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Kentucky Republicans have decided to put the profits of a creationist museum ahead of the education of their state s children, and that just about says it all.At the very start of 2016 s legislative year, Kentucky conservatives introduced a bill, SB-50, that would keep schools closed until the end of August in order to allow the state s brand new Noah s Ark museum to eke out a few more weeks of the tourist season. Priorities!Writer Dan Arel has been following the situation, in all its mind-numbing stupidity, for the better part of a year. He writes:As I reported back in August of 2015, Kentucky Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, and Sen. Chris Girdler, R-Somerset had proposed such a bill to help extend the vacation season to bring more attention to the forthcoming Ark Encounter. Grant County is set to become a major tourist destination due to the presence of the Ark, Thayer said. But there won t be many families from Kentucky visiting in August if we continue with the current calendar. And while other states have set their school schedule around economic issues, you d be hard-pressed to find a state do that to satisfy the bottom-line of a single man.Meet Ken Ham, the right-wing creationist famous for his creation museum and infamous for getting absolutely demolished in a debate with Bill Nye. He and his giant Ark have Kentucky s Republican-led legislature wrapped around his finger.Lately, Ham has been so busy hurling hatred at gay people that one might forget that he makes most of his money by running a religious-based creation museum and associated ministry in Kentucky. In the past few years, Ham has set his sights on expanding his museum to feature a life-sized mock up of Noah s Ark. After a ton of fundraising and a few charges of tax fraud Ham opened his Ark in November, 2015.To give you an idea of how obnoxious Ham can be, this is how he chose to announce his big Grand Opening ceremony set to begin this summer: We are so excited that the construction progress and schedule landed on this 7/7 date. Genesis 7:7 states that Noah and his family entered the Ark. So it s fitting we allow the public to enter the life-size Ark on 7/7. Ham s enablers in Kentucky want to extend the park s vacation season to September. They hope this will bring in more money, but what they don t mention is that almost none of it would be coming back to the state. Ham, for all of his religious-speak, is primarily a huckster. He continues to label his for-profit ministry a tax-exempt church, and therefore pays little to no taxes. Keeping kids out of school so their parents can buy tickets for Ham s park does nothing but make students in the state more ignorant, residents poorer, and Ham richer.Schools, obviously, are not happy, either. As Ham continues to count his dollars, teachers and principals are left scrambling for a way to salvage the potentially lost time. One principal was hopeful that the bill wouldn t pass, but conceded if it did, it would be a disaster. It may help tourism, however, I think it could potentially hurt many Kentucky children. Given the fundamentalism promoted by Ham s anti-intellectual museums, it s safe to say the principal is being too generous. This has all the makings of an educational disaster.Feature image via Christian Post screengrab | 0 |
BERLIN (Reuters) - Relations between Berlin and Washington are in a difficult phase but the United States is “bigger and better” than the current spat shows and ties will improve again, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Tuesday. “It is true that we have a difficult situation in relations between the United States and Germany,” Gabriel said. “But the United States are older and bigger than the current conflict and so I think we will return to good relations in the future.” “Things are getting trivialized now. I think it is inappropriate that we are now communicating with each other between a beer tent and Twitter,” Gabriel added in Berlin. Chancellor Angela Merkel told her Bavarian allies in a beer tent in Munich on Sunday that Europe could no longer completely rely on its allies. U.S. President Donald Trump responded by criticizing Germany via Twitter earlier on Tuesday. | 0 |
PARIS (Reuters) - France reacted cautiously on Friday to U.S. evidence which allegedly proved Iran supplied weapons to Houthi militia in Yemen, saying it was still studying information at its disposal and the United Nations had yet to draw any conclusions. The United States on Thursday presented for the first time pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons supplied to the Houthis, describing it as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions. The arms included charred remnants of what the Pentagon said was an Iranian-made short-range ballistic missile fired from Yemen on Nov. 4 at King Khaled International Airport outside Saudi Arabia s capital Riyadh, as well as a drone and an anti-tank weapon recovered in Yemen by the Saudis. When asked whether Paris believed that evidence was irrefutable, foreign ministry deputy spokesman Alexandre Giorgini declined to respond directly. The United Nations secretariat has not, at this stage, drawn any conclusions. France continues to examine the information at its disposal, he said. Tensions between Iran and France have increased in recent weeks after President Emmanuel Macron said Tehran should be less aggressive in the region and clarify its ballistic missile program. Giorgini said France remained concerned by Iran s ballistic missile program and urged it to abide fully by U.N. Security Council resolution 2231. Resolution 2231, which enshrined the landmark nuclear deal with world powers, calls on Iran not to undertake activities related to missiles capable of delivering nuclear bombs, including launches using such technology. It stops short of explicitly barring such activity. France s foreign minister is due in Washington on Monday to in part to discuss Iran and will travel to Tehran at the start of January. (Corrects spelling of spokesman surname) | 1 |
Donald Trump reportedly wants to use the National Guard as his deportation force.According to the Associated Press, a leaked memo written by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly revealed that Trump might call up 100,000 National Guard troops to round up undocumented immigrants.BREAKING: Trump administration considers mobilizing as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants. The Associated Press (@AP) February 17, 2017The plan would be an unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana. The memo states that the National Guard would only be used if a state s governor approves, but seeing as how Trump has the power to call up any National Guard unit he wants, he could easily ignore the wishes of governors.Let s say California Governor Jerry Brown refuses to let Trump use the California National Guard to round up immigrants. Trump could just ignore him and call them up anyway just because Brown is a Democrat and Trump doesn t like to be told no.Meanwhile, Republican governors will probably have no problem unleashing the military against immigrants.White House mouthpiece Sean Spicer denied that such a memo exists.. @seanspicer tells @kwelkernbc immigration plan is 100% false: There is no effort to utilize the national guard to round up immigrants Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) February 17, 2017And Assistant mouthpiece Michael Short also denied it.Not true. https://t.co/T8rA87kJaU Michael C. Short (@MCShort45) February 17, 2017Twitter proceeded to point out that Spicer and Short lack credibility.@MCShort45 Let me guess, the memo is real, but reporting on said memo is fake news? Ryan Parker (@TheRyanParker) February 17, 2017@BenjySarlin @seanspicer @kwelkernbc Yet AP says it has a memo written by John Kelly. This is when that credibility issue comes into play. Chanty (@Chantelesque) February 17, 2017Donald Trump s effort to round up immigrants in this country is exactly the same as what Hitler did to the Jews. And you can bet Trump will have to order concentration camps be built because the government will have to house them somewhere while they await deportation.This action is absolutely un-American. It s cruel and a total affront to humanity. Donald Trump is not merely rounding up immigrants who have serious criminal records. He s treating all undocumented immigrants as criminals.It should also be noted that if Trump is allowed to use the National Guard for such an action, he could use the National Guard to do even more sinister things. And it could be American citizens who become the targets.Featured image via Andrew Harrer Pool/Getty Images | 1 |
As the rain poured down, a man with a Harry Potter phoenix feather tattoo on his forearm waited patiently on a Brooklyn sidewalk. The man, Robert Saulter, a lawyer in Boston for the United States Air Force, was in New York for the weekend and said he just had to be at Saturday’s midnight party for the latest in the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which is actually a play. “It sounds ridiculous that I’m 32 years old and I’m tearing up,” Mr. Saulter said as the BookCourt store in the Cobble Hill neighborhood opened its doors. “But I always felt misunderstood and I feel like if you’ve read the books, you understand the emotional connection you get to Harry, someone who really wanted to do good things with the world and wanted to feel loved. ” Mr. Saulter even named his son, who is 7 months old, Phoenix Harrison, for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth in the series. Mr. Saulter was among nearly 200 people who waited at the store for the script that was written by Jack Thorne and based on a story by Mr. Thorne, John Tiffany and J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter book series, which led to films and a theme park. The play, which opened in London over the weekend, has already become a critical, commercial and — with the casting of the black actress Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger — controversial hit. It continues where the final book left off, as Harry and his crew send their children to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ms. Rowling has made it clear that “Cursed Child” is not an eighth Harry Potter novel, but the fans do not care. The book topped the 2016 charts for Amazon’s print and Kindle sales, while also becoming Barnes Noble’s top book since “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” in 2007. Scholastic, the publisher in the United States, will not have sales figures until later this week. It has been nearly 20 years since the first book and almost 10 years since the publication of “Deathly Hallows,” what many have considered the final chapter in Ms. Rowling’s story. And Mary Gannett, an owner of BookCourt, said she had not been sure the store should host a party this time. Interest trickled in slowly after the script’s publication was announced in February, Ms. Gannett said, but in the past week, requests for reserved copies nearly doubled. In New York and across the country, Potterheads swarmed bookstores Saturday night and into Sunday morning to celebrate the release, as if they had found the secret winged key that not only let them back into their childhoods but also opened the door to another generation. Judy Stelter, the manager of Book World in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. was expecting a smaller, older audience for the store’s midnight party. Instead, she was greeted by teenagers and young children with their parents, who filled the small store to enjoy cake and chocolate frogs (a treat among wizards). “Look at all the young kids in here,” Ms. Stelter said, standing beside boxes of “Cursed Child. ” “They’re in here for a book that’s in print and on paper, not on an electric device. Once they read like that, they’ll read for life. ” Many fans happily brought family members who were not old enough — or even born yet — for the celebrations of the original series. In Atlanta, Erin Whitlock, 24, brought her brother Liam to a Barnes Noble in the Edgewood neighborhood. “He’s as big a fan as I am, and it’s just really cool to be here tonight because he gets to experience what I grew up with,” Ms. Whitlock said, noting that her brother visits Ms. Rowling’s website Pottermore, where she regularly publishes new stories. “The wizarding world doesn’t stop with the books. It goes with your imagination. ” JillEllyn Riley, 48, a writer and editor who lives in Cobble Hill, perused the novels at BookCourt with her sons, ages 13 and 19, who did not seem to mind the spectacle of their mother dressed as Sybil Trelawney, a professor at Hogwarts. Ms. Riley said she hosted monthly Harry Potter club meetings in the neighborhood with her younger son. “We came here to BookCourt for Book 7, all of us,” she said. “My was 3, and I knew that later he would read the books and wouldn’t be able to go to the midnight releases, but I knew he’d know he had been there once. ” Aubrey Nolan, 25, who planned the evening at BookCourt, said she wanted to keep the activities family friendly. All around her, children sipped cream soda floats they passed off as butterbeer and decorated wands with paint, sequins and string. Others had mug shots taken that resembled the wizards imprisoned at Azkaban. Bookstores around the country embraced the theme, too, with Books of Wonder in Manhattan offering photos with owls (like Harry’s Hedwig) and the Charles Deering Library at Northwestern University outside Chicago refereeing a Quidditch match, a sport played in the series. At the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, nearly 250 people showed up for what was billed as a Hogwarts reunion. And members of the Seattle Shakesbeerience performed the first few scenes from the play with Patrick Lennon — who said the group’s motto is “script in one hand, drink in the other” — as Harry. “I’m in the group that aged along with Harry,” Mr. Lennon, 30, said. “One of the actresses says she’ll probably be crying through it. I might too. ” For some, nothing was more important than getting their hands on the newest edition, even if it meant waiting alone or interrupting a vacation. Annie Grandidge and Travis Dicks, tourists from New Castle, Australia, spent two and a half hours in line at the Barnes Noble on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. And Ashley Johnson, 32, the actress who played Chrissy Seaver in the sitcom “Growing Pains,” recently moved to Brooklyn to work on NBC’s “Blindspot.” She showed up at BookCourt by herself, knowing she would easily make friends with other Potter fans. “I was a little angry that I didn’t read these as I was growing up,” Ms. Johnson said. “I found them in my and I never got to go wait in line for the original books, so to be a part of that I felt like I needed to go do it. We don’t get to do this with a lot of things with how fast the world moves, and to wait in line for a book at midnight feels really special. ” Margaret Piraino, 24, dressed as Nymphadora Tonks, a witch, complete with rainbow hair and jewelry, attended the BookCourt party with her girlfriend, Laurel Detkin, a fellow Potter enthusiast. But this time was different. “I grew up with Harry Potter and it’s been my entire life, and my dad would go to Barnes Noble with me every time there was a new release,” Ms. Piraino, who lives in Brooklyn Heights, said. “And this year, my dad died in January and it’s the first time I had to go on my own. ” In Seattle, Dylan Blanford, 13, donned a long black robe and a yellow tie as a member of Hufflepuff, one of the four houses at Hogwarts, and said he was jealous that he was not at parties for the previous Harry Potter books. He started reading the books at age 5. “I’m excited because there’s still this little jumping around inside of me going, ‘Harry! Harry! Harry!’ And there’s also this jumping around inside of me going, ‘Harry! Harry! Harry! ’” he said. “I’m so excited because it’s not the end, forever, you know?” | 0 |
In the latest twist in a case that has been full of them, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the murder conviction of Michael C. Skakel, who was found guilty in 2002 of bludgeoning a teenage neighbor with a golf club, should be reinstated. The court said in making its ruling that Mr. Skakel’s original lawyer had, despite accusations to the contrary, represented him effectively. The decision could send Mr. Skakel back to prison to finish a prison term of 20 years to life. He had spent more than a decade behind bars before he was released in 2013 when a judge vacated his original sentence. Over the years, Mr. Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, has attracted the attention of gossip columnists, TV crews and magazine writers as his case slowly moved through nearly every branch of Connecticut’s judicial system. Though the neighbor, Martha Moxley, was killed in Greenwich in 1975, when she and Mr. Skakel were both 15, Mr. Skakel was not arrested until he was in his late 30s. He was convicted after a trial that brought to light details including his drinking and drug use. But in October 2013, 38 years after Ms. Moxley was found dead, lying face down beneath a pine tree on her family’s estate, a Connecticut judge vacated the guilty verdict, ruling that Mr. Skakel’s trial lawyer, Michael Sherman, had not provided effective representation. At that time, Mr. Skakel and his new legal team argued that Mr. Sherman had failed to implicate his brother, Thomas Skakel, in the murder, one of their main arguments at trial failed to adequately pursue an alibi defense and failed to rebut the testimony of some former schoolmates who said that Mr. Skakel had admitted to the killing. In subsequent arguments, Mr. Skakel’s lawyers also attacked Mr. Sherman for delivering a poor closing argument and for having a conflict of interest in representing him related to how he billed Mr. Skakel. But in a decision issued on Friday, the Supreme Court said that Mr. Sherman’s legal work was not deficient. Mr. Skakel “had the burden to present evidence demonstrating that Sherman’s investigation was constitutionally inadequate,” the court wrote. “In the absence of this evidence, we must presume that Sherman performed competently. ” Prosecutors have not responded to requests about the next steps for the case. In a telephone interview on Friday evening, Mr. Sherman said that while it was “a comfort to see that the judges did not feel I was responsible,” the reinstatement of the guilty verdict was not “a situation where I’m happier than hell and kicking my heels in joy. ” He maintained that Mr. Skakel had been wrongfully convicted. “It happened on my watch, and I’m responsible for that,” Mr. Sherman said, adding: “I can’t imagine that any judge or prosecutor will send him back to jail after the odyssey he’s been on. ” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. an environmental lawyer and a cousin of Mr. Skakel’s who wrote a book last year making a case for Mr. Skakel’s innocence, called the court’s decision “a horrible, cataclysmic miscarriage of justice. ” “I don’t think he’s O. K. going back to prison for a crime he didn’t commit while the real murderers are on the street because the State of Connecticut can’t admit it made a horrible mistake by convicting him in the first place,” Mr. Kennedy said. The Supreme Court’s ruling was in essence a defense of Mr. Sherman’s defense of Mr. Skakel. It pulled apart the lower court’s decision to vacate the conviction point by point. According to the ruling, Mr. Sherman had a threefold strategy at Mr. Skakel’s trial. Mr. Sherman tried to establish an alibi, saying that Mr. Skakel was at a cousin’s house watching Monty Python on television at the time of the murder. He tried to discredit witnesses who had gone to school with Mr. Skakel and who had said Mr. Skakel told them he was involved in the killing. And he presented evidence that the family’s tutor, Kenneth Littleton, might have committed the murder. Mr. Skakel’s current lawyers did not return phone calls seeking comment. | 0 |
Maha ’s family is divided. She immigrated to New York City in 2014, reuniting with her three sons who had arrived earlier. She expected that her husband, Husham and her two other sons would soon join her from Amman, Jordan, finally bringing the family together after a tumultuous decade of surviving the Iraq war, fleeing to Jordan and then searching for a permanent home. But on Friday, the family was dealt another blow, after President Trump approved a sweeping executive order on immigration that, among other things, blocked entry into the United States for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries including Iraq, where members of the family are citizens. Her husband and two sons in Jordan are for now locked out of the United States, and Ms. Obaidi cannot travel away, or risk being denied . “Now our family in the U. S. can’t even come to visit us, nor can we visit them,” Mr. Qadhi said on Saturday in Amman. “We just sit and watch like the rest of the world what is happening, and our fate is being decided for us, in front of our eyes. ” The family lived in Baghdad as American tanks, troops and missiles tore into the Iraqi capital in 2003. It stayed for several years, despite gunfire and bomb blasts outside its house and the kidnapping of several family members. The family helped American soldiers even though other Iraqis targeted it for doing so. One of the sons in Amman, Thabit said he and his father had run a snack bar on an American base in Baghdad, serving candy and soft drinks to troops, and operated a internet cafe, which required them to be vetted and approved to begin work. After Thabit was kidnapped in 2006 by Qaeda terrorists and eventually released, he said, he reported details about the episode to American officials in the hope that they would be caught. And on his way home from the Baghdad base one day, he came upon four American troops injured along the road, and he said he had loaded them into his car and driven them to the Green Zone. “America has abandoned its responsibility to protect those who protected and cooperated with the Americans,” he said. “It’s a decision solely based on my religious faith. It’s discrimination solely on religious grounds. ” He added: “This is the wrong decision. Is it even constitutional?” The family’s home was along one of Baghdad’s major highways, an entry point for American troops during the invasion. The family huddled in a windowless section of the home for 10 days, as bullets shattered windows and rockets blazed through the sky, until the United States took control of Baghdad. In the years after the invasion, the family remained in Iraq, even as unrest spread, militants took up arms and tensions between Sunnis and Shiites flared up. In addition to Thabit Ms. Obaidi’s husband was also kidnapped, on two separate occasions. The family members recalled the lengths to which they went to get them freed, how they stuffed $60, 000 in Iraqi dinars into garbage bags and were instructed by cellphone to travel to a series of locations before dropping off the ransom. “It was like in the movies,” Ms. Obaidi said in an interview this month. Fearing more attacks, the family left Iraq for Jordan. It joined many other Iraqi refugees, including extended family members. Ms. Obaidi and her husband used their savings to buy a home in Amman. Employment opportunities were scarce for Iraqis, leading three of her sons, starting in 2010, to venture to the United States to find work. When Ms. Obaidi later followed them, she hoped that her entire family could apply for asylum and unite in America. She made the trip despite a number of concerns. “At first, I felt afraid,” she said. “How can I live in this country? It is a foreign country. It is very far from my culture. How will I be compatible with the community?” To her surprise, Ms. Obaidi found New York to be unlike its gruff stereotypes. People smiled as she walked down the street. Men helped her haul heavy bags up stairs. Others offered her seats on the subway. “Everybody in America is very nice,” she said. “They are very polite, helpful people, nice people, always with a smile on their face. That is my experience. ” She has found additional support from the International Rescue Committee, a global humanitarian aid, relief and development nongovernmental organization based in New York. Founded in 1933, the organization is the newest organization supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, and the only one of the eight groups whose work extends beyond the New York area. It operates in 29 cities in the United States and in more than 40 countries. The organization was instrumental in helping Ms. Obaidi adjust to her new life and connecting her with a number of social services, including health insurance and food stamps. It helped her obtain a Social Security card, navigate New York’s streets and understand its transportation system. The group also helped her study for her driver’s license permit exam, among other services. “I feel I am not lonely,” she said. “I have somebody. I have somebody to support me. ” She shares a home in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens with two of her sons, Saif and Qaed . Her third son, Tameem and his wife, Melissa Forstrom, also live in the neighborhood. “I have a nice life,” Ms. Obaidi said. “Even though my apartment is small, I feel happy in it. I like it. ” But it is a home with some notable, painful absences. “I’ve divided myself,” Ms. Obaidi said. “Some part is there in Jordan, and some parts … ” She trailed off, overcome with emotion. In Amman, Thabit her oldest son, lives with his wife and son across the street from Ms. Obaidi’s husband, Husham, and their youngest son, Omar . They have been denied asylum in the United States. In October 2015, Husham was sent a conditional acceptance letter for asylum in the United States. About a year later, he received a second letter, denying him resettlement. Omar who works at Unicef to help provide water, sanitation and hygiene to Syrian refugees in Jordan, was also denied resettlement. “We have lived here as if we were waiting for something, as if everything was temporary, but now we no longer know what we are waiting for,” Omar said in his apartment in Amman. Thabit who has traveled to New York several times to visit his family, has not received the same denial letters for resettlement in the United States. His tourist visa was renewed, but a week later, an officer at the American Embassy in Amman told him that his visa had been canceled, and his case for resettlement was denied. Whether they will ever get approval to move to the United States is even more uncertain now. Thabit said that Mr. Trump’s order was particularly painful and that he felt America was turning its back on Iraqis who had risked their lives to help soldiers during the war. “At the end we realized we were no longer welcome, neither from the Iraqis because we worked with the Americans, nor from the Americans because we were Iraqi,” he said. Like many Iraqis, Thabit is living in Jordan on a conditional basis. He must renew his permission every year, and it is dependent on the family’s financial means. “Nothing is guaranteed in business,” he said. “Today, my trade company here is successful, but if one day the business fails, then what will happen? Where do I go?” In the United States, his siblings, even with employment and legal immigration status, live in a similar state of unsteadiness and concern. For three years, Tameem ’s only proof of his legal status was an record known as an form, a document without a photo of him and only his name and identification numbers. It has hindered his attempts to travel even within the United States. Visas for Saif ’s wife and children were approved recently after a wait of more than two years. They were booked on a plane expected to arrive Feb. 7, but Friday’s executive order by Mr. Trump has dashed those plans. “The kids, they grow up far from their father,” Saif said. “All of a sudden, I told them ‘I’m sorry, something changed. I may not be able to see you soon. ’” He and his wife are distraught by the development, which leaves them in a precarious position. In anticipation of the move, their children were taken out of their private school and the lease on their apartment in Amman is to expire on Feb. 1. “I’m watching the news every second,” Mr. Qadhi said. Ms. Obaidi’s children have been able to acclimate to their new surroundings and establish a rhythm in their lives. Tameem owns a cellphone store in the East Village in Manhattan, Qaed works as an information technology manager, and Saif is an Uber driver. Ms. Obaidi stays busy by volunteering at the Masjid Dar mosque. The family gathers as often as work schedules and other responsibilities allow, most often on Sundays, when Ms. Obaidi prepares a large meal. They all await the day when more chairs can be placed around the table. Halfway across the world, the other half of the family shares that sentiment. Omar said he missed his brothers, but especially his mother. “It just feels weird that we are now split, and the future looks grim,” he said. “We are travelers on a journey with no destination, and my family is so far away. ” | 0 |
While researching for a wrap-up on the June 7 Presidential Primaries, we discovered evidence that Google may be manipulating autocomplete recommendations in favor of Hillary Clinton. If true, this would mean that Google Searches aren t objectively reflecting what the majority of Internet searches are actually looking for, possibly violating Google s algorithm. According to a research paper cited in this video, that kind of search result manipulation has the potential to substantially influence the outcome of actual elections. | 1 |
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it had dismantled an Islamic State cell in the capital Riyadh, in connection with a plot to launch a suicide attack on the defense ministry. Two militants were killed and five others arrested in raids on three locations on Wednesday, an official source in the newly-created Presidency of State Security said in a statement on state-run television. Deadly bombing and shooting attacks have been mounted by Islamic State militants against security forces and Shi ite Muslims in Saudi Arabia. Islamic State has for years criticized the leadership of the Western-allied kingdom, the world s top oil exporter, accusing it of deviating from their strict interpretation of Islam and advancing the interests of their U.S. enemies. Thursday s statement said a suicide bomber in the eastern Riyadh district of al-Rimal detonated his vest after security forces surrounded a house used to manufacture suicide vests and explosives. Another militant was killed by security forces after he holed up with firearms in an apartment in the western district of al-Namar, it said. The third raid was at a horse stable in the southern Riyadh suburb of al-Ghanamia which the statement said had been used as a headquarters. Security forces seized firearms and bomb-making materials, shown on state television along with a burned out car and a damaged building where the first militant had blown himself up. The suspects were not identified. Security forces closed off several areas in Riyadh on Wednesday, and videos shared online showed a plume of smoke rising at one location. The plot to attack the defense ministry, uncovered last month, allegedly involved two Yemeni nationals and two Saudi citizens. A Saudi security source said at the time that one of the detainees was a member of the armed Houthi movement, which is locked in a 2-1/2-year-old war with a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. | 1 |
Mitt Romney's exit from the presidential campaign has unleashed a frenzy of fresh fundraising and set off a new race for the backing of donors who had remained loyal to the 2012 Republican nominee.
Big dollars were said to flow immediately on Friday to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who already had won over several of Romney's past donors. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie claimed the support of others who were waiting on Romney to make a decision about whether to seek the White House a third time.
Tony Carbonetti, a Christie supporter and top aide to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a 2008 GOP candidate, said every major Republican donor got at least two calls on Friday — one from Christie's people and one from those promoting Bush.
None of the Republicans considering a run for president has formally entered the race. But most have established political committees that effectively serve as campaigns-in-waiting of varying sophistication. That step allows the politicians to raise money to pay for travel, staff and the logistics of getting ready to run for the White House.
The competition for donors to those organizations is fierce, with commitments signaling the potential strength of a nascent campaign and laying the groundwork for more fundraising to come.
Romney raised more than $57 million before the first voting in 2012, and that figure is often cited as this campaign's benchmark.
Even before Romney's announcement Friday, Bush had picked off several of Romney's past supporters. Among them was Lisa Wagner, a top Midwest fundraiser for Romney in 2012 who pushed hard to win over others Friday.
"I've raised a million dollars in the four hours since he announced that I otherwise would not have raised," she said. Her converts included Bill Kunkler, part of Chicago's wealthy Crown family, who had been holding out for Romney.
"I'll work for Jeb. Period. And no one else," he said.
Christie had his own pickups. None was more significant than Bobbie Kilberg, a Virginia-based fundraiser who said she and her husband were all-in for the former federal prosecutor.
"We will support him financially and we will be bundlers for him," she told The Associated Press, referring to the practice of rounding-up donations from friends, family and colleagues for a campaign.
Ray Washburne, the outgoing finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, has taken up the same position with Christie's political action committee. Washburne said his phone started ringing early Friday.
"It's been very, very positive. A lot of people that were kind of fence-sitters have come off the fence," he said. "We've been very, very encouraged."
Others were too upset or stunned by Romney's announcement to decide what to do next. That includes Bill Simmons, a Washington-based donor who raised money for both of Romney's previous campaigns.
"I haven't fully thought about the next step," he said.
He said Romney's announcement was like seeing his favorite team lose in the playoffs and then having to decide for whom to cheer in the Super Bowl. "I guess I'll watch the game a little bit."
Romney's flirtation with the race may have created space for a third candidate to compete alongside Bush and Christie for the support of establishment-minded donors and fundraisers.
With his exit, there is now room for someone else to step into that spot. In the hours after Romney's announcement, several GOP donors said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker appeared to have the edge.
The news came at the end of a big week for Walker. He earned a standing ovation from a conservative crowd at a forum in Iowa last Saturday. The next day, he spoke to wealthy conservatives in California at an event organized by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.
Walker ended the week in Washington as the guest of wealthy Republican donor Fred Malek.
