effort to show corruption in American politics and to split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn t depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore, the official said.Trump has repeatedly denied not only knowledge of the Russian operation headed by a man he once said he wanted to be his new best friend, but denied that they happened at all.So here s where we stand: Donald Trump won the election thanks to the direct interference not only of Russia but of Vladimir Putin himself after Trump personally asked Russia to hack his enemies on national U.S. television. Since winning, he has appointed numerous pro-Russia people who will likely cater to Putin s whims, including one that a Russian political commentator calls a Christmas gift from Trump to Russia. Or, of course, he could be called a thank you gift. Trump once said he could shoot someone in broad daylight and not lose a single supporter. On December 19, we learn whether or not he can hand our country over to the enemy and still manage to assume office. Electors have a historically hard job and this will be the truest test of their patriotism imaginable. Will they stand up to Trump, or will they drive the final nail in our country s coffin?Watch a CBS report on this newest, most terrifying information, below:NEW: US intelligence sources confirm hacks could not have occurred without Putin s blessing, @jeffpeguescbs reports https://t.co/xSIJMLms3X pic.twitter.com/HpmgR7cg7f CBS News (@CBSNews) December 15, 2016Featured image via Getty Images (Justin Sullivan/Ian Walton) | 0 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China defended its right on Thursday to put “necessary military installations” on artificial islands in the South China Sea, after a U.S. think-tank said Beijing appeared to have deployed weapons such as anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said its findings, made available first to Reuters on Wednesday, were based on analysis of satellite images of islands in the strategic trade route, where territory is claimed by several countries. The United States has previously criticized what it called China’s militarization of its maritime outposts, and stressed the need for freedom of navigation by conducting periodic air and naval patrols near them that have angered Beijing. China’s Defence Ministry said in a statement on its website on Thursday that the construction it had carried out on islands and reefs in the disputed Spratlys chain was “mainly for civilian use”. “As for necessary military installations, they are mainly for defence and self-protection and are legitimate and lawful,” it said. “If someone makes a show of force at your front door, would you not ready your slingshot?” The United States has conducted four freedom of navigation patrols, seen as a challenge to China’s extensive territorial claims in the South China Sea, in the past year or so, most recently in October. AMTI said satellite images of islands China has built in the Spratlys showed what appeared to be anti-aircraft guns and what were likely to be close-in weapons systems (CIWS) to protect against cruise missile strikes. Other images showed towers that likely contained targeting radar, it said. Beijing regards the islands as its sovereign territory, and has often said it is entitled to limited and necessary defensive installations. AMTI director Greg Poling said the think-tank had spent months trying to figure out the purposes of the structures shown in the images. “This is the first time that we’re confident in saying they are anti-aircraft and CIWS emplacements. We did not know that they had systems this big and this advanced there,” he told Reuters. “This is militarization. The Chinese can argue that it’s only for defensive purposes, but if you are building giant anti-aircraft gun and CIWS emplacements, it means that you are prepping for a future conflict.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular news briefing in Beijing that he “did not understand” the situation referred to in the AMTI report. “The Nansha islands are China’s inherent territory. China’s building of facilities and necessary territorial defensive facilities on its own territory is completely normal,” he said, using China’s name for the Spratlys. “If China’s building of normal facilities and deploying necessary territorial defensive facilities on its own islands is considered militarization, then what is the sailing of fleets into the South China Sea?” The Philippines, one of several countries with competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, said it was still verifying the report. “But if true it is a big concern for us and the international community who use the South China Sea lanes for trade,” said Defence Minister Delfin Lorenzana. “It would mean that the Chinese are militarising the area which is not good.” Lorenzana’s comments were made during a visit to Singapore with President Rodrigo Duterte, where he also said the United States had agreed to sell the Philippine Navy two advanced radar systems to boost its surveillance capability in the South China Sea. Australia too voiced concerns about China’s actions in the disputed waterway. “The building of artificial islands and the possible militarization is creating an environment of tension and mistrust between claimants and other regional states,” said Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in a statement. “We urge claimants to refrain from coercive behavior and unilateral actions designed to change the status quo in disputed areas.” U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has criticized Chinese behavior in the South China Sea, while signaling he may adopt a tougher approach to China’s assertive behavior in the region than President Barack Obama. The State Department said it would not comment on intelligence matters, but spokesman John Kirby added: “We consistently call on China as well as other claimants to commit to peacefully managing and resolving disputes, to refrain from further land reclamation and construction of new facilities and the militarization of disputed features.” | 1 |
This is great! Ted Cruz calls out the Sierra Club President on his bogus 97% scientific consensus on global warming. When asked about the 18 year pause in global warming, as documented by satellite data, Mr. Mair denied it exists. So if the data are contrary to your testimony, would the Sierra Club issue a retraction? Cruz asked. Sir, we concur with the 97 percent scientific consensus with regards to global warming, Mair responded. After some back and forth between the two, Cruz sent the money shot in with this comment: You know, Mr. Mair, I find it striking that for a policy organization that purports to focus exclusively on environmental issues, that you are not willing to tell this committee that you would issue a retraction if your testimony is objectively false under scientific data. That undermines the credibility of any organization. Via: Daily Caller | 0 |
Ivanka Trump is a lot of things to her father someone he wants to have sex with (his words, not ours), a doting daughter he wants to bang, and she serves as one of his advisors.During an interview with Fox News, she said that in her capacity as an advisor to the President, I try to stay out of politics. I don t profess to be a political savant, said Trump s daughter. I instead like to focus on areas where I can add positive value, where I can contribute to the agenda. Policies around workforce development, around ensuring that barriers are removed from around the working family. Policies that enable that family to survive, she said. Focusing on how we can help our veterans and how we can really deliver them the care that they so need. Focusing on issues related to the really devastating opioid problem we have in this country. I m more interested in being for something than against something, she says which is convenient because she certainly hasn t been against much that Trump has done.This includes his numerous attempts to ban Muslims from entering the United States, his decisions to undo workforce protections for the LGBTQ community and others nor has she stood against any of the bazillion other horrible things he has done.She also doesn t stand for much, being a person whose clothing line is made by Chinese workers slaving away in abysmal conditions for $62 a week. Investigators looking into the horrific abuses have been arrested or outright disappeared. Ivanka has yet been silent about their plight.How can Ivanka both stay out of politics and promote her father s agenda? She can t. It s that simple.Watch the interview below:Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
President Trump is once again proving that he will be running the White House in a vastly different manner than his predecessor.For the past several years Barack Obama welcomed ESPN to the White House to fill out the NCAA tournament bracket. The news called this Baracketology. The Sports network reached out to the Trump staff, asking if the president would be continuing the tradition, but according to The Washington Post, the offer was declined. We expressed our interest to the White House in continuing the presidential bracket. They have respectfully declined, an ESPN spokesman said in a statement.Unfortunately, this tweet might be correct, Baracketology may be the best thing Obama did while in office.the best thing Barack Obama did in his 8 years. #Baracketology #ObamaFarewell pic.twitter.com/Z1blhjN3rG nick stasiak (@1staz8) January 11, 2017(Source: IOTW Report, Daily Caller) | 1 |
Washington (CNN) Donald Trump backed off a false claim Friday morning, admitting he had not seen a video of a $400 million payment being unloaded from a US plane in Iran.
The Republican nominee had claimed at rallies twice this week that such a video existed, saying in Maine on Thursday that it was provided by Iranians "to embarrass our president because we have a president who's incompetent."
What Trump had actually seen in news reports was video of three American prisoners who Iran had released arriving in Geneva, Switzerland.
Trump admitted his error in an early-morning tweet Friday, without actually saying he was wrong.
"The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!" he tweeted.
The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!
It was a rare reversal for Trump, who has stood by inaccurate or unproven claims previously -- insisting he'd seen videos of Muslim Americans in New Jersey cheering the September 11, 2001, attacks. His political rise began during the 2012 campaign, when he insisted that Obama release his birth certificate, questioning the President's American citizenship.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine hit Trump on Friday for the video claim, saying he seems "confused" on CBS' "This Morning," in an interview taped before Trump backtracked.
"I have no idea what he's talking about. It (the video) doesn't exist. He might be thinking about Iran Contra from like 35 years ago or something like this," Kaine said.
He pointed to Trump's recent criticism of Kaine, who Trump said in a late-July news conference "did a terrible job in New Jersey" -- despite Kaine being a governor and senator from Virginia, not New Jersey. Kaine said Trump must have confused him with Tom Kean, who was New Jersey's governor until 1990.
"He was confusing it with a situation from two or three decades ago. Maybe that's what he's doing with this bogus video claim," Kaine said.
Asked if he thinks Trump is confused, Kaine said: "I absolutely think he's confused."
Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman, responded to Kaine on Fox News Friday morning, saying he's "not sure there was confusion" on Trump's part.
"The point that he was making is the cash-transfer took place and it was taking place consistent with the transfer of hostages," Manafort said.
"Again, what the Obama administration wants to do is get off of the point. The point is, $400 million in cash that most likely ended up in terrorist camps used against the west was given in exchange for hostages and the President of the United States lied to the American people, that's the point."
Trump has made criticism of the US delivery of $400 million in cash via a plane to Iran -- the first installment of $1.7 billion in payments related to a decades-old dispute over an unfulfilled us arms purchase before the Iranian revolution cut relations between the two countries and settled at the same time Iran released four American prisoners -- a staple this week on the campaign trail.
But Wednesday in Florida and Thursday in Maine, he went a step further, claiming he'd seen video of the cash actually being delivered in Iran.
"It was interesting because a tape was made. Right? You saw that? With the airplane coming in -- nice plane -- and the airplane coming in, and the money coming off, I guess. Right? That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians," Trump said in Portland, Maine.
"And you know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country. They want to embarrass our country. And they want to embarrass our president because we have a president who's incompetent. They want to embarrass our president," Trump said. "I mean, who would ever think they would be taking all of this money off the plane and then providing us with a tape? It's only for one reason. And it's very, very sad." | 1 |
WASHINGTON –- Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign on Wednesday announced a massive fundraising haul in the quarter that ended on June 30, further cementing her status as the clear front-runner in the 2016 race.
All told, the Democratic candidate and former secretary of state raised more than $45 million in primary campaign contributions between her campaign announcement in April and the end of June. That figure, according to a Clinton aide, is the most that any candidate has ever raised in their opening quarter, topping President Barack Obama's roughly $42 million in the first quarter of 2011.
Clinton's haul would also shatter the previous record for an opening fundraising total by a non-incumbent presidential candidate, which she herself set in the first quarter of 2007. To set that record, she raised $26 million in the first three months of her first presidential campaign while transferring an additional $10 million from her Senate campaign account. At the time, Obama trailed closely behind with $25 million.
The Clinton campaign will also report that 91 percent of the donations it received were $100 or less in value. However, the Clinton aide did not have a total for how many individual donors gave to the campaign. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio will support a compromise tax bill when it comes up for a vote next week in Congress, CNBC reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources. The Florida lawmaker earlier on Friday repeated his concerns that an expansion of child tax credits in the bill was too little to win his support, keeping a cloud over prospects for the legislation’s passage. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump delivered his first public condemnation of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States on Tuesday after a new spate of bomb threats to Jewish community centers around the country and vandalism in a Jewish cemetery. Several of the centers were evacuated for a time on Monday after receiving the threats, the JCC Association of North America said, and another center was evacuated on Tuesday morning in San Diego, California, according to police. Also, vandals toppled about 170 headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, over the weekend. “The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” Trump told reporters. He was speaking at the end of a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, which Trump said showed “why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms.” The comments marked a change for Trump, who had not explicitly and publicly condemned the threats against Jews when asked last week. Instead, he spoke more generally about his hopes of making the nation less “divided.” The president reacted with anger at a news conference last week when a journalist from a Jewish magazine asked how his government planned to “take care” of a rise in threats. Trump berated the reporter for asking a “very insulting” question, appearing to believe the reporter was accusing him of being anti-Semitic. “Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life,” the president said, adding that he was also the least racist person. Trump has often noted that one of his daughters is a convert to Judaism, he has Jewish grandchildren and he employs many Jews in his business. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, a close adviser to her father who practices Orthodox Judaism, responded to the latest threats in a message on her Twitter account on Monday evening. “America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance,” she said. “We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers.” On Tuesday, Trump again declined to answer a question about what action he would take to address the threats to Jewish organizations. Sean Spicer, a White House spokesman, said later that Trump would respond through “deed and action” over the coming months and years. ‘BAND-AID’ Trump’s derogatory campaign rhetoric against Muslims and Mexican immigrants won enthusiastic backing from prominent white supremacists who embrace anti-Jewish, anti-black and anti-Muslim ideologies. It also drew greater media attention to fringe extremist groups. Trump has disavowed their support. His chief strategist, Steve Bannon, is the former publisher of Breitbart, a news website popular among right-wing extremist groups. The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect in New York, which has criticized the Trump administration repeatedly over anti-Semitism, said his comments were too little too late. “The president’s sudden acknowledgement is a Band-Aid on the cancer of anti-Semitism that has infected his own administration,” Steven Goldstein, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. Spicer rejected the characterization. “I wish that they had praised the president for his leadership in this area,” he told reporters when asked about Goldstein’s comment. “Hopefully as time goes by they’ll recognize his commitment to civil rights.” Jewish groups criticized the White House for omitting any mention of Jews in its statement marking Holocaust Memorial Day last month. The White House said the omission was deliberate since the Nazis also killed people who were not Jews, if in smaller numbers. The stated goal of the Nazis was the extermination of Jews. One day after speaking at a security summit in Munich, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence spent Sunday morning walking through the grounds of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany with a camp survivor. Over the course of the U.S. Presidents Day holiday on Monday, bomb threats were sent to 11 Jewish community centers, including ones in the Houston, Chicago and Milwaukee areas, according to the JCC association. They were found to be hoaxes, as was another threat that forced the evacuation of a center in San Diego on Tuesday morning, according to police. No arrests were made. The FBI has said it is investigating recent threats as “possible civil rights violations.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a prominent Muslim human rights group, has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of anyone behind the threats, saying Muslims felt a duty to support any targeted minority group. The incidents on Monday followed three waves of bomb threats so far this year. In all, at least 69 incidents at 54 Jewish community centers in 27 states and one Canadian province have been reported, according to the JCC association. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump picked a new fight on Thursday with his fellow Republicans, saying congressional leaders could have avoided a “mess” over raising the U.S. debt ceiling if they had taken his advice. In the latest in a stream of criticisms that could undermine his aims to cut taxes, pass a budget and rebuild infrastructure, Trump sought to blame party leaders if Congress fails to agree to raise the cap on how much the federal government may borrow. The Treasury Department has said the ceiling must be raised by Sept. 29. If not, the government would be unable to borrow more money or pay its bills, including its debt payments. That could hurt the United States’ credit rating, cause financial turmoil, harm the U.S. economy and possibly trigger a recession. Trump said he had advised Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan to link passage of legislation raising the debt ceiling to a bill on veterans affairs that he signed into law on Aug. 12. “They ... didn’t do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess!” Trump said in Twitter posts. Recent media reports suggest that Trump’s relationship with McConnell has deteriorated amid repeated attacks by Trump on the Republican Senate majority leader for, among other things, failing to get a healthcare bill passed. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that McConnell and Trump were locked in a political “cold war,” especially after an Aug. 9 phone call that it said devolved into a shouting match. On the 9th and the 10th Trump assailed McConnell via Twitter, angered by a speech in which McConnell said Trump had “excessive expectations” of Congress. Trump’s salvo ran counter to efforts this week by the White House and McConnell’s office to play down reports of discord. A spokesman for McConnell noted the Senate majority leader had said earlier this week, in an appearance with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, that the debt ceiling would be raised. McConnell was “unequivocal” about it, said spokesman Don Stewart. He said McConnell mentioned it again on Wednesday in a statement the Senate leader issued about his “shared goals” with Trump. Ryan, speaking at a town hall meeting on tax reform at a Boeing plant in Washington state, also said Congress would pass legislation to raise the ceiling in time to ensure debt payment. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders denied there was any need to repair ties between Trump and top Republican lawmakers. “I think the relationships are fine,” she told reporters. “Certainly there are going to be some policy differences, but there are also a lot of shared goals and that’s what we’re focused on.” Raising the debt ceiling is one of the must-pass measures Congress will take up when it returns on Sept. 5. Congress will have about 12 working days from its return to approve spending measures to keep the government open. While the budget and debt cap are separate, they are likely to become entangled, with Republican opponents of a debt ceiling increase expected to demand federal spending cuts. Trump threatened on Tuesday to shut down the government if Congress failed to secure funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. His threat added a new wrinkle to the Republicans’ months-long struggle to reach a budget deal, rattling markets and drawing rebukes from some Republicans. Democrats, solidly opposed to funding the wall, have slammed Trump over his comments. Both the spending and debt ceiling bills could pass the Republican-led House by a simple majority vote, but will need 60 votes to pass the Senate, where Republicans hold 52 of 100 seats, meaning they will need some Democratic support. A respected think tank said in a report on Thursday the government might not have enough money to pay all its bills on Oct. 2 if Washington does not raise the debt cap. The Treasury might not have enough money on that day to make a roughly $80 billion payment that will be due to a military retirement fund, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Moody’s Investors Service said it would consider stripping the United States of its top-notch rating in the event of a default but not over late or skipped payments on non-debt obligations if the government ran short of funds. The warning about a possible U.S. downgrade seemed less dire and narrower in scope than one issued on Wednesday by Fitch Ratings. Trump has often expressed frustration that Congress has not passed significant legislation since he took office in January, particularly its failure to pass a bill to replace Democratic former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law - something that Trump had promised to accomplish. “The only problem I have with Mitch McConnell is that, after hearing Repeal & Replace for 7 years, he failed! That should NEVER have happened!” Trump said in a tweet on Thursday, echoing criticisms he made earlier this month. McConnell offered muted criticism of Trump on Thursday, saying he was “a little concerned about some of the trade rhetoric” by the president, who has repeatedly condemned trade deals he believes are bad for the United States, and by others. “Trade is a winner for America,” McConnell told Kentucky farmers and lawmakers. “The assumption that every free-trade agreement is a loser for America is largely untrue.” | 1 |
.@SeanHannity: The Obama Nightmare is finally coming to an end! Watch #Hannity SHRED Obama s failed economic legacy:#ObamaFarewell pic.twitter.com/ZCPoCOrdop Students for Trump (@SoCal4Trump) January 11, 2017 | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday he remained confident about the future of the U.S.-Philippines relationship despite “a difference here or there” and that he hoped to visit Manila again before leaving office. New Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has thrown Manila’s long-standing alliance with Washington into question since taking office in June with a series of insults and threats to cut ties with the former colonial power. Speaking at a swearing-in ceremony for the new U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, Kerry called the alliance between the two peoples “indelible.” Kerry recalled shared resistance to Japan in World War Two and noted that nearly 4 million people of Philippine descent live in the United States while almost a quarter of a million Americans live in the Philippines. “I am confident about the future of our bilateral relations, notwithstanding a difference here or there about one thing or another,” he said. Kerry did not mention Duterte by name but said all needed to have the wisdom to adjust to change brought about by democratic elections. He noted that Sung Kim had tackled “some really tough, complex challenges” in the past, given his previous assignments dealing with North Korea. Kerry said the United States and the Philippines would “continue to consult openly and honestly” and added: “I very much hope to visit there before leaving my term of office as secretary of state.” Kerry’s term officially ends on Jan. 20 after Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election, although he could be asked to stay on temporarily under the future administration. He said he told Duterte on a visit to the Philippines in July of Washington’s “ironclad commitment to the sovereignty and independence and security of the Philippines.” “We will continue to cooperate in efforts to maintain peace and stability and to promote shared prosperity in the Asia Pacific,” Kerry said, adding that Washington would continue to help the Philippines in the event of national emergencies. Daniel Russel, the senior U.S. diplomat for East Asia, who visited the Philippines last month, conceded that the relationship was “going through a bit of a rough patch - some growing pains. “There been some name-calling coming out of Manila; some questions raised about what the future holds,” he told a news briefing. “But ... the deep, deep roots between the United States and the Philippines ... will over the long term ensure stability in the relationship.” Russel, an assistant secretary of state, said all the senior officials he met in Manila told him they saw value in continued defense cooperation and he was not aware of any action that had “significantly affected our ability to cooperate.” “I am not saying that can’t happen, but I hope it doesn’t,” he said. In his latest outburst, Duterte chided the United States on Wednesday for the halt of a planned sale of 26,000 rifles to his country, calling those behind the decision “fools” and “monkeys” and indicating he might turn to Russia and China instead. | 1 |
(Reuters) - Lloyd s of London underwriter Hiscox Ltd said the price of insuring property in the United States would rise after the states of Texas and Florida suffered billions of dollars of losses from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. This will definitely have the impact of eliminating price reductions. I think that loss-affected areas will see price rises. The bigger ticket property area will see price rises because that was a very under-priced area beforehand, Chief Executive Bronek Masojada told Reuters. People buy programs covering all of their property wherever they are in America. So, it (price rises) will be broader than just Texas and Florida, Masojada added. Like many Lloyd s of London insurers, Hiscox offers U.S. property insurance. AIR Worldwide forecast on Monday total insured losses in the United States for Irma of between $20 billion and $40 billion. That was down from initial estimates over the weekend of as much as $65 billion. Rival risk modeling firm RMS estimates insured losses from Harvey of $25-$35 billion. Masojada said Hiscox would be announcing loss estimates in due course . | 1 |
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Buzz Cut:
• Hillary’s leftward sprint cheers Dems
• Billionaire Steyer gets Hillary house call
• Rubio jumps in Iowa Q poll
• High expectations this time for Huckabee in Iowa
• Good dog, indeed
HILLARY’S LEFTWARD SPRINT CHEERS DEMS
Why do politicians pander? Because it works. Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has been continually buffeted by scandal since March 2 and faces concerns among primary voters about her coming coronation. The response to the allegations against the candidate and her organization – payola for official favors as secretary of state and destruction of tens of thousands of emails from her time in office – has been a botch. Clinton’s husband and daughter are trying to defend the family’s buckracking, but they’re trying to do it whilst on a luxury African tour that highlights the family’s unsavory connections. So what’s the candidate – especially one who was upended as a frontrunner eight years ago – to do? Go left. And she is sprinting that way.
