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Specter of Trump Loosens Tongues, if Not Purse Strings, in Silicon Valley - The New York Times

David Streitfeld

PALO ALTO, Calif. — After years of scorning the political process, Silicon Valley has leapt into the fray. The prospect of a President Donald J. Trump is pushing the tech community to move beyond its traditional role as donors and to embrace a new existence as agitators and activists. A distinguished venture capital firm emblazoned on its corporate home page an earthy epithet. One prominent tech chieftain says the consequences of Mr. Trump’s election would “range between disastrous and terrible. ” Another compares him to a dictator. And nearly 150 tech leaders signed an open letter decrying Mr. Trump and his campaign of “anger” and “bigotry. ” Not quite all the action is . Peter Thiel, a founder of PayPal and Palantir who was the first outside investor in Facebook, spoke at the Republican convention in July. The New York Times reported on Saturday that Mr. Thiel is giving $1. 25 million to support Mr. Trump’s candidacy even as other supporters flee. (He also recently gave $1 million to a “super PAC” that supports Senator Rob Portman, the Republican freshman running for in Ohio.) Getting involved in politics used to be seen as clashing with Silicon Valley’s value system: You transform the world by making problems obsolete, not solving them through Washington. Nor did entrepreneurs want to alienate whatever segment of customers did not agree with them politically. Such reticence is no longer in style here. “We’re a bunch of nerds not used to having a lot of limelight,” said Dave McClure, an investor who runs a tech incubator called 500 Startups. “But to quote ‘With great power comes great responsibility. ’” Mr. McClure grew worried after the Republican and Democratic conventions as Mr. Trump began to catch up to Hillary Clinton in the polls. He wanted Silicon Valley to do more, and so late last month he announced Nerdz4Hillary, an informal effort. An initial group of donors pledged $50, 000 the goal was to ask the “nerdz” for small donations to match that sum. They have not come through yet. “We’re kind of optimistic we’ll get the other $50, 000 in a few weeks,” Mr. McClure said. That relatively slow pace reflects Silicon Valley’s shifting position: Even as it becomes increasingly free with its opinions, it has been less free with its checkbook. The most recent data, from late August, shows Mrs. Clinton taking in $7. 7 million from the tech community, according to Crowdpac, a that tracks donations. By that point in 2012, Crowdpac says, President Obama had raised $21 million from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Reid Hoffman, the billionaire of the business networking site LinkedIn, offers a snapshot of Silicon Valley’s evolving approach to politics. Mr. Hoffman was a top Obama donor, giving $1 million to the Priorities USA political action committee, something several of his peers did as well. Last month, Mr. Hoffman garnered worldwide publicity for saying he would donate up to $5 million to veterans’ groups if Mr. Trump released his taxes, a remote possibility that never came to pass. He has castigated Mr. Trump in interviews, saying he was speaking for those who were afraid. Mr. Hoffman’s outright donations, however, have been smaller this election cycle. In May, he gave $400, 000 to the Hillary Victory Fund. Asked if there was more recent giving that had not shown up in federal election records, Mr. Hoffman cryptically responded in an email, “Looking at some PACs, etc. ” He declined several opportunities to elaborate. Even as Priorities USA has raised $133 million this election cycle, far exceeding its total in 2012, its tech contributions have dwindled. The only familiar tech name this time around is John Doerr of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, who gave $500, 000. The AOL Steve Case said his September endorsement of Mrs. Clinton, via an in The Washington Post, was the first time he ever publicly declared for a candidate. “I always focused on policy and avoided politics,” he said. “But if Trump were elected president, I would be disappointed in myself for not acting. ” When he wrote the he was uncertain about donating money to Mrs. Clinton, saying only that it was “probable. ” A spokeswoman said Sunday that Mr. Case gave $25, 000 to the Hillary Victory Fund. Mason Harrison, Crowdpac’s head of communications, offered a possible reason for Mrs. Clinton’s support. “Donors give to support candidates they love, not to defeat candidates they fear,” he said. A few billionaires are acting instead of talking. Dustin Moskovitz, a founder of Facebook, said he was giving $20 million to various Democratic election efforts — the first time he and his wife, Cari Tuna, have endorsed a candidate. He declined to be interviewed. Part of the problem for Mrs. Clinton is that, however preferable she may be to Mr. Trump in the tech community, she pales in comparison to President Obama. After some initial misgivings, Silicon Valley found its champion in him. There has been a revolving door between tech and the Obama administration, just as previous Democratic administrations had a revolving door with Wall Street. In June, President Obama seemed to suggest that he might become a venture capitalist after his term ends. Mrs. Clinton is not as enthusiastic toward Silicon Valley and its disruptive ways. In a speech in the summer of 2015, she noted that in the “ or gig economy” — Uber, Airbnb and their ilk — were “unleashing innovation” but also “raising hard questions about workplace protection and what a good job will look like in the future. ” The Clinton campaign declined to comment. The Trump campaign did not respond to a query. Even as Silicon Valley works against Mr. Trump, there is quiet acknowledgment that his campaign has bared some important issues. In an endorsement this month of Mrs. Clinton, the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures pointed out that “the benefits of technology and globalization have not been evenly distributed,” and that this needed to change. If Silicon Valley’s political involvement outlasts this unusual election, the tech community may start contributing more to the process than commentary and cash. “Not only are tech people going to be wielding influence, but they’re going to be the candidate,” Mr. McClure said. “Reid Hoffman, Sheryl Sandberg” — the chief operating officer of Facebook — “and a bunch of other folks here have political aspirations. ” Others may be inspired to enter politics through other doors. Palmer Luckey is the founder of the Oculus virtual reality company, which he sold to Facebook for $2 billion. Mr. Luckey donated $10, 000 to a group dedicated to spreading messages about Mrs. Clinton both online and off. The group’s first billboard, said to be outside Pittsburgh, labeled her “Too Big to Jail. ” Mr. Luckey told The Daily Beast that his thinking “went along the lines of, ‘Hey, I have a bunch of money. I would love to see more of this stuff. ’” He added, “I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time. ” Many virtual reality developers were less happy, and Mr. Luckey quickly posted his regrets on Facebook. He declined to comment further. “If we’re going to be more vocal, we’ll have to live more transparently,” said Hunter Walk, a venture capitalist whose campaign to persuade tech companies to give workers Election Day off signed up nearly 300 firms, including Spotify, SurveyMonkey and TaskRabbit. “There will be a period of adjustment. ” But perhaps being vocal is a temporary condition after all. The venture firm CRV was in the spotlight at the end of August with its blunt message, which included the earthy epithet. A few weeks later, it cleaned up its website. The partners went from employing a publicist to seek out attention to declining interviews. “We reached everyone we wanted to reach, and hopefully influenced opinions,” said Saar Gur, a CRV venture capitalist. “Then the buzz died down and we went back to our day jobs, which are super busy. ”

Russian warships ready to strike terrorists near Aleppo

Russian warships ready to strike terrorists near Aleppo 08.11.2016 | Source: Source: Mil.ru Attack aircraft of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov get ready to strike terrorists' positions in the vicinity of Aleppo, sources at the Russian Defense Ministry said, RBC reports. "Insurgents' attempts to break into Aleppo from outside are meaningless," the source said. The main task of the aircraft carrier aviation group is to strike missile and air blows on the terrorists , whose goal is to enter Aleppo. "After the attacks on terrorists' positions, one will have to forget about the support for insurgents from the outside," the source said. The Russian group in the Mediterranean Sea consists of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier , the heavy nuclear missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy (Peter the Great) and large anti-submarine ships Severomorsk and Vice-Admiral Kulakov. Russia has increased intelligence activities in Syria to establish the areas, where terrorists are concentrated, as well as the routes that they use to move from one area to another. "The militants took advantage of the humanitarian pause and regrouped their forces to prepare for a new breakthrough into the eastern part of Aleppo," the source added. According to the source, Russia will use new weapons during the upcoming attacks on terrorists . It was said that the Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea will launch "Caliber" cruise missiles, although it was not specified which ships would be responsible for the launches. Pravda.Ru Russian warships travel to Syria

#NoDAPL: Native American Leaders Vow to Stay All Winter, File Lawsuit Against Police

Common Dreams

Videos #NoDAPL: Native American Leaders Vow to Stay All Winter, File Lawsuit Against Police Amnesty International are sending a delegation of human rights observers to monitor the response of law enforcement to the protests. Be Sociable, Share! (Rob Wilson photo) Native American leaders vowed on Saturday to protest through the winter against a North Dakota oil pipeline they say threatens water resources and sacred lands and are planning lawsuits over police treatment of arrested protesters. Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II said he and other tribal leaders were working on providing food, heat and shelter for protesters opposed to the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline. “We’re just working through some technical details as far as where the land is, and the type of land that can be used for some permanent structures,” Archambault told reporters in Mandan, North Dakota on Saturday morning. At least 10 shelters were being readied on tribal land against temperatures that can fall below -35 Fahrenheit (-37 Celsius) for days at time, he said. “It doesn’t have to put our water at risk,” said Archambault, who was joined by Cheyenne River Sioux Chairman Harold Frazier. The two leaders said they’re considering taking legal action against law enforcement. Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II said more than 40 people were injured, including broken bones and welts from rubber bullets and bean bag rounds fired by law enforcement on Thursday, Oct. 27th. Archambault said his tribe may pursue a class action over police tactics. Officers in riot gear swept through a protester camp on private land using pepper spray, bean bag rounds and an audio cannon aiming high-pitched “sound cannon” blasts against demonstrators. At least 142 people were arrested on Thursday and Friday. Protesters had numbers written on their arms and were housed in what appeared to be dog kennels, without bedding or furniture. “It’s just wrong to use that type of force on innocent people,” Archambault said Saturday, Oct. 29, during a press conference in front of the Morton County Sheriff’s Department. Cheyenne River Sioux Chairman Harold Frazier said he has heard reports of inhumane treatment while people were incarcerated. “All they’re doing is standing up to protect that water,” Frazier said. Here come reinforcements! As police attack & arrest land protectors thousands of buffalo storm #StandingRock https://t.co/NoQyIsWbxv #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/oMa647HviB — RoseAnn DeMoro (@RoseAnnDeMoro) October 28, 2016 Meanwhile, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) announced that they are sending a delegation of human rights observers to monitor the response of law enforcement to the protests. AIUSA also has sent a letter to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department expressing concern about the degree of force used against the protests. The organization will also call on the Department of Justice to investigate police practices. AIUSA sent a delegation of observers to the area in August and has stayed in contact both with the Indigenous community and those policing the protests since then. Letters had previously been sent to the North Dakota Highway Patrol and the Morton County Sheriff’s office calling for law enforcement officers to respect international human rights standards on the policing of protests. “Our observers are here to ensure that everyone’s human rights are protected,” said Eric Ferrero, director of communications for AIUSA. “We’re deeply concerned about what we heard during our previous visit to Standing Rock and what has been reported to us since.” In some instances, police have responded to protesters with pepper spray and bean bags, and in one instance, private security staff used guard dogs. Those recently arrested have reported being strip searched and forced to pay bail for minor offenses. Members of the media and legal observers have also been arrested or charged with minor offenses. “People here just want to stand up for the rights of Indigenous people and protect their natural resources. These people should not be treated like the enemy,” said Ferrero “Police must keep the peace using minimal force appropriate to the situation. Confronting men, women, and children while outfitted in gear more suited for the battlefield is a disproportionate response.” This picture should be shared far & wide. I can only see wrong doing from one side and it isn’t the elder! Bullying cretins! #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/avNjgfYGnz — Crystal Johnson (@Crystal1Johnson) October 29, 2016

Tim Tebow Will Attempt Another Comeback, This Time in Baseball - The New York Times

Daniel Victor

If at first you don’t succeed, try a different sport. Tim Tebow, who was a Heisman quarterback at the University of Florida but was unable to hold an N. F. L. job, is pursuing a career in Major League Baseball. He will hold a workout for M. L. B. teams this month, his agents told ESPN and other news outlets. “This may sound like a publicity stunt, but nothing could be further from the truth,” said Brodie Van Wagenen, of CAA Baseball, part of the sports agency CAA Sports, in the statement. “I have seen Tim’s workouts, and people inside and outside the industry — scouts, executives, players and fans — will be impressed by his talent. ” It’s been over a decade since Tebow, 28, has played baseball full time, which means a comeback would be no easy task. But the former major league catcher Chad Moeller, who said in the statement that he had been training Tebow in Arizona, said he was “beyond impressed with Tim’s athleticism and swing. ” “I see bat speed and power and real baseball talent,” Moeller said. “I truly believe Tim has the skill set and potential to achieve his goal of playing in the major leagues and based on what I have seen over the past two months, it could happen relatively quickly. ” Or, take it from Gary Sheffield, the former outfielder. News of Tebow’s attempted comeback in baseball was greeted with skepticism on Twitter. As a junior at Nease High in Ponte Vedra, Fla. Tebow drew the attention of major league scouts, batting . 494 with four home runs as a left fielder. But he ditched the bat and glove in favor of pigskin, leading Florida to two national championships, in 2007 and 2009. Two former scouts for the Los Angeles Angels told WEEI, a Boston radio station, that Tebow had been under consideration as a high school junior. “’x80’x9cWe wanted to draft him, ’x80’x9cbut he never sent back his information card,” said one of the scouts, Tom Kotchman, referring to a questionnaire the team had sent him. “He had a strong arm and had a lot of power,” said the other scout, Stephen Hargett. “If he would have been there his senior year he definitely would have had a good chance to be drafted. ” “It was just easy for him,” Hargett added. “You thought, If this guy dedicated everything to baseball like he did to football how good could he be?” Tebow’s high school baseball coach, Greg Mullins, told The Sporting News in 2013 that he believed Tebow could have made the major leagues. “He was the leader of the team with his passion, his fire and his energy,” Mullins said. “He loved to play baseball, too. He just had a bigger fire for football. ” Tebow wouldn’t be the first athlete to switch from the N. F. L. to M. L. B. Bo Jackson had one season as a Kansas City Royal, and Deion Sanders played several years for the Atlanta Braves with mixed success. Though Michael Jordan tried to cross over to baseball from basketball as a in 1994, he did not fare as well playing one year for a Chicago White Sox minor league team. As a football player, Tebow was unable to match his college success in the pros. The Denver Broncos drafted him in the first round of the 2010 N. F. L. Draft, and he quickly developed a reputation for clutch performances, including a memorable pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2011 Wild Card round. But his stats and his passing form weren’t pretty, and he spent just two years in Denver before moving to the Jets in 2012, where he spent his last season on an N. F. L. roster. He was cut during preseason from the New England Patriots in 2013 and from the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015.

Keiser Report: Meme Wars (E995)

Truth Broadcast Network

42 mins ago 1 Views 0 Comments 0 Likes 'For the first time in history, we’re filming a panoramic video from the station. It means you’ll see everything we see here, with your own eyes. That’s to say, you’ll be able to feel like real cosmonauts' - Borisenko to RT. Video presented by RT in collaboration with the Russian space agency Roscosmos and the rocket and space corporation Energia More on our project website: space360.rt.com Subscribe Like Leave a Reply Login with your Social ID Your email address will not be published. Name

Trump is USA's antique hero. Clinton will be next president

Trump is USA's antique hero. Clinton will be next president 08.11.2016 | Source: AP photo FBI Director James Comey said on November 6 that his department would not be criminally charging Hillary Clinton for revelations found in her email correspondence. Earlier, however, the FBI had flagged Clinton's email case as a file of high priority. It was said that the FBI had collected a lot of evidence. All of a sudden, it was announced that Clinton would be cleared. Pravda.Ru asked political scientist and publicist Leonid Krutakov to comment on such a development. "Was it a though-out move to show that Clinton is not guilty?" "Did you expect a criminal case against Clinton right before the election? I thought of such a plan if Trump were winning, but now that they have cleared her name, it means that Hillary Clinton will win the election. One can be sure for 100 percent that Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States of America. "I do not think that the FBI Director made that decision independently. This is a political figure, this is a job to which people are appointed by someone else. It is stupid to believe that one FBI director will stand up against the whole elite that prints money and runs business and international politics. The times of ancient heroes have passed. Trump has tried to become one. He has proclaimed a new era, not only in America but in the world, and the electorate that has consolidated around Trump will not go anywhere after the election. "One needs another war and another threat to America to make Trump's electorate change their mind. As we remember, George W. Bush won the election in no less controversial election battles, when votes in Florida were recounted manually. We remember what happened afterwards - we had September 11, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Bush immediately scored 96 percent of support of the nation. History repeats itself." Pravda.Ru Read article on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru What does Hillary Clinton like about Putin?

Pelosi Calls for FBI Investigation to Find Out ’What the Russians Have on Donald Trump’ - Breitbart

Pam Key

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi ( ) called for a FBI investigation to find out “what the Russians have” on President Donald Trump. Pelosi said, “I want to know what the Russians have on Donald Trump. I think we have to have that investigation by the FBI into his financial, personal and political connections to Russia, and we want to see his tax returns so we can have a truth in the relationship between Putin whom he admires. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Weekly Featured Profile – Randy Shannon

Trevor Loudon

You are here: Home / *Articles of the Bound* / Weekly Featured Profile – Randy Shannon Weekly Featured Profile – Randy Shannon October 31, 2016, 7:21 am by Trevor Loudon Leave a Comment 0 KeyWiki.org Randy Shannon Randy Shannon is a Beaver County , Pennsylvania Democratic Party activist. “A Democratic victory in 2016 with a bigger progressive caucus can tax Wall Street, end austerity and discrimination, and put the nation to work building the solar infrastructure we desperately need.” “We need progressives like Sanders, who support working families, running for President, for Senate, and for Congress wherever possible,” said Randy Shannon , convener of the Sanders for President PA Exploratory Committee. Randy Shannon was a student leader in the 1960’s at Duke University . He left Duke to organize campus groups for labor, peace, women’s equality and civil rights in the South as a staff member of the Southern Student Organizing Committee . In Nashville , he was a leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement and the Free Angela Davis campaign. He was an organizer for the National Welfare Rights Organization and led a local delegation to the 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami to fight for a $6400 guaranteed income. He ran in the TN 5th Congressional District Democratic primary in 1972 successfully targeting a right wing anti-busing candidate. He worked as a welder and organized rank and file workers as a member of Teamsters Local 327. He moved to Pittsburgh in 1976 and still works in the R&D sector of the basic materials industry. In PA he organized the Pittsburgh Youth Movement for Jobs , was active in the peace movement and progressive politics. In 1982, he moved to Beaver County and helped organize Beaver County Fightback , to defend the home ownership of unemployed steelworkers in the Ohio River Valley. He lead the Jesse Jackson campaign in the 4th and 22nd CDs of PA opening an office in Aliquippa in 1988. He also helped organize a ballot access campaign for Dennis Kucinich in 2004. He also helped organize the Beaver County Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and is still active in Beaver County Peace Links . Up until 1991, Randy Shannon was a member of the Communist Party USA . Shannon helped organize the first Citizens Congressional Hearing on Medicare for All, chaired by Rep. Dennis Kucinich in Aliquippa , PA in May 2005 and was an early advocate in Progressive Democrats of America for Medicare for All. He has worked for ten years building a local chapter of PDA that reflects the progressive coalition of minority, labor and progressive activists. For the last nine years he has been a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and a member of Democratic Socialists of America . Randy Shannon attended the 6th National Convention of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) at San Francisco’s Whitcomb Hotel, July 23-26, 2009. The “Building the Progressive Majority: Race, Class and Gender” plenary discussion began a series of panel and workshop discussions. The plenary panel consisted of reports highlighting work of CCDS activists in the South, in the Heartland “rustbelt states,” on the West Coast and New England and the East Coast. Randy Shannon’s report on Western Pennsylvania and the dire conditions in the wake of de-industrialization was particularly moving. He described independent political work with groups like Progressive Democrats of America in raising the consciousness and unity of the working class and Black community, and then in turn ally with forces like the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the Congress to defeat the right and advance progressive planks in Obama’s economic package. He stressed the importance of ending the wars and healthcare reform, especially HR 676 “Medicare for All.”

Urban Population Booms Will Make Climate Change Worse

Urban Population Booms Will Make Climate Change Worse Posted on Oct 27, 2016 By Tim Radford / Climate News Network Flooded slums in the densely-populated city of Jakarta, Indonesia. (Kent Clark via Flickr) LONDON—The world’s cities are growing even faster than the human population. Within the last 40 years, the global population has increased by a factor of 1.8, but built-up areas have multiplied 2.5 times . All of this information, and much more, appears in a new European Commission (EC) publication called the Atlas of the Human Planet , prepared to coincide with the recent third UN Habitat conference in Quito, Ecuador. The Atlas shows that, 40 years ago, most of the world’s 4.1billion population lived in rural areas. Now more than half live in towns and cities—urban clusters that cover 7.6% of the planet’s land mass, equivalent to an area about half the size of the European Union. Most of the people in the world are crammed into urban centres with a density greater than 1,500 persons per square kilometre, and in settlements greater than 50,000 inhabitants. Altogether, geographers have identified 13,000 urban centres, altogether surrounded by 300,000 “urban clusters” of at least 5,000 inhabitants living at a density of 300 per square kilometre. Population tripled And in the 40 years since the first UN Habitat conference in 1976, the population of Africa has tripled, while the built-up area of the continent has quadrupled. In wealthy Europe, the population remained stable, but the built-up area doubled. The research for the Atlas has been enriched by a new, free, open and global dataset, the Global Human Settlement Layer , developed by the EC’s Joint Research Centre , and based on 12,400 billion individual satellite data readings over the past four decades. It provides, in every sense, an overview of a planet at work and at rest and struggling to survive. It confirms what most people would have suspected: that nine of the 10 most densely populated urban centres—including Cairo in Egypt, Guangzhou in China, and Jakarta in Indonesia—are in the low-income countries. Researchers warn that whatever problems these new city-dwellers have will be compounded by climate change The largest urban centre in the world is Los Angeles in the US, eight of the 10 largest urban centres are in the high-income countries, and five of those are in the US. And a group of scientists led by Timon McPhearson, assistant professor of urban ecology at the New School in New York , publish a warning in Nature journal that more urban areas will be built in the next 30 years than ever before just to house and shelter the additional 1.1billion people expected in the next 14 years—most of them in the crowded cities of Asia and Africa. Whatever problems these new city-dwellers have will be compounded, other researchers warn, by climate change —with ever more frequent and intense heatwaves, droughts, floods , and days of bad air quality. Around 40% of the world’s people live in coastal cities, and are therefore increasingly vulnerable to floods , tsunamis, surges and tropical storms. Because of the notorious urban “heat island effect”, cities are inevitably hotter than the surrounding countryside , and many are likely to face a crisis in the supply of safe, clean water . Swelling cities The new Atlas warns that the new, swelling cities will go on making ever greater demands on the farmland and wilderness beyond the city’s boundaries. In the last 15 years, 27,000 sq km of land was covered by housing, workshops and pavement. This is an area equal to Cyprus and Israel combined. If this growth continues at the present rate, an additional 1.1 million sq km of land will become built-up between 2015 and 2040—an area equal to the size of Ethiopia. In 119 countries, the urban population is between 70% and 90% of the total. In 25 countries—most of them in Asia—the city dwellers make up 90% of the population. Many of these are in megacities. The atlas records 50 “urban clusters” of more than 10 million people, and one gigacity—Beijing—that is home to more than 100 million. Inevitably, in this growth explosion, the poorest are often most at risk, from floods, landslides, and other geophysical and climate-related potential disasters. In the last 40 years, the number of people living at or even below sea level has almost doubled from 45 million to 88 million, and the number living on steep slopes has increased from 70 million to 160 million. Tim Radford, a founding editor of Climate News Network, worked for The Guardian for 32 years, for most of that time as science editor. He has been covering climate change since 1988. Advertisement

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don't we have the receipt?

184 U.S. generals and admirals endorse Trump for Commander-In-Chief

Dr. Eowyn

Have you seen that pro-Hillary TV ad of disgraced Gen. John Allen? Nauseating. You should know that in 2011, Allen, then a 4-star general in the U.S. Marine Corps, was nominated to be NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, pending confirmation by the Senate. On November 13, 2012, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suspended Allen’s confirmation hearing, pending investigations into the general’s “inappropriate communication” with a woman named Jill Kelley. Gen. John Allen (l); Jill Kelley (r) As part of the fallout of the Gen. David Petraeus -Paula Broadwell affair, the FBI uncovered 20,000 to 30,000 pages of correspondence — mostly email — between Allen and Kelley from 2010 to 2012. Reportedly, their correspondence was “flirtatious” and “inappropriate” as Allen and Kelley were both married at the time, but not to each other. Seriously, how can a 4-star general even have so much free time as to write 20,000 to 30,000 emails in the space of two years to ANYONE? 20,000 emails mean an average of 28 emails a day exchanged between Allen and Kelley; 30,000 emails mean an average of 42 emails a day. There is no one with whom I’ve exchanged 28 emails a day, even less 42 emails. The upshot: Not only did John Allen lose his confirmation as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, he also lost his job as Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan — a post to which he was promoted to replace the disgraced Gen. Petraeus. (See “ Obama purges U.S. military command (Part 1) ”) Allen retired from the military in February 2013, but was appointed Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL (or ISIS) — a post and title created for Allen by Obama, which Allen held for about a year from September 2014 until October 23, 2015. Allen was a featured speaker at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. He criticized Donald Trump and endorsed Hillary Clinton — who abandoned four Americans to die in Benghazi — for President. Like the New Yorker that he is, Trump fired back, calling Allen “a failed general.” Trump does have the endorsement of 184 non-failed and non-disgraced U.S. generals and admirals, including at least four 4-star and fourteen 3-star flag officers, as well as the endorsement of 14 Medal of Honor recipients. The endorsements began with an open letter on Sept. 6, 2016, from 88 retired U.S. general and admirals : “The 2016 election affords the American people an urgently needed opportunity to make a long-overdue course correction in our national security posture and policy. As retired senior leaders of America’s military, we believe that such a change can only be made by someone who has not been deeply involved with, and substantially responsible for, the hollowing out of our military and the burgeoning threats facing our country around the world. For this reason, we support Donald Trump’s candidacy to be our next Commander-in-Chief. For the past eight years, America’s armed forces have been subjected to a series of ill-considered and debilitating budget cuts, policy choices and combat operations that have left the superb men and women in uniform less capable of performing their vital missions in the future than we require them to be. Simultaneously, enemies of this country have been emboldened, sensing weakness and irresolution in Washington and opportunities for aggression at our expense and that of other freedom-loving nations. In our professional judgment, the combined effect is potentially extremely perilous. That is especially the case if our government persists in the practices that have brought us to this present pass. For this reason, we support Donald Trump and his commitment to rebuild our military, to secure our borders, to defeat our Islamic supremacist adversaries and restore law and order domestically. We urge our fellow Americans to do the same.” Two days later on Sept. 8, another 21 retired U.S. generals and admirals joined the list, followed by 31 more the next day, on Sept. 9, and another 44 on Sept. 16, bringing the total number of flag officers who have endorsed Trump to 184. Below is the list, as of Sept. 16, 2016, of the retired U.S. generals and admirals, who are endorsing Trump for President and Commander-In-Chief: General Burwell B. Bell III, US Army, Retired General Alfred G. Hansen, US Air Force, Retired Admiral Jerry Johnson, US Navy, Retired Lieutenant General William G. Boykin, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General Marvin Covault, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General Brett Dula, US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant General Dan Duren, US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant General Harold T. Fields, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General Bruce L. Fister, US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General Gordon E, Fornell, US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant Jay Garner, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General Ron Hite, US Army, Retired Lieutenant Generals John I. Hudson, USMC, Retired Lieutenant General Harley Hughes, US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General Timothy A. Kinnan, US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant General Joe Kinzer, US Army, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General Bennett L. Lewis, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General Frederick McCorkle, US MC, Retired Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney, US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant General Clifford H. Rees, Jr. US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant James C. Riley, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General Hugh G. Smith, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General John B. Sylvester, US Army, Retired Lieutenant General David J. Teal, US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant General William E. Thurman, US Air Force, Retired Lieutenant General Jack Woodward, US Air Force, Retired Vice Admiral Mike Bucchi, US Navy, Retired Vice Admiral Edward Clexton, Jr. US Navy, Retired Vice Admiral Bernard M. Kauderer, US Navy, Retired Vice Admiral J. Theodore Parker, US Navy, Retired Vice Admiral R.F.Schoultz, US Navy, Retired Vice Admiral Robert Spane, US Navy, Retired Vice Admiral Donald Thompson, US Coast Guard, Retired Vice Admiral Howard B. Thorsen, US Coast Guard, Retired Vice Admiral John Totushek, US Navy, Retired Vice Admiral Jerry Unruh, US Navy, Retired Major General Joe Arbuckle, US Army, Retired Major General John Bianchi, CSMR, Retired Major General Pat Brady, US Army, Retired Major General Bobby G. Butcher, US Marine Corps, Retired, Major General Henry D. Canterbury, US Air Force, Retired Major General Carroll D. Childers, US Army, Retired Major General Jeffrey Cliver, US Air Force, Retired Major General Tommy F. Crawford, US Air Force, Retired Major General Harley Davis, US Army, Retired Major General Felix Dupre, US Air Force, Retired Major General Neil Eddins, US Air Force, Retired Major General David W. Eidsaune, US Air Force, Retired Major General John R. Farrington, US Air Force, Retired Major General Dave Garza, US Marine Corps, Retired Major General William A. Gorton, US Air Force, Retired Major General Kenneth Hagemann, US Air Force, Retired Major General Gary L. Harrell, US Army, Retired Major General Geoffrey Higginbothan, US Marine Corps, Retired Major General Kent Hillhouse,US Army, Retired Major General Jerry D. Holmes, US Air Force, Retired Major General John A. Leide, US Army, Retired Major General James E. Livingston, USMC, Retired Major General John D. Logeman, Jr., US Air Force, Retired Major General Homer S. Long, US Army, Retired Major General Billy McCoy, US Air Force, Retired Major General Robert Messerli, US Air Force, Retired Major General John Miller, US Air Force, Retired Major General Ray O’Mara, US Air Force, Retired Major General George W.“Nordie” Norwood, US Air Force, Retired Major General Robert W. Paret, US Air Force MC, Retired Major General James W. Parker, US Army, Retired Major General Richard Perraut, US Air Force, Retired Major General R.V. Secord, US Air Force, Retired Major General Sidney Shachnow, US Army, Retired Major General Edison E. Scholes, US Army (Retired) Major General Richard A. Scholtes,US Army, Retired Major General Mark Solo, US Air Force, Retired Major General James N. Stewart, US Air Force, Retired Major General Michael Sullivan, US MC, Retired Major General Thomas R. Tempel, US Army, Retired Major General Richard L. Testa, US Air Force, Retired Major General Paul E. Vallely, US Army, Retired Major General John Welde, US Air Force, Retired Major General Kenneth W. Weir, US Marine Corps, Retired Major General Michael Wiedemer, US Air Force, Retired Rear Admiral Phillip Anselmo, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Peter Booth, US Navy,Retired Rear Admiral Thomas F. Brown III, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral James J. Carey,US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral, Larry Chambers, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Robert C. Crates, SC, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Mimi Drew, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Ernest Elliot, SC, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral James H. Flatley III, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Vance H. Fry, SC, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Byron Fuller, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral George M. Furlong, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Albert Gallotta, Jr. US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Michael R. Groothousen US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral William A. Guereck, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Dale Hagen, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral John G. Hekman, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Charles F. Horne III US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral William P Houley, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Grady L. Jackson, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral J. Adrian Jackson, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Frederick C. Johnson, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Pierce J. Johnson, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Jack Kavanaugh, SC, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Charles R.Kubic, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Rich Landolt, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Don Loren, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral William J. McDaniel, MD, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral E.S. McGinley II, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Fred Metz, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Douglas M. Moore Jr. SC US Navy. Retired Rear Admiral John A. Moriarty, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral David R. Morris, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral James A. Mozart, SC US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Ed Nelson, US Coast Guard, Retired Rear Admiral Philip R. Olsen, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Robert S. Owens, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Robert Passmore,US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral W.W. Pickavance, Jr., US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Leonard F. Picotte, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Brian C. Prindle, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Mike Roesner, SC USN, Retired Rear Admiral William J. Ryan, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral William L. Schachte, Jr., US Navy JAGC, Retired Rear Admiral William R. Schmidt, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral William H. Shawcross, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Hugh P. Scott, US Navy, MC, Retired Rear Admiral Gregory Slavonic, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Paul Sutherland, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Charles Williams, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral H. Denny Wisely, US Navy, Retired Rear Admiral Theodore J. Wojnar, US Coast Guard, Retired Brigadier General Charles L. Bishop, US Army, Retired Brigadier General Remo Butler, US Army, Retired Brigadier General Jimmy L. Cash, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General George P. Cole, Jr. US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Philip M. Drew, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Jerome V. Foust, US Army, Retired Brigadier General Norman Ham, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Thomas W. Honeywill, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Charles Jones, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Gary M. Jones, US Army, Retired Brigadier General James M. Johnston III, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Thomas J. Lennon, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Bruce Miketinac, US Army, Retired Brigadier General Bert Mizusawa, US Army, Retired Brigadier General Harold C. Morgan, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Stephen Mundt, US Army, Retired Brigadier General Mike Neil, US Marines Corps, Retired Brigadier general Robert V. Paschon, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Mark D. Scraba, US Army, Retired Brigadier General George L. Schulstad, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Richard M. Tabor, US Army, retired Brigadier General Hugh B. Tant III, US Army, Retired Brigadier General Troy Tolbert, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Robert F. Titus, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General William O. Walsh, US Air Force, Retired Brigadier General Robert V. Woods, US Air Force Retired Admiral James “Ace” Lyons, Retired