"Walker fits into that mainstream group, and this means he's getting a lot of interest and attention lately," said Republican consultant Charlie Black.
So, too, might Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who spent the week courting donors on the West Coast, Texas and Chicago after attending the Koch brothers' event.
Few donors interviewed after Romney's announcement mentioned the several candidates likely to compete to the right of Christie and Bush. That group includes Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
"Mitt was going to probably occupy a different place on the shelf than me," Huckabee said. "I don't know that it has any impact on support, donors. It probably has a bigger impact on Jeb Bush and Chris Christie."
South Carolina political strategist Warren Tomkins warned against singling out any one candidate, or type of candidate, as the clear beneficiary of Romney's decision.
"It still goes back to having a good message and a good messenger," said Tompkins, Romney's South Carolina campaign chairman in 2012. "If you've got that, then at some point you get momentum, and then the money will come." | 0 |
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian secular and Islamist factions on Wednesday called a general strike and midday rallies to protest U.S. President Donald Trump s announcement that he has recognized Jerusalem as Israel s capital, they said in a joint statement. Answering the call for strike on Thursday, the Palestinian education ministry declared a day off and urged teachers as well as high school and university students to take part in the planned rallies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Palestinian areas in Jerusalem. In a speech in Washington, Trump said he had decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital and move the U.S. embassy to the city. Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East condemned the U.S. decision, calling it an incendiary move. | 1 |
PARIS (Reuters) - In his first seven months in office, President Emmanuel Macron has faced little opposition. But come Sunday, the once-dominant Republicans elect a new leader they hope might recover the party s voice. Frontrunner to lead the party of former presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy is Laurent Wauquiez, an ambitious 42-year-old who like Macron passed through the elite ENA school and promises to shake up the political establishment. There are few policy parallels between the two men, however. Wauquiez is a relentless critic of the 39-year-old president, dismissing him as out of touch with rural France, weak on security and too much in favor of closer European integration. In his campaign to lead the party, Wauquiez has charted a rightward path to attack Macron s social and economic reforms. The Right is waking up. It is back and I want to be clear: we re not going to be told what we can say or think any more, Wauquiez told Reuters. The future of France s democracy cannot be a centrist swamp that gathers both Socialists and right-wingers around Macron. He will inherit a party in disarray, divided in its response to both Macron s poaching of party stalwarts and economic policy that encroaches on their turf. Its candidate Francois Fillon was eliminated in the first round of this year s presidential election, and the party has had a caretaker interim leader since. Wauquiez bills himself as the champion of small-town, rural France - a France, he says, with which Macron has no connection as he pursues a start-up nation . They have no roots, they are completely out of touch with reality in this country, Wauquiez told a rally in Provins, outside Paris, referring to Macron and his lieutenants. Addressing campaign rallies in open-collar shirts, Wauquiez says Macron s tax policy will hammer the middle class and pensioners, denounces his labor reforms as a sham and accuses the government of being too soft on radical Islam. He has also drawn up future battlelines over the deeper European integration sought by Macron. He is the leader the Right needs, said Jacqueline Mercier, 72, after a rally in Paris. He is young, he is dynamic and his ideas truly represent us. Not all party loyalists agree and there is discord among its lawmakers too. While Wauquiez is popular with more conservative supporters, his bid to take the party fishing in waters of the far-right National Front alarms party moderates. Several senior-ranking party members have warned they could jump ship. If the right turns its back on the center, we will be in opposition for 20 years, said Mael de Calan, one of two junior politicians challenging Wauquiez s leadership bid. Even so, inside Macron s camp, some ministers are cautioning against underestimating the threat of Wauquiez. We need to be wary because he is very gifted, very strong and there s nothing he won t do. He will establish a violent fight, Gerald Darmanin, Macron s budget minister and former member of The Republicans, told the newspaper Le Monde. Polls show Wauquiez winning 60 to 75 percent of the votes on Sunday for an outright first-round win. More than 230,000 party members have the right to take part in the online election, but far fewer are expected to do so. France is due to hold its next presidential election in 2022. | 0 |
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide bomber turned a spiritual dance celebration at a revered religious shrine into a slaughterhouse on Thursday, killing at least 70 people and wounding more than 250 in the worst act of terrorism to hit Pakistan in months. At least 50 of the wounded were critically hurt in the explosion at the Sufi shrine in a remote part of southern Pakistan, officials said. Many of the victims were women. The Islamic State, the extreme Sunni militant organization based in Syria and Iraq, announced that its branch in the region had carried out the attack. The Islamic State, which regards members of other Muslim groups as nonbelievers deserving death, also claimed responsibility for an attack on a Sufi shrine in southwestern Pakistan in November. Sufism, popular in Pakistan, is regarded as a relatively tolerant branch of Islam. The shrine assault on Thursday was by far the worst in a wave of militant attacks that have shaken Pakistan this week, most claimed by the Taliban. The attacks were the catalyst for a decision on Thursday by the armed forces to close the border with Afghanistan, where Pakistani officials claim that many such attacks are coordinated and plotted. A spokesman for the armed forces, Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, announced on Twitter that the border closing was effective immediately. While Pakistani officials have voiced skepticism about the presence of the Islamic State in the country, they have acknowledged that some local militant groups have expressed support for it. The attacks have underscored the challenges faced by the civil and military leadership to counter extremist violence. On Wednesday, seven people were killed in northwestern Pakistan in two suicide bombings, one targeting judges in Peshawar, the provincial capital of the northwestern Province. On Monday, at least 13 people were killed in Lahore, in the east, when militants targeted a protest. The bombing Thursday evening targeted the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, a popular Sufi saint, in Sehwan, a city in Jamshoro district of the southern Sindh Province. A large number of people had been performing a spiritual, devotional dance when the bomber struck in the courtyard, officials said, turning a place of spiritual reverie into a spectacle of blood and body parts. The remoteness of the region added to the difficulties faced by the survivors and emergency responders. The nearest big city was about 90 miles away. Khadim Hussain Rind, a senior provincial police officer, said that more than two dozen police officials had been deputized for security at the event and that cameras had been installed for surveillance of the shrine. “However, it is very difficult to stop a suicide bomber in a big crowd,” Mr. Rind told the local news media. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the bombing as an assault on a “progressive inclusive future of Pakistan. ” Sufi shrines and mosques have been targeted in the past by Taliban militants, who view Sufi Islam as contrary to their beliefs. “The past few days have been hard, and my heart is with the victims,” the prime minister said in the statement. “But we can’t let these events divide us, or scare us. We must stand united in this struggle for the Pakistani identity and universal humanity. ” The sudden spike in terrorist violence has shocked and surprised the country. “Pakistan is under attack. The terrorists are creating a climate of fear, intimidation and uncertainty. No institution and no aspect of society is seemingly secure,” Syeda Sughra Imam, a former senator, said in an interview. “Sehwan is synonymous with Pakistan’s Sufi culture and tradition, which has been dealt a devastating blow today. ” The Pakistani military had proudly claimed last year, under the leadership of the then army chief, that the military operations in the tribal regions, especially the one in North Waziristan, and intelligence operations in different cities had largely defeated the militant groups that had carried out many attacks. But the violence has cast doubt on the military’s claims. Imran Khan, the prominent opposition politician, blamed the federal government for what he called its failure to follow through after the military’s offensives against militants. “We need a coherent national security policy,” Mr. Khan said in an interview. “I do think complacency has set in,” Mr. Khan said. | 0 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China sentenced a prominent rights activist to eight years in jail for subversion on Tuesday, his lawyer said, the harshest sentence passed in a government crackdown on activism that began more than two years ago. In a separate case, a rights lawyer avoided criminal punishment despite being found guilty of inciting subversion, because he admitted his crimes, the Chinese court trying him said. Wu Gan, a blogger better known by his online name Super Vulgar Butcher , plans to appeal against the eight-year sentence handed down by the Tianjin Municipality s No. 2 Intermediate People s Court, his lawyer, Yan Xin, told Reuters. The harshness of the sentence prompted the German embassy in Beijing to issue a statement expressing disappointment. Wu regularly championed sensitive cases of government abuses of power, both online and in street protests. He was detained in May 2015 and charged with subversion. The activist criticized China s political system online and used performance art to create disturbances, as well as insulting people and spreading false information, according to a statement from the court posted on its website. He carried out a string of criminal actions to subvert state power and overthrow the socialist system and seriously harmed state security and social stability, the court said. Before his arrest, Wu used his platform to cast doubt on the official version of events in an incident in early May 2015, in which a police officer shot a petitioner in a train station in northern Heilongjiang province. Wu s refusal to bow to pressure or admit guilt likely explains his harsh sentence, said Kit Chan, Hong Kong-based director of China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. Wu Gan is being punished for his non-conformity, she said. His sentence is the most severe in what rights groups have called an unprecedented attack on China s rights activists and lawyers, known as the 709 crackdown, which began in full force on July 9, 2015. The hardline approach to rights activism has shown no sign of softening as Chinese President Xi Jinping enters his second five-year term in office. In the other case concluded on Tuesday, rights lawyer Xie Yang received no punishment after being found guilty of inciting subversion and disrupting court order, the Changsha Intermediate People s Court said on social media. The court released a video of the proceedings, in which Xie said he accepted the outcome and would not appeal. He also thanked authorities and said he will be a law-abiding citizen. Xie had worked on numerous cases deemed sensitive by Chinese authorities, such as defending supporters of Hong Kong s pro-democracy protests. In May, he confessed to the charges against him in what rights groups called a scripted sham trial. In January, Xie s wife and lawyer released detailed accounts of torture suffered by Xie at the hands of the authorities, which were widely reported on in the international media. Chinese state media branded those reports fake news and said the accounts were concocted as a means of gaining attention. Xie s lawyer told Reuters he stands by the account. In both cases these have been serious concerns about violations of due process of law, the German embassy in Beijing said in a statement. The decision to hand down both sentences the day after Christmas, when there would likely be less attention from diplomats and international observers, reeks of cynical political calculation , said Patrick Poon, Hong Kong-based researcher for Amnesty International. Asked about the verdicts, China s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing that Amnesty is biased when it comes to China and should not be believed, adding that China abides by the rule of law. | 1 |
(INTELLIHUB) —“Everyone’s phone in the office did the same thing at the same time,” one person reported, after a “Area Emergency Test” was forced to devices by FEMA in several parts of the U.S..
“As you can see here this is run by FEMA,” Youtuber DAHBOO7 stated on his latest video.
This type technology may actually be pinging devices and may even be able to locate peoples whereabouts, DAHBOO told his viewers.
“[…] they are able to get a ping on your location.” Featured Image: Jhaymesisviphotography/Flickr | 1 |
It s pretty rare that a presidential candidate would regret getting an endorsement while on the campaign trail, but such might be the case for GOPer Marco Rubio after what former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum did to him!Having recently dropped out of his own race for the White House, Santorum decided to throw his support behind the Flordia senator yesterday, giving the candidate his best wishes and a passionate endorsement. This endorsement followed Rubio s third-place win in Iowa on Monday, and the candidate is picking up speed for the New Hampshire primary taking place next week.But on Thursday morning, Santorum s endorsement had the complete opposite effect on Rubio s campaign. Instead of being a great boost, it just made both politicians look incapable and stupid, thanks to Santorum s appearance on Morning Joe. Host Joe Scarborough simply asked the question What do you list as Marco Rubio s top accomplishment? and it all went downhill from there! You can watch the awkward, embarrassing footage below:Santorum not only squirmed and danced around what was an understandable question, but failed to finally give any sort of satisfying answer. Some of Santorum s meek side-stepping remarks were that Rubio [Won] a tough election in Florida, pull[ing] people together from a variety of spots and that He s someone who brings people together! Meanwhile, the Morning Joe panel couldn t help but laugh at how absurd the situation was. In a final attempt, Scarborough firmly pressed the former senator, He s been in the Senate four years. Can you name his top accomplishment? And Santorum proved that even with the help of the show s hosts, he just couldn t come up with even one thing Rubio had done. Defeated and tired of smiling and shaking his head, Santorum eventually said, The bottom line is there isn t a whole lot of accomplishments, Joe, and accused the host of asking him something I just don t think it s a fair question (even though it was completely straightforward and logical).This interview was so awkward that at one point, Scarborough s co-host Mika Brzezinski said, Hold on. This is disturbing. Featured image is a screenshot | 1 |
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani police on Wednesday found 15 bullet-ridden bodies of kidnap victims near the border with Iran, a favored route for human traffickers taking workers illegally to Europe. The bodies were found abandoned in a mountainous region of Buleda, in Baluchistan province, 600 km (370 miles) south of the provincial capital of Quetta, district commissioner Bashir Ahmad Bangalzai told Reuters. He said documents and other belongings found on the bodies suggested that they were en route to Iran illegally. Human smuggling is big business in Pakistan and other poor South Asian countries. There have been instances of workers being killed in border areas, or sometimes dying during road or sea travel. It was not clear what prompted the killings, said Bangalzai. He said all 15 came from Pakistan s eastern province of Punjab. We re getting in contact with their families, he said. A police official said all 15 were reported to have been kidnapped on Tuesday. No one has claimed responsibility. Violence-plagued Baluchistan, which also borders Afghanistan, has long been home to separatist groups seeking a greater share of regional resources and Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda, the Taliban and Islamic State. The violence has raised concerns about security for projects in the $57 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a planned transport and energy link from western China to Pakistan s southern deep-water port of Gwadar. | 0 |
Wednesday in an interview with Yahoo News’ Katie Couric, Sen. Susan Collins ( ) said there was little hope in the U. S. Senate for the House GOP healthcare bill should it make its way out of the House. “I’m still looking at the bill, but I have a lot of concerns about it,” Collins said. “For example, some initial analysis suggests that as many as million people could lose their health insurance. And for seniors, who make a disproportionate amount of the population in Maine, it would mean substantial premium increases that would not be covered by the increase credit. So those are two concerns that I have. ” After laying out some more problems she had with the legislation, she said she agreed with Sen. Rand Paul’s ( ) assertion the bill would be dead on arrival in the U. S. Senate, but not for the same reasons as Paul. “I do not think it would be well received in the Senate,” she said. “But I do want to emphasize that it’s still a work in progress. The House committees are going to be working their will on the bill and it has to go before the full House before it comes to us. And it’s been a work in progress, as Secretary Price has said. And, the bill that was released this week is far better than the bill we were briefed on the week before. So, who knows, maybe it will eventually get better — and thus, will be better received in the Senate. ” ( RCP Video) Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 0 |
In September of 2016, 3 separate reports of racist graffiti that was sprayed on the walls of Eastern Michigan University were made by students. Students voiced their anger over the graffiti on their campus and held large protests demanding answers to what they considered to be a problem the university needed to fix. The angry students on the EMU campus responded by storming the college football field, they blocked traffic, they stormed the library with loud and disruptive protests, and they also held large protests on campus, with chants of We ve got to fight back! Controversial Times reported that students were demanding answers and that they didn t care who did it! I am highly upset about the actions that took place on this wall. I want answers. I want to know what EMU is going to do outside of just removing the writing. These are the type of hate crimes we are just sick of. I want to know how is EMU going to make me feel comfortable to be at this institution, said Zachary Badger-House, EMU student, Media Studies and Journalism major. We need answers! The people in power know how we feel, so at this point it doesn t matter who did it, or if there is a reward for information regarding this incident. What matters is the fact that this happened on our campus, and that covering it up was the only solution they could think of at the time. It isn t enough. It s one thing for these actions to happen somewhere in the world, but it is happening right here on our campus, said Armani Davis, EMU student, Social Work major.It has now been reported by Ypsilanti, MI police that the person who is responsible for the hate crime has been arrested, and is in their custody. Eddie Curlin, 29, a black student who studied at the school from 2014 to 2016, is the person responsible for the racist graffiti aimed at black students.According to a statement from the university, Curlin is already serving a sentence in jail on an unrelated charge. The suspect, identified as Eddie Curlin, is a former student at Eastern who attended from 2014 to early 2016, the school s statement read. He is currently in custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections serving a one-to-five year sentence on an unrelated charge of receiving and concealing stolen property. Yesterday, the President of EMU, James Smith spoke with local Detroit WJR radio host, Guy Gordon to discuss the arrest of the black man who spray-painted the racist graffiti. Smith told Gordon that the incident has caused the school to take a big hit in admissions. Where s the mainstream media that was all over this story when it happened?Who will apologize for the disruptive actions of these protesters who assumed that the person responsible was a white person?Black Lives Matter protesters stormed an EMU football game to demand justice:#BLM student protest at Eastern Michigan University remains peaceful. Security keeping them away from field. pic.twitter.com/EN5OimGCqG John Schriffen (@JohnSchriffen) September 24, 2016Protesters on the campus at EMU blocked traffic:Blocking off the Streets #EmuWhatYouGoneDo #TeamEMU pic.twitter.com/7Nsu6Bb23i Enchufe (@GeekGhost) September 20, 2016Protesters stood in front of campus buildings and chanted, We ve got to fight back! Who, are they going to fight back now that law enforcement has discovered a black man painted the hate speech graffiti on the campus walls?Fight back #TeamEMU pic.twitter.com/SFm6ARR3EB Cee-Cee (@Candor_c) September 20, 2016This student got chills as she watched BLM terror groups rip through quiet libraries banging drums and screaming, No justice, no peace! Now that a black man has been identified as the person who spray-painted the hateful graffiti against blacks, will they return to the library to apologize to the students they threatened with their disruptive behavior?The view from the basement of Halle earlier today. Incredibly powerful #teamEMU pic.twitter.com/foBevQKDkw Serena (@Renasuhh) September 20, 2016This student led a chant with other students shouting, We have nothing to lose but our chains! #TeamEMU #TruEMU We came wit it today ! #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/zNsKMwOcn4 Alonzo (@AlonzoDReed) September 21, 2016Breitbart News Naturally, the university launched a series of programs assuming that the perpetrator of the incidents was a white racist. The events included a day-long teach-in on racism and diversity, as well as vigils to show support for minority students and other events.Although the suspect is black, the school has vowed to continue its renewed diversity programs.No motive for the attack has been released, but Chief Heighes called the attacks totally self-serving and not driven by politics or race. But of course, they can t determine a motive | 0 |
Donald Trump s Education Department is pathetic now that Betsy DeVos is in control, and this proves it.DeVos first week as Secretary of Education has been terrible to say the least.First, she was blocked from entering a public school by protesters and ran away. Then she posted a tweet jokingly asking where the pencils are, which drew a sharp rebuke from teachers, who did not find her joke funny because they usually have to buy their own school supplies for their classrooms.And so, the Department of Education under DeVos rule is off to a rough start, and it got downright embarrassing on Sunday as Americans watched in horror as the Education Department proceeded to post Twitter messages containing misspelled words.Seriously. This is the f*cking Department of Education we are talking about. Spelling should be in their wheelhouse. But because of Trump and DeVos, that skill has apparently been lost.In celebration of Black History Month, the Department of Education decided to recognize and quote W.E.B. Du Bois. It did NOT go well.Education must not simply teach work it must teach life. W.E.B. DeBois pic.twitter.com/Re4cWkPSFA US Dept of Education (@usedgov) February 12, 2017That s right. DeVos and her team actually misspelled Du Bois name. And mockery and outrage rained down upon them for it.Welp, this is a foreshadowing of what #BetsyDeVos is going to usher in @usedgov. FFS! It s #BlackHistoryMonth too!??W. E. B. Du Bois?? pic.twitter.com/QKhYAuyp6i Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) February 12, 2017@usedgov Looks like @BetsyDeVos is in charge now! pic.twitter.com/paajsZsUSL Mike Flacy (@mikeflacy) February 12, 2017.@usedgov *W.E.B. Du BoisAll good. Not like this is the official Twitter for the US Department of Education. ? Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) February 12, 2017@usedgov I am glad my public school teachers taught me how to properly spell the names of noted scholars!! Maris Kreizman (@mariskreizman) February 12, 2017@usedgov OMG, it s DuBois. Who is in charge over there? oh, wait, I get it. Jennifer Morgan (@ProfJLMorgan) February 12, 2017.@usedgov First y all thought Frederick Douglass was alive, now you can t spell Du Bois. This bodes well for an already faltering system. Mehreen Kasana (@mehreenkasana) February 12, 2017Hilarious, @usedgov. It s either a terrible mistake or a perverse foray into humor. His name is W.E.B. Du Bois. Screenshot saved. pic.twitter.com/DFDv887rNE Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) February 12, 2017@JeffreyGuterman @usedgov Is @BetsyDeVos in charge of social media content too? Was she distracted by a grizzly? ? @pc7 (@pjcc777) February 12, 2017@usedgov How the hell do you misspell his name? If this isn t foreshadowing the shitstorm of #BetsyDeVos, then I don t know what is S vion (@SavionWright) February 12, 2017I see they left Ms. DuVos in charge of the @usedgov Twitter feed pic.twitter.com/SW0scGm49u Jason Tocci (@JasonT) February 12, 2017Protesters should ve let @BetsyDeVos into the school long enough to learn how to spell his name correctly @usedgovhttps://t.co/PDzsGU5Xev Carlton Banksy (@rtyson82) February 12, 2017And if that wasn t enough, the Department of Education posted a corrected version and then posted an apology tweet that was also misspelled.Again, seriously. Education must not simply teach work it must teach life. W.E.B. Du Bois pic.twitter.com/hSg4R1rLHH US Dept of Education (@usedgov) February 12, 2017 our deepest apologizes pic.twitter.com/0STAOGo3fD Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) February 12, 2017Even Reading Rainbow star LeVar Burton chimed in.Heaven help us! The Dept. of Education misspelled DuBois #bydhttmwfi https://t.co/PT6I1Em8aN LeVar Burton (@levarburton) February 12, 2017Betsy DeVos hasn t even been in charge for a full week and she has already repeatedly proved that while money can buy a Cabinet seat, in her case it could not buy a decent education.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis used his Christmas message on Monday to call for a negotiated two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after U.S. President Donald Trump stoked regional tensions with his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Francis spoke of the Middle East conflict and other world flashpoints in his Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) address, four days after more than 120 countries backed a U.N. resolution urging the United States to reverse its decision on Jerusalem. Let us pray that the will to resume dialogue may prevail between the parties and that a negotiated solution can finally be reached, one that would allow the peaceful coexistence of two states within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders, he said, referring to the Israelis and Palestinians. We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, he said in his address, delivered from the balcony of St. Peter s Basilica to tens of thousands of people. It was the second time that the pope has spoken out publicly about Jerusalem since Trump s decision on Dec. 6. On that day, Francis called for the city s status quo to be respected, lest new tensions in the Middle East further inflame world conflicts. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, whereas Israel has declared the whole city to be its united and eternal capital. Francis, leader of the world s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, urged people to see the defenseless baby Jesus in the children who suffer the most from war, migration and natural calamities caused by man today. Today, as the winds of war are blowing in our world ... Christmas invites us to focus on the sign of the child and to recognize him in the faces of little children, especially those for whom, like Jesus, there is no place in the inn, he said. Francis, celebrating the fifth Christmas of his pontificate, said he had seen Jesus in the children he met during his recent trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, and he called for adequate protection of the dignity of minority groups in that region. More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya people have fled mainly Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh in recent months. The pope had to tread a delicate diplomatic line during his visit, avoiding the word Rohingya while in Myanmar, which does not recognize them as a minority group, though he used the term when in Bangladesh. Jesus knows well the pain of not being welcomed and how hard it is not to have a place to lay one s head. May our hearts not be closed as they were in the homes of Bethlehem, he said. He also urged the world to see Jesus in the innocent children suffering from wars in Syria and Iraq and also in Yemen, complaining that its people had been largely forgotten, with serious humanitarian implications for its people, who suffer from hunger and the spread of diseases . He also listed conflicts affecting children in South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Ukraine and Venezuela. At his Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter s Basilica on Sunday, Francis strongly defended immigrants, comparing them to Mary and Joseph finding no place to stay in Bethlehem and saying faith demands that foreigners be welcomed. | 1 |
Panic has set in across the world as anti-establishment candidate Donald Trump looks to be set to take the Presidency of the United States.
Dow Jones futures are down 754 points as of this writing.
Gold prices are up $47 and silver us up $0.75, like as a result of a panic into safe haven assets:
| 1 |
So true! The freebies promised to Americans on the backs of tax paying Americans need to stop! The truth is the government really should provide protection, secure borders, infrastructure NOT freebies! Amen Bill! | 1 |
Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus, who has appeared as a pundit on Fox News, filed a $4m defamation lawsuit on Monday in New York City against Donald Trump and his campaign (shocker). The suit alleges that the frontrunner and his campaign manager, woman batterer Corey Lewandowski, engaged in defamation aimed with the purpose of making her an object lesson, to those who might question Trump and his fitness for office, to incite a virtual mob against her, to destroy her reputation, and to bully her. The bullying tactics occurred after Jacobus criticized the frontrunner on TV and Twitter. Jacobus approached the Trump campaign with the hopes of obtaining a job as communications director, but decided against it after finding Lewandowski unprofessional and a powder keg, meaning a dangerous or volatile person or situation.Well, Trump didn t like that. After she made her criticism public, Trump sent off the first hate-tweet, calling Jacobus a real dummy. When Jacobus attempted to reign in the drama with a cease-and-desist letter, the frontrunner took to Twitter yet again, referring to her as a Major loser, with zero credibility. Lewandowski then went on MSNBC to discredit Jacobus, saying: This is the same person, I ll just tell ya, who came to the office on multiple occasions trying to get a job from the Trump campaign, and when she wasn t hired clearly she went off and was upset by that. After that, Jacobus starting getting threatening, harassing hate mail from Trump supporters, and Fox News stonewalled the strategist. Jacobus also shows that Trump, who is friends with Roger Ailes, helped convince the network to drop her from appearing on their cable news programs. According to Jacobus, Lewandowski showed her the email where Ailes promised to be on Trump s side, not hers.So, Donald Trump resorted to bullying and intimidation to silence a female strategist who didn t agree with him? I m shocked I tell you, shocked! And of course the Trump campaign brushed off the lawsuit as just another frivolous lawsuit and an attempt to gain notoriety at the expense of Donald Trump. Much like everything else, the Trump campaign just brushes everything off, and his band of backwards thinking supporters will eat it up. Featured image via Flickr | 1 |
President Barack Obama is proposing a new strategy in the fight against ISIS, saying the battle against the Islamic State will not be quick. In fact, he says it could take decades.
During a rare visit to the Pentagon, Obama laid out his revamped strategy, saying the fight against the Islamic State will require more than just weapons.
"No amount of military force will end the terror that is ISIL unless it's matched by a broader effort, political and economic," he said.
The president said coalition forces will go after the heart of ISIS, but he did not call for more bombing or more troops, announcing instead a shift in focus to counter the terror group's public relations tactics.
Obama pointed to a string of ISIS defeats in the region due to airstrikes targeting the group's supply lines. But he said more needs to be done to recruit and train Syrians for the fight on the ground.
When it comes to lone wolf terrorists in America inspired by ISIS, the president admitted they're harder to detect, saying U.S. national security must remain vigilant.
Obama pointed to increased efforts to counter ISIS's propaganda that's spreading worldwide via social media.
"We also have to acknowledge that ISIL has been particularly effective at reaching out to and recruiting vulnerable people around the world, including here in the United States," he said.
While the fight against ISIS will be long, the president said he's confident the terrorists won't win.
But Republicans remain skeptical, saying Obama's plan doesn't go far enough.
"A speech isn't a strategy," said Cory Fritz, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "At no point in his remarks did President Obama indicate he's doing anything to change course and actually build the broad, overarching plan that's needed to take on these savage terrorists and win."
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said the president "doesn't have a strategy."