[‘Shred’ may not have been the word you were looking for - Bill Clinton in an interview with CNN reportedly said “suggestions of improper funding to the Clinton Foundation ‘won’t fly... not a shred of evidence.’”]
The latest and most aggressive flip is Clinton’s move on illegal immigration in which she vowed to go beyond the temporary executive amnesty from President Obama that’s currently being blocked by the courts. That’s a big veer. But she’s benefitting from such tactics. A new poll from NYT/CBS News found that while 81 percent of Democrats found Clinton honest and trustworthy, just 40 percent of independents did. This is the first time that the poll has asked the question, but it suggests that in addition to the “Faberge egg” phenomenon, Clinton may be helped by primary voters feeling better since she started running as an Obama Democrat.
[De Blasio warming up for Hillary endorsement - Appearing on MSNBC, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio praised Clinton’s increasingly liberal stances on issues like immigration and criminal justice.]
Perhaps this is Clinton revealing her true feelings. But if it is candor and not pander, though, there is still the character question of why Clinton previously misled voters. And there is the larger issue: The Clinton brand is based on pragmatic centrism, not ideology. As Mitt Romney found out, candidates who start with a trust deficit do not, in fact, get to shake their Etch A Sketches. Even a candidate who gets away with ducking the press for months at a time will eventually have to answer reporters’ questions about the scandals and her congressional testimony about the emails is coming up later this month. As the scandal stuff bumps and bruises its way forward, it seems unlikely that general election voters will be of a mind to take her word on questions of pinwheeling policy stances.
The 1 percent likes one of their own - A CNBC survey found 53 percent of millionaires would vote for Hillary Clinton while 47 percent would vote for the GOP hopeful.
O’Malley scoffs - “Governor O’Malley stood up when it mattered. When most leaders in the Democratic and Republican Parties were saying that we should close our border to children fleeing violence in Central America, he defied them and said that we could not send children ‘back to certain death.’ He was criticized for that position, but leadership is about forging public opinion, not following it.’ – Lis Smith, spokeswoman for former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Poll: N.H. lead gets a trim - Support for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has dropped and her lead over potential Democratic rivals has slipped according to a new WMUR poll of likely New Hampshire primary voters. Clinton is the favorite of 51 percent to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s 20 percent and Sen. Bernie Sanders at 13 percent. In WMUR’s February poll, 58 percent backed Clinton to Warren’s 14 percent and Sanders’ 6 percent. “‘Hillary Clinton is still the frontrunner,’ survey center director Andrew Smith [told WMUR]. ‘She is the frontrunner largely because Democrats think she is the most electable in November 2016. But there is evidence that a significant bloc of progressive Democratic primary voters are not happy with the Clinton candidacy.’”
Power Play: Dem debates will draw out challengers - The Democratic Party is sanctioning six presidential debates. That’s sounds like quite a few for a field currently consisting of presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton and a self-described socialist senator from Vermont who isn’t even a registered Democrat. But the debate announcement will change the shape of the field. Chris Stirewalt gives you the lowdown, in 60 seconds. WATCH HERE.
BILLIONAIRE DONOR STEYER GETS HILLARY HOUSECALL
Billionaire Tom Steyer and his wife Kat Taylor host Hillary Clinton at their home in upscale Pacific Heights-San Francisco today. The “Conversation with Hillary,” in which the presumptive Democratic nominee will likely be pressed for her position on the Keystone XL pipeline, kicks off a three-day California fundraising swing. Steyer is a green-energy mogul whose business depends on government subsidies and government regulation of his fossil-fuel competitors. Though Clinton has been officially non-committal on Keystone, don’t be surprised if her leftward shift continues as she plays up to West Coast donors.
[Down the tube? - An environmental group calling on Clinton to outline her plan for addressing climate change, including opposition to Keystone XL, is staging a rally outside the Steyer fundraiser today.]
The host with the most - Steyer has been touted as “the most influential environmentalist in American politics.” He pumped more than $73 million into PACS pushing climate change in the midterms – and has been cast as a liberal counterforce to the Koch brothers. Steyer’s prolific fundraising for President Obama and subsequent visits to the White House on environmental issues have gone hand-in hand with benefits to his ‘clean energy” interests. The scope of Steyer’s kingmaker status has driven Democrats to stage events like their one-party climate change talkathon in Congress last year and Sen. Harry Reid’s annual clean energy summit. Keynoting last year’s Las Vegas gathering of industry leaders – you guessed it: Hillary Clinton.
WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE…
CNET: “In Tom Clancy's sensationalist novel ‘Debt of Honor,’ a disgruntled pilot decides to avenge his lost honor by crashing a fuel-laden 747 directly into the U.S. Capitol, causing the giant building to explode and collapse. The scope of that fictional disaster was hard to fathom prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But even before 9/11, anyone who had been in Lakehurst, N.J., on May 6, 1937, would have had a pretty good sense of just how big an explosion Clancy had in mind. Because that day, the Hindenburg, a German zeppelin that was famous the world over for ferrying the rich and powerful across the Atlantic, blew up as it attempted to land, a catastrophe that rocked the globe, kickstarted the news industry, and closed the book for good on a form of travel that, while far beyond the means of most people, unquestionably appealed to the romantic notions of the masses.”
Got a TIP from the RIGHT or LEFT? Email [email protected]
POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
Obama Job Approval: Approve – 46.0 percent//Disapprove – 49.9 percent
Direction of Country: Right Direction – 29.8 percent//Wrong Track – 61.2 percent
RUBIO JUMPS IN IOWA Q POLL
Marco Rubio’s post-announcement surge is paying off in Iowa where the latest Quinnipiac University poll shows him vaulting into the top tier for the state’s Republican caucuses. The poll, out today, shows the Florida senator gaining 9 points since February to finish in a second-place tie with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who remained at 13 percent. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also made big gains since his announcement, jumping 7 points to 12 percent. But the man to beat is still Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who again finished first. But Walker saw his lead shrink from 12 points in February to 8 points this month. The poll, taken before his Tuesday announcement showed no improvement for former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., who remained at 11 percent. Another newly declared candidate, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, saw his support slip from 11 percent to 7 percent.
[Watch Fox: Ben Carson will join Megyn Kelly tonight for his first television interview since declaring his 2016 candidacy. “The Kelly File” airs at 9 p.m. ET.]
Hawkeye voters shuck Jeb - The big loser in the new Q poll is Jeb Bush. The former Florida governor saw his support drop by half, falling to 5 percent. Bush did take the lead in another poll question, but not a good one: Which candidate would voters definitely not support? Bush came in first at 25 percent followed by Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., at 20 percent. Others joining Bush and Christie in 5-percent-or-less club: former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and former tech CEO Carly Fiorina.
[A Washington Post write up of the recent NYT/CBS News and WSJ/NBC News polls shows that even though Bush is not the resounding favorite he is gaining ground with primary voters.]
Sixteeners split on GOP budget vote - The three declared Republican presidential candidates in the Senate were divided in casting their ballots on the GOP budget plan Tuesday. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted against the measure, while Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., voted yea. The 10-year non-binding blueprint passed 51-48 and will serve as a starting point for spending bills later this year.
Perry flips on Ex-Im bank - Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry details in this WSJ op-ed how he came to change his mind on Ex-Import Bank, and why he thinks there are other ways to create jobs. He writes, “Next month, the bank comes up for reauthorization again—but this time I can’t get on board. I have been deeply disturbed by recent revelations of corruption and bribery at the institution.”
[Starting May 16 Perry heads to Iowa for a series of nine events over the course of four days.]
Heading home - Ben Carson attends a private event today in Baltimore, says his campaign press secretary.
Download that, dude - Facing ridicule for leaving the “.org” version of her open to a cyber-squatter, former tech CEO Carly Fiorina turned the tables on “Late Night” host Seth Myers when she announced she had bought SethMyers.org. It cost the her a whopping $16. Watch their exchange here.
Snyder says he sees an opening - WSJ: “Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday that he sees an opening for a presidential candidate with his track record, though it likely will be weeks until he announces whether he’ll join the race for the GOP nomination. In an interview on the sidelines of a job conference here, Mr. Snyder said while he is focused on ‘telling the Michigan story,’ he is ‘watching who is in the candidate race, because we need a problem-solver in Washington’…He said he was “watching the process, and I think you’ll find most of the candidates coming out by the June-July time-frame.’”
HIGH EXPECTATIONS THIS TIME FOR HUCKABEE IN IOWA
Des Moines Register: “If he wants to win Iowa again, however, GOP activists said Huckabee will have to adapt to higher expectations than he faced as a relative unknown ahead of his 2008 Iowa caucuses victory. He will also have to outlast a crowded field of candidates looking for a chunk of the conservative bloc that carried him to victory in 2008...a former Iowa legislator, recalls struggling to get a dozen people to show up to see Huckabee at a diner in 2007. This year, a pre-campaign stop by Huckabee at a Sioux City restaurant in March drew nearly 70.”
Chuck Norris fact: He still supports Huckabee - Roundhouse kick enthusiast Chuck Norris, told NYT Tuesday that he believes Huckabee is, ‘the most qualified,’ candidate. Norris avidly supported Huckabee in the 2008 cycle.
[On his “Factories, Farms & Freedom” swing through Iowa Huckabee visits with employees of Clow Valve, and hosts a rally in Urbandale, IA.]
“…Bill Clinton was governor for 12 years…When I came into office, first as lieutenant governor, then as governor, every agency was populated with the people he had hired and appointed…My door was nailed shut as lieutenant governor…It was literally nailed shut. I couldn't get in for 59 days.” – Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., on “The Kelly File”
GOP KEEPS STATEN ISLAND SEAT HOUSE AFTER GRIMM DISGRACE
The Hill: “Staten Island district attorney Daniel Donovan (R) easily defeated Democratic City Councilman Vincent Gentile in the special election to replace disgraced former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) on Tuesday night.”
BIBI IN A JAM AFTER ALLY DEFECTS TO OPPOSITION
AP: “With the clock ticking, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raced to put together a governing coalition Tuesday or face the prospect of being forced out of office by a former ally. Netanyahu’s Likud Party won March 17 elections, emerging as the largest single party in parliament. But he has had a tough time striking deals with other parties to secure a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat parliament. If he fails by the end of the day Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin must give someone else the job.”
Down to the wire in U.K. - Sky News: “Overnight polls into the final day of campaigning suggest neither of the two main parties have managed to break the deadlock, with the race remaining neck and neck. One poll suggests the Tories have sneaked a 3% lead over Labour - with UKIP enjoying its highest vote share since January.”
GOOD DOG, INDEED
There have already been 41 American police officers killed in the line of duty this year, but Lt. Eric Eslary’s story may bring that statistic into more tangible terms for you. R.I.P., lieutenant. AP: “A western Pennsylvania police officer and father of six was killed in a head-on crash with a work van that was traveling the wrong way, police said. Lt. Eric Eslary's patrol SUV collided with the van about 2 a.m. on U.S. Route 30 in Ligonier, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. Eslary was a 17-year veteran of the Ligonier Township Police Department and often worked the overnight shift with his K-9 partner Blek, a German shepherd. Blek was also injured in the crash and had to be coaxed away from his partner’s body by Eslary’s wife, who came to the scene. The dog had refused to leave Eslary’s side, township Police Chief Michael Matrunics said.”
AND NOW A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“The other thing that strikes me is, where is [Hillary Clinton]? First they put out their stooges to go out and defend them. Then their daughter, then the husband and she’s sort of hiding in the bunker…The numbers in The Wall Street Journal poll are very telling. Democrats are hanging on to Hillary...They are all in either because they believe in her or they know that they've got no choice.” – Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier.” Watch here.
Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here
Chris Stirewalt joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in July of 2010 and serves as digital politics editor based in Washington, D.C. Additionally, he authors the daily "Fox News First" political news note and hosts "Power Play," a feature video series, on FoxNews.com. Stirewalt makes frequent appearances on the network, including "The Kelly File," "Special Report with Bret Baier," and "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace." He also provides expert political analysis for Fox News coverage of state, congressional and presidential elections. | 0 |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army and its allies have secured the Palmyra to Deir al-Zor road, a major supply route from government territory to the eastern city, defeating a strong Islamic State attack, a military media unit run by Lebanon s Hezbollah said on Friday. Islamic State s assault, which began on Thursday, is the first major counterattack against the Syrian army and its allies since they broke through a swathe of territory to reach the city of Deir al-Zor this month. The Syrian army and its allies completely secured the Deir al-Zor-Palmyra highway after foiling the intense attack, the Hezbollah media unit said. The highway has become passable for traffic in both directions to and from Deir al-Zor. Hezbollah is one of the main allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, alongside Russia, Iran and other Shi ite militias. Earlier on Friday, a commander in the military alliance backing Assad had said the road linking Deir al-Zor to Palmyra was being used only when absolutely necessary, and that the army and its allies were fighting to recover lost ground. Islamic State had captured the town of al-Shoula, which sits on the highway, and the commander said at least 10 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the fighting. Islamic State said it had killed about 40 Syrian soldiers and captured several positions. The Syrian army s advance to Deir al-Zor, helped by the Russian military and Iranian-backed militias, lifted a three-year-long Islamic State siege on a government-held enclave in the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State attacks had killed more than 58 fighters from the Syrian army and allied forces since Thursday. A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian militias, the Syrian Democratic Forces, is waging a separate offensive against Islamic State in Deir al-Zor to the east of the Euphrates River, which bisects the province. In an undated recorded statement released on Thursday, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi pressed his followers to stand fast and keep fighting. | 1 |
Sputnik October 27, 2016
NATO and Washington’s activities in Eastern Europe and the Baltics de facto amount to permanent military presence, Sergei Ermakov, a senior analyst at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, told RT, adding that we have seen “only the tip of the iceberg” so far. “Endless war-games and rotational deployments essentially amount to permanent military presence. NATO is testing a drastic military buildup. We have witnessed the alliance deploy expeditionary forces and assault troops to Eastern Europe. These are offensive, not defensive forces. What we have seen is only the tip of the iceberg,” Ermakov said.
The North Atlantic Alliance has pledged to refrain from deploying substantial forces along the NATO-Russia border on a permanent basis, but has been increasingly active in the region. The bloc approved its largest military buildup in Eastern Europe and the Baltics since the end of the Cold War at the 2016 Warsaw summit, a development viewed with deep concern in Moscow.
As part of this initiative, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US will establish and lead four battle groups expected to be deployed in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Each will total up to 1,000 soldiers. These battalions are said to become operational in early 2017. The alliance has justified its massive buildup by blaming Russia for its ostensibly “assertive” behavior. Moscow has consistently denied these groundless claims.
Ermakov further explained that forces of NATO’s European members are not as lethal as they might seem. “On paper this is a force exceeding Russia’s [military] potential by several times. But it lacks real combat power. This is why Americans need to be everywhere. The US was forced to boost US European Command’s budget,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon requested $3.4bn for its operations in Europe in 2017, a four-time increase compared to its $789-million budget this year. A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Russian officials and experts have repeatedly pointed out that NATO increasing assertiveness has put regional stability at risk.
The bloc’s muscle flexing and aggressive rhetoric “greatly reduce European security and the chances for a revival of constructive dialogue between Russia and NATO, something Russia has been calling for so many years. Instead, the bloc is doing its best to provoke an arms race with unpredictable results,” Peter Korzun, an expert on wars and conflicts, wrote for the Strategic Culture Foundation. Ermakov also said that the United States wants to increase its presence in the Black Sea region to counter Russia. “Americans can no longer count on Turkey due to the failed coup attempt. Ankara has become a complicated partner. [Washington] is instead focusing on Bulgaria and Romania,” he said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg mentioned Romania during a press conference held following the latest meeting of NATO’s defense ministers. He said that Romanian troops will join the US-led battle group in Poland. He also said that the ministers discussed progress made in strengthening NATO’s presence in the Black Sea region “in the air, at sea and on land.” This initiative will include among other things “a Romanian-led multinational framework brigade on land,” he observed, providing no additional information on the subject.
Ermakov further said that Washington also wants to counter Russia in Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. This article was posted: Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 6:39 am Share this article | 0 |
Financial Markets , Gold , Market Manipulation , Precious Metals Comex , gold silver ratio , Junior mining stocks , LBMA , Shanghai Gold Exchange , silver eagles admin
In the absence of the extreme degree of price intervention being conducted by the western Central Banks and bullion banks in the paper gold and silver markets, the price of both precious metals would be several multiples higher. That this intervention occurs not only has become overtly visible to all market participants, but recent prosecution/settlement events have rendered this assertion indisputable.
After a massive move that started in mid-December 2015, the sector began selling-off in early July. This correction was a function of both characteristic market technicals and conspicuous paper market manipulation in the New York and London paper gold/silver “markets.”
But after nearly five years of oppressive, unfettered market manipulation, the physical market has put a floor beneath the market. After a price “correction” of 8% in gold and 16% in silver, the metals are now ready to go higher from here. This was “telegraphed” by the recent price-action in the junior mining stocks as represented by the GDXJ junior mining stock index:
The junior mining stocks – especially the smaller exploration companies – similarly signaled the move higher in the metals ahead of the rest of the sector beginning in early December 2015.
While the Central Banks would love nothing more right now than to take gold and silver down to zero, the markets – driven by the physical deliver bullion markets in the eastern hemisphere, appear to want the market to move higher. The sequence of trading events beginning yesterday through today illustrates this dynamic.
After a big rally in the mining stocks and metals in the first half of the trading on Wednesday, the miners slammed after the FOMC meeting statement was released in the afternoon. The HUI was taken down from its high of 226 (up 7 pts) to close down down 4 points at 215. This signaled a likely price ambush in the metals, which occurred just after midnight EST, taking December gold down $14 from $1301 to $1287 – silver was taken below $18.
The mind-set going into the NYSE was that the HUI would get slammed again. But the market had different ideas. The HUI began moving up at the open. It’s been up as much as 2.5% from yesterday’s close. Shortly thereafter, the metals began to rally as well. Historically, after a reversal like yesterday, the metals and miners typically continue lower for at least few days. But with the mining stocks leading the way, it is highly probable that the next move from here will be higher (with plenty of manipulated volatility, of course).