“Working Class Hero” by John Brennon

Doug Diamond

Source: CNBC, article by Robert Ferris Arctic sea ice is melting at a rate far faster than anyone thought, and it is already wildly, and perhaps The 36,000 member Institute of Physics “Climate geoengineering at scale must be considered only as a last resort…There should be no lessening of attempts to otherwise correct the harmful impacts of human economies on the Earth’s ecology and climate.” IS RAYTHEON THE WEATHER? Raytheon Corporation is the third largest weapons manufacturer, and is a partner in HAARP . Raethon also tells the weather to the American Meteorological Service (AMS) and is the leading corporation in Weather Modification Nano Technology, as well as advanced Weather Weapon Systems. Here is Raytheon's RAY GUN crowd control, weather modification, weapons systems, weather forecasting Raytheon. Still think they can't alter the weather? President John F Kennedy Secret Societies Methane

The Rise of Mandatory Vaccinations Means the End of Medical Freedom

Shaun Bradley

Written by Shaun Bradley Mandatory vaccinations are about to open up a new frontier for government control. Through the war on drugs, bureaucrats arbitrarily dictate what people can and can’t put into their bodies, but that violation pales in comparison to forcibly medicating millions against their will. Voluntary and informed consent are essential in securing individual rights, and without it, self-ownership will never be respected. The liberal stronghold of California is trailblazing the encroaching new practice and recently passed laws mandating that children and adults must have certain immunizations before being able to attend schools or work in certain professions. The longstanding religious and philosophical exemptions that protect freedom of choice have been systematically crushed by the state. California’s Senate Bill 277 went into effect on July 1st, 2016, and marked the most rigid requirements ever instituted for vaccinations. The law forces students to endure a total of 40 doses to complete the 10 federally recommended vaccines while allowing more to be added at any time. Any family that doesn’t go along will have their child barred from attending licensed day care facilities, in-home daycares, public or private schools, and even after school programs. Over the years, California has developed a reputation for pushing vaccines on their youth. Assembly Bill 499 was passed in 2011 and lowered the age of consent for STD prevention vaccines to just 12 years old. Included in the assortment of shots being administered was the infamous Gardasil , which just a few years later was at the center of a lawsuit that yielded the victims a $6 million settlement from the US government, which paid out funds from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program . The Vaccinate All Children Act of 2015 is an attempt to implement this new standard nationwide, and although it has stalled in the House, it will likely be reintroduced the next time the country is gripped by the fear of a pandemic. The debate surrounding vaccinations is commonly framed as a moral struggle between the benefits to the collective and the selfish preferences of the individual. But since the outbreak scares of Zika , measles , and ebola , the rhetoric has taken a turn toward authoritarianism. It’s commonly stated by the CDC and most mainstream doctors that the unvaccinated are putting the health of everyone else at risk, but the truth isn’t so black and white . The herd immunity theory has been consistently used to validate the expansion of vaccine programs, but it still doesn’t justify the removal of choice from the individual. The classic exchange of freedom for perceived safety is a no brainer for the millions of Americans who are willing to use government to strap their neighbors down and forcibly inject them for the greater good. Anyone who expresses concern about possible side effects is immediately branded as conspiratorial or anti-science. Yet controversial claims that certain vaccine variants cause neurological disorders like autism have led some people to swear off inoculations altogether. This all-or-nothing dynamic has completely polarized the issue and prevents any reasonable discussion from taking place. Either you accept all of the CDC’s recommended 69 doses of 16 vaccines between birth and age 18, or you want to bring back measles, polio, and probably the black plague. On the other extreme side of the debate, if you fail to acknowledge all vaccines as dangerous, you’re an ignorant sheep. Through the internet, disinformation has become widespread and created a movement of people that have written off all the benefits accomplished through immunizations. These individuals are unable or unwilling to separate the science from the shady institutions that develop and distribute new vaccines. Even if thimerosal and mercury based preservatives cause adverse reactions in some patients, it doesn’t detract from the advantages vaccine technology provides. In this debate, like most others in the US, both sides are swept up in emotion and ignorance. Regardless, the public’s trust in vaccinations has been eroded by the reputations of those companies producing them. Pharmaceutical giants like Merck and Pfizer make billions from the distribution of these shots, and the potential profits after a mandate are enough to corrupt the morals of almost anyone. In one example, former CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding left her post at the government agency in 2009 to work in Merck’s vaccine division. An investigative report published by the British Medical Journal last year found the CDC downplays its ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Further, by buying the support of politicians like Hillary Clinton — who received more donations from pharmaceutical companies and their employees than any other candidate this year — these huge companies are able to expand their influence in directing government policy . Maintaining control over what we put into our own bodies is a fundamental right, but for now, standing up to these government decrees only means ostracism from the education system and criticism from peers. In the future, however, the punishments for disobedience will likely only grow stricter. An Orange County doctor named Bob Sears is already in the crosshairs of California’s medical board after excusing a two-year-old from future vaccinations. The mother expressed concern that her daughter had an adverse reaction to a previous shot, describing the child as becoming limp “like a ragdoll” for 24 hours after the last dose. Dr. Sears’ alternative treatment recommendations break from the rules dictated by S.B. 277, and now his reputation, as well as his career, are in jeopardy. This new authority to strip doctors of their medical licenses for simply going against the state-imposed standards opens the door for the persecution of medical professionals who resist any government regulation.A vaccination is an invasive medical procedure that can have different effects on each and every individual. The Nuremberg Code’s first principle is voluntary consent, but it seems the lessons of history have been completely forgotten by today’s leaders. The transition of these shots from “recommended” to “required” is well underway, and those who think the ends justify the means are willing to forcibly make sure everyone else complies. The new benchmark set by California symbolizes a precedent that could be mimicked across the nation. Without having the discretion to choose which medications are injected into your body — or your child’s — how can anyone convince themselves they are free? This overreach and collusion can often be dismissed as a trivial issue, but the fact that voluntary consent is under attack speaks volumes to the extent that state power has metastasized. Reprinted with permission from TheAntiMedia.org . Related

Communists Terrorize Small Business

Steve Watson

Store Communists Terrorize Small Business The owner of the Blue Cat Cafe is the victim of recent terrorist attacks on her business by communists protesters based in Austin Infowars.com - October 27, 2016 Comments NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Download on your mobile device now for free. Today on the Show Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars crew. From the store Featured Videos FEATURED VIDEOS Donald Trump Has Won The 2016 Presidential Election - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . BREAKING: Michael Moore Admits Trump Is Right - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . ILLUSTRATION How much will your healthcare premiums rise in 2017? >25% © 2016 Infowars.com is a Free Speech Systems, LLC Company. All rights reserved. Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice. 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force

Computer Programmer Comes Forward, Admits To Being Paid To Rig Voting Booths! TRUMP WAS RIGHT! • USA Newsflash

Usa News Flash

VIA Conservative Tribune In 2000, computer programmer Clinton “Clint” Curtis was ordered to design an undetectable computer program that could flip the results of a close election, according to ClashDaily and the St. Petersburg Times, now the Tampa Bay Times . Curtis testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee that his employer, Yang Enterprises Inc., told him, “We need to steal an election.” The program was intended for the computerized voting machines to which Florida would be transitioning starting in 2002. You can watch the video here: CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO This is it, folks. Despite the liberal media’s efforts to convince us all otherwise and paint naysayers as conspiracy theorists, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is right. Rigging an election has never been easier. The left painted Clint Curtis as a nut, a conspiracy theorist, a disgruntled ex-employee. They published photoshopped images of him wearing a tinfoil hat and did everything possible to discredit one man who was standing up for the truth. Curtis voluntarily took a polygraph test, alleging that one of the consultants at his employer was a Chinese national and convicted spy. Yang Enterprises denied ever knowing consultant Hai Lin Nee, while in fact they had been assisting him for years in repeatedly extending his U.S. Visa. The Florida Department of Transportation inspector investigating the ballot tampering allegations, Raymond Lemme, was found dead in an apparent suicide. Both Curtis and Lemme’s family members believe he was murdered. In 2005, computer experts demonstrated for officials in Leon County, Florida, how simple it was to flip election results while leaving no detectable trace of their efforts. Where is the liberal media in all this? Where are the Democrats who are supposedly so concerned with our fundamental rights? They’re in a back room, preparing to steal an election if the people’s voice isn’t heard on Election Day. On Nov. 8, be that decent person standing up for truth. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that the election is rigged? Share us your thoughts in the comments section below.

Thieves Take a Chunk of Change, All 221 Pounds of It, From a Berlin Museum - The New York Times

Melissa Eddy

BERLIN — You could never palm it, flip it or plunk it into a vending machine. But apparently it can be pinched: One of the world’s largest gold coins, a Canadian monster called the Big Maple Leaf, was stolen overnight from the Bode Museum in Berlin, the police said on Monday. The coin is about 21 inches in diameter and over an inch thick. It has the head of Queen Elizabeth II on one side and a maple leaf on the other. Its face value is 1 million Canadian dollars, or about $750, 000, but by gold content alone, it is worth as much as $4. 5 million at current market prices. And though it weighs about as much as a refrigerator, somehow thieves apparently managed to lug it through the museum and up at least one floor to get it out of a window at the back of the building. The police are still trying to figure out exactly how they did it. The Bode Museum, which sits on Museum Island in the Spree River, is part of the complex belonging to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, or in German, the Preussischer Kulturbesitz. The local commuter railway runs across the island along the back of the museum. The burglars seemed to have broken in through a window above the railway tracks during the hours when the trains pause for the night. The police were alerted to the at 4 a. m. and think that it took place between 3:20 a. m. and 3:45 a. m. The window, some three to four yards above the tracks, stood ajar and appeared to have been “forcibly opened,” said Winfrid Wenzel, a police spokesman. Officers searching the crime scene found a ladder on the elevated railway’s roadbed, which is near the museum’s back wall. The police declined to give further details, including whether security cameras monitored that window, or whether the museum’s alarm systems had gone off. The Big Maple Leaf had been on display since December 2010, on a floor below the window in its own bulletproof case. It was surrounded by other, smaller gold coins. The bulletproof glass “appeared to have been violently shattered,” Mr. Wenzel said. But the thieves seemed to know what they wanted the smaller gold coins were untouched. Given the coin’s weight, the authorities said they suspected that more than one person was involved. Their theory for now is that the thieves dragged the coin through the museum, out the window and then along the railway track, possibly reaching a park on the opposite bank of the river near the Hackescher Markt, a public square in Berlin that is home to a number of bars and cafes. The police appealed for clues from anyone who had been in the area at that time. Experts said it would be difficult to sell the stolen coin, but worried that it could be melted down and the gold resold on the open market. The museum is regularly closed on Mondays and is expected to reopen as planned on Tuesday. In addition to paintings, sculptures and other works of art, the museum displays what it says is one of the largest collection of coins and medals in the world, with about 500, 000 objects. The Royal Canadian Mint created its first coin, in Canadian dollars, as a demonstration in 2007 — “because we can,” the mint says on its website — to draw attention to its series of more modestly sized, if still costly, pure gold coins. But Alex Reeves, a spokesman for the mint, said it decided to produce up to 10 copies of the Big Maple Leaf after being approached by potential buyers. Interest, however, has been limited. Only five have been produced for sale to date the last delivery was made in 2008. “We were satisfied with selling five coins we didn’t expect to sell at all,” Mr. Reeves said. A granite display stand is supplied with the coin when purchased. Mr. Reeves said that the mint, which still has the first coin “safe and sound in our high security vault,” moves it around in a trunk with casters similar to those used by traveling music acts and stage shows. Not included, however, is any sort of theft protection plan. “Customers are responsible for security of their own assets,” Mr. Reeves said.

New England Patriots’ Owner, Still Sore at N.F.L., Has Payback in Sight - The New York Times

Ken Belson and Ben Shpigel

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The N. F. L. likes portraying itself as one big family of owners, players and fans who, despite their differences, come together on game days. Yet at the Super Bowl in Houston in two weeks, the N. F. L. may have no choice but to air a public and profound grudge on national television. If the New England Patriots defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday as they are favored to do and go on to beat either the Atlanta Falcons or the Green Bay Packers for the title, the league commissioner, Roger Goodell, will have to present the Lombardi Trophy to Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the Patriots. The moment would be delicious payback for Kraft, who is still simmering about the suspension his quarterback, Tom Brady, served as a result of the cheating scandal known as Deflategate, after the underinflated footballs meant to give him a throwing advantage. In spite — or, perhaps, because — of it all, New England went this season and throttled the Houston Texans last week in its playoff opener. Kraft largely kept quiet while the Brady case played out. But in a recent interview, he made clear that he remains annoyed by how his best player and team were pilloried. “Sometimes, the league really messes up, and I think they really messed this up badly,” he said in a discussion in his Gillette Stadium office here. “But we’ve all agreed to subjugate our right to disrupt everything” — the Patriots declined to fight the league over financial penalties it levied on the team — “I mean, we can, but we’re a partnership. There’s jealousy, there’s envy, there’s stupidity. Sometimes, life is unfair, and you have to suck it up and move on and not use it as an excuse. ” Let bygones be bygones? Not quite. Goodell has not been seen at a Patriots home game in two years, and on Sunday, rather than face the wrath of Patriots fans, he will, for the second consecutive week, travel to Atlanta for the N. F. C. Championship game instead. This relationship may have evolved into one of the biggest tests of the diplomatic skills — in football and in his larger world of finance and philanthropy — that Kraft prides himself on. Never mind that he owns one of the most polarizing teams, one that, while certainly beloved in New England, has failed to attract the kind of passionate national following of the Cowboys or the Packers. Some of the distaste, of course, reflects a jealousy created by their four Super Bowl titles — and six appearances in the title game — over the last 15 years. But there is also the coach, Bill Belichick, who although most likely headed to the Hall of Fame, is hard to love with his taciturn and grumpy manner in public. Also not helping are a series of scandals, including New England’s spying on the New York Jets in 2007, and another involving a former player, Aaron Hernandez, who was convicted of committing a murder that occurred while he was a member of the team. And Brady and those footballs. So the internet likes to discuss things like “15 Reasons Why People Hate the New England Patriots. ” Kraft, a native of Brookline, Mass. who bought the Patriots 23 years ago for a $172 million, chalks up such animosity to the team’s success. He has an apartment in Manhattan, and in the years after he bought the team, he would get razzed by people on the street. “They used to be aggressive and nasty, and now they’re more respectful because I think we’ve been able to do pretty well and sustained it,” Kraft said. Still, the friction cuts against the image of affability and reason that Kraft, 75, likes to project. When a New York Times reporter stepped into his office, the first thing Kraft did was hand him two small cartons of eggs from his family farm, assuring him they would be the best he had ever eaten. On his desk facing visitors was a small plaque with the greeting “Shalom Y’all!” The 30 minutes allotted for the interview went on way longer, though some of it was given to asides and tangents. Kraft, whose billions come primarily from a packaging and paper empire and an assortment of other investments, sidestepped questions about whether winning a Super Bowl would have any extra meaning this year. Until Deflategate, he and Goodell publicly got along well, and Kraft takes pride in his facility for building relationships with a wide range of sports figures, celebrities, politicians and business leaders. One week, Secretary of State John Kerry might join him in his suite, and the next it’s media titans like Rupert Murdoch and Leslie Moonves. Among N. F. L. owners, whose politics tilt Republican, Kraft is among the most loyal donors to Democratic candidates. Yet he, as well as Brady and Belichick, considers Donald J. Trump a good friend, a tricky relationship in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, which voted for Hillary Clinton by a wide margin. Kraft said they met 20 years ago when Trump invited him to play golf at his club in West Palm Beach, Fla. “Loyalty is important to me, and he has been a wonderful friend,” Kraft said. “I think one of the great problems in the country today is the working poor, the middle class, that there hasn’t been growth in income on an equal basis, and I really think the policies he’s going to bring to bear are going to be great for the economic side of America. ” It is hard to tell if his association with Trump is costing the team fans, but then, as a team owner and businessman, he is used to being a target. He has had legal fights with business partners, including those with a stake in the land where Gillette Stadium now stands. Patriots fans, too, lashed out at Kraft for not doing more to fight the N. F. L. during Deflategate. Yet he is influential enough in the league that owners and officials prefer to keep their criticisms of him to private conversations. When Kraft and other team owners clash over league issues, it is usually behind closed doors. “We do have dissent and do have things I think you couldn’t help but have,” said the Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, who rivals Kraft for influence in the league. “I think Bob has exhibited disagreement, but he’s also very capable of making and influencing change. I’m someone, if he has ideas, I would certainly be a good listener. ” Kraft is still a very owner, but three of his sons have taken on greater responsibilities with the Patriots and the family’s portfolio of company investments, including a Major League Soccer team, the New England Revolution. More and more, Kraft said, he is focusing on strategizing and bringing people together. Like Arabs and Jews. He has sought to broker Middle East conciliation through sports and investments, citing economic interdependence as a unifying agent. Several years ago, Kraft, who is Jewish, operated a packaging company that employed Israelis and Palestinians. He has taken dozens of Christian friends to Israel, including Brady and, in 2015, 19 former N. F. L. players, some of whom were baptized in the Jordan River. Still, though he often portrays himself as a unifier, some people — or teams — do irk him. Like the Indianapolis Colts. During halftime in a victory over the Miami Dolphins last season, while praising Willie McGinest, a linebacker inducted into the team’s hall of fame that night, Kraft made sure to point out that McGinest was on teams that beat the Colts 16 times in 12 seasons. It was seven months after the Colts first suggested that New England used underinflated balls in the A. F. C. Championship game they lost, . McGinest said he understood how Kraft could still be offended. “When you take away from somebody’s hard work or everything that goes into winning those types of games, it’s pretty upsetting,” said McGinest, now an analyst for NFL Network. “That’s his baby. Those players are all his. That team, it’s his baby. ” At the Patriots, Kraft — and, before her death from cancer in 2011, his wife, Myra — has had a reputation for forming lasting relationships with his players and engaging in conversations with them beyond football. The Hall of Fame running back Curtis Martin grew close to the Krafts during his three seasons in New England. Martin, who identifies as a Christian, spent some Jewish holidays with the Krafts and so grew to love chicken soup served by Myra Kraft that she would give some to her husband to place in Martin’s locker. “I didn’t deem it as normal,” Martin, who also traveled to Israel with Kraft, said in a telephone interview. “I thought it was something that was very rare. ” Now a businessman himself, Martin cherishes the day during his rookie season, in 1995, when Kraft invited him to a plant he owned. “Everything has a process to it,” Martin said, explaining the lesson he learned. “And when you neglect the process, you ultimately neglect your ability to be successful at whatever you’re striving for. That’s an experience I’ll never forget. ” Kraft, former players say, is a regular presence in the locker room, where personnel rarely tread, greeting players, even those who are not stars, by name. Sometimes, he can show a playful, side. During receiver Donte Stallworth’s first stint in New England, in 2007, he and Randy Moss were leaving the cafeteria on their way to the receivers meeting room when Kraft stopped them in the hallway and handed them a manila folder. Opening it, Moss and Stallworth burst into laughter: Inside was a photograph of Kraft and the rapper 50 Cent sipping mai tais on a beach. “I know you two young men are pretty cool and you guys are young studs,” Kraft told them, according to Stallworth. “I’m an old guy, but I’m not too bad myself. ” Stallworth added: “He doesn’t walk around like he owns the place, even though he does. ” Indeed, Kraft was very at home in his office, which is stuffed with photos, memorabilia and knickknacks. Cradling a big cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee, Kraft spoke about how he had managed to maintain consistent success at the Patriots, whether they win the Super Bowl this year or not. “My job is to keep everyone together, strong big egos, and keep the peace in the family,” he said. Looming large near his desk, propped against a wall, was a painting of Brady.

College Republicans, YAF Sue Berkeley over Ann Coulter Event - Breitbart

Tom Ciccotta

The Berkeley College Republicans and the Young America’s Foundation have filed a lawsuit against members of the University of California system for their role in restricting an upcoming speaking event featuring Ann Coulter. [Our lawsuit agst Berkeley filed moments ago. @thomasfullerNYT at failing NYT won’t understand it. Read it yourself https: . — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) April 24, 2017, The suit alleges that administrators unlawfully violated the student’s rights to free expression on campus by placing unusual restrictions on events that the Berkeley College Republicans organized. An event featuring renowned conservative commentator David Horowitz was canceled after the university forced students to hold the event at 3 PM when most students are in class, at a venue far from the center of campus. According to the suit, Berkeley is accused of engaging in a discriminatory practice of applying unusual time and venue restrictions on events planned by the UCB College Republicans. These restrictions have led to the cancellation of two events in the month of April 2017. Defendants engage in a pattern and practice of enforcing a recently adopted, unwritten and unpublished policy that vests in University officials the unfettered discretion to unreasonably restrict the time, place, and manner of any campus event involving “ speakers” — a term that is wholly undefined, and that has enabled Defendants to apply this policy in a discriminatory fashion, resulting in the marginalization of the expression of conservative viewpoints on campus by any notable conservative speaker. Defendants freely admit that they have permitted the demands of a faceless, rabid, mob to dictate what speech is permitted at the center of campus during prime time, and which speech may be marginalized, burdened, and regulated out of its very existence by this unlawful heckler’s veto. The suit condemns the University of California system for failing to provide an academic environment that promotes free debate and the free exchange of ideas, which students were promised at the time of their enrollment. Though UC Berkeley promises its students an environment that promotes free debate and the free exchange of ideas, it had breached this promise through the repressive actions of University administrators and campus police, who have systematically and intentionally suppressed expression by Plaintiffs (and the many UC Berkeley students whose political viewpoints align with Plaintiffs) simply because that expression may anger or offend students, UC Berkeley administators, community members who do not share Plaintiffs’ viewpoints. Read the whole lawsuit below: Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com,

Trump Melts Down And Accuses The US Postal Service Of Stealing The Election For Clinton

Jason Easley

Trump warned his supporters that the US Postal Service is trying to steal the election for Hillary Clinton in Colorado. Video: At a rally in Golden, CO, Trump said: I have real problems with ballots being sent. Does that make sense? Like people saying, “Oh, here’s a ballot. Here’s another ballot. Throw it away. Oh, here’s one I like. We’ll keep that one.” I have real problems, so get your ballots in. Trump also accused election officials of throwing away ballots, as his rally was a mixture of claims of voter fraud and baseless speculation about Hillary Clinton’s emails. Donald Trump appears to be losing his mind. He also seems to think that accusing the US Postal Service and election officials of stealing the election for Hillary Clinton is going to motivate Republicans to vote. Consider the contradiction in Trump’s message. The Republican nominee tells his supporters that the US Postal Service is throwing away ballots, while at the same time he is urging them to mail in their ballots. If their ballots are going to be thrown away by USPS, why should Republicans bother mailing their ballots in? It is this sort of incoherent gibberish that makes no sense. Trump’s inability to stay disciplined and on message is also one of the biggest reasons why Republicans on pace to lose this election. Donald Trump’s descent into paranoid senior citizen continues to play out in front of the entire nation, as the Republican nominee for president believes that his letter carrier is out to get him,

Visiting Madagascar? Leave Red Swimsuits (and Lemur Recipes) at Home - The New York Times

Bryant Rousseau

If you visit a certain beach in northeastern Madagascar, don’t wear red and don’t even think of speaking French. Across most of the island nation, be very careful where you point, lest your finger accidentally find an ancestor’s grave. And in certain areas of the country, do your best not to defecate in the same place twice. Behavior in Madagascar is governed by thousands of cultural taboos, or fady (pronounced ) many of which involve food (don’t eat goat or eel) days of the week (no funerals or farming on Tuesday) and objects (don’t use shovels with firm handles to bury the dead). Specific places associated with ancestors, who are revered, also carry a lot of fady (no playing of a game similar to near a tomb). Some of these prohibitions apply only in a single community, or even to a single family, while others are followed regionally. Breaking a fady invites both social shame and even direr consequences from the ancestors believed to enforce them. The repercussions can be as specific as the taboos: Sing while eating and your teeth will grow uncomfortably long. If a fady is considered overly onerous — say, a travel restriction that interferes with a promising business opportunity — a ritual negotiation can be held with the ancestors. To outsiders, fady can seem like a long and random list of superstitious rules, some silly (don’t build verandas, and don’t pass an egg directly to another person) some environmentally beneficial (eating most species of lemurs is fady, as is fishing in certain parts of the sea, to the benefit of coral reefs) and some harmful (among the Antambahoaka, an ethnic group in the southeast, a fady against raising twins led to a practice of abandoning them in the forest, and a fady against eating dried sweet potato has contributed to malnutrition). But Sarah Osterhoudt, an anthropologist at Indiana University, said fady are crucial to the identity and worldview of the Malagasy, as the people of Madagascar are known. “To the Malagasy, the idea of bringing together all different parts of life — the past and the present, the social and the political, the spiritual and the mundane” — is very important, she said. “Fady do this beautifully. ”

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – Cheap and Full of Toxic Chemicals

REALdeal

by ANYA V In 1928, a man named H.B. Reese, created the peanut butter cup. Mr. Reese was a dairy farmer and a shipping forman for Milton S. Hershey, and found him inspiring. Mr. Reese left dairy farming and created the Harry Burnett Reese Candy Co. in his basement within his home located in Hershey Pennsylvania. In 1956, Mr. Reese died, leaving his candy company to his six sons. In 1963, the Reese’ sons merged their fathers’ company with the Hershey Chocolate Corp. The merger was a tax-free, stock-for-stock merger. The six brothers received 666,316 common stocks valued at $23.5 million dollars in 1963. There are now 20 variations of Reese peanut butter cups. Even though Mr. Reese created a tasty candy and his six sons made wise business partnerships, their candy’s ingredients have become questionable. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made with the controversial ingredient PGPR (Polyglycerol polyricinoleate, which is used as a substitute for cocoa butter. The FDA has determined it to be “safe for humans as long as you restrict your intake to 7.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Otherwise you’d be open to reversible liver enlargement at higher intakes”. Let’s take a look at the other ingredients in one of the worlds’ most favorite candy. Reese’s peanut butter cup ingredients: Milk chocolate, (milk, chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, no fat milk, milk fat, lactose, soy lecithin, PGPR), peanuts, sugar, dextrose, salt, TBHQ and citric acid. •PGPR (polyglycerol pilyricinoleate): Reese’s are made with this controversial ingredient PGPR that has replaced cocoa butter in an effort to cut down on manufacturing costs. PGPR is made from castor beans that reduces the viscosity of chocolate. This chemical has been found to cause gastrointestinal discomfort and allergic reaction in children. •Soy lecithin: 93% of soy is genetically modified. Soy lecithin can cause breast cancer, has negative effects on fertility and reproduction, may lead to behavioral and cerebral abnormalities. ( Read More About Soy Lecithin ) •TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone): TBHQ comes from petroleum and is related to butane. This can be toxic and also cause nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ear, delirium and collapse. It is shown to cause stomach cancer in lab rats, fragment DNA and cause damage to humane lung and umbilical cells. In children it can cause anxiety, restlessness, and intensify the symptoms of ADHD. Want to make your own? Enjoy this recipe I have included:

President Obama and President-Elect Donald Trump Meet at White House

REALdeal

President Obama and President-Elect Donald Trump Meet at White House: Share:

Dale Johnson

VERSE 9. THE STATE OF NATIONAL INSECURITY The Directorate of National Insecurity-- The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of the CIA, the Head of the National Security Agency, The President´s National Security Advisor, the Chief of Homeland Security, The Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Chair of the Senate Committee on Intelligence, The President of the Good Old USA-- All answer to the 1% in a plutocracy posing as ersatz democracy, Kowtowing to Big Money, to Wall Streeters and their cohorts, To Oil Barons, the Multinational Corporations, the Drone Makers, To the vast network of contractors for the CIA, NSA, and Homeland Insecurity, All enjoying secret giveaways for their private pockets (Estimated at a classified $4+ trillion for the War on Terror), Big $$$ to the GMO inventors, big Pharma profiting from provisions in “Fast Track” Free Trade Agreements, To insurance Racketeers serving up sickness under “Obamacare,” And all their lesser but well rewarded staff of hangers-on, All thinking that what the 1% want the 90% will get-- The Shaft, not even the Trickle-down. The Terrorism of War lubricates the Shaft, The State of National Insecurity shoves it up the ass of any boogeyman foreign terrorist created And any bold Peacemaker in the Homeland is at risk. In the Homeland all the agencies of repression mobilize to track the good guy. Whistle-blowers, dead or alive, by any means necessary! The NSA passes on what poses as intelligence to the multiplying police agencies. The FBI infiltrates the peacemakers, tells local cops how to des-occupy the street scat. Big Brother listens to every word you speak, And if you don´t think Zombie, puts you on The List. The Department of War brings official terror instruments to the Homeland, Arms local police forces with “surplus” military armaments To provoke and then violently suppress peaceful demonstrators Protesting police murder and immunity from prosecution. The State of National Insecurity has more sophisticated apparatuses than Mr. Orwell Or Adolf Hitler could envision. So efficient that no Homeland Gestapo is needed-- At least not time yet for domestic Death Squads Like those created by Ronnie Raygun in Central America in the 1980s And now the murderous Narco-State in Mexico fashioned by NAFTA and the War on Drugs, And the neo-Nazi thugs in the Ukraine overthrowing the government To get Western access to the oil, gas, business opportunity and NATO bases And start a new Cold War with Russia. The National Insecurity Agency, a monstrosity almost beyond comprehension, Scrutinizes billions of private messages of everyone, everywhere, Abroad the Heads of State of allies are listened to for clues as to their thoughts and policies. Everywhere searching for intelligence to compile lists of supposed terrorists to kill, At home compiling lists of millions among the thinking and peaceful, People like you and me, now with FBI files, Suspect because we oppose the Terrorism of the Super-Rogue. We pacifists are potential Terrorists. The President of nice words and dirty deeds Says “Reform,” but will as always follow the Dirty Way. There can be no balance of privacy and security, only cover-ups of what is really going on. The 2015 “Freedom Act” to limit the NSA is a long way from curtailing surveillance. The NSA searches for commercial advantage to pass on to Business Cronies. NSA still spies on friend and foe, sabotages computer systems of “enemies,” like China, Conspires to facilitate then cloak in secrecy the Official Terrorism of the Super Rogue. The State of National Insecurity could be considered a fourth branch of government, The military, security, and police agencies supposedly Backing the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Given their centrality, these agencies are better considered As a State reduced to its all-powerful Repressive Apparatus, To its authoritarian essence. Its centrality and power unchecked and not counterbalanced By executive, legislative, or judicial power. These branches respond to and do the bidding of the Repressive Apparatus. The agencies that directly constitute the Repressive Apparatus— The Department of War, the Joint Chiefs of War Staff, And the Special Forces created by the military (better termed Death Squads), The Central Intelligence Assassins, the National Insecurity Agency, The National Insecurity advisors around the Pres, Homeland Insecurity, the Injustice Department, the Federal Bureau of Cointelpro, Local trigger happy police, the National Guard Against Insurgency…. The Senate Insecurity Committee diapers their unwiped asses. Together these agencies have spawned a vast array of private contracting corporations That is well beyond the “Military-Industrial Complex” that President Eisenhower warned against. It is these days not just the big corporations producing weapons, Now it is private contractors that do much of the dirty counter-terrorism work, The computer surveillance and sabotage work, the spy work on corporate competitors, The listening in on allies like the German Chanciler or reformists like the President of Brazil. Secret mercenary work to disrupt and kill. The shadow private complex takes in trillions with no oversight or accountability. The State of National Insecurity is state agencies in symbiosis with a huge complex of private entities Contracted to share and profit from the Dirty Work. This Complex, the merging of government agencies and private corporations, Does the bidding of the entire Plutocracy, united by thirst for war and empire abroad And social control on the home front. A government that once had some lawful protections is transformed into a Regime of Repressive Lawlessness That jails or kills innocents And accords impunity to the criminality of the agents of the Repressive Apparatus. The State of National Insecurity corporatizes its global operations, With no oversight or accountability. A terror apparatus within the State of National Insecurity. Subservient to the 1%, Non-responsive to the courts or Congress. This State has its homeland, Fortress America; It has its dogma, the War on Terror; It has its policy guidelines, Neoliberalism; It has its ideology to instill in the populace, the religion of Zombyism— America first, racism, sexism, the War of All Against All, Imposed cultural ethos of competition and individualism that compliment insecurity and proneness to violence. Large sectors of the populace are taught to view militarism and violence as a source of pride, Criticism and resistance are unmanly cowardice, deserving of repressive punishment. The National State of Insecurity has its creative Think Tanks; It has its political action groups to spread millions around the electoral landscape; It has its means of avoiding accountability, a drawn curtain blocking heinous crimes, A kind of Shari-like code of security and Impunity A cloak of secrecy so dark only the top criminals who command it know what is going on... Unlike their counterparts declaring jihad, the bearded Male Islamic Fanatics, Reacting to the violence perpetrated upon their peoples with their own gross violence, These Macho Warriors of the Insecurity Complex, Dress in suits and ties, don’t sport beards, and don’t wave the Bible When they proclaim “Death to Terrorists” And at home intimidate the Rabble with teargas and clubs and guns, Central to the State of National Insecurity is a criminal organization, A pivot for organizing the ruthless pursuit of the Imperial Vision. The CIA has a long, long, long history of deadly Interventions and Dirty Tricks. The torture episode publicized of late is only the shivering tip of a very dense iceberg of Official Terrorism. After many years of cover-up the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Finally exhibited a semblance of courage in December 2014. In spite of being spied upon by the insecurity apparatus The Committee issued a report critical of CIA “enhanced interrogation” That was central to the War on Terror in the Bush years, Suspended under Obama in favor of drone attacks and more troops in Afghanistan. Committee Chairwoman Feinstein termed CIA activity “misguided.” The President blandly admitted “We tortured some folks.” The Head of the CIA, unsuccessful in attempts to suppress the report on grounds of “national security” And former Vice-President Cheney, a principal architect of the war on terror, An array of those involved, All rose to defend the indefensible in extensive media coverage, While not a single victim´s story was aired. The best that was said in official discourse is that torture is “unfortunate” and occasionally “never again.” There is immunity for all perpetrators, The CIA Director and the battery of agents in Covert Operations, President Bush, VP Cheney, the Attorney General and a battery of lawyers involved, The Secretary of War, Rumsfeld. No one will be prosecuted under American or international law For gross violations of human rights, For crimes against humanity Or any other violation of law and international treaties. No consequences for kidnappings and renditions to Black torture sights, For indefinite imprisonment in Guantanamo, For interrogation techniques that included Rectal feeding (liquefied gourmet Middle Eastern cuisine no doubt) Rectal hydration (convenient substitute for a water fountain) Diapers “Generally not to exceed 72 hours” (no latrines, on delayed order from private contractors) Cramped confinement, stress positions, insect placement, total darkness, sleep deprivation, Infliction of pain, hunger, and humiliation, threats of rape and execution, “Walling”, facial hold and slap, and the most notorious--Waterboarding. Donald Trump asked about reinstating waterboarding said, “You bet your ass.” These are heinous crimes committed by persons devoid of humanity, The Gestapo of our era responsible to institutions serving only the most perverse ends. Lest we forget, American judges in 1946 condemned Nazi torturers to death by hanging. The only sane response by American citizens is prosecution of those responsible. Hurrah to Code Pink that attempted to make a citizen´s arrest of Henry Kissinger for his crimes, The good Ladies were forcibly evited from a Senate Armed Services hearing on Imperial Strategy And Labeled by Warlord Senator John McCain as “low-life scum”, No doubt a projection of his own war-mongering character. For the institution that sponsored these depravities there is only one remedy, ABOLISH the CIA. Along with the National Security Agency that monitors all of us, And Homeland Security that that creates long lines at airport, And ridiculously has us take off our shoes before boarding an airplane.

The Real Numbers in Florida: Trump Winning by 14 Points

Andrew Anglin

October 27, 2016 DailyStormer: We may well win so hard on the 8th that it won't matter how much bussing they do, won't matter how many illegals vote What worries me is we don't know yet how many dead people are going to vote Democrat. October 27, 2016 I live in Florida and I have yet to see a Hillary sign anywhere, and I see literally thousands of Trump signs. Even the blacks here are for Trump. I've only met a handful of Clinton supporters and they were all female college students. Trump will not lose Florida!

Ann Coulter On C-Span Quotes VDARE.com’s Brimelow–A Racist Is Someone Winning An Argument With A Liberal.

James Fulford

‘Age of Empires’: How 2 Dynasties of Art Forged China’s Identity - The New York Times

Holland Cotter

No one does epic better than the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It brought Pergamon to New York last spring and got the balance of giant and delicate right. It flew in medieval Jerusalem, and kept its multicultural sprawl intact. Now, in the exhibition “Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B. C. . D. 220),” it brings us China becoming China in a take as strange and warm as life. We love life, of course, all the details: sparrows in the forsythia books and lamps and coffee the voice of a friend on the phone. The ancient Chinese loved it, too, and wanted it to last forever. China’s first emperor believed it might. He viewed death as a kind of power nap, from which he’d awake refreshed in a tomb that was like an earthly home, but better, more fun. He designed his mausoleum as an underground with countless pavilions, great feng shui and a major security force. For light, there were candles, the most expensive money could buy, guaranteed to keep burning after he’d moved in — he died in 210 B. C. — and the doors had shut for the last time. Those lights are still burning in the Met’s hypnotic, exhibition of 160 objects from 32 museums in China, which opens on Monday. Of the museum’s several presentations of Chinese antiquities over the past 20 years, this one is probably the most dramatic visually and the most accessible emotionally. There’s a certain amount of the type of art the Met is too comfortable with: imperial bling. But here even this material feels purposeful, because it dates from a time in China when the idea of empire and corporate branding through art was experimental. By the third century B. C. the Zhou dynasty had run its course, and turf wars broke out among smaller regional states. One of those states, the kingdom of Qin (pronounced CHIN) overcame all rivals and brought much of China under one rule for the first time. It did this partly through armed strength, but also through a sort of management savvy taught in business schools today. The Qin ruler, born Ying Zheng, decided that the most effective means of control was to promote team spirit: Get everyone on the same civic page, and keep them there. To that end, he instituted a unified currency and a single standard of weights and measures. He decreed the use of a universal written script, which let him control the political conversation. And he initiated construction of the Great Wall, a statement of Us versus Them. The effect of all this was to create a rudimentary sense of shared identity within a diverse population a sense of or — to use a modern English word that may derive from Qin — . The M. B. A. thinking worked, or did for Ying Zheng himself. He became the first Chinese ruler to assume the title of emperor — Qin Shihuangdi, or First Emperor of Qin — and built a tomb near Xian, in northwestern China, to match its grandeur. We have only written accounts of what’s in the tomb (the pavilions, the candles it’s never been excavated). But its presence yielded one of the ’s great art historical finds when, in 1978, on a tip from local farmers, archaeologists uncovered an army of some 7, 000 figures buried nearby. Five of those figures, four standing, one kneeling, open the Met show (along with two modern reproductions of buried chariots found with them). They, or their like, have been endlessly circulated for display, but they’re still magnetic, with their blocklike bodies and personable faces, and customized. Even more striking, and less familiar, is another figure found in a different part of the tomb site, this one a beefy court entertainer, nude to the waist, with every fold of flesh and swell of muscle precisely rendered. There was no precedent in China for any of this, the scale, the naturalism. So what was the source? Historians point to a likely one: the Hellenistic art that was introduced by Alexander the Great to Asia — at Pergamon, for example — and filtered over trade routes to China. Whatever its origins, the new sculpture adds another facet to the profile of : cosmopolitan taste. But for all its innovations, or maybe because of them, Qin rule was brief, 15 years. The emperor spent a lot of time on the road, surveying his domain but also on a quest for elixirs. His sudden death unleashed an drama of assassinations, suicides and civil war, until another imperial power, called Han, took its place, and held it more than four centuries. Han artists built on Qin precedents in art, but with adjustments. For a while they maintained an interest in realism, but seemed to shift the emphasis from the human figure to the natural world. The big personalities in Han sculpture in the show are animals: horses as majestic as gods elephants, foreign to China, closely observed. Even common barnyard creatures — chickens, goats and pigs — are portrayed with empathy you can almost hear them clucking and snuffling. The Han further refined the policy of centralized imperial rule and expanded its reach outward, globally, evident in the steady increase in material richness and variety seen as you move through the show, past granulated gold work, amethyst necklaces and luxury textiles brought overland and by sea from Afghanistan, India, Persia, nomadic Eurasia and the Mediterranean. Some of the most exotic items are from China itself. An fantastically sophisticated bronze cowrie shell container, swarming with tiny figures in what looks like a raucous Bruegelesque market scene, was produced by the Dian culture in what is now Yunnan province, people that Han court records referred to as “southwestern barbarians. ” Was that imperialism or provincialism speaking? They can be the same thing. And they can equally motivate people to shape an exclusive group identity. The Han were intent on doing so, though this didn’t prevent them from borrowing heavily from other cultures, including their immediate predecessors. As with the Qin, Han society, at least at elite levels, focused on the hereafter. Most items in the Met show came from graves. Many objects were specifically for funerary use. Like much art everywhere, the underlying inspiration was political and personal. Art promoted and shored up the hierarchies on which a culture was built. It also answered to a human need to keep life going. The Han elite spared no expense to ensure their continuance. The survivors of a Han princess named Dou Wan encased her corpse in a jumpsuit made from 2, 000 jade plaques linked with gold threads, jade being a stone thought to have preservative properties. The suit is in the show, and as we approach through a passageway in Zoe Florence’s theatrical exhibition installation, it looks like a sleeping extraterrestrial, a space traveler patiently waiting to be beamed up. Yet everything in the surrounding galleries seems designed to anchor the traveler to life on earth: a little in the form of a carved jade bear a silk pillow woven with the words “extend years” a vogueing earthenware dancer with sleeves and a wine jar that, when discovered in 2003, still held Han wine. There’s even a luxury or a model of one, and lamps to light it, including one shaped like a tree sprouting ducks and dragons like spring buds. At the end of the show — organized by Zhixin Jason Sun, a curator of Chinese art at the Met, assisted by Pengliang Lu, a curatorial fellow — there’s a low closed door, carved from stone, made for a tomb, and painted with figures that could be earthly or celestial. If you passed through the door, which life would you be entering, or leaving, and is there a preference? An answer may lie in an object hanging on the exhibition’s exit wall. It’s a round mirror with an inscription embossed on its rim: “May the Central Kingdom be peaceful and secure, and prosper for generations and generations to come, by following the great law that governs all. ” Central Kingdom meant China. And for the Qin and the Han, wherever you went, in this world or the next, you were there.

Because STUPID! NARAL created deck of ‘Gender Cards’ for Hillary; guess which card she is

Sam J.

Because STUPID! NARAL created deck of ‘Gender Cards’ for Hillary; guess which card she is Posted at 11:39 am on October 27, 2016 by Sam J. As Twitchy reported yesterday, NARAL celebrated Hillary’s birthday with a deck of Gender Cards, because ya’ know, we don’t hear enough about gender these days. Wonder which card she is … Celebrate @HillaryClinton ’s birthday with a deck of Gender Cards—she’s the Ace of Hearts! https://t.co/sTqjAFVmh0 #ImWithHer — NARAL (@NARAL) October 26, 2016 We thought for sure Hillary would be the Joker, because she kinda looks like him with that crazy smile and wide, vacant stare but oh no … they went with the Ace. And of course they couldn’t go with the Queen because that would likely be seen as oppressing her or something else weird with some reference to gender roles. Maybe? Dunno. These people are lunatics. — Deplorable Renaissan (@desertdude88012) October 26, 2016 That’s what we thought as well. — standing on my own (@Shawn88c) October 27, 2016 Told ya’.

Bill Weld, Running as a Libertarian, Likens Donald Trump’s Immigration Plan to Kristallnacht - The New York Times

Maggie Haberman and Thomas Kaplan

William F. Weld, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, who was last seen campaigning in the 2006 Republican primary for governor of New York, now hopes to be on a national ticket as the nominee of the Libertarian Party. And he is already on the attack. In his first interview since accepting an invitation to be the running mate of former Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico, Mr. Weld assailed Donald J. Trump over his call to round up and deport the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. “I can hear the glass crunching on Kristallnacht in the ghettos of Warsaw and Vienna when I hear that, honest,” Mr. Weld said Thursday. Mr. Weld, 70, was not uniformly critical of the presumptive Republican nominee. “I don’t consider myself part of the Never Trump movement,” he said, expressing admiration for Mr. Trump’s success in the primary contest. “I’m not horrified about everything Mr. Trump has done at all,” he said, adding: “I think he’s done a lot. But when I think about some of the positions, I think they’re way out there. ” Where he differs with Mr. Trump most sharply is on Mr. Trump’s call for mass deportations. Asked if he believed Mr. Trump was a fascist, Mr. Weld demurred. “My Kristallnacht analogy does evoke the Nazi period in Germany,” he said. “And that’s what I’m worried about: a slippery slope. ” After a circuitous answer, he eventually came to a conclusion. “No, I wouldn’t call Mr. Trump either a fascist or a Nazi,” Mr. Weld said. “I’m just saying, we got to watch it when we get exclusionary about people on account of their status as a member of a group. ” Mr. Weld also objected to Mr. Trump’s repeated threats to impose tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and China. “That’s a pretty good prescription to having China be the only superpower in about 10 years,” he said, leaning forward to make sure a reporter understood him. “China — not the U. S. ” Mr. Weld’s best known previous turn on the national stage was in 1997, when he resigned as governor to focus on his appointment by President Bill Clinton as ambassador to Mexico. That did not go well: He was blocked by Senator Jesse Helms and withdrew his nomination after a heated battle in which Mr. Weld, a pillar of what was left of the moderate northeastern Republican establishment, loudly assailed Mr. Helms and the archconservatives who stood behind him. A former prosecutor, Mr. Weld could appeal to some disaffected Republicans on a ticket alongside Mr. Johnson at a time when other efforts by Republicans to recruit a candidate — in part in the hopes of keeping Republican voters from staying home and costing the party’s candidates — are close to fizzling. Mr. Weld said Mr. Johnson, the Libertarian presidential candidate in 2012 who is seeking the party’s nomination again, spoke to him last weekend about running. Their hope is to amass enough support in national polls to be included in the presidential debates. If that happened, Mr. Weld said hopefully, it would not be impossible to envision a ticket winning the White House. But he also did not protest too much when asked how he would reassure those who, mindful of his willingness to roll the dice in politics, might question his level of commitment to a national run. “There’s some truth in that,” said Mr. Weld, who now works at a law firm, Mintz Levin, and its lobbying arm, ML Strategies. “I do like to climb mountains in politics, and I do enjoy running for office. ” The Libertarian Party says it already will be on the ballot in 32 states and is working on the rest. It will pick its presidential and nominees at a convention over Memorial Day weekend in Orlando, Fla. Mr. Weld suggested that the Libertarian message, which emphasizes civil liberties and small government, could appeal to younger voters. Discussing foreign policy, he spoke critically of the Iraq invasion of 2003 and of putting “boots on the ground” in the Middle East to project American strength. But he was supportive of the Obama administration on the Iran nuclear deal that Republicans frequently criticize. “I thought the game was worth the candle there, and that’s politically incorrect in almost all circles — certainly in Republican circles — but I think I do feel that way, and I followed that closely,” Mr. Weld said, adding, “I know John Kerry quite well and I saw his going back and forth, and rather admired it. ” (Mr. Weld unsuccessfully challenged Mr. Kerry in the 1996 Senate race.) Asked about Hillary Clinton, Mr. Weld noted that he had known her since they were both in their 20s. “I’ve always just thought of her as a really great kid,” he said. Mr. Weld said he possessed a deep libertarian streak, and pined for a time when that was more widespread in the Republican Party. He complained about the polarization in Congress and remembered his early days working on Capitol Hill, before law school, for Senator Jacob K. Javits, Republican of New York. “It was a totally different era and a wonderful era,” he said. “It was wonderful to be in Washington in those days. And things absolutely got done. ”

How Housing’s New Players Spiraled Into Banks’ Old Mistakes - The New York Times

Matthew Goldstein, Rachel Abrams and Ben Protess

When the housing crisis sent the American economy to the brink of disaster in 2008, millions of people lost their homes. The banking system had failed homeowners and their families. New investors soon swept in — mainly private equity firms — promising to do better. But some of these new investors are repeating the mistakes that banks committed throughout the housing crisis, an investigation by The New York Times has found. They are quickly foreclosing on homeowners. They are losing families’ mortgage paperwork, much as the banks did. And many of these practices were enabled by the federal government, which sold tens of thousands of discounted mortgages to private equity investors, while making few demands on how they treated struggling homeowners. The rising importance of private equity in the housing market is one of the most consequential transformations of the American financial landscape. A home, after all, is the single largest investment most families will ever make. Private equity firms, and the mortgage companies they own, face less oversight than the banks. And yet they are the cleanup crew for the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. Out of the more than a dozen private equity firms operating in the housing industry, The Times examined three of the largest to assess their impact on homeowners and renters. Lone Star Funds’ mortgage operation has aggressively pushed thousands of homeowners toward foreclosure, according to housing data, interviews with borrowers and records obtained through a Freedom of Information request. Lone Star ranks among the country’s biggest buyers of delinquent mortgages from the government and banks. Nationstar Mortgage, which leaped over big banks to become the collector of mortgage bills, repeatedly lost loan files and failed to detect errors in other documents. These mistakes, according to confidential regulatory records from a 2014 examination, put “borrowers at significant risk of servicing and foreclosure abuses. ” Unlike the banks, Nationstar wears many hats at once: mortgage bill collector, auction house for foreclosed homes and lender to new borrowers. By working every angle, and collecting fees at each step, the company faces potential conflicts of interest that enable it to make money on what is otherwise a costly foreclosure process. In the rental market, The Times found, other big private equity firms largely bypassed the nation’s poorest neighborhoods as they scooped up and renovated foreclosed homes across the country. Those firms include Blackstone, a huge private equity firm and the nation’s largest private landlord of rental houses. These decisions point to shortcomings of the government’s response to the housing crisis. Rather than enact sweeping changes to housing policy, the government largely handed the problems to a new set of companies. Normie Brown and her husband, Derrick, have lost two fights — first with their bank and then with private equity. Initially, the Texas couple say, they faced a wrongful foreclosure by Bank of America. The bank paid them $50, 000 as part of a broader government settlement over suspected mortgage abuses, and the Browns used that money to fight for their house in court. But the couple couldn’t stop their new bill collector, Nationstar, from auctioning off their home. “You think all you have to do is show them where they did you wrong, and basically justice will prevail,” Mr. Brown said. “That wasn’t the case. ” The court hadn’t yet decided the case, but it didn’t matter: They lost their house. The couple has since separated and Mr. Brown, a decorated Gulf War veteran, said he had moved in and out of homelessness. Nationstar declined to comment on the Browns’ case, but said it had outperformed banks on avoiding foreclosure. Nationstar’s chief executive, Jay Bray, said in an interview that “foreclosure is always, always the last resort. ” Private equity plowed into the housing market after big banks and regional lenders, facing a crackdown from federal regulators for wrongful foreclosure practices, pulled back in the aftermath of the crisis. The shift led private equity firms to spend tens of billions of dollars acquiring homes and troubled mortgages from banks and the government. For private equity firms, which specialize in buying companies at a bargain, the housing market was just their latest investment in a distressed asset. These firms, unlike banks, raise money for their deals from pension funds and other huge institutional investors. The wave of private equity investment in housing has had a positive impact on the American economy. The firms displaced poorly performing banks. They also helped stabilize the nation’s housing market, and it achieved that through smart business decisions about where to put its money. That, in turn, rewarded investors — which is how private enterprise is supposed to work. But much of this investment has not benefited poor neighborhoods. Banks are expected, under the Community Reinvestment Act, to help meet the credit needs of neighborhoods in areas they serve. Private equity has no such obligation. The idea is that banks should follow an implicit social contract: In return for government loans and other support, they are expected to serve a community’s needs. Private equity, which unlike the banks does not borrow money from the government, is answerable to its investors. Those investors include some of the nation’s largest pension plans, whose members — teachers and police officers among them — may support improvements to such areas. As a result, The Times found, private equity has focused on buying newer homes in areas like the suburbs of Tampa, Fla. They have largely avoided more urban communities with older homes, because doing so would be less lucrative for their investors. “There has been a missed opportunity here,” said Dan Immergluck, a professor of city and regional planning at the Georgia Tech College of Design, who has studied the effect of the financial crisis on housing. “They are pushing the market up at the top end and neglecting the bottom end. ” Government officials are also concerned that private equity’s mortgage firms face less scrutiny than banks. While banks are examined by regulators for financial soundness, no similar testing occurs for private equity’s companies. Ginnie Mae, which issues securities backed by mortgages with government guarantees, wants Congress to grant it greater oversight over nonbank mortgage firms and provide money to perform “stress tests. ” The fear is that one firm’s failure would create hardship for millions of customers. “It’s an Achilles’ heel for us to some degree,” said Ted Tozer, Ginnie Mae’s president. Buried in a confidential bond document, in a jumble of legalese, Lone Star explains to investors one way it profits from delinquent loans. Lone Star’s mortgage subsidiary will lower a borrower’s monthly payment if “the net present value of a modification is greater than the net present value of a foreclosure, loan sale or short sale. ” Translation: If foreclosing on a homeowner is the most profitable option, Lone Star is likely to foreclose. Federal officials hoped things would be different. In 2012, America was still in the grips of the worst housing crisis in decades. Foreclosure signs lined the American landscape, casting a shadow on more than 3. 5 million homes. In some communities, abandoned houses outnumbered occupied ones. And soured mortgages made by banks were weighing on the government because it had insured them against default. The government, eager to stem its own losses, decided to ramp up the sale of distressed mortgages to investors. In all, it has sold more than 100, 000 soured mortgages to investors — one of the largest such series of sales. The mortgage sales enticed private equity firms like Lone Star into the mortgage market, where they saw bargains. Housing officials reckoned that private equity firms would bring about change. For one thing, these firms were among the only investors with pockets deep enough to take on billions of dollars worth of ailing mortgages. And they could be more flexible than the banks in keeping Americans in their homes because they had bought the mortgages at steep discounts. But instead of showing greater flexibility, Lone Star — much like the banks before it — has often remained rigid about modifying mortgages. And in some cases it has moved quickly to foreclose, taking possession of homes to sell them, according to dozens of court proceedings, as well as interviews with borrowers and housing advocates. In a statement, Caliber Home Loans, Lone Star’s mortgage servicing subsidiary, said that “modifying a nonperforming loan for a borrower is almost always the most profitable option for a lender, and Caliber is incentivized to pursue that outcome. ” Yet Lone Star and Caliber have foreclosed on more than 14 percent of the 17, 000 loans the firm picked up at auction from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2014, according to an analysis of loan filings that RealtyTrac performed for The Times. Caliber is now moving toward foreclosing on at least another 3, 200. Some critics say the government is partly to blame by not expressly requiring private buyers to modify most loans. Its priority, these critics argue, was to sell off the mortgages to protect taxpayers against losses, rather than protecting homeowners. “I understand HUD wants to make its money back,” said Representative Michael E. Capuano, a Massachusetts Democrat. But, he said, “hedge funds and private equity firms have one interest only, and that is the bottom line. ” Mr. Capuano is one of dozens of lawmakers who have pushed for major changes in the auctions, including greater involvement of community groups and nonprofits, which often cannot afford to bid because the government sells the loans in huge bundles. In May, in an apparent acknowledgment of the problem, a HUD spokesman said the agency was drafting rules to force investment firms to be more accommodating to borrowers. In its defense, Caliber said that 71 percent of the 17, 000 mortgages it bought in the HUD auction had already begun the lengthy foreclosure process and that more than half of the homes were vacant at the time of foreclosure. Caliber said its goal was to “avoid foreclosure whenever possible,” noting that it had done so for roughly 4, 200 homeowners in the pool of mortgages it bought from HUD. Modifications don’t always save borrowers money. After filing for personal bankruptcy, Michael Rego, 51, of Yonkers, held out hope for a loan modification when JPMorgan Chase sold his delinquent mortgage to Lone Star. Last October, he received a letter from Lone Star’s Caliber that began: “Congratulations! You are approved for a trial period plan. ” But his hopes were dashed when it turned out that the proposed modification would actually increase his monthly payment by $500. Two months later, to add insult to injury, Mr. Rego lost his job as a marketing consultant at Citigroup. “I would hate to just walk away from the house,” said Mr. Rego, who has lived in the home for nearly 20 years. “But if I have to, I have to. ” Caliber and Lone Star have largely opted not to participate in government programs that encourage mortgage modifications. To date, Caliber has received just $3. 3 million in payments from the Treasury Department for modifying loans in compliance with the federal Home Affordable Modification Program. Caliber’s unwillingness is illustrated by two cases in White Plains. In both cases, homeowners challenged Caliber’s decision to not modify their loans. The homeowners argued that Lone Star bought the mortgages from a bank under terms that require Caliber to consider loans for the government program to help struggling borrowers. In contrast with Caliber, most banks have participated more fully in the government modification program, as has Nationstar, which has received $158 million in payments. Lone Star, led by the billionaire investor John Grayken, has expanded Caliber — which employs more than 1, 000 people — into one of the nation’s lenders. As a business, Lone Star has been a success. It has generated an average annual net return of 20 percent for investors for more than two decades. It also just completed one of the largest securitizations of nonprime mortgages since the financial crisis. In early June, the firm announced a $161. 7 million bond deal backed by mortgages underwritten by Caliber, including many loans to people who had either filed for bankruptcy or been previously foreclosed on. The escalation comes as a recent survey of housing counselors and lawyers ranked Caliber last among 11 mortgage servicers in most aspects of dealing with borrowers. And the New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, opened an investigation last fall into Caliber over its handling of delinquent mortgages. Mr. Schneiderman recently expanded the investigation to include an examination of Lone Star’s securitization of mortgages, including delinquent loans. The New York State Department of Financial Services is also reviewing some of Caliber’s practices. “These companies are pitching their models as being well aligned with home buyers, but it’s hard to know if that’s true,” said Sarah Edelman, director of housing policy for the Center for American Progress. Inside Nationstar’s headquarters on the outskirts of Dallas, government regulators made an alarming discovery — and then another one, and another. The regulators, who gathered at Nationstar in 2014 for what should have been a routine examination, found “inaccurate information” in customer loan files, according to confidential documents reviewed by The Times. Nationstar, which became a huge mortgage bill collector in recent years, often failed to detect these errors “until the foreclosure process is underway. ” Some of the breakdowns, the documents said, “placed consumers at significant risk of servicing and foreclosure abuses. ” Regulators laid the blame on Nationstar, citing deficient technology and a failure to employ enough trained workers as it rapidly expanded to become the nation’s mortgage bill collector. In 2010, it ranked 18th. The examination, conducted by more than 15 states and the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, showed the flaws of private equity’s new role in the mortgage market. Nationstar, controlled by the Fortress Investment Group, was repeating some of the banking industry’s mistakes. As new regulations prompted banks to scale back their servicing of mortgages, companies owned by private equity went on a buying spree. Private equity sensed an opportunity as the mortgage servicing business became a liability for the banks, leading Bank of America alone to reach settlements worth billions of dollars over federal accusations of using illegal foreclosure documents and unfair rejections of loan modifications. Since 2012, Nationstar has bought the rights to collect payments on more than $450 billion in mortgages, much of it from Bank of America. The previously unreported documents detailing Nationstar’s 2014 examination tell the story of its expansion and the problems that followed. “Nationstar Mortgage pursued a strategy of explosive and virtually unchecked growth, but did not put in place appropriate operational controls,” one regulatory memo said. Authorities are investigating Nationstar based on the 2014 examination, and it could face an enforcement action this year. Jay Bray, Nationstar’s chief executive, acknowledged that “candidly, we did a poor job” handling the 2014 exam. But since the exam, he said, “We are proud of the work we’ve done to improve the customer experience. ” The company has invested in technology and added staff, he said. “Did we make mistakes? Yes. Was it a systemic problem? I don’t think so,” he said, attributing the problems to growing pains. “It’s really easy to play Monday morning quarterback,” he said. Wesley Edens, a founder of Fortress, Nationstar’s private equity backer, maintains that the servicer has performed better than the banks it replaced. Since buying some of the banks’ most troubled assets, Nationstar has overseen a 50 percent decline in delinquent loans, though those improvements coincided with a broader recovery in housing. “Thank God those loans were moved from Bank of America to Nationstar, because so many borrowers were better off,” Mr. Edens said in an interview. (A Bank of America spokesman called the company “an industry leader in providing foreclosure avoidance solutions to more than 2. 1 million customers since the beginning of the crisis. ”) Mr. Edens, noting that Fannie Mae ranked Nationstar higher than its peers at preventing delinquency, encouraged The Times to contact federal authorities to verify these improvements. The authorities declined to comment. Nationstar notes that, over the last four years, it has approved more than 172, 000 loan modifications that saved homeowners an average of $380 a month. Whereas all servicers collectively rejected 69 percent of applications for the government’s modification program, Nationstar has been more generous, rejecting 54 percent of borrowers. Nationstar also recently announced plans to rename its mortgage operation “Mr. Cooper,” presenting a more face. Even as Nationstar has shown improvements, on multiple occasions last year the company “wrongfully terminated” borrowers from the federal mortgage modification program, according to a published report. “Over multiple quarters, Nationstar is wrongfully kicking people out of the program, and that’s a real serious concern,” said Christy Romero, the special inspector general for the 2008 bank bailout law and the author of the loan modification report. In Phoenix, Millard and Adria Gaines struggled to modify their loan as it changed hands four times in 20 years. During a recent interview at his home, Mr. Gaines walked to his kitchen freezer, pulled out a pack of cigarettes and described how he tried for years to get Bank of America, and then Nationstar, to modify their loan. In 2014, his wife exchanged emails with a Nationstar “foreclosure prevention specialist” who suggested she apply for a modification. After months of no change, Mrs. Gaines sent a letter detailing family misfortunes that imperiled their finances, including that her husband had been told he had acute kidney failure. About six months later, Nationstar finalized a mortgage modification for the Gaineses. But even then — reducing the interest rate to 3. 2 percent from 5. 3 percent — it was months too late to help the Gaineses avoid a second bankruptcy. Sheri Cellini’s family of five loved their home in Ashland, Ore. a small town in the foothills of the mountains. They lived there for six years until a foreclosure turned them into renters. “The kids want to drive by it all the time,” Ms. Cellini said of the family’s old house. “It’s an uncomfortable thing. ” The recent history of her former home reflects private equity’s new dominance. By the time their home was foreclosed on in 2013, and after the family tried in vain to lower monthly payments, the Cellinis had bounced from one mortgage firm to another. The company that oversaw their foreclosure was Nationstar. Another family took over the Cellinis’ house, winning it through an online auction platform called Homesearch. That family then obtained a mortgage through a company called Greenlight Loans. The companies all have different names and different roles, but all three are essentially the same company. Homesearch and Greenlight are owned by Nationstar. The whirl of transactions illustrates how Nationstar can control nearly every stage of the mortgage process, posing potential conflicts of interest as it earns fees along the way. Nationstar collects bills and, when people don’t pay, can foreclose on homes. Nationstar earns fees auctioning those homes through Homesearch. Ads on Homesearch, which is now known online as Xome. com, direct bidders to Greenlight. Nationstar can then collect on the new mortgage, bringing the process full circle. Shane Hunter, who won the Cellinis’ house through Homesearch, took out a mortgage with Greenlight, even though he had been leaning toward another lender. Nationstar earned a 5 percent “buyer’s premium” by selling the house through its auction website, an extra $10, 450 that it rolled into the loan. As a mortgage bill collector, Nationstar’s interests typically align with borrowers’ because foreclosing can be far more expensive than modifying and continuing to service a loan. But because Nationstar earns fees from selling homes through its auction site, as well as making new mortgages from winning bidders, that added business may compete with the company’s interest in keeping borrowers in their homes. Mr. Bray, the Nationstar chief executive, said the company would always rather keep people in their homes. “We don’t make money from foreclosing on folks,” he said, pointing to data showing that it costs the company 10 times as much to handle a loan in foreclosure. “We hate foreclosures. ” To prevent potential conflicts, Nationstar said it keeps its servicing employees separate from the auction staff. They work in different buildings and use separate email systems, the company said. Auction sites are a driver of Nationstar’s growth. From 2013 to 2015, revenue more than tripled in the unit that includes the auction platform and other services. This stands in contrast with banks, which generally do not own these types of sites. In interviews, several borrowers said that Nationstar required them to list their homes with Homesearch, even after they had found a buyer through their own real estate agent. While Nationstar argues that Homesearch helps to validate an outside offer price, homeowners and their agents complained that it could slow the sale process. “Any requirement to use a particular auction site, especially one affiliated with the loan servicer, raises serious concerns,” the Connecticut attorney general, George Jepsen, said in a statement. He is one of several state attorneys general investigating Nationstar’s auction business, questioning whether it imposes unnecessary costs on consumers. The New York State Department of Financial Services is conducting its own investigation of the auction process and the potential conflicts it presents, according to a letter obtained through a public records request. The case of the Browns — the Texas couple who first fought their bank, then fought Nationstar — illustrates Nationstar’s aggressiveness when selling a home through an auction site. The Browns won a temporary restraining order against Nationstar as they fought what they argued was a wrongful foreclosure. But Nationstar went ahead and listed the home for sale on Auction. com, an outside auction platform that has split fees with Nationstar. On Sept. 26, 2013 — more than a week before the restraining order would expire — Nationstar auctioned off the home through Auction. com. Next, Nationstar moved the case from state to federal court, and it closed the deal before the new judge could rule. “This was our first home,” said Ms. Brown, who ultimately lost the case after the home was sold. “I didn’t want to give up on it. ” To a visitor, Ruskin, Fla. a town just south of Tampa, looks like suburbia. But to private equity, it is pay dirt. Blackstone, one of the largest private equity firms, owns 125 homes in Ruskin that it operates as rentals. The financial crisis hit Ruskin hard: Nearly 800 families lost their homes in foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac. But the town is bouncing back. Amazon has opened a giant warehouse and distribution facility in Ruskin that now employs 2, 000 people. Across America, private equity firms stormed areas like Ruskin, calculating that the decline in home prices would be relatively . Ruskin’s economic prospects looked good. And it had many relatively newer homes, which are cheaper for a landlord to maintain. In making such a large investment in housing — $9 billion buying and renovating mainly foreclosed homes over the last four years — Blackstone effectively bet on which communities would emerge from the housing crisis as winners. It bet correctly. The firm, which now owns about 50, 000 homes in 14 markets, recently reported that the fund holding its Invitation Homes rental subsidiary has generated a 23 percent annualized return for its investors. More broadly, private equity’s investment in housing helped stabilize home prices across the country. The Obama administration supported private investment in foreclosed homes, with Timothy F. Geithner, then the Treasury secretary, remarking in 2011 that it would “support neighborhood and home price stability. ” Still, there has been a cost. Blackstone largely steered clear of more urban communities with older homes, which are more expensive to maintain. LuTanya Garrett, who pays $1, 395 a month for a house that Blackstone owns in Ruskin, said she was looking for another home because of the rent. “I feel like if I’m going to pay rent like this, I might as well own my own home,” said Ms. Garrett, 47, a mother of three. Nationally, the average rent on an Invitation Homes home is $1, 605 a month. The median rent in Ruskin is $1, 452, according to Trulia, a listing service. Blackstone says 72 percent of its homes have monthly rents that are within federal affordability guidelines for the markets it operates in. Institutional investors, which collectively have bought more than 200, 000 homes across the United States, point out that the rental homes they operate are a small fraction of the more than 15 million rental homes nationwide. Most are owned by small investors. About 3 percent of Blackstone’s rental homes are leased to tenants with federal housing subsidies known as Section 8 vouchers. The numbers are lower for most other big private equity firms. Blackstone has said it welcomes Section 8 voucher holders, if the federal subsidy is enough to cover the rent. “We are proud to provide quality housing choices for working families,” said Claire Parker, a spokeswoman for Invitation Homes. Blackstone needs to compete for renters to serve pension fund investors that have come to expect strong returns. And that leads private equity to focus on suburban communities with relatively few Section 8 voucher holders. Housing advocates argue that large private equity firms investing in rental housing should do more for the communities where they operate. “The urban areas took a big hit, and they have stayed down,” said Alan Mallach, senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress, a nonprofit that advises communities on dealing with vacant and blighted homes. “These firms are going into markets which would have recovered anyway. ” There are exceptions, though. Patriarch Properties of Newport Beach, Calif. is one small private equity firm that has set up shop mainly on the South Side of Columbus, Ohio, where abandoned buildings dot the streets, some inhabited by squatters and drug users. For the most part, Columbus has rebounded from the financial crisis. Unemployment is low, and the city is home to companies like Nationwide Insurance and Huntington Bancshares. Patriarch has bought about 260 deteriorated homes on the city’s South Side, an area yet to recover, and is using a combination of investor capital and loans from a nonprofit to rehabilitate the properties. The firm intends to rent the finished homes to residents, many with Section 8 vouchers, for $500 to $900 a month. ”We are trying to bring up an entire area,” said Ethan Temianka, 32, the founder of Patriarch. But there are questions over whether Patriarch can generate the hefty returns it promised investors. “Their very presence is a validation that there is a renaissance in the South Side,” said the Rev. John Edgar, who heads Community Development for All People, a nonprofit group already rehabbing homes in Columbus. “But I am not certain that in the long run the business model is viable. ”