"I didn't sense that he had a rock solid strategy on how to deal with this and defeat it," Chaffetz said. | 0 |
(Reuters) - Four people were killed on Thursday when a helicopter belonging to utility Hydro One crashed in central Ontario, the company said in a statement. Hydro One did not provide details on its four employees who were killed in the crash, saying names would not be released until next of kin had been notified. The company, which is based in Ontario, said emergency services were on site in the Tweed area of rural central Ontario, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Toronto. It said it had notified the appropriate oversight groups. The Ontario Provincial Police said in a statement that officers responded to the crash shortly after 12:30 pm ET (1730 GMT), and were joined by emergency response services, including a forensic identification unit. Police said Canada s Transportation Safety Board would investigate. A woman named Kim Clayton tweeted that Hydro One staff had been working on power lines on her property before the crash. On Wednesday a small airplane carrying 22 passengers and three crew members crashed after taking off in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. | 1 |
Today we found out who s REALLY in control of the Republican Party: The Religious Right or Corporate America? In Georgia, at least, Big Business reigns supreme. In a move that is sure to exacerbate the tensions within the Republican Party, Georgia s Republican governor Nathan Deal has vetoed a controversial religious freedom bill that was aimed at legalizing anti-LGBT discrimination:Deal s decision comes two weeks after the state legislature passed a bill aimed at shoring up the rights of religious organizations to refuse services that clash with their faith, particularly with regard to same-sex marriage.Immediately after passing that bill, Georgia came under fire from numerous large corporations like Disney, the NFL and others who threatened to boycott the state or move their business elsewhere. The top show on television, The Walking Dead, also threatened to leave the state if the bill was signed into law.Liberals are celebrating, but took the entirely wrong message from the veto: Today, Governor Deal heard the voices of Georgians, civil rights organizations, as well as the many leaders in the entertainment industry and private sector who condemned this attack on the fundamental rights of LGBT people, and he has set an example for other elected officials to follow, Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.While conservatives turned around and blamed liberals and politically correct something or another. I m assuming the death threats have already started flowing in to Deal s office.But Governor Deal is not a sudden proponent of LGBT rights. He s a Republican. That should give a hint that the only reason this happened is because Corporate America told him what to do. Since marriage equality and LGBT rights won the culture war, being seen as anti-LGBT hurts profits.That is, literally, the bottom line.While pounding their chest about religious freedom still helps Republican politicians in their benighted conservative states, being associated with the anti-LGBT movement hurts corporations. Even Chick-fil-A had to back down after acting on their anti-gay sentiments in the form of donations to anti-LGBT groups. Yes, there was a surge in business as bigoted conservatives rushed out to support the fast food company but once that died down, the boycott and bad PR remained.Being publicly anti-LGBT is bad business. Doing business in an anti-LGBT state is bad business, too. That s why corporations keep threatening to leave states that pass what are laws essentially legalizing discrimination and hate. In a state like Georgia, one of the few red states with a functioning economy, they can t risk the loss of business for a pointless ideological fight that s going to eventually be struck down by the soon-to-be liberal controlled Supreme Court.This is not a new victory for the LGBT community so much as a predictable and direct consequence of their already winning the war. Still tastes pretty sweet though, doesn t it?Featured image via JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) | 1 |
Complaints over lack of wi-fi, no professional cleaning service in their villas and even a refusal to be fingerprinted in Greece upon their exit to other European countries. It s almost as if they re not really grateful for the generosity of the taxpayers who are funding their existence African and Middle-Eastern migrants in an Italian town are protesting insufficient Wi-Fi at their settlement by dumping their garbage into the streets.According to The Local, which cites the Italian-language La Repubblica, a group of two dozen Sub-Saharan African migrants in the town of Ceranova are outraged that a lack of free Wi-Fi at the villa they live in is preventing them from using Skype to communicate with family members back in Africa.The protesters are also angry that the villa doesn t have a professional cleaner to keep things tidy.At first, the protest took the form of migrants marching in the streets and blocking traffic, but now things have escalated and the migrants have begun dumping their trash into the streets to make their point. The stunt led to a confrontation between townsfolk and the migrants, which may have become violent if not for the intervention of the local mayor along with three police officers. Afterwards, a 24-year-old migrant who led the demonstration was kicked out of the refugee facility.The migrants have been living in Ceranova, a small town of about 1,000 people located about 15 miles south of Milan, since July. They are just a small portion of over 120,000 migrants who have arrived in Italy this year, mostly by boat from Africa.At least one Italian is sympathetic to their demands. Obviously it s very important for refugees to have access to the Internet and not just so they can stay in touch with their families, refugee center manager Barbara Spezzi told The Local. The Internet helps refugees keep up to date with what s going on at home and in Italy which helps them integrate into Italian life. It s also a great learning tool too: we had a case of a girl who was following her university lectures on YouTube. The stunt has become fodder for Italian politics, with members of the regionalist, anti-immigration Northern League party using it to bolster their arguments against generous refugee policies. They wan t someone to clean their homes can you believe it? said party leader Matteo Salvani. He joked that Laura Boldrini, a socialist and president of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy s parliament), should be sent to do the cleaning.There have been assorted cases of migrants reacting badly to their conditions or to the actions of European authorities. Last week, for instance, Eritrean migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa (a hub for migrants arriving from Africa) marched in protest against requirements that they be fingerprinted before being allowed to leave the island. Some have apparently even launched a hunger strike against the requirement.Via: Daily Caller | 1 |
One of the perks and duties of becoming the presidential nominee for one of the major parties is that you get access to daily intelligence briefings from the current administration. Unfortunately, a candidate like Donald Trump has never come along, and spies are worried about what he ll do with the sensitive information he will receive. My concern with Trump will be that he inadvertently leaks, because as he speaks extemporaneously, he ll pull something out of his hat that he heard in a briefing and say it, said a former senior U.S. intelligence official who has participated in the process of briefing presidential candidates.Unlike his presumed rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who would receive the same briefing if she s the Democratic Party nominee, Trump has never sat across the table from U.S. intelligence analysts and been given updates on the latest machinations of ISIS, or efforts by foreign governments to penetrate American computer networks. He also has selected a team of largely unknown advisers who might have trouble helping him to contextualize what he might hear and know what questions to ask.Trump has already demonstrated a habit of regurgitating whatever information comes across his desk or from his team of sycophants. So far he s accused the father of one of his rivals of being involved in the JFK assassination thanks to a sketchy tabloid story, as well as claiming that a member of ISIS threatened him, based on a YouTube parody.The presumptive Republican nominee has not shown that he is of sound enough mind to receive sensitive information about American intelligence, but the Obama administration will be having daily meetings with him and likely the Clinton team anyway, out of sense of tradition.It is up to President Obama to determine how much data can be given to the candidates, and it is doubtful Trump will be given more than the bare minimum necessary to meet the voluntary requirements. Considering Hillary Clinton served as his Secretary of State and was even in the situation room as the Bin Laden raid occurred, it s doubtful there are any reservations about giving her the information.Featured image via Wikimedia | 0 |
Immigration reform used to be an issue that split both parties: Pro-business Republicans faced off against cultural conservatives, while within the Democratic Party Latino advocates faced off against labor.
But over the past 10 years, immigration has become a partisan issue.
This change isn't just a shift in where politicians take certain policy questions. It's also a change in whether Americans think that immigrants, in general, are a good thing for America:
To a certain extent, polarization on immigration in Washington and polarization among voters reinforce each other.
In 2005, when comprehensive immigration reform was a key priority of President George W. Bush, Republicans and Democrats were about equally likely to think that immigrants strengthened America. Once Bush's successor, Barack Obama, started stressing the need for comprehensive immigration reform, though, Republicans were much less likely to look favorably on immigrants — according to Pew's findings, Republican attitudes changed precipitously between late 2009 and summer 2010.
But this isn't the whole story, because the debate in Washington over comprehensive immigration reform has always had a tenuous relationship to how Americans actually feel about immigrants.
Historically, even the "anti-amnesty" politicians who opposed comprehensive immigration reform stressed that immigrants were welcome in America as long as they came (and stayed) legally. For most Americans, though, the difference that matters isn't between legal and unauthorized immigrants — it's between immigrants they find likely to assimilate into "American culture" and those who (they believe) cannot.
Americans are much more ambivalent about immigrants, in general, than you might expect from listening to politicians talk about immigration — or than you might guess by looking at polling for various immigration reform proposals.
For many white Americans over the past couple of decades, that ambivalence has hardened into a constellation of stereotypes: associating "immigrant" with "illegal immigrant," "illegal immigrant" with "Latino immigrant," and "Latino immigrant" with "criminal."
This is the genius of Donald Trump's presidential campaign: His rhetoric homes in directly on the things that actually worry many Americans about immigrants, rather than using economic or legal arguments as a way to gesture toward cultural fears.
But as the chart shows, Trump wasn't just exploiting a sentiment among American voters — he's exploiting a sentiment among specifically Republican voters.
The changes shown in the Pew chart don't just reflect Democrats or Republicans changing their minds about whether immigrants are good for America. (In fact, most of the people changing their minds are embracing immigrants; overall, the most recent Pew poll found 59 percent of Americans agree that immigration strengthens the country, which is the highest level of support in 20 years.)
They reflect changes in who identifies as a Republican or a Democrat.
Over the past 20 years, the Democratic Party has gotten markedly more ethnically diverse...
...as white voters have increasingly identified with Republicans:
Not all of the white voters who have switched parties are motivated by anti-Latino sentiment. But the voters who are motivated by anti-Latino sentiment are particularly likely to have switched parties.
Before 2000, there was a correlation between negative feelings toward Latinos and identifying as strongly Republican. But that was just a side effect; how people felt toward black Americans was a much better predictor of how strongly they identified with the GOP.
In the 21st century, the two have diverged. All else being equal — even sentiment toward African Americans — a white American in 2008 who felt negatively toward Latinos was likely to be more strongly Republican (one-third of a point on a seven-point scale from strong Republican to strong Democrat) than someone who felt positively toward them.
There's no indication that the trend has abated since 2008. Indeed, the Pew polling shows that sentiment toward immigrants among Republicans hit new lows in May 2015, with only 27 percent of Republicans saying immigrants strengthened America. That was just before Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign.
While Donald Trump didn't make Republicans wary of immigrants' effect on America, though, he does appear to have made the remaining skeptics in the Democratic Party embrace them.
In May 2015, on the eve of Trump's campaign launch, 62 percent of Democrats said that immigrants strengthened America. In March 2016, 78 percent said they did — a 16-percentage-point jump.
That's the biggest reason pro-immigrant sentiment is at a 20-year high: The Democrats who hadn't already embraced immigrants are doing so now.
If that holds, it will complete the last phase of the partisanization of immigration. Republican voters are already fairly united in their distrust of immigrants, and many Republican politicians are following their lead. Democratic politicians, meanwhile, are fairly united in their support of immigrants. And now, Democratic voters appear to be embracing their identity as the pro-immigrant party. | 0 |
Judge Napolitano explains what s going on as only he can do He does a great job! The Senate has a rule they can force the senate to raise the majority to 60 that s called a filibuster. Napolitano goes on the explain that the Dems are furious because Obama s pick for the court wasn t given his day. They also obviously feel Gorsuch is too conservative. The hypocrisy of the Democrats and Chuck Schumer is exposed when a video of past approval for Gorsuch is shown. Schumer, Blumenthal and Nelson are voting no. Democrats who are up for reelection are voting yes.Orrin Hatch on Democrats: They re politicizing this whole process. This is a guy who is a mainstream conservative, which they hate. They don t like that. And of course, they are still upset about my other friend, Merrick Garland. But the Republicans had every right to delay that within a presidential election year. I can t go back in time and show you any case where in a presidential election year they allowed a Supreme Court justice to be nominated unless both sides agreed. And both sides didn t agree. | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain on Tuesday dismissed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s unprecedented expression of support for Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage to be made British ambassador to Washington, saying pointedly that there is no vacancy for the job. Trump, who after his election victory met Farage before any EU leaders, said on Twitter that “many people” would like to see the former metals trader turned politician as Britain’s ambassador. “Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States. He would do a great job!” Trump said. Prime Minister Theresa May, who congratulated Trump on his victory, was swift to reject such an undiplomatic proposal, with a spokesman saying Britain already had an excellent ambassador to Washington and that London would appoint its own envoys. “We have first rate ambassador in Washington,” Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who campaigned for Brexit, told the British parliament. “There is no vacancy for that position.” It is highly unusual in the modern era for leaders to publicly suggest to foreign nations whom they would like to see as ambassador, though during strained relations they sometimes reject or expel envoys. Trump’s suggestion provoked anger, support and even hilarity in Britain, with one lawmaker, Conservative Simon Burns, joking that perhaps Britain should suggest Hillary Clinton as its preferred choice as ambassador to London. But the apparent public suggestion about who to appoint as ambassador by the man who will lead Britain’s most powerful ally puts Prime Minister May in a difficult position just as she tries to build ties with Washington ahead of leaving the EU. London is trying to gauge whether Trump would support a special trade deal with Britain as it negotiates a divorce from the EU. Britain also places great store on what it calls its “special relationship” with the United States. Farage, who spent decades campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union and helped force former Prime Minister David Cameron to call the June referendum that brought the Brexit vote, spoke at a Trump rally during the U.S. campaign and visited the president-elect after his victory. As leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and one of the key figures of the successful Brexit campaign, Farage has repeatedly angered EU leaders by predicting the collapse of the EU, which he says is run by an out-of-touch elite of “idiots”. Farage said Trump’s suggestion that he serve as ambassador had come “like a bolt from the blue” but Trump understood loyalty in a way that those in the “cesspit” of career politics did not. “I am in a good position with the President-elect’s support to help. The world has changed and it’s time that Downing Street did too,” Farage said in an article written for the Breitbart news website. “I would do anything to help our national interest and to help cement ties with the incoming Anglophile administration,” Farage said. A photograph of Trump greeting Farage in front of a gilded elevator shortly after the U.S. election caused consternation in EU capitals, many of whom view Trump with a mixture of fear and puzzlement. His suggestion of Farage also provoked anger among some British lawmakers. “Many people think you should mind your own business and talk about pussy-grabbing less, but hey, life is a constant disappointment,” Jess Phillips, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party, said on Twitter in a reference to Trump’s previous vulgar comments about groping women. Accused by his critics of being a racist and a bigot, Farage peppers his speeches with jokes and the odd expletive while railing against what he calls the doomed European superstate and immigration into Britain. He is a member of the European parliament but has failed in his efforts to win election to the British parliament. Farage said Trump would be a great president after “the political revolution” that brought Brexit in Britain and Trump to power in the United States. “In the United Kingdom the people have spoken but the players at the top have, I am afraid, stayed the same,” Farage, 52, said. “Those who supported Remain now hold senior positions. Worst still, those who were openly abusive about Trump now pretend to be his friend,” said Farage. Farage has urged May to build ties with Trump, who provoked criticism in Britain with his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Queen Elizabeth might invite Trump for a state visit to Britain next year. Farage made light of allegations of sexual assault against Trump during the U.S. campaign by encouraging him to “come and schmooze” May but adding “don’t touch her for goodness sake”. When U.S. President Barack Obama said before the referendum that Britain would be at the back of the queue for a trade deal, Farage said it was disgraceful to intervene in the sovereign affairs of Britain. In a radio interview after the U.S. election, Farage described the U.S. president as: “That Obama creature – a loathsome individual who couldn’t stand our country.” The way ambassadors are chosen in the United States and Europe differ significantly. It is common practice for the United States to appoint celebrities or campaign donors as envoys, for example when Richard Nixon appointed Shirley Temple as his envoy to Ghana in 1974. European states mostly appoint career diplomats or officials with long experience as ambassadors. Kim Darroch, the current British ambassador in Washington, did not reply to emails from Reuters requesting comment on Trump’s remarks. His email bounced back with an out of office reply saying that the ambassador was traveling. | 1 |
Just confirming what anyone paying attention already knew. The Huffington Post isn t interested in reporting the news they re strictly serving as a propaganda arm of the progressive left Earlier this month, while political news organizations were wrestling with the rise of Donald Trump, Washington Post senior politics editor Steven Ginsberg offered a philosophy: In my view, making decisions solely according to who may win the nomination is the worst way to cover a presidential election, he said. A whole lot happens on the way to the nomination and you can t explain what s happening with the candidates or the country without being on top of all of it. Since then, Trump s influence in the Republican primary has only grown. He has surged to the front of the pack, leading his rivals by 3 points in the most recent Fox News and USA Today/Suffolk polls, respectively. He has raised issues that have resonated with conservative voters and forced other GOP candidates to come forward on where they stand. It is very likely that he will appear near center-stage at the inaugural Republican debate, on Aug. 6, and lead the pile-on against Jeb Bush.In other words, Trump is a major character in this chapter of the 2016 presidential election story. And as Ginsberg said, you can t explain what s happening with the candidates or the country without being on top of all of it. On Friday, however, the Huffington Post s politics team announced that they would no longer cover the candidate as a political story. After watching and listening to Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for president, we have decided we won t report on Trump s campaign as part of The Huffington Post s political coverage. Instead, we will cover his campaign as part of our Entertainment section, they wrote. Our reason is simple: Trump s campaign is a sideshow. We won t take the bait. If you are interested in what The Donald has to say, you ll find it next to our stories on the Kardashians and The Bachelorette. A quick fact-check: 1. Huffington Post is taking the bait, because they re continuing to cover Trump and will continue to benefit from the clicks. 2. Trump s campaign isn t a sideshow. He s leading the field, and is therefore a daily preoccupation for other candidates. (Hours after posting its note, Huffington Post sent an email clarifying that the impact [Trump is] having on the Republican Party and the immigration debate is itself a real thing, which it will cover as substance, but anything that tumbles out of his mouth will land on the Entertainment page. )One might conclude that Huffington Post s announcement amounts to the same Trump-style grandstanding they claim to condemn. On a larger level, they seem to miss the point that all politics is theater. Countless statements have tumbled forth from the mouth of candidates top-tier and third-tier that were made precisely to rile up the base, bait an opponent, get free play in the media, etc. The Huffington Post politics team has covered these stories, and will almost surely continue to do so even when they come from candidates who have a less of a shot at their party s nomination than Trump.Via: Politico | 0 |
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Simon Vorster & Jennifer Langstone – With the winds of change blowing full force, our experiences since mid-October’s Full Moon have reflected in stark clarity just how much of ‘the shift’ has already occurred within us, what is still left for us to emotionally and energetically integrate. In particular, the combined frequency of Uranus in Aries square Mars in Capricorn have served not only to bring to the surface any unhealthy stagnancy and energetic dis-ease within, but to make those feelings erupt from within in a way that cannot be ignored. This has created great change within and around us.
Unlike other shifts we have endured in recent years, the energy pattern throughout October brought not a subtle shift but an electric shock; a perceptual upgrade that changed the course of our lives and altered our energetic blueprint in ways that our logical minds may have struggled to comprehend. However, as this cycle comes to an end, today’s New Moon in Scorpio offers us great clarity into the deep transformation we have just experienced, as we find ourselves in new energetic territory. This is a place of completion and total renewal. Old cycles and patterns have now run their course, and in their absence, new directions are not only available for us but are now inevitable — and manifesting fast.
Let’s look at the astrological alignments that are currently reflecting our spiritual evolution. Venus and Saturn Conjunction in Sagittarius Square the Lunar Nodes
Re-establishing Balance and Forming New Emotional Directions
Generally speaking, Squares reflect a change in direction and create the necessary evolutionary adjustments in our awareness to make it happen.
With Saturn and Venus in conjunction, we can expect to feel very responsible and serious about what we value, what we stand for, and what we feel we need. Although this energy pattern and the inner process it reflects can bring great rewards for us on an emotional level, both Venus and Saturn squaring the Karmic Nodes of the Moon can create the dynamic of feeling emotionally ‘sea sick’, as we are literally changing the course of our lives.
So what growth is this experience offering us? The process of transmuting the consciousness here on Earth is about balance between seemingly opposing forces. It is a process of integrating our higher awareness into this physical reality, and simultaneously breaking down the layers of energetic density in which we have previously resided.
We are learning to experience life with our heart open and our being pulsating with creative power, and as a result, we must learn for the first time to see beyond the boundaries of our previously-held beliefs, limitations and emotional struggles. Nothing is actually as we once perceived it, and the current energy pattern is helping us to release the fears and programs that have steered our past, creating new and empowered new spaces within us that will enable us to experience more of the cosmic universe — and experience ourselves as the cosmic beings we are.
As we move through this pattern we will begin to see shifts in our values, and in particular, where our personal attachments to the ideals and habits of the past no longer serve us. These shifts will become (and are already becoming) the foundation of unimaginable change in our life’s path. Although we may feel a little ‘sea sick’ through this process, or completely lost at sea, hold on tight and ride the wave. It can be difficult to recognize while sailing in uncharted territory, but over time we will see that this period is reshaping our direction in the most profound of ways. Jupiter in Libra Square Pluto in Capricorn Inconjunct Neptune in Pisces
Finding Your Center of Gravity
Further reflecting this change in direction, this profound energy pattern will bring us clarity about the chaos we are seeing in the world today and, equally, a deep insight into the meaning and purpose of our lives here on Earth. In essence, these current alignments of Jupiter in Libra (square Pluto inconjuct Neptune) bring our awareness toward finding our natural, sustainable balance. This can be a tough process at times, as we release our fears and transcend our past ideals, and shake off what we thought was right for us and what no longer serves us — so finding our own center of gravity is essential during this time.
The last quarter square Jupiter (natural philosophy) in Libra is making to Pluto (evolution) in Capricorn shows us the need to trust the process and find excitement (not fear) in our new direction. The tension underlying the collective unconsciousness is a by-product of mass fear propaganda and social engineering, which cultivates deep uncertainty around how we will move forward and indeed, around what is even possible.
The key to navigating this period is to acknowledge that we have been conditioned to find our sense of security in the external; we place our comfort and therefore our power into external manifestations and hierarchical constructs. But, if we can learn to see our lives and our fate as our co-creation, supported and governed by natural and universal law, and influenced by situations and shifts more profound that we can’t yet understand or control, we learn to hold a secure space within us. We cultivate a stillness and a knowing inside us that comfortably rides the flow or life, and cannot and will not be drawn off that path and into darkness.
Ultimately, that stillness becomes our security, the base line from which we create, influence and interact with the world around us. We no longer have to resist darkness, but rather, we create from our inner light. Linked to the energetic archetype of Capricorn (self-determination), this is not an easy feat. It may begin slowly and take time to integrate, however Mars (also in Capricorn) is currently adding the fire and drive we need as we move into this important process of integration. New Moon and Mercury in Scorpio Trine Neptune in Pisces
Finding Clarity in Chaos, and Integrating Stillness
The New Moon in Scorpio (evolution and regeneration) phase can bring profound inner awakening experiences, as the frequency of Scorpio pulls our awareness into the undercurrent of subtle emotions and energies within our psyche. Today’s New Moon in Scorpio trine Neptune and the South Node in Pisces alignment adds an extra sensitivity to this New Moon, bringing even more heightened awareness to our current situation (both internal and external) and, equally adding uncertainty and chaos to the equation.
Again, we can see the theme of needing to find balance in our lives and hold our emotional security within. The external world is changing very quickly, and it all seems like madness! Shifting your awareness back into yourself helps you to find stability. It is in this space that you can begin to see the metamorphosis taking place around us — from within us, and right from under us! Energetically, we are moving forward at an unprecedented rate, finding center — our center — helps us remember the core of what really matters, and therefore, what we do next.
As Mercury also trines Neptune, we will have opportunities to clearly see (with ‘real eyes’) that what we comprehend with our minds is mostly conditioned but what we see with our inner vision comes from a much deeper place — one of higher knowing, of cellular remembrance. It is in this place that we find the answers, gifts and purpose we truly carry.
At the heart of this New Moon is the theme of transcendence and metamorphosis. We are beginning to shift out of the struggle of fighting for something and we will begin to look what aspirations we want experience in our lives. It is no longer about resisting darkness, but creating from our inner light. This is a powerful new direction; it will begin to shift our awareness toward understand the deeper meaning of the evolutionary path we are on as a collective, and the amazing untapped potential we are just beginning to explore within ourselves. Individually, as we navigate this shift, each of us is altering the way we emotionally relate to the new world, and as a result, we are beginning to take active steps in new, future-creating ways. And the only way we can do this, and liberate ourselves from the mind-trap of the fear program, is by finding stillness and security within. New Moon Message – Emerging from the Cocoon
Each and every one of us has spent the past couple of years struggling in one way or another, and fighting for what we believe in. Pushed beyond our limits, we have all been broken numerous times, only to continue the struggle, to keep moving through, and to keep surviving. We have been learning about the deeper meaning of life and about what is worth standing up and fighting for. Most of us have had to face ourselves more deeply than we knew we could handle, and lost more than we knew we could live without, leaving us deeply aware that we are not the sole dictators of our destiny.
Now, that cycle has ended and we are now looking toward what gives our lives true meaning. There is a profound energetic shift occurring around us, and within us, which our conditioned minds (when left in the driver’s seat) struggle to comprehend, and yet, here we are, learning to live it and to make manifest our newfound meaning. We are being asked to look beneath what we have been struggling with and find the underlying reason for the struggle. We are seeing that there is a natural ending to everything; that everything in our physical reality will be exhausted at some point, everything will break down, or be lost, and yet the cycle of life and evolution will continue.
Most of all, we are realizing that we are not here to survive – none of us will! We are here to live ! Right now! It takes great courage to open one’s heart fully, and to live and love with the knowledge that we can, and ultimately will, lose everything. But remember: We are here to transcend the limitations of the conditioning that tells us we are powerless in physical 3D world. We are here to stand in the face of adversity, to ride the flow of this shift with all our being, and engage a new energy here on Earth. And most of all, we are here to experience consciousness in form; to know that the true meaning of our lives is found in our experiences, and our energy; and to know that the experiences we aspire in our hearts to create, and the energy with which we engage them, and not the physical things we can hold onto, and keep.
No matter where you are, or what you have been facing in your life, it is now time to connect to the original dream that gives it all meaning; to the dream that has been there with you all along, bubbling beneath the surface of your daily challenges. Believe in the love and the passion you carry in this life, no matter how far from it you have traveled or how many times your luck has been broken along the way. These are moments to be cherished!
This weekend, we connected with an old butterfly. His wings were aged and crumbling but he was magnificent and proud. He beautifully displayed the wisdom of the message we are sharing with you today — which is to live life to the fullest despite the odds that are seemingly against us, and despite the challenges, suffering and pain we might endure along the way. He reminded us of the nature of transformation and evolution. The butterfly has already once lost everything through a painful process of transmutation — of dissolving and recreating — and yet, it is only through that experience that he gains his wings to fly and the beautiful markings of his maturity. Then, emerging from his cocoon for the first time, he confronted that moment within himself before that first flight where he had to take the leap of faith. He had lived until then having never flown before — but he trusted the inner voice that told him to fly. And he is magnificent.
That is a perfect symbolism of where we collectively find ourselves at this point in time. We have just been through the natural but agonising process of metamorphosis and lost all that we knew life to be. Now, like the butterfly, we are emerging from our cocoon, renewed and yet extremely raw — and we are being called by our deepest knowing to step out into the next cycle of our lives, and to embody the true beauty of our existence.
Experience every new moment with all that you have. Move on, let go of what has happened, and don’t fear what you have lost. Dream, and dream BIG! Aspire to experience greatness through the physical form, but not limited to it. We are taking our first flight in a new way of being, and we will only find the trust we need to do it in the stillness and security within.