In today’s episode of the Shadow of Truth, we explain why the precious metals sector has shifted into a trend in which every price pullback should be used to accumulate and add to positions in gold, silver and your favorite mining stocks. Share this: | 1 |
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Stewart Howe and Randy J for a simulcast and commentary on the Presidential debate with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Don t watch in despair, come join the BOILER ROOM gang while we eat pop corn to to the exercises in theater and futility known as the Presidential debate. Join us in the chat! The first embedded player is the debate itself. If you can t stomach the sound of the candidates or if once was enough with the debate audio, we understand and we ve broken out the Boiler Room analysis of the debate into a separate spreaker embed to reduce politically induced symptoms of nausea and vomiting.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! Part I The U.S. Presidential Debate SimulcastPart II Boiler Room Wrap Up Show | 0 |
Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/10/indias-stonehenge-7000-year-old.html A remarkable 7,000-year-old megalithic site that served as an astronomical observatory has been found in Muduma village in Telangana, India. The discovery has been hailed as one of the most significant archaeological findings in India over the last few decades.According to Times of India , the team of archeologists described it as "the only megalithic site in India, where a depiction of a star constellation has been identified." The ancient observatory dates to 5,000 BC and the researchers believe that it is the earliest astronomical observatory discovered in India and perhaps even in the whole of South Asia.The site consists of around 80 huge menhirs (standing stones), which are 3.5 – 4 meters tall. There are also about 2000 alignment stones, which are 30-60cm tall.According to experts, no other excavation site in India has so many menhirs concentrated in such a small area. The maximum concentration of menhirs is located in the central portion of the monument.One of the surprising details discovered at the site is a depiction of the constellation known as Ursa Major, which is formed from small cup-sized pits carved into a standing stone. The group of about 30 cup-marks were arranged in the same shape in which Ursa Major can be observed in the night sky with the naked eye. The carving depicts not only the prominent seven starts, but also the peripheral stars too. The large standing stones that form an observatory in Telangana, India ( Satya Vijayi ) Moreover, as ArcheoFeed.com reported: an "imaginary line drawn through the top two stars point to pole star or the North Star."Researchers believe that the site still holds many secrets. The next planned research will take a place in December led by archeologists from Korea.Numerous prehistoric observatories have already been discovered around the world, including Peru, Britain and Armenia. Thousands of years ago people were trying to understand the sky and were often using their observations to make predictions for agricultural and ceremonial purposes. The site Zorats Karer from Armenia dates back to the same period as the observatory from India. The constellation Ursa Major as it can be seen by the unaided eye ( public domain ) As Natalia Klimczak from Ancient Origins wrote :“Zorats Karer is also known as Carahunge, Karahunj, Qarahunj. It is located in an area of around 7 hectares and covers the site nearby the Dar river canyon, close to the city of Sisan. The ancient site is often called the "A rmenian Stonehenge ," but the truth of what it is may be even more fascinating. Related: Stonehenge is 5,000 Years Older Than Previously Thought According to researchers, Zorats Karer could be among the world's oldest astronomical observatories, and is at least 3,500 years older than British Stonehenge. The site was rediscovered in 1984 by a team led by researcher Onik Khnkikyan. After a few months of work, Khnkikyan concluded that the site of Zorats Karer must have been an observatory. Moreover, with time, Armenian archeologists, astronomers and astrophysicists found that there were at least two other ancient sites important for prehistoric astronomy in the vicinity: Angeghakot and Metzamor. A general view of the Karahunj site near Sisian, Southern Armenia. ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) In 1994, Zorats Karer was extensively analyzed by Professor Paris Herouni, a member of the Armenian National Academy of Science and President of the Radio Physics Research Institute in Yerevan. His expeditions revealed a great deal of fascinating information about the site. First of all, his team counted 223 stones, of which 84 were found to have holes.They measured the longitude, latitude and the magnetic deviation of the site. The researchers also created a topographical map of the monumental megalithic construction, which became the basis of further work. Finally, the main treasure of the site was unearthed – a collection of many impressive and unique astronomical objects. The researchers realized that several stones were used to make observations of the sun, moon and stars. They were located according to knowledge about the rising, culmination moments, and setting of the sun, moon and specific stars. The stones are basalt, somewhat protected by moss but smoothed by the rain and wind and full of holes and erosion. Many of the stones were damaged over time.In ancient times, the stones were shaped and arranged in what are known as the north and south arms, the central circle, the north-eastern alley, the separate standing system of circles and the chord. The stones are between 0.5 and 3 meters tall and weigh up to 10 tons. Some of them are related to burial cists." By Natalia Klimzcak, Ancient Origins / Cover image: Main: The Ursa Major constellation (Fotlia). Inset: The megalithic site in Telangana, India ( Bangalore Mirror ) This article was originally published on Ancient Origins and has been republished with permission. Dear Friends, HumansAreFree is and will always be free to access and use. If you appreciate my work, please help me continue.
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More than 1,400 migrants disembarked in Italy on Friday, the first of more than 4,400 who are expected to come ashore during the day after being picked up by rescue boats this week in the southern Mediterranean. The problem is this is not a reuse but an invasion enabled by the smugglers and the European Union. Italy and Europe are toast!Italy, along with France and Germany have agreed to draw up a code of conduct for charities operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean with the aim of bringing under control the growing influx of migrants. In the past few days alone, up to 12 thousand people have arrived in Italy from Africa, while more than 85 thousand have landed in the country since the beginning of this year. Former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini discusses this issue of the increased risk of terrorism in italy:The Italians are fed up with the invasion:Locals of the Castell Umberto commune in Messina protested against the arrival of a new group of migrants, Saturday, with the Messina s mayor Vincenzo Civa Lionetto cutting off electricity supply to a former hotel, where the migrants were placed.HUNDREDS OF ILLEGAL INVADERS SET UP CAMP NEAR GEORGE CLOONEY S LAKE COMO MANSION:The locals are telling it like it is:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfIkiny_O14 | 1 |
The One World Trade Center Twitter account announced they would be lighting the tower green in solidarity with the #ParisAgreement #OneWTC will be lit green tonight in solidarity with the #ParisAgreement @OneWTC One World Trade (@OneWTC) June 1, 2017Hundreds of people protested in Lower Manhattan and buildings were lit green in solidarity after President Trump declared Thursday that the U.S. is withdrawing from the landmark Paris climate agreement.About 400 protesters gathered at Foley Square after Trump s announcement. They held signs and chanted, What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now! The crowd marched through the streets to nearby City Hall, where they pounded drums and chanted, You can t drink oil, leave it in the soil! In a show of solidarity, Gov. Cuomo said One World Trade Center and the Kosciuszko Bridge would be lit green on Thursday night. Mayor de Blasio said City Hall would also light up green. NBCNYWatch:One World Trade Center lights up green after President Trump ditches global climate agreement https://t.co/sCHSiqP25r pic.twitter.com/M8r66YYgNM NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) June 2, 2017Twitter users responded to liberals and the liberal media who heralded the decision to use the WTC site to trash Trump. Kelly called the decision to use the WTC for international political purposes, disgusting That is disgusting using The World Trade Center for international political purposes! That is AMERICAN sacred ground. Kelly T (@ktellmemore) June 3, 2017Kelly T wasn t the only Twitter user who found the politicizing of the WTC site to be disgusting: World Trade Center people better get their act together blowout the green candle it's disgusting and if it was Blasio it makes worse.! pic.twitter.com/m7zE3pUH5C joseph e pintinalli (@1handputter) June 3, 2017Others were offended that One World Trade Center was being used as a political pawn Disgusting the WTC is sacred ground of the USA not a political pawn Michael (@mweis1964) June 3, 2017https://twitter.com/EntreAmis1000/status/870996745215295494Others mocked their hypocrisy, as they used large amounts of electricity to light the massive tower:So they lit the building up using electricity and expanding their carbon footprint?THAT WILL SHOW US!! Meier Ben Avraham (@hebrewservative) June 2, 2017That makes sense show green and waste electricity William Burrows (@wabr101) June 3, 2017 | 1 |
DUBAI (Reuters) - A ship carrying 5,500 tonnes of flour docked in Yemen s Hodeidah port in the Red Sea on Sunday, the first after more than two weeks of a blockade by a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement, local officials said. Saudi Arabia and its allies closed air, land and sea access to the Arabian Peninsula country on Nov. 6, to stop what it calls a flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran. The action came after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired towards its capital Riyadh. Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with weapons. The delivery is the first aid to arrive through Hodeidah port, controlled by the Houthis, after the coalition allowed a flight carrying humanitarian aid workers to the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Saturday. The ship is 106 meters long and carries 5,500 tonnes of flour, one of the Yemeni officials said. Aid agencies said the blockade had worsened the humanitarian crisis in Yemen where the war has left an estimated 7 million people facing famine and killed more than 10,000 people. The coalition gave clearance for U.N. flights in and out of Sanaa from Amman on Saturday, involving the regular rotation of aid workers. After re-opening Sanaa airport, UNICEF has also sent vaccines there. The charity Save the Children said an estimated 20,000 Yemeni children under the age of five were joining the ranks of the severely malnourished every month, an average of 27 children every hour . | 0 |
BNI Store Nov 5 2016 Muslims regularly use “Inshallah” (“God Willing” in Arabic) and nobody calls it ‘Christophobic’ hate speech…so why is “Deus Vult” (“God Willing” in Latin) graffiti being called ‘Islamophobic’ Crusader hate speech? At the newly sharia-compliant University of Southern Maine, moronic school officials say “Deus Vult” Graffiti of Crusades’ rallying cry is being referred to the state Attorney General’s office after the Latin phrase used by Christians was written on a desk and wall in a student government office. Press Herald The phrase was used as a rallying cry for Christians during the Crusades in medieval times, and more recently has now is being called an anti-Muslim insult. In an email to the campus community, USM President Glenn Cummings condemned the “anti-Muslim graffiti” found in the office in the Woodbury Campus Center. “I want you to know that addressing this is our highest priority. Our campus security is fully investigating what we believe to be a hate crime,” Cummings wrote. “A team from our Dean of Students is working hard to uncover the facts while providing opportunities for intergroup dialogue and supporting students directly and indirectly affected by this reprehensible act. (It’s free speech, you idiot, and Muslims use the exact same phrase everyday, especially when trying to impose their death cult on non-muslims) British member of ISIS Mostly, to our Muslim students I want to express how sorry I am this has happened. Please know that such actions affect all of us. This is not who USM is or wants to be.” (USM is a school of politically correct asswipes who should be fired) According to USM’s student body president (a Muslim, of course) , Muhammad “Humza” Khan, a male student who is not part of student government drew the graffiti Tuesday afternoon, while two student Senate members were in the office. Khan, who declined to identify the student because of the investigation, said the two witnesses have said they didn’t understand the meaning of the phrase – which was written in small letters on an electrical wire cover on a wall, and on a wooden desk. USM officials also have not released the student’s name. In a Facebook post, USM student body Vice President Matt Raymond condemned the graffiti. “I just wanted to say that all this happened a day after five Muslim students asked for applications to Student Government to become Senators. I believe this act of “criminal intimidation” (Seriously? You should be taken away in a straitjacket) to be linked to that fact,” Raymond wrote, adding that student government is open to all students of any race, gender, religion, sexuality, economic background or nationality.” (It is, but you can’t blame students for hating Muslims, the biggest threat to America) Southwest Airlines knows what it means and acted accordingly Humza Khan, myself, and our Cabinet under the Executive branch condemn in the harshest terms this crime of bias and intimidation. Let’s show folks that USM is a diverse and inclusive university for all moving forward!” A group of about 40 students rallied in support of Muslim students at lunchtime Thursday. Raymond said he plans to ask the student Senate to vote out two members who he believes did not respond appropriately to the incident. Khan said he believes the person who wrote the graffiti intended to intimidate Muslim students who have expressed interest in joining the student Senate. “The way Muslims see (that Latin phrase,) we see it indirectly as ‘Let’s kill Muslims,’ ” said Khan, who is Muslim. (But Muslim students who keep saying Death to Israel/Death to America are said to be exercising their freedom of speech) “It’s not immediately seen as racist, it’s not a racial epithet, but it’s still there to intimidate a specific group of people,” Raymond said. “And it served its purpose, even though it was coded language.” (One can only hope. Muslims should be banned from holding office anywhere America. Look at the mess the Muslim in the White House has made) | 1 |
KARANGASEM, Indonesia (Reuters) - Nearly 135,000 people on the Indonesian island of Bali have left their homes and taken shelter in makeshift evacuation centers after warnings the Mount Agung volcano could erupt at any time, officials said late on Thursday. Spewing white smoke and sending tremors through the area, Mount Agung s alert status was raised to the highest level last week. Since then, tens of thousands of villagers have abandoned their homes beneath the menacing volcano. The national disaster management agency said many people have fled because they are unsure of their proximity to a 12 km (seven miles) exclusion zone imposed around the crater. Evacuees are being housed in tents, school gyms, and government buildings in neighboring villages. While there are plentiful stocks of food, water, medicines, and other supplies, evacuees fear they are in for a long wait that could disrupt their livelihoods. One farmer said he was worried that lava flows could destroy his house and farm. If my house is destroyed I don t know how to restart my life. I don t know where my kids will sleep and all I can do now is pray, said Gusti Gege Astana, 40. Officials also noted there are around 30,000 cattle within the danger zone around the volcano, and efforts are being made to move the livestock as it is an important source of income for many residents. More than 1,000 people were killed the last time Mount Agung erupted, in 1963. An elderly woman who survived that eruption said evacuation instructions had come much earlier this time. Back then we weren t evacuated until it got really dangerous. Life went on as normal when ash and gravel was falling on us, until the big lava came out and destroyed everything, said 82-year-old Gusti Ayu Wati. Indonesia has nearly 130 active volcanoes, more than any other country. Many of these show high levels of activity but it can be weeks or even months before an actual eruption. Bali is famous for its beaches and temples and saw nearly 5 million visitors last year, mainly from China, Australia, and Japan. Some tourists, however, were having second thoughts about their holiday plans after several countries, including Singapore and Australia, issued travel advisories warning of the risk from the volcano. Bali s tourism department on Thursday issued a letter reassuring travelers, and noting that flights were operating normally. The island is safe except for areas around Mount Agung. We urge tourists to continue visiting, the letter said. The transportation minister said on Wednesday that Bali-bound flights could be diverted to 10 airports across the country in case of an eruption. Ash clouds from volcanic eruptions have disrupted tourism in Bali and other parts of Indonesia in recent years. Hundreds of domestic and international flights were disrupted in 2016 when a volcano erupted on Bali s neighboring Lombok island, sending columns of ash and debris into the air. | 1 |
MOSCOW — Against a backdrop of rising tensions between Turkey and the West, Presidents Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey pledged on Tuesday to repair relations after nine months of open antagonism. Although their meeting in St. Petersburg on Tuesday produced little beyond vows of friendship and cooperation, the symbolism of the two former antagonists coming together for a friendly talk was enough to raise alarms in Western capitals. Besides being a member of the NATO alliance, Turkey is vital to Europe’s efforts to stanch the flow of migrants from Syria and Afghanistan. Washington and Ankara, long at odds over American support of the Kurds in Syria and Iraq, have had a series of problems lately. has been on the rise in Turkey, amid accusations that the United States played a role in the failed coup in Turkey and widespread resentment of the White House’s criticism of the resulting crackdown. Turkish officials have been further infuriated by President Obama’s reluctance to hand over Fethullah Gulen, a reclusive Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania whom Mr. Erdogan has accused of leading the coup attempt. For Mr. Putin, who has made little secret of his ambitions to weaken NATO and crack European unity, the opportunity to forge a new, closer relationship with a humbled Mr. Erdogan was probably deeply satisfying, and a vindication of his decision to intervene militarily in Syria. No one predicted a radical shift in relations, at least not immediately. Russia and Turkey have been on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict, and the two leaders had been at each other’s throats since November, when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that it said had violated its airspace on the Syrian border. After the jet was shot down, Mr. Putin called Mr. Erdogan a and demanded an apology, which was refused. That episode drew an angry response from Moscow, which banned most fruit and vegetable imports from Turkey and halted the flow of millions of Russian tourists. Although Russian gas sales to Turkey continued, the countries’ $30 billion in annual trade decreased by 43 percent, Mr. Putin said. “It is true that we lived through a complicated moment in our interstate relations,” Mr. Putin said at a joint news conference televised from St. Petersburg. “But we all would like to — and we feel that our Turkish friends want the same — overcome those complications. ” Feeling increasingly isolated this summer, Mr. Erdogan wrote a letter in June offering the apology Mr. Putin had demanded for the downing of the Russian jet. With that done, steps could begin toward a normalization of relations. Efforts to restore ties then accelerated after the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, after which Mr. Putin was the first leader to call to offer support. “It was very important from a mental perspective, this kind of psychological support,” Mr. Erdogan said at the news conference. Any future agreements between the two countries could have significant repercussions for the Middle East and Europe. Mr. Erdogan most likely hopes to use the leverage of improved relations with Russia to force a better deal with Europe over the migrant crisis. European leaders have joined the United States in criticizing the sweeping arrests that followed the failed coup. Closer ties with Russia also carry the potential to create tensions within NATO that Mr. Putin would be happy to exploit. Ultimately, Moscow would like to draw Turkey into its orbit and into the security and trade organizations it is promoting in Asia, although such a shift is not expected anytime soon. “Erdogan can use Russia as a trump card in his negotiations with the West,” said Aleksandr D. Vasilyev, an expert on ties at the Institute for Oriental Studies in Moscow. “For him, the main goal is the West, not Russia. ” If the White House was uneasy about the potential warming of relations between Turkey and Russia, nobody was saying so publicly. At the State Department on Tuesday, officials referred questions about the meeting to the Turkish government, and argued that the meeting itself had not changed the American calculus on the Middle East or Europe. “We don’t view this as a game,” said Elizabeth Trudeau, a State Department spokeswoman. She noted that Turkey and Russia were both members of the United coalition fighting the Islamic State, and had both been involved in the effort to end Syria’s civil war. “There’s a lot of common goals, common interests there. ” “I don’t think it’s a question at all that our relationship with Turkey would be weakened at all by this,” Ms. Trudeau added. She said she had no update on Turkey’s request for the United States to extradite Mr. Gulen, a “legal, technical process” about which American officials have been in direct contact with the Turkish authorities. The administration, Ms. Trudeau said, feels rhetoric is “unhelpful” to the United States’ relationship with Turkey. “We believe our relations and our partnership and our friendship with Turkey is strong,” she said. As for Russia and Turkey, Syria remains a major potential fault line, despite the pledges to work together. Mr. Putin noted that the views of the two sides “do not always coincide” when it comes to Turkey’s southern neighbor. Mr. Erdogan is a bitter enemy of Syria’s president, Bashar and has insisted that he step down before peace negotiations can begin. Russia, though, is a longtime ally of Mr. Assad’s, and it intervened with Iran in the Syrian conflict to bolster his fortunes. Yet the Kremlin also signaled on Tuesday that it was in Syria to stay. Mr. Putin called on Russia’s Parliament to approve an extended deployment of the Russian Air Force at Khmeimim Air Base outside Latakia, Syria, where its planes have flown sorties for almost a year to bolster Mr. Assad. Parliamentary approval is virtually guaranteed. “This is a demonstration that Russia has come to Syria for a very long time,” said Aleksandr M. Golts, a Russian military analyst. “This is a demonstration that it will support Assad and that it is ready to tie itself to a regime that is involved in a bloody civil war. ” Russia would like Turkey to seal its borders and stem the flow of fighters and weapons to the insurgents, and to reverse its demand that Mr. Assad must go. Ankara wants Moscow to stop bombing its insurgent allies to lessen support for the Kurds and to halt the bombing of civilian populations, which drives refugees into Turkey. As a possible sign of good will, a major Kurdish representative office closed in Moscow on Sunday, although the local representative said it was because of rent costs rather than politics. In the bleak days, planning was suspended on the Turkish Stream pipeline meant to deliver Russian gas to Europe, as well as on the Akkuyu nuclear power plant that Russia is building in southern Turkey. Russia’s gas industry, starting with Gazprom, the behemoth, is eager to get the Turkish Stream back on track, because other routes to Europe have been blocked, and Turkey is just as keen on becoming a hub for gas distribution. “I think the interests of Gazprom and the energy companies are the cornerstone of what is happening,” said Mr. Vasilyev, the analyst. On Tuesday, the two leaders said they were planning to restart all that. Mr. Erdogan repeated their pledge to eventually increase annual trade between the countries to $100 billion. “Both countries are committed and determined to returning our relationship to its level,” Mr. Erdogan said at the news conference. Mr. Putin said Mr. Erdogan had pledged to grant the Akkuyu project the status of a “strategic investment,” helping it avoid taxes and reap other benefits. Russia agreed to lift sanctions that had barred some agricultural imports and had stopped the flow of millions of Russian tourists. As recently as May, the “complications,” as Mr. Putin called them, meant that Turkey in general, and Mr. Erdogan in particular, were often portrayed as enemy No. 1 on Russia’s television. For all the professed warmth during the talks with Mr. Erdogan, Russia seemed to drop one subtle hint that things were not entirely back to normal. Greece and Turkey share a long, ancient enmity, and Russian news reports noted that Mr. Putin had met his Turkish counterpart in a restored czarist palace on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. They met in the Greek sitting room. | 0 |
Политика » Силовые структуры » Министерство обороны Гиперзвуковой летательный аппарат, известный как "изделие 4202" или "15Ю71" 25 октября впервые успешно прошел испытания в ходе стрельб из пускового района Домбаровский в Оренбургской области по камчатскому полигону Кура. Все бортовое оборудование, электронные комплексы, а также система управления полностью состоят из российских комплектующих. 0 комментариев 5 поделились
Как пишут "Известия", оружие способно развивать на максимальной высоте скорость порядка 15 Max, или 7 км/сек. Аппарат предназначен для установки на перспективные межконтинентальные баллистические ракеты, вместо традиционных боеголовок. "4202" начинает работать на высоте порядка 100 км и летит к цели на скорости 5-7 км/с. А перед входом в плотные слои атмосферы непосредственно над целью гиперзвуковой летательный аппарат совершает сложный маневр, который затрудняет его перехват средствами противоракетной обороны.