Переплюнуть Калигулу…

Жанна Ивченко

Происшествия С лёгкой руки итальянского режиссёра Тинто Брасса римский император Калигула стал символом самого порочного разврата и воплощением аморального поведения. Но даже у него отношения с миром братьев наших меньших, то есть животных, носили чисто платонический характер: Калигула назначил своего любимого коня сенатором, но отнюдь не любимой женой. Так что, согласно недавним сообщениям СМИ, актёр Алексей Панин, якобы занявшийся зоофилией, переплюнул самого одиозного, не считая Нерона, римского императора. Сам Панин, разумеется, всё категорически отрицает. По его словам, на скандальном видео с собакой заснят не он, а другой мужчина, очень похожий на Панина. (Помните, человек, похожий на прокурора, с женщинами, похожими на проституток?). В раскручивании этой омерзительной истории Панин обвиняет бывшую жену, которой почему-то не нравится то, что актёр не платит алименты. Коварная женщина смонтировала видеозапись и каким-то образом воздействовала на создателей программы «Говорим и показываем», рискнувших пустить её в эфир. В общем, кругом враги, но Панин не намерен сдаваться и пойдёт в суд, чтобы доказать, что он и близко не подходил к собаке ни с какой стороны. Тех, кто ещё не утомился следить за извилистым творческим путём Алексея Панина, разгоревшийся скандал не слишком удивляет: ведь основой своего имиджа этот актёр сознательно сделал крайний эпатаж на грани, а то и за гранью фола. То он голым по гостинице “Версаль” бегает, то публично, пардон, рукоблудием занимается, то в лифте гадит – чего, как известно, ни одна воспитанная собака себе не позволит. Что до мелких потасовок и матерных перепалок, то им уже самые преданные поклонники счёт потеряли. В показушном мире шоу-бизнеса, где слава является смыслом жизни, каждый пытается выделиться, чем может: кто-то большим талантом, кто-то большим бюстом, а кто-то непомерным непотребством. Здесь всё ясно, и обсуждать, в общем-то, нечего. Вопрос в другом: есть ли грань, за которую СМИ не смогут зайти в погоне за сенсацией? Неважно, кто заснят на зоофильском видео: есть вещи, которые просто нельзя демонстрировать на экране телевизора. И здесь, как ни странно, хочется поддержать Панина в его планируемом иске к авторам передачи: если цензуры нравов нет, это не значит, что напоказ всё дозволено. Так что, ещё неизвестно, кто переплюнул Калигулу: актёр или режиссёр программы.

Sen Booker: Trump Is Creating ’Toxic’ Environment of ’Fear’ - Breitbart

Pam Key

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Cory Booker ( ) said President Donald Trump was creating a “toxic environment” of “increased fear in our country. ” Booker said, “This is the problem, I don’t care what party you are in right now, recognize this, we are at a time of increased fear in our country. ” He added, “There is something seriously wrong when mendacity has become the norm. There is something seriously wrong when citizens are afraid to leave their homes. There is something seriously wrong when hate crimes are surging. There is something seriously wrong when this is a toxic environment being created right now. And I don’t care who you are, if you consider yourself a leader, you have an obligation to stand up and do something about it and lead with love and not appealing to people’s darker angels or exploiting that fear. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Facebook Wall: Reactions to Donald Trump’s victory in US Presidential elections

UnReal Mama

Tweet A truckload of eggs smashed into the faces of American liberals after controversial leader Donald Trump trounced Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States of America . Our correspondent Mark Zuckerpandian brings you a collection of reactions, especially from India: Tweet About UnReal Mama Ek chatur naar badee hoshiyaar, apane hee jaal me phasat jaat ham hasat jaat are ho ho ho ho ho!

In ‘Divorce,’ Sarah Jessica Parker Wants to Ditch Mr. Medium - The New York Times

James Poniewozik

In 1998, playing the relationship columnist Carrie Bradshaw in “Sex and the City,” Sarah Jessica Parker helped usher in HBO’s golden age and define a Manhattan gilded age. So it’s unavoidable to wonder if her new HBO series, “Divorce,” is “Sex and the City” 18 years later. It is not. It’s more like a comedy about the kind of people who once watched “Sex and the City,” 18 years later: suburbanites, pushing 50, for whom the sex (at least with their spouses) is nothing to wax literary about, and the city is a long train ride away. “Divorce” is not as as its forebear, not as fresh in its material, and in its first outings, not as consistently funny. But it can be a caustic pleasure, a chaser, heavy on the bitters, to Carrie’s fruity cosmo. Here, Ms. Parker is Frances, who, in a gender twist on the stereotypical scenario, is the one having the midlife crisis. She has a pricey house in Westchester County, two teenage kids and an office job for which she’s a dream of opening an art gallery. (In this ambition, she is more a Charlotte than a Carrie.) She also has a hunky college professor lover, Julian (Jemaine Clement, “Flight of the Conchords”). Frances’s husband, Robert (Thomas Haden Church) seems incapable of crisis, to a fault. He’s bluff and steady, predictable down to the timing of his bowel movements. His bushy, mustache makes him look mothballed and out of his time, like a man doing a Civil War of himself. Robert is no Mr. Big. He is, maybe, Mr. Medium. “Divorce” is grounded in harsh, compromised reality. In the opening shot, as Frances soberly assesses herself in the mirror — neck, chest, corners of the eyes — Ms. Parker conveys the sense of a woman who Marie Kondoed her glasses years ago. Julian gives her, besides orgasms, the chance to be at the beginning of something again. The affair is not — at first — what drives Frances and Robert to splitsville. Rather, it’s the party for her friend Diane (Molly Shannon) who gets sloppy drunk, rummages through a drawer for a gun and fires a clumsy shot at her husband, which nearly hits Robert. Instead of bringing Frances and Robert together, the scare pushes them further into themselves. He contemplates his mortality she decides she wants out: “I want to save my life while I still care about it. ” “Divorce” was created by Sharon Horgan, writer and star of “Catastrophe,” an unromanticized romantic comedy about marriage as a messy struggle. This comedy throws that rattly engine into reverse. The process of cutting entanglements, as Frances and Robert go from confrontation to mediation to litigation, is both sad and oddly invigorating. Ms. Horgan keeps the show’s sympathies complicated. Frances has fallen in love with falling out of love, and even Julian sees her decision as rash and . Robert is the spouse, but he’s no prize himself. When he learns about the affair, he glories in having the moral high ground: “You’re Jesse James,” he blusters, “and I get to be Sandra Bullock!” Neither is above using their friends and kids as leverage. Mr. Church gets the bigger comic moments, and he delightfully plays Robert as a blunderbuss whose explosions register both his pain at losing Frances and the rigidity that lost her in the first place. Ms. Parker plays the more complex role, with more mixed results. She made audiences love Carrie for years, and her inclination is to win us over to Frances. That’s important: You need to see that Frances believes that she’s the hero of a drama, not an antihero in a farce. But sometimes the role misses someone — like Ms. Horgan herself — who could own the character’s faults and the series’s acid tone. Some of the problem lies in the scripts, which swing unsteadily between lacerating the couple and empathizing with them. Ideally, “Divorce” wants to be a vicious relationship comedy that also takes its core sadness seriously. In this sense, it aims to be less like “Sex and the City” than like HBO’s naturalistic “Girls” (whose producer Paul Simms serves as a showrunner). The difference, of course, is measured in years. “Divorce” feels in its bones, from the themes to the wintry setting to the ’ soundtrack (Supertramp, Todd Rundgren, Climax Blues Band). It’s not going to reinvent the breakup comedy or the HBO comedy. Its goal is more modest and : to tell one more story of two people trying to reinvent themselves.

Senate Passes Bill Exposing Saudi Arabia to 9/11 Legal Claims - The New York Times

Mark Mazzetti

WASHINGTON — A bill that would let the families of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks sue Saudi Arabia for any role in the terrorist plot passed the Senate unanimously on Tuesday, bringing Congress closer to a showdown with the White House, which has threatened to veto the legislation. The Senate’s passage of the bill, which will now be taken up in the House, is another sign of escalating tensions in a relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia that once received little scrutiny from lawmakers. Administration officials have lobbied against the bill, a view that the White House spokesman Josh Earnest reiterated after the vote. And the Saudi government has warned that if the legislation passes, it might begin selling off up to $750 billion in Treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they face a danger of being frozen by American courts. Adel the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the warning to lawmakers and the administration while in Washington in March. Many economists are skeptical that the Saudis would deliver on such a warning, saying that a would be hard to execute and would do more harm to the kingdom’s economy than to America’s. Questions about the role Saudi officials might have played in the Sept. 11 plot have lingered for more than a decade, and families of the victims have used various lawsuits to try to hold members of the Saudi royal family and charities liable for what they allege is financial support of terrorism. But these moves have been mostly blocked, in part because of a 1976 law that gives foreign nations some immunity from lawsuits in American courts. The Senate bill carves out an exception to the law if foreign countries are found culpable for terrorist attacks that kill American citizens within the United States. If the bill were to pass both houses and be signed by the president, it could clear a path for the role of the Saudi government to be examined in the Sept. 11 suits. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, a Democrat and a sponsor of the bill, said the legislation would help the families of the victims seek justice. “For the sake of the families, I want to make clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that every entity, including foreign states, will be held accountable if they are found to be sponsors of the heinous act of ” he said shortly before the bill’s passage. “If the Saudis did not participate in this terrorism, they have nothing to fear about going to court,” he said. “If they did, they should be held accountable. ” Mr. Schumer said he believed that Democrats would override a veto from Mr. Obama. He also said he believed that Saudi Arabia’s threat to pull its assets, a concern of the administration, was “hollow,” adding, “It will hurt them a lot more than it hurts us. ” Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said the legislation was written in such a way that Americans would not be subject to legal action taken by other nations. “I do believe that there’s going to be some saber rattling, some threats, but I think that they are hollow,” Mr. Cornyn said. In a move intended to address some White House concerns, the bill’s sponsors included a new provision that would allow the attorney general to put a hold on individual court cases if the administration can show that it is negotiating with the defendant government to resolve the claims. But a release on Tuesday from Mr. Schumer’s office said the administration would need to provide details about the talks and a timetable for their resolution. Mr. Earnest said on Tuesday that White House officials would seek to negotiate with Republicans and Democrats on alternatives to the legislation that might be acceptable to the president, but he added, “I don’t know if that’s possible at this point. ” Earlier this month, Mr. Jubeir said during a news conference that the proposed legislation was “stripping the principle of sovereign immunities” and turning international law “into the law of the jungle. ” The legislation is moving through Congress as the Obama administration considers whether to declassify a portion of a 2002 congressional investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks that cited some evidence that Saudi government officials and other Saudi citizens living in the United States had a hand in the terrorist plot. Those conclusions have yet to be released publicly, but recently the National Archives posted a separate document on its website that appears to offer a glimpse at what the 28 pages contain. The document, dated June 6, 2003, is a series of memos written by Sept. 11 commission staff members compiling numerous possible connections between the hijackers and Saudis in the United States. The document was first disclosed publicly by 28pages. org, an advocacy website devoted to pushing for the declassification of the redacted section of the congressional inquiry. The Sept. 11 commission, which began its work after the congressional inquiry, found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” Al Qaeda or the plotters. Last month, the commission’s Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, issued a statement saying that the 28 pages “were based almost entirely on raw, unvetted material that came to the F. B. I. ” — much of it ultimately deemed inconclusive by the Sept. 11 panel. “Accusations of complicity in that mass murder from responsible authorities are a grave matter,” they wrote. “Such charges should be levied with care. ”

DAPL Protesters Proven Right as Largest Gas Pipeline in U.S. Experiences Massive and Deadly Explosion – Anonymous

DAPL Protesters Proven Right as Largest Gas Pipeline in U.S. Experiences Massive and Deadly Explosion 18 Shares Email ( ZHE ) Bloomberg reports that S.C. fuel marketers are receiving allocation notices from major suppliers after Colonial Pipeline shut its mainlines on fire in Shelby County, Alabama, according to Michael Fields, executive director of state’s Petroleum Marketers Association. Massive plume of smoke is filling the skyline after a gas pipeline exploded in Helena, Alabama according to CBS42. Fire units are headed to the scene, according to McAdory Fire Station #2. Alagasco has stated that the fire is from a petroleum line. According to the Shelby County Sheriff’s office, the blast was on the Colonial Line, with 8-9 people injured. For those curious about the pipeline, the EIA has a great primer found here. The Sheriff adds that the blast happened during crew work. The explosion took place near 334 Highway 13. At this time, a response team has been called in from Jefferson County as well as a tanker from the McAdory Fire Department. 7 victims now going to UAB: 6 people severely burned after reported gas line explosion https://t.co/TNcIGRujDA pic.twitter.com/83TyLP6Cqk

Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, People’s King of Thailand, Dies After 7-Decade Reign - The New York Times

Barbara Crossette

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, who took the throne of the kingdom once known as Siam shortly after World War II and held it for more than 70 years, establishing himself as a revered personification of Thai nationhood, died on Thursday in Bangkok. He was 88 and one of the monarchs in history. The royal palace said he died at Siriraj Hospital but gave no further details. King Bhumibol was a unifying figure in a deeply polarized country, and his death cast a pall of uncertainty across Thailand, raising questions about the future of the monarchy itself. The military junta, which seized power in a coup two years ago, derives its authority from the king. But the king’s heir apparent, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, seen by many as a playboy, is not held in the same regard as his father. King Bhumibol spent most of his final years in a hospital, ensconced in a special suite. His portrait hung in almost every shop, and as his health declined, billboards proclaimed “Long Live the King,” signaling widespread anxiety about a future without him. In response, he openly fretted about the people feeling so insecure. Thais came to see this Buddhist king as a father figure wholly dedicated to their welfare, and as the embodiment of stability in a country where political leadership rose and fell through decades of military coups. His death ends a reign of 70 years and 126 days, one that few monarchs have matched for longevity. Queen Elizabeth II, by comparison, has ruled Britain for more than 64 years, having surpassed Queen Victoria’s mark in 2015. With King Bhumibol’s death, she becomes the world’s monarch. King Bhumibol (pronounced ) was an accidental monarch, thrust onto the throne at 18 by the violent death of his older brother in 1946. He fully embraced the role of national patriarch, upholding Thailand’s traditions of hierarchy, deference and loyalty. Western stereotypes of his country irked him. He disdained the Broadway musical “The King and I,” with its roots in his grandfather’s court. And, like a stern father, he was quick to chastise his fellow Thais when he saw the need. In the king’s own book “The Story of Tongdaeng” (2002) about a street dog he had adopted, the message — there was always a message in his writings — was that affluent Thais should stop buying expensive foreign breeds when there were so many local strays to save. The book was a Thai . If he was a people’s king, Bhumibol was a quiet and somewhat aloof one. He was a man of sober, serious mien, often isolated in his palaces, protected by the most stringent of laws, which effectively prevent almost any public discussion of the royal family. But he had a worldly bent. Born in Cambridge, Mass. where his father was a student at Harvard, he was educated in Switzerland, spoke impeccable English and French, composed music, played jazz on the clarinet and saxophone, wrote, painted, took up photography and spent hours in a greenhouse at his Chitrlada Palace in Bangkok. Once he had returned from Europe, however, he stayed put. Never interested in a life, he stopped traveling abroad, saying there was too much to do at home. He was content to trudge through croplands in distant provinces in an shirt and sport coat, tending to the many development projects he encouraged and oversaw: plants, dams that watered rice fields, factories that recycled stalks and water hyacinths into fuel, and countless others. In a political crisis, Thais admired him for his shrewd sense of when to intervene — sometimes with only a gesture — to defuse it, even though he had only a limited constitutional role and no direct political power. “We are fighting in our own house,” he scolded two warring politicians he had summoned to sit abjectly at his feet in 1992. “It is useless to live on burned ruins. ” Eleven years earlier, he had aborted a coup by simply inviting the besieged prime minister, Prem Tinsulanonda, to stay at a royal palace with the king and queen. Thailand was transformed during his reign, moving from a mostly agricultural economy to a modern one of industry and commerce and a growing middle class. He presided over an expansion of democratic processes, though it was halting. He witnessed a dozen successful military coups and several attempted uprisings, and in his last years, his health failing, he appeared powerless to stem sometimes violent demonstrations, offering only vague appeals for unity and giving royal endorsement to two coups. Meanwhile a strain of republicanism emerged as the country broke into two camps: on one side, the establishment, with the palace at its core on the other, the disenfranchised, whose demand for a political voice threatened the traditional order. Between them was the king, a calming symbol of unity — so much so that at times he wanted to moderate the country’s almost obsessive veneration of him. In his annual birthday address in December 2001, King Bhumibol said, “There is an English saying that the king is always happy, or ‘happy as the king’ — which is not true at all. ” In his birthday speech in 2005, he said the belief that the king can do no wrong was “very much an insult to the king. ” “Why is it that the king can do no wrong?” he asked. “This shows they do not regard the king as being a human. But the king can do wrong. ” Bhumibol Adulyadej was born in Cambridge on Dec. 5, 1927, the son of Prince Mahidol of Songkhla, a founder of modern medicine in Thailand the prince was studying public health at Harvard at the time. Bhumibol’s mother, Princess Sangwalya Chukramol, was a Thai nurse studying on a scholarship at Simmons College in Boston when she met the prince. Bhumibol had an older brother, Ananda, and a sister, Galyani Vadhana. Bhumibol and his father were inheritors of the reformist tradition begun by King Mongkut in the 19th century and accelerated by his son King Chulalongkorn, Bhumibol’s grandfather. Mongkut and Chulalongkorn were the king and prince in “Anna and the King of Siam,” Margaret Landon’s 1943 novel, which was based on the autobiographical writings of Anna Leonowens. The novel inspired the musical “The King and I” and its film adaptation. Bhumibol was 2 when his father died, and his mother, to whom he was very close, took her children to Switzerland for schooling. Their family life was interrupted in 1935 when Thailand’s last absolute king, Prajadhipok, Prince Mahidol’s half brother, abdicated after a military coup. The crown passed to Prince Mahidol’s eldest son, Prince Ananda, then 10 years old. King Ananda was barely into his 20s when, on June 9, 1946, he was found dead in his private chambers with a bullet through his head. Bhumibol was the last family member to have seen him alive, but he never spoke publicly about the death or about rumors that the young king, a gun collector, may have committed suicide or killed himself accidentally. Bhumibol, though not originally in the line of succession, was anointed king. He soon returned to Switzerland for a few years and studied politics and history at the University of Lausanne. While on a trip to Paris, he met Sirikit Kitiyakara, whose father, a Thai prince, was serving as a diplomat in Europe. They married in 1950, the year King Bhumibol was formally crowned Rama IX of the Chakri dynasty. In an interview with The New York Times in 1988, the first he gave to a Western newspaper, King Bhumibol spoke with some bitterness of his early reign. He was repeatedly silenced by the military when he tried to assert himself, he said, and so decided to focus on what he could do best within his limited rights. That led to his concentration on industrial and agricultural development, an area in which the military could not challenge him without further undermining its increasingly shaky popular support. King Bhumibol began systematically building a following across the Thai political spectrum, down to the village level. It was a strategy emulated in neighboring Cambodia by Norodom Sihanouk, another Asian monarch who held the devotion of a nation through years of turmoil. David K. Wyatt, the author of the classic 1982 book “Thailand: A Short History,” credited King Bhumibol with turning the monarchy into Thailand’s strongest social and political institution. Queen Sirikit, though often ill, apparently from depression or a nervous disorder, tried to keep up with her husband as he toured the country and visited the more than 1, 200 development projects he fostered. She concentrated on reinvigorating Thai handicrafts. She and the couple’s four children survive. The eldest is the daughter Ubol Ratana, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, married an American and lived mostly in California until separating from him and returning to the fold in Thailand in 2006. The youngest, Princess Chulabhorn, has a degree in organic chemistry and was married to a Thai commoner. It was she who broke a royal silence about the health of her mother in the by saying that Queen Sirikit, an insomniac, suffered from exhaustion. The heir to the throne, Prince Vajiralongkorn, is the only royal son. A daughter, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, never married and had devoted herself to studying the arts and helping her father with his many projects. She has for years been the most popular woman in Thailand, a quiet, personable foil to her brother. Toward the end of the king’s life, Prince Vajiralongkorn was moving to the center of public life. The military has recently sought to burnish the image of the prince, a partnership that may also have cemented the generals’ power. King Bhumibol was nearing the end of a long day of visiting projects in eastern Thailand in the summer of 1988 when he and Princess Sirindhorn agreed to be interviewed by The Times in a chalet by a reservoir built by a donor in honor of the king. The subject turned to the legend of “The King and I,” which had been banned in Thailand as being disrespectful to the monarchy, and to the West’s image of the glittering life of a king of Siam, embodied in the musical most memorably by Yul Brynner. “At first it was all this rubbish about the half brother of the moon and the sun and master of the tide and all that,” King Bhumibol said in his fluent English. He said he found it “irking” to have to live up to legends created by Western writers. “They wanted to make a fairy tale to amuse people,” he said, “to amuse people more than to tell the truth. ” In reality, he said, his life revolved around his development projects. He said he did not care how history would remember him. “If they want to write about me in a good way,” he said, “they should write how I do things that are useful. ”