Blessings, Simon & Jennifer
Simon Vorster is an evolutionary astrologer and teacher who has been practising astrology for over 11 years. Together with his partner and co-founder of Raising Vibrations, Jennifer Langstone , their work is rooted in helping souls de-condition the self and empower the soul into making new conscious choices. Through the website, Raising Vibrations Astrology , and the consulting services they offer, Simon and Jennifer share their thoughts and insights and, using the powerful tool of evolutionary astrology, help and guide others to find their own spiritual paths, live authentically in the moment and understand ways they are able to positively effect their own spiritual evolution. SF Source Wake Up World Nov. 2016 Share this: | 1 |
A four-year-old Iowa boy died as the result of a gunshot injury on June 18.According to KWWL, the boy and his mother were visiting a friend s home in Elgin at the time of the shooting. The two women had stepped outside, leaving the four-year-old and a second child inside the home to play.The unidentified preschooler found the loaded gun and reportedly shot himself in the face.Neither of the women had a cell phone to call 911. The boy s mother ran across the street for help.KWWL reports that several members of the local community rushed to the child s aid. A local business owner attempted to perform CPR, but the boy was not breathing.He was rushed by ambulance to Palmer Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.According to police, the gun belonged to the owner of the home who was not present at the time of the child s death.So far this year 263 children under the age of 11 have died from a gunshot injury. Another 1,336 children between the ages of 12 and 17 have also been killed by guns. You can read their names and learn their stories here.No matter how many times we read about children who are injured or killed by improperly stored guns, careless and irresponsible gun owners still leave loaded weapons within easy reach of four-year-olds.If you ask republicans they ll tell you these are just tragic accidents. They ll say there s no one to blame and there s nothing that can be done to prevent it from happening over and over again.That s not the truth. According to Children s Defense Fund, U.S. children and teens are 32 times more likely to die from a gun homicide and 10 times more likely to die from a gun suicide or a gun accident than all their peers in the other high-income countries combined. The statistics tell us that we re doing something wrong, while countries that have enacted sane gun laws, like many of those located in the UK, are doing something right.Protecting the most vulnerable members of society is right, no matter what the NRA or their republican lapdogs in Congress say.Here s more on this story from KWWL.KWWL Eastern Iowa Breaking News, Weather, ClosingsFeatured image via wikimedia commons | 1 |
(Reuters) - Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump is seeking $10 million in damages from a fired former employee, shedding light on a campaign that has at times seen high-profile exits and internal fights spill over into public view. Trump in May started arbitration proceedings against Sam Nunberg, a former adviser who was fired in 2015, accusing him of violating a confidentiality agreement, according to a court filing obtained by Reuters. “He has a confidentiality agreement which he has repeatedly breached, and we’ve taken action to enforce it,” said Alan Garten, general counsel with the Trump Organization who is representing the campaign in the arbitration. Nunberg did not respond to a request for comment. The flare-up comes after a period in which campaign in-fighting led Trump to fire some top aides, including national political director Rick Wiley and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Other staffers have separately resigned from Trump’s campaign. Trump’s legal conflicts, which also include a lawsuit over his Trump University real-estate seminars, have at times distracted public attention from his campaign. Nunberg in court documents dated Tuesday accused Trump of starting arbitration proceedings to retaliate against him for switching his support to rival presidential hopeful Ted Cruz during the Republican primaries. Cruz dropped out of the race in early May. Garten said the suit was unrelated. Nunberg also said Trump tried to use the arbitration to “cover up media coverage of an apparent affair” between two members of his presidential campaign staff. “The Trump campaign is attempting to bring a frivolous and retaliatory arbitration proceeding against me essentially to punish me and shut me up,” Nunberg said in an affidavit accompanying his petition to halt the arbitration proceedings. The petition was filed on Tuesday in New York state court in Manhattan. The Trump campaign fired Nunberg in August 2015 after the discovery of Facebook posts that critics deemed racist. Nunberg at the time denied he wrote the posts. He said in the court filings that Trump accused him of being the source for a New York Post story in May that recounted a public argument between Lewandowski, who was then with the campaign, and Hope Hicks, Trump’s spokeswoman. In the affidavit, Nunberg said the argument was part of an “sordid and apparently illicit affair” between the two. He denied being the source for the New York Post story, saying the argument occurred in public and others saw it. Garten called the allegation “categorically untrue” and said Nunberg had recently asked for his job back. “This is an individual who time and time again has demonstrated that he will say anything that is outrageous, regardless of whether it’s factually accurate, to get his name out there and create trouble,” Garten said. Hicks and Lewandowski did not respond to requests for comment. | 0 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ7GrEItGoo | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will host Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives’ top Democrat Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday night to discuss tax reform and other items on the legislative agenda, the White House said. The president will meet the two top Democrats “for bipartisan discussions on the upcoming legislative agenda, with a focus on tax reform,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. | 1 |
Say it ain t so! The New York town of Bethlehem is being cleansed of all things Christmas and Hanukkah. Any and all signs of Christmas including a town sign that says Merry Christmas are gone. We can only say Bah Humbug! That little town in upstate New York shut down any hopes of happy holidays by voting to not display any Merry Christmas signs in public and even taking down a banner for Hanukkah, too.The holiday hoopla followed apparent anxieties that this town near Albany which shares a name with the birthplace of Jesus Christ himself might appear to be favoring one religion over another.The town for years displayed a Christmas tree and a Menorah in its central Four Corners area, according to the Albany Times-Union. But it drew the line on signs that had any written messages such as, Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah. One resident, Elena Marcelle, bought a Merry Christmas sign for the town several years ago. This year, she said learned the town wasn t interested in hanging it up as usual. She asked town board members why. At first they said it was a traffic distraction, Marcelle, 47, told the Daily News. The second reason is that they were afraid of infringing on constitutional rights. But the board had in fact voted to ditch worded displays altogether, meaning a Happy Hanukkah sign disappeared too.This despite a letter sent from the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based conservative Christian group, urging Bethlehem to keep its holiday spirit alive. The irony is not lost on us that your town s name is Bethlehem, the letter said, according to the Times-Union.Marcelle said she s amazed the town would mince words over holiday cheer. It was just a holiday greeting, she said about her Christmas sign. I didn t ask to have a nativity scene. It would just recognize that Christmas is a holiday. The town has no law on the books banning any kind of holiday display. But town supervisor John Clarkson told The News the town s attorney warned the board this year that municipalities might get a legal lump of coal over any sign celebrating one holiday in particular. We re a municipality, not a religious entity, Clarkson said. Advocating on behalf of any religion is one of those gray zones you don t want to get into. He said he saw no irony in Bethlehem stepping away from holiday greetings, noting that the town is at least sticking by its Christmas tree and Menorah presentations. I would say this little town of Bethlehem still has a really nice, homey holiday display, he said.Via: NYDN | 1 |
The GOP Congress, with the approval of Donald Trump, is putting forth yet another tax bill that would take food off the tables of regular people so the wealthy can hoard even more money. You would think they would show a modicum of shame, that they would at least pretend that they are working for the voters, but this is the age of Trump and they are proud of the oligarchy they ve created. They are so proud they are literally saying, in front of reporters, that they don t care what the voters think about this wildly unpopular tax plan.Several polls have proven that tax cuts, especially tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, barely scratch the surface of Americans concerns. It s hardly even a priority for brainwashed Republicans. Only about a quarter of Americans overall think tax reform should be a top priority, while barely half of Republicans (51 percent) think it should head the agenda.The majority of Americans have had it with the trickle down argument and they don t believe that a corporate tax cut will lead to more jobs.Some GOP selling points aren t sinking in. One of Republicans biggest talking points is that a corporate tax cut will benefit workers (though even right-wing economists have cast doubt on White House estimates on this point).But nearly 60 percent of people believe corporations won t use that money to create jobs, according to the CBS poll. Likewise, approximately half of people in both the CBS and NBC/WSJ polls said they think the bill would grow the economy a plurality but not a clear majority.Source: NPRScrew what voters think, at least that s the mindset of Republicans who know exactly who put them in office, the oligarchy. A Vox reporter confronted some GOP Congressmen about the tax bill that few people have seen and the most telling answer came from Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), who in two words told us exactly what he thinks of his constituents opinions:Others had answers the weren t quite as callous and were a bit more measured. They fell back on denial and Trump s fake news copout. I don t believe that poll, stressed Texas Rep. Mike Conaway. I would love to see those polls, because those aren t polls of my constituents, added Missouri Rep. Jason Smith.Golshan couldn t find a single Republican member of Congress who would acknowledge how unpopular the idea is with voters of passing a tax bill to let corporations pay even less of their fair share.Republicans need to work a little harder on their messaging of their pet tax bill. According to FiveThirtyEight.com, Republicans have a chance to pass their first major initiative since Trump took office, as long as they can get Americans to back it. So far, they are failing and their cavalier responses to Americans concerns aren t helping. Of course, Collins might be right. As long as they have gerrymandering, voter suppression and Russia in their back pockets, voters opinions might not actually matter.Featured image via Pool/Getty Images. | 1 |
Hillary Already Planning Fireworks for Victory Celebration November 1, 2016
People of the United States, your royal family .
Law enforcement officials and the FDNY have been told to prepare for a barge-launched pyrotechnic display off Manhattan’s Javits Center, where Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine will join their supporters for the Nov. 8 vote count, sources said.
The aerial detonations would last for two minutes, with the triumphal celebration permitted to start as early as 9:30 p.m. — a mere half-hour after the polls close in New York, sources said.
Fortunately pride has never been known to come before a fall. And hubris is a notoriously positive trait with no negative consequences. That must be why Hillary Clinton is down in the polls and facing yet another investigation while feuding with the FBI.
Cops and firefighters were blown away by Clinton’s hubris in planning the fireworks display, which would eclipse the shower of blazing sparkles that preceded the balloon drop at July’s Democratic National Convention.
“It’s a little presumptuous of her to plan on winning. I guess she put in for this before Friday,” one NYPD detective said.
Others said the actual election results could put a damper on things, but one firefighter raised the specter of a 2000-style recount and added, “So what’s she going to do, put the fireworks on ice?”
The arrogance is truly unchecked. | 0 |
There s already been hints from NBC News that Lester Holt, the moderator for the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, will not be fact checking the candidates. This, of course, will allow Trump to say anything he pleases without being held accountable except by Hillary Clinton.But to make matters worse, all cable news networks (including those critical of Trump) are pledging to be completely spineless, and will not offer any on-screen fact checks to any comments made by the candidates that are wrong:While on-screen fact-checking could help expose inaccurate or misleading assertions without interrupting the flow of the debate, nearly all of the major cable or broadcast networks, including Univision and Telemundo, said that they would not use any sort on screen fact check or graphics . Thus, the burden of keeping the candidates honest will likely come down to Holt, the only other person on the stage.After Politico documented that Trump lies on average every three-and-a-half minutes, one would think a fact checking process would be paramount to an honest, open debate on the issues. But sadly, the media, realizing their ratings are on the line, would rather kowtow to Donald Trump and his band of deplorable surrogates.The Clinton campaign has been forceful in its effort to hold Trump accountable, with Clinton Campaign Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri telling reporters:For the moderator to let lies like that that come out of his mouth at this debate to go unchallenged would give Donald Trump an unfair advantage. We do believe it is the role of the moderator to call out those lies and to do that in real time.Unfortunately, with Trump s impending lies already on the brink of not being checked for falsehoods, it s somehow up to Hillary Clinton to shine at the debate if she hopes to win. This double standard that the most qualified woman to every run for office has to go above and beyond that most unqualified nominee in history, just to look slightly better than him, is abhorrent.Hopefully, Clinton will wipe the floor with Trump on the first debate, but with no one to back her up, it may be hard convincing the American people that she did it.If there is one thing this election has shown us, it s that journalism is dying, if not already dead.Featured image via Sara D. Davis/Getty Images | 0 |
Leave a reply Dylan Harper – The entire physical universe is made up of pure energy and vibration. When you have the insight to see everything as vibration, the nature of the universe is revealed to you. Light is vibration. The entire electromagnetic wave spectrum of visible light produces different colors. Colors are simply waves vibrating at different frequencies . On one end of the spectrum you have red, on the other end you have violet. Red has the longest wavelength and the lowest frequency, violet has the shortest wavelength and the highest frequency. There are two kinds of electrical lighting that you can find when you visit an electronic store. Warm light and cool light. Warm light contains a greater mixture of lower frequency color waves such as yellow and orange. Cool light contains a greater mixture of higher frequency color waves such as green and blue. Light is crucial in its environmental effect upon work, play, rest and other life activities. It controls stimulation, relaxation and energy level . Since warm light is more relaxing than cool light, you might decide to use it for the ambience it creates. Have you ever used only warm lights in a room and thought that you could make the place more relaxing or stimulating simply by increasing or decreasing the light intensity? But it doesn’t work that way. Increasing the light intensity of warm light does not make it a lot more stimulating. Higher energy levels require higher rate of vibration. It is not the magnitude but the frequency of the vibration that determines its energy level. Is it any wonder that blue flame is hotter than yellow flame? Health is vibration. Cold, damp and dark places with lack of airflow are breeding grounds for bacteria, whereas sunny places with abundance of airflow eliminate unhealthy micro organisms. The second type of environment is healthier than the first because it is high vibration while the other is low vibration. Although sunlight is biologically beneficial, too much of it causes heatstroke. The energy turns from being constructive to destructive. The key here is balance. Too much of something beyond the rightful amount causes instability. This is what all sickness and disease does. It seeks to weaken or destabilize vibration. The more vibrant and stable a person is, the more alive and constructive he/she are. The more lackluster and unstable he/she is, the less alive and/or the more (self)destructive. Ever wonder why you have always been told to drink warm water and not to drink cold one when you were sick? When the body is sick, there are things within that are clogging up the system and slowing down some functions. The body needs energy to move the sickness out of the body or to destroy it. That is why your doctor advices you to drink plenty of water. It is the medium that your blood cells use to mobilize their work. More water and oxygen gives your body the much needed resources it needs in getting rid of the sickness. Your impulse of coughing out phlegm and blowing out mucus is your bodies act of expelling the bad stuff from your body, which means you are on the road to recovery. Warm water is high vibration whereas cold water is low vibration. Cold water removes the precious energy needed for recovery, whereas warm water supplies it. One supports your recovery rate while the other sabotages it. Sound is vibration. Bassy music is low vibration and energetic music is high vibration. We enjoy listening to different types of music because we like to experience different ranges of emotion. The variety of feelings in life makes it fun and meaningful. High energy dance music appeal to younger people because they are highly energetic and expressive. Slower and emotional entrancing music is what we desire to hear when we want to be moved in a deep and sensual way. We want time to slow down and come to a standstill the experience to be like an eternal moment. Chemical is vibration. Alcohol and earl grey tea are opposite in terms of vibration. Although stress and anxiety is a form of high vibration, it is undesirable because the vibration is incoherent and disorderly. Alcohol lowers vibration. That’s why people drink to relax and distress. But drinking consumes more than the natural amount of alcohol that the body is supposed to take. Therefore it causes instability as well. Drivers who drink have impaired judgment and reaction rate are more susceptible to accidents. People who are above the need of alcohol to relax have chosen more intelligent means of doing so. Earl grey tea acts as a stimulant that counters the effects of alcohol to a certain extent to “sober” you up. The vibration of our “bodies” at every level, physical and non-physical, has a profound influence on our ability to attract positive experiences. The higher your vibration, the more of a “magnet” you become as a result of the thoughts you hold in your mind. By holding only thoughts of the “things” you wish to manifest into your experience, and keeping your vibrations high in the ways we discussed previously, you will find your wishes will manifest much more quickly. When you learn to see everything as vibration different in terms of rate and stability, you will understand what you need in order to obtain the desired effect in any situation. It is all about balancing vibrations. There are lots more aspects of physical reality than those mentioned here where this principle is applied to. Once you are aware of this principle and always think in terms of vibration, you can understand practically everything that happens in the physical world. This is one of the governing dynamics that allows you to make sense of everything. Having this awareness is like seeing the world in code, like the Matrix . Dylan Harper is a 32-year-old surfer from California. He traveled the world, rode the waves and learned the universal concept of oneness. He is a vegan for over a decade and, literally, wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was reunited with his twin soul in Greece, where they got married and settled… for now. Dylan is a staff writer for DreamcatcherReality.com and teaches surfing to children. SF Source Dreamcatcher Reality | 1 |
GENEVA (Reuters) - A spokeswoman for International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said on Friday the organization was overjoyed at that it had won the Nobel Peace Prize. As you can imagine we are elated, this is great news, Daniela Varano told Reuters. It s great recognition for the work that the campaigners did throughout the years and especially the Hibakusha, she said, referring to survivors of atom bombs in Japan. Their testimony was critical, was crucial and for such an amazing success. | 1 |
The American jobs machine has moved back into high gear. After a long stretch of conflicting reports, the Labor Department said on Friday that the economy in July delivered a second consecutive month of robust hiring and rising wages in a signal that the expansion is strengthening, not ebbing, as it enters its eighth year. Stocks surged, experts expressed more confidence that the Federal Reserve was likely to raise interest rates before the end of the year, and it was clear that wages for ordinary workers were advancing at a healthier pace. “This was everything you could have asked for, maybe more,” said Michelle Meyer, head of United States economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “We’re seeing new entrants into the labor market, which implies a longer runway for the business cycle. ” With the political conventions completed, the buoyant jobs numbers also have major implications for the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. Not only does the new data undercut Republican arguments that the recovery is faltering, it also suggests that after years of paltry gains, deeply frustrated workers are finally seeing some benefits from the drop in unemployment, which was unchanged last month at a relatively low 4. 9 percent. Wages are up 2. 6 percent over the last 12 months, a faster pace than earlier in the recovery, and many economists expect that the gain in incomes, adjusted for inflation, will accelerate later this year and into 2017. “The idea that Republicans are touting, that the job market is a wreck, is clearly belied by the data,” said Jared Bernstein, an economist who served in the Obama administration. “What matters most to people isn’t G. D. P. growth, it’s jobs and wages. ” Longtime G. O. P. economic hands like Wayne Berman, a veteran of several Republican presidential campaigns, conceded Friday’s data was favorable for Democrats, but insisted it represented a snapshot of the economy, not necessarily the underlying trends. A major failing in the recovery, Republicans note, is that millions of Americans who dropped out of the work force during the recession have still not found jobs. July’s jobs number “is a good statistic for Clinton to pivot towards,” said Mr. Berman, who currently serves as a top official at the Blackstone Group and advised Senator Marco Rubio of Florida during the Republican primary. He noted, however, that the economy grew at an annual rate of just 1 percent in the first half of 2016, a sharp decrease from last year. “We’re in a very mixed economic picture now,” said Mr. Berman, recalling the presidential campaign of Senator Bob Dole two decades ago, when attacks on Bill Clinton’s economic record failed to resonate at a time of rising prosperity. “You can’t say this is like 1996, when there was no oxygen for Bob Dole’s arguments. ” The July increase in payrolls stands in sharp contrast to data released just last week showing disappointing economic growth in April, May and June. A reason for the difference is that parts of the economy are still suffering from the continuing fallout from low oil prices as energy companies cut back on investment. Government spending also has been weak and many companies, at least for now, prefer to hire more workers rather than invest in new equipment and increase their efficiency and output. If business and government investment continue to lag, that could undermine the ability of the American economy to be more productive and raise living standards for most workers. In late spring, the government reported that job creation in May was much weaker than economists had expected a big rebound in June similarly caught the experts off guard. The July data helps clear up some of the confusion. “This is a validator,” said Michael Gapen, chief United States economist at Barclays. “This is a report that indicates that the slowdown in hiring earlier in the year has been reversed. ” June’s gain was revised upward by 5, 000 jobs, and May’s by 13, 000. The combination of better gains in the spring and July’s increase in hiring means that the Federal Reserve is likely to have a more vigorous debate about raising interest rates when it meets in September. But most experts think the Fed will wait until December to be sure the economy remains on a solid track. The Fed said in July, after the most recent meeting of its committee, that the economy was growing more strongly and there were fewer clouds on the horizon, suggesting it was giving greater consideration to rate increases later this year. But on the front, William C. Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and an influential adviser to Janet L. Yellen, the Fed’s chairwoman, said on Sunday that current economic conditions still called for “caution in raising U. S. interest rates. ” Job openings are spreading. “It’s been a really good summer for hiring all across the country,” said Tom Gimbel, chief executive of LaSalle Network, a recruiting and staffing firm based in Chicago. “Business has been great. Kids coming out of college are getting hired, and we’re seeing a lot of activity in the $50, 000 to $150, 000 category. ” The upswing in jobs last month also coincided with a sharp drop in unemployment among the workers, a group that has missed out on nearly all the gains of the current recovery thus far. Other measures of the labor market suggest that underlying joblessness is higher than the official 4. 9 percent rate, although nowhere near the 42 percent level Mr. Trump suggested last fall. The broadest measure of unemployment calculated by the Labor Department, which includes workers who want positions but cannot find them, stood at 9. 7 percent in July. To arrive at his figure, Mr. Trump apparently compared the total civilian population aged 16 and up — about 253. 6 million people — with the 102 million Americans who are not in the labor force, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. But in addition to the 7. 7 million currently counted as unemployed, that larger figure includes more than 50 million Americans above the age of 55 who say they don’t want to work and are, for the most part, retired. It also takes into account 13. 5 million Americans age 16 to 24, most of them in school, and millions of women who have chosen to stay home to care for their young children. None of those people are considered unemployed by the Labor Department. The payroll figures, which reflect hiring at companies and in the public sector, revealed job gains, not just in sectors like retail and leisure and hospitality, but in fields like professional and business services as well. The household survey, which has offered a mixed picture in the past, was also robust. The jobless rate for high school dropouts, which has been elevated throughout the recovery, fell more than a full percentage point to 6. 3 percent, suggesting that employers who had previously ignored these workers are now taking a second look. As the unemployment rate has fallen, some employers have raised salaries to retain their best workers and attract new ones. Increases in the minimum wage in many states recently, and increases in the salaries by big employers like Walmart, Target and Aetna, are also beginning to ripple through the broader work force. But a job market remains in place, with workers in the same region facing radically different conditions depending on their level of education and skills. In San Francisco, even the most junior software engineers hired at Sunverge, a maker of energy storage systems for solar electricity users, command starting salaries of just over $100, 000. A little more than 60 miles to the east, at Sunverge’s assembly plant in Stockton, Calif. where the unemployment rate is 9 percent, new workers can expect to earn about $14 an hour, or $29, 000 a year. Sunverge is bulking up in both cities. But hiring technical talent is much more said Stu Statman, Sunverge’s chief of engineering. “It doesn’t seem like it’s that hard to find good factory workers in Stockton,” Mr. Statman said. “In San Francisco, if you’re talking about software engineers or developers, it’s very hard. It takes a long time, and there’s a huge amount of hunger out there for people with these skills. ” | 0 |
When Donald Trump boldly declared that he had been released from the shackles of the GOP (that was him shackled?) Star Trek and Big Bang Theory actor Wil Wheaton just couldn t resist. It began with a one-word, yet oh-so-beautiful tweet:"shackles" Wil SCREAMton (@wilw) October 11, 2016Then, of course, Wheaton moved on to the defining moment of Trump s campaign: the revelation that he spends a lot of time grabbing women by their p*ssies:Oh you're gonna grab America by the pussy? Or are you gonna punch it in the face? Or not pay any taxes to support it? Please, do tell. https://t.co/51Pn40hZpq Wil SCREAMton (@wilw) October 11, 2016And his numerous, numerous bankruptcies:Oh wait! Maybe he's going to suck as much money out of America as he can, then declare bankruptcy so everyone else suffers for it. Wil SCREAMton (@wilw) October 11, 2016Then came the boom:Does anyone really believe Voldetrump has been "shackled" until now? They don't even make shackles small enough for his tiny little hands. Wil SCREAMton (@wilw) October 11, 2016Donald Trump is terrible. If Americans vote him into office next month, we will have a President who:On top of that, he s a bully with thin, orange skin who wants to build a wall to keep brown people out of the country, lock up Muslims in what can only be described as concentration camps (after forcing them to register in a national database and wear special little badges like Hitler made the Jews wear), and who is unfit to be President in every sense of the word.Democrats have traditionally had issues getting to the polls on election day, even during presidential elections. Make sure that doesn t happen this time. The stakes are too high.Featured image via Reddit/Getty Images(Joe Raedle) | 1 |
0 5 0 0 Field tests on the device are expected to begin in 2017.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A device being developed will attach to a soldier’s upper and lower legs to generate electricity that is needed to power a growing array of high-tech gadgets in a soldier’s backpack, the US Army announced in a press release on Wednesday. "Just by walking, soldiers could generate power," the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center’s Project Engineer Noel Soto said in the release. "We are converting the movement of the knees when you walk into useful power."
Field tests on the device are expected to begin in 2017, the release explained. Progressive Soft Exoskeleton: as Comfortable as Everyday Pants (VIDEO) "The goal is to reduce the amount of batteries used by soldiers, or to be able to extend the mission with the same load," Soto noted. "Soldiers are carrying a heavy load and a lot of that weight, 16 to 20 pounds for a 72-hour mission, is due to batteries."
Soldiers now carry multiple electronic devices that aid in strategy, communication and navigation, including computers, radios, mobile phones, battlefield situational displays and navigation tools, according to the release. ... | 1 |
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese state media on Saturday cheered the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as one that showed the world that confrontation between the two powers was not inevitable. The official China Daily newspaper said it was encouraging to see the two-day summit that ended on Friday “going as well as it could” after earlier “confusing signals” from Washington about how it was approaching the U.S.-China relationship. Trump had campaigned with strident anti-China rhetoric and had angered Beijing before taking office by talking to the president of Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own. But the two sides avoided any diplomatic gaffes at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that would have tarnished the meeting in the eyes of the protocol-conscious Chinese. China Daily said both parties appeared “equally enthusiastic about the constructive relationship they have promised to cultivate.” “This may sound surreal to those preoccupied with an ‘inescapable’ conflict scenario between what they see as rising and incumbent powers,” the newspaper wrote in an editorial. “But that Beijing and Washington have so far managed to do well in preventing conflicts shows confrontation is not inevitable.” State-run Chinese tabloid Global Times said the meeting “served as an indicator that the China-U.S. relationship is still very much on course since the Trump administration took office in January” and it was likely the two nations would develop a more “pragmatic relationship.” “It seems that both countries have understood the importance of how essential a smooth transition needs to be and not just for the two countries involved here but really for the entire world over,” it said. Their comments were echoed by a front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, which said the meeting established the tone for the development of U.S.-China relations. In a tweet on Saturday, Trump wrote of the meeting: “goodwill and friendship was formed, but only time will tell on trade.” The Chinese commentaries, however, made no mention of the U.S. missile strike on a Syrian government air base, which overshadowed the summit. Wang Dong, associate professor of international studies at China’s elite Peking University, said the move may have had the added bonus in Trump’s eyes of sending North Korea a message over its nuclear program, but that China was unlikely to be fazed. “There are great differences between the Syria situation and the Korean peninsula situation,” Wang said, noting North Korea’s conventional military capability to strike back at South Korea in the event of U.S. military action. “Any use of force or pre-emptive strikes against North Korea will carry huge ramifications, which would probably lead to a drastically different outcome compared to Syria,” Wang said. In the talks, Trump pressed Xi to do more to curb North Korea’s nuclear program and the two agreed to a 100-day plan for trade talks aimed at boosting U.S. exports and reducing the gaping U.S. trade deficit with Beijing. U.S. industry had hoped Trump would deliver a strong message to Xi behind closed doors to end what they see as discriminatory trade policies, but not do anything rash to spark a trade war. In an outcome likely to play well in China, state news agency Xinhua said U.S. and Chinese officials initiated new dialogue mechanisms on economic issues, as well as security and diplomatic issues, in what appeared to be a reimagining of the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue held under President Barack Obama. Some within U.S. industry had suggested those earlier talks yielded little substance, and urged the Trump administration to scrap them until Beijing displayed more initiative to address complaints about its industrial policies. “We would like to see more results-oriented outcomes coming out of these new dialogues and fewer laundry lists,” said Beijing-based Jacob Parker, vice president of China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council, although he added that he saw the meeting as “generally positive” on commercial issues. | 0 |
Region: Europe Following in the wake of the White House policy, European poli tical elites have been stepping up their groundless propagandistic rhetoric about the growing military threat of Russia, Iran, China, which is aimed at achieving further militarization of Europe at the expense of t he social benefits of its citizens. In his recent speech at an event hosted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, NATO ‘s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that he expects a 3% real increase in defence spending in Europe and Canada, however, he added, other than the US , only four NATO members are currently spending 2% of GDP on defence . Against the background of a string of upcoming election campaigns in the EU, it’s really not that hard to predict how Europeans are going to take the announcement that their governments are planning to increase their military budgets. The most likely scenario is that a number of EU states will vote for their own version of Trumpxit, which means that an outsider candidate will have more chances that those from the ruling elites. As the living conditions of an ever increasing number of Europeans continue to deteriorate, it’s highly unlikely that EU citizens are going to tolerate new military expenditures . The data provided by the Eurostat shows that i n 2015, around 25 million children, or 26.9% of the population aged 0 to 17, in the European Union were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. A total of six member states saw a third of all children being at risk of poverty or social exclusion, these are Romania (46.8%), Bulgaria (43.7%), Greece (37.8%), Hungary (36.1%), Spain (34.4%) and Italy (33.5%). According to the Guardian, having a child while living in a rental accommodation has become unaffordable for young families in two - thirds of the UK. The most inaccessible place for those wanting to start a family was London, with a two-bedroom rental there costing 60% of the average income for someone in their 20 s and 44% for someone in their 30 s . This was followed by the south-east, south-west and the east. At the same time, the number of families with children living in emergency accommodations in England rose by 45% in the last 12 months, reaching the highest level in 12 years . In turn, the Fabian Society says the Tory’s social cuts will increase the number of kids living in poverty by 75% over the next 15 years in the UK, the Daily Mirror notes. Moreover, Berlin has already announced that social disparity will be steadily growing throughout the upcoming decade in Germany. The Finish Yle notes that the number of children living in poor families has tripled over the last two decades. What is striking is that even those families where both parents are employed full time are unable to earn an adequate revenue. Ever since 2008, the deepening social crisis in the EU has been making local citizens feeling increasingly frustrated with their elected officials. At the same time, local political elites are reluctant to address the most pressing problems of their population, instead they prefer to increase military spendings and cut social benefits provided to the poor. The chain of events, namely the Brexit and the Trumpxit shows the growing frustration of the hard-working people that are still unable to provide decent childhood for their children. And it doesn’t take a genius to know that the ruling elites are going to face a bitter electoral defeat in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Austria. There’s really no way they can win. Jean P é rier is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East , exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook” Popular Articles | 1 |
Posted on October 26, 2016 by Dr. Eowyn | 7 Comments
Hillary Clinton is like a chameleon.
Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams , who’s a trained hypnotist and observer of facial nuances, calls it an “unusual level of variability” in her physical appearance. In his words, Hillary “looks like an entirely different person every few days. See “ Chameleon Hillary Clinton is back to looking like sh*t — and the return of her medical handler ” and “ Hillary Clinton’s teeth, tongue-hole & now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t wrinkles ”
On Monday, October 24, 2016, Hillary Clinton was in St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire for a rally , accompanied by “Fauxcahontas” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Close-up images of her face show that she’s morphed again, back to yellow teeth and a face crisscrossed with wrinkles. What happened to the porcelain-doll Hillary with dazzling-white teeth of the July 2016 Democratic National Convention?
But this time, at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, there’s something even stranger.
Yesterday, Matt Drudge tweeted two close-up images of Hillary at the NH rally, which show something embedded under the skin of her right cheek . Here’s the tweet:
Here are the two images again, enlarged. I painted yellow arrows pointing to the lumps:
According to plastic surgeons , Botox injections don’t cause lumps under the skin. Dr. Richard Baxter explains that “Botox relaxes muscles that are hyperactive and so wrinkles caused by those muscles are smoothed,” but don’t lead to lumps. Dr. Janet Turkle says that although “Botox injections can result in temporary bumps due to the injection,” the bumps last “only a few minutes”.
According to the American Academy of Facial Esthetics , however, “some of the risks of facial injections are lumps (granulomas/nodules) which are a potential risks [sic] associated with Radiesse, Sculptra, Juvederm, and ArteColl.”
Facial injections are injections of facial fillers such as collagen, hyaluronic acid and calcium hydroxyl apatite that rejuvenate facial skin by reducing or eliminating wrinkles, raising scar depressions, enhancing lips and replacing soft-tissue volume loss.
H/t FOTM ‘s TPR | 1 |
possible for anyone to start a news website. While this has many advantages, both to the creator and to their audience, it also poses some serious problems. On the one hand, people get a voice — the ability to say and share what they want. On the other hand, people can say and share whatever they want — and other people believe it to be truth. I’ve been running a conscious alternative news platform for over seven years now. In the course of that time, I’ve seen some truly amazing things, and some troubling things, too. But now, more than ever, I believe it’s important for people to recognize the problem with some alternative news websites and to understand what really goes on. They are harming the face of independent news and I feel it needs to stop. Why Alternative News Is Necessary It’s not hard to understand why alternative news exists at this point. With the majority of the mainstream media being owned by just five corporations , diverse viewpoints and interpretations of world events have become scarce. And when you understand that most outlets are serving some sort of corporate or political agenda, you start to notice how those biases play out in the representation of certain stories, and even in how frequently they’re covered. Showing certain stories over others, and showing them repeatedly, goes a long way toward shaping public opinion. Many are unaware of how often important stories are blacked out completely by all of mainstream media. The major pipeline spill that occurred during the Standing Rock protests or the revelation that the Pentagon paid a PR firm to create fake terrorist videos are just two recent examples. Are these not things the people should know about? Why aren’t they being reported on? This leads us to wonder if there is in fact an agenda to hide this information. And how might that work? Sharyl Atkisson, a former CBS investigative journalist, explained that “astroturf,” or fake grassroots movements, funded by political, corporate, or other special interests, are very effectively manipulating and distorting mainstream media messages. Further, here is a document declassified by the CIA that outlines their involvement in manipulating media, journalists, authors, films, and more to have “reporters postpone, change, hold, or even scrap stories that could have adversely affected national security interests or jeopardized sources and methods.” The ‘national security’ play has always been a way for these agencies to justify shady actions. Given the shady dealings, agency manipulation, and ownership structure of most of mainstream media, the need for alternative voices is clear. But how should we view those alternative voices? Do we take their work at face value? The Problems With Alternative News Websites I have seen a lot in the past seven years and I have seen a movement that is very important lose a lot of credibility — for GOOD reason. It’s easy to dismiss alternative news websites because so many of them so carelessly carry out their work. There are good ones out there, but they are vastly outnumbered by the bad. I decided to write this because, as someone working within this movement and who cares a lot about creating a better world, I want people to know the truth so they can make informed decisions. As much as I respect many people for what they do, there is an inherent danger in not raising awareness about this. If we expose mainstream media, we should expose alternative media too; it’s only fair. I hope this encourages many of these outlets to do better work. Given the ease of creating alternative news websites these days, and the ease of making advertising revenue, it’s easy to see why much of the content that gets posted is questionable. Usually Run by One or Two People Many alternative news or health websites are run by just one or two people. While this isn’t bad when it’s a passionate person who’s doing work the right way, it can become a problem when that person is simply doing it for a business. They are driven to make money by exploiting a niche market, not a desire to create change, and so they make low quality websites and content so ads can be placed on the website. As you might imagine, it begins to create some or even all of the following issues that I believe do more harm than good to the movement. Evolve Your Inbox & Stay Conscious Daily Too Driven by Ad Revenue Many of the outlets I’ve worked with firsthand are highly driven by ad dollars. While it would be naive to suggest anyone should run a business without making money, since we need money to survive on this planet and simply hosting a website requires it, a desire to do good needs to remain the bottom line. Many outlets will post just about anything to make ad revenue. They will even go so far as to venture completely outside of their initial intention simply to keep up with making funds. I’ve had people ask us to post something on our page for even just 10 or 15 minutes, even after I told them it was a fake or false story. Even when you let them know that a story or health tip is false, they will post it anyway to get as many hits as they can before people figure it out — if they do. And this leads to the next problem. Copying Content Since it is typically only one or two people running each of these huge websites and Facebook pages, they can’t possibly write original content each day. And so, the majority of the time, they simply copy and paste the most viral and trendy stories onto their own website. No adding their own thoughts, opinions, insight, etc. — just taking content and adding a little link at the bottom back to the original creators. Now some have legitimate syndicated content partnerships, but this is rare. What typically happens is websites will copy and paste the most viral content each day or simply change the first few lines so the content looks fresh. This entire process takes away from the few websites that do write original content and pay a lot of money to do so. Taking other website’s content. The next time you read an article from an alternative news website, have a look at where the content originally came from. Check to see how many times that thread goes back from website to website to website. Often the content originates from six or seven sites back. Certainly at CE we see our original content posted on other websites all the time, sourced back to another site that took it from us (and another site, and another site). Risk for False Claims and Poor Fact Checking False Information being spread Since many of these websites are run by one person, they take their content from other websites. And since their primary objective is to make as much ad revenue as possible, they often look for the most trendy or viral topic and repost without ever checking to see if the story is true. Health research, political scandals, lifestyle suggestions, and more — these topics often contain false information and there is no research behind it! People then spread this ‘exciting’ information, and since things can go viral quite easily, false information about real issues travels all over the web, all in the name of carelessness and profit. The very things they expose the mainstream for doing, they are doing themselves. Check the article for sources , legitimate ones. Are there any? Do they link to credible information? Oftentimes you will find they don’t. Why It Has to Change People are starting to realize en mass that the mainstream media has its own agendas, and rarely, if ever, do they align with our well-being. They are starting to move away from this sponsored, biased content and looking for other sources. The question becomes, what will they find instead? The bevy of alternative news websites that aren’t being run ethically or with integrity? Alternative sites that kill the credibility of the entire movement because of the way they title, image, and spread content that is false? As a media organization that spends a lot of time doing what we do, hiring the necessary people to make sure work is done right and articles researched properly, we have to stand up and fight against laziness and greed, and we have to fight for the truth. It’s only fair. How could we possibly justify holding mainstream media accountable but letting alternative media slide? So now you know. You know what to look out for and what to do. My advice is, stop supporting and sharing content that isn’t sourced or well researched. Sharing it only further denigrates this movement and supports these bad habits. If you recognize how good alternative websites operate compared to the not so good ones, awesome! You are aware and on the ball. Support those sites! If you love what we do here at CE, check out our funding campaign for CE NEWS , as we are taking our high quality media to the next level! http://www.cenews.tv
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 1 |
The Hoke County School school system defended its policy in a statement and said it would not tolerate assaults, threats or harassment from any student.The Hoke County School system said Caitlin posed a threat to other students when she made a shooting motion a violation of school policy, officials said. We know why it s bad, Miller told WTVD. We watch the news, but then I have to tell my kid, you re not allowed to play like that in school because people do bad things to kids your age.' The Hoke County School school system defended its policy in a statement and said it would not tolerate assaults, threats or harassment from any student.Read more: ABC | 1 |
WARSAW (Reuters) - The European Commission s decision to launch the so-called Article 7 procedure against Poland may be related to Warsaw s refusal to accept Muslim migrants, spokeswoman of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party Beata Mazurek said on Wednesday. This may be an effect not only of the opposition s informing (on Poland to the EC) but also because we don t want to accept immigrants, we don t want to accept Muslim migrants, as we care for the security of Poles, Mazurek told reporters. | 1 |
By Ryan Banister
Project Hemisphere, a secretive program developed by AT&T, searches trillions of call records in order to analyze cell phone data, spying on the activity of private individuals in order to identify who they are speaking with and why, as well as GPS tracking on the location of each individual connected to the call, and it transmits this information to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In 2013, Project Hemisphere was shown in a PowerPoint presentation produced by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The New York Times reported this as a partnership between AT&T and the DOJ, primarily deployed for drug-enforcement task-forces. All information collected in this program is accessible to the federal agencies authorized by the DOJ.
AT&T specifically developed and marketed this product for use by the DOJ, who would promise hundreds of millions in funds on behalf of taxpayers, using the taxpayers’ own money to spy on their every move. This is an invasion of privacy without a warrant. This is a federal spy program by proxy, working through corporations.
AT&T promises law enforcement that it will not disclose Project Hemisphere’s involvement in active investigations that are made public. AT&T is is attempting to lower liability for their customer and limit scrutiny to information transmitted to federal agencies through their network.
While it should not be surprising that your cell phone company is working with bureaucrats to collect incriminating evidence on you, there is a staggering number of people who still carelessly use their cell phone as if the information being transmitted through the device will be kept private.
News flash! It’s never been private. They have always wanted to use your information as a product to sell to the highest bidder. Your data is their product, and you are paying them to take it from you.
Video Report:
Source: The Daily Sheeple
Via: Activist Post
| 1 |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Distancing himself from political tensions over issues like the border wall, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he aimed to build trust and show respect for Mexico during a trip there on Friday that sought to buttress still resilient military ties between the two countries. U.S.-Mexican relations have been badly damaged by Trump’s threats to curtail trade with Latin America’s No. 2 economy as well as his demand that Mexico pay for a border wall to keep out immigrants and drug traffickers. Mexicans’ positive image of the United States has fallen to its lowest level since at least 2002, with about two-thirds of people viewing the country unfavorably, according to a poll released on Thursday by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center. But Mattis portrayed U.S.-Mexican military ties as strong, saying both countries shared common concerns about issues that include drug trafficking in Mexico but also drug consumption in the United States that fuels the illicit industry. Asked how he would navigate the political tensions, Mattis said: “We have shared security concerns. There’s partnerships, military-to-military exchanges, that are based on trust and respect.” “I’m going down to build the trust and show the respect on their Independence Day,” Mattis said. He stayed above the political fray when asked about the most contentious issues between the two countries. Questioned about his role in the border wall issue, Mattis said there was no U.S. military role in enforcing the borders. The New York Times quoted Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, suggesting Mexico was on the verge of collapse and comparing it to Venezuela under former President Huge Chavez. Asked whether he thought Mexico was on the verge of collapse, Mattis said flatly: “No.” “Every nation has its challenges it deals with. And Mexico is keenly aware of these and I’m there to support them in dealing with them,” Mattis said. Mattis also said he would also “absolutely” express condolences for Mexican victims of a recent earthquake that struck the country, killing 96 people. Mexico is also hosting Admiral John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy’s highest uniformed officer, and General Lori Robinson, the head of U.S. Northern Command, for its Independence Day activities. Mattis is the first U.S. defense secretary to attend the events. Although Mexico’s official Independence Day is on Sept. 16, most celebrations take place on Sept. 15. The event commemorates the launch of Mexico’s war of independence from Spain in 1810. The fact that such senior U.S. military officials would be visiting for such an important national event is itself notable. Mexicans have a long memory of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, which led to Mexico’s loss of almost half its territory to the United States. The war has made U.S.-Mexican military cooperation a somewhat sensitive subject in Mexico. In an apparent nod to Mexican sensitivities, Mattis called the ties between the two militaries “very strong, quiet.” There are signs of improving U.S.-Mexican cooperation in cracking down on the heroin trade. Reuters reported in April that Mexico’s army was allowing the United States and the United Nations to observe opium poppy eradication. The Mexican army took U.S. military officials on helicopter tours of half a dozen sites in Sinaloa and Chihuahua, two of the three states that along with Durango make up the Golden Triangle where most Mexican opium is produced, one of the sources said at the time. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Japan views U.S. President Donald Trump’s call with Chinese President Xi Jinping as a good and positive step, a spokesman for Japan said on Friday, following the U.S-China call Thursday night. [nL4N1FV21K] “It’s good and positive in terms of peace and security of the region and the international community,” Norio Maruyama told reporters during a news conference. “We consider that it is constructive and frank discussions on the terms relating to the peace and security in the regions. This is the right way forward.” | 1 |
During his Fox News show tonight, Sean Hannity went off on the unequal justice in the Mueller indictment of Paul Manafort and phony Trump-Russia collusion narrative. Hannity reminded his audience that none of the charges that have been levied against Manafort have anything whatsoever to do with Trump-Russian collusion. He reminded his viewers that the financial issues Mueller s team was looking at were between the years of 2008-2014.So in other words, nothing of the Paul Manfort indictment had anything to do with the Trump campaign or Donald Trump. Is this all Mueller has? Because, if it is, it s pathetic. Another day, another example, after a year of speculation. No evidence of any collusion between President Trump and Russia.Sean goes on to remind his viewers that the Grand Jury was empaneled in Washington DC, one of the most liberal cities in America, where over 90% of the people there voted for Hillary Clinton.Watch:.@seanhannity on Manafort indictment: "Is this all Mueller has? Because if it is, it's pathetic." #Hannity https://t.co/RW3GsNSXP3 pic.twitter.com/pXNOGVlsd9 Fox News (@FoxNews) October 31, 2017Newt Gingrich was a guest on the Sean Hannity show tonight, where he shared his thoughts on the Mueller investigation of Paul Manafort. Gingrich pointed out the same thing that Sean said, there is an out of control prosecutor, who was supposed to be looking into Russian collusion . Gingrich went on to explain how the most grotesque abuse of power was used by Mueller to threaten and intimidated Paul Manafort.Watch:.@newtgingrich on Mueller investigation: "You have an out-of-control prosecutor." #Hannity https://t.co/RW3GsOazdD pic.twitter.com/qs8hRFGPjR Fox News (@FoxNews) October 31, 2017 | 1 |
Photo by -ted | CC BY 2.0
While the recent police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott has led to increased scrutiny on police activities in North Carolina, police-community relations are not the only reason racial tensions are flaring. While encounters with police officers can radically differ depending on the race of those involved, access to economic resources tend to follow a similar pattern. Although racial gaps regarding wealth, incomes, and healthcare are nationwide issues, observing them from a statewide perspective can help understand why specific communities feel maltreated.
A UNC Chapel Hill study found that the income and wealth disparities between African Americans and whites in North Carolina are far worse than the national average. It states that:
…black households, at the median, claim only about 13 percent of the wealth and, stunningly, about 4 percent of the net worth of white households. The corresponding figures for the nation are bleak: 15 and 13 percent respectively. Median wealth for white households is roughly seven times that of black households…Nationally, black households have about half the home equity of whites. In North Carolina, it’s about a third.
The study goes on to state that half of all black households in North Carolina have under $100 in savings. At the median, black heads of household aged between 50 and 65 own $17,000 in assets compared to white households’ median of $143,000, which seriously hampers older, black workers from retiring comfortably. This data paints a picture of a state that fails to allow black communities from advancing economically and obtaining some semblance of equality.
The issue is further exasperated by lack of access to health insurance. A North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services study found that 13% of North Carolina whites have no health insurance as compared to 22% of blacks. 16% of whites were reported to be in “fair or poor” health as compared to 23.2% of blacks. The Kaiser Family Foundation research shows that the majority of non-elderly uninsured North Carolinians were minorities: 30% Hispanic and 14% black, while 10% were white. This is especially concerning considering minorities experience disease at a higher rate than American whites, and visit the doctor at much lower rates. The result: communities most in need of medical assistance are least likely to attain it.
This imbalance is in part due to the state government’s failure to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, something which would have significantly reduced the coverage gap between those receiving Medicaid and those obtaining income-based subsidies. The North Carolina Justice Center finds that, had the expansion gone through, 500,000 low-income North Carolinians would have health insurance who currently don’t have it, and over 1,000 unnecessary deaths would have been prevented.
While the protests in Charlotte appeared to be a backlash against apparent police brutality, underlying economic factors also come into play. A breaking point will eventually be reached by those living in undesirable economic situations which they view as consequential of a racist and unfair system.
The case of North Carolina is a particularly negative one, but the principles outlined in this research are not unique to North Carolina. Americans cannot expect race relations to cool until access to income, wealth, and healthcare are equalized and structured in a fair, equitable manner. More articles by: Patrick Carr next - | 1 |
Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • In a series of Twitter posts, the ethics watchdog for the United States government revealed legal advice that would normally be confidential: that Donald J. Trump must divest his financial stake in his businesses. It was unclear whether Mr. Trump’s pledge to take steps to separate from his businesses would clear that bar. Mr. Trump plans to hold rallies in states that were crucial to his victory. _____ • Mr. Trump’s choice for national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, an outspoken critic of political Islam, has described China, North Korea, Russia, Cuba and Venezuela as conspirators. Here’s a list of those picked for cabinet positions and other possible selections — including Sarah Palin, under consideration for secretary of veterans affairs. And here’s the latest on the transition. The ’s reliance on social media has raised a question for news organizations: Is everything Mr. Trump posts on Twitter news? _____ • Iraqi security forces retaking territory from the Islamic State are uncovering mass graves on a despairingly regular basis. Most of the dead were killed recently, after the campaign for Mosul began. We met a Syrian reporter, Hadi Abdullah, 29, above, as he was traveling to Aleppo. “I don’t expect anything to stop me but death,” he said. _____ • The European Union plans to spend 5. 5 billion euros a year to help governments acquire military hardware, including helicopters and drones, and to develop military technology. The pledge comes as the U. S. appears to be taking a step back in its role in the world. _____ • It took nearly three weeks, 12 closely fought games and a day of tiebreakers to decide the World Chess Championship, but at the end of play, victory went to the defending champion, Magnus Carlsen. The victory for Mr. Carlsen, who is from Norway, also fell on his 26th birthday. _____ • The pilot of the chartered plane that crashed in Colombia, killing almost all aboard, including members of a Brazilian soccer team, had radioed controllers that he was running out of fuel. “Fuel emergency,” he said in one of his last transmissions. _____ • Lufthansa flights resume today. Its pilots’ strike has become the latest example of how the fabled competence of German conglomerates has fallen into crisis. • Maxim Oreshkin, 34, is Russia’s new economy minister. President Vladimir V. Putin will deliver his annual state of the nation speech today. • OPEC’s deal to cut production by 1. 2 million barrels a day sent oil prices soaring. • Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, is headed for a blockbuster I. P. O. next year. Spectacles, Snap’s sunglasses, are among the most compelling tech devices of recent years. • Eurozone unemployment figures, released today, are expected to fall below 10 percent for the first time since 2011. • Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • Ukrainian missile tests due to start today near Crimea could become another flash point in tensions with Russia. [Kyiv Post] • Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, proposed the creation of a unity government with Hamas, the militant rival faction that controls the Gaza Strip. [The New York Times] • Colombia’s Congress approved a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in a vote that was most likely the final hurdle in ratifying the agreement whose earlier version had been rejected in a referendum this fall. [The New York Times] • Melania Trump, the future American first lady, warned Slovenians not to use her name and likeness without her consent. [Politico] • In Gambia, voters will decide whether to reinstall President Yahya Jammeh, who is 22 years into his pledge to stay in power for a billion years. [The New York Times] • China’s 30 million “missing girls” may simply have not been registered, not aborted or killed after birth, new research suggests. [The Washington Post] • Eduardo Mendoza won this year’s Cervantes Prize, the world’s highest literary honor, for bringing a “new narrative style to Spanish fiction. ” [Associated Press] • The inventor of the Big Mac, Jim Delligatti, died at 98. [The New York Times] • Unesco declared Belgian beer culture as part of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage. Monks in the Italian town of Norcia, above, hope their beer brewing operation can help the town recover from the country’s worst earthquake since 1980. • “The world is crumbling, the machine rusting. ” This is a poem by Birgitta Jonsdottir, the politician trying to form a government in Iceland, where poetry is a national pastime. • Scotland said its bank notes were free of animal products after the Bank of England dismayed vegans by saying a new note contained a substance usually made from animal fat. • Using complex optics, a camera in Berlin creates portraits directly onto photo paper. • Pirelli, in its 2017 calendar, demonstrated that there is beauty and audacity at any age. • And here’s a Times investigative reporter reminiscing about how the Austrian Alps rekindled his passion for skiing. More than 30 years ago, a cow set a record for the most milk produced in 24 hours. Ubre Blanca (White Udder) was said to yield 110. 9 liters, or 29 gallons, that day. Her master was Fidel Castro. The supercow is one of many tales Cubans will remember as they say goodbye to their longtime leader this weekend. Ubre Blanca was part of Mr. Castro’s effort to solve a milk shortage. Long before Dolly the sheep or goats engineered to produce silk, Mr. Castro used artificial insemination to combine the Asian zebu’s hardiness with a Holstein’s high yield. Ubre Blanca was born in 1972 to instant stardom. Daily reports of her progress became news, though in the end, she was more or less the only success from the breeding experiment. Mr. Castro had a love for all things dairy, which included “Cuban Camembert” and a quest to build an ice cream parlor, Coppelia, to rival the American restaurant chain Howard Johnson’s. His ice cream obsession was also the closest the United States got to a successful assassination attempt — poison was to be slipped into Mr. Castro’s milkshake, but it froze to the side of the freezer instead. As for Ubre Blanca, she died in 1985. A government official saluted her, saying, “She gave her all for the people. ” _____ Remy Tumin contributed reporting. Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes. com. | 0 |
Every American should know the corrupt UN has been, and will continue to be, the one organization who decides which Muslim refugees will be flooding your hometown Who picks the Syrian refugees that resettle in the U.S.? Homeland Security? No, the United Nations, in concert with a global Islamist group. And they re sending more than 15,000, not the widely reported 10,000.In fact, Washington has no role in selecting the thousands of Syrian refugees coming to your hometown. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is really behind the effort, and he s referred an additional 5,000-plus Syrian nationals here.A new State Department report reveals that the U.S. already has accepted at least 15,000 Syrian refugee referrals from the UNHCR. The United States is one of 28 countries that have agreed to accept referrals from UNHCR as part of its ambitious international effort to secure permanent or temporary resettlement for 130,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016, the State Department said in Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2016. As of mid-2015, UNHCR has referred more than 15,000 Syrian refugees to the United States, the 71-page report adds. And these individuals are being screened to determine whether they are eligible. Of course, that security screening is a joke, as the FBI director and his top counterterrorism aide, as well as the Homeland Security and National Intelligence chiefs, have all testified.State notes in its report that security checks include biographic name checks for all refugee applicants and biometric (fingerprint) checks for refugee applicants. Only Syria is a failed state, and there are no fingerprint databases to check applicants against.The Islamic State has publicly vowed to use the refugee program to invade Europe and America, and allegedly has already infiltrated some 4,000 warriors among the flood of Syrian refugees.The Obama administration insists that it will catch any terrorist infiltrators through its interviewing process.But, the State Department report said, In some countries, such as Syria, Yemen and Eritrea, Department of Homeland Security adjudicators have been unable to travel to interview applicants for several years. That s not all. The UNHCR is working hand in hand with an international Islamist group of 57 Muslim nations the Organization of Islamic Cooperation whose founding charter seeks to propagate legitimate jihad and the norms of Islamic Shari ah. Saudi-based OIC, in fact, is tied to the radical Muslim Brotherhood. We are delighted to work with the OIC, said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.So it s really the U.N. and radical Islamists who are choosing your new Muslim neighbors.While the U.N. calls its project refugee resettlement, the Islamists call it hijra, or immigration jihad. Via: IBD | 1 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - Decorated by Pyongyang but blacklisted abroad, two scientists pictured with North Korea s leader ahead of Sunday s nuclear test play vital roles in the reclusive country s pursuit of a powerful weapon capable of striking the United States, experts say. North Korea s sixth nuclear test on Sunday showed the country has either developed a hydrogen bomb - which has vastly more destructive power than atomic bombs - or was very getting close to obtaining one. Photos released by the official KCNA news agency just hours before the test showed two men standing alongside leader Kim Jong Un as he inspected a new peanut-shaped warhead: 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. Several North Korea leadership experts say they are part of a cadre of weapons experts at the frontline of the young leader s stated ambition: Developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can carry a nuclear weapon to the United States. Compared to his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung who preferred small working groups and middle managers to deal with weapons programs, the 33-year-old leader has been more personally involved with these scientists, the experts say, citing his frequent appearances with the technocrats at state events, weapons tests and field inspections. It appears that Hong is spearheading the nuclear development program as a senior party official and Ri is in charge of nuclear tests such as hydrogen bombs on a working level, said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, who monitors the country s hierarchy and leadership. Reuters could not independently confirm the precise role of the two men. The North Korean government does not provide foreign media with a contact point in Pyongyang for comment by email, fax or phone. The North Korean mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment. The two scientists have become increasingly high profile as Pyongyang s weapons programs have advanced at a rapid pace under Kim s leadership, a Reuters review of North Korean state media showed. In January 2016, Hong and Ri were the first and second in line to receive medals personally awarded by Kim at a ceremony to mark the country s fourth nuclear test, state TV footage showed. Two months later, they accompanied a smiling Kim inspecting a silver-colored sphere, which the North said was a miniaturized warhead capable of being fitted to an ICBM. The wider group of weapons technocrats includes a trio of rocket scientists who have accompanied Kim on several crucial missile launches, including two July ICBM test launches that showed much of the U.S. mainland was now within range. Experts say Kim s hands-on approach may have contributed to faster development of its nuclear weapons and missiles, while allowing the scientists to develop personal links to the leader. (Kim) Jong Un goes out of his way to show they have a personal closeness to him, said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership, pointing to Kim s frequent appearances with cadres engaged with its weapons program. It s likely linked to the fact that (the scientists) are making huge accomplishments in this area, and thus making big accomplishments for Kim Jong Un as leader of North Korea. Like the three rocket scientists, Ri and Hong have been blacklisted in recent years by the United Nations, the United States or South Korea for their roles in North Korea s weapons programs. The United Nations blacklisted Ri in 2009 citing his involvement in the production of weapons-grade plutonium , while an expert UN panel this year noted Hong s key role in the country s nuclear program as it recommended he also be sanctioned. Ri is a former director of Yongbyon Nuclear Research Centre, North Korea s main nuclear facility north of Pyongyang. Yongbyon operates the country s first nuclear reactors and its only confirmed uranium enrichment facility. Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear science professor at Stanford University and one of the last Americans to visit Yongbyon, recalled meeting Ri during his several visits there between 2004 and 2008. In one of these visits, Ri showed Hecker around the plutonium reactor and the radiochemical lab there. Ri stated with pride that North Korea s nuclear researchers have mastered plutonium production with no outside help, Hecker said in a 2006 report about his Yongbyon visit to Standford s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Hecker did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Ri or the North Korean nuclear program. In a statement carried by KCNA hours before the sixth test, Kim said all components of the hydrogen bomb were homemade , allowing North Korea to produce nuclear weapons as many as it wants. Hong is a former chief engineer at Yongbyon and has been at the ruling party s munitions department since the mid-2000s. He rose to prominence after Kim Jong Un took power in December 2011 following the death of his father, according to South Korean government database. Hong, 75, has been seen accompanying Kim on nuclear tests and long-range missile launches since 2012, the South Korean database and pictures released by KCNA show. He was educated in central and eastern Europe and possibly in Russia as well, while Ri attended seminars abroad, North Korea leadership expert Madden said. They are top-level officials and the last generation of those who studied in the old Communist world in the good old days, he said. | 0 |