Отметим, проект гиперзвуковых боевых блоков под названием "Альбатрос" появился в СССР еще в середине 1980-х годов, как ответ на попытку США создать противоракетную оборону в рамках концепции "Звездных войн". Однако, из-за технических сложностей проект был закрыт. В середине 1990-х годов Научно-производственное объединение(НПО) машиностроения возобновило разработку, но уже под обозначением "4202".
По словам источников в госкорпорации "Роскосмос", проведению успешных летных испытаний гиперзвукового летательного аппарата предшествовала обширная программа импортозамещения. Пришлось избавиться от системы управления, ранее изготавливаемой харьковским предприятием "Хартрон", и некоторых других комплектующих. Успешно реализованная программа дала возможность возобновить испытания. Сейчас бортовое оборудование, электронные комплексы, а также система управления теперь полностью состоят из российских комплектующих.
Как рассказал главный редактор интернет-проекта Militaryrussia Дмитрий Корнев, в "4202" изначально было не так уж и много иностранных комплектующих, однако ключевой элемент изделия — система управления, контролирующая полет летательного аппарата, выполнение им гиперзвукового маневра и наведение на цель, изготавливалась украинским предприятием.
"НПО машиностроения начало разработку новой системы управления еще в 2014 году. Вероятно, ее начали испытывать в 2015 году, однако оба пуска "4202" прошли неудачно. 25 октября нынешнего года пуск удался, что свидетельствует об успешной работе НПО маш по импортозамещению", — сказал Корнев "Известиям".
Ранее Pravda. Ru писала, что гиперзвуковое оружие к 2020 году должно поступить на вооружение российской армии. Развитие высокоскоростных зенитных ракет привело к тому, что практически любой современный самолет или даже ракета могут быть с высокой долей вероятности перехвачены и сбиты на любой высоте. Ну, а выход из создавшегося положения может быть только один — создать летательные аппараты способные лететь быстрее ракет-перехватчиков.
Вот поэтому-то ведущие державы мира, такие как США, Россия и Китай в спешном порядке занялись созданием гиперзвуковых летательных аппаратов разных типов и предназначения, то есть включились в очередное противоборство "меча и щита".
Китай, например, еще 9 января 2015 года испытал гиперзвуковой планер WU-14, запускаемый в космос при помощи межконтинентальной баллистической ракеты. Затем развивая скорость в 10 М, то есть более 12,3 тыс. км/ч он сверху пикирует на цель. Современные средства противовоздушной обороны летящую на такой скорости цель отследить и перехватить не могут.
Так что теперь и Китай стал третьей в мире страной, после России и США, у которой есть технологии гиперзвуковых носителей как ядерного, так и обычного оружия. По сути, у китайцев получалась боеголовка с управляющими поверхностями, которая может маневрировать в полете и потому-то она и практически неуязвима. Но собственного двигателя у этого аппарата нет, так что это очередное оружие для "самых бедных".
В России же идут работы над ракетами разных типов с гиперзвуковыми прямоточными воздушно-реактивными двигателями (ГПВРД), которые можно будет запускать с земли, с кораблей или с боевых самолетов.
Гиперзвуковое оружие: Россию защитит "Холод" Поделиться: | 1 |
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand opposition Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern said on Saturday a final election vote tally put her party in a strengthened position as it negotiates to form a government with the nationalist New Zealand First Party. The final count for the Sept. 23 election showed Labour and its potential coalition partner the Green Party with an extra two seats in the 120-seat parliament, taking their combined seats to 54. The ruling National Party has 56 seats. Either bloc would need the New Zealand First Party, which has nine seats, in order to govern government. Ardern said negotiations, which had kicked off on Thursday, would continue over the weekend | 1 |
Go back to 1991. Anita Hill accuses Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment just as his confirmation hearings are wrapping up. Republicans, still sour about the failed nomination of Robert Bork, decide to turn the confirmation into a media circus in an attempt to smear Hill and save their ultra-conservative zealot from being held accountable for his actions.Women in America were disgusted with what they saw old, Republican men turning their backs on a respected women who was sexually harassed and instead blindly taking the word of their ideologue for purely partisan reasons.It was this repulsive circus show that led to the 1992 election, which was dubbed the Year of the Woman. In that very important election, as not only was President Bill Clinton elected over George H.W. Bush (who appointed Thomas), but some of the most influential women of the Senate were elected Barbara Boxer of California, Patty Murray of Washington, and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois.According to the House s record:In 1992, women went to the polls, energized by a record-breaking number of women on the federal ticket. The results were unprecedented; the 24 women who won election to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time that November comprised the largest number elected to the House in any single election, and the women elected to the Senate tripled the number of women in that chamber.Women had one simple message for the GOP: they were sick and tired of sexist, old Republican men.And that is why 2016 will be the Year of the Woman. With Donald Trump as the clear cut nominee for President of the United States, there is no doubt women will come out in full force with a clear hatred for him and his rhetoric and send liberal women to Washington in droves.Look at the facts:According to a CNN poll from April 2016, a whopping 73 percent of women have a highly unfavorable view of Donald Trump, and it only continues to grow. Almost 40 percent of Republican women have an unfavorable view of the frontrunner. He s now the nominee for the Republican Party. The man who has referred to women as bitches and dogs is now the de facto leader of a major American political party.There are a historical amount of strong and competitive women running for the Senate this election season:Republicans fear that the Trump nomination could cost them the Senate. And with women as the Democratic nominees for many of the most competitive races this season, things are looking good for another Year of the Woman.If Democrats vote down ticket (which thy usually do in presidential elections), Democrats take back the Senate with the help of eight qualified ladies.With dozens of House races being ran by progressive women, Congress could and will look vastly different of Democrats want it to be. All they have to do is vote. They just have to get out and vote.And with Hillary Clinton inching her way to the presidential nomination, it looks as though women will have more control than ever before, and that s absolutely a good thing.Women have one of strongest voices in the American electorate. In 1992, they were pissed and rightfully so. In 2016, the sentiments are the exact same. Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren are taking Donald Trump to task everyday for his sexist, dangerous rhetoric. Women are fired up, and they won t be quiet or sit this one out.I want women to decide this election. They ve been picked on enough.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
A man wielding an meat cleaver near Pennsylvania Station and resisting police officers’ efforts to catch him on Thursday slashed an detective in the head before being shot by the police, the authorities said, in an episode that sent commuters and tourists fleeing during the evening rush. It started when the police confronted a man who was trying to remove a “boot” device attached to a tire on his car, officials said, and escalated into a chaotic chase through Midtown Manhattan that ended with officers shooting at him 18 times. The man, Akram Joudeh, 32, was critically injured and taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, the police said. The detective, identified by the police as Brian O’Donnell, was in serious condition. Two other officers were taken to the center with injuries that were not . The episode began around 5 p. m. at West 32nd Street and Broadway when several officers responded to a report that Mr. Joudeh was trying to remove the device, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said at a news conference on Thursday night. The police said they believed Mr. Joudeh, whose last known residence was in Queens, was living out of his car. The chief of department, James O’Neill, said Mr. Joudeh pulled a cleaver from his waist band, threatened the officers and then fled. At one point, the chief said, the man mounted the front grille of a marked police car that had responded to the call. As officers pursued him, a uniformed sergeant “deployed a Taser, striking the suspect without apparent effect,” Chief O’Neill said. As Mr. Joudeh ran along West 32nd Street, the detective, who was headed to Penn Station after a day in court, saw the pursuit and tried to stop him. He was struck in the head with the cleaver, “causing an approximate gash from his temple about down to his jaw,” the chief said. Officers then fired at the man, striking him several times, the chief said. Officials said Mr. Joudeh had several past arrests, but they would not elaborate on his criminal history. In 2010, Mr. Joudeh pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of petit larceny and was sentenced to 90 days, according to public records. In 2009, he was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, but those felonies were dismissed, records show. He pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of a vehicle and was fined, but served no time. Asked about the possibility that the attack might have been tied to terrorism, Chief O’Neill said, “As part of our investigation, nothing’s off the table. ” The chase left commuters and tourists scurrying for cover as officers flooded the area during the start of the evening rush near a transit hub. Mr. Bratton addressed concerns that so many shots were fired in such a busy area. “Sufficient shots were fired to deter the attack on my officers,” he said. Richard DeWald, a nurse, said he narrowly avoided Mr. Joudeh during the pursuit. “He just seemed wild and crazy,” Mr. DeWald, 56, said. “First there was yelling, and then all I heard was the gunshots. ” Witnesses said they saw Mr. Joudeh on the corner of 32nd Street and Avenue of the Americas, clutching a large meat cleaver to his chest. They said he was silent and his face was expressionless. “He didn’t say a word, that’s the thing,” said Jonathan Schneier, who works at a software company and watched the episode unfold from across the street. Mr. Schneier said the officers, shouting “Drop the weapon,” pointed their guns at the man, who appeared “flustered. ” “He just looked like a crazy guy with a huge weapon,” he said. “He just literally looked like a deer in headlights. ” Mr. Schneier said the man began “sprinting as fast as he could” and was pursued by police. About 10 seconds after that, Mr. Schneier said, he heard gunshots. “I called my girlfriend right away and told her what happened,” he added. “It’s New York. Stuff happens. ” Robert Mennella of Bridgewater, N. J. said he had left the subway station at 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue and was headed to Penn Station. He said he saw a number of unmarked and marked police cars racing along 32nd Street when he heard gunshots. “Everybody turned around,” he said. “Some people stood there with their phones to take pictures, and I just took off. ” He said he ran to Penn Station and saw officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and from New Jersey Transit running upstairs. “I just told them ‘shots fired,’ and they started running faster,” he said. Lina Gana, a laser technician at Cosmed Laser and Spa on Avenue of the Americas, said she heard gunshots that “sounded like a machine gun. ” Another technician, Nailya Howe, who has worked in the area for three years and at the spa for more than a year, said she was surprised by what happened. “I’ve never heard gunshots here before,” she said. “This is a very quiet area. ” Ms. Gana agreed. “Ten minutes before the shooting, I was walking down the street getting food for everyone,” she said. “And then this happened. ” | 0 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosted a massive celebration to congratulate his nuclear scientists and technicians who steered the country s sixth and largest nuclear test a week ago, its official news agency said on Sunday. The United States and its allies had been bracing for another long-range missile launch in time for the 69th anniversary of North Korea s founding on Saturday, but no fresh provocations were spotted while the North held numerous events to mark the holiday. Throughout last week, South Korean officials had warned the North could launch another intercontinental ballistic missile in defiance of U.N. sanctions and amid an escalating standoff with the United States. Washington told the U.N. Security Council on Friday to call a meeting on Monday to vote on a draft resolution establishing additional sanctions on North Korea for its missile and nuclear program. Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said it was vital to put pressure on North Korea through additional sanctions, including blocking or slowing its fuel supplies. If we put firm pressure on North Korea such that it realizes it cannot develop missiles, it will accept dialogue and we can progress with diplomatic efforts, Onodera told public broadcaster NHK on Sunday. Unless we firmly apply pressure, North Korea will not change its direction. KCNA said Kim threw a banquet to laud the nuclear scientists and other top military and party officials who contributed to the nuclear bomb test last Sunday, topped with an art performance and a photo session with the leader himself. KCNA did not specify when the banquet had been held, but analysts said it had likely been on Saturday. Photos released on Sunday by KCNA showed the young leader breaking into a broad smile at the People s Theater with two prominent scientists: Ri Hong Sop, head of North Korea s Nuclear Weapons Institute, and Hong Sung Mu, deputy director of the ruling Workers Party of Korea s munitions industry department. Ri and Hong have played vital roles in the North s nuclear program, appearing at close distance to Kim during field inspections and weapons tests, including the latest nuclear test. Ri is a former director of Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center, North Korea s main nuclear facility north of Pyongyang, where Hong also worked as a chief engineer. North Korea had said the latest test was an advanced hydrogen bomb. There was no independent confirmation but some Western experts said there was enough strong evidence to suggest the reclusive state has either developed a hydrogen bomb or was getting very close. KCNA said on Sunday the scientists and technicians brought the great auspicious event of the national history, an extra-large event through the perfect success in the test of H-bomb . Kim praised the developers in his own remarks as taking the lead in attaining the final goal of completing the state nuclear force in line with his parallel pursuit of nuclear and economic development. The recent test of the H-bomb is the great victory won by the Korean people at the cost of their blood while tightening their belts in the arduous period, Kim was quoted as saying. Ri and Hong s roles have also been noted overseas, prompting the United Nations, the United States or South Korea to blacklist them. Aside from the elite, rank-and-file North Koreans also commemorated the anniversary on Saturday by visiting the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, which houses the embalmed bodies of founding father Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong Il. KCNA said service personnel and civilians, including children, laid floral baskets and bouquets at the statues of the deceased leaders across the country, while enjoying art performances and dancing parties. | 1 |
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it had deadlocked in a case challenging President Obama’s immigration plan, effectively ending what Mr. Obama had hoped would become one of his central legacies. The program would have shielded as many as five million undocumented immigrants from deportation and allowed them to legally work in the United States. The tie, which left in place an appeals court ruling blocking the plan, amplified the contentious debate over the nation’s immigration policy and presidential power. When the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in January, it seemed poised to issue a major ruling on presidential power. That did not materialize, but the court’s action, which established no precedent and included no reasoning, was nonetheless perhaps its most important statement this term. The decision was just nine words long: “The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court. ” But its consequences will be vast, said Walter Dellinger, who was acting solicitor general in the Clinton administration. “Seldom have the hopes of so many been crushed by so few words,” he said. Speaking at the White House, Mr. Obama described the ruling as a deep disappointment for immigrants who would not be able to emerge from the threat of deportation for at least the balance of his term. “Today’s decision is frustrating to those who seek to grow our economy and bring a rationality to our immigration system,” he said before heading to the West Coast for a trip. “It is heartbreaking for the millions of immigrants who have made their lives here. ” The decision was one of two determined by tie votes Thursday — the other concerned Indian tribal courts — and one of four so far this term. The court is scheduled to issue its final three decisions of the term, including one on a restrictive Texas abortion law, on Monday. Mr. Obama said the court’s immigration ruling was a stark reminder of the consequences of Republicans’ refusal to consider Judge Merrick B. Garland, the president’s nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. “If you keep on blocking judges from getting on the bench, then courts can’t issue decisions,” Mr. Obama said. “And what that means is then you are going to have the status quo frozen, and we are not able to make progress on some very important issues. ” The case, United States v. Texas, No. concerned a 2014 executive action by the president to allow as many as five million unauthorized immigrants who were the parents of citizens or of lawful permanent residents to apply for a program that would spare them from deportation and provide them with work permits. The program was called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA. Mr. Obama has said he took the action after years of frustration with Republicans in Congress who had repeatedly refused to support bipartisan Senate legislation to update immigration laws. A coalition of 26 states, led by Texas, promptly challenged the plan, accusing the president of ignoring administrative procedures for changing rules and of abusing the power of his office by circumventing Congress. “Today’s decision keeps in place what we have maintained from the very start: One person, even a president, cannot unilaterally change the law,” Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, said in a statement after the ruling. “This is a major setback to President Obama’s attempts to expand executive power, and a victory for those who believe in the separation of powers and the rule of law. ” The court did not disclose how the justices had voted, but they were almost certainly split along ideological lines. Administration officials had hoped that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. would join the court’s liberal wing to save the program. The case hinged in part on whether Texas had suffered the sort of direct and concrete injury that gave it standing to sue. Texas said it had standing because it would be costly for the state to give driver’s licenses to immigrants affected by the federal policy. Chief Justice Roberts is often skeptical of expansive standing arguments. But it seemed plain when the case was argued in April that he was satisfied that Texas had standing, paving the way for a deadlock. Mr. Obama said the White House did not believe the terse ruling from the court had any effect on the president’s authority to act unilaterally. But he said the practical effect would be to freeze his efforts on behalf of immigrants until after the November election. He also predicted that lawmakers would eventually act to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. “Congress is not going to be able to ignore America forever,” he said. “It’s not a matter of if it’s a matter of when. We get these spasms of politics around immigration and and then our traditions and our history and our better impulses kick in. ” White House officials had repeatedly argued that presidents in both parties had used similar executive authority in applying the nation’s immigration laws. And they said Congress had granted federal law enforcement wide discretion over how those laws should be carried out. But the court’s ruling may mean that the next president will again need to seek a congressional compromise to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. And it left immigration activists deeply disappointed. “This is personal,” Rocio Saenz, the executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, said in a statement. “We will remain at the front lines, committed to defending the immigration initiatives and paving the path to lasting immigration reform. ” The lower court rulings in the case were provisional, and the litigation will now continue and may again reach the Supreme Court when it is back at full strength. In the meantime, it seems unlikely that the program will be revived. In February 2015, Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville, Tex. entered a preliminary injunction shutting down the program while the legal case proceeded. The government appealed, and a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans affirmed the injunction. In their Supreme Court briefs, the states acknowledged that the president had wide authority over immigration matters, telling the justices that “the executive does have enforcement discretion to forbear from removing aliens on an individual basis. ” Their quarrel, they said, was with what they called a blanket grant of “lawful presence” to millions of immigrants, entitling them to various benefits. In response, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. told the justices that this “lawful presence” was merely what had always followed from the executive branch’s decision not to deport someone for a given period of time. “Deferred action does not provide these individuals with any lawful status under the immigration laws,” he said. “But it provides some measure of dignity and decent treatment. ” “It recognizes the damage that would be wreaked by tearing apart families,” Mr. Verrilli added, “and it allows individuals to leave the shadow economy and work on the books to provide for their families, thereby reducing exploitation and distortion in our labor markets. ” The states said they had suffered the sort of direct and concrete injury that gave them standing to sue. Judge Jerry E. Smith, writing for the majority in the appeals court, focused on an injury said to have been suffered by Texas, which he said would have to spend millions of dollars to provide driver’s licenses to immigrants as a consequence of the federal program. Mr. Verrilli told the justices that Texas’ injury was a product of its decision to offer driver’s licenses for less than they cost to produce and to tie eligibility for them to federal standards. Texas responded that being required to change its laws was itself the sort of harm that conferred standing. “Such a forced change in Texas law would impair Texas’ sovereign interest in ‘the power to create and enforce a legal code,’” the state’s lawyers wrote in a brief. Judge Hanen grounded his injunction on the Obama administration’s failure to give notice and seek public comments on its new program. He found that notice and comment were required because the program gave blanket relief to entire categories of people, notwithstanding the administration’s assertion that it required determinations about who was eligible for the program. The appeals court affirmed that ruling and added a broader one. The program, it said, also exceeded Mr. Obama’s statutory authority. | 0 |
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian court on Thursday overturned the conviction of a dentist couple for the murder of their teenage daughter and the family servant for lack of material evidence, their lawyer said. Aarushi Talwar was found with her throat slit at the family home in the Delhi suburb of Noida in 2008. A day later, the body of the servant, Hemraj, was found on the roof of the house. A trial court convicted the girl s parents, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, after police alleged Rajesh had murdered his daughter and the servant in a rage when he found them in a compromising situation. The couple, both dentists, were jailed for life. But a high court overruled the decision saying it was not satisfied with the evidence and ordered the couple be freed, their lawyer Tanveer Ahmed Mir said. The court found no forensic or material evidence to prove that the Talwars had killed their daughter, Mir told reporters outside a packed courtroom in the northern city of Allahabad. Both parents had denied the murder and insisted they were victims of botched investigations and unfair media coverage, damaging their defense. Aarushi s case was labeled as a kind of crime more often associated with rural, conservative parts of India where honor killings are not uncommon. Every twist in the investigation was extensively reported by the Indian press, turning the Talwars into household names. Finally my family can lead a dignified life. The court has upheld the facts and truth, said Rajesh Talwar s sister, Vandana, after the decision. In 2015, a journalist who covered the murder wrote a book arguing that the couple were innocent. The double murder case and faulty probe were used as a theme for a Bollywood movie the same year. | 1 |
(Reuters) - British lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favor of handing the governing Conservatives greater say on committees that scrutinize laws, a move denounced by the opposition as an attempt to rig parliament . The government won by 320 votes to 301, a day after lawmakers passed legislation to sever ties with the European Union. May lost the Conservatives majority in a June election, forcing her government to rely on the support of a small Northern Irish party to pass laws. | 0 |
Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Wednesday regarding the recent budget deal, which lacks border wall funding. [Asked what he thought of the border security issue as addressed by the budget deal, Krikorian said, “I think it was a surrender on the part of the president. There’s a good reason that Schumer and Pelosi are crowing about how they won on this because they did. ” While discussing the immigration issue in depth, added Krikorian, “There is the sense that in a lot of ways on immigration, the White House is now betraying people who supported him. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 0 |