Krauthammer: Gorsuch Filibuster a ’Totally Illogical’ Move Fueled by ’Trump Derangement Syndrome’ - Breitbart

Ian Hanchett

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that filibustering Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court is a “totally illogical” move Democrats are pursuing because they’re responding to the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” of their base. Krauthammer said, “[I]t makes no sense. It’s totally illogical if you’re a Democrat. The fight is going to be over the next nominee. As you say, this nominee does not alter the balance of the court ideologically. The next very well could, whether it’s a Kennedy, or a Ginsburg, or a Breyer, it could be a radical change, a if it’s a Kennedy, and that would have an effect. And you’d expect the Democrats to want to save their ammunition, but they are expending it here. ” He added, “I think they are, in some ways, suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, in the sense that they might not be personally deranged by his presence, but they have a base that has not recovered from the election, and they insist that anybody who represents them and does not want to face a primary fight, or have a demonstration outside their house on a weekend, is — will oppose what Trump is doing. This is about Trump. It isn’t about Gorsuch. And that I think, is their motive for doing it, but it makes no sense because, if this is the first partisan filibuster, it will be the last. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Stop Trump Mixtape: A Protest Song Collection

Kevin Gosztola

Editor’s Note Protest music alone cannot change the world. However, protest music can fuel a culture of resistance. Growing a culture of resistance is needed now more than ever. The following are songs from 2015 and 2016 that speak to the political moment and can be seen as the soundtrack for movements fighting for social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. Now, please enjoy this mixtape — the first of many “Stop Trump” playlists we expect to feature here at Shadowproof. “R.E.D.” by A Tribe Called Red (feat. Yasiin Bey, Narcy, and Black Bear) An anthem for the decolonization of culture and solidarity among colonized populations across all continents “T5” by Swet Shop Boys A sardonic take on post-9/11 security culture from Riz MC and Heems, rappers of British Pakistani and Punjabi-Indian descent who have experience with racial profiling at airports “Old Man Trump” by Ryan Harvey feat. Ani DiFranco and Tom Morello The lyrics of legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie are put to music in this song about Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, and how he excluded people of color from his Beach Haven housing project “Retribution” – Tanya Tagaq Throat singing from an indigenous throat singer who crafts a foreboding warning to global citizens about their non-consensual relationship with Mother Earth. “FDT” by YG A basic message from a young black rapper to reject and not stand for any of Donald Trump’s bullshit “Blk Girl Soldier” by Jamila Woods Calls upon the tradition of strong black women who engaged in freedom fighting for dignity, justice, and human rights while at the same time praising the power of black women with “black girl magic” “MariKKKopa” – Desaparecidos Implicates disgraced Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his legion of white supremacists who promote hate of immigrants—the kind of people glomming on to a Trump administration “The Comin’ Round Is Going Through” by Bonnie Raitt A foot-stomper on what’s coming around for the corporate class who have hijacked elections “In the River: A Protest Song” by Raye Zaragoza Ode to the water protectors standing against the oil barons set on poisoning water and the future of not only indigenous people but the entire planet “We The People…” by A Tribe Called Quest Rap song that uses Trump’s exclusionary rhetoric as a hook, rejects the law and order waging war on black bodies, and preaches hard truths about the dominant culture in which we find ourselves enveloped “True Trans Soul Rebel” by Against Me! Anthem for transgender people to help them find the strength to proudly stand up for dignity, equality, justice, and human rights “Big Box (Live)” by Neil Young & The Promise of the Real An indictment of capitalism, the song pleads for resistance to the corporate takeover over all aspects of government, the rule of law, and all facets of daily life, especially through the rise of Big Box stores. “How I Feel” by A Tribe Called Red Acknowledges the pain that indigenous people can see in eyes of other indigenous people, as they struggle to maintain the fight against colonialist oppression and not burn out. The message applies to all: keep listening to others and never give up. “America Back” by Jill Sobule Requires no additional description. When they say they want their America back, what the fuck do they mean? *** Stop Trump Mixtape on Spotify [*Note: Missing Jill Sobule’s “America Back” because that song is not available on Spotify.] The post Stop Trump Mixtape: A Protest Song Collection appeared first on Shadowproof .

What Happened to the FBI?

Andrew Napolitano

Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name Recipient Email => When FBI Director James Comey announced on July 5 that the Department of Justice would not seek the indictment of Hillary Clinton for failure to safeguard state secrets related to her email use while she was secretary of state, he both jumped the gun and set in motion a series of events that surely he did not intend. Was his hand forced by the behavior of FBI agents who wouldn’t take no for an answer? Did he let the FBI become a political tool? Here is the back story. The FBI began investigating the Clinton email scandal in the spring of 2015, when The New York Times revealed Clinton’s use of a private email address for her official governmental work and the fact that she did not preserve the emails on State Department servers, contrary to federal law. After an initial collection of evidence and a round of interviews, agents and senior managers gathered in the summer of 2015 to discuss how to proceed. It was obvious to all that a prima-facie case could be made for espionage, theft of government property and obstruction of justice charges. The consensus was to proceed with a formal criminal investigation. Six months later, the senior FBI agent in charge of that investigation resigned from the case and retired from the FBI because he felt the case was going “sideways”; that’s law enforcement jargon for “nowhere by design.” John Giacalone had been the chief of the New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., field offices of the FBI and, at the time of his “sideways” comment, was the chief of the FBI National Security Branch. The reason for the “sideways” comment must have been Giacalone’s realization that DOJ and FBI senior management had decided that the investigation would not work in tandem with a federal grand jury. That is nearly fatal to any government criminal case. In criminal cases, the FBI and the DOJ cannot issue subpoenas for testimony or for tangible things; only grand juries can. Giacalone knew that without a grand jury, the FBI would be toothless, as it would have no subpoena power. He also knew that without a grand jury, the FBI would have a hard time persuading any federal judge to issue search warrants. A judge would perceive the need for search warrants to be not acute in such a case because to a judge, the absence of a grand jury can only mean a case is “sideways” and not a serious investigation. As the investigation dragged on in secret and Donald Trump simultaneously began to rise in the Republican presidential primaries, it became more apparent to Giacalone’s successors that the goal of the FBI was to exonerate Clinton, not determine whether there was enough evidence to indict her. In late spring of this year, agents began interviewing the Clinton inner circle. When Clinton herself was interviewed on July 2 — for only four hours, during which the interviewers seemed to some in the bureau to lack aggression, passion and determination — some FBI agents privately came to the same conclusion as their former boss: The case was going sideways. A few determined agents were frustrated by Clinton’s professed lack of memory during her interview and her oblique reference to a recent head injury she had suffered as the probable cause of that. They sought to obtain her medical records to verify the gravity of her injury and to determine whether she had been truthful with them. They prepared the paperwork to obtain the records, only to have their request denied by Director Comey himself on July 4. Then some agents did the unthinkable; they reached out to colleagues in the intelligence community and asked them to obtain Clinton’s medical records so they could show them to Comey. We know that the National Security Agency can access anything that is stored digitally, including medical records. These communications took place late on July 4. When Comey learned of these efforts, he headed them off the next morning with his now infamous news conference, in which he announced that Clinton would not be indicted because the FBI had determined that her behavior, though extremely careless, was not reckless, which is the legal standard in espionage cases. He then proceeded to recount the evidence against her. He did this, no doubt, to head off the agents who had sought the Clinton medical records, whom he suspected would leak evidence against her. Three months later — and just weeks before Clinton will probably be elected president — we have learned that President Barack Obama regularly communicated with Clinton via her personal email servers about matters that the White House considered classified. That means that he lied when he told CBS News that he learned of the Clinton servers when the rest of us did. We also learned this week that Andrew McCabe, Giacalone’s successor as head of the FBI Washington field office and presently the No. 3 person in the FBI, is married to a woman to whom the Clinton money machine in Virginia funneled about $675,000 in lawful campaign funds for a failed 2015 run for the Virginia Senate. Comey apparently saw no conflict or appearance of impropriety in having the person in charge of the Clinton investigation in such an ethically challenged space. Why did this case go sideways? Did President Obama fear being a defense witness at Hillary Clinton’s criminal trial? Did he so fear being succeeded in office by Donald Trump that he ordered the FBI to exonerate Clinton, the rule of law be damned? Did the FBI lose its reputation for fidelity to law, bravery under stress and integrity at all times? This is not your grandfather’s FBI — or your father’s. It is the Obama FBI. Copyright 2016 Andrew P. Napolitano. Distributed by Creators.com.

Clubbers Lament Demise of Fabric, a ‘Totem’ of London’s Dance Scene - The New York Times

Dan Bilefsky

LONDON — For fans of one of London’s most fabled nightclubs, the party is over. This week, the local authorities shut down Fabric, a nightclub that helped put the British capital’s electronic music scene on the global stage and entranced a generation of clubbers from all walks of life. The message from officials was clear: The hedonism would no longer be tolerated. The decision by the Borough of Islington to revoke the license of the nightclub came after the police had asked the borough council to close the venue after the deaths of two in recent months. According to the council, both had taken MDMA, a drug better known as Ecstasy. In 2014, the police had also asked the council to review Fabric’s license after the deaths of four others in the previous three years were attributed to drugs. Clubgoers, music critics and D. J. s who made their names at Fabric described the club’s demise as a blow for British culture and a threat to London’s place as a global capital of electronic music, for which Fabric was both a laboratory and a temple. It was also seen as a death knell for nightclubs in London, where venues are already being pushed out by creeping gentrification, the lack of business from some millennials short on cash, and local governments that are more favorable to luxury apartment buildings and shopping malls than to loud, raucous music clubs. In August 2015, the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, a group that represents owners of pubs, bars and restaurants, published figures showing that half of Britain’s nightclubs had shut down since 2005, including dozens in London. The closing of the club reverberated among revelers around the world a stop at Fabric was a on any clubber’s trip to London. Several regulars, who said they viewed Fabric as a second home, gathered on the steps of the club this week, some overcome by tears. Kevin Ford, a drum and bass producer also known as DJ Hype, wrote on Twitter that he was shaken by the news. “For 15 years I was privileged to be part of greatest underground club in the world, I am lost for words right now,” he wrote. Kate Simko, a D. J. and composer who was born in Chicago and lives in London, has been playing at Fabric for nearly a decade. She said that the closing was a huge setback for the global electronic music scene and for the local area’s cosmopolitan spirit. “Fabric is a place where people from all backgrounds, colors, and sexual orientations, tourists and people from finance come together next to edgy club kids in sneakers and mohawks,” she said. “Electronic music is the music of our generation, and I am devastated. Just as clubs in New York have been pushed out of the center and replaced by shopping venues and luxury apartments during the last decade, now this is happening here. ” Fabric was one of the last megaclubs in central London. Local councils have been cracking down on licenses as the gentrification of formerly bohemian neighborhoods like Hackney, Dalston and Shoreditch pushes the counterculture to the outer fringes of the city. Last year, an article in The Guardian lamented “the slow death of British clubs” and pointed to, among other things, the hysteria of overzealous authorities. Last year, the Arches, a Glasgow superclub, was closed after a woman collapsed outside. Fabric’s closing also feeds into the debate about the criminalization of recreational drug use. There were questions about whether the authorities were making an unfair example of Fabric, with the club’s supporters contending that those determined to obtain drugs would find a way of using them at the club, with or without tough security checks. The problem of drug abuse has affected venues across the world, including in the United States, where security checks, free water stations, tents and ambulances on call have become commonplace at major music festivals. In its decision to close Fabric, the Islington council said the two teenagers had been able to sneak into the club without the drugs being detected, and had also bought drugs inside the club. It criticized Fabric for having what it called “grossly inadequate” security. The council said that undercover police operations at the club had revealed patrons displaying symptoms such as “sweating, glazed red eyes and staring into space, and people asking for help. ” Fabric said in a statement that it was “extremely disappointed” by the decision. “Closing Fabric is not the answer to the problems clubs like ours are working to prevent, and sets a troubling precedent for the future of London’s nighttime economy,” it said. Cameron Leslie, the club’s told The Guardian this week that since opening 17 years ago, Fabric had adopted a stringent safety approach, handing all confiscated drugs to the police and calling the authorities if anyone was suspected of dealing in narcotics. Hundreds from the music industry denounced Fabric’s closing, and a petition to prevent its demise had more than 155, 000 signatures by Thursday. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who has been pushing to make London more of a city by opening the subway for service on weekends, said he was “disappointed. ” Before the club was closed down, Mr. Khan had told the council that Fabric was important to a nighttime economy in London that contributed 26. 3 billion pounds, or about $35 billion, to the city’s coffers every year. “Clubbing needs to be safe, but I’m disappointed that Fabric, Islington Council and the Metropolitan Police were unable to reach agreement on how to address concerns about public safety,” he said in a statement. Mazdak Sanii, chief operating officer of Boiler Room, a platform that streams D. J. sets and dance parties online, said that the consequences of the decision would ripple across the city. “It’s a huge totem on the London scene, the premiere destination for the world’s biggest D. J. s, and I think the closure is going to have a totally massive impact on the music scene, on dance music culture and on the economy,” he said. “I think it’s got more to do with gentrification, noise complaints and policing than it does with public safety. It’s all a bit apocalyptic,” he added, referring to Britain’s vote this summer to leave the European Union. Some critics say leaving the bloc will make the country, and its culture, more . For many, Fabric was more than just a music venue. Jacob Husley, 35, a promoter and D. J. said in May that his favorite experience there came when a Polish couple in their 70s turned up, downed a shot of tequila each, the D. J. and danced until 5 a. m. “I took them upstairs to the balcony and brought them some tea — because they wanted to have tea,” he told The Evening Standard. “They were really sweet, they were on the balcony with their hands together ballroom dancing. ”

A Hushed Departure at the Met Museum Reveals Entrenched Management Culture - The New York Times

Robin Pogrebin

In 2010, the Metropolitan Museum of Art hired Erin Coburn away from the J. Paul Getty Museum, lauding her as its “first chief officer of digital media” — a role created and promoted by the Met director and chief executive, Thomas P. Campbell, as part of his efforts to move the museum into the 21st century. Two years later, Ms. Coburn quietly left, along with a confidential settlement from the Met. Though no clear explanation was given at the time, recent interviews with former and current staff members reveal that Ms. Coburn had long complained that she was unable to do her job effectively because of a close personal relationship between Mr. Campbell and a female staff member in her department. Mr. Campbell announced his resignation in February. And while the relationship was not the reason he left, staff members say that it contributed to a yearslong erosion of respect for his authority and judgment within the Met and that it reflects larger problems in how the institution is managed by top executives and the board of trustees. Despite its vaunted collection, prodigious $332 million budget and a board stocked with some of the country’s most powerful donors, the Met is largely run by a dozen or so executives and trustees, interviews show, with little transparency or accountability. The recent discovery of a looming $40 million deficit that forced the institution to cut staff, trim its exhibition schedule and postpone a heralded $600 million expansion are signs that the system is showing cracks. Now, details about how dysfunction in the digital media department was allowed to continue are revealing additional consequences of the Met’s turning a blind eye to problems. Ms. Coburn filed a formal complaint in 2012. Met executives investigated her claims but concluded they didn’t warrant action. The board’s chairman, Daniel Brodsky, and several museum executives negotiated Ms. Coburn’s departure and settlement while Mr. Campbell stayed on. Yet, for many then at the Met, the results of Mr. Campbell’s relationship with a member of Ms. Coburn’s staff were plain. The employee had a direct line to Mr. Campbell and amassed power well beyond her rank, they say, sidelining certain colleagues as well as commanding resources and hiring outside staff members for her projects, which added costs and created infrastructure complications. Leaders of the Met board and staff knew of the relationship before Ms. Coburn was hired, and at times had urged Mr. Campbell to end it, according to several people inside the museum. Mr. Campbell and the staff member “had an inappropriate relationship,” said Matthew R. Morgan, the general manager of the Met’s website from 2006 to 2012. “It was the reason I left,” he said. Mr. Campbell’s decisions favored the “vanity” of the staff member with whom he had close ties “over doing digital the right way,” Mr. Morgan added. This article is based on interviews with more than two dozen people during the past month, including Met trustees, senior executives, curators and former and current members of the digital staff. All expressed admiration for the museum and its acclaimed exhibitions, but many indicated concern that Met leaders would not take a hard look at themselves and find ways to change. “This is not just the singular responsibility of the C. E. O. ,” said Reynold Levy, the former president of Lincoln Center and an expert on nonprofits, speaking generally about the Met’s culture and recent struggles. “The board needs to hold a mirror up to itself and assess its own performance. ” As boards go, the Met’s is high end and old school. An international jewel of the art world, the museum sits atop the hierarchy of major New York cultural institutions and a spot on its board has long been considered the pinnacle of prestige. At 101 members, the board is also unusually large, which means decisions tend to be made in committees, the most important of which are the executive and finance committees. Expectations for most everyone else are relatively simple: deep pockets, attendance at five meetings a year and a willingness to let the Met’s top executives handle the details. “If you’re not on the executive committee, you don’t know anything,” said a trustee, who insisted on anonymity because board members have been warned against speaking publicly. “You’re expected to work and give, but not to question what goes on. ” Another trustee said, “Few people have spoken up in a meeting for about 40 years. ” This style appeared to work well enough, including throughout the tenure of Philippe de Montebello, who retired as director in 2008, just before the financial crisis. But the world has changed for the Met since then. Corporate and government donations to cultural institutions have declined competition from contemporary art institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art has increased and the demands to reach new audiences digitally have become urgent. It was in this environment that the board promoted Mr. Campbell, a former tapestry curator who — while erudite and elegant — had never managed an institution, let alone one with 2, 200 employees. Many inside and outside the Met describe Mr. Brodsky, a real estate executive who has been chairman since 2011, as a likable but passive leader who avoids conflict and has continued the Met tradition of informing the full board of museum developments at the last minute or, in the case of the Coburn investigation, not until he learned about the impending publication of this article. Inside the Met, several top executives knew about Ms. Coburn’s complaints, former employees say, including Emily K. Rafferty, then president Sharon H. Cott, the senior vice president, secretary and general counsel Debra A. McDowell, the vice president for human resources and Carrie Rebora Barratt, the associate director for collections and administration, all of whom declined to comment. But aside from Mr. Brodsky and Candace K. Beinecke, chairwoman of the board’s legal committee, other trustees were not made aware of the complaint. The Met said that this was to protect the confidentiality of the parties involved. Moreover, without the approval or knowledge of the entire board, the Met brought the full force of its resources to bear on the case, hiring an external management consultant as well as two law firms, which conducted a investigation. Tax records show that Ms. Coburn received $183, 000 in addition to her annual salary of $166, 000 in her final year at the museum, an unusually high payment given that she had been employed for just two years. The museum would not comment on whether the size of the payment was connected to her claim or why the terms of her departure had been kept confidential. As for the staff, no one was told the real reasons for the departure of Ms. Coburn, an executive described by former colleagues as “visionary” and “principled. ” “To drive someone like Erin Coburn out and see her undermined was very disconcerting to the whole department,” said Paco Link, the digital department’s former general manager of creative development, who had also worked with Ms. Coburn at the Getty. The exact nature of Mr. Campbell’s relationship with the staff member — whom The New York Times is not naming to protect her privacy — is not widely known, except that she became friendly with Mr. Campbell when he was chief tapestry curator and that their relationship grew closer after he became director in 2009, current and former employees say. The staff member joined the Met in 2000 and was promoted to manager of online publications in 2009. She was generally considered capable and helped develop the museum’s acclaimed online timeline, as well as website programs that feature curators and artists discussing pieces in the museum. Nevertheless, her relationship with the museum director made her “very hard” to manage, said Morgan S. Holzer, a former project manager at the Met. Neither the staff member nor Mr. Campbell responded to requests for comment. During the past seven years, newer trustees from the business world have, by many accounts, brought a more metabolism to the board — zeroing in on the Met’s financial troubles hiring a new president and chief operating officer, Daniel H. Weiss, a former president of Haverford College, in 2015 and enlisting Boston Consulting to do one of the “360 evaluations” commonly used by Fortune 500 companies to assess employees. Mr. Campbell remains director until June. Mr. Weiss, who has taken over Mr. Campbell’s role as chief executive on an interim basis, is considered a leading candidate for the next director, though the Met is planning a formal search. At a recent board meeting the Met agreed to examine the job descriptions of president and director. Mr. Brodsky, in response to detailed questions from The Times, said in a prepared statement: “The board is deeply committed to ensuring a professional workplace, and one that is free of favoritism of any kind. While we believe, in this case, that the board responded appropriately by ordering an investigation by independent, external experts — which concluded Ms. Coburn’s complaint was without merit — there is more we can do. ” Ms. Coburn was replaced by Sree Sreenivasan, who left in June, and then by Loic Tallon, under whom the female staff member was laid off, along with several others, in October. The current president, Mr. Weiss, said he was committed to establishing a very different management culture at the museum. “I know that this has been a difficult time at the Met,” he said in an email last week. “I look forward to working with my administrative and board colleagues to support a climate of candor, transparency, accountability and mutual respect. ”

Trump: Confidence In Economy ’Has Reached Levels Not Seen In Many, Many Years’ - Breitbart

Ian Hanchett

During Friday’s Weekly Address, President Trump stated, “Confidence in the American economy has reached levels not seen in many, many years. Unemployment fell to its lowest level in nearly ten years last month, and we created 211, 000 new jobs. ”[Transcript as Follows: “My fellow Americans, Confidence in the American economy has reached levels not seen in many, many years. Unemployment fell to its lowest level in nearly ten years last month, and we created 211, 000 new jobs. Our economic progress is especially good news for the millions of young Americans who, at this time of the year, are putting on a cap and gown and receiving a diploma, certificate, or commission. So important, and we are so proud of them. This weekend, I am delighted to be participating first hand in the excitement by joining the students and faculty at Liberty University to celebrate the success of their graduates. I was invited to make the commencement address at West Point, but I will be away at the G7 — and I look forward to that — and will be at West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy. Come to think about it, a few days later, I will actually travel to New London, Connecticut, to speak to the graduating cadets of the United States Coast Guard Academy about their new roles serving our country. So we’ll be with them very shortly. To young Americans at both schools, I will be bringing a message of hope and optimism about our nation’s bright future. That is a message that I want to extend to all young Americans today, especially those who are graduating this year and entering the labor force. We are also celebrating all of the Americans who learn the skills and trades that generations of workers have used to build, shape, and supply this nation. The people who construct, repair, and create with their own two hands are the people who make this nation run. And lots of those people voted for me. That’s also why, in my Administration, I am so deeply committed to technical and vocational education. I want you to know that my administration is working every single day to create new opportunities and to reverse years of stagnant growth, falling wages, and disappearing jobs. We are ending the sellout of American workers — and lifting the burdens on American industry, manufacturing, and businesses. We are rolling back the regulations that make it harder for companies to grow and hire in America. At the same time, we are unleashing American energy development to create thousands of new jobs on our soil and just off our shores. On trade, we have also taken historic action to protect American industry and bring back the kinds of jobs that can support a middle class family — and in fact, most families. As a vote of confidence in these policies, business optimism is soaring and employment is rising. These are great signs for America’s future — the future that our new graduates will play with such a critical role in shaping our world and our country. I want every young citizen — regardless of education or geography — to be able to live out their American Dreams. So to all of America’s graduates, congratulations. And to all of America’s youth: we are here to help create the jobs and future you deserve. The brightest days are ahead of you. And I just look forward to seeing you at the Coast Guard Academy, and at Liberty University. Thank you. God Bless You. And God Bless America. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Doctor Who?

This is the biggest story not being reported. While the world teeters on the brink of World War 3, the media is reporting on Kim Kardashian. Meanwhile the Russians are deploying the new Satan-2 missile (designation given by NATO). Each Satan-2 missile has the power to devastate an area the size of Texas. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/wo... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...

Jason Miller Backs Out of White House Communications Job Under Trump - The New York Times

Michael D. Shear

Jason Miller, who was named as White House communications director by Donald J. Trump two days ago, has informed Mr. Trump that he will not take the job, according to a statement from Mr. Miller. In the statement, Mr. Miller said he wanted to spend more time with his family. His wife is expecting their second child in January, he said. “It’s clear they need to be my top priority right now, and this is not the time to start a new job as demanding as White House communications director,” Mr. Miller wrote. A veteran of several Republican campaigns, Mr. Miller was an avid supporter of Mr. Trump, appearing regularly on television on his behalf throughout the campaign. He had been a principal spokesman during the transition period. In the statement, Mr. Miller said that Sean Spicer, who was recently named press secretary, would serve as communications director, as well.

Turkish Leader Erdogan Making New Enemies and Frustrating Old Friends - The New York Times

Sabrina Tavernise

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, strode onto a stage a month ago looking down upon a sea of a million fans waving red Turkish flags. They were celebrating the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, the golden moment of Turkey’s Muslim ancestors triumphing over the Christian West. “The conquest means going beyond the walls that the West thought were impervious,” Mr. Erdogan said as the crowd roared. “The conquest means a sultan bringing Byzantium to heel. ” The spectacle, complete with a sky show and a of the conquest with fireworks and strobe lights, projected an image of unity and command, of a nation marching together toward greatness, drawing on the achievements of a glorious past. But that soaring vision is being grounded by sobering realities. Mr. Erdogan, who long professed a foreign policy of “zero problems with neighbors,” now seems to be mired in disputes with just about everybody and just about everywhere. Kurdish and Islamic State militants have struck Turkey 14 times in the past year, killing 280 people and sowing new fears. The economy has suffered, too, as the violence frightens away tourists. At the same time, Mr. Erdogan has become increasingly isolated, frustrating old allies like the United States by refusing for years to take firm measures against the Islamic State. He has recently gotten serious about the militant group, but that appears to have brought new problems: Turkish officials say they believe that the Islamic State was responsible for the suicide attack that killed 44 people on Tuesday in Istanbul’s main airport, a major artery of Turkey’s strained economy. He has helped reignite war with Kurdish separatists in Turkey’s southeast, and hundreds of civilians have died in the fighting, which began last summer. He alienated Moscow last fall when Turkish forces shot down a fighter jet that he said had strayed into Turkish airspace. He had grown so alone that this past week he moved to make peace deals with Russia over the jet’s downing and with Israel over its killing of several Turkish activists on a flotilla in 2010, after railing against both countries to voters. “I think this is an indicator of how desperate they are,” said Cengiz Candar, a visiting scholar at the Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies. Where Mr. Erdogan once held up Turkey as a model of Muslim democracy, he now frequently attacks democratic institutions. The editor in chief of Turkey’s largest daily has fled the country, and another is on trial on charges of revealing state secrets. The president has grown intolerant of criticism, purging his oldest allies from his inner circle and replacing them with yes men and, in some cases, relatives. (His is the energy minister.) Mr. Erdogan hints darkly in speeches on Turkish television that foreign powers are plotting to destroy him, and he has moved from a modest house in central Ankara to a grandiose, Persian palace on the edge of the city. Brown and pink buildings for his staff dot meticulously landscaped grounds so enormous that staff members are driven around in minibuses. Now he has set his sights on a new target: transforming Turkey’s parliamentary system of government into a presidential one, a change his critics say could soon open the door to his seizing the title of president for life. On the night of the airport bombing, the Parliament, which his party controls, worked until 5:45 a. m. to pass sweeping legislation that will help pave the way by purging hundreds of judges from Turkey’s top two courts. “The ship is going very fast toward the rocks,” said Ergun Ozbudun, a liberal constitutional expert who once defended Mr. Erdogan. “Pray for us. ” The story of how Turkey, a NATO member with the economy in Europe and a population the size of Germany’s, ended up here is as much about Mr. Erdogan as it is about the country’s unlucky geography in a convulsing Middle East. While Mr. Erdogan has seemed to have nine lives, wriggling out of every crisis, he now finds himself cornered by conflicts on many fronts, including deep divisions in his own society that he has helped create. “Erdogan is still the most popular political leader, but there is unease in the population,” said Soli Ozel, a Turkish columnist and professor at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. “A lot of people are thinking this is an untenable situation. ” Mr. Erdogan, 62, is one of the most talented politicians Turkey has ever known, rising from a poor neighborhood in Istanbul to the heights of power, where he has won election after election since 2002. He succeeded where others had failed in tearing down Turkey’s rigid, classist system of government sending the meddling military back to its barracks and opening up the bureaucracy, long deeply suspicious of Turkey’s pious underclass. In his early years as prime minister, the economy soared and, as incomes rose sharply, so did his popularity. But his critics — and even some of his admirers — say he became so absorbed in battling his enemies, both real and perceived, that he lost his way. He became distracted, they say, by delusions of imperial grandeur and in the process badly damaged institutions critical for a functioning democracy. Even a former friend, who like others feared being identified, said he had known Mr. Erdogan for 40 years, but no longer recognized him. Mr. Erdogan’s advisers point out that institutions like the free press and judiciary were never all that free to begin with. They say that his government has genuinely been in danger, a claim Western officials corroborate, and that changes in the judiciary aim to fix a broken system. Ilnur Cevik, one of Mr. Erdogan’s chief advisers, said the rapprochement with Russia and Israel was part of a strategy to turn the page and might soon be followed by similar measures to quiet some of the storms Mr. Erdogan had raised, like the one with Egypt: Mr. Erdogan had a with that country in 2013 over the ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected president. There was good news on the media front, too: On Thursday night, a journalist and a human rights activist were released from jail. “We have to kind of change gears regarding foreign policy, regarding the press, regarding many issues in Turkey, and I think Mr. Erdogan will start doing that,” said Mr. Cevik, seated in a spacious palace room recently outfitted, so it smelled like the interior of a new car. “We have to show our true face to the American public. We are completely misunderstood at the moment. ” A political outsider, Mr. Erdogan helped found the Justice and Development Party, a diverse and inclusive political machine that turned out to be very good at winning elections, not because it cheated but because its members worked hard. “He really listened to his friends,” said Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, another of the party’s founders. “He was patient. He would consult with a rich and varied spectrum of people. When he saw violence, he knew how to step back. ” To gain control of Turkey’s bureaucracy, Mr. Erdogan struck an alliance with an opaque religious group led by a Muslim preacher, Fethullah Gulen, filling the ranks of the police and the judiciary with its highly educated members. “I told him I didn’t think any part of the state should be left to the control of people with a certain ideology,” said Mr. Firat, a Kurd who has since left the party. “His answer was, ‘We will not be harmed by those who look toward Mecca.’ We were not an Islamist party — we were a democratic party. But he was already drifting away. ” That was because he could: With the military out of the picture, the major check on his power had been removed. But Islam was not his undoing. Absolute power was. As Mr. Erdogan grew more popular, winning broad pluralities and even majorities in each successive election, he began to behave with a kind of Bolshevism, believing that he was the very embodiment of the people, former officials said. Others argue that Turkey’s problems are as much about the country as they are about Mr. Erdogan. “We treat Erdogan as the cause, but in some sense, he is the consequence of Turkish society — he is our creation,” said Hakan Altinay, the director of the European School of Politics at Bogazici University in Istanbul. “We have learned that even though we have the hardware of democracy — institutions, elections — our software is not good. We are too attuned to status, too willing to submit to authority. ” Today, many say Mr. Erdogan has simply adopted the bad habits of former Turkish leaders he came to power to defeat. He needs allies, so he has struck an alliance with the military — the chief of staff was a witness at his daughter’s wedding — and extreme nationalists are now resurgent. That is deeply troubling to human rights advocates who have documented the case of a Kurdish politician from Sirnak, Hursit Kulter, the first such disappearance since 2001. “Erdogan today has been captured by the patriotic forces of Turkey,” said Dogu Perincek, the head of a nationalist political party close to the military, who was jailed for conspiring against the state but recently released. Mr. Erdogan’s Achilles’ heel is the economy. His voters, while loyal, care about their pocketbooks more. Incomes have stagnated in recent years, and foreign direct investment, a major indicator of economic direction, has been declining, not counting real estate purchases. “We have an ulcer, not cancer,” Atilla Yesilada, a financial consultant in Istanbul, said of the economy. “But all signs point toward sicker. ”