Diamond Reynolds was cool and composed as an anchorwoman on Wednesday night, her voice strong as she narrated the horrific scene around her into her phone that was streaming live on Facebook. “Please, officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him,” she said, as her boyfriend, Philando Castile, lay slumped and bleeding in the car next to her, fatally shot by a police officer. “You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir. ” By Thursday, Ms. Reynolds had given in to tears, fury and grief. “She’s not calm right now,” said an aunt, Joyce Doty, who lives in Indiana and was rushing to Minnesota to be with her niece. “She’s a hot mess. She is very, very upset right now. ” About Ms. Reynolds’s Facebook video, which had been viewed more than four million times by Thursday afternoon, Ms. Doty said, “She was doing what she had to do. ” Overnight, Ms. Reynolds, 26, has emerged as an extraordinary figure in the latest shooting of an at the hands of a police officer. Apparently seconds after Mr. Castile was shot, she began to broadcast the scene live on Facebook, pointing her phone in the direction of the police officer, whose gun was still drawn, and at Mr. Castile, who was in the driver’s seat and wearing a seatbelt, his soaked in blood. In doing so, she became not only a poised and influential witness, but a teller in real time of her own treatment by the police. Ordered out of the car, then to kneel near the car, she was handcuffed and put in the back of a police cruiser. Yet the Facebook report continued, a mix of confusion, outrage, shock and poised determination to tell her version of what had happened. On social media and on television, Ms. Reynolds was praised for her strength. “I truly believe Diamond Reynolds was spared her life because she’s got a greater purpose,” wrote the user @full_of_moxie on Twitter. “She’s going to get justice for #PhilandoCastile. ” Mr. Castile, Ms. Reynolds and her daughter spent part of Wednesday running errands and going grocery shopping, she told reporters. Around 9 p. m. she said, they were pulled over by the police, apparently for a traffic violation. While she streamed video in the aftermath of his shooting, dozens of friends on Facebook wrote messages of concern. Some said they were praying. Others urged her to stay calm and avoid angering the officer. A few tried to ascertain where she was and coordinate efforts to go pick her up. But she was taken into police custody immediately after the shooting and was not released, she said, until police officers dropped her off at her home at 5 a. m. Hours later, Ms. Reynolds stood in front of the governor’s mansion, surrounded by crowds of people protesting the killing of Mr. Castile, who was a longtime employee of the St. Paul school district. “I didn’t do it for pity, I didn’t do it for fame,” she told the cameras and people assembled. “I did it so that the world knows that the police are not here to protect and serve us. They are here to assassinate us. They are here to kill us. Because we are black. ” It was unclear if Ms. Reynolds had slept since her boyfriend was killed. She met with Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota, who later spoke about the shooting in unusually forceful terms, saying that he did not believe it would have happened if Mr. Castile was white. Ms. Reynolds, who goes by Lavish on Facebook, identifies herself on her page as a native of Chicago who works as a housekeeper at a hotel. She said on Thursday that she had no family in Minnesota. Family members said she spent her early childhood living on the South Side of Chicago. “They took my lifeblood,” she told reporters. “That was my best friend. I never got to say my last words to that man. ” Dawn Spikes, Ms. Reynolds’s said from her home in Chicago that the day had passed in a haze of confusion. For hours early on Thursday, they did not know where Ms. Reynolds was and feared that she had been harmed. By the end of the day, she was surrounded by friends and activists. The Rev. Al Sharpton, Ms. Spikes said, had called to offer plane fare to Ms. Reynolds’s mother so she could travel from Indiana to be with her daughter. Ms. Spikes had not brought herself to watch the full video from Wednesday night. But she said she was not surprised that Ms. Reynolds, who she described as strong and outspoken, reacted the way that she did. “Diamond was calm, and the baby was calm,” she said. “Like they go through this every day. But they don’t. ” | 0 |
ATHENS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama extolled the strengths of democracy from its Greek birthplace on Wednesday in a valedictory speech aimed at highlighting the values he sought to respect in office and prodding his Republican successor, Donald Trump, to follow suit. On a farewell trip to Europe, Obama tried to reassure allies that core U.S. priorities, including a commitment to the NATO military alliance, would continue under Trump, despite the New York businessman’s campaign trail statements that called that commitment into question. Obama portrayed the United States as an example of democracies prizing the peaceful transfer of power, even when ideas between the incoming and outgoing leaders are opposed. “The next American president and I could not be more different,” he said to an audience in Athens. “We have very different points of view, but American democracy is bigger than any one person.” Obama took care of some local business in his speech. He urged creditors to help Greece dig out of its mountain of debt and called on young people to stay in the country to spur its economic recovery. But his broader message extended beyond Athens. Step-by-step, Obama listed the values of U.S. democracy that he and fellow Democrats in the United States have accused Trump of violating during his presidential campaign, an implicit call on his successor to change course. In the same way that democracies are based on the peaceful resolution of disagreements within society, so cooperation is the best way to resolve conflicts with nations, he said. “That’s how with diplomacy we were able to shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot (and) with diplomacy the United States opened relations with Cuba,” Obama said, referring to two important milestones of his presidency. He noted how U.S. democracy had evolved to provide rights to women, African Americans, people with disabilities, and the gay community. Trump has been criticized for his attitudes toward women and for making fun of a disabled reporter. He has pledged to ban Muslims temporarily from entering the United States and to deport undocumented immigrants who are living in the country illegally. Democracy is why the United States welcomes “people of all races, and all religions and all backgrounds and immigrants who strive to give their children a better life,” Obama said. “Our democracies show that we are stronger than terrorists, fundamentalists and absolutists, who can’t tolerate difference. “Democracy is stronger than organizations like ISIS,” he said, using one of the names for Islamic State. “Because our democracies are inclusive, we are able to welcome people, and refugees in need, to our countries. And nowhere have we seen that compassion more evident than here in Greece,” he said, referring to the Greek response to Europe’s migrant crisis. Obama highlighted the importance of a free press to expose injustice. Trump banned certain news outlets from his campaign events for writing stories he did not like. The Obama administration has been criticized for its record on press freedom as well, particularly for prosecuting government sources who leak information to journalists. In his speech, Obama highlighted the importance of an independent judiciary to uphold the rule of law. During his campaign, Trump accused a U.S. judge of not being able to be impartial because of his Mexican heritage. Obama also noted that elections hold leaders accountable. “Any action by a president or any result of an election or any legislation that is proven flawed can be corrected through the process of democracy,” he said. | 0 |
Finally, the political revolt we’ve all been waiting for, David Stockman tells Lew Rockwell. October 28, 2016 | 1 |
I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two. Just the kind of person we need running our country a lying, corrupt and crooked woman; who feels she deserves the highest office in our nation because she comes equipped with the proper genitalia Any woman (or man) who supports this common criminal should be hanging their head in shame: | 0 |
It seems almost quaint, really, to go back to the start of this presidential campaign when the question du jour was whether Chris "just-sit-down-and-shut-up" Christie was too much of a bully to become president. Temperament, it seems, was a requirement.
Or even go back to Hillary Clinton's 2008 derision of Barack Obama as not ready to be president and take that 3 a.m. phone call about a national security crisis. Experience and depth of knowledge was also an issue.
But that's ancient history. Somehow, the notions of temperament and experience have been overtaken by the desire -- at least according to the polls so far in the GOP race -- for what passes as a show of strength, unbound by convention and unattached to complexity. Donald Trump, the undisputed frontrunner, reigns supreme, no matter what the half-formed solutions. As in: Muslims are trying to kill us, so let's keep them out. Illegal immigrants are "raping" and taking our jobs, so let's keep them out. Civility -- now called political correctness -- is ruining our national conversation, so let's abandon it.
The cliché is that presidential elections are about change, and that's true. Only this one may be about sea-change.
This is not something that comes from nowhere, out of the blue. Americans are, with good reason, truly afraid. According to our CNN polling , nearly two thirds believe an act of terrorism is likely in the homeland -- and that poll was taken before the carnage of San Bernardino. Eighty-one percent are convinced that the terrorists are here, living among us -- a completely rational conclusion.
Even more important -- and here's the key to Donald Trump's kingdom -- voters believe the political system, including (and maybe most of all) the President, have completely and utterly failed to get a handle on, or even appear to have a strategy for, security. And why would anybody blame anyone for thinking that? Sixty-eight percent say America's response to ISIS has not been tough enough, and a slightly smaller number say that when we do take action (in Iraq and Syria,) we fail. And that's not just among Republicans: Majorities in both parties say the United States has been ineffective in its response to the terror threat. This is not a new storyline. So this particular election-year story has all of the following: Disaffected and frustrated voters. Ineffective president. A level of public fear that has been rising steadily for at least a handful of years. Throw in anger at the collapsing political system, the establishment and the media, and Trump appears onstage like a vision emerging out of the clouds: the dark knight of our politics. Donald Trump is no fool. He's an experienced opportunist. He knows full well that he has stepped into a leadership vacuum that exists in American politics, and has been around for some time: Why should the American public have any respect at all for its institutions when they have been failing? When Congress can't legislate, or even behave? When the President -- elected with such high hopes -- fails to inspire or connect or even explain strategy? When others running for president often look like they're made of the same torn fabric, just with different holes? Trump flouts the conventions, and plays to fears. But for now, at least, it doesn't matter. In a large field of GOP candidates, Trump's solid core of support among one-third of Republicans -- a minority -- is enough to keep him on top, and any Republican running would like to have his numbers. His latest gambit -- a vague proposal to keep Muslims out of the country until "our country's representatives can figure out what's going on" is pure bombast, delivered to rally the faithful -- and he'll probably get a bump in the polls out of it. Jeb Bush calls it "unhinged." His fellow Republicans also punch at it, to varying degrees. But, for now at least, they're just punching jello. And hoping he doesn't break the mold. | 1 |
Fox News and Republican front-runner Donald Trump have been in a strange power struggle ever since Trump decided to boycott the network s Thursday night GOP debate because the business mogul can t stand to be in the same room as Fox host and debate moderator Megyn Kelly.Clearly shaken up since Kelly got the best of him the first time she moderated the Republican debate, Trump has decided to make the GOP lineup look like even more of a circus by skipping the debate. So far the network is standing by Kelly, stating that it wouldn t give into terrorizations toward any of our employees. But it appears that Fox might not be genuine, as it is still secretly trying to get Trump back in by using two secret weapons Trump s wife and daughter.On Wednesday morning, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough exposed Fox News CEO Roger Ailes for trying to get Ivanka and Melania Trump to change The Donald s mind about skipping the debate, but Trump refused to speak with him and insisted that he d only speak with network owner Rupert Murdoch. Scarborough stated: Per our sources, Roger Ailes was calling Ivanka, he was trying to get in touch with Trump, he was calling Melania, people that he s got a good relationship with, they love Roger. They have a great respect for him. But at this point, Trump s only gonna talk to Rupert, and they re going to figure it out. In response to Trump s childish boycott, there s been an outpouring of controversy in the media, even from Kelly s side. Earlier this week, Kelly welcomed liberal filmmaker Michael Moore onto her show, where the documentarian mocked Trump and congratulated the Fox host for scaring Trump out of the debate a task that not even his Republican rivals could pull off. Moore said, In all seriousness, let me say this, you ve done something that Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Rubio, Cruz none of them have been able to do. Which is to, essentially, frighten him. Meanwhile, Trump has continued to bash Kelly on social media, signaling that his immature, mostly one-sided feud with her is far from over. Solidifying Kelly s point during the first GOP debate that Trump had zero respect for women, Trump tweeted:TwitterFeatured image via Donald Trump Facebook | 0 |
ISIS supporters on Twitter are making open DEATH threats to bikers attending the Freedom Of Speech Round II event to be hosted today in front of a Phoenix, AZ mosque where two would be jihadists belonged. ISIS sympathizers, Nadir Soofi and Elton Simpson were shot dead by police after planning to commit jihad at a Draw Muhammed Cartoon contest hosted by Pamela Gellar in Garland, Texas on May 3, 2015. Freedom of Speech Rally Round II organizer, John Ritzheimer, a US Marine has become the target of ISIS supporters on Twitter. They ve been tweeting his home address and requesting fellow radical islamists who are seeking jannah take action against him:From Seekers of the Garden site: Do you desire Jannah? Are you seeking that unimaginable Paradise? Deep down inside, your soul yearns for it. Are you willing to go that extra mile to perfect your deen, so that you may obtain the highest level of Jannah? If not, then what holds you back? Does this dunya overwhelmingly fill your day so that you find less time to devote to Allah?Consider this: the Messenger of Allah, sallalahu alayhi wasalaam, said: Nobody who enters Paradise will (ever like to) return to this world even if he were offered everything on the surface of the earth (as an inducement) except the martyr who will desire to return to this world and be killed ten times for the sake of the great honor that has been bestowed upon him. [Muslim, Book 20, Number 4635]The truth is astonishing. The words are compelling. The commitment only returns an immeasurable reward whose likeness is not found in this dunya.Here are some of the tweets and re-tweets on Twitter threatening the lives of bikers (and any of their children) who attend the rally today: UPDATE: The account of DAWLATIL ISLAM has just been removed from Twitter. Freedom of Speech Round II organizer John Ritzheimer is moving forward with the armed rally. Watch CNN s Sara Sidner show her blatant disgust for the rally in the interview with Anderson Cooper leading up to his interview with organizer John Ritzheimer:https://youtu.be/vDc_6nioI7o | 1 |
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s Social Democrats (SPD) agreed to open exploratory talks on forming a government with Chancellor Angela Merkel, party leader Martin Schulz said, providing a chance to end a rare period of political deadlock in Europe s largest economy. The decision is a painful about-face for the center-left party, whose members fear it risks losing its identity and sustaining further electoral defeats if it signs up for another grand coalition with Merkel s conservatives. The SPD, Merkel s junior coalition partner since 2013, was punished by voters in September with its worst election result since World War Two. It initially planned to go into opposition, but was persuaded to consider a new coalition after Merkel failed to form a three-way government with two smaller parties. Schulz said the SPD had a responsibility to consider backing the government to contribute to Germany s stability. But he promised party faithful he would take a new approach to keep the SPD s identity stronger in coalition than previously. He would strive for a different kind of governing culture in which ministers communicated more directly with citizens, and demand more healthcare and education spending. We won t just keep doing as we ve been doing now and there won t be a continuation of the grand coalition we ve had until now in the form that we knew it. Merkel welcomed the SPD s decision during a speech at a congress of the CSU, the arch-conservative Bavarian sister party of her Christian Democrats, in Nuremburg. She urged quick action on forming a stable government, 11 weeks after the vote. I have great respect for this decision when I look at the path the Social Democrats have taken since Sept. 24, she said. We have a huge responsibility to form a stable government. Merkel, who met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Brussels on Friday, said Germany needed to ensure its ability to work with France to strengthen the European Union. A coalition with the SPD is Merkel s only realistic chance of securing a fourth term in office without a new election, after both her conservatives and the SPD suffered punishing losses in September. SPD leaders hope to sell the about-face to skittish members by forcing Merkel s conservatives to concede a raft of popular worker-friendly measures in exchange for their support, either for a coalition or a minority government. Schulz said talks would not begin in earnest before early January. Party members must still ratify any plan to return to government, meaning a final result could still be months away, even as much of the continent looks to Germany for leadership on euro zone governance reform and security policy. The SPD s desire to extract meaningful concessions could slow things further, particularly if the parties seek common ground on immigration. The SPD wants to retain the right for successful asylum seekers to bring their families to Germany, but Merkel s conservative Bavarian allies, fearing defeat in regional elections next year, are equally adamant it should be scrapped. A poll for ARD television showed that 61 percent of voters would support a renewed grand coalition between the conservatives and the SPD. | 0 |
During his career, Harry Belafonte has been a singer, an actor, a friend to Martin Luther King Jr. a Unicef ambassador, an activist and more. “I’m at a time of life when I’m examining the entire journey,” he said one recent afternoon at his Manhattan home, lamenting how the dreams of the civil rights movement are far from realized. “When I was 20 and 30, my visions for what the world would be, all things were possible. ” Mr. Belafonte, for whom art and activism have been inextricably linked, said his life is a “call and response,” and, at 89, he isn’t ready to retire from being one of society’s most passionate and visible advocates just yet. This weekend, “Many Rivers to Cross,” a “music, art and justice” festival in the Atlanta area focuses on three issues: voting, mass incarceration, and the relationship between community and law enforcement. The lineup features an array of genres and musical styles: John Legend Carlos Santana Goapele Dave Matthews and Tip Harris, better known as the rapper T. I. are scheduled to take the stage, alongside Chris Rock, the poet Sonia Sanchez, the actor Jesse Williams and the activist Umi Selah of the Dream Defenders. The event will raise money for Sankofa. org, a social justice organization founded by Mr. Belafonte that unites organizations and artists in the fight against problems like income disparity and inequities in the justice system. “What makes a movement work are thousands of parts that come together and express itself in favor of a given destination or objective,” he said. “You have to find men and women who are willing to play the role that each of these things demand. ” With Election Day nearing in what has been a contentious presidential race exposing deep ideological divides, registration services will be available to help attendees ahead of nationwide deadlines. “The vote is perhaps the single most important weapon in our arsenal,” Mr. Belafonte said. An area called the social justice village will feature representatives from over 40 organizations. The goal is to allow festivalgoers to “walk away with tools to better go out and support the causes they care about,” said Gina Belafonte, who helped organize the event with her father. Mr. Belafonte said, “When Trayvon Martin was shot and our community went into a response to that, there was no question in my mind that America was being awakened to its reality. ” Thinking back to the 1950s and ’60s, when he toiled alongside activists including Dr. King, Julian Bond and Fannie Lou Hamer, Mr. Belafonte recalled how Dr. King represented a “harvest of opportunity. ” He added: “The energy that went into the movement disappeared because people were reaping the benefits. We’ve forgotten what the opportunity was about. ” In 2012, a brouhaha ensued after Mr. Belafonte asserted that today’s celebrities have “turned their back on social responsibility” and mentioned Jay Z and Beyoncé. Jay Z responded in an interview with Rap Radar’s Elliott Wilson by saying among other things, “my presence is charity. ” Mr. Belafonte said that he extended an olive branch and that he and Jay Z met one on one. But Mr. Belafonte fervently maintains that artists must do more to champion causes. “There’s no evidence that artists are of the same passion and of the same kind of commitment of the artists of my time,” he said. “The absence of black artists is felt very strongly because the most visible oppression is in the black community. ” Mr. Belafonte provides counsel to celebrities and organizations, saying that he draws parallels between the roadblocks and successes of the ’50s and ’60s and those of the present political movements. Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, said conversations with Mr. Belafonte had proved critical. “Mr. B plays no games with us,” she said. “When he doesn’t think we’re doing the right thing, he tells us. He said, ‘Look, you need the wisdom of your elders, but we need your energy right now. ’” T. I. who will perform at “Many Rivers to Cross” on Saturday, said he felt compelled to take action his latest EP, “Us or Else,” addresses interactions between law enforcement and blacks, among other issues, and part of its proceeds benefit Sankofa. org. “It just seemed all too consistent, all too repeated, all too ignored,” he said of police killings of black people. In the widely viewed video for the song “Warzone,” which he plans to perform at the festival, he spotlights the cases of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Philando Castile. “It was very insightful to hear from someone who had been through so much and been a part of history in so many ways,” he said of his meeting with Mr. Belafonte. With his 90th birthday on his mind, Mr. Belafonte paused to take stock. “I wake up at the age of 90, and I look around and say, ‘What do we need now? ’” he said. “Well, the same things needed now are the same things needed before,” he went on. “Movements don’t die because struggle doesn’t die. ” | 0 |
The Libertarian Party has been shooting itself in the foot since the beginning with large amounts of misstatements, judgement errors and wrong policies, but now they finally decided to shoot themselves in the head.
What Libertarian VP Bill Weld just did, is going to destroy and bury the Libertarian Party forever. There is no going back from this one.
I mean, WHAT IS ALEPPO??? , I guess I’m having an Aleppo moment (when being asked to name a single foreign leader), sticking his tongue at a woman who interviewed him , having mental collapse reactions on camera , are imbecilic errors which some followers could forgive but no one can forgive this one.
So this is what the Libertarian movement was all about. Total stupidity, betrayal and cuckoldry!
Ron Paul, chief Libertarian cuckold whom we strongly supported back in the past (and you can search and look at our older 2008-2012 articles as proof that we actually DID strongly supported him) endorsed the Libertarian Party first on CNN and then on FOX Business clowns Bill Weld and Gary Johnson who threw a George Washington gun replica in the garbage , pledged to sign TPP , open borders plus many others and now this, clown number 2: Bill Weld directly endorsing Hillary Clinton.
Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld is under fire from members of his own party and from GOP after espousing support for Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Appearing on MSNBC’s The Rachel Madcow Show Tuesday, Weld told Libertarian voters in the battleground state of North Carolina to instead give their vote to Hillary, claiming “Donald Trump is a threat to the country”. Sure he is! He’s a THREAT to corruption and that’s exactly why the people want him.
“We are making our case that we’re fiscally responsible and socially inclusive and welcoming and we think we got on the merits the best ticket of the three parties if you will. And so we’d like to get there.”
“Having said that as I think you’re aware I see a big difference between the R candidate and the D candidate and I’ve been at some pains to say that I fear for the country if Mr. Trump should be elected. I think it’s a candidacy without any parallel that I can recall. It’s content-free and very much given to stirring up envy and resentment and even hatred. I think it would be a threat to the conduct of our foreign policy and our position in the world at large.”
Stating voters in North Carolina may decide the outcome of the 2016 election, Madcow asked why a Libertarian voter fearing Trump should vote for Hillary rather than Weld and his running mate Gary Johnson.
“I’m here vouching for Mrs. Clinton,” Weld told Maddow, “and I think it’s high time somebody did.”
Earlier this year, Weld said he would dedicate remaining efforts in the campaign toward staving off a Trump presidency.
“The libertarians are reaching levels of cuckoldry never thought possible,” writes Chris Menahan for Information Liberation .
After this one, the Libertarian movement is DEAD, the very heads of the Libertarian movement, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson and Bill Weld killed the movement! Libertarians are disgusting cucks who like to watch their wives getting kissed by other men (censored version). And this is exactly what they are, cucks! Just watch the photo above, who in the world names their WI-FI “Cuckoo”??? They even spelled WI-FI “Wifi” with small letters and no minus line. Someone who would read it fast without paying too much attention, could end up reading “Wife: Cuckold”. You can’t make this stuff up!
They like to watch the Constitution, morality, ethics, principles being screwed by Hillary Clinton!
Libertarians/cuckservatives: muh principles!
We, the EU Times: Well what’s your principles?
Libertarians/cuckservatives: Open borders, TPP, destruction of 2nd Amendment, Christian oppression and Muslim immigration, pro-abortion, outsourcing of jobs, not standing up to government corruption and vote rigging! Define those principles of yours you cuckolds!
Ron Paul is a disgrace for supporting this cuckoldry! We disavow Ron Paul and we SPIT on all his previous work! We regret ever supporting him! Ron Paul got himself rich with millions of dollars in grassroots donations and when they stole votes from him (and they did steal from Ron Paul) the weakling cuck that he is didn’t had the courage to stand up to himself and to his voters and say or do something. He’s a snake just as bad as Ted Cruz and Glenn Beck!
The Libertarians are DEAD, Long live the Nationalists! Thanks to Trump, we now have a better, improved movement, more authentic and principled than ever before!
Here’s principled libertarian Bill Weld endorsing Hillary Clinton:
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Donald Trump just delivered a humble and heartfelt speech in Detroit.https://youtu.be/BecyLcXD2LgHe s been bashed on social media all day for his visit. Hillary s thugs were out in force because they re shaking in their boots that Trump might win. The people deserve better and hopefully they ll wake up and break free of doing the same thing they ve done for decades. Detroit needs someone like Trump!DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY:I m protesting #TrumpInDetroit pic.twitter.com/UucWlm4aK8 madamecain (@madamecain) September 3, 2016Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump praised the black church Saturday at the Greater Faith Ministries International church as he made his first direct outreach to African-American voters.TRUMP IN DETROIT: I will always defend your church so important and defend your right to worship, said Trump, who was introduced by Bishop Wayne T. Jackson to polite applause.The New York businessman emphasized issues such as fighting for good-paying jobs, expanded school choice and a civil rights agenda in his first campaign appearance before a predominantly African-American audience. He acknowledged the discrimination African-Americans still face in the country and pledged to work to heal it. We re all brothers and sisters, he said in measured tones from notes during almost 10 minutes of remarks. We must love each other and support each other and we are all in this together. The nation is too divided and talk past each other, Trump said. I m here today to learn about how to move beyond racial and economic divides. I am here to listen to you, he said.The real estate developer noted that he had seen people sitting on the street and inactivity and a lack of jobs in the surrounding neighborhood when he came to the church. We re going to turn it around. We re going to turn it around, pastor, Trump said to Bishop Jackson after noting that he had seen people sitting on the street and the lack of activity and jobs in the surrounding neighborhood.Before the service, he shook hands with the audience and showed off a baby to the congregation. Trump sat in service with Omarosa, the villain from his The Apprentice reality television series and his director of African-American outreach.He also introduced and hugged Dr. Ben Carson, the native Detroiter who ran against him in the Republican presidential primaries and now is an adviser. It was uncertain whether Carson would take Trump on a tour of a Detroit neighborhood after the service. VIA: DETROIT NEWS | 1 |
Election crossroads: Socialism or capitalism? Exclusive: Jane Chastain explains impact of Dems' 'living wage' proposal Published: 20 mins ago Jane Chastain About | | Archive Jane Chastain is a Southern California-based broadcaster, author and political commentator. Despite her present emphasis on politics, Jane always will be remembered as the nation's first female TV sportscaster, spending 17 years on the sports beat. Jane blogs at JaneChastain.com. She is a pilot who lives on a private runway. Print
Our country is at a crossroads. Never before have we faced such an obvious fork in the road. One road, the one favored by politician Hillary Clinton and her Democratic colleagues, promises to lead us to a socialist utopia. The other, favored by businessman Donald Trump and some of his Republican colleagues, promises to get us back on the road toward free-market capitalism.