YANGON (Reuters) - Rohingya Muslims are not native to Myanmar, the army chief told the U.S. ambassador in a meeting in which he apparently did not address accusations of abuses by his men and said media was complicit in exaggerating the number of refugees fleeing. The U.N. human rights office said on Wednesday Myanmar forces had brutally driven out half a million Rohingya from northern Rakhine state to Bangladesh in recent weeks, torching homes, crops and villages to prevent them from returning. Thousands of Rohingya were leaving the state on Thursday, aiming to reach Bangladesh by boat, citing a shortage of food and fear of repression, residents said. A Myanmar official said people were leaving but he dismissed the suggestion hunger and intimidation were factors. The army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, gave his most extensive account of the Rohingya refugee crisis aimed at an international audience in the meeting with Ambassador Scot Marciel, according to a report posted on his Facebook page. The general is the most powerful person in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and his apparently uncompromising stance would indicate little sensitivity about the military s image over a crisis that has drawn international condemnation and raised questions about a transition to democracy under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The military campaign is popular in Myanmar, where there is little sympathy for the mostly stateless Rohingya, and where Buddhist nationalism has surged. Min Aung Hlaing, referring to Rohingya by the term Bengali , which they regard as derogatory, said British colonialists were responsible for the problem. The Bengalis were not taken into the country by Myanmar, but by the colonialists, he told Marciel, according to the account of the meeting posted on Thursday. They are not the natives. Coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on some 30 security posts on Aug. 25 sparked a ferocious military response. The U.N. rights office said in its report, based on 65 interviews with Rohingya who had arrived in Bangladesh, that abuses had begun before the Aug. 25 attacks and included killings, torture and rape of children. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley last month denounced a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority and called on countries to suspend providing weapons to Myanmar until its military put sufficient accountability measures in place. The European Union and the United States are considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar s military leaders, officials familiar with the discussions said this week. Suu Kyi was swept into office last year after winning an election, but the military holds immense power, including exclusive say over security. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein has described the government operations as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing and said the action appeared to be a cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return . Min Aung Hlaing did not refer to such accusations, according to the published account, but said the insurgents had killed 90 Hindus and 30 Rohingya linked to the government. Insurgent opposition to a citizenship verification campaign, which used the term Bengali, was behind the Aug. 25 attacks that sparked the violence, he said. Local Bengalis were involved in the attacks under the leadership of ARSA. That is why they might have fled as they feel insecure, he said, referring to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army insurgents. The native place of Bengalis is really Bengal, he said. He said it was an exaggeration to say a very large number were fleeing to Bangladesh and there had been instigation and propaganda by using the media from behind the scene . He did not elaborate but said the real situation had to be relayed to the international community. U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman is due to visit on Friday. Rohingya residents of Rakhine said up to 10,000 people had left on Wednesday and Thursday. One resident, a teacher, said there had been no military offensive recently but people were going. There s no work, nowhere to get food and the government isn t helping, said the teacher, who, like the first resident, declined to be identified. Rakhine state s secretary, Tin Maung Swe, said people were leaving every day to join relatives already in Bangladesh. Nobody is starving in death in Myanmar. The government is trying to support those in need, he said. They can fish or catch shrimps in the creeks near their villages. No one s killing them or intimidating them. Suu Kyi, in a televised address, spoke about the importance of humanitarian assistance for all people in Rakhine and said the government would accept refugees back. She said aid groups, international organizations and Myanmar expatriates would help with the long-term development of the state. She did not refer to accusations of rights abuses by the army. | 1 |
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s spy chief has warned that Russia should be seen as a potential danger rather than as a partner in building European security and said its big military exercise in summer showed an alarmingly high level of modernization in its armed forces. Bruno Kahl, head of BND foreign intelligence, made his remarks in a speech at an event hosted by the Hanns Seidel Foundation think-tank in Munich on Monday. An audiofile of the speech was heard by Reuters on Wednesday. Kahl s remarks come after U.S. intelligence accusations that Moscow sought to interfere in the U.S. elections in January and followed similar charges by Spanish ministers who say Russian-based groups used social media to promote Catalonia s independence referendum and destabilize Spain. Moscow denies interfering in any foreign elections and accuses the West of a campaign to discredit Russia. Kahl said it was important for Germany, the U.S.-led NATO alliance and the European Union to keep a close eye on Russian military development. He said Russia s large-scale Zapad exercise in summer had shown it was very, very close to meeting its target of modernizing 70 percent of its armed forces by 2020. We must stay alert. Peace in Europe is no longer a guaranteed fact, he said. Russia s goal included weakening the EU, pushing back the USA, and in particular driving a wedge between the two. That means, instead of a partner for European security, we have in Russia a potential danger, he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin was determined to prevent the eastward spread of European values to include Ukraine which, together with Georgia, had no chance of becoming members of NATO as long as Putin s world view prevailed in Moscow, he said. The threat to Germany s security had increased with Moscow s stationing of short-range missiles in its Kaliningrad enclave, he said. The world player Russia is back. It will remain an uncomfortable power, and the West must see that realistically, he said, though it was important to maintain some dialogue with Moscow despite its assertive actions. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The anti-establishment wave that propelled Donald Trump to the White House is developing into a political force that perhaps even the president cannot control and could shake his Republican Party ahead of next year’s congressional elections. That became clear on Tuesday night when Trump’s favored candidate in an Alabama Senate primary, Luther Strange, was soundly defeated by Roy Moore, an archconservative who cast himself as an inheritor of Trump’s insurgent mantle. Moore’s win is expected to encourage more outsider candidates to challenge Republican incumbents ahead of the November 2018 elections, where the party will seek to maintain its control of the Senate and House of Representatives, crucial to enacting Trump’s agenda. Conservative donors were “ecstatic” and “beside themselves” after Moore’s victory, said Ken Cuccinelli, head of the Senate Conservatives Fund, which spent about $121,000 in Alabama to help Moore. Cuccinelli said he believed conservatives could build on Moore’s victory. “It will have ripple effects - it’s going to have effects all across the country,” he said. Trump, who appeared at a campaign rally for Strange last week, congratulated Moore on his win and wished him success against Democrat Doug Jones in the December special election to fill the seat held by Jeff Sessions before he became U.S. attorney general in February. Strange had been appointed to fill the seat until the election. “Congratulations to Roy Moore on his Republican Primary win in Alabama. Luther Strange started way back & ran a good race. Roy, WIN in Dec!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Establishment Republicans have been wary of insurgent firebrands since the 2010 congressional elections. That year, donations from conservative groups helped bring about primary wins by ultra-conservative candidates Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Sharron Angle in Nevada. But both suffered crushing defeats to Democrats in the general election. In November 2018, elections will be held for all 435 seats in the U.S. House and 33 seats in the 100-member Senate, including 23 Democrats and eight Republicans in fights that will likely be cast as a referendum on Trump’s legislative agenda. The Republican establishment poured millions of dollars into the Alabama nominating primary to help Strange, giving him a $10 million money advantage over Moore. Some Republican strategists fear that if more extreme Republicans win primaries, it would give Democrats a better chance of winning in the general election. That is less of a concern in conservative Alabama, where Moore will likely prevail, but is a bigger risk in states with greater numbers of moderate voters, such as Arizona and Nevada, where Republican Senators Jeff Flake and Dean Heller are already top targets for conservative groups. Also this week, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said he would not run again in 2018, a decision that was widely seen as trying to avoid a potential primary fight. “I know we are all listening and watching very closely, trying to understand the message that’s being sent,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said of the Alabama result. While Trump endorsed Strange, his former adviser Steve Bannon backed Moore, as did several outside political groups that support the president’s agenda. Bannon, and his influential news site, Breitbart, are poised to spearhead attacks on Republican incumbents, while political groups aligned with Trump that can raise unlimited sums of money will help those challengers compete with better-financed establishment candidates. Having served as a high-profile state Supreme Court justice for years, Moore was better known than most insurgent candidates, allowing him to neutralize attacks from establishment groups, said Constantin Querard, a conservative Republican strategist in Arizona. The road will be tougher for outsiders in Arizona and Nevada, he said. Still, candidates such as Flake will be hampered by their ties to the D.C. establishment, especially with the failure this year by Republicans to deliver on long-standing promises to repeal the Obamacare healthcare law despite controlling the White House and Congress. Querard said that Flake “is seen as the poster child for everything that is wrong in Washington.” Jonathan Gray, a Republican consultant in Alabama, said Moore’s win should frighten vulnerable Republicans worried about primary challenges not so much because Trump’s endorsement failed to sway voters, but because the money spent at the behest of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to back Strange was fruitless. “The people of Alabama saw Washington telling them what to do, and they thumbed their nose at it,” Gray said. | 1 |
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark intends to invest to boost efforts to prevent cyber attacks in a strategy to be presented early next year, its defense minister said on Tuesday. We are going to spend more money in this area, Claus Hjort Frederiksen told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Copenhagen, though he declined to disclose a figure. Cyber security is very high on the agenda for the right-leaning government, but also for the broad selection of Danish political parties negotiating a new defense strategy for the coming six years, he said. The government would like to expand an early warning system with sensors that detects when Danish companies or authorities are under attack from, for example, malware. To some degree we do have a system today, but we would like to expand it to the strategic infrastructure and to private companies, he told Reuters. The government also wants to increase the preventive capacity at the Danish center for cyber security to increase its ability to better catch and inform about imminent cyber threats, he said. World s no.1 container shipper and one of Denmark s largest companies Maersk was hit by major cyber attack in June, one of the biggest-ever disruptions to hit global shipping. The government also works for a deeper cooperation between authorities and private companies in battling cyber attacks, Frederiksen said. He said he believed companies were sometimes reluctant to inform they had been hit by cyber attacks, because they were afraid to scare off customers or investors. Frederiksen said he saw the overall cyber threat as one of the greatest threats of our time . If you can undermine our democratic nations by hacking the energy systems or the communication systems or the financial systems it will undermine our own people s belief in our societies ability to protect them, he said. Russia hacked the Danish defense network and gained access to employees emails in 2015 and 2016, Frederiksen said in April. Danish troops will get training in how to deal with Russian misinformation before being sent to join a NATO military build-up in Estonia in January, Frederiksen said in July. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday that the killing of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh would, in the short term, likely worsen an already dire humanitarian situation in the country. Saleh was killed in a roadside attack on Monday after switching sides in Yemen s civil war, abandoning his Iran-aligned Houthi allies in favor of a Saudi-led coalition. Coupled with a Saudi-led blockade and internal clashes, the stalemate has contributed to a human catastrophe. Some 7 million people are on the brink of famine, while one million are suspected to be infected with cholera. Mattis, speaking with reporters on a military aircraft en route to Washington after a brief trip to parts of the Middle East and South Asia, said it was too early to say what impact the killing would have on the war. He said it could either push the conflict towards U.N. peace negotiations or make it an even more vicious war. (But)one thing I think I can say with a lot of concern and probably likelihood is that the situation for the innocent people there, the humanitarian side, is most likely to (get) worse in the short term, Mattis said. He did not explain his reasoning. The war has already killed more than 10,000 and displaced millions. So this is where we ve all got to roll up our sleeves. Now, what are you going to do about medicine and food and clean water and cholera, Mattis said. I think there has got to be a lot more focus on the humanitarian side right now. Analysts said Saleh s death would be a huge moral boost for the Houthis and a serious blow to the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in the conflict to try to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Saudi Arabia and its allies receive logistical and intelligence help from the United States. Mattis said he did not believe the U.S. military would play a role in easing the humanitarian situation. | 0 |
Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireCliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher at the center of the federal standoff in Bunkerville in 2014, was arrested by FBI agents at around 10pm Wednesday evening as he touched down at Portland International Airport. Bundy, 74 yrs old, of Bunkerville, Nevada, was taken to Oregon s Multnomah County detention center and charged with conspiracy to interfere with a federal officer the same federal felony charge made two weeks ago against of his two sons, Ammon and Ryan Bundy.According to Oregon Live, Cliven Bundy, also faces weapons charges, dating back to the original standoff in April 2014.READ THE FULL FEDERAL COMPLAINT AGAINST CLIVEN BUNDY HERE. Police Mug Shot: Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy was arrested in Portland last night.Bundy s dramatic arrest came as he was planning to meet up with staunch Bundy supporter, Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, for a Q & A press conference in Portland scheduled for early Thursday morning, presumably to advocate for the Bundy sons and others currently under federal incarceration, and to help mediate a peaceful resolution for the remaining 4 occupiers still held-up at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge outside of Burns, Oregon.The timeline of these events is particularly interesting. Before Cliven Bundy touched down in Portland, Fiore (photo, left) had already arrived in town, but was immediately confronted with a breaking situation on Wednesday afternoon, where reports indicate that there were likely dozens of heavily armed federal tactical and state SWAT members positioned at various points around the perimeter of the occupied federal refuge office building. On Wednesday evening, law enforcement appeared to have decided to make their move to end the occupation by re-taking the protest site and remove its occupants. Fiore then headed to Burns while engaged in a 4 hour-long phone call with the protesters live-streamed on YouTube with nearly 60,000 listeners on the call.Clearly, the FBI had plenty of foreknowledge of Cliven Bundy and Michele Fiore s potentially explosive media spectacle scheduled for this morning. FBI agents appear to have preempted this national (and global) press event by Bundy and Fiore, quickly moving on the protest, and then taking Cliven Bundy out of the equation, or off the street , as it were. This chain of events over the last 24 hours indicates that the federal government had made decisive moves at key moments in order to temporarily control the media and political narratives, and by extension, the course of events which have followed. That reality was echoed by Portland attorney, Mike Arnold, currently representing Ammon Bundy, who said earlier today: It s terribly unfortunate the timing of his arrest, given all the progress Assemblywoman Fiore made this evening. In addition to Fiore and Cliven Bundy arriving in Oregon this week, Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, posted on Facebook that he had been talking with the four holdouts for a week, at their request and at the request of the FBI , and was said to be heading for Burns to witness a peaceful resolution. Early on Thursday, Graham stated the following: I am on my way there Please keep them, law enforcement officials, and all involved in your prayers, that everyone will be safe. Presently, federal forces are still at the gates of the refuge, with occupiers still inside. According to the Oregonian, the remaining occupiers are 27-year-old David Fry, the man running the refuge protest YouTube livestream, along with married couple Sean and Sandy Anderson, and one other man known by the name of Jeff Banta. It s not completely clear if all the occupants are armed, and there have been some mixed messages over the last two weeks as to what their exact intentions were, and what concessions were possible through negotiations.UPDATE: 4 holdouts all in FBI custody as occupation endsIn an overwhelming show of force, the FBI have surrounded the small one story detached Malheur office building with MRAP armored vehicles and other assets, including multiple surveillance drones positioned overhead. It s not known exactly how many federal agents are in position at the refuge and the surrounding area, but based on similar events, the number could be at least 300, not including state and other law enforcement agents.At the end of January, a team of federal and state agents shot and killed the protest s spokesman, Arizona rancher, Robert Lavoy Finicum, in what can only be described as a well-organize, federal and state ambush, involving dozens of vehicles and armed agents (including snipers) positioned along an isolated rural stretch of Oregon highway 395. The mainstream media are still disingenuously referring to the event as a traffic stop incident in what appears to be a well-coordinated PR effort to minimize any accusations of over-reach on the part of the federal agencies.The left-wing arm of the media, and a virtual army of anti-Bundy activists online will certainly be celebrating this latest development as a government victory .With the iconic face of the public lands issue, Cliven Bundy, now in custody, this will either stir the burgeoning Constitutionalist movement, or it will further demoralize it.Cliven Bundy is expected to appear in a Portland federal court this afternoon.Watch this space.READ MORE OREGON STANDOFF NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Oregon Files | 1 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken over the phone to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, congratulating her on the victory by a loyal bloc of parties in Germany s parliamentary polls, the Kremlin said in a statement on Tuesday. Both of them underlined their readiness to continue the mutually advantageous cooperation between Russia and Germany, the statement said. | 1 |
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Daniel Spaulding of Soul of the East, Funk Soul, Randy J, Stewart Howe (ACR/21WIRE contributors) and Andy Nowicki, author of Conspiracy, Compliance, Control & Defiance, for the hundred and third episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club.Listen to Boiler Room #103 Smoking Gunz on Spreaker.Direct Download Episode #103Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!Reference Links: | 0 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - Footage released last week by North Korea purporting to show the firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) appears to be fake, according to studies by U.S. experts. In defiance of a U.N. ban, North Korea has said it has ballistic missile technology which would allow it to launch a nuclear warhead from a submarine, though analysis of North Korean state media images casts doubt on the claim. North Korea released the submarine launch footage after it separately conducted a fourth nuclear weapons test last Wednesday. North Korean state television aired footage on Friday of the submarine test said to have taken place in December. Unlike a previous SLBM test in May, it was not announced at the time. South Korea’s military said on Saturday North Korea appeared to have modified the video and edited it with Scud missile footage from 2014 although an official told Reuters the ejection technology might have improved since the May test. An analysis by the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) shows two frames of video from state media where flames engulf the missile and small parts of its body break away. “The rocket ejected, began to light, and then failed catastrophically,” Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute’s CNS, said in an email. “North Korea used heavy video editing to cover over this fact.” Hanham said North Korea state media used different camera angles and editing to make it appear the launch was several continuous launches, when in fact it was a single event. North Korean propagandists used rudimentary editing techniques to crop and flip old video footage of an earlier SLBM test and Scud missile launch, the CNS study showed. In an analysis on the 38 North monitoring website, John Schilling, an aerospace engineer who is a specialist in satellite and launch vehicle propulsion systems, said it appeared from the video that the launch was conducted from a submerged barge rather than a submarine. “The failed launch, combined with testing from a barge shows that North Korea still has a long way to go to develop this system,” he said. “An initial operational capability of a North Korean ballistic-missile submarine is not expected before 2020.” North Korea’s claim that its most recent nuclear test was of a more advanced and powerful hydrogen bomb drew skepticism from the U.S. government and experts. It remains unclear if North Korea has developed a nuclear device small enough to mount on a missile. | 1 |