Rakiha geevinda

I think we must get away from this…its not good…

Exclusive-Rep. Dave Brat: RyanCare a Perverse Economic System - Breitbart

Neil W. McCabe

Virginia Republican congressman Dave Brat told Breitbart News Saturday radio host Matt Boyle that the American Health Care Act bill written by Speaker Paul Ryan (R. .) is designed to save the insurance companies, not return health insurance and health care delivery to the free market. [Brat said the speaker is worried about the insurance companies, who backed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, because the system they created cannot be sustained because of its perverse incentives, regulations, and costs. In addition to the flaws in the Obamacare legislation and buildout, the congressman said it is foolish to attempt a political solution to an economic problem that forces you to accommodate the needs and values of 300 million Americans — such as people in both California and Texas — at the same time. The RyanCare bill is not connected to the promises President Donald Trump made on the campaign trail, said the former head of the economic department at College. “We want Trump to be hugely successful, so we don’t want to handle a bill that’s going to fail in a few years,” he said. “Trump ran on and competition across state lines, getting the price down — the price is going up by 20 percent and the bill we are getting ready to vote on, once again, goes back and does too much emphasis on the coverage aspect,” he said. Focusing on coverage makes it impossible for the bill to ever work, he said. “Five percent of the people with conditions, et cetera — very serious issues that every bill deals with — but five percent of the folks will cost 50 percent of the entire health care market,” he said. A condition has nothing to do with insurance, because the person already had the problem, he said. “That is not an insurance problem. That is a health care problem, and we’ve got to fix that. For the rest of the 300 million, we’ve got to design an efficient system that follows logic, where you get to go shop. ” Obamacare has many rules and restrictions governing how the insurance companies structure policies and run their own firms, he said. Lifting the regulatory burden on the insurance industry would free them to innovate, he said, “In the current bill, I’ve asked leadership, budget committee experts: ‘Can a young person go out and buy a health care insurance product of their choosing?’ The answer is no,” he said. The reason is that the regulations on the insurance companies require certain “essential health care benefits,” so that everyone in the country is forced to buy the same coverage, whether they need it or not,” Brat said. In the RyanCare bill, the individual mandate was supposed to go away, but instead, it is reconfigured as a continuing care option tied to the condition protections, he said. Under Ryancare someone can go without insurance for 10 years and then upon learning they have cancer, sign up for “insurance. ” Brat said the only penalty would be a 30 percent surcharge upon their premiums. “It is a perverse economic system. ” The congressman said nothing makes the politics of the RyanCare bill more plain than the fact that in 2015, Republicans in the House and Senate passed a repeal of Obamacare — when everyone knew it would be vetoed by President Barack Obama. Now with real bullets, Republicans are stepping away from repeal to put forward a RyanCare bill that preserves the structure and spirit of Obamacare. The speaker’s bill is unlikely to pass the House, but even if it makes it to the Senate, it will not pass there, either, Brat said. Then, hopefully, the Republican leadership will work with Capitol Hill conservatives to craft a true repeal of Obamacare that synchs up with what Trump promised the American people, Bratt concluded.

U.N. Chief Condemns Airstrike on Yemeni Funeral and Dismisses Saudi Denials - The New York Times

Nick Cumming-Bruce and Eric Schmitt

GENEVA — The United Nations secretary general, Ban on Monday condemned a weekend airstrike on a funeral ceremony in the Yemeni capital, Sana, as well as the bombing campaign believed to be responsible for it. Mr. Ban said he supported demands for an international inquiry into whether the attack, which killed at least 140 people, was a war crime. “Despite mounting crimes by all parties to the conflict, we have yet to see the results of any credible investigations,” he said. “This latest horrific incident demands a full inquiry. ” Brushing aside Saudi Arabia’s initial denials of responsibility, he said reports from the site of the attack indicated that it was carried out by the coalition. According to witness accounts cited by United Nations human rights investigators, two airstrikes struck the Al Kubra community hall in Sana, seven to eight minutes apart. It was packed with families attending the funeral of a leader of the Houthi rebel movement, which is battling the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi for control of the country. Many prominent military and political leaders associated with the Houthis were in the hall and were killed in the assault, the United Nations said. “Aerial attacks by the coalition have already caused immense carnage and destroyed much of the country’s medical facilities and other vital civilian infrastructure,” Mr. Ban said. “Excuses ring hollow given the pattern of violence throughout the conflict. Parties cannot hide behind the fog of this war. A catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes. ” Earlier on Monday, the United Nation’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad called for an independent international inquiry, noting a sharp rise in civilian casualties since the collapse of Yemeni peace talks in August. At least 369 civilians have been killed or injured since the start of October, Mr. Hussein said in a statement, bringing total documented civilian deaths since the coalition entered Yemen’s civil war in March 2015 to at least 4, 125 and the number of injured to 7, 207. In response to the attack on the funeral, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, widely seen as the main backers of the Houthis, issued an angry statement saying that the rebel group, which Iran refers to as the Ansarullah movement, would “avenge” the bombing, and that the attack was “a U. S. Saudi, Israeli joint conspiracy. ” The statement concluded: “The glorious and sublime nation of Iran will continue to support the resistance of Muslim nations, especially the innocent people of Yemen, against the Zionist wrongdoing of House of Saud and calls all divisions of the Islamic nation to condemn the great and brutal crime in Sana and unveil the face of hypocrites who claim to be servants of the holy shrines. ” In Yemen on Monday, a Houthi military official denied reports that the Houthis had targeted an American guided missile destroyer that came under fire on Sunday from coastal areas controlled by the rebel groups. Two missiles were fired, but they both fell into the sea, the Pentagon said. The Houthis are known to have a stockpile of various rockets and missiles. Saudi Arabia nevertheless accuses Iran of sending missiles to the rebels, as it does to the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and to the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza. Iran denies that it has provided weapons to the Houthi rebels. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps views the United States Navy as its main opponent in the region. In August, there were multiple episodes in the Persian Gulf involving Guards Corps ships challenging American vessels. On Sunday evening, the United States destroyer Mason, while conducting routine operations in international waters, detected two missiles fired at the ship in under an hour, according to a statement from Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. He said both missiles had fallen well shy of the ship — he would not say by how much — and had caused no damage or injuries. The ship was operating in the southern Red Sea, north of Bab el Mandeb, a strait. “We assess the missiles were launched from territory in Yemen,” Captain Davis said.

Marietta Peverelli

Unless this Pipeline in progress arranged with this lady, they are trespassing and she has the right to be n her farm! Where is righteousness? Common America, don’t push little ladies over… Help them!

Paul Craig Roberts: Trump faces assasination

Paul Craig Roberts: Trump faces assasination 09.11.2016 | Source: AP Photo Donald Trump will be the new President of the United States of America. The Republican won 276 electoral votes with the necessary minimum of 270 votes and he has made himself to the post of the head of the United States. Pravda.Ru has turned for a comment to Paul Craig Roberts who is an American economist, journalist, blogger and former civil servant. The US presidential election is historic, because the American people were able to defeat the oligarchs. Hillary Clinton, an agent for the oligarchy, was defeated despite the vicious media campaign against Donald Trump. This shows that both the political establishment of both political parties and the media no longer have credibility with the American people.It remains to be seen whether Trump can select and appoint a government that will serve him and his goals to restore American jobs and to establish friendly and respectful relations with Russia, China, Syria, and Iran.It also remains to be seen how the oligarchy will respond to Trump's victory. Wall Street and its agent, the Federal Reserve, can cause an economic crisis in order to put Trump on the defensive. Rogue agents in the CIA and Pentagon can cause a false flag attack that would disrupt friendly relations with Russia. Trump could make a mistake and retain neoconservatives in his government.With Trump there is at least hope. Unless Trump is obstructed by bad judgment and obstacles put in his way, we should expect an end to Washington's orchestrated conflict with Russia, the removal of the US missiles on Russia's border with Poland and Romania, the end of the conflict in Ukraine, and the end ofWashington's effort to overthrow the Syrian government. However, achievements such as these implythe total defeat of the oligarchy. Although Trump defeated Hillary, the oligarchy still exists and is stillpowerful.Trump said that he no longer sees the point of NATO 25 years after the Soviet collapse. If he sticks tohis view, it means a big political change in Washington's EU vassals. The hostility toward Russia ofthe current EU and NATO officials would have to cease.We do not know who Trump will select to serve in his government. It is likely that Trump is unfamiliarwith the various possibilities and their positions on issues. It really depends on who is advising Trump and what advice they give him. Once we see his government, we will know whether we can be hopefulfor the changes that now have a chance. If Trump is actually successful in curbing the power and budget of the military/security complex and in holding Wall Street politically accountable, he could be assassinated. Pravda.Ru Trump’s success shocks global markets

‘The Walking Dead’ Is Back: 7 Questions for the Second Half Premiere - The New York Times

Jeremy Egner

This article includes spoilers for the current season of “The Walking Dead. ” “The Walking Dead,” which returns from its winter break on Sunday, began its seventh season with a bludgeoning for the ages, a double murder that turned the stomachs of even longtime fans inured to the show’s splatter factor. It didn’t get any better from there, as Rick and the Gang (along with the rest of us) endured seven more weeks of misery and subjugation by the new baddie Negan and his Saviors, before finally seeming to rebound in the midseason finale. Are our heroes ready to overthrow their tormentors? Let’s consider this and several additional questions leading into Sunday’s second half premiere. Glenn and Abraham were the big ones, of course. We also lost Spencer and Olivia, but they were pretty marginal. Daryl and Eugene were taken by the Saviors, but Daryl escaped. Glenn and Abraham’s brutal deaths set a gloomy tone for the first half of the season, which was primarily about Rick and friends grieving the loss and being victimized by Negan and the Saviors. We also met some new groups, and … well, that was about it. But eventually enough was enough, and the midseason finale ended with the core good guys reuniting, determined to throw off the yoke of Savior oppression. The tagline for this half is Rise Up, so it seems like a safe bet. Perhaps the more pertinent question is, when will the revolt happen? Teasers find Rick on a diplomatic mission to bring groups like the Hilltop and the Kingdom into the effort. How long will it take to persuade them to join the fight? Hard to say. Will it all be resolved this season? Considering that Negan doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, probably not. Season 7 has kicked off a new phase of “The Walking Dead” marked by colonies that are collaborating and clashing as civilization recreates itself in a postapocalyptic dawn. So far, in addition to the Saviors and Alexandria, we’ve met the weak but industrious Hilltop, led by the sniveling Gregory the Kingdom, led by the poser King Ezekiel and Oceanside, an group, led by the Natania, who hates outsiders but has lots of guns. There are also the Wolves, a murderous gang that was a real problem last season but hasn’t been a factor in Season 7. So is that it? Or are there more introductions to come? Based on this season’s general tendencies, it seems likely. O. K. it seems very likely. The boots in question, glimpsed in the midseason finale near the pond where Rick and Aaron found supplies, could very easily belong to someone from yet another group. In the last episode, we saw Saviors tending a herd of walkers, which may or may not be the same herd the Alexandrians loosed from the quarry at the beginning of Season 6. Whatever its provenance, the swarm seems sure to come into play somehow — we all know what Chekhov said about zombie herds hanging out on the highway. Carol has been a real bummer this season, moping through her scant few scenes as people like Morgan and King Ezekiel tried to breach the antisocial cocoon she’s spun around herself. They were unsuccessful, and after she’d sufficiently healed from her gunshot wound, Carol got herself a hermit’s hut on the outskirts of the Kingdom. You’ll recall that the mousy housewife turned stone killer reached a breaking point last season, and sought to distance herself from others so she wouldn’t have to kill again. Carol would seem to be too intelligent to believe such a policy is possible in a lawless hellscape, but perhaps we’ll learn that there’s more to it. Or maybe she just needed some me time. Maybe she’ll learn about Glenn and Abraham, and emerge from that cocoon as a battling butterfly of righteous vengeance. Whatever the case, here’s hoping she returns to the center of the show somehow, as it has suffered from the absence of both Carol and Melissa McBride, who plays her with grit and grace. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is electric in his performance, which is unfortunately also full of affected mannerisms — wild exclamations, an odd move — that quickly grew tiresome. A big villain helps to give “The Walking Dead” focus, and Mr. Morgan has shown promise, so hopefully he and the writers will find the actual man behind the tics. What questions or hopes do you have for the second half of the season? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

The African voters in the US who want Donald Trump as their president

Home / News / The African voters in the US who want Donald Trump as their president The African voters in the US who want Donald Trump as their president fisher 1 min ago News Comments Off on The African voters in the US who want Donald Trump as their president The African voters in the US who want Donald Trump as their president In less than 48 hours, Americans will go to the polls to elect a new president. But no matter what happens on election day (Nov. 8), Trump will not win the majority of the black vote. Many of them are expected to heed the message of president Obama who has warned that the Republican candidate will undo his administration’s legacy. But Trump ’s message—to make America great again—might still draw an unlikely group of supporters from within the black community: African immigrants. Foreign-born Africans make up a small share of the US immigrant population, but their numbers have been doubling every decade since 1970. African immigrants living in the US grew from 80,000 in 1970 to 1.8 million as of 2013, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. This group of voters say they are supporting Trump because of a blend of ideals that his candidacy represents: as the new flag bearer for conservative, traditional politics; a political outsider who has chipped away at political correctness; a successful businessman who has consistently reinvented himself to achieve the American dream; and a man sure to deliver them from what they see as the disappointing presidency of Barack Obama . Despite Trump ’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, some African immigrants have been dissatisfied with Obama ’s middling Africa policy and think real change from an outsider like themselves could make a positive difference for America their own fortunes. Leading this pack is none other than president Obama ’s Kenyan half-brother, Malik. The 58-year-old naturalized US citizen, has spoken about his own brother’s leadership as “deep disappointment,” and said that Trump was “providing something new and something fresh” to the American people. Some of the African Trump supporters like Malik have also voiced their concerns about the moral relativism that has pervaded US politics, from abortion rights to marriage equality, to the current debate on transgender bathroom use. I tried to co-exist with my brother Barack Obama but he shut me out; In his Ivory Tower. I gave up. — Malik Obama (@ObamaMalik) November 5, 2016 VOTE FOR MR. TRUMP ! Malik already voted. — Malik Obama (@ObamaMalik) November 5, 2016 Reno Omokri, once the controversial new media aide to Nigeria’s former president, Goodluck Jonathan, is now a pastor in the San Francisco Bay area. Speaking to the BBC, Omokri said that he supports Trump because he was going to nominate a Supreme Court judge who might reverse, or deal, with these issues from a conservative standpoint. “Those issues, they might seem small to you,” Omokri said, but they “are very important to someone like me because I am a conservative and that is why I am supporting Donald Trump .” Khadra Abdirahman is a 24-year-old Somali-American who was born in New York after her parents fled the civil war in Somalia. But as a registered Republican and a first-time voter, she intends to cast her ballot for a political candidate who is against the status quo. Establishment party leaders she said, are oblivious to the populism born out of frustration, which is why she would vote for a candidate like Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders, instead of Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush. Abdirahman, who didn’t support Obama when he ran in 2008 and 2012, thinks the 2016 elections are “a change election” and a “revolutionary election.” She says the “surge of anti-establishment, anti-globalist political revolutions,” the like we have seen with Brexit, should provide the space for candidates like Trump to be elected. “America projects a false image of goodness and truthfulness and it is actually extremely rotten to the core.” Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief — the most important and interesting news from across the continent, in your inbox.

2 Education Dept. Picks Raise Fears on Civil Rights Enforcement - The New York Times

Erica L. Green

WASHINGTON — A lawyer who represented Florida State University in an explosive sexual assault case and another lawyer who during the 2016 presidential campaign accused Hillary Clinton of enabling sexual predators have been chosen for key roles in the Department of Education, raising fears that the agency could pull back from enforcing civil rights in schools and on college campuses. President Trump will nominate Carlos G. Muñiz, a politically connected Florida lawyer who served as deputy general counsel to former Gov. Jeb Bush, to be general counsel to the Education Department. Mr. Muñiz, a lawyer and consultant based in the Jacksonville office of McGuireWoods, is perhaps best known for representing Florida State University in a lawsuit brought by a student who accused the former star quarterback Jameis Winston of raping her in 2012. Candice E. Jackson, who represented one of the women who attended a news conference before a presidential debate in October to impugn Mrs. Clinton’s treatment of sexual assault victims, announced that she will be the acting assistant secretary for civil rights. The posts are among the most high profile in the department. Staffing in the Office for Civil Rights has been a source of concern for civil rights advocates ever since the Trump administration rescinded protections for transgender students as one of its first education policy moves. A department spokesman declined to comment on Ms. Jackson’s apparent appointment, which was announced on her personal website and in a news release from Pepperdine University School of Law, where she earned a degree in 2002. In a statement, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos praised Mr. Muñiz’s nomination, calling him a “talented legal mind. ” “He will bring a tremendous amount of experience and insight to the U. S. Department of Education,” she said. The appointments have been met with trepidation from advocates who are anxious about the future of the Office for Civil Rights, which gained a higher profile under President Barack Obama as it focused policy as much on equity in education as on achievement. In the 2016 fiscal year, the office processed almost 17, 000 civil rights complaints — a nearly 60 percent increase over the previous year, and one of the highest totals in the office’s history — and opened 4, 000 investigations, according to a report released in December. In the days after the Trump administration rescinded the guidelines allowing transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, representing 60 organizations, sent a letter to Ms. DeVos asking for the next head of the civil rights office to have a track record of upholding student rights, and fighting systemic and individual cases of discrimination. The coalition, which includes organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. and the National Women’s Law Center, called it “one of the most significant decisions you and the president will make with regard to the civil rights of the nation’s students. ” “When you put these appointments together, people have reason to pay close attention to this civil rights agenda,” said Fatima Goss Graves, senior vice president at the National Women’s Law Center. Mr. Muñiz would advise on a broad range of policies that fall under the purview of the Office for Civil Rights, including sexual harassment and violence complaints, the mistreatment of students with special needs, school discipline disparities, and discrimination based on race, ethnicity and gender. The Obama administration issued nearly three dozen policy guidance documents. The Florida State case was a flash point for mishandlings and of sexual assault on campus. The university settled with the accuser, paying $950, 000, but amid revelations that it barely conducted an investigation into the claims, the Office for Civil Rights started an investigation that is still open. John Clune, who represented the accuser in the Florida State case, called Mr. Muñiz “a strong advocate and smart lawyer,” and said the case was better for having him work on it. “One of the things I appreciated was he was approachable,” Mr. Clune said. “I felt like Carlos was somebody that we could have candid conversation with. He cared about what our positions were. ” However, Mr. Clune said Mr. Muñiz did not approve of the Office for Civil Rights’ conducting its own investigation into the matter, and he worried about a conflict of interest if Mr. Muñiz was to advise on this case. Mr. Muñiz referred all questions to the Education Department. Ms. Jackson’s apparent appointment is also complicated. Advocates say that while her track record shows a commitment to standing up for victims, those victims did not include those who accused Mr. Trump of sexual misconduct. “It’s encouraging that she has experience believing survivors,” said Sofie Karasek, director of education at End Rape on Campus, which she helped found. However, she added, “for her not to believe survivors when it’s politically expedient, that raises the question of how committed you are to this issue. ” Ms. Jackson referred questions to the Education Department because she had not started yet. In her 2005 book, “Their Lives: Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine,” Ms. Jackson also detailed stories of women, including Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers, who claimed to have had sexual encounters with Bill Clinton, some of them unwanted or violent.

News: Office Of The Future: Researchers Predict That Over 50 Percent Of Workplace Discrimination Will Be Automated By 2040

Email Automation in the workplace can bring new levels of efficiency and employee happiness, but it can also mean that human workers lose their jobs in favor of robotic replacements. No matter your stance on cutting-edge technology in the office, there is no doubt that it’s a swiftly approaching reality. According to a new study released by Stanford University, Americans can expect over 50 percent of all workplace discrimination to be fully automated by 2040. The future is coming, and it’s coming fast. Thanks to recent advancements in computer intelligence and predictive analytics, it may not be long before you see an automated machine in your office demoting female employees for becoming pregnant. Whether humiliating subordinates with unwanted sexual comments or automatically filtering out résumés from people with Middle Eastern last names, trends in technological development suggest that an increasingly computerized workforce will soon be enforcing inequality in office environments with far greater proficiency and cost-effectiveness than human labor. “People think that automated workplace discrimination is still far off in the future, when truthfully it’s right around the corner,” said Stanford computer scientist Dr. Oliver Thorpe, who spearheaded the new study. “We’re already at the point with facial recognition software where it can identify which genders and races should be passed up for leadership roles with far greater accuracy than humans, and technologies like this are only getting better and cheaper by the day.” With intelligent algorithms becoming rapidly more sophisticated and capable, virtually every industry can soon expect to begin replacing humans with machines that can oppress minorities, senior citizens, and other subjugated people groups with unprecedented efficiency and accuracy. Within 10 years, market-available computers will have the ability to grossly neglect the needs of disabled workers and make them feel like burdens. Within 15 years, roving automatons will travel about open-plan offices smacking female subordinates’ buttocks with their carbon-fiber paddle attachments, adeptly wielding their power in such a way as to avoid consequences. Some believe that machines will never be able to fully replicate the complexity and intuitiveness of human on-the-job prejudice, but employers will likely be willing to sacrifice that human touch for the sake of their bottom line. Thorpe notes that maintaining a fucked-up culture of occupational disparity is expensive, and as soon as companies realize that they can enlist semi-autonomous robots to mistreat their employees at a fraction of the cost, they’ll be lining up to install them in offices nationwide. Only time will tell whether or not the human workers who have so dutifully carried out discriminatory business practices for decades get laid off or reassigned, but one thing is for sure: The American office is about to look way different.

WHITE HOUSE BACKS BRAZILE AFTER IT WAS REVEALED SHE LEAKED DEBATE QUESTIONS TO CLINTON CAMPAIGN

Iron Sheik

Home › POLITICS | US NEWS › WHITE HOUSE BACKS BRAZILE AFTER IT WAS REVEALED SHE LEAKED DEBATE QUESTIONS TO CLINTON CAMPAIGN WHITE HOUSE BACKS BRAZILE AFTER IT WAS REVEALED SHE LEAKED DEBATE QUESTIONS TO CLINTON CAMPAIGN 2 SHARES [11/3/16] White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest expressed support for interim Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile after it was revealed in leaked emails that the then-CNN contributor gave debate questions in advance to Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the primaries. During a press briefing Monday, Fox News correspondent Kevin Corke asked Earnest if he believed Brazile should step down from her position at the DNC should the emails be proven to be hers. “No, the president believes she has done a fine job stepping in during a very difficult situation to lead the Democratic Party,” Earnest told reporters . “Look, those of us who have known Donna a long time know that she is a person of integrity and she is a person of high character. She is a true professional who is a tenacious and effective advocate for Democrats.” “She uses that skill regularly on television, she has been using that skill regularly as a party official, and I for one am pretty excited about the fact that we’ve got her on our team,” he added. Corke asked, “What do you say to those Bernie Sanders backers who feel like the fix was in from the very outset. … If it turns out that she did tip the scales or put her hand on the scale for Secretary Clinton, and didn’t handle it evenly as a member of the leadership of the DNC, that’s OK with you?” Post navigation

U.S.-Backed Militia Opens Drive on ISIS Capital in Syria - The New York Times

Eric Schmitt

A joint militia has begun a new phase in the operation to dislodge the Islamic State from its stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, moving to encircle the city and largely cut off the resupply of arms, supplies and fighters, American military officials confirmed on Sunday. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said on Sunday that he welcomed the start of the militia’s operation. “The effort to isolate, and ultimately liberate, Raqqa marks the next step in our coalition campaign plan,” Mr. Carter said in a statement. American warplanes are flying bombing missions against the Islamic State’s “leadership, command and control, and resources” in Raqqa and outside the city in support of the militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, said Col. John Dorrian, a military spokesman in Baghdad. Colonel Dorrian said in an email that it might be some time before the to force reached Raqqa, and that the coalition would continue to train and recruit more forces — especially Arab troops — for an eventual attack on the city. By supporting the advance on Raqqa, American officials are sweeping aside objections from Turkey and moving forward with plans to rely on a ground fighting force that includes Kurdish militia fighters in Syria. The Turkish government, which has become a complicated ally in the fight against the Islamic State, fears that aspirations for autonomy will spread among its own Kurdish population. In a move to assuage Turkish concerns, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a previously unannounced visit to Ankara, the Turkish capital, on Sunday for talks with his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, in part to consult on battle plans for Raqqa, according to General Dunford’s spokesman, Capt. Greg Hicks. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be reached for comment on Sunday, but last month Ankara asked Washington to exclude the Syrian Kurdish militias from the operation to liberate Raqqa, saying Turkey was ready to provide military support. Last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had told President Obama in a phone call that Turkey was capable of ridding Raqqa of the Islamic State by itself. Turkey wants to start the push on Raqqa after operations in Iraq, including the offensive against Mosul, have been completed, the deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, said at a news conference last week. France on Sunday supported the decision to begin the battle against the Islamic State’s headquarters in Raqqa while the offensive on Mosul is underway. “I believe it will be necessary,” the defense minister, Le Drian, said on Europe 1 radio. United States military officials said the Raqqa operation was being undertaken in roughly three phases. Phase 1 is what the coalition has been doing for months: conducting scores of preparatory airstrikes in and around Raqqa to knock out and fighting positions and other assets of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. “They don’t have the ability to move large troop formations, large convoys, but they do have the ability to move into and out of the area,” Colonel Dorrian told reporters in Washington last week. “What we’ve done to try to limit that is we’ve conducted a lot of strikes on their favored supply routes and infiltration routes. ” Phase 2, which the Syrian Democratic Forces announced on Sunday, is the campaign to isolate Raqqa. The aim is to cut it off from resupply with the available forces — about of them Syrian Kurds and Syrian Arabs, Pentagon officials say. “The intent, though, is to intensify that effort, to move closer to the city, to envelop the city and then once everything is in place, to liberate it,” Colonel Dorrian said last week. Phase 3 will be a fight for Raqqa itself, which American officials say they hope will be conducted mostly by Syrian Arabs, given that the city is majority Sunni Arab. But Colonel Dorrian said that might not happen for some time. “Right now, I don’t think that all the forces that’ll be involved in that liberation campaign for Raqqa are yet trained,” he said. Colonel Dorrian said that providing additional training to militia members who had already been involved in the fighting would take about two weeks. “We’ll let that play out, and we’ll see how long that takes, and we’ll see how many forces will be generated,” he said. More than 300 members of the United States Special Operations Forces are in Syria advising the coalition forces, but Colonel Dorrian said the Syrian opposition forces would dictate the timing of the ground operations and training, and the recruitment of additional Arab troops for the recapture of Raqqa. “There is an intent to enlarge the force, and in particular the Arab contingent of the force, because we do understand that Raqqa is primarily an Arab city,” Colonel Dorrian said. “We do understand that there is a political dimension and a local acceptance dimension to this fight. ” Senior Pentagon officials have stressed for weeks that the fight to retake Raqqa should begin soon — within weeks — to disrupt planning believed to be underway there to stage terrorist attacks on the West. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top American military commander in Iraq, has declined to name a specific threat emanating from Raqqa against Western targets but described a general “sense of urgency. ” He told reporters at the Pentagon two weeks ago that it was imperative that operations to isolate the city began soon to prevent attacks on the West that could be launched or planned from the militants’ capital. General Townsend stressed that Kurdish militia fighters would be a major part of the ground force used to isolate Raqqa, despite Turkish objections. “We’re going to go with who can go, who’s willing to go soon,” he told reporters during a video news briefing from Baghdad. “And then, once we get the initial isolation in position, we’ll look at how we prosecute the operation further. ” While the Kurdish militia will make up the bulk of the operation, General Townsend said, many of the United States Special Forces troops in Syria would help recruit, train and equip local forces in and around Raqqa, predominantly Syrian Arabs. Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the commander of American forces in the Middle East, has acknowledged the challenges of dealing with two pivotal allies in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria who essentially loathe each other — the Turks and the Syrian Kurds. One of his main goals now, he said recently, is to maintain momentum and “to keep everyone moving in the right direction. ”

In Rush to Lay Blame, Media Ignores Positive Community Movement in Flint, Michigan

Activist Post

By Chris “Kikila” Perrin Like any moment of catastrophe that flitters through the mainstream media, the Flint Water Crisis cannot be boiled down to a moment. With...