It is no secret that most career politicians lean toward a socialist system. In this system they control the lion’s share of our money and, in turn, hand out favors. In this system, they make the major decisions that affect our lives. As the government accumulates more and more power, we invariably end up with less. Statistics show that the longer a politician stays in power, the more of our hard-earned money he or she spends. Yet we keep electing the same people over and over and over again, expecting a different result.
We’ve been headed down the road toward socialism for quite some time, and this could be the last fork in the road we will have to get us back to the free-market system that has given this country the highest standard of living in the world. No, it isn’t perfect, but it works for everyone who is willing to work hard and wants to improve his or her life.
Notice what I didn’t say is “simply willing to work hard.” There is the belief by some that if you simply work hard, you should have what these politicians now call a “living wage” – the income necessary to support a family of four and supply all its basic needs, which is around $85,000 a year in some parts of the country. The Democrats want to replace the minimum wage, which is a training wage, with this living wage. That completely kicks the bottom rungs out from under the economic ladder Americans have traditionally climbed to reach their goals and live independently.
Ideally, it would mean that you could take a job flipping hamburgers and never gain any skills or accept any responsibility, and live as comfortably as the guy or gal who does.
Unfortunately, this so-called living wage will destroy jobs. It will cause companies to automate, and those that cannot will begin moving offshore at an even faster rate.
But this living wage is only part of what the Democrats want to do in the name of fairness.
This, no doubt, appeals to many in this poor economy who have lost all hope, so they are lulled into thinking that the socialist road is much better.
Wages have remained flat for far too long, but the Democrats are proposing raising taxes even higher on businesses and job creators.
Most people simply do not understand that businesses don’t pay taxes. They are passed down to consumers in the form of higher prices. And when the price of the necessary goods and services becomes too high, such as we’ve seen in Obamacare, there is a large outcry. That’s when the government steps in and takes over the means of production and the control of those services. That’s when the door to socialism/communism slams shut.
They tell us if we take this socialist road there is nothing to fear. Our benevolent government will take care of us. They are offering us free college – or almost free loans – in order to get the job we want at a salary we think we deserve. And if we don’t get that job, the government is going to give us free health care, free food and free housing. Under President Hillary, there will be free child care, free preschool and paid family leave. What a country!
If we don’t reach our goals, everything will be OK because Social Security and Medicare will be there to finance our retirement, and if that isn’t enough, the government will put us in a retirement center where we live out the remainder of our years playing checkers or watching television.
What about the fact that Social Security and Medicare are going broke? How long can we keep printing money to keep us afloat before our economy collapses? They never talk about that.
As British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Don’t be fooled: This election is about a lot more than the two personalities at the top of the ticket. It’s an important fork in the road: One fork requires hard work and sacrifice but offers freedom. The other offers a free lunch.
Media wishing to interview Jane Chastain, please contact . Receive Jane Chastain's commentaries in your email BONUS: By signing up for Jane Chastain's alerts, you will also be signed up for news and special offers from WND via email. Name * | 1 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea s foreign ministry said on Tuesday the United States decision to put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism is expected to contribute to the peaceful decentralization of the North. The announcement will not change the joint stance of South Korea and the United States in trying to bring North Korea to dialogue, the ministry said in a text message to reporters. | 1 |
The spoiled brats protesting on colleges campuses across America could benefit from a little common sense advice from 13 year old conservative, CJ Pearson Cj Pearson is running for Chairman of the Georgia Teen Republicans. If you live in Georgia, you might consider supporting him.You can also donate to his #StandwittCJ campaign here: https://rally.org/CJPearson | 0 |
During an interview with DNC Chairman Tom Perez on Thursday’s edition of MSNBC’s “MTP Daily,” host Chuck Todd asked Perez why he didn’t take the Montana special election for the US House “seriously” sooner, and told Perez “you didn’t put your money where your mouth is. ” Todd said, “[Y]ou caught a break here at the end. … But the question is whether the Democrats were there in time to take advantage. I know it’s late here. But you look at the spending advantage. The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has outspent the Democrats 3 to 1. The Republican PACs, including one led by Speaker Ryan, has outspent the Democratic PACs in this race 16 to 1. Your own organization would not tell us how much money you’ve spent, but the RNC has spent almost a million dollars. The fact of the matter is, why didn’t you guys take this race seriously earlier? You did — you have lately, but you — the money, you didn’t put your money where your mouth is. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0 |
The U.S. is the great enemy of mankind! raved Ernesto Che Guevara in 1961. Against those hyenas there is no option but extermination. We will bring the war to the imperialist enemies very home, to his places of work and recreation. The imperialist enemy must feel like a hunted animal wherever he moves. Thus we ll destroy him! We must keep our hatred against them (the U.S.) alive and fan it to paroxysms! -Che Guevara, head of Cuba s Foreign Liberation Department, Nov. 17, 1962We have a president who won t tie Islamic terrorists to Islam, has cut a one-sided deal with Iran, as they continue to chant death to America, and has made an open alliance with a communist country who has a long history of hating America. The same country Obama is fighting to normalize relations with, would have committed an unspeakable act of terrorism against us, had our FBI not thwarted their plans. Why the rush to embrace so many nations and leaders who have a long history of wanting to harm us Barry? On the morning of November 17th, 1962, FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. took on all the trappings of a military command post, according to historian William Breuer. The previous night an intelligence puzzle had finally come together. The resulting picture staggered the FBI men. And these had served at their posts during WWII and the height of the Cold War. They d seen plenty. Now they had mere days to foil a crime against their nation to rival Hideki Tojo s.The agents and officers were haggard and red-eyed but seriously wired. Like hawks on a perch they d been watching the plot unfold, sweating bullets the whole time. It was nearing time to swoop down on Fidel Castro and Che Guevara s agents, busy with a terror plot that would have made ISIS drool decades later.Alan Belmont was second to J Edgar Hoover at the time. Raymond Wannall headed the Bureau s Intelligence Division. That nerve-jangling morning both were in Belmont s office just down the hall from Hoover s. Both were burning up the telephone lines to their agents in New York. On one phone they had Special Agent John Malone who ran the New York field office. On other lines they talked with several carloads of FBI agents slinking around Manhattan. These were keeping a touch-and-go, but more or less constant, surveillance on the ringleaders of the Cuban terror plot.Castro s agents had targeted Macy s, Gimbels, Bloomingdales, and Manhattan s Grand Central Station with a dozen incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT. The holocaust was set for detonation the following week, on the day after Thanksgiving.A little perspective: For their March 2004 Madrid subway blasts, all 10 of them, that killed and maimed almost 2,000 people, al-Qaeda used a grand total of 100 kilos of TNT. Castro and Che s agents planned to set off five times that explosive power in the three biggest department stores on earth, all packed to suffocation and pulsing with holiday cheer on the year s biggest shopping day. Macy s get s 50,000 shoppers that one day. Thousands of New Yorkers, including women and children actually, given the date and targets, probably mostly women and children were to be incinerated and entombed. ( We greeted each other as old friends, gushed Jimmy Carter when visiting Fidel Castro in 2002.)At the time, the FBI relied heavily on HUMINT (Human Intelligence.) So they d expertly penetrated the plot. One by one the ringleaders were ambushed. The first was named Roberto Santiesteban and he was nabbed while walking down Riverside Drive. As the agents closed in, Santiesteban saw them and took off! And as he ran, Santiesteban was jamming paper in his mouth and chewing furiously.But six FBI agents were after him, all fleet of foot themselves. Finally they closed the ring and triangulated the suspect. Santiesteban fell, raging and cursing, flailing his arms and jabbing his elbows like a maniac. They grabbed his arm and bent it behind his back just as he was reaching for his pistol.While this group got their man, another FBI squad arrested a couple named Elsa Montero and Jose Gomez-Abad as they left their apartment on West 71st Street. The FBI speculated that as many as 30 others might have been in on the plot, but these were the head honchos. Had those detonators gone off, 9/11 might be remembered as the SECOND deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.Some of these plotters belonged to the New York Chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, an outfit that became MUCH better known a year later on that very week. Incidentally, at the time of the Manhattan terror plot, the Fair Play For Cuba Committee also included among its members, CBS correspondent Robert Taber (an early version of Dan Rather, who conducted Castro s first network television soft-soaping on Aug. 30, 1957), along with The Nation magazine co-owner Alan Sagner. In 1996 President Clinton appointed Alan Sagner head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.Terror-plotters Roberto Santiesteban, Elsa Montero and Jose Gomez-Abad belonged to the Castro-Cuban Mission to the U.N. and escaped prosecution by indignantly claiming diplomatic immunity. Via: TownhallIt s hard to imagine any American would ever consider Che Guevara to be a hero And then again, maybe it s not so hard to imagine:Maria Isabel is the campaign volunteer who hung this Che Guevara poster in the Obama campaign office in Houston, TX. She s no low-level volunteer either. She is a campaign precinct captain and the co-chair of the Houston Obama Leadership Team. | 0 |
(Reuters) - U.S. Senator Al Franken, trying to salvage his political career amid accusations of groping or inappropriately touching women, said on Sunday he does not plan to resign but called himself “embarrassed and ashamed.” Franken, a Democrat and former comedian who has represented Minnesota in the Senate since 2009, said in a round of media interviews - his first since the allegations surfaced on Nov. 16 - that he looked forward to returning to his job on Monday. “I’m embarrassed and ashamed. I’ve let a lot of people down and I’m hoping I can make it up to them and gradually regain their trust,” Franken told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Franken resisted comparisons between his behavior and that of Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat from Alabama who has been accused of improper conduct involving teenage girls decades ago. “I’m going to take responsibility. I’m going to be held accountable through the ethics committee,” said Franken, whose behavior is being investigated by the Senate ethics panel. “And I’m going to hopefully be a voice in this that is helpful... Again, I respect women. What kills me about this is it gives people a reason to believe I don’t respect women.” Franken told Minneapolis television station WCCO in another interview that his predicament was “a bitter irony” because he has championed women’s’ issues and has employed them in both his campaign and Senate offices. “I’ve put them (women) in the highest jobs in my office,” he said. In a separate interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Franken, one of the leading liberal voices in the Senate, said has no plans to quit. When asked if he had considered resigning, Franken said: “No, no. The ethics committee is looking into this and I will cooperate fully with it.” Pressed about stepping aside and allowing a woman to take his seat, Franken told Minnesota Public Radio, “I’m committed to working as hard as I can here in the Senate for the people of Minnesota.” Franken’s office had previously issued statements in which he either apologized or said he could not remember behaving in the manner the women have described. He has not denied any of the allegations. Franken was first accused of sexual misconduct by radio broadcaster Leann Tweeden. She said Franken had forcibly kissed her during a 2006 USO war zone tour, and a photo showed him with his hands over her chest while she was sleeping. Four days later, a woman named Lindsay Menz told CNN that Franken had touched her buttocks while the two were being photographed in 2010 at the Minnesota State Fair. Franken has apologized to Tweeden, and has said he does not remember the incident with Menz. Last week, two other women told the Huffington Post Franken had touched their buttocks in separate incidents. The article did not provide the names of those two accusers. “I don’t remember these photographs, I don’t,” Franken told the Star Tribune. “This is not something I would intentionally do.” “I have been reflecting on this,” Franken told Minnesota Public Radio of the allegations. “I want to be a better man.” Franken is among a long list of celebrities and politicians who have been accused of sexual misconduct. The recent wave of accusations, some of them dating back decades, began in October. | 1 |
Hillary Clinton has a long history of violence and abusing and men, women and security officers.Of course, you ll never see any of these quotes from the condescending former First Witch in the mainstream media, but that doesn t mean they didn t happen. Hillary has a reputation for having a vulgar potty mouth and a nasty disposition. Wouldn t it be nice if the GOP leaders cared as much about her negatives as an 11 year old Trump story.Here are a few of her more memorable lines: Where is the G-damn f**king flag? I want the G-damn f**king flag up every f**king morning at f**king sunrise. (From the book Inside The White House by Ronald Kessler, p. 244 Hillary to the staff at the Arkansas Governor s mansion on Labor Day, 1991) You sold out, you mother f**ker! You sold out! From the book Inside by Joseph Califano, p. 213 Hillary yelling at Democrat lawyer. Son of a b*tch! (From the book American Evita by Christopher Anderson, p. 259 Hillary s opinion of President George W. Bush when she found out he secretly visited Iraq on Thanksgiving just days before her highly publicized trip.)F**k off! It s enough that I have to see you shit-kickers every day, I m not going to talk to you too!! Just do your G*damn job and keep your mouth shut. (From the book American Evita by Christopher Anderson, p. 90 Hillary to her State Trooper bodyguards after one of them greeted her with Good morning. You f**king idiot. (From the book Crossfire p. 84 Hillary to a State Trooper who was driving her to an event.) If you want to remain on this detail, get your f**king ass over here and grab those bags! (From the book The First Partner p. 259 Hillary to a Secret Service Agent who was reluctant to carry her luggage because he wanted to keep his hands free in case of an incident.) Get f**ked! Get the f**k out of my way!!! Get out of my face!!! (From the book Hillary s Scheme p. 89 Hillary s various comments to her Secret Service detail agents.) Stay the f**k back, stay the f**k away from me! Don t come within ten yards of me, or else! Just f**king do as I s ay, Okay!!!? (From the book Unlimited Access , by Clinton FBI Agent in Charge, Gary Aldrige, p. 139 Hillary screaming at her Secret Service detail.) Why do I have to keep proving to people that I am not a liar?! (From the book The Survivor, by John Harris, p. 382 Hillary in her 2000 Senate campaign) Where s the miserable c*ck sucker? (From the book The Truth About Hillary by Edward Klein, p. 5 Hillary shouting at a Secret Service officer) Put this on the ground! I left my sunglasses in the limo. I need those sunglasses. We need to go back! (From the book Dereliction of Duty p. 71-72 Hillary to Marine One helicopter pilot to turn back while en route to Air Force One.) Come on Bill, put your dick up! You can t f**k her here!! (From the book Inside The White House by Ronald Kessler, p. 243 Hillary to Gov. Clinton when she spots him talking with an attractive female at an Arkansas political rally) You know, I m going to start thanking the woman who cleans the restroom in the building I work in. I m going to start thinking of her as a human being -Hillary Clinton (From the book The Case Against Hillary Clinton by Peggy Noonan, p. 55) The only way to make a difference is to acquire power (From the book I ve Always Been A Yankee Fan by Thomas D. Kuiper, p 68 Hillary to a friend before starting law school.)Trump talks smack with men. Hillary Clinton abuses people.Via: Gateway Pundit | 1 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-TBfkqk7gU | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump, who made a fortune in real estate before running for political office, has decided to donate his first-quarter salary of $78,333 to the National Park Service, the White House announced on Monday. During the presidential campaign, Trump said he would donate his $400,000 annual salary if he were elected. “That’s no big deal for me,” he told a town-hall style meeting in September 2015. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose agency oversees the 100-year-old protector of 417 national parks, monuments and other sites, said he was “thrilled” at Trump’s decision. “We are going to dedicate and put it against the infrastructure on our nation’s battlefields,” Zinke said, appearing alongside White House spokesman Sean Spicer at a daily briefing. “We are about $229 million behind in deferred maintenance on our battlefields alone,” Zinke said. | 1 |
at 1:43 pm 3 Comments
By now, everyone on planet earth has heard about the bombshell news just announced by the FBI that it was re-opening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Here’s the text of FBI head James Comey’s letter to Congressional leaders.
Obviously, lots of people are out there pontificating on what, if anything, this means. As such, I’m going to add my two cents to the conversation.
I’ve prided myself on unemotionally calling this election how I see it the whole time, because I’m neither a Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump supporter. Being free of the tremendous baggage that comes with cheerleading a particular candidate in this contentious election, I had consistently predicted a Trump victory until the Access Hollywood tape emerged. At that point I penned a thought-piece titled, Donald Trump is in Trouble – Part 2 , in which I changed my forecast to a Hillary Clinton victory.
Here’s some of what I wrote:
After watching yesterday’s audio and reading through the Wikileaks revelations, my prediction has changed for the first time this election. All things equal from here on out (meaning no additional huge revelations against Hillary), I think Hillary Clinton will defeat Donald Trump. I don’t think it’s going to be a landslide, but I think she’s probably going to win. The audio was very harmful for Donald Trump, and now I’m going to explain why.
First of all, if you want to accurately forecast the outcome of this election you need to get into the minds of the masses. Just like trading financial markets, what you think is right doesn’t matter. What matters is what everyone else collectively thinks, and whether or not they’re going to get off their asses and vote. A big part of why I thought Trump would win related to the fact that I believe many people were simply looking for an excuse to vote for him. Justified disgust with the status quo in general, and Hillary Clinton in particular, pushed millions of Americans into the camp of being willing to take a gamble on Trump despite disliking him personally and disagreeing with him on many issues. I felt strongly that there were millions upon millions of Americans you could place into this category — people who were “flirting with the idea of voting Trump.” I believe a significant amount of these people will not vote for him as a result of the audio. Will it be the majority of them? Probably not, but it will be a material number and arguably enough to swing the election. No, I don’t think these voters will shift to Hillary, and no, I don’t think committed Trump voters will change their minds. However, I do think enough of these willing to be convinced, leaning-Trump types will now stay home or vote third party. It’s these voters who I expected to swing the election in Trump’s favor, and they are now unreliable.
Does Trump’s vulgarity excuse the incalculable crimes of Hillary Clinton and her husband, making them preferable in this election? No it doesn’t, but that’s not the point of this article. Most voters are too superficial, too busy trying to survive and too uninformed to weigh all the very important issues rationally. As an example, think about how most conversations are going to go down this weekend. Let’s say you’re out with a bunch of friends for drinks tonight. Someone says, “so have you seen the Trump audio?” If someone in the group hasn’t, someone will pull out their phone and it’ll be watched in 3 minutes. What if someone then says, “yeah, but have you seen the leaked Hillary emails?” What will your response be? You can’t adequately explain the importance of that to your friends in 3 minutes. Instead, you’ll have to send them a lengthy article that they’ll never read. So by the end of this weekend, pretty much everyone in America will have heard the Trump audio, while maybe 10% will take the time to analyze what came out of Wikileaks. There goes your election.
Understanding the craziness of the election, I finished the piece with the following.
Despite all of that, I still can’t say with certainty that Hillary will win. However, I do think the landscape has changed enough, that for the first time this entire election season, I am no longer confident of a Trump victory. Then again, I was absolutely convinced that Hillary was unelectable after she collapsed on 9/11 and mislead everyone about her health, and I was wrong about that. That’s how completely crazy this election is, and there’s still a month to go. Anything can happen, particularly with the debate coming up this Sunday. So while it’s certainly not out of the question, there will have to be some very material events over the next month to put Trump back in the driver’s seat.
While the Wikileaks emails have been an important factor in keeping this race close, I didn’t think they were sufficient to alter my forecast of a Clinton victory. I think the reopening of the FBI investigation is enough of a black swan to materially change the course of this race.
Clinton supporters will read this and think I’m insane. They will think this because they are anticipating a landslide victory for Hillary. I never expected a landslide, so I think this news tips the election into a total tossup situation. My reasoning for the change is the same that led me to switch my forecast to Hillary after the Access Hollywood video was released. The primary reason I initially thought Trump would win related to the fact I believed enough people would be willing to vote for a person they don’t really like in order to blow up the status quo. I felt that the video recording of Trump’s vulgar commentary was enough to put those people into the absentee or third party column, despite millions of Americans looking for an excuse to vote for Trump due to the well understood awfulness of Hillary. This has changed, and voters now have the excuse they needed to vote Trump.
That reason is simple. The problems with Hillary Clinton will never go away. They will always resurface or new problems will emerge, and it has nothing to do with a “vast rightwing conspiracy” (or Putin). It has to do with her. It has to do with the fact that her and her husband are career crooks, warmongers, and shameless looters of the American public. This re-opening of the FBI investigation just hammers all of that home for everyone. We know what 4 years of Hillary will look like. It’ll be Obama cronyism on steroids, plus endless investigations with a side of World War 3. I don’t think people want that, and so more Americans than the pundits realize will take a gamble on Trump.
As a caveat, the above forecast assumes this new FBI investigation is not closed before November 8th. If it is, I think she’ll win. If not, I think Trump has even odds to win, if not better.
Of course, with 11 days left in this crazy election, many more black swans could emerge. Stay tuned.
In Liberty, | 1 |
Non-mainstream poll shows Trump poised to win with 76% chance Alternative media poll shows Trump leaving Clinton in the dust November 6, 2016 Momma Loves The Donald/Flickr ( INTELLIHUB ) — An independent, non-mainstream poll shows Trump is favored to win the presidential election against Hillary 76 — 24, which is quite the contrast to so-called mainline polling data.
An open poll taken by Intellihub News via Twitter shows Hillary with 24%, compared to Trumps 76%, at the time this article was published. Who will win the #election2016 and become our next President?
— Intellihub (@intellihubnews) November 6, 2016
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Hillary “holds a 4-point lead over Donald Trump.”
There are still some 16 hours left on the poll until it expires, so cast your vote now. ©2016. INTELLLIHUB.COM. All Rights Reserved. | 1 |
Never underestimate the impact a single person can have. Just last weekend, one of the most powerful stands against racism we ve seen this year was performed by a lone black woman.Tess Asplund, who is a 42-year-old anti-racism activist in Sweden, took a courageous stand against hundreds of neo-Nazis from the far-right group Nordic Resistance Movement. As she saw the group of 300 white men marching down the street, Asplund protested by standing in front of the advancing group of men, looked them dead in the eyes and raised her fist in an act of defiance. The group pushed her out of the way, but not before the iconic moment was captured on camera. This photograph has now been shared around the world.Twitter#TessAsplund sfida i nazisti svedesi con un pugno chiuso. Immagine simbolo dell antifascismo. pic.twitter.com/vQ7X3nb4Sm Antonio Sicilia (@siciliantonio) May 5, 2016Even famous author J.K. Rowling was inspired by Asplund s message.TwitterTwitterWhat Asplund did was more than courageous, and the impact of her protest was felt around the world. In an interview with the Guardian, Asplund shared what inspired her to take such bold action: It was an impulse. I was so angry, I just went out into the street. I was thinking: hell no, they can t march here! I had this adrenaline. No Nazi is going to march here, it s not okay. Although Asplund said she s been overwhelmed and extremely embarrassed by the amount of attention the photo has gotten, she hopes that it will inspire others. Asplund said: I have fought against racism for 26 years. I am 42 now. And if this is a thing that makes people pay attention to the fight against racism and xenophobia, then that s very good. But I don t want people to see me as a symbol. There were a lot of others who were there against the racists in Borlange. Because of all the attention the photo has gotten, Asplund reveals that her friends are concerned for her safety, but it is a small price to pay if it gets more people to stand up to racism and hate. Now it s a circus. I am in shock. The Nazis are very angry, so I am a little Oh shit, maybe I shouldn t have done that, I want peace and quiet. These guys are big and crazy. It s a mixed feeling, but I am trying to stay calm. If this picture of me can get more people to dare to show resistance, then it s all good. The people must unite and show that it is not okay that racism is becoming normalized and that fascists are running around on our streets. The image was captured by David Lagerlof, who happened to be the only photographer at the scene. Even he was incredibly moved by what Asplund did. He said: I happened to be at the right place. What I think people are reacting to in this photo is that she can t really pose a threat to them, but she puts herself in a very dangerous situation, because this group is violent, and she stands there all alone and faces them. It s like David and Goliath. Although this incident with the Nordic Resistance Movement happened it Sweden, it might not be too far from something that could happen in the United States. With the rise of presumptive Republican nominee Trump and his massive following of racists and white supremacists, we can only expect that the bigotry and hate is going to ramp up as we get closer to the general election. Asplund is an inspiration to all of us, and a brilliant reminder that we should never let hate win. One person can have a massive impact, so there is no excuse not to stand up to Trump s divisive rhetoric.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was at the White House on Monday but did not meet with President Donald Trump, who referred to him in a tweet as “beleaguered” earlier in the day, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. Sanders reiterated that Trump was frustrated with Sessions for recusing himself from the Justice Department’s Russia investigation. Sessions said last week he loved his job and planned to continue serving. | 0 |
The current occupant of the White House has been quiet about his campaign promise to combat the opioid crisis which has swept across the United States. Then he held an ego-rally in West Virginia, one of the states hit hardest by the opioid epidemic. You have a big problem in West Virginia, and we are going to solve that problem, Trump told his supporters Thursday night at the rally. He said this in Huntington, West Virginia, in which the city and its surrounding area is estimated by the mayor to have one in 10 residents addicted to opioids.Finally, Trump stepped up to address this devastating issue while he s on his 17-day vacation at his luxury golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Trump unleashed his wisdom on the masses as to how to prevent opioid addiction. He said, Maybe by talking to youth and telling them no good, really bad for you.' Watch:Trump on preventing opioid addiction: "Maybe by talking to youth and telling them 'no good, really bad for you.'" https://t.co/vYhELawmK3 NBC News (@NBCNews) August 8, 2017Well, jinkies, why didn t anyone ever think of that before? This guy is such a brainiac. He should call this the Just say no program and cure the world of drug addiction. Just like that. I mean, who needs Medicaid and access to treatment when you can just tell yourself it s no good then BOOM! You re cured! Even worse, the amateur president was reading from prepared notes and that was the best he could come up with.The commission, headed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, which the former reality show star appointed to study the epidemic, recommended last week that Trump declare a national emergency, however, its report stressed medical solutions, not law enforcement. We must act boldly to stop it, the commission wrote. The opioid epidemic we are facing is unparalleled. So then Trump came up with his brilliant plan to tell addicts that drugs are really bad for you. He said that after threatening to start a nuclear war.Then he basically called for a war on drugs (another genius idea that no one has ever come up with before). At the end of 2016, there were 23% fewer federal prosecutions than in 2011, so they looked at this surge and they let it go by, Trump told reporters. We re not letting it go by. Trump just let down his base, particularly in rural, lower-income and working areas which have been devastated by the opioid crisis.Read more:Image via screen capture. | 1 |
The speech he gave to a sold out crowd on Saturday is epic. We often listen to it to get fired up about bringing down the commies currently trying to destroy America. It s truly epic! THE SPEECH THAT BREITBART IS BEST KNOWN FOR IS HIS CPAC SPEECH:The complaint, filed Friday in federal court in California, says that Leopold filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI for all records related to Andrew Breitbart on Aug. 7, 2012, a few months after Breitbart died at age 43.According to the suit, the FBI responded to the request on Sept. 4, but said that the bureau only searched it main file records, claiming that no records were located.The complaint says that Leopold appealed the FBI s response but was denied by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Information in 2013. In its appeal decision, OIP claimed that the FBI is not required to perform cross-reference searches unless the requester provides information sufficient to enable the FBI to determine with certainty that any cross-references it locates are identifiable to the subject of [the] request, including, for example, the dates and locations of contacts between the subject of the request and the FBI, the subject s social security number, or other such information, the suit reads.However, BuzzFeed and Leopold contend in the complaint, Nothing in the FOIA statute requires a requester to provide this information before a cross-reference search must be conducted. As FBI and OIP are certainly aware, Andrew Breitbart was a well-known public figure and is easily identifiable by the FBI in conducting a cross-reference search, the suit reads. As the FBI and OIP are also aware, cross-reference searches frequently turn up records not located in main file searches. Via: THE WRAP | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will officially nominate acting Education Secretary John B. King to fill the post permanently, he said in a statement on Thursday, urging the Senate to quickly confirm King for the job. King has been the acting secretary since the beginning of the year, after Arne Duncan stepped down from the post. The White House had said in January that it was unclear whether the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress would confirm King in the year remaining in Obama’s presidency. | 1 |
(Reuters) - A new ban on U.S. travel for nationals of seven Middle Eastern countries caught the airline industry unprepared, with flight crew from those states also barred from entering, the International Air Transport Association said on Saturday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has briefed the global trade group that passport-holders from states such as Iran and Iraq, including cabin crew, will be barred entry to the United States, IATA said in an email to its member airlines, seen by Reuters. The email underscores airlines’ confusion about the situation as well as the challenge some may face from crew scheduling. Airlines also stand to lose business: for instance, around 35,000 travelers from Iran visited the United States in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “Much of this development has come over the weekend and at a time when IATA’s Facilitation team has been on duty travel. Unfortunately, our response has been slower than we would have preferred,” the email said. “A number (of questions) have yet to be resolved.” The executive order by President Donald Trump bans travelers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days. IATA was informed that lawful permanent residents of the United States - or green-card holders - from those countries are not included in the ban. However, a Trump administration official told reporters that green-card holders from the countries need to check with a U.S. consulate to see whether they can return, causing some confusion for airlines, which still plan to follow CBP guidance. Gulf airlines Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways said earlier on their websites that passengers would need a green card or diplomatic visa to enter the United States. An Emirates spokeswoman said “a very small number” of its passengers had been affected by the ban. | 0 |
Email This Week in the News
You wouldn’t know it by watching the news, but there are actually important things going on in the world that have nothing to do with the Presidential election. Today, we’ll talk about some of these non-election-related events on Survival Saturday, like the Dakota access pipeline, Russia, Venezuela, and our dystopian future.