CHICAGO — A Chicago officer whose police powers were suspended after the officer shot an teenager in the back last week was wearing a body camera, but the device was not operating and did not record the fatal encounter, officials said on Monday. Advocates for the family of Paul O’Neal, the who was killed on Thursday, reacted skeptically to claims of the faulty body camera, wondering aloud why the department had invested in the technology if it did not work. “If there is not a here, I don’t know where there is one,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a lawyer who on Monday filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the family. The shooting happened after officers chased a stolen Jaguar convertible through the South Side before it collided with a police cruiser on a residential street. Two officers opened fire. Cameras captured some early stages of the encounter, but not the fatal gunshot, apparently fired by another officer after Mr. O’Neal fled the crash scene on foot. Anthony Guglielmi, a Chicago police spokesman, noted that police officers in that part of the city had been using body cameras only for a few days, and said the authorities were investigating why there was no footage of the fatal gunshot. The Chicago Police Department has been criticized for a series of shootings of black men in recent years, and it is under federal investigation and still in turmoil after protests over the shooting death of a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, in 2014. The use of body cameras had been promoted as a step toward transparency. The three officers were stripped of their police powers for their actions during Thursday’s shooting. The police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, who promised to rebuild trust with the community when he was promoted this year, said footage from other body cameras and a dashboard camera was “very helpful” in leading him to believe department policies may have been violated. The officers were not identified, and video footage was not made public. Mr. O’Neal’s death is being investigated by Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority, an agency that until recently almost never faulted officers in shootings. Officials at the county and federal prosecutors’ offices in Chicago declined to comment on Monday on whether they were involved in the case. While police officers in Chicago have seized 5, 000 guns this year, murders are up sharply, and the police union has cited low officer morale as the Justice Department investigation continues. Amid all of this, Mr. Johnson said it was important to recognize that a misjudgment by an officer was not necessarily intentional brutality. “Policing isn’t easy,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview on Monday. “We’re asking these cops to make decisions, and sometimes they’re decisions. ” But grief filled the street where Mr. O’Neal was shot. Near a makeshift memorial of teddy bears and signs, Ja’Mal Green, an activist serving as a spokesman for the family, said Mr. O’Neal’s death and others like it made it difficult to repair relations between Chicago’s police officers and its black residents. “Once we can have some type of cameras that work and actually show our side of the story,” Mr. Green said, “and actually get these officers prosecuted and hold these officers accountable, that’s when we can start seeing a relationship between police and the community. ” | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has declined for now to give the House Oversight Committee documents it had requested regarding communications between former FBI chief James Comey and President Donald Trump, the head of the panel said on Thursday. The FBI said it was still evaluating the request, which had a committee-set deadline of Wednesday, in light of the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the possibility of collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian officials seeking to influence the 2016 election, according to a letter released by committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz. In a responding letter, Chaffetz said he still wanted any related documents that would be outside the scope of the special counsel’s investigation, and a list of documents found to be within the scope of the probe, by June 8. “I am seeking to better understand Comey’s communications with the White House and Attorney General in such a way that does not implicate the Special Counsel’s work,” Chaffetz said in the letter. Chaffetz made his initial request for documents after a New York Times report that Comey had written in a memo that Trump asked him to halt an FBI investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian officials. Chaffetz’s panel is one of several in Congress investigating alleged efforts by Russia to tip the election to Trump, and the possibility that Trump associates had coordinated with Moscow. Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee made it easier on Wednesday for that panel to obtain documents for its investigation. Its chairman, Republican Richard Burr, told reporters that members had agreed unanimously to allow him and Mark Warner, its top Democrat, to issue subpoenas as they see fit, without a vote by the committee. The controversy has engulfed Trump’s administration since he fired Comey on May 10. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations and Trump denies any collusion. The FBI letter’s to Chaffetz on Thursday noted the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller last week as special counsel to investigate the issue. “In light of this development and other considerations, we are undertaking appropriate consultation to ensure all relevant interests implicated by your request are properly evaluated,” the letter said. | 1 |
Admitting Somalis who d been settled for years in Pakistan like the Ohio State jihadi and his family is only one of them. Another refugee absurdity was revealed recently the Obama administration has agreed to admit illegal aliens intercepted at sea by Australia and held in camps outside that country, on two Pacific islands.The number of people said to be affected is reported to range from 1,600 to nearly 2,500; my colleague Nayla Rush has an overview here. These are people Australia has decided do not warrant refugee status (or what our law would consider asylum). Therefore they have no right to move to Australia. But for a variety of reasons, Australia cannot, or does not want to, send them back, and the refugees won t accept offers of resettlement in New Guinea or Cambodia because they re holding out for a First World country. What s more, their presence in those Australian-run camps on the islands of Nauru and Manus (the latter owned by Papua New Guinea) has become a political headache. Most are from Iran, with smaller numbers from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and elsewhere.I can see why Australia would want this deal; it costs Oz taxpayers $2 billion to run the two island detention facilities and closing them down would rid the government of the headache. But if Australia doesn t consider them refugees, why should we take them?It appears we re doing this as a favor to Australia; some speculate it s a quid pro quo for Australia s taking some U.S.-bound illegals in camps in Costa Rica, though how that s comparable isn t clear, and Australia has denied any such bargain. The chairman of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, Bob Goodlatte and Chuck Grassley, also want to know why we re doing this, and they wrote to the secretaries of State and Homeland Security asking for details on the secret agreement to bring the illegal aliens here. When Capitol Hill staffers asked the State Department how many such refugees would be resettled here under the secret deal, they were told the number was classified. Read more at: NRO | 1 |
If this so-called celebrity said that he would have killed former President Obama if he was given the chance, he would likely be sitting in a jail cell somewhere facing serious charges, but apparently when a celebrity says they d like to kill President Trump, foreign authorities, as well the leftist media, simply shrug their shoulders Just another day in the life of an unhinged, Trump-hating celebrity Yawn.British musician Morrissey says if given the chance, he d kill President Donald Trump to ensure the safety of humanity. The 58-year-old former Smiths frontman said in an interview with der Spiegel this week that if he were presented with a button that could instantly kill Trump, he wouldn t hesitate to press it. I would [push it], for the safety of humanity, Morrissey told the outlet. It has nothing to do with my personal opinion of his face or his family, but in the interest of humanity I would push. The singer also explained that it was the media, who so derided Trump during the 2016 campaign season, that ultimately created Trump, ensured consistent coverage of his campaign, and led to his victory over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.The American media helped Trump, yes, they first created it, he explained, according to a translation of the interview by the Washington Times. Whether they criticize him or laugh at him, he does not care, he just wants to see his picture and his name. The American media have shot themselves in the leg. Watch Morrissey push for a Hillary presidency on Larry King Now prior to the election. Is there anything more heartwarming than watching a British musician tell an American host who Americans should vote for? Thank goodness no one listens to this unhinged overrated celebrity.Morrissey added that he never expected Trump to be elected president and has no faith in the political establishment anymore. Breitbart News | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s governor proposed measures on Monday to reduce anticipated budget cuts at the University of Puerto Rico to $241 million by fiscal year 2021, from $450 million approved by the struggling U.S. territory’s fiscal oversight board. The measures, outlined by Governor Ricardo Rossello in a letter to the board, include transferring to the university some of the savings generated by upcoming cuts to healthcare spending; allowing the university to earn revenue by training public employees; and working with the island’s Science and Technology Trust to monetize the university’s patents, which UPR has historically struggled to do. The school’s fate is a sensitive issue locally, with student groups threatening strikes over the cuts. UPR’s budget has already been slashed by $348 million over the last three fiscal years, according to Rossello’s letter. Its troubles are entangled with broad economic distress in the U.S. territory, where almost half the population lives in poverty and unemployment is more than twice the U.S. average. As the island buckles under $70 billion in debt, public healthcare and pension systems edge toward insolvency, and locals flock to the mainland United States. The territory’s finances are under the oversight of a federally appointed board, which some local critics condemn as an extension of its colonial legacy. The board’s recommended austerity measures have drawn protests on the island. The board has urged reduced government subsidies, staff cuts and tuition fee hikes at UPR, the 11-campus, 70,000-student university that has produced four of the island’s ex-governors. The full $450 million cut would be a “dramatic negative” that would be “difficult for the university to absorb,” leaving it with a $157 million operating deficit, Moody’s Investors Service said in a note on Monday. Hiking tuition is hard “given the highly price-sensitive student population,” Moody’s said. It added that while it expects UPR to make its $32 million debt payment on June 1, subsequent payments could be missed because the university stopped transferring money into trusts for debt payments under Puerto Rico’s 2016 emergency debt moratorium. Some economists say the school has room to trim fat. Arnaldo Cruz, co-founder of the San Juan-based think tank Center for Integrity and Public Policy, said UPR spends too much on non-faculty positions and that its 11 campuses are too many on an island of 3.5 million. “We think that does not make sense on such a small island with a population in decline,” Cruz said. | 0 |
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece does not expect it will need a precautionary credit line when it exits its bailout next year, a view that is in line with its official creditors, the finance minister said on Friday after a meeting of euro zone ministers in Tallinn. Greece s 86-billion-euro bailout program, its third since 2010 when its debt crisis exploded, ends in August next year and by then Athens aims to have fully returned to market financing. It is pretty clear that the Greek government, the European institutions and the IMF are not thinking of a precautionary credit line, there is no reason for it, Euclid Tsakalotos told reporters. He said that based on a Eurogroup decision in June, Greece should have a buffer of funds to ensure a clean exit from the bailout program and to pay down state arrears. The money will likely come from bailout funds that will be left unused. What emerges from the Eurogroup s statement in June is that we may get part of these funds to form a buffer and pay down state arrears. This is a discussion that will take place between February and May, not now, he said. Tsakalotos echoed European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure, who said he saw no need to conduct an asset quality review (AQR) at Greek banks as a broader European Union-wide stress test is already being planned for 2018. The Greek case is simple, Greek banks are part of the European system. We have the European authorities, the ECB and the SSM (Single Supervisory Mechanism), neither of which is asking for an asset quality review, Tsakalotos said. The minister said that Greek banks will take part in the pan-European stress test next year and projected that economic recovery in the next two years will help lenders reduce their high level of non-performing loans. | 0 |
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter It has been said a number of times over the past year, that WWIII could be on the horizon. Recent events and statements between Russia and the United States have people believing it’s closer than ever. But is this really the case? Should we be worried? advertisement - learn more Since almost everything real and important taking place is kept from the masses while we are distracted by mainstream media and pop culture, it’s tough to say what is really going on. But if we begin to look at the various things going on in the world, we can piece together some interesting things. In this case, anonymous is hinting that WWIII is inching closer. Some people even believe it has already begun. But you know what? I’m not sure we need to move into fear. First check out the video, then read on. Not All Bad News Right off the bat many start worrying about nuclear bombs, and that’s fair. But there is also an interesting fact to consider: UFOs have been shooting down nuclear threats over the last few decades. Dozens of foreign governments have released thousands of pages of UFO related documents –here is an example of the latest batch released from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense in June 2013. Other country’s governments who have done the same include Mexico, France, Argentina, Russia and Belgium, just to name a few. advertisement - learn more The fact that governments have released and documented information that detail UFO encounters with the military, as well as supposed extraterrestrial encounters with people, tells us that they’ve had and do have a high level of interest when it comes to the topic of UFOs and extraterrestrials. Had this information remained classified, nobody would officially be able to say that governments have allocated resources to investigate this phenomenon, and it would have remained in the “conspiracy” realm. At the same time, it’s important to remember that this issue goes far beyond and well above government control. “It is ironic that the U.S. should be fighting monstrously expensive wars allegedly to bring democracy to those countries, when it itself can no longer claim to be called a democracy when trillions, and I mean thousands of billions of dollars have been spent on projects which both congress and the commander in chief know nothing about.” – Paul Hellyer, Former Canadian Defense Minister (source) “Everything is in a process of investigation both in the United States and in Spain, as well as the rest of the world. The nations of the world are currently working together in the investigation of the UFO phenomenon. There is an international exchange of data.” – General Carlos Castro Cavero (1979). From “UFOs and the National Security State, Volume 2″, Written by Richard Dolan “Behind the scenes, high ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.” Former head of CIA, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, 1960 (source) Just last year at the Citizens Hearing on Disclosure , a United States congresswoman voiced her opinion that the US government should disclose this existence, pointing to the fact that a number of foreign governments have already done so -you can read more about that story here. War is something none of us want I’m sure we could agree on, and just because UFO’s may be shooting down nukes doesn’t mean we are OK with war. But what can we do when it comes to such large worldly events? There must be something… Consciousness! Evolve Your Inbox & Stay Conscious Daily Inspiration and all our best content, straight to your inbox. What you focus on, what your thoughts are each day, how you feel and how you treat one another is important. It has a huge impact on what plays out in our world. This has been proven numerous times when studies examine the impact of people meditating or focusing on something specific. Collective consciousness is real and it can be impacted. Here is an example of meditation helping in war zones. You are not small, you can impact millions, we can impact billions because we are all connected. Focus on the world you want and share that with others. As for physical action, again what you choose to do to be in alignment with your purpose is powerful. But we can also continue to raise awareness about what is going on in our world and make decisions and choices that opt out of the things we no longer want to see and support. Meditation, intention, being a good person, aligning with your soul purpose, being of service to others and doing things like voting with your dollar is no passive, it is powerful when you understand how our reality works.
Transcript of video: Greetings World, We are Anonymous. For the last two months, we have been consistently reporting on a possible global conflict, World War 3 between the United States and its allies in the West, and Russia and its allies in the East. The dispute on the South China Sea has severely damaged the United States relations with the Peoples Republic of China. After the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that China’s nine-dash-line claim in the South China Sea, and its land reclamation activities on islets are invalid and unlawful, the United States has been preparing to sail in the area under a so-called Freedom of Navigation principle. This has angered the Chinese. In August, the Chinese Defense Minister, Chang Wanquan told his country’s citizens to prepare for, what he described as the peoples war at sea. Mr Wanquan was referring directly to the United States planned provocation under the pretext of Freedom of Navigation. China has since vowed to take all necessary measures available to protect its sovereignty over the South China Sea, revealing that it had the right to set up an air defense zone on the sea. China has also since been positioning and testing its nuclear weapons, and planning military drills on its waters with Russia. Even the United States has confirmed that China has tested an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, which is capable of striking everywhere in the world within half an hour. Moving away from the South China Sea, we arrive in Syria. It is an open secret that the civil war in Syria is a proxy war between the United States and Russia. Russia has even intervened physically on the request of the Syrian government. The United States, unable to get any invitation, has been openly and secretly arming many rebel groups in the country, with open plans to overthrow the Syrian government. Of course, since Russia honored the invitation of the Syrian government last year, the war has been turning in favor of the Syrian government, which was falling before Russia’s intervention. As we speak now, tension is mounting between the United States and Russia. Nerves are at their highest since the Cold War era. The United States, at the moment, is sitting on tenterhooks. Many officials in the president Obama administration are frustrated and confused regarding the situation in Syria. The United States has announced that it has ended all contacts with Russia in Syria. This announcement by the United States comes as Russia, beginning on September. 22nd, intensified its military operations in Syria, with the intentions to capture the city of Aleppo for the Syrian government. Diplomatic efforts to put an end to the fighting in Syria, have collapsed. As the Aleppo operation continues, Russia has given the United States a stern warning not to take any action against the Syrian government forces. In fact, there are many Russian jet fighters stationed in Syria, ready to shoot down any United States jet fighter that attempts to strike on the Syrian government forces. These developments from Moscow are not going down easily with the United States. The United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, is said to have urged president Obama to intervene and face the consequences from Russia. He is said to have even favored a nuclear deterrent against Russia. However, it appears that before Kerry could even make this suggestion to president Obama, the Russians had already gathered intelligence on the happenings within the White House. According to Zvezda, a Russian defense ministry Television channel, the country has started preparing its citizens for a possible nuclear war with the United States – because of the mounting tensions in Syria. Russia has since moved to deploy nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in its western-most region, Kaliningrad, which borders on NATO members of Poland and Lithuania. Due to how the situation has become, some top officials at the United States defense headquarters have finally spoken. These Pentagon officials have admitted that World War 3 is imminent, and that its going to be deadly and fast. The military generals were speaking on a future-of-the-army panel in Washington. “A conventional conflict in the near future will be extremely lethal and fast, and we will not own the stopwatch,” Major General William Hix said. General Hix also stated that China and Russia’s armies are becoming increasingly technological, and that the Pentagon was getting ready for violence on the scale that the United States Army has not seen since Korea. His comments were also echoed by lieutenant Gen Joseph Anderson and Chief of Staff, Gen Mark A. Milley, who described war between nation states as almost guaranteed. The generals also said apart from the conventional battle, cyber battle, too, has become a reality against the United States, revealing that even smaller nations are launching it against the country. We are Anonymous. | 0 |
Everybody send it to Drudge, infowars lets see if they expose it. Time to call them out i say . | 1 |
One month ago, CNN political analyst and American Urban Radio Networks White House correspondent April Ryan took to Twitter, and without any evidence, suggested that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn t actually bake the Thanksgiving Day pecan pie she posted on Twitter.Here s the tweet from Sanders showing the pie she baked with the message: I dont cook much these days, but managed this Chocolate Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving at the family farm! I dont cook much these days, but managed this Chocolate Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving at the family farm! pic.twitter.com/rO8nFxtly7 Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 23, 2017Ryan responded by actually demanding that Sanders do more than post a picture of the pie with a white background, and that she show Twitter users the pie on her table!Show it to us on a table. https://t.co/ifeSBlSZW7 AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) November 24, 2017Ryan then took it a step further and doubled down, letting her Twitter users know that the legitimacy of Sanders claim that she baked the pecan pie was no laughing matter.I am not trying to be funny but folks are already saying #piegate and #fakepie Show it to us on the table with folks eating it and a pic of you cooking it. I am getting the biggest laugh out of this. I am thankful for this laugh on Black Friday! https://t.co/ifeSBlSZW7 AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) November 24, 2017Never one to let the bad behavior of a leftist member of the media sharks go unnoticed, Sarah Sanders decided to share a step-by-step pictorial of her Christmas pecan pies for the petty CNN reporter April Ryan. Sanders tweeted directly to April Ryan this time, asking Ryan for her opinion on how to best prepare her pie: It s pie time! With or without bourbon @AprilDRyan? #piegate It s pie time! With or without bourbon @AprilDRyan? #piegate pic.twitter.com/2xw58FDFg6 Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 14, 2017Sanders then thanked VP Chief of Staff Nick Ayers for supplying the pecans from his family farm in Georgia:Thanks to @VP Chief of Staff @Nick_Ayers for supplying the pecans from his family farm in Georgia #piegate pic.twitter.com/Lx7LpMwF4V Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 14, 2017Sanders even offered to provide CNN s April Ryan with further documentation if she needed further proof to verify the authenticity of her homemade pecan pies:Ingredients all mixed up and pies in the oven! @AprilDRyan let me know if you need further documentation #piegate pic.twitter.com/OVYLg1gBgO Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 14, 2017Finally, Sanders ended her series of tweets with a zinger: Excited to share these at tomorrow s press potluck. Merry Christmas to the WH press corps! Excited to share these at tomorrow s press potluck. Merry Christmas to the WH press corps! pic.twitter.com/PKqfHk3nXJ Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 14, 2017Could there be a classier or wittier person than Sarah Huckabee Sanders, when it comes to dealing with our rabid, Trump-hating, leftist media? | 0 |
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says he will boycott a presidential election re-run due next week, said on Friday he would announce a way forward the day before the scheduled poll, raising the possibility he might participate after all. At a memorial in western Kenya for opposition supporters killed in protests against the vote set for Oct. 26, Odinga told his supporters not to attack innocent people including people who support his rival President Uhuru Kenyatta. He did not comment on an announcement by the electoral board chief executive Ezra Chiloba earlier on Friday that he would take three weeks leave. Kenya is holding the re-run after the Supreme Court threw out the result of an Aug. 8 election won by the incumbent Kenyatta but disputed by the challenger Odinga. The opposition leader has refused to participate in the re-run, arguing that reforms were needed first to prevent fraud. The opposition has demanded Chiloba resign, and the announcement that he will not participate in running the vote suggests progress in behind-the-scenes negotiations involving Western diplomats and religious and civil society leaders. Uncertainty over whether Odinga will participate in the election and concerns that it may not proceed peacefully have left Kenya, a traditionally stable Western ally in an often chaotic region, mired in political crisis. The volatile build-up to the Oct. 26 vote has revived memories for Kenyans of ethnically charged violence that killed around 1,200 people after a disputed election in 2007, when Odinga also lost and disputed the result. Chiloba told Reuters that, in light of the opposition s demands, he was going on leave, and that all arrangements for next week s vote were in place. At least 45 people died nationwide in a police crackdown on opposition supporters after the August vote, including a six-month old baby struck on the head by a police baton. With Odinga yet to respond to Chiloba s decision to go on leave, diplomats said they were unsure what would happen next. The crystal ball is very cloudy at the moment, a senior western diplomat in Nairobi told Reuters. The situation is changing by the hour. The electoral board has said next week s election will go ahead. Odinga met its chairman Wafula Chebukati on Thursday and later told reporters that if there were serious consultations and serious reforms, the opposition could review its boycott. Chebukati had said a day earlier that he could not guarantee the election would be free and fair, citing interference from politicians and threats of violence against colleagues. A fellow board member resigned this week after fleeing to the United States, saying she feared for her life. The opposition has held near-daily protests demanding electoral reforms and the sacking of board officials. Police said on Friday four people were killed as a result of their interventions to stop demonstrations. Kenyatta has meanwhile urged Kenyans to come out in large numbers to vote, insisting the ballot be held. On Thursday, he snubbed an invitation to meet Chebukati, saying he would instead spend the time campaigning. In a speech in Nairobi on Friday, Kenyatta said the election must not divide the nation or push it to the brink. Disruptions of the vote by those who thrive in chaos and relish anarchy would not be tolerated, and security forces have been enhanced and appropriately deployed to maintain law and order , he said. | 1 |