DeRay Mckesson, Arrested While Protesting in Baton Rouge, Is Released - The New York Times

Yamiche Alcindor

DeRay Mckesson, one of the best known voices for the Black Lives Matter movement, was among hundreds of people arrested at weekend demonstrations across the country. He spent 16 hours in a Baton Rouge jail cell until he was released Sunday afternoon, vowing to continue demonstrating because he was convinced that the authorities want activists to be “too afraid to protest. ” Mr. Mckesson, in a telephone interview shortly after his release, said he believed that his arrest was unlawful and that the police unfairly conducted mass arrests while people were peacefully assembled and out of the way of traffic along a highway. In a booking record, Baton Rouge authorities said Mr. Mckesson ignored a police officer’s order to stay out of the road and as a result was charged with simple obstruction of a highway of commerce. He was released on his own recognizance. On Sunday night, he was at the Triple S convenience store, where Mr Sterling was shot a week ago, and which on this night was distinctly devoid of police officers after tense protests downtown hours earlier. “The police want protesters to be too afraid to protest, which is why they intentionally created a context of conflict, and I’ll never be afraid to tell the truth,” he said. “What we saw in Baton Rouge was a police department that chose to provoke protesters to create, like, a context of conflict they could exploit. ” He said that officers chased several protesters and that he had retained a lawyer. He added that he and others jailed remain committed to the Black Lives Matter movement and would continue to use civil disobedience to make their points. Mr. Mckesson and several others traveled to Baton Rouge to protest the death of Alton Sterling, who was fatally shot early Tuesday. The authorities arrested more than 100 people in connection with a protest outside the city’s police headquarters, charging most of them with obstructing the road. Eight firearms were confiscated and one officer lost several teeth after he was struck by a projectile, the police said. At a news conference in Baton Rouge, law enforcement officials defended arresting people who had stepped onto a highway against police commands, saying that streets had been closed for marches elsewhere but that this was a major thoroughfare and needed to remain open. “We certainly respect the right people have to gather peacefully, to protest peacefully and we’re going to protect that right,” said Sheriff Sid J. Gautreaux III of East Baton Rouge Parish. “At the same time we’re not going to tolerate any violence, we’re not going to tolerate any lawlessness, we’re not going to tolerate any destruction of property. ” Mr. Mckesson filmed his encounter with the police using the app Periscope. On camera, he told viewers that there was no sidewalk where they were walking. An officer could be heard shouting, “You with them loud shoes, I see you in the road. If I get close to you, you’re going to jail. ” “I think he’s talking to me, y’all,” said Mr. Mckesson, who often wears red sneakers to demonstrations. Later, Mr. Mckesson said, “Watch the police, they are just literally provoking people. ” Then, about five minutes into the broadcast, the video becomes shaky and a police officer can be heard saying: “City police. You’re under arrest. Don’t fight me. Don’t fight me. ” Sunday night, Mr. Mckesson said once he was taken into custody he was put in a van with dozens of others and was able to use another person’s phone to text people about what happened. He was eventually taken to East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. There he was at times housed with some 50 other men who took turns sitting on packed benches and sleeping on the floor. “Not everybody could fit,” he said. “Some of us had to stand. I, like many other people, slept on the floor or didn’t sleep at all because there just wasn’t enough room. ” After hours, Mr. Mckesson and others were then told to change into jumpsuits and were fed a breakfast of orange juice, oatmeal and pastries. While inside, Mr. Mckesson was able to make several calls to his lawyers and friends to strategize how to be released. Mr. Mckesson, 31, a public school administrator turned activist, first gained national notice with his blunt critiques on Twitter of the police response in Ferguson, Mo. after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. He ran for mayor of Baltimore, his hometown, this year, ultimately losing the Democratic primary in April to Catherine E. Pugh.

Carrie Fisher, a Princess, a Rebel and a Brave Comic Voice - The New York Times

A.O. Scott

Carrie Fisher was the child of a family. “The daughter of famous parents,” she wrote in her memoir “Wishful Drinking,” which originated as a show. “One an icon, the other a consort to icons. ” She entered popular culture as a princess in peril and endures as something much more complicated and interesting. Many things, really: a rebel commander a witty internal critic of the celebrity machine a teller of comic tales, true and embellished an inspiring and cautionary avatar of excess and resilience an emblem of the honesty we crave (and so rarely receive) from beloved purveyors of . When I heard the news of Ms. Fisher’s death on Tuesday, what immediately popped into my mind was not “Star Wars” but “Rosemary’s Baby” — that unforgettable episode from Season 2 of “30 Rock,” in which she turns up as a legendary and colossally difficult television writer, Rosemary Howard. [ Read Carrie Fisher’’s obituary ] Liz Lemon, the television writer played (and created) by Tina Fey, idolizes Rosemary, seeing her as a pioneer and a spiritual mother. But even symbolic relationships have a way of turning dysfunctional, and Liz comes to see Rosemary less as a beacon than a warning — an image of the cynical, resentful, dingbat Liz herself might well become. Emily Nussbaum, the New Yorker’s television critic, remarked on Twitter that the episode was “the of female comedy,” which may actually be an understatement. The character of Rosemary Howard certainly embodies the glories and contradictions of feminism, and Liz’s ambivalence about her is a barbed and brilliant illustration of the anxieties of female comic influence. But the casting of Ms. Fisher — whose performance on the show is somehow at once wildly winking and completely — adds about 12 dimensions of meta. Anyone watching that episode will already know that Liz Lemon is a rabid “Star Wars” fan. Her default Halloween costume is Princess Leia Organa. Later, when she wants to get out of jury duty, Liz will coil her hair over her ears and dress in a belted linen djellaba, confident that no judge would ever impanel such a cosplaying nerd. She’s wrong about that, and also wrong to sell out her Leia devotion, treating it as a source of embarrassment rather than power and pride. The princess allows Liz — and not only Liz — to be both geek and warrior, sex symbol and samurai, free spirit and prisoner of the corporate Death Star. Liz Lemon has two mothers, both played by Carrie Fisher. That statement can stand as a fictional index of Ms. Fisher’s extensive influence. Princess Leia — now General Organa of the Rebel Alliance — will always define her as an actress, something she claimed, in a recent Rolling Stone interview, not to mind. “I like Princess Leia,” she said. “I like how she was feisty. I like how she killed Jabba the Hutt. ” That feistiness has been Leia’s principal legacy, the early sign of a shift in the understanding of female heroism — and the meanings of the word princess — that has rippled through popular culture in the past 40 years. Leia is a foremother of Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen and of countless Disney princesses. She also foretold the recent, somewhat belated feminist turn in the “Star Wars” cycle itself. All of a sudden, and at long last, Leia is not the only heroine in the galaxy, having been joined by Rey in “The Force Awakens” and Jyn in “Rogue One. ” Ms. Fisher’s legacy may rest at least as much on her literary voice, on the alter egos she created on the page, as on any character she played onscreen. She was hardly the first or the only Hollywood figure to spill the beans about sex, drugs and other shenanigans. Nor was she unique among writers in the way she mined her own painful history of addiction and mental illness for harrowing and humorous copy. But “Postcards From the Edge,” her 1987 roman à clef about a movie star named Suzanne Vale with a cocaine problem and a difficult mom, bristles with a bravery and candor that still feels groundbreaking. She went there, long before that was a catchphrase, and before that particular there was such a crowded piece of real estate. In her Rolling Stone interview and elsewhere, Ms. Fisher liked to cite Dorothy Parker as an inspiration. She carried that tradition forward, and the frank, funny, confessionally inclined and women who now flourish on television and in print — the list is too long they know who they are — are in her debt. “You’re my kid!” Rosemary Howard cries out to Liz Lemon. An echo of the famous assertion of paternity in the “Star Wars” saga. And also an acknowledgment of Carrie Fisher’s own undeniable status as a matriarch.

Kunduz Attack in November Killed 33 Civilians, U.S. Military Says - The New York Times

Mujib Mashal

KABUL, Afghanistan — A United States military investigation into claims of civilian casualties during a joint operation by Afghan and American forces found that 33 civilians were killed and 27 others were wounded during a firefight and airstrikes in Kunduz Province last year, American military officials said on Thursday. In early November, Afghan Special Forces, accompanied by American military advisers, came under intense fire during an operation to arrest Taliban commanders in Boz Qandahari, a village in Kunduz, the United States military command in Afghanistan said in a statement. They called in American airstrikes, which resulted in some of the civilian casualties. Two American soldiers and three Afghan commandos were killed, and four American soldiers and 11 commandos were wounded, the statement said. “Regardless of the circumstances, I deeply regret the loss of innocent lives,” said Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr. the commander of United States forces in Afghanistan. “On this occasion, the Taliban chose to hide amongst civilians and then attacked Afghan and U. S. forces. ” “I wish to assure President Ghani and the people of Afghanistan that we will take all possible measures to protect Afghan civilians,” he added, referring to Ashraf Ghani. After the battle in Kunduz, a New York Times reporter counted 22 bodies being brought into the city on the way to the hospital there. Among them were 14 children, four women, two older men and two men of fighting age. They were accompanied by a large group of protesters from Boz Qandahari, the village that was hit. Residents of Boz Qandahari, however, said that the investigation had underestimated the number of civilians killed and that the claim of Taliban firing at the forces from their homes was not true. “My father was a shopkeeper — he had a grocery shop close to our house. My brother and I were farmers. We had never had a weapon. I and no one in my family knows how to use a weapon,” said Mohammed Reza, 29, who lost seven family members in the bombing and was stuck in the rubble of their house for hours. “I lost my father, my brother, my brother’s wife, my son and three of my nephews who were between 1 and 7 years old. ” Dad Mohammed, 45, said he was aware of at least 37 killed among his own relatives. “There were no Taliban among us, there was no Taliban in our house. Except for one former Talib, who was disabled and had lost a leg and he was our cousin,” he said. “He was killed along with his father, his wife and five children. His brother was also killed. ” Mr. Mohammed said the Taliban stronghold in the area was obvious, but it was far from the areas that had been bombed. “This was an act of oppression,” he said. “We are also humans. It should be investigated by an international court, and we need to be compensated for our loss. ” Kunduz is also where a United States military gunship mistakenly targeted a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in October 2015, killing at least 42 people and destroying much of the hospital.

Top five donors to Clinton campaign are Jewish

Gilad Atzmon

Behind the headlines - conspiracies, cover-ups, ancient mysteries and more. Real news and perspectives that you won't find in the mainstream media. Browse: Home / Top five donors to Clinton campaign are Jewish Essential Reading The Anglo-Saxon Mission Part II By wmw_admin on March 1, 2010 Former City of London insider reveals that the depopulation program would begin with a planned war between Israel and Iran. More importantly, he goes onto to describe how we can derail their plans for global dominance Coming Clean By wmw_admin on April 29, 2004 Chemtrails are not the product of some ‘Conspiracy Theory’. They are real. We get the low down from an aircraft mechanic who has done his own investigating US ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria, blame it on Assad govt': Report By wmw_admin on June 15, 2013 This report appeared in January, 2013, but was subsequently removed from the Mail’s website. Fortunately some observers copied extracts, which we repost here The Advent of the Anti-Christ By Rixon Stewart on August 2, 2010 A few words on the market meltdown and how it may assist the debut of a truly sinister figure The Anglo-Saxon Mission Part I By wmw_admin on March 1, 2010 Bill Ryan talks to a former City of London insider who participated in a meeting where the elite’s plans for depopulation were discussed. The meeting, which took place in 2005, also discussed a planned financial collapse Dov Zakheim and the 9/11 Conspiracy By wmw_admin on April 23, 2010 Our web hosts were threatened with legal action after lawyers representing none other than Dov Zakheim himself claimed this article was “defamatory.” Due to an oversight the article was not fully removed so read it before Zakheim gets us shut down The Lady, The Queen and what it really means By wmw_admin on December 28, 2009 Every picture tells a story and with some photos and a few words Paul Powers shows us what was hidden in the background when Queen Elizabeth II met pop sensation Lady Gaga They Live By wmw_admin on August 19, 2012 Considered by some as prophetic, many will find eerie echoes of present day concerns in John Carpenters 24-year-old ‘They Live’. View the cult classic here The Life of an American Jew in Racist Marxist Israel Part II By wmw_admin on October 27, 2006 Written nearly twenty years ago, Jack Bernstein’s words now have a prophetic ring which he paid for with his life Al Qaeda – The Database By Wayne Madsen on May 15, 2009 Pierre-Henry Bunel, a former agent for French military intelligence, tells of the origins of Al Qaeda and its ultimate purpose

Clinton, Trump Both Promise Hands Off Social Security

Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.

Email Americans reportedly favor expanding Social Security, while key members of the Republican Party are accused of wanting to let it wither. An article published October 28 by the Huffington Post , citing data culled from Public Policy Polling survey, reports that 72 percent of Americans support expanding Social Security benefits. After highlighting data that they claim prove that all Americans regardless of age and political persuasion favor increasing Social Security benefits, the article explains that this growth should be accomplished by forcing "the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share." As an attorney, I was trained to parse phrases, breaking them down into key terms and then defining those words in careful ways so as to reveal the principles and biases upon which the statutes in question reveal. In the case of the expansion of Social Security, the key word that jumps off the page is "wealthiest." To me, the threshold question in the analysis of this recommendation is who is to decide what level of affluence would qualify an American as being among the "wealthiest" who are the target of the proposed revenue-raising scheme. Of course, as is the case with most of these progressive plans to steal the fruits from the laborer and fence them to the "needy" (who, for generations, have been convinced that it is their right to receive such filched funds), there is no mention of the fairness of seizing the property of one group, which thought to prepare for their retirement, to compensate for another group's failure to do so. Next up on the list of terms to define is "fair share." Again, it is critical to know who is deciding what is the "fair" amount "owed" by the objects of the fleecing. Not surprisingly, the HuffPo article provides no answers to these key questions. It does, however, indicate how these questions would be answered by the two major party candidates for president. First up, Hillary Clinton. HuffPo explains the Democratic nominee's plan for taking more money from the "wealthy" to make up for the lack of retirement planning by the rest of us. "Consistent with the will of the people, Hillary Clinton has pledged to expand, never cut, Social Security," the article affirms. "The Democratic Platform fully backs the same position espoused by Clinton and the American people." The GOP nominee, on the other hand, hasn't signed on to steal the property of one group and give it to another, rewarding the latter's lack of planning and preparation for a pension. Here's the HuffPo portrayal of Donald Trump's take on the purportedly popular plan to expand Social Security: In sharp contrast to Clinton and the Democrats, the Republican Party’s 2016 platform advocates cutting and dismantling, through privatization, our Social Security system. Donald Trump publically [sic] states that he won’t touch Social Security, but his choice of advisors and running mate — not to mention his own past statements and the Platform he controlled — make it clear that, once in office, he would fall in line with Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker Paul Ryan, and other leaders of the Republican Party who claim that they want to “save” Social Security but advocate cutting it. However despite HuffPo's claim to the contrary, over the course of the campaign for the White House, Trump has repeated many times that he would not touch Social Security -- much less privatize it -- revealing why the issue is called the "third rail" of American politics. The "third rail" analogy comes from railroad where the third rail is the middle rail that is electrified, deadly to the touch. In politics, then, any issue dubbed a third rail is one that is so controversial that any attempt to fiddle with it in any way would kill the politician making the ill-fated effort at change. Trump, in his own words, has declared his plans for Social Security should he become president. "They want to cut your social security, I'm not cutting your social security,” Trump said in Racine, Wisconsin, on April 2. "We're gonna save your Social Security without making any cuts. Mark my words,” explained Trump on a trip to Georgia in February. It appears, then, that neither major party candidate has any plan to eliminate this untouchable region of the soft socialism that is the economic policy of both partners in the duopoly that controls the United States. Whence comes the authority of Congress (or any branch of the federal government) to forcibly seize the property of workers and set up a retirement savings account on their behalf? The quick answer is the Supreme Court. In the case of Helvering v. Davis (1937), the Supreme Court determined that Social Security deductions from a person's wages was a constitutional exercise of the General Welfare Clause. As for whether that clause was meant to endow the central government with unlimited authority to tax and spend, in 1792 Congressman James Madison warned: If Congress can apply money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may establish teachers in every State, county, and parish, and pay them out of the public Treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post roads. In short, every thing, from the highest object of State legislation, down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress; for every object I have mentioned would admit the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the general welfare. And so they have and there are few brave enough to oppose the perpetuation of the plan. Certainly neither the Democratic candidate for president, nor her Republican counterpart. How did Americans get to a place where they will be left penniless in their old age? The socialists, the progressives, and the politicians who pander to them, the "stagnation of wages" is to blame for the failure of "American families to save even for short-term emergencies." What, though, of the fact that the average American carries over $15,000 in credit card debt. What if the money paid in interest on this debt was set aside for retirement, rather than spent paying interest rates on credit card-financed consumer purchases that, truth be told, have no long-term value and in fact rob the debtor of not only his current financial health, but make his future financial health on life-support, as well? Moreover, consider all of the money that employess “contribute” to Social Security. This amount is actually twice the amount shown on pay-check stubs, since employers are required to match their employees’ “contributions” with their own “contributions” that are part of the cost of employing workers and (in the absence of Social Security) could be paid directly to the employees. Just imagine how big a nest egg workers could accumulate if all of the money now going into Social Security were available to them to save and invest! There is another proposal for how to restore the happy retirement of an increasingly elderly American population: privatization of Social Security. HuffPo claims that this plan would harm the poorest among us and leave them unable to support themselves in their retirement. Others insist that the poorest pensioners would be the biggest beneficiaries of the privatization of Social Security. Here is an analysis by the Cato Institute: By providing a much higher rate of return, privatization would raise the incomes of those elderly retirees who are most in need. Although the current Social Security system is ostensibly designed to be progressive, transferring wealth to the elderly poor, the system actually contains many inequities that leave the poor at a disadvantage. For instance, the low-income elderly are much more likely than their wealthy counterparts to be dependent on Social Security benefits for most or all of their retirement income. But despite a progressive benefit structure, Social Security benefits are inadequate for the elderly poor’s retirement needs. In addition, the progressivity of Social Security is undermined by differences in life expectancy. Because the wealthy generally live longer than the poor, they receive more total Social Security payments over the course of their lifetimes. In a privatized system, an individual’s benefits would not be dependent on life expectancy. Individuals would have a property right in their benefits. Any benefits remaining at their deaths would become part of their estates, inherited by their heirs. Finally, Social Security drains capital from the poorest areas of the country, leaving less money available for new investment and job creation. Privatization would increase national savings and provide a new pool of capital for investment that would be particularly beneficial to the poor. Financial sense of this sort would not be enough, of course, to convince the socialists to reconsider their plan to pilfer the wages of the "wealthy" and "charitably" give it to the elderly poor. Why? Simple. Their plan is not to take care of the poor, but rather they need to keep the poor poor in order to sell economic salvation to them every election cycle. Ultimately, for constitutionalists, the goal is to eliminate Social Security all together and divest the federal government of its role in retirement planning and any other activity over which the states did not grant it authority in the Constitution. Please review our Comment Policy before posting a comment Thank you for joining the discussion at The New American. We value our readers and encourage their participation, but in order to ensure a positive experience for our readership, we have a few guidelines for commenting on articles. If your post does not follow our policy, it will be deleted. No profanity, racial slurs, direct threats, or threatening language. No product advertisements. Please post comments in English. Please keep your comments on topic with the article. If you wish to comment on another subject, you may search for a relevant article and join or start a discussion there.

Congressional Hawks Rush to Intensify War in Syria

Anonymous

Tweet Widget by Rick Sterling Warmongers in the U.S. Congress -- Democrats and Republicans – are in a mad dash towards war with Russia in Syria. A “No Fly Zone” resolution passed the House with little debate, cloaked in “humanitarian” language that blames the besieged Syrian government for the totality of the deaths in the U.S.-backed proxy war. The bipartisan regime changers are desperate to complete their mission before the regime change that will occur in Washington, on January 20. Congressional Hawks Rush to Intensify War in Syria by Rick Sterling This article previously appeared in Dissident Voice . “ They are desperate to prevent the Syrian government from finally eliminating the terrorist groups which the West and allies have promoted for the past 5+ years.” Hawks pass HR5732 Late in the day Tuesday November 15, Congress convened in special session. With normal rules suspended, they passed House Resolution 5732 the “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.” The resolution calls for intensifying already harsh sanctions on Syria, assessing implementation of No Fly Zone in Syria and escalating efforts to press criminal charges against Syrian officials. HR5732 claims to promote a negotiated settlement in Syria but, as analyzed by Friends Committee for National Legislation, imposes preconditions which would actually make that more difficult. There was 40 minutes of “debate” with six representatives (Royce, Engel, Ros-Lehtinen, Kildee, Smith, and Curbelo) speaking in favor of the resolution. There were few other Congressional representatives present in Congress. The House Foreign Affairs Committee stated that the resolution was passed “unanimously” without mentioning the special conditions. The “Non Controversial” Resolution that could lead to World War III According to wikipedia “ Suspension of the rules is a procedure generally used to quickly pass non-controversial bills in the United States House of Representatives ….such as naming Post Offices…” In this case, the resolution calls for evaluating and developing plans for a “No Fly Zone” which is an act of war. This is obviously controversial and it seems clear the resolution should have been debated and discussed under normal rules with a normal amount of Congressional presence and debate. The motivation for bypassing normal rules and rushing the bill through without debate was articulated by the bill’s author and ranking Democrat Eliot Engel: “We cannot delay action on Syria any further…. if we don’t get this legislation across the finish line in the next few weeks, we are back to square one.” The current urgency may be related to the election results since Trump has spoken out against “regime change” foreign policy. As much as they are critical of Obama for not doing more, Congressional neoconservatives are concerned about the prospect of a President who might move toward peace and away from war. The Caesar Fraud HR5732 is titled the “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act”. Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ed Royce (R-Ca) explained that the resolution is named after “the brave Syrian defector known to the world as Caesar, who testified to us the shocking scale of torture being carried out within the prisons of Syria.” In reality, the Caesar story was a grand deception involving the CIA with funding from Qatar to sabotage the 2014 Geneva negotiations. The 55,000 photos which were said to show 11,000 torture victims have never been publicly revealed. Only a tiny number of photos have been publicized. However, in 2015 Human Rights Watch was granted access to view the entire set. They revealed that almost one half the photos show the opposite of what was claimed: instead of victims tortured by the Syrian government, they actually show dead Syrian soldiers and civilian victims of car bombs and other terror attacks! The “Caesar” story, replete with masked ‘defector’, was one of the early propaganda hoaxes regarding Syria. False Claims that the US has been doing nothing One of the big lies regarding Syria is that the US has been inactive. Royce says: The administration has decided not to decide. And that itself, unfortunately, has set a course where here we sit and watch and the violence only worsens. Mr. Speaker, America has been sitting back and watching these atrocities for far too long. Vital U.S. national security interests are at stake. The ranking Democrat Eliot Engel said: Four years ago I thought we should have aided the Free Syrian Army. They came to us in Washington and begged us for help… they were simply looking for weaponry. I really believe if we had given it to them, the situation in Syria would have been different today. This is nonsense. The US was actively coordinating, training and supplying armed opposition groups beginning in late 2011. When the Qadaffi government was toppled in Fall 2011, the CIA oversaw the theft of the Libyan armories and shipment of weapons to Syrian armed opposition as documented in the Defense Intelligence Agency report of October 2012. These weapons transfers were secret. For the public record it was acknowledged that the US was supplying communications equipment to the armed opposition while Saudi Arabia and Qatar were supplying weaponry. This is one reason that Saudi purchases of weapons skyrocketed during this time period; they were buying weapons to replace those being shipped to the armed opposition in Syria. It was very profitable for US arms manufacturers. Huge weapons transfers to the armed opposition in Syria have continued to the present. This past Spring, Janes Defense reported the details of a U.S. delivery of 2.2 million pounds of ammunition, rocket launchers and other weaponry to the armed opposition. “The US has done everything short of a direct attack on Syria.” Claims that the US has been inactive are baseless. In reality the US has done everything short of a direct attack on Syria. And the US military is starting to cross that barrier. On September 17 the US air coalition did a direct attack on the Syrian Army in Deir Ezzor, killing 80 Syrian soldiers and enabling ISIS to launch an attack on the position. Claims that it was a “mistake” are highly dubious. The claims by Congressional hawks that the US has been “inactive” in the Syrian conflict are part of the false narrative suggesting the US must “do something” which leads to a No Fly Zone and full scale war. Ironically, these calls for war are masked as “humanitarian.” And never do the proponents bring up the case of Libya where the US and NATO “did something”: destroyed the government and left chaos. Congress as a Fact-Free House of Propaganda With only a handful of representatives present and no debate, the six Congress members engaged in unrestrained propaganda and misinformation. The leading Democrat, Eliot Engel, said “We’re going into the New Year 2017, Assad still clings to power, at the expense of killing millions of his citizens.” That number is way off anyone’s charts. Rep Kildee said “The world has witnessed this terrible tragedy unfold before our eyes. Nearly half a million Syrians killed. Not soldiers – men, women, children killed.” The official text of the resolution says, It is the sense of Congress that– (1) Bashar al-Assad’s murderous actions against the people of Syria have caused the deaths of more than 400,000 civilians… The above accusations – from “millions of citizens” to “half a million” to “400,000 civilians” – are all preposterous lies. Credible estimates of casualties in the Syrian conflict range from 300,000 to 420,000. The opposition supporting Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates the documented 2011-2016 death toll as follows: killed pro Syrian forces – 108,000 killed anti government forces – 105,000 killed civilians – 89,000 In contrast with Congressional and media claims, civilians comprise a minority of the total death count and the largest casualty group is those fighting in defense of the the Syrian state. These facts are ignored and never mentioned because they point to the reality versus the propaganda narrative which allows the USA and allies to continue funding terrorism and a war of aggression against Syria. The Congressional speakers were in full self-righteous mode as they accused the Syrian government of “committing crimes against humanity and war crimes against civilians including murder, torture and rape. No one has been spared from this targeting, even children.” A naive listener would never know that the Syrian government is primarily fighting the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda including thousands of foreigners supplied and paid by foreign governments. The Congressional speakers go on to accuse the Syrian military of “targeting” hospitals, schools and markets. A critical listener might ask why they would do that instead of targeting the Al Qaeda terrorists and their allies who launch dozens and sometimes hundreds of hell cannon missiles into government held Aleppo every day. “The White Helmets actively promote US/NATO intervention through a No Fly Zone.” The Congressional propaganda fest would not be complete without mention of the “ White Helmets “. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said: “We (previously) heard the testimony of Raed Saleh of the Syrian White Helmets. These are the doctors, nurses and volunteers who actually, when the bombs come, run towards the areas that have been hit in order to try to get the injured civilians medical treatment…They have lost over 600 doctors and nurses.” This is more Congressional nonsense. There are no nurses or doctors associated with the White Helmets. The organization was created by the USA and UK and heavily promoted by a “ shady PR firm .” The White Helmets operate solely in areas controlled by Nusra and associated terrorist groups. They do some rescue work in the conflict zone but their main role is in the information war manipulating public opinion. The White Helmets actively promote US/NATO intervention through a No Fly Zone. Recently the White Helmets has become a major source of claims of innocent civilian victims in east Aleppo. Given the clear history of the White Helmets, these claims should be treated with skepticism. What exactly is the evidence? The same skepticism needs to be applied to video and other reports from the Aleppo Media Center. AMC is a creation of the Syrian Expatriates Organization whose address on K Street, Washington DC indicates it is a US marketing operation. What is really going on? The campaign to overthrow the Syrian government is failing and there is possibility of a victory for the Syrian government and allies. The previous flood of international jihadi recruits has dried up. The Syrian Army and allies are gaining ground militarily and negotiating settlements or re-locations with “rebels” who previously terrorized Homs, Darraya (outer Damascus) and elsewhere. In Aleppo the Syrian army and allies are tightening the noose around the armed opposition in east Aleppo. This has caused alarm among neoconservative lawmakers devoted to Israel, Saudi Arabia and U.S. empire. They are desperate to prevent the Syrian government from finally eliminating the terrorist groups which the West and allies have promoted for the past 5+ years. “Pro Israel” groups have been major campaigners for passage of HR5732. The name of Simon Wiesenthal is even invoked in the resolution. With crocodile tears fully flowing, Rabbi Lee Bycel wrote “ Where is the Conscience of the World? ” as he questioned why the “humanitarian” HR5732 was not passed earlier. Israeli interests are one of the primary forces sustaining and promoting the conflict. Syria is officially at war with Israel which continues to occupy the Syrian Golan Heights; Syria has been a key ally of the Lebanese resistance; and Syria has maintained its alliance with Iran. In 2010 Secretary of State Clinton urged Syria to break relations with Hezbollah, reduce relations with Iran and come to settlement with Israel. The Syrian refusal to comply with these Washington demands was instrumental in solidifying Washington’s hostility . Congressional proponents of HR5732 make clear the international dimension of the conflict. Royce explains “It is Russia, it is Hezbollah, that are the primary movers of death and destruction…it is the IRGC fighters from Iran”. Engel echoes the same message: “Yes, we want to go after Assad’s partners in violence…along with Iranian and Hezbollah forces”. These statements are in contrast with the analysis of some writers who believe Israel is not deeply opposed to the Damascus government. For example, Phyllis Bennis recently wrote that belief in an “arc of resistance” has been “long debunked” and that “the Syrian regime …. often plays a useful role for US and Israeli interests.” It’s remarkable that this faulty analysis continues to be propounded. In words and deeds Israel has made its position on Syria crystal clear. Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren explained in an interview: “We always wanted [President] Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran … the greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc.” These statements have been fully backed up by Israeli actions bombing Syrian positions in southern Syria and providing medical treatment for Nusra/Al Qaeda and other armed opposition fighters. What Will Happen Now? If the Syrian government and allies continue to advance in Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, outer Damascus and the south, the situation will come to a head. The enemies of Syria – predominately the USA, Gulf Countries, NATO and Israel – will come to a decision point. Do they intervene directly or do they allow their regime project to collapse? HR5732 is an effort to prepare for direct intervention and aggression. One thing is clear from the experience of Libya: Neoconservatives do not care if they leave a country in chaos. The main objective is to destabilize and overthrow a government which is too independent. If the USA and allies cannot dominate the country, then at least they can destroy the contrary authority and leave chaos. What is at stake in Syria is whether the USA and allies Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc. are able to destroy the last secular and independent Arab country in the region and whether the US goal of being the sole superpower in the world prevails. The rushed passing of HR5732 without debate is indicative that: * “regime change” proponents have not given up their war on Syria * they seek to escalate US aggression. * the US Congress is a venue where blatant lies are said with impunity and where violent actions are advanced behind a cynical and amoral veneer of “humanitarianism” and crocodile tears. Rick Sterling is an investigative journalist and member of Syria Solidarity Movement. He can be reached at [email protected]

Stanley Black &amp Decker Announce Opening of New U.S. Plant After Trump White House Win - Breitbart

Warner Todd Huston

Stanley Black Decker, one of the U. S. A. ’s most well known hand and power tool manufacturers, has unveiled plans to move some manufacturing back to the U. S. after the election of Donald J. Trump to the White House. [In remarks to investors during a Thursday conference call, Stanley Black Decker CEO James Loree said it just makes “business sense” to move manufacturing back to the U. S. especially given the uncertainty of trade relations with China and Mexico, USA Today reported. “It’s going to be advisable to have more manufacturing in the U. S.,” Loree added. “We believe this is an excellent opportunity to and revitalize this legendary brand,” he concluded. Stanley Black Decker has been slowly increasing jobs in the U. S. for the past several years. Its current level of some 3, 000 workers is already up 800 from 2013. It is not yet known how many more jobs the company will be bringing to the U. S. as a result of its latest announcement. The remarks come after the company announced the impending purchase of the Sears Craftsman tool line for about $900 million after Sears suffered another round of setbacks which will include the closing of at least 150 more stores. Stanley Black Decker is not alone in a sudden interest in in the U. S. since the election of Donald J. Trump. Only days ago at the start of the new year, Ford Motors announced it was canceling plans to build new manufacturing facilities in Mexico and will instead in America. But Ford is only the latest. A whole list of companies have already promised to bring investment and jobs to America since Trump’s election. Immediately after Trump’s big November win, such companies as Carrier, SoftBank, U. S. Steel, and IBM all announced major additions to the U. S. job market. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

Six Gulf Protectors Arrested Challenging Gulf Oil Drilling

Bill Quigley

Email Six Gulf Protectors were arrested outside the New Orleans office of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management . They were taken into custody by Federal Protection Service agents of the Department of Homeland Security during an action by Nonewleases.org urging President Obama to cancel oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico. “We began the event in solidarity with those from the Sioux Nation who are standing up to the Dakota Access pipeline ,” said Anne Rolfes of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade , one of the organizations participating. “As Gulf Protectors we are calling on President Obama to live up to his climate legacy and permanently cancel future leases in the Gulf of Mexico.” The six arrested were: Alicia Cooke, Danil Faust, Alison Kalnik, Ben Quimby, Noah Rahman, and Reverend Jim Vanderweele. Booked on federal charges of obstructing an entrance to a federal building, they were advised they have to each pay a fine of $530 or go before federal court for trial. Alicia Cooke, a member of 350 Louisiana , explained why she was willing to be arrested. “To maintain a livable climate, experts estimate that around 80% of existing fossil fuel resources must stay in the ground. At current consumption levels, we need to place an immediate moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure projects and we also must scale back on existing projects. The industry and government executives who dismiss our concerns out of hand because we drive fuel-powered vehicles or use air conditioning are missing the point. A transition to a renewable energy economy at the speed required by science will not be easy for any of us. It will take a full-hearted acceptance of climate science and an enormous collective will. But when you look at the climate math, it is quite literally our only choice.” Iris Carter of Concerned Citizens of Norco explained why she was there to protect the Gulf. “Oil is killing people. Just look at my own family. I grew up between a Shell refinery and a Shell chemical plant and when my mother and sister got sick, the doctors asked if we lived near pollution. It’s not fair. And now people have to go and fish in the Gulf – after oil companies leave all that mess. Look what they left from the spill that BP did. That was bad. And it’s no better. They keep going out and drilling and spilling in our Gulf. And that’s just not right.” Cheri Fotlin of BOLD Louisiana challenged the feds for excluding the public. “The head of BOEM , Abigail Hopper, had promised to come down and meet directly with our communities who continue to be adversely affected by oil production in and along the Gulf. At the last minute, she backed out. Additionally, BOEM recently stopped allowing public participation at point-of-sale lease auctions. At every turn our voices have been oppressed by this federal agency. We deserve to be heard. If she won’t come to us, then we have no choice but to go to BOEM ourselves to make our wishes known. We want protection. We want respect for our lives. No new leases, not here, not anywhere!” Four others were arrested in August at the same place and charged with state criminal trespass. Their trial is still pending. The group promises to return and escalate their actions to protect the Gulf.