For election coverage, go on over to my other website, DaisyLuther.com , which is all Hillary, all the time, right up until the election. (My goal there is to cover the stuff that the MSM is trying to sweep under the rug about their darling.) The Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters Are Being Brutally Attacked by Law Enforcement
Have you been aware of the ongoing protests by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe about a pipeline being forcibly built across their watershed via eminent domain? They have been joined by other tribes to form a coalition of water protectors who say that the pipeline is a violation of a treaty established between the Sioux and the federal government. ( Here are the important things to know about the protest . Trust me, you’ll want to read this.)
Everyone who was paying attention breathed a sigh of relief when the US Government for once took a stand on behalf of the little guys back in September.
“The federal government ordered a halt to work on a $3.8 billion four-state oil pipeline in the Upper Midwest on Friday, handing a temporary victory to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other opponents of the project…
…The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it wouldn’t authorize construction near Lake Oahe, a culturally important location to the tribe, until the agency determines if it needs to reconsider its previous approvals under the National Environmental Policy Act.” ( source )
Unfortunately, the government’s willingness to do the right thing was short-lived. Work has resumed on the pipeline and all hell is breaking loose – but not by who you might think. Protestors have been non-violent, but law enforcement has been absolutely brutal. They’ve beaten up on young people, old people, and independent journalists covering the story. Hundreds have been arrested.
These people are protecting their water sources and their way of life, and they are being brutalized by our own government. The story you’re getting on the mainstream is that the water protectors are standing there and that the police are standing there and that it is a relatively calm affair.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The AntiMedia (who would get a major journalism award if real journalists got such awards) has provided truthful coverage, and it is ugly. Every single person who is against government overreach should be supporting the water protectors. Right now, this affects some people up in North Dakota. But what about when someone wants to build something across your land? What about when someone wants to seize your home? What about when Agenda 21 comes to your back yard?
Here’s what really happened at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests . It’s on film. It’s ugly. You owe it to your fellow human beings to witness this and be outraged. Go here to learn what you can do to help . With all of this “progress,” is humanity at risk of becoming obsolete?
Thousands of jobs each year are being turned over to computers as humans demand higher wages and better benefits for unskilled labor. We’ve all ended up on the endless loop of talking to customer service robots on the phone or going to a checkout counter and discovering it is push button and digital.
Is this all part of a greater plan to make the bulk of humanity utterly dependent on the whims of a few?
I don’t watch a lot of documentaries, but last night my daughter and I watched Obsolete . This film is available for free on Amazon , and it isn’t one of those dry, boring ones that keep you shifting in your seat in order to stay awake. It’s fascinating from the moment you hit play. When it was over, we sat there in silence for at least a minute, aghast that we could see the whole thing happening around us right now.
I can’t recommend this highly enough. Everyone should watch it. Let me quote Morpheus (from the Matrix ) for a moment here. “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.”
This documentary is the red pill. Take it if you want to survive the future that is coming for us all.
Watch Obsolete then come back over here and let’s talk about it. I think this will spark a very interesting conversation. How will you prepare for a future in which humanity is largely obsolete? Meanwhile in Venezuela…
Things are still awful there, although there hasn’t been as much news coverage. Basically, this is how life is now for Venezuelans, and recovering from this collapse could take decades.
Currently, the people of the country are revolting against the unpopular president, Nicholas Maduro. A campaign had begun for a recall election in order to replace Maduro, but authorities halted the process. The electoral council cited fraud when faced with huge numbers of signatures on a petition. Thousands of demonstrators filled the streets. Source: Federico Parra /AFP/Getty Images
NPR reports :
The demonstrators were protesting “what they call a sharp turn towards authoritarianism. The Maduro government has jailed opposition leaders, stripped Congress of its powers and cracked down on the press.”
As for Maduro, he has blatantly threatened to jail anyone who tries to remove him from power, via elections or legal means, ironically citing the Venezuelan constitution :
“If they launch a supposed political trial, which is not in our constitution, the state prosecution service must bring legal action in the courts and put in jail anyone who violates the constitution, even if they are members of Congress.”
What’s more, in a conversation with the American DEA, Maduro’s nephew says that Venezuela is at war with the US, which is news to most Americans. Efrain Campo was busted doing a quick cocaine deal in order to make money for the Venezuelan First Family. He was caught attempting to smuggle $5 million of Columbian cocaine into the US. The Charlotte Observer reported :
Efrain Campo…was recorded saying “we’re at war” with the Americans and laughing about sending opposition leaders to jail, according to the transcript, which was filed in federal district court in New York.
“We need the money,” Campo said, according to the transcript. “Why? Because the Americans are hitting us hard with money. Do you understand? The opposition . . . is getting an infusion of a lot of money.”
…The defense has sought to paint Campo and his cousin as victims of a U.S. political plot against the Venezuelan government and has asserted that they didn’t have the knowledge or capability to pull off such a complicated transaction. We’re irritating the snot out of Russia…
Lately, the Powers That Shouldn’t Be (great phrase borrowed from my friend Mel at Truthstream Media ) have been going out of their way to paint Russia and Vladimir Putin as the biggest threat to America. A bigger threat, even, than Hillary Clinton, and boy, that’s a stretch. I’m pretty sure you can put all of these recent headlines together and get a picture of where this is headed. ( Hint .) There are many more, but I don’t want this post to be a lengthy novel about idiocy. | 1 |
Hillary Clinton can’t believe she’s losing. | 0 |
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) told religious conservatives at the Values Voters Summit this weekend that blood might have to be shed if Hillary Clinton is elected president.
"I want us to be able to fight ideologically, mentally, spiritually, economically, so that we don’t have to do it physically,” Bevin said Saturday. “But that may, in fact, be the case."
He added, citing Thomas Jefferson's "blood of patriots and tyrants" quote: "The roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what? The blood. Of who? The tyrants, to be sure. But who else? The patriots. Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren."
Bevin, a tea party supporter who has been known to make a controversial comment or two, clarified his comments to the Lexington Herald-Leader, saying he was referring to military sacrifice.
"Today we have thousands of men and women in uniform fighting for us overseas, and they need our full backing,” Bevin said in a statement. “We cannot be complacent about the determination of radical Islamic extremists to destroy our freedoms."
Bevin's comments echo a tea party rallying cry that has cropped up from time to time. Activists and even some lawmakers have cited Jefferson's quote to reinforce the stakes for their political movement.
As for the 2016 campaign, Bevin's comments are the latest example of elected officials promising very bad things if the wrong candidate is elected. And it's not just Democrats warning about Donald Trump having his finger on the nuclear button — a prospect that has been the subject of a Hillary Clinton campaign ad.
Former congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) warned recently that a Clinton win might mean this could be the "last election" in which Americans would be able to elect a president with "godly moral principles."
Similarly, other Republicans have warned that nominating Trump might lead to the end of the Republican Party as we know it. George W. Bush even suggested he might be the last Republican president.
Conservative talk show hosts have warned of even worse, up to and including civil war. But Bevin's comments appear to be the most full-throated warning about a Clinton presidency so far from a high-ranking GOP elected official. | 1 |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May made clear her desire on Thursday to move Brexit talks forward to a discussion of a future trade relationship at a dinner with EU leaders who applauded her for progress made so far. A day after she suffered a defeat in parliament over her blueprint for quitting the EU, May told her peers at a summit in Brussels that she was on course to deliver Brexit and urged them to speed up the talks to unravel more than 40 years of union. Offering her reassurance that they will endorse on Friday the launch of a second phase of negotiations on a free trade pact and an initial transition period, leaders responded to May s remarks by a brief round of applause before she was to leave the summit to allow them to discuss Brexit without her. A British government official said the prime minister made no secret of wanting to move on to the next phase and to approaching it with ambition and creativity . I believe this is in the best interests of the UK and the European Union, she told the leaders over a dinner of roasted langoustine and capon chicken. A particular priority should be agreement on the implementation period so we can bring greater certainty to businesses in the UK and across the 27, she added. Officials said German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated May on bringing the negotiations last week to the stage of sufficient progress that will enable leaders to accept opening the next phase of talks. Summit chair Donald Tusk will call May on Friday to update her after leaders have discussed their next moves on Brexit. May, weakened after losing her Conservative Party s majority in a June election, has so far carried her divided government and party with her as she negotiated the first phase of talks on how much Britain should pay to leave the EU, the border with Ireland and the status of EU citizens in Britain. But the second, more decisive phase, of the negotiations will further test her authority by exposing the deep rifts among her top team of ministers, or cabinet, over what Britain should become after Brexit. Acknowledging tough talks ahead, Tusk warned them that only the unity they had displayed so far would deliver a good deal on trade an issue on which the member states have different interests: I have no doubt that the real test of our unity will be the second phase of Brexit talks, he told reporters. May s team was upbeat. Look at what s been achieved so far. The deal on phase one which many commentators said couldn t be done, has been done, the British government official said. Look at the language from the other European leaders today ... All the signals from them are that they are looking forward to continue to negotiate with the prime minister. The EU is willing to start talks next month on a roughly two-year transition period to ease Britain out after March 2019 but wants more detail from London on what it wants before it will open trade negotiations from March. The deal almost fell apart last week, when May s Northern Irish allies rejected an initial agreement for fear that a promise to protect a free border with EU member Ireland could separate the region from the rest of the UK. After days of often fraught diplomacy, May rescued the deal to meet the EU s requirements for sufficient progress but the last-minute wobble by the Democratic Unionist Party, which she depends on in parliament to get laws passed, and the defeat in parliament on Wednesday, underline the struggles she faces. I m disappointed with the amendment, she told reporters as she arrived at the summit. But the EU withdrawal bill is making good progress through the House of Commons and we re on course to deliver on Brexit. May s success so far has won her some respite at home from political in-fighting between enthusiasts and sceptics of Brexit in her ruling party, and has reduced the prospect of a disorderly departure from the bloc. At the summit, she was again keen to show that Britain was an active member of the bloc, committing to staying in the Erasmus university programme until the end of 2020 and taking part in discussions on the bloc s plan for closer defence cooperation. Over dinner, leaders also discussed responses to the migration crisis from Africa and the Middle East, and lingering deep divisions over how to share the load. They confirmed a rollover of sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis and reaffirmed their opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump s move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republicans in Washington are coming to grips with what many of them not long ago considered an unimaginable reality: Donald Trump is likely to be their presidential nominee and standard-bearer. The prospect of Trump winning the Republican primary had been the stuff of Washington jokes, whispered hallway conversations and eye-rolls, even as he led in public opinion polls for months and dominated debate after debate. But with the brash billionaire now winning three straight contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, denial is giving way to a mostly gloomy acceptance that he may have too much momentum to be stopped, especially if wins big in key Southern primaries next week that look favorable to him. “It fills all of us with concern and dread,” said Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who has endorsed fellow Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, considered the main hope of the Republican establishment to derail Trump’s march to the nomination. That march was given a boost on Friday when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican presidential candidate who dropped out of the race after a dismal finish in New Hampshire, became the first major establishment Republican to endorse Trump. “There is no better fighter than Donald Trump,” Christie said at a news conference with Trump in Texas. Trump has vowed to scrap U.S. trade deals, slap a tariff on imported goods and raise taxes on hedge-fund managers, as well as retain some sort of mandate to purchase health insurance - clashing with the free-market principles that have long underpinned Republican economic policy. Some Republicans in Congress, such as Flake and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said a Trump nomination would do enormous damage to the party and predicted a heavy election defeat in November to the eventual Democratic nominee. “I am like on the team that bought a ticket on the Titanic after we saw the movie,” said Graham, contending that Trump would be “slaughtered” in the general election. In a Republican presidential debate in Houston on Thursday night, another Trump rival, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, challenged him on his electability, citing ties to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton such as a donation to the Clinton Foundation. Trump responded by ridiculing Cruz for his inability to win more than the early voting state of Iowa and taunted him for being behind the billionaire in opinion polls in Cruz’s home state of Texas. Said Trump, “If I can’t beat her, you’re really gonna get killed, aren’t you?” Another Rubio supporter, Representative Carlos Curbelo of Florida, told Reuters he would not back Trump if he were the nominee. “If the nominee is a fraud, and someone who’s offensive, and incapable of being an effective president like Donald Trump, I won’t support him,” Curbelo said. Other Republicans tried to be more optimistic. “I don’t think his nomination would be catastrophic,” said Senator Susan Collins of Maine. She said she did not believe, as some strategists fear, that having Trump on the ballot in November would hurt Republican chances for holding onto control of the Senate, where the party currently has a 54-46 edge. Conservative economist Arthur Laffer, an adviser to former President Ronald Reagan who has been counseling Trump on tax policy, said he was convinced the real estate mogul was open to sound advice. Laffer recalled Trump telling him: “‘Look, if you’ve got a better idea than I’ve got, tell me, and I’ll change.’” Senator John Thune of South Dakota suggested Trump’s presence could help by bringing more voters to the polls. “There’s a lot of energy, a lot of intensity on our side,” Thune said. Privately, lobbyists, economists, and analysts expressed deep concern about having Trump, who has proposed building a wall along the southern U.S. border and imposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country, as the face of the party. “There are a lot of people who are really freaked out,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was the chief economic policy advisor to 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain. “He seems to be winging it.” Conservative policy-makers worry that Trump’s pitch to voters is based on his management skills rather than conservative principles. Juleanna Glover, a prominent Republican communications consultant, told Reuters that Trump’s ascent “spells the death of the party’s sentient and cohesive governing framework.” Two Republican business lobbyists, who also asked to remain unidentified, told Reuters that they are very concerned about Trump, chiefly because they do not know what he stands for. They said they have no sense of certainty because Trump’s positions on issues such as tax, trade, and regulation range from being only vaguely understood to completely unknown. By vowing to make America “win” again abroad while going into little detail on his foreign policy plans, Trump is also stirring concern in Washington national security circles. A high-ranking official at a conservative think-tank, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his job requires him to steer clear of partisan politics, said: “Every serious student of American strategy is sick to their stomach about the possibility of Trump being the Republican nominee.” Robert Kagan, a conservative foreign relations expert at the Brookings Institution think tank, said in a column for the Washington Post on Thursday that he would vote for Clinton rather than Trump. “The party cannot be saved, but the country still can be,” he wrote. Paul Ryan, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a leading voice on conservative economic policy, was asked Thursday whether he could work with someone like Trump if he became the nominee. “We’ll cross these bridges when we get to it,” Ryan said. “But I do believe that we will be able to unify as a party.” Asked about the hand-wringing in the Republican establishment about Trump, his campaign manger, Corey Lewandowski, said, “Look, we’ve got relationships with those guys and we talk to them all the time. “But I think what you find is that, you know, politics as usual in Washington, D.C., is not something that the American people want,” he said. Lewandowski added that voters “sent a very clear message” in the three early voting states where Trump won nominating contests “that they want someone who is going to make fundamental change.” Asked if Trump’s campaign would work harder to win establishment endorsements as he got closer to the nomination, Lewandowski pointed to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, an early establishment favorite who quit the race on Saturday. “If endorsements mattered,” he said, “Jeb Bush would be the nominee.” (Reporting by Susan Cornwell, Richard Cowan, Kevin Drawbaugh, Jason Lange, Arshad Mohammed, David Morgan, James Oliphant, Matt Spetalnick and Emily Stephenson; Writing by James Oliphant; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Frances Kerry) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 |
(Reuters) - U.S President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he intends to dissolve his charitable foundation, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which has been under investigation by the New York attorney general. Trump gave no timeline for winding down the foundation, but said in a statement that he wanted “to avoid even the appearance of any conflict with my role as President.” He directed his counsel to take the necessary steps for the dissolution. With less than four weeks to his Jan. 20 inauguration, the New York real estate magnate is under increasing pressure to reduce potential conflicts of interest ranging from his vast global business operations to his family’s philanthropic work. This week, Trump said his son Eric would stop raising money for his own foundation over concerns that donors could be seen as buying access to the Trump family. The president-elect said it was a “ridiculous shame” that his son’s foundation would stop raising money. Before Trump’s surprising election victory on Nov. 8, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in October directed the Donald J. Trump Foundation to stop taking donations, saying the foundation violated state law requiring charitable organizations that solicit outside donations to register with a state office. Schneiderman’s order followed a series of reports in The Washington Post that suggested improprieties by the foundation, including using its funds to settle legal disputes involving Trump businesses. A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said on Saturday that Trump cannot shutter the foundation while the investigation is ongoing. “The Trump Foundation is still under investigation by this office and cannot legally dissolve until that investigation is complete,” spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said. She would not comment on expected timing for completing the investigation. Trump said he was “very proud” of the money raised by the foundation and said it had operated at “essentially no cost for decades.” “But because I will be devoting so much time and energy to the Presidency and solving the many problems facing our country and the world,” he added in his statement, “I don’t want to allow good work to be associated with a possible conflict of interest.” The Trump Foundation, which was established in 1988, runs no programs of its own. Instead, it donates to other nonprofit groups such as the Police Athletic League for youths. Scrutiny of the Trump family’s philanthropic activities heightened in recent weeks following reports of access to the family for potential donors. Eric Trump faced criticism for an online auction sponsored by his foundation, which raises money to help terminally ill children at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, offering the highest bidder a chance to have coffee with his sister Ivanka. After the announcement that Eric would not be allowed to raise money for his foundation, Trump tweeted: “He loves these kids, has raised millions of dollars for them, and now must stop. Wrong answer!” Trump’s critics, however, remembered how the president-elect had attacked his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, over their family foundation. In August, Trump urged the Justice Department to investigate the Clinton Foundation, which he called a “pay-to-play” operation that rewarded big donors with favors from the State Department while Clinton was secretary of state. Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump Jr. also came under fire this week for their role in a post-inauguration charity event that offered a private reception with their father in exchange for a $1 million donation. The brothers were listed on a draft invitation as honorary co-chairmen of the fundraiser for conservation charities, dubbed “Opening Day,” set to be held in Washington the day after the Jan. 20 inauguration. On Tuesday, the Trump transition team said Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were not involved with the fundraiser and a subsequent invitation dropped references to donors meeting with any members of the Trump family. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Environmental Protection Agency confirmed on Wednesday it would reopen a review of whether the Obama administration’s 2022-2025 vehicle emission rules are feasible, a win for automakers which have urged the Trump administration to reverse a January decision to uphold the standards. The EPA said it would make a determination by April 2018 after the Obama administration sought in January to lock in the rules. Environmentalists say the rules save fuel and reduce greenhouse gases. “These standards are costly for automakers and the American people,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in a statement. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress approved a stop-gap funding bill on Wednesday that averts a looming federal government shutdown and provides urgently needed money to help battle an outbreak of the Zika virus. Passage of the bipartisan legislation came shortly after Republicans and Democrats ended a months-long fight over whether Washington should provide aid to the city of Flint, Michigan, as it struggles with a crisis over contaminated drinking water. Separate legislation was approved by the House of Representatives earlier in the day setting aid for Flint. It must now be reconciled with a somewhat different bill passed by the Senate. The House voted 342-85 in a late-night session on Wednesday to approve stop-gap funding to keep the U.S. government operating from Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, until Dec. 9, when lawmakers will attempt to approve longer-term money. With existing funds due to expire on Saturday, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers said the legislation “is a last resort, but at this point it is what we must do ... to keep the lights on in our government.” The Senate voted 72-26 earlier on Wednesday to adopt the short-term spending bill. Besides providing money to keep the government operating, the legislation also contains $1.1 billion to battle the Zika virus that has hit Puerto Rico hard and spread to U.S. states, most notably Florida. The disease can cause severe birth defects. Funds would be used to develop a vaccine and reduce Zika exposure. The bill also includes $500 million for flood relief in Louisiana and other states. In a series of carefully orchestrated maneuvers after the Senate approved the temporary funding, the House passed a wide-ranging water resources bill containing $170 million to assist Flint by a vote of 399-25. Democrats have demanded action on the crisis, which stems from dangerous levels of lead in Flint’s drinking water. A Senate version of the bill contains $220 million for Flint and other cities with problem water systems. The two chambers will have to hammer out compromise legislation after the Nov. 8 presidential and congressional elections. Wednesday’s flurry of activity in Congress came as lawmakers rushed to recess this week until after the elections. Conservative groups urged Congress to defeat the funding bill. However, with House and Senate members facing an imminent deadline for approving new money and lawmakers eager to go home to campaign for re-election, the measure moved quickly through Congress on Wednesday. The White House said it was disappointed that the temporary funding bill continued a provision barring the Securities and Exchange Commission from taking action to increase transparency in public companies’ political spending. It also expressed disappointment that Congress failed to take steps to ensure that the Export-Import Bank was able to fully operate its loan guarantee programs. Nevertheless, President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill into law. | 0 |
Evil hiding under the banner of religion in our own backyard A 32-year-old woman was harassed and intimidated last week when she tried to pick up her four children from the fundamentalist Mormon sect she bravely left to escape an abusive husband.Sabrina Broadbent Tetzner, 32, fled the sect headed by convicted rapist Warren Jeffs eight years ago and finally gained full custody of her children (ages 8 to 13) last week.But when she tried to pick up her children from the Colorado City, Utah community where they have been living, she was physically stopped by hundreds of cult members hell bent on keeping the kids. Lots of members from the community started showing up. They surrounded her vehicle, the home, fences and the yard. They were kicking the van. They even tried to put a cow and chickens into her vehicle, ex-cult member Flora Jessop, who helped Tetzner through her legal battle, told KSL.Cell phone footage shows swarms of polygamists surrounding Tetzner s van, the women dressed in conservative floor-length dresses in varying pastel colors. A Mohave County judge ordered the sect to turn over the children at 5pm Thursday, but Tetzner says that when she got to the compound at the arranged time her kids were nowhere to be seen. FOX 10 News | fox10phoenix.comIt was only at midnight that they returned, and were quickly shepherded into their aunt Samantha Holm s house where several dozen fundamentalists kept them from seeing her mother.Tetzner spent the night in her van, fearing the vehicle would be torn apart if she left it unattended. When even about 600 cult members surrounded her vehicle in the morning, and kept her from reaching the home where her children were staying, Tetzner called police to intervene on her children s behalf. Sheriff s deputies had to take out a search warrant to pry the children from the house and into their mother s waiting arms.Allegedly, the children were not so happy to leave, since cult members had scared them into believing their mother was taking them to hell. Deputies escorted Tetzner and her children all the way back to their home in northern Utah, and reportedly FLDS members tailed them the whole way there.Since leaving the sect, she has remarried a man named Chase Tetzner and the two appear to have a toddler son together. A photo posted to her Facebook in August 2012, shows her in a half-white, half-camouflage wedding dress.Defenders of Children, a non-profit group that has been aiding Tetzner through her custody battle, said they fear for her safety and are raising money to pay for a security system and new clothes for the woman s children. Tetzner left the FLDS church eight years ago, about a year after the cult s leader Warren Jeffs was arrested for organizing marriages between men in his cult and underage girls. He is currently serving a life sentence in prison, but continues to head the church from behind bars.Custodial interference charges are pending against Samantha Holm, the aunt who initially wouldn t hand over Tetzner s children.Via: UK Daily Mail | 0 |
COLOMBO (Reuters) - The United Nations on Friday urged the Sri Lankan government to urgently implement reforms to end war-time arbitrary detention and strengthen independent monitoring of tough legislation. Sri Lanka has used the 1979 Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to pursue a tough line to prevent aiding and abetting terrorism in the island nation s long conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels. That legislation gives wide powers to police to arrest a suspect without informing the immediate family, restricts access to lawyers and allows detention of up to 18-months without charging. The war ended in 2009, but the government has not repealed PTA, though it had promised to end arbitrary detentions. Many ethnic minority Tamils who have been arrested under the PTA have complained of years of detention without being charged. The U.N. is now asking Sri Lanka to repeal the draconian law and introduce an internationally acceptable law. The government says it has begun moves to replace the PTA and is in the process of introducing new legislation. There are no effective safeguards against arbitrariness in this context and there is an urgent need to strengthen mechanisms for independent monitoring and oversight, Leigh Toomey, a member of the UN working group on arbitrary detention told reporters in Colombo after concluding a 11-day mission. She said they had identified significant challenges to the right of personal liberty in Sri Lanka, resulting in arbitrary detention across the country. The Working Group also said their attention had been drawn to a loss of liberty among the socially vulnerable, such as children, women, elderly people, people with psycho-social problems and the poor. Sri Lanka is under criticism from the rights groups over its slow progress on the commitments it made to the UN human Rights council following a U.N. resolution that called for post-war reconciliation and an investigation of all alleged war crimes. Sri Lanka ended a 26-year-civil war crushing the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan in 2009. The United Nations and rights groups have accused the military of killing thousands of civilians, mostly Tamils, during the final weeks of the conflict. The Tamil Tigers were also accused of widespread abuses during the war, such as using child soldiers and targeting civilians with suicide bombers. In November European lawmakers said they were disappointed about Sri Lanka s slow roll-out of human rights reforms that it had promised in exchange for trade concessions. A U.N. rights watchdog in 2016 called on Sri Lanka to investigate documented allegations of torture and rape of detainees by security forces and to rein in broad police powers. The U.N. Committee against Torture described continuing reports of abductions, deaths in custody, poor conditions of detention and the use of forced confessions in court. | 0 |
WEST BEND, Wis. (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said if elected he would force top administration officials to sign a pledge not to accept speaking fees from corporations with registered lobbyists or foreign countries for five years after leaving office. The pledge - a rare policy pronouncement from the New York real estate mogul - was part of his criticism of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton who, along with her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have accepted millions of dollars in speaking fees since he left office. | 1 |
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