Donald Trump likes to whine about any poll that doesn t show him in a favorable light, calling the data biased or dishonest but here s one poll that he cannot ignore.A new Politico/Morning Consult poll covering numbers as recent as March 24-25 shows that Trump s approval ratings are plummeting even among his own supporters. Trump has been shown to be failing in more balance polls, which is no surprise but to see his support dwindling so quickly among Republicans is quite shocking. According to the data, Trump s ratings are now as follows: Overall, 38 percent of voters strongly disapprove of Trump, compared to only 23 percent who strongly approve. To make matters even worse for Trump, this national tracking poll had a tendency to lean pro-Trump, which made the findings far higher than a more balanced poll like Gallup s most recent data, which shows Trump s approval rating at a pathetic 38%.It appears as though Trump s disastrous failure with the American Health Care Act (Trumpcare) had an extremely negative impact on his approval rating, which fell 6% points among his own supporters. The Politico/Morning Consult poll reported: The decline in Trump s approval rating was sharper among Republicans and independents than among Democrats. In the latest survey, 81 percent of Republicans and 39 percent of independents approve of the job Trump is doing. A week prior, 85 percent of GOP voters and 44 percent approved. And among those who self-identified as Trump voters last year, the president s approval rating shrunk from 90 percent last week to 84 percent this week. However, it s not just Trump s health care debacle that is impacting his numbers so much his Russia scandal is also working against him: Twenty-nine percent of voters call Russia an enemy of the U.S., and 30 percent say it is an unfriendly nation. Only 7 percent call Russia an ally, and another 22 percent say it s friendly but not an ally. Five weeks ago, voters were divided evenly on whether Russia was friendly toward the United States. Trump was an extremely unpopular president to begin with, and he has failed to redeem or prove himself to the American people. In fact, he hasn t even tried and his supporters are catching on. They ve practically disappeared and seem ashamed to defend him after his corruption, humiliating behavior, and broken campaign promises have come to light. With numbers this pathetic, Trump and his policies don t stand a chance.Featured image via Gage Skidmore / Flickr | 1 |
By now, everyone knows that Dylann Roof, the South Carolina white supremacist who shot up am historic Black Church in Charleston South Carolina, did it because the parishioners were Black. They invited him to their worship service, and after he sat there with them for more than an hour, he killed them. Well, Roof has been sentenced to die, and his case is not in the appeals process. Like all people, no matter how despicable, Roof is entitled, via the law, to a competent defense. Since he cannot afford his own team of attorneys, they have been provided for him in the form of public defenders. There s just one problem with that, though: According to Dylann Roof, his lawyers are the wrong color.Appointed to represent Roof are public defenders Alexandra Yates and Sapna Mirchandani, who are Jewish and Indian, respectively. Those facts seem to be the only things that are wrong here, rather than their actual defense of Roof. This isn t the first time race has entered into Roof s court proceedings; he had similar mishaps with his original attorney during the trial portion of his ordeal. The man representing him during that time, David Bruck, is Jewish. Roof said of the issues there: His ethnicity was a constant source of conflict even with my constant efforts to look past it. Trust is a vital component in an attorney client relationship, and is important to the effectiveness of the defense. Because of my political views, which are arguably religious, it will be impossible for me to trust two attorneys that are my political and biological enemies. To that end, the racist murderer, who seems to be more or less representing himself at this point, penned a missive from prison, firing his public defenders on the basis of their ethnicity:As if all of this weren t bad enough, Roof threatened his original lawyer, David Bruck, with death if he ever got out of prison.Luckily, the judge presiding over Roof s case sees his racism for what it is, and is denying this so-called motion. In short, if anyone deserves the death penalty, it s this piece of less-than-human excrement. No sympathy here, despite my usual opposition to the death penalty. If anyone deserves to die for his crimes, it s Dylann Roof.Featured image via video screen capture from ABC News Video | 1 |
On Wednesday, new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci called the New Yorker s Ryan Lizza to complain about a tweet he sent out noting that Melania Trump attended a dinner with Scaramucci, Trump, Sean Hannity, and Fox News executive Bill Shine:Senior White House official tells me that Melania was also at the dinner tonight with Trump, Hannity, Shine, and Scaramucci. Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) July 27, 2017 Who leaked that to you? Scaramucci demanded, threatening to eliminate everyone in the comms team and we ll start over. I ask these guys not to leak anything and they can t help themselves, he complained. You re an American citizen, this is a major catastrophe for the American country. So I m asking you as an American patriot to give me a sense of who leaked it. They ll all be fired by me, he said. I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I ll fire tomorrow. I ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus if you want to leak something he ll be asked to resign very shortly. Lizza refused to reveal his source repeatedly, but Scaramucci seems to be a teensy bit paranoid. Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac, Scaramucci said, channeling his view of Priebus: Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months. Then things got nuts, if they weren t before. He started talking about Steve Bannon s penis:Scaramucci was particularly incensed by a Politico report about his financial-disclosure form, which he viewed as an illegal act of retaliation by Priebus. The reporter said Thursday morning that the document was publicly available and she had obtained it from the Export-Import Bank. Scaramucci didn t know this at the time, and he insisted to me that Priebus had leaked the document, and that the act was a felony. I ve called the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice, he told me. Are you serious? I asked. The swamp will not defeat him, he said, breaking into the third person. They re trying to resist me, but it s not going to work. I ve done nothing wrong on my financial disclosures, so they re going to have to go fuck themselves. Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. I m not Steve Bannon, I m not trying to suck my own cock, he said, speaking of Trump s chief strategist. I m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I m here to serve the country. (Bannon declined to comment.)Minutes later, The Mooch tweeted his infamous now-deleted leak tweet accusing Priebus of a felony.Trump hires the best people, right? Right?Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
In the spring of 1862, cloaked in the predawn darkness of Charleston Harbor, Robert Smalls stood aboard the C. S. S. Planter, a Confederate transfer and gunboat, and plotted his escape. In his day, Smalls was a rarity, a black enslaved harbor pilot. He was also clever: That morning, with his three commanding white officers carousing ashore, Smalls began executing his plan. With eight fellow slave crewmen in tow, Smalls, wearing a captain’s uniform, cranked up the vessel’s engines, and in the moonlit waters, headed toward the promise of freedom. Guiding the ship past Confederate forts and issuing checkpoint signals, Smalls steamed up the Cooper River, stopping at a wharf to pick up his wife, child and his crew’s families. In dawn’s light, the Planter, flying a white sheet as a surrender flag, made it to his cherished destination: a Union Navy fleet whose officers eyed him, dumbfounded, as Smalls saluted them. “I am delivering this war material including these cannons and I think Uncle Abraham Lincoln can put them to good use,” he said. Freedom, for Smalls and his crew, had arrived. On a recent sunny afternoon, more than a century and a half later, Michael B. Moore was standing on Gadsden’s Wharf reflecting on his ’s remarkable journey — and other triumphs and tragedies born on that spot. It took some imagining: The wharf, now a city park populated by children, young professionals and commercial cruise ships, has morphed numerous times since its heyday as the busiest port for the nation’s slave trade capital. Between 1783 and 1808, some 100, 000 slaves, arriving from across West Africa, were transported through Gadsden’s Wharf and other South Carolina ports, and sold to the 13 colonies. “This place personalizes for me what my ancestors lived through,” said Mr. Moore, chief executive of Charleston’s International African American Museum, scheduled to open in 2019. “I just can’t imagine what they felt here on this space. This is where they took their first steps on this land. ” Mr. Moore walked inland a couple hundred yards, where incoming slaves, after being quarantined off the coast at Sullivan’s Island, were warehoused — sometimes for months at a time. In what’s been called facetiously “the Ellis Island for African Americans,” thousands of slaves waiting to be auctioned off as domestics and laborers throughout the South died in those warehouses. In a few months, construction crews will break ground to build the museum on the wharf. “Right there,” Mr. Moore said, pointing directly ahead, “in what’s now a parking lot, is where 700 black people froze to death. I can only wonder what we’ll find when we start digging up this place. ” Charleston, almost paradoxically, is an easy place for tourists to love. Visitors delight in the city’s cobblestone streets, its churches, Greek Revival storefronts, its array of trendy restaurants and hotels. As Travel Leisure magazine, which earlier this year ranked Charleston first of its 15 world’s best cities, gushed: “Charleston is much more than the sum of its cobblestone streets, clopping horse carriages and classical architecture. Much of the port city’s allure lies in constant reinvention and little surprises (like guinea hens clucking up and down Legare Street, flying by on skateboards heading into work, or Citadel cadets honking their bagpipes on sidewalks in summertime). ” Yet for all its appeal, Charleston also evokes a brutal chapter of American life, a city built on and sustained by slave labor for nearly two centuries. Beneath the stately facade of this prosperous city is a savage narrative of Jim Crow and Ku Klux Klan violence, right through the civil rights movement. One doesn’t have to reach that far back to understand what makes Charleston a haunting place to explore (an estimated 40 to 60 percent of can trace their roots here). Only in 2015 did the Confederate flag come down from the state capitol in Columbia, prompted by a young Dylann S. Roof, who brandished a handgun and massacred nine people during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the nation’s oldest black churches and hallowed ground of the civil rights movement. That one of the casualties, Cynthia Hurd, was the sister of a close colleague only hardened my sense that the Holy City, nicknamed as such after its abundance of churches, was holding fast to its legacy of racial hatred. Even as this article went to press, Charleston was bracing itself for two racially loaded trials on Broad Street, at the United States District Court, Mr. Roof faces 33 federal charges — including hate crimes and religious rights violations — in the massacre at Emanuel A. M. E. A block away, at the Charleston County Judicial Center, the former North Charleston police officer Michael T. Slager faces charges in the murder of Walter L. Scott, an unarmed black man gunned down as he fled a traffic stop. And yet, amid a national climate of rising racial tension, the compulsion to engage this history was for me visceral, akin to the urge to revisit a crime scene. I can only suspect that a similar urge to peel back the layers of pain and survival of blacks in America, at least partly, is driving some of the rise in attendance at the nation’s black history sites, including the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, where advance timed tickets are reportedly no longer available through March 2017. I hoped that, on some level, engaging the painful history of human atrocity and heroism in Charleston might illuminate the racial chasms dividing Americans. “There are stories of resilience and courage here that will lift everyone,” said Joseph P. Riley Jr. who retired from office this year after 40 years as Charleston’s mayor. For a white Southern politician, his politics were decidedly progressive: His decision back in 1975, upon being elected, to appoint a black police chief, for example, earned him the moniker of “L’il Black Joe” among white racists. Still, it wasn’t until he read Edward Ball’s “Slaves in the Family” in 1998 that he came to fully appreciate — and lament — the gravity of the city’s past. “Slaves in the Family,” which won the National Book Award, chronicles the Ball family’s life as prosperous slave owners and traders in Charleston, an enterprise that started in 1698 and swelled to more than 20 rice plantations along the Cooper River. Through interviews, as well as through plantation records and photographs, the author traced the offspring of slave women and Ball men, personally contacting some of an estimated 75, 000 to 100, 000 of these living children, and documenting stories of his family’s cruelty and abuse as owners and traders off the coast of Sierra Leone. “I really started to understand that we had an important role in the international slave trade, Emancipation and Jim Crow,” Mr. Riley said. Around then, Mr. Riley began brainstorming ways to illuminate Charleston’s tale of two cities, which he says most historians and tour guides have shortchanged. Before the early 20th century, historical accounts of slavery generally downplayed the “peculiar institution” as paternalistic and something less than the organized, profitable industry it was. The oversight is egregious: By the there were some four million slaves in the United States, with nearly 10 percent of them, or 400, 000, living in South Carolina. Fortunately, this changed during the first part of the century as publications appeared, like “Slave Trading in the Old South” by the historian Frederic Bancroft, whose research shed light on the lucrative business of domestic slave trading. Bancroft listed names of slave brokers, commission merchants and auctioneers, and detailed how slave auctions were advertised and carried out. As Bancroft wrote: “Negroes were displayed individually and in groups at the front of the building as auctioneers, planters, traders and curious onlookers watched. ” The United States banned international slave trading in 1808, but the practice continued domestically, and Charleston became a major port for interstate trade. Even in the when the city prohibited public slave trading, traders moved into the brick enclosed yards downtown around the Old Exchange Provost Dungeon, at East Bay and Broad Streets. The building is a popular tourist attraction these days, highlighting its various uses throughout history, including holding prisoners of war during the American Revolution. The primary catalyst behind South Carolina’s booming slave trade was rice production. The appeal of West Africans to plantation owners was simple: The moist climate of their homeland bore striking similarities to South Carolina’s swampy Lowcountry. English planters proved to be poor rice producers as the process of planting, cultivating, harvesting and preparing the crop for market was intricate and physically arduous. Plantation owners divided the tedious process between their expert men and women, West African slaves, with men doing the dangerous work of clearing swamp lands, and women sowing the rice. The process was messy, physically draining and relentless it included scattering rice seedlings onto soil, working them into the earth with bare feet, and then threshing after harvest, which required tediously removing rice from hulls, pounding the rice repeatedly and then separating the hulls from the rice in handmade winnowing baskets. South Carolina’s dependence on slave labor was staggering. In the late 1600s some of the state’s population was white by the mid 1700s, slaves accounted for more than 70 percent of its population. Vestiges of prosperity built on slave labor abound. For example, there’s Drayton Hall, an architectural masterpiece completed in 1742 for John Drayton slave labor was used on the plantation that grew indigo and rice. Among Charleston’s biggest slaveholders was the Middleton family, which from 1738 to 1865 owned some 3, 000 slaves on its numerous plantations. These days, led by a family descendant, Charles Duell, the Middleton Place Plantation, a designated National Historic Landmark, creates exhibits around the genealogy and contributions of its enslaved workers. “Whether it was knitting or weaving or corn grinding, or tending the rice fields — all these activities were performed by ” said Mr. Duell, who has hosted three reunions that bring together the property’s European American and descendants. “They created the wealth that made all this possible. ” Magnolia Plantation, founded by the Drayton family in 1676, has similarly launched a preservation project. It celebrates the importance of Gullah culture, which enslaved West Africans brought to the Lowcountry, but also demonstrates how life was led in slave dwellings that date to 1850, several of which are being preserved. Walking along the streets of downtown Charleston, the painter Jonathan Green describes a city that has been so enthralled with its plantation aristocracy that it has mostly neglected to celebrate its black heritage, or Gullah culture. That culture includes its Creole language, traditions in food and dance, and critical expertise in agriculture. Mr. Green himself was born and raised in a nearby Gullah community in Beaufort, and his bright, bold paintings of his ancestors — in church pews, on grassy landscapes and against ocean sunsets — offer a romantic antidote to the erasure of much of that Gullah past. But walking the bustling city streets, Mr. Green proves equally adept at recalling black figures whose rich tales are integral to this city’s story. Along these streets, Mr. Green’s reminiscing easily comes alive as we move past the Old Slave Mart, among the few remaining relics of the city’s interstate slave trade. Not to be confused with the nearby outdoor Charleston City Market, the Old Slave Mart is a museum these days, housing arts and crafts. I had walked through it on an earlier occasion but standing now in its shadow, beside Mr. Green, I recalled its eerie cavernous brick rooms — the “barracoon” or slave jail in Portuguese, the morgue. “It would have been almost impossible to run away,” Mr. Green said. “From Jacksonville, Florida, all the way up to Cape Fear, North Carolina, was nothing but a human prison camp. ” Such oppression sparked many revolts, but few such insurrections proved more ambitious — or so scrupulously studied — as Denmark Vesey’s. Vesey’s birthplace has never been confirmed, but historians say he was likely born on a St. Thomas sugar plantation before being sold, around age 14, to the slave trader Joseph Vesey, whose name he took, as was customary. In the late 1700s, Denmark Vesey’s owner relocated to Charleston, and some years later, Vesey purchased his freedom from his master for $600 from a lucky $1, 500 lottery ticket windfall. A few years later, in 1822, he attempted what historians agree would have been the nation’s most elaborate and largest slave revolt — planned, in part, to gain Vesey’s own wife and children’s freedom. It’s estimated that some 3, 000 slaves got word of Vesey’s planned June 16 insurgency, and were prepared to follow his directive to kill every white person in sight, steal their weapons and cash from banks, and ultimately escape by boat to Haiti. But some slaves, fearing retribution, leaked the plan to authorities. Vesey was hanged, with, according to various sources, as many as 35 others. Today, towering amid the oak groves and ponds of Hampton Park, is a bronze statue of Demark Vesey, which the city unveiled in February 2014. But Vesey’s most enduring contribution to Charleston is arguably his cofounding of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which, at 200 years old, is the oldest A. M. E. church in the South. Vesey’s botched slave revolt resulted in angry white mobs burning down the original structure, but the congregation continued worship services underground and rebuilt Mother Emanuel, as it is known, following the Civil War (this structure, designed by Vesey’s son, the architect Robert Vesey, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1886). The Mother Emanuel I visited has been sitting grandly on Calhoun Street since 1892, its current facade prominent from blocks away. Inside the church, the pews, altar, Communion rail and light fixtures from the original edifice have been preserved, but it’s the church’s role in the fight for racial freedom, and the pantheon of leaders who have spoken from its pulpit — from Booker T. Washington to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — that make this site hallowed ground. Charleston has recently begun trying to heal racial wounds by celebrating its black history. Last April, for example, in the heated aftermath of the Walter Scott shooting, a racially mixed group of nearly 100 local movers and shakers dined together in a of Nat Fuller’s racial reconciliation feast 150 years before. Fuller was a former slave and classically trained chef who, in the 1800s, rose to become an elite caterer his restaurant, the Bachelor’s Retreat (Fuller’s master permitted his ownership, and took a portion of the profit) was a favorite within Charleston high society, according to the University of South Carolina professor David Shields. In the spring of 1865, in the aftermath of Charleston’s surrendering to Union forces, Fuller invited a racially integrated group of local whites and blacks — some who had purchased their freedom and others newly freed — to celebrate the end of the Civil War. Despite a scarcity of food supplies caused by the war, the Fuller called for an abundant meal. As one white socialite had scoffed in a letter: “Nat Fuller, a Negro caterer, provided munificently for a miscegenation dinner, at which blacks and whites sat on equality and gave toasts and sang songs for Lincoln and freedom. ” Charleston’s recent commemorative feast — which, according to Charleston City Paper, included “poached bass, a ramekin of shrimp pie bursting with fragrant herbs. Capon chasseur, venison with currant squab with truffle sauce” — proved successful as well. Among the guests at the feast was the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, a state senator, who two months later would be among the dead at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Riley, the former mayor, said the church massacre inspired him to accelerate his efforts to make real a vision he’s nurtured for years: building the International African American Museum of Charleston, which today he calls “the most important work of my life. ” He envisions the museum as an elevated space on Gadsden’s Wharf that features permanent and rotating exhibitions and a genealogy center. And similar to Civil War sites in Vicksburg and Gettysburg, he plans for the museum to develop a school curriculum that teaches students about the American slave trade. “The tragedy at Emanuel made me even more determined to bring this to fruition,” Mr. Riley said. “That hateful bigot clearly didn’t know his history,” he added, referring to Mr. Roof. Earlier this year, Mr. Riley tapped Michael Boulware Moore to lead the museum, projected to cost $75 million. Mr. Riley said he liked Mr. Moore’s background as a successful senior marketing executive with such major brands as and Kraft. Of course, Mr. Moore’s background as a direct descendant of Robert Smalls, whose escape on the C. S. S. Planter led to his rise as a South Carolina congressman during the Reconstruction era, was a plus, too. “His lineage couldn’t be better, but he’s also a very talented person,” Mr. Riley said. Mr. Moore himself said the opportunity to build a museum on the same site in which his ancestors arrived as slaves is humbling — and carries with it an almost overwhelming sense of obligation to deliver. “I’ve heard from some people who are concerned there’s going to be Disneyfication of our history,” Mr. Moore said, standing on the wharf. “That’s not going to happen. I feel a tangible obligation to our ancestors to do this right. ” At that moment, as if on cue, a white schooner with two masts appeared off the harbor. Mr. Moore gazed out into the distance “Wow,” he said, “That looks almost like a slave ship. Had we been standing here back then, a couple hundred years ago, that’s exactly what we would have seen. Yeah, it’s kind of freaky, isn’t it?” | 0 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said on Wednesday he had formed a political action committee and started raising money to help fight Donald Trump’s Republican presidential campaign in key states with large Latino immigrant populations. “I’m focusing all my efforts from now to November on stopping Trump,” Villaraigosa said in a conference call with reporters. Calling Trump a racist and misogynist, Villaraigosa said his committee, called Building Bridges, Not Walls, would focus on organizing immigrants to oppose the presumptive Republican nominee in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida in the campaign for the Nov. 8 election. Opened with his own $1,000 contribution, the committee would seek donations to pay for its activities, Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa, a Democrat who was Los Angeles mayor from 2005 to 2013 and also served as speaker of the California Assembly, is perhaps the state’s highest-profile Latino leader. He has said he is considering a run for governor in 2018. His anti-Trump campaign is among the first efforts to formally turn concern among immigrants about the billionaire’s campaign into political action. Last week, Democrats in San Diego organized an anti-Trump demonstration that drew about 400 people. Trump has made concern over illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. He has accused the Mexican government of sending rapists and criminals across the border, pledged to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and called for a temporary halt to Muslim immigration amid fears that radicalized immigrants will commit terrorist acts. Last week in the border city of San Diego, Trump called a judge hearing a case against one of his businesses “hostile” and “a hater” and said he believed the judge was Mexican. “Both Democrats and Republicans are horrified at the prospect of a Trump presidency,” Villaraigosa said. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. | 0 |