Hillary Clinton’s Gun Control Agenda Exposed in WikiLeaks Emails

The Daily Sheeple

The Daily Sheeple There is no doubt about it. Hillary Clinton is after your guns. Brian Fallon, national press secretary for the Clinton campaign, wrote in an email dated October 4, 2015 that Clinton intends to stop the “gun show loophole”, meaning all private gun sales, by executive order : Circling back around on guns as a follow up to the Friday morning discussion: the Today show has indicated they definitely plan to ask bout guns, and so to have the discussion be more of a news event than her previous times discussing guns, we are going to background reporters tonight on a few of the specific proposals she would support as President – universal background checks of course, but also closing the gun show loophole by executive order and imposing manufacturer liability . Imposing manufacturer liability means that after Sandy Hook, Bushmaster and Remington Arms would have been prosecuted for having a hand in the murder of children and school staff members for firearms that were legally sold. When a lawsuit brought against these manufacturers was found to be frivolous, Clinton made a big fuss about it on Twitter: It's incomprehensible that our laws would protect gun makers over Sandy Hook families. We need to fix this. https://t.co/96uBe92wPi — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 15, 2016 In September 1993 during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Hillary Clinton was asked by Senator Bill Bradley if she supported a 25% sales tax on handguns and automatic weapons. She was very clear in her support of taxing guns: “I’m all for that. I just don’t know what else we’re going to do to try to figure out how to get some handle on this violence,” said Clinton. “I’m speaking personally, but I feel very strongly about that.” In another email exchange dated January 14, 2016, Clinton wrote about using racial division to further her gun control agenda by selectively ignoring occurrences of gun violence that were not racially motivated. For this reason, according to the email, the Clinton campaign did not include the story of Jordan Davis in an essay on gun violence: This is great. My edits are attached. The only flag here is that Jordan Davis was killed by a white man, so arguably – this crime was racially motivated, which takes this outside the discussion of gun violence. Was there another mother in the Chicago meeting where the shooting was NOT racially motivated? If yes, we should use that story instead of Jordan Davis. In another email from March 17, we see an exchange about how to attack Donald Trump and a press call with Arizona locals about gun control. When asked about an anti-gun op-ed article by the Clinton Campaign, Chairman John Podesta wrote that he fears blowback from Clinton’s supporters: Interestingly, I am worried about blowback from our supporters. Contributed by The Daily Sheeple of www.TheDailySheeple.com . Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this:

My Last Thoughts Before An Historic Election

Rowan Wolf

[Graphic of Trump courtesy of Boing Boing ] Rowan Wolf, PhD Voice of Conscience A s the minutes tick down before election day 2016, I feel that I must throw in my final thoughts and feelings. This is an historic election in so many ways. Let me point out a few: The first time that a woman was the Presidential candidate of the duopoly. The first time in the modern era when a direct member of the .01% without any knowledge or background in politics was the Presidential candidate of the duopoly. The first time that BOTH candidates were hated and mistrusted by the majority of the voting public – regardless of party. Now that the ‘firsts’ are out of the way, let me deal with my real concerns about this election. We live in a time when the world is literally a political tinder box, and the United States seems bent on adding fuel and throwing Molotov cocktails all over the place. We live in a time when the Earth teeters on the brink of runaway climate and ecological catastrophe. We are literally at a point where most climate scientists are saying that we are near or PAST the point of no return with climate – the point where we could avoid devastating, civilization destroying, extinction level event (ELE) catastrophe. Every single eco-system, and every ecological region on the planet is degraded and many are collapsing. This issue of the environment is deeply pertinent to the U.S. presidential election because one of the duopoly candidates rabidly does NOT “believe” in global warming. In fact, this candidate wants to disband the entire Environmental Protection Agency and reverse all environmental protections – from pollution to endangered species. (Frankly, this candidate wants to get rid of ALL regulations and treaties and apparently, most laws – they get in the way of business). Can you guess which candidate this is? Video courtesy of the NY Times . I have watched as much of the left has joined the far right Tea Partiers and “alt-right” white power movement in promoting Donald Trump as the better of the two candidates for President. The ‘Left’s” argument at base is that “The Establishment” is against Trump so he must be better than Hillary Clinton (who obviously represents The Establishment). The fact is that the Left is standing with those who are ideologically (supposedly) 180 o from the Left I thought I knew. The Left I thought I knew was anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, pro-social justice, pro-collectivity, and environmentally conscious. Yet most seem to have decided that standing with those who are white-centric, xenophobic, misogynistic, imperialistic, pro-corporate, anti-science, anti-intellectual, and anti-environmentalism, is the ‘common ground’ against The Establishment. I am sorry, but the logic eludes me. These same Left Trumpers argue that he is less militaristic and hawkish than Clinton, even thought Trump has said that he wants to dramatically increase the military (the only part of the government he seems to have a use for since they would be tied to his command). He wants to upgrade and USE the nuclear arsenal. His solution to ISIS (and other pesky folk in the Middle East) is to nuke them. He wants to re-take Iraq and get their oil. In fact, he thinks that we should just take over the resources wherever we want. He also wants to make Iran straighten up “fast” (everything is going to happen “fast”) or presumably he will nuke them too. Then there is clearly a lot of money to be made in nukes and he wants to sell them to everyone. I have not found one thing that is less hawkish about Trump other than he seems to like Putin. Of course that could change on a dime if he gets pissed off at Putin. Trump is different than the ordinary candidate, and what he has done is step to the front of a movement. It is a movement that is now clearly fascist. Even many on the Left recognize that Trump is a fascist (there have been various comparisons to Mussolini), but there has been virtually no discussion of the movement that has not only been empowered by Trump, but is now legitimated as a political organization, part of the power structure and sitting at the table – via Trump. And the racist Right (aka “alt-right”) is well aware of it. Trump says that there will be riots if he is not elected. The implied threat is of heavily armed militias in the streets and not peaceful protestors expressing their disgust and distrust. I have to wonder at how the Left has changed. We have arrived at a point where the Left (reluctantly of course) stands behind a fascist (and a fascist movement) for President of the most powerful nation on the planet. Please keep that in mind. No matter the degraded economic position of the United States, we have the largest arsenal and largest military on the planet by several magnitudes. Who is elected here matters more than ANY other country on the planet. So I am sad, and bereft. My country is sliding into chaos. My planet is rushing towards disaster. And the people I thought stood with me have lined up behind a narcissistic, vengeful, fascist for President. Oh we missed the opportunity of a lifetime. The Left could have gotten behind Sanders. No he was not perfect, but he was damn well a significant move LEFT. The Left could have looked at what was happening (given the popularity of Sanders and Trump, the two perceived anti-establishment candidates) and put forward a real viable candidate – Jill Stein. With the massive dislike of both Clinton and Trump, we might have actually pulled off a real coup and gotten the Greens into the White House. That ship has sailed. I do not support Clinton. I do not think she is a good candidate. I do think she is sane – though self-serving. I do know just how much of a hawk she is, and that she is more than happy to continue the agenda that both neo-cons and neo-libs have been pushing since 2000 (if not earlier). Regardless of who “wins” this farce of an election, Trump and his version of Brown Shirts are going to be with us for a long time. I am left to wonder how the Left that risked their lives fighting Mussolini and Franco are now standing behind Trump. I have no illusions about the malignancy of Clinton, but I also have no illusions about the malignancy of Trump. The fact that Clinton is the Democratic candidate speaks to the fact that she puts her “right” to be the first woman candidate, and the first woman U.S. president, above the fate of the country speaks volumes. It was clear that if Sanders was the candidate, Trump would not even be on the radar, much less in a dead heat for the presidency. It is now known that the DNC (with the help of MSM) sunk Sanders. Of course, much of the Left had nothing but trash talk for Sanders. It is also now known that Sanders put his political position as a senator above the needs of the country and got in line behind Clinton rather than refusing to support her and jumping over to the Green Party ticket (which speaks clearly as to where the hearts of Stein and Baraka are). In talking and corresponding with folks on the Left, I have heard that many are not even planning to vote. This includes the authors of a number of the anti-Clinton, pro-Trump pieces. This is stunning to me and a double blow as what they are doing is purely trying to influence the votes of others. In other words, propaganda. That some of my comrades would turn their pens and efforts to propaganda to influence the votes of others, and not devote that energy to promoting real candidates for real change leaves me tremendously disillusioned about the Left and what the goal actually is. I had thought that we were aiming for a world of justice and equality, of humane treatment of all – including the planet itself, of true education and intellectual development, of support for creativity and the importance of it in a healthy society. Now I find that the apparent goal is to bring down society at any cost, and surely that cost will be high for little good arises from chaos. Rather, the most self oriented and violent responses are maximized when people feel they are fighting for survival. This is not what I have spent a life time fighting for and it is not what I will fight for now. My voting advice is as follows: Find out how the vote is running in your state. If Clinton is leading by a significant margin, vote for Stein and Baraka. If there is not that margin, then vote for Clinton. We have an electoral College- not a majority vote. That puts the electoral college members in each state as the voter for each state. Another option is vote swapping through a system like #NeverTrump . And yes, it is legal to do this. Vote for the down ballot. Vote for the most progressive candidate that has any chance of winning. Why? Because if Trump wins we will need them to help stop the slide into fascism. If Hillary Clinton wins, we need them to keep her from the the continued plans of regime change. One thing I know for sure – we have a long struggle before us to get back to the point where we can embrace the diversity and richness of our culture, and to fully address the structured inequality that is robbing us of lives and potential every day. We were obviously NOT there before this election process, and we will be a damn sight further away from it afterwards. When hate becomes socially acceptable, we are all damaged, and lessened, and all life is cheapened. Is this the person you want for President of the United State? Would you trust him with your life? Meet Donald Trump ad from Rowan Wolf on Vimeo . This video is an ad from the Clinton campaign. However, it is Trump making his own statements. Rowan Wolf, PhD Is Managing Editor of The Greanville Post and Director of The Russian Desk. She is a sociologist, writer and activist with life long engagement in social justice, peace, environmental, and animal rights movements. Her research and writing includes issues of imperialism, oppression, global capitalism, peak resources, global warming, and environmental degradation. Rowan taught sociology for twenty-two years, was a member of the City of Portland’s Peak Oil Task Force, and maintains her own site Uncommon Thought Journal . She may be reached by email at rowanwolf@greanvillepost.com =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. [email-subscribers namefield=”YES” desc=”” group=”Public”]

Anonymous To Release The 33000 Deleted Hillary E-Mails Starting November 1st

« Previous - Next » Anonymous To Release The 33000 Deleted Hillary E-Mails Starting November 1st The Internet hacking collective Anonymous are said to be behind the enormous hack of emails relating to the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. While it has been claimed in the mainstream media that hackers from within Russia were responsible for the hack, Anonymous have declared that these suspicions are complete without merit. A source from within the group has allegedly provided proof that Anonymous are in possession of the thirty-three thousand deleted emails. It has also been said that they intend to release all of them. It has been claimed that the choice to release emails that would force the FBI to open a serious criminal investigation was a deliberate tactic on the part of hackers involved with the shadowy cyber-network. It is believed that the emails relate to the disgraced former politician Anthony Weiner and his sexual propositioning of an underage girl. The nature of Weiner’s crime adds credence to the claims that Anonymous are behind the hack as they have a strong track record in aggressively exposing the crimes of sex offenders. The source has claimed that the revelations will not end with Weiner. In the week leading up to the highly contentious presidential election, more emails will be released in batches, each containing sensational details supposedly relating to the criminal activity of those within Clinton’s inner circle. A sneak preview of the revelations that are to suggest that they are potential ground breaking in nature. Apparently, the group has access to documents which attest to serious criminal activities including bribes and threats to both election officials and members of the media. Sources within Anonymous have claimed that these documents will certainly lead to criminal charges being leveled against further individuals within the Democratic Party . The group has also given a tantalizing hint about the relationship between the Clinton Foundation, the White House and the Middle Eastern country of Qatar. It is alleged that the emails will show that the Clinton Foundation made a transfer of $1.8 billion to the incredibly wealthy country. There are also allusions to a palace being built there for a ‘high-ranking White House official.' As the group has also claimed that the sitting president Barrack Obama will feature heavily in the upcoming emails, it has been speculated as to whether the president himself is this ‘high ranking White House official.' This article (Anonymous To Release The 33000 Deleted Hillary E-Mails Starting November 1st) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with full attribution and a link to the original source on Disclose.tv Related Articles

Washington’s meddling in foreign elections

Jacob Hornberger

Washington’s meddling in foreign elections By Jacob Hornberger Posted on November 7, 2016 by Jacob Hornberger As U.S. officials continue to accuse Russia of meddling with the U.S. presidential election, an accusation that they have provided no evidence whatsoever to support, let’s review some of the U.S. government’s history of meddling with elections in others countries. 1. In 1951, the democratically elected parliament of Iran elected a man named Mohammad Mossadegh to be Iran’s prime minister. Mossadegh angered British Empire officials by nationalizing British oil interests in the country. British officials then turned to the CIA for assistance. In 1953, the CIA secretly fomented a violent coup in Iran, which succeeded in ousting Mossadegh from power and making the Shah of Iran the supreme unelected dictator of the country. To fortify the Shah’s dictatorial hold on power, the CIA helped organize and train his domestic police force, the Savak, which was essentially a combination of the CIA, the NSA, and the military. Part of the CIA’s training involved teaching Savak agents the art of torture. For the next 26 years, the Iranian people suffered under one of the most brutal and tyrannical dictatorships in the world, one that U.S. officials fully supported and called an ally and friend of the United States. In 1979, Iranians successfully revolted against the Shah’s regime and ousted him from power. One result was not a restoration of the democratic system that had elected Mossadegh but rather another brutal dictatorship, this time a religious one. Another result is the bad relations between the Iran and U.S. governments that continue to exist today. 2. In 1951, the Guatemalan people democratically elected a man named Jacobo Arbenz to be their president. Arbenz, however, was not satisfactory to U.S. officials, especially the national-security branch of the government, specifically the Pentagon and the CIA. The reason that U.S. officials opposed Arbenz was that he was a socialist, and U.S. officials considered a socialist president of Guatemala to be a threat to “national security” here in the United States. In 1954—one year after the coup in Iran, the CIA fomented a violent military coup that succeeded in removing Arbenz from power and replacing him with one of the most brutal unelected military dictators in Latin American history, a man named Carlos Castillo Armas. The CIA had a kill list prepared for the coup, which Arbenz was able to escape by fleeing the country before Castillo was able to get him. The CIA’s destruction of Guatemala’s democratic system threw the nation into a 30-year civil war that ended up killing millions of Guatemalan people, especially many of the poor. 3. In 1960 a man named Patrice Lumumba was elected Congo’s first prime minister after independence from Belgium. Lumumba spoke out against Western imperialism and refused to take sides in the Cold War, which caused the CIA to conclude that he was a threat to “national security.” The CIA orchestrated the assassination of Lumumba, which ended up taking place on January 17, 1961, just three days before President Kennedy, who liked Lumumba and who would have ordered the CIA to stand down, was to be sworn into office. 4. In 1970 a man named Salvador Allende received a plurality of votes in the presidential election in Chile. Pursuant to the Chilean constitution, the election was thrown into the national congress. President Richard Nixon, his national-security team, the Pentagon, and the CIA concluded that because Allende believed in communism and socialism, he posed a grave threat to “national security” here in the United States. The CIA attempted to bribe members of the congress to vote against Allende. It also orchestrated the kidnapping of the head of Chile’s armed forces, Gen Rene Schneider, who opposed a U.S. military coup in his country, especially since a coup would violate the country’s constitution. The kidnapping attempt on Schneider left him dead. The CIA then fomented a coup that took place on 9/11 1973 that violently ousted Allende from power and left him dead. Replacing him was army Gen. Augusto Pinochet, one of the most brutal unelected military dictators in history. By the time Pinochet’s 17-year reign of military terror came to an end in 1990, he and his CIA-supported goons had incarcerated, raped, tortured, or killed tens of thousands of innocent people—that is, people whose only “crime” was believing in socialism—with the full support of the CIA, Pentagon, Nixon, and his “national security” team. Of course, there are also the more recent support of regime-change operations that ousted democratically elected presidents that the U.S. government disapproved of, such as in Ukraine and Egypt. And then there is the long list of countries where unelected dictators were targeted for regime change by the U.S. national security state and, where successful, replaced with a brutal unelected pro-U.S. dictator. Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, and Syria all come to mind. U.S. officials need to keep in mind that when they point their accusatory index finger at Russia for supposedly meddling in the U.S. presidential election, U.S. officials have, at the same time, three fingers pointing back at themselves. This work by MWC News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License . Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

Donald Trump Reacts to Egypt Ramadan Terror: ‘The Bloodletting of Christians Must End’ - Breitbart

Charlie Spiering

President Donald Trump strongly condemned Friday’s terrorist attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt during the first day of Ramadan. [“This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls,” he said, after terrorists shot at a bus, killing at least 28 people. Trump again criticized the “depraved, twisted, and thuggish ideology” of terrorists, promising to fight on eliminating them from the world. “The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished,” he said. Trump vowed that America would help defend historic Christian communities in the Middle East. “Civilization is at a precipice — and whether we climb or fall will be decided by our ability to join together to protect all faiths, all religions, and all innocent life,” he said. Earlier today, President also responded to the attack. “I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task,” he said.

TERROR THREAT WARNING MONDAY | RedFlag News

CBS NEWS NEW YORK -- CBS News has learned about a potential terror threat for the day before the election. Sources told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton that U.S. intelligence has alerted joint terrorism task forces that al Qaeda could be planning attacks in three states for Monday. It is believed New York, Texas and Virginia are all possible targets, though no specific locations are mentioned. U.S. authorities are taking the threat seriously, though the sources stress the intelligence is still being assessed and its credibility hasn’t been confirmed. Counterterrorism officials were alerted to the threat out of abundance of caution. A senior FBI official told CBS News, “The counterterrorism and homeland security communities remain vigilant and well-postured to defend against attacks here in the United States. The FBI, working with our federal, state and local counterparts, shares and assesses intelligence on a daily basis and will continue to work closely with law enforcement and intelligence community partners to identify and disrupt any potential threat to public safety.” Intelligence about potential threats always increases during holiday seasons and when big events are approaching. As Election Day nears, federal law enforcement is planning for several worst-case scenarios. Earlier this week, an alert warned local police of “polling places” being seen as “attractive targets” for “lone wolf”-type attacks by individuals motivated by violent extremist ideologies, sovereign citizen or other extremist activity.

Germany Bans Cultivation of GM Crops Under EU Opt-Out Law

Christina Sarich

The Netherlands Poland Germany’s GM ban is significant considering that biotech industry representatives have been trying to keep their stranglehold on the genetically modified crop market in the country. The news will likely not be taken well by DuPont Pioneer and Dow Chemical, who have been waiting for an EU executive permit for GMO cultivation in Germany and other EU countries for nearly 15 years. Likewise, Monsanto has criticized other member states for using their ‘opt-out’ vote to ban GMOs from their countries, stating that their decisions “contradict science.” It was just over six years ago that another EU country, Hungary, strongly enforced their GM ban by destroying 1,000 acres of GM maize that had been found growing illegally. The Hungarians were the very first to take a forceful position in the European Union in relation to the use of transgenic seeds. Germany’s GMO ban is doubly important due to the planned merger between the Germany-based Bayer, and U.S.-based Monsanto. With ChemChina-Syngenta and DuPont-Dow Chemical forming their own multi-billion-dollar mergers, consumers and farmers still have a way to refuse genetically modified crops as they are increasingly incorporated into international treaties and trade agreements. As agricultural companies continue to consolidate , becoming larger and larger entities with greater capacity to lobby governments in their favor of monopolizing seed markets, the German opt-out sends a clear message to the makers of these seeds. They can grow bloated and powerful but in the end, the people will decide what they eat . Bill and Melinda Gates try to convince an EU country to embrace GMOs:

Men Are Binded By Their Shared Realization Of Truth

André du Pôle

Men Are Binded By Their Shared Realization Of Truth Men Are Binded By Their Shared Realization Of Truth André is a young European who left his decaying country in 2012 for greener pastures. He enjoys exploring subterranean places, reading about a host of interconnected topics, and yearns for Tradition. November 18, 2016 Politics The 9 th of November 2016 was a great day. We will remember it as well as our parents remember the first moon landing in July 1969 or the fall of the Berlin wall. Liberal mainstream media—almost a pleonasm—are either stunned or agitating. Some of these crybullies clamour to themselves how “fearful” they are, lament on the “destruction of the West”—a curious expression as it seldom appears under leftist pens—or have difficulties to acknowledge that the man they have despised and defamed every day for months will be the 45 th President of the United States. Outside the US, The Donald’s victory is creating waves, too. So many liberals allegedly connected to the Canadian Immigration website to crash it. In France, the bourgeois bohemians who work in the media, academia and everything that constitutes the big left establishment do the same posturing than their American counterparts, whereas the petits blancs (impoverished, disenfranchised whites) and local “righters” rejoice. In Brazil, where your humble servant lives, the official media is making some tedious comments that deliver a flabby criticism. Local leftist talking heads condemn the “ white protestants ” and reality shows in a very cliché posturing that mixes anti-white prejudice with a critique of capitalism, whereas some new traditionalists, among whom some have been avid readers and makers of Alt-Right content, are grateful . This is our victory. Feels good, man A pro-Pepe Facebook group has had a substantive discussion about where a red-pilled foreigner considering moving to the US after the Donald won should go. To make a long story short, some have advised potential newcomers to go live in the Midwest, in Texas as long as one stays away from Houston or Dallas, in Wyoming for the gun rights, in Pennsylvania excluding Philadelphia and the urban areas, close to the Appalachian mountains if one enjoys outdoors, while staying away from Illinois. Most of those who participated were whites, but I have spotted some Latino and Arab names. Some made jokes on these names but no fuss. And here the following question arises. What defines us? Liberals have been shrieking about “xenophobia” or “racism” all the time. Yet, strictly national boundaries are much less relevant than before, even for us , even when we all rejoiced about Trump’s promise to make a wall. All over the world we are rejoicing around the GOP candidate’s victory. American “Trumpists” undoubtedly feel closer to non-Americans who have been dissenting from the NWO on the Internet and wanted the Donald to pass than to American libtards. A lot of us are OK with having non-whites around: we don’t pander to arrogant, aggressive anti-whites, but that does not mean we would have to be “racists” as the liberal caricature wants us to be. To cut in more personally, I know of no genuine red-pilled or Alt-Righter who would have rejected me as a frog, although I remember some stars and stripes cucks blaming me for daring to speak about American politics without owning a US passport. The frog is green after all So, once again, what defines us? Why are we a “we”? Race plays a role for sure. We struggle to keep the white people from getting dissolved into the acid bath of wide-scale miscegenation and dispossession. We want a right to solidarity based at least partly on race, i.e. on lineage and identity, just like all the pseudo-minority groups out there. We fight the double standard that allows them to be communitarian, tribalistic, nepotistic, without being ever responsible of what they do, whereas we are supposed to keep our heads down and be taught everything by liberal social engineers in a world where we would have no freedom, no future, no dignity. But even then, there have been Blacks, Latinos , and many women who participated into bringing The Donald to the White House. I have a race-mixed friend who supported Trump all along. This is not to say “I’m not a racist!,” afraid cuckservative-style, but to show there are some and we know it firsthand. It is no mystery why most of us are white: we are united around a civilization that was primarily built by people of European descent. But there is more, too. And this “more” that, I think, defines and binds us; this “more” is shared awareness . On the periphery of the System centers, we managed to grow and gather We are all aware, broadly speaking, of the same phenomena and trends. We have witnessed the break-up of families and harmonious relationships between men and women. We have been faced with the untold prohibition to make the least critic of feminism, “minority groups” aggressive identitarianism, and with the pervasive omnipresence of these leftist norms commonly referred to as political correctness. We have seen neoliberalism allowing a handful of careless, irresponsible assholes sending the jobs overseas, importing third-world immigration, then force us into a life of chronic unemployment or endless struggles against other low-wage individuals for a small place under the sun. We saw how conservatism was a sham that never faced the genuine problems. We witnessed societies crumble, conflictual “minoritarian” group identities being crafted by the likes of Soros, and the meritorious worker or professional—whatever his race—getting exploited to the benefit of the lower and upper parasites. We saw the liberal establishment using various social categories like pawns to create horizontal struggles and depopulation . Of course, some disagreements can be found on this or that particular issue, but we all see the same devastated landscape in lieu of the brilliant civilization the West once was. And here is the major fault line. The leftists deny or value —they often go from the former to the latter—the replacement of native European population, the aggressive and tribalistic stance of “minority groups” towards the silent majority, the forced inclusion of individuals into sick identity politics games, the perpetual hostility and institutionalized prejudice against whites and males… Either the leftists utterly deny what we are aware of, for example when they say that whites are not under replacement, or they demonize it as a remnant of some “privilege” or “prejudice.” All their talk about “oppressed minorities” dissimulates the very real disenfranchisement of the white majority, of non-white meritorious and integrated Westerners, and serves to deny us from our rights to public empathy, to dignity, or to even basically survive in a world of our own. They work on language and representations because their job consists in manipulating these, thus brainwashing us into seeing the world through their lenses and denying the legitimacy of any other vision. The importance of shared awareness explains why we united on the Internet. A lot of us were closet nationalists years ago, and still are. We could not, and often still cannot, be nationalists in public, or we would have been excluded from normal social life by the local leftists and cowards. Leftist hegemony was and is still real in the mainstream. You know hegemony when you see it and spend countless hours thinking about how you can thrive even when living under it. In the mid-2000, I found out about the information website Fdesouche (“Native French”) quote. By the standards of today, this news aggregator seems hardly interesting: it mostly collates pieces written by others. But then, it was fantastic. Here I could recognize what I already felt about the world—that something was wrong with all these non-whites thugs holding the streets and getting lavish promotion when they bragged about it. It was all concentrated before my eyes, and others were talking about what they went through daily as well. At least, others felt and saw the same as I did! I was not crazy, not bound to a life of unauthenticity or forlorn solitude among the almighty left. We were assembling. And we were on the Internet. “Fdesouche.com—The website they want to keep you from visiting” As most of us found ourselves under attack from non-native Frenchmen, and knowing intuitively that identity goes deeper than the fleeting winds today called culture, we often despised immigration in general. But eventually things changed, thanks to Alain Soral , mostly, who emphasized how racial struggle was leading to sterile battles among disenfranchised people while letting the truly powerful off the hook. Mathias Cardet, a black journalist who worked with Soral, showed how gangsta-rap culture was injected and nurtured among non-whites by powerful interests. After all, one can be black or Arab and wanting to live in peace as a free individual, not as an identity politics pawn who spends his life attacking another social category. Being pro-white, pro-masculinity and pro-tradition does not require being white: I often felt closer from Muslims with good intentions, i.e. Muslims who were genuine believers and not rancorous people using Islam as a mask for anti-white tribalism, than from white liberals. The Muslims would not share my blood, but they would share some of my awareness and yearning for Tradition, two things that white liberals eagerly reject. “Faith front, warriors’ alliance against common foes” The Internet is immaterial. It is, basically, a network where information flows. Awareness, and the will to spread it, are immaterial as well. This is why we could meet and act on the Internet. After all, the Alt Right and manosphere have been sharing ideas, media contents, memes, advises—and only later proceeded to meetups, panicking the totalitarian liberals in the process. Trump’s victory is a major one. Regardless of what The Donald will actually do, it is an event of considerable historical magnitude. But it is only the beginning—make no mistake about that. The libtards’ establishment still holds loads of money, of institutions, of cultural territory. It has started to crumble and leak , yet it is still there. Major battles are waiting ahead. We have to further our awareness, make thorough research on every aspect of leftism, and develop more proper cultural references. Always remember the libtards never cared one second about us. They would have let us die off, alone, poor, childless, traumatized and demonized, had we not chosen to follow the path of the red pill. America is a first-tier power, but it is still a battlefield