Anonymous is a loosely associated international network of activists and hacktivists. They have made a video threatening they are are about to plunge the election into chaos for sexual abuse enabler Crooked Hillary, as they claim to have a sex tape showing Bill Clinton raping a 13 year old girl and will be releasing it. The alleged rape was filmed on billionaire buddy and convicted pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein s Pedophile Island. Anonymous claims Hillary knew about this and has been hiding it. | 0 |
Ohio State University Assistant Director of Residence Life Stephanie Clemons Thompson may have urged sympathy for suspected Monday attacker Abdul Razak Ali Artan in a Facebook post. The Daily Caller News Foundation was not able to independently verify the authenticity of the post, and Clemons was unavailable for comment at press time.Clemons apparently repeated urging for her friends not to share the Facebook post, suggesting she was aware of the controversial nature of her language. Daily Caller | 1 |
The White House led people to believe that a U.S. aircraft carrier was on his way to the waters off the Korean peninsula in a show of military strength. White House press secretary said, I think when you see a carrier group steaming into an area like that, the forward presence of that is clearly, through almost every instance, a huge deterrence, he said, adding that it gives the President options in the region. However, none of that is true because the U.S. aircraft carrier was traveling in the opposite direction.According to vice-president Mike Pence, the claims of the location of the U.S. aircraft carrier supposedly on its way off the Korean peninsula were not made intentionally. Or in reality, he s saying the White House doesn t know how to communicate because it s so inept, or perhaps, Trump used this to bolster his alleged presidency so that his first 100 days in office won t appear to be a complete disaster.Politico reports:Earlier this month, White House and Pentagon officials announced that the USS Carl Vinson and its accompanying battle group had been deployed off the coast of the Korean peninsula, a response to a missile test launched by North Korea. But on Monday, Defense News reported that the Carl Vinson was nowhere near the Korean peninsula and had instead been photographed near Indonesia.After reports from major outlets saying that the Carl Vinson had not immediately turned north towards the Korean peninsula, government officials were left having to explain why the aircraft carrier had not been deployed as initially described.Pence was asked during an interview with CNN if the remarks from White House and Pentagon officials had been intentional and the vice-president said, oh, I think not then went on to say there was already a strong U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, including in Japan and South Korea. Pence did not explain why government officials declared that the that the strike group was steaming up toward the sea of Japan. Here is Sean Spicer saying exactly that on Monday:CNN interviewed Pence aboard the USS Ronald Reagan at the U.S. Yokosuka naval base in Tokyo Bay and addressed the crew saying that the U.S. would work diligently with allies to maintain and increase pressure on North Korea. The United States of America will always seek peace but under President Trump, the shield stands guard and the sword stands ready, Pence said. Those who would challenge our resolve or readiness should know, we will defeat any attack and meet any use of conventional or nuclear weapons with an overwhelming and effective American response. The word effective doesn t mean what Pence thinks it means.Just one week after the announcement that the carrier was off the Korean peninsula, an official Navy photo showed that the strike group was actually farther away from the claimed location than it had been at the time of the announcement.Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images. | 1 |
DUBAI (Reuters) - Passengers from six mainly Muslim countries who would have been barred from the United States under President Donald Trump’s latest travel order will be allowed to board U.S.-bound flights on Emirates and Etihad Airways now that a federal judge has blocked it, the Middle East carriers said on Thursday. The executive order banning refugees and nationals of six Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the U.S. was temporarily halted on Wednesday, hours before it was to go into effect, by a federal judge in Hawaii. Emirates will follow guidance by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, issued after the court’s decision, that citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen would be accepted for travel to the U.S. if they possessed the necessary travel documents, an airline spokeswoman said by email. Etihad Airways “will continue to accept guests of all nationalities for travel to the U.S. provided they have valid travel documents and, if necessary, visas,” an airline spokeswoman said. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier said it would continue to assist passengers affected by the recent executive orders but was advising them to check with their nearest U.S. mission as “U.S. travel requirements are subject to change.” The Wednesday court ruling is only temporary, until broader arguments in the case can be heard. Trump said it made the United States look weak, and promised to take the case “as far as it needs to go. A notice on Qatar Airways’ website said passengers would still need to have valid travel documents after the executive order was “enjoined.” The revised order, which was less restrictive and removed Iraq from Trump’s original list, was organized in coordination with airlines, industry group IATA has said, unlike the initial ban which came into immediate effect without notice. Trump signed the new ban on March 6 in a bid to overcome legal problems with the first order in January, which caused chaos at airports and sparked mass protests before a Washington judge stopped its enforcement in February. | 1 |
WOW! There aren t too many non-political people willing to stand up to the lies of Obama and his ties to radical Islam. Human rights attorney, Brooke Goldstein tears Muslim woman who attended the radical DC mosque with Barack Obama yesterday apart with facts: | 0 |
Hyderabad, the city that sends the most STEM students from India to the United States, is a city with the “worst engineers” in the country, according to a report. [“Software engineers from the city lag much behind those from other Indian cities when it comes to programming skills, a recent Aspiring Minds study of over 36, 000 engineering students in India showed,” reported Quartz. “The employability assessment company tested students from streams at over 500 colleges across India on Automata, a machine assessment of software development skills. ” The results showed that those in New Delhi were the best programmers, followed by Mumbai. At number three came Bengaluru, with half of the points as those in Mumbai, followed by Chennai and Kolkata. In very last place, with a total of 4. 7 points in programming ability and 4. 76 points in programming practices, came Hyderabad. The best city, New Delhi, received 26. 63 points for programming ability and 27. 16 points for programming practices in comparison. “Hyderabad, India, sent the largest number of STEM students (20, 800) to the United States and ranked fourth for the percentage of its students pursuing a STEM degree (80%) during the period,” declared the report. “Notably, 91% of students from Hyderabad are studying for a master’s degree, versus only 4% for a bachelor’s degree. ” “Lack of programming skills is adversely impacting the IT and data science ecosystems in India,” said Varun Aggarwal, of Aspiring Minds, which oversaw the study. “The world is moving towards introducing programming to . India needs to catch up. ” Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 0 |
(This story corrects typo in 10th paragraph.) By Jessica Damiana JAKARTA (Reuters) - From white water rafting in Bali to visiting temples on Java, former U.S. President Barack Obama’s private family holiday is being closely tracked in Indonesia where he spent four years as a child. Obama was six when he moved to Jakarta after his American mother, Ann Dunham, married an Indonesian man following the end of her marriage to Obama’s Kenyan father. “I feel proud that my friend became a president,” said Sonni Gondokusumo, 56, a former classmate of Obama at the Menteng 01 state elementary school in Jakarta. Gondokusumo showed a class photograph of himself standing behind a young Obama, who was wearing a school beret. “He was a clever boy. Whenever a teacher asked him to solve a problem in front of the class, he could do it,” Gondokusomo told Reuters, adding he hoped to meet the former president again. Obama remains popular in the world’s most populous Muslim nation and his trip has been splashed across the media during an extended public holiday to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. The Rakyat Merdeka newspaper carried a headline “Obama loves Indonesia”. Obama returned for an official visit as president in 2010 with his wife, Michelle, but this time has brought daughters Malia and Sasha as well. Indonesians are avid social media users and snaps of the former U.S. president walking with his family in rice fields and rafting on Bali’s Ayung River have gone viral. Obama kicked off the holiday on the island of Bali, where he stayed at the luxurious Four Seasons Resort Bali near the cultural center of Ubud. On Wednesday, Obama and his family arrived in the city of Yogyakarta on Java island, and visited the ancient temple of Borobudur. According to CNN Indonesia, Central Java police deployed 700 officers to secure his visit to Borobudur, a Buddhist temple dating from the 8th and 9th centuries. Obama is due to meet President Joko Widodo on Friday at the palace in Bogor, south of Jakarta, and visit the capital on Saturday. | 1 |
Join Patrick every Wednesday at Independent Talk 1100 KFNX and Alternate Current Radio for the very best in news, views and analysis on all top stories domestically and abroad THIS WEEK: Episode 9 This week saw a media storm, as the President-Elect Trump took on the real fake news empire led by CNN and NBC s online tabloid BuzzFeed. Also, Yemenis must be celebrating now that globalist UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon announced he s finally heading for retirement.Host Patrick Henningsen is joined by special guest Doyel Shamley, newly elected Apache County Supervisor and head of Veritas Research Consulting to discuss the serious challenges facing Arizona and the 11 western states, including Native American tribal government, as well as environmental and water issues, problems with federal land management, and the systematic threat to rural living posed by bureaucratic and federal corruption. Listen Listen to EP 9: Patrick Henningsen Live With Guest Doyel Shamley on Spreaker.This program broadcasts LIVE every Wednesday night from 8pm to 9pm MST, right after the Savage Nation, on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX over the terrestrial AM band across the greater Phoenix and central Arizona region, and live over global satellite and online via www.1100kfnx.com.LISTEN TO MORE INTERVIEWS AT PATRICK HENNINGSEN LIVE SHOW ARCHIVES | 1 |
Home » Headlines » Finance News » Investment Strategist Forecasts Collapse Timeline: ‘The Last Gasp Will Come In 2018’
You have about a year to get ready for the next leg of the collapse…
From Mac Slavo, SHTFPlan :
It is no longer a question of whether or not financial markets and the U.S. economy will collapse. That, according to a host of experts, both mainstream and alternative, is a given.
The only question now is “when” that moment will come.
According to Christine Hughes, chief investment strategist at Otterwood Capital, it will be very soon. Basing her assessment on historically dead-on yield curve analysis, Hughes says in her latest update to clients that we’re looking at a maximum breaking point of 2020, but that some time in the next 12 – 15 months is the more likely scenario, which pegs the next crisis right at the beginning of 2018 .
First, the chart, which has been near perfect in its accuracy thus far and shows just how rapidly the yield curve has collapsed in the last 12 months:
Hughes explains what it means for you and why you can expect 2018 to be the year of reckoning:
As the bond market sees a recession slower growth means lower interest rates and it [the yield curve] collapses. So let’s assume we’re like every other time in history and that happens. Then it moves forward to 2018…
So, 2018, according to the yield curve, is pretty much the last gasp we have for this economic cycle. We’re closing in on 2016 now… we basically have a year… maybe a year to 15 months before we have the next crisis on our hands.
So if you are levered personally or corporately… if a lot of your assets are in illiquid stuff… the Canadian housing market comes to mind… You might want to think about existing and liquefying yourself.
Watch the video report:
Wolf Richter of Wolf Street explains why the Treasury Yield Curve is so important:
Since early July, the 30-year US Treasury Bond Price Index has plunged 8.3%. It’s now called “the rout” in longer-dated government bonds. One of the specters is rising inflation at a time of ultra-low yields.
What has become the number one predictor of a bear market in stocks over the past many decades? The US Treasury yield curve. It drives bank lending – which can strangle the economy. But this time, the risks are much higher, and the potential economic consequences steeper.
We know it is only a matter of time at this point.
Greg Mannarino of Traders Choice has made similar warnings, noting that the bond markets are signaling a massive crash ahead. And when that crash finally takes place the fall out after the debt bubble bursts, according to Mannarino, could lead to extremely serious consequences:
So, when the debt bubble bursts we’re going to get a correction in population. It’s a mathematical certainty.
Millions upon millions of people are going to die on a world-wide scale when the debt bubble bursts. And I’m saying when not if…
…
When resources become more and more scarce we’re going to see countries at war with each other. People will be scrambling… in a worst case scenario… doing everything that they can to survive… to provide for their family and for themselves.
There’s no way out of it.
Source: Analyst: “Millions Upon Millions of People Are Going to Die on a World-Wide Scale When the Debt Bubble Bursts”
If Mannarino and Hughes are right, you have about a year to get ready for the next leg of the collapse .
Buy 2017 Gold Pandas and Buy 2017 Silver Panda Coins On Pre-Sale Now! Secure Your 2017 Panda Coins Today at SD Bullion! | 0 |
Pew Research Center, which conducts not just domestic but also international polls, released their newest findings with regards to President Obama and how the world sees him (more specifically, their confidence in him that he will do the right thing).Not surprisingly, it turns out that most of the world loves our president and has the utmost confidence in him. Take that, Republicans who call him weak in the eyes of the world.After gathering information from 40 states across six continents, a median of 65 percent say they have confidence in Obama to do the right thing and 27 percent do not.These are the top 10 countries that have the highest rating for President Obama:The president s approval rating has also skyrocketed in India, from a dismal 48 percent in 2014 to 74 percent now. The lowest approval rating Obama has in Africa is 65 percent, but it is important to remember African citizens loved President Bush as well.When President Bush left the White House in January 2009, western European confidence in America s president reached an all-time low, with some countries giving W. less than 10 percent approval. Today, western Europe remains inspired by our nation s president (unless you count Russia, where only 11 percent approve of him).Although the president has seen a slightly lower approval rating recently than when he entered the presidency in 2009, it should be noted that besides his sharp decline with Russia, he also has drastically declined in Israel. Just last year, his approval rating was a soaring 71 percent (Republicans ignored this while accusing him of hating Israel), and this year his approval rating has fallen to 49 percent.So Israel isn t too thrilled with him and Russia absolutely despises him. Other than that, the world loves him. In the U.S., the poll found that 58 percent of Americans feel he can do the right thing and have confidence in his ability to do so. Not too shabby considering (yet again), Republicans say the people hate him. The only other countries that seem to have no confidence in him are Jordan, Pakistan, Venezuela, the Palestinian Territory, and Argentina.If the world loves President Obama, I can only imagine how much they ll love Bernie or Hillary.America, let s not wreck our standing internationally for God s sake, we don t need President Trump coming in and making the world hate us (again). Featured image by Ashley Landis-Pool/Getty Images | 1 |
Outrage as May’s real idea of Brexit at Goldman Sachs speech leaks Outrage as May’s real idea of Brexit at Goldman Sachs speech leaks By 0 57
British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing growing criticism over her comments about Brexit at a leaked private speech to Goldman Sachs.
The premier, who has publicly made the case for a hard Brexit following a June referendum, speaks of the “benefits” of being an EU member in the hour-long session, whose audio file was leaked to the Guardian on Tuesday night, drawing harsh criticism on Wednesday.
“I think the economic arguments are clear. I think being part of a 500 million [population] trading bloc is significant for us. I think, as I was saying to you a little earlier, that one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest here in the UK because it is the UK in Europe,” she is heard saying. “If we were not in Europe, I think there would be firms and companies who would be looking to say, do they need to develop a mainland Europe presence rather than a UK presence? So I think there are definite benefits for us in economic… | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is considering U.S. Representatives Raul Labrador of Idaho and Ryan Zinke of Montana for Interior secretary even as fellow Republican lawmaker Cathy McMorris Rodgers remained the top contender, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing sources. Last week, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Trump is expected to nominate McMorris Rodgers, the House Republican Conference Chair who hails from Washington state, to run the U.S. Department of the Interior. | 1 |
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil s Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles will speak to major credit rating agencies on Thursday as the government scrambles to avoid a sovereign debt downgrade due to growing doubts that its proposed pension reform can rein in surging public debt. A vote on the unpopular bill to overhaul the social security system, seen as vital to closing the fiscal deficit, has been delayed to 2018 after failing to muster support in Congress. Lawmakers have warned that handling the hot-button issue ahead of next year s elections would reduce the chances of approval. Meirelles said in a radio interview he will tell rating agencies the delay until February does not mean pension reform will not be approved. He told Radio Estad o it would be reasonable for the agencies to wait until the bill is voted on before deciding on a potential downgrade. Lower house Speaker Rodrigo Maia on Monday said pension reform would be hard to approve if the bill is not passed by February. The first vote was put off last week and scheduled for Feb. 19 after the Christmas-to-Carnival holiday recess. Maia told a news conference there is room to discuss a longer transition period for public sector employees, to include those who started working before 2003. While this would add to future pension costs, Maia said the government will refuse to give up one more penny in fiscal savings. The current version of the bill would save 480 billion reais ($146 billion) over 10 years, according to government estimates, down from 800 billion reais in the original proposal, before concessions were made to try to win passage. Brazil s bloated pension system, which is especially generous for public sector employees, is the main cause of a huge budget deficit that cost Latin America s largest nation its prized investment-grade credit rating two years ago. The finance ministry said Meirelles will hold conference calls with rating agency representatives on Thursday. Investors fear that failure to streamline social security could weaken Brazil s recovery from a deep economic downturn, forcing the central bank to raise interest rates from an all-time low and triggering new sovereign rating downgrades in 2018. Last week, Moody s Investors Service calling the delay in voting on the pension bill credit negative . This raises the possibility that the reform will not be approved next year, given political uncertainty surrounding the presidential elections, Moody s said in a note to clients. | 1 |
In every presidential campaign, there are issues everyone knows beforehand will be discussed — what should we do about immigration, how can we improve the economy, where should we go on health care — and events that become campaign issues when they burst into the news. So it is with the public health crisis in Flint, Michigan, where a public health catastrophe has played out over the last two years, and more and more politicians are being asked to comment on it.
To get you up to speed, in 2014, in an effort to save money, the city stopped getting its water from Detroit and began getting it from the contaminated Flint River. It turned out that all manner of nasty chemicals were contained in the water, most alarmingly, lead. It’s important to understand that at the time, Flint’s own elected officials were all but powerless, because the city was being run by a “emergency manager” appointed by Michigan governor Rick Snyder; it was the emergency manager who made the final call to switch their water supply (you can read more about that here). Emails released yesterday by Snyder’s administration show that as Flint residents were complaining about the water’s color and taste, and reporting ill health effects, state officials were not particularly eager to do anything about it. Snyder’s chief of staff wrote in one email that other state officials felt that “some in Flint are taking the very sensitive issue of children’s exposure to lead and trying to turn it into a political football.”
Well it’s a political football now — as well it should be. I’ve long been an advocate of “politicizing” just about everything (see here or here), not because candidates should take any excuse to blame each other for anything going wrong anywhere in the country, but because elected officials need to make choices, and campaigns provide an opportunity to get them on record saying how they’d address critical issues. Right after a hurricane is the best time to talk about what government should do to prepare for disasters, just as the aftermath of a high-profile police shooting is the best time to talk about police practices. It’s when our attention gets focused on a problem and there’s a real opportunity to make progress.
So what we’re seeing now is that Democrats, particularly President Obama and those running for his party’s presidential nomination, are eager to talk about Flint. Obama met with Flint’s mayor, declared a state of emergency that will allow federal funds to flow there, and called the crisis “inexplicable and inexcusable.” Hillary Clinton raised it in Sunday’s debate when asked what issue she wish had been brought up but hadn’t, saying, “We’ve had a city in the United States of America where the population which is poor in many ways and majority African American has been drinking and bathing in lead contaminated water. And the governor of that state acted as though he didn’t really care. He had requests for help that he basically stonewalled. I’ll tell you what, if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would’ve been action.” For his part, Bernie Sanders called for Snyder to resign.
And the Republicans? It won’t be surprising if they aren’t interested in discussing the race and class issues the crisis raises, and thus far, they don’t seem to want to talk seriously about it at all. Ben Carson was the first to give any substantive comment, placing the blame on Flint’s elected officials and the federal government, neatly excusing Governor Snyder’s administration of any involvement. Marco Rubio was asked about it on Monday and said he couldn’t say much, since “That’s not an issue that right now we’ve been focused on”; from what I can tell he hasn’t said anything about it since. Donald Trump was also reluctant to discuss it, responding to a reporter’s question on Tuesday by saying, “A thing like that shouldn’t happen, but, again, I don’t want to comment on that.” John Kasich said, “I think the governor has moved the National Guard in and, you know, I’m sure he will manage this appropriately.” I haven’t been able to find any comments from Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, or Rick Santorum.
But there is one Republican candidate who made detailed remarks about the issue: Ted Cruz. “It is a failure at every level of government, a failure of the city officials, a failure of the county officials, and the men and women of Michigan have been betrayed,” Cruz said. “Every American is entitled to have access to clean water. And to all the children who have been poisoned by government officials, by their negligence, by their ineptitude, it’s heart-breaking.” In addition, Cruz’s Michigan state director wrote on her Facebook page that the campaign was bringing bottled water to “crisis pregnancy centers” in the city, which try to convince women not to have abortions.
Cruz did his best to fit the issue in with his broader critique of government, but it isn’t surprising that the rest of his Republican colleagues didn’t really want to talk about it. If Snyder were a Democrat, you can be sure they’d be blaming him, but he isn’t. They aren’t going to say that this disaster demonstrates that the problems that affect poor and black people are given less attention by government at all levels than the problems that affect rich and white people, because most of them don’t think that’s actually true. They aren’t going to say that this shows that we need a major investment in infrastructure spending in America, because they don’t really believe that, either.
But those are the broader issues that the catastrophe in Flint raises, and that’s what the candidates ought to be pressed on. They don’t even have to agree on who bears the lion’s share of the blame to agree that we have a national problem that requires attention. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the country’s drinking water system a grade of “D” and says that in the next couple of decades we will need to invest hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps even into the trillions, in order to bring the system up to where it should be.
So now that we’re focusing on the question of drinking water, the candidates should say what they see as our infrastructure priorities, how we should address them, how much we ought to spend, and how that fits in with the other things they’d like to spend money on. | 0 |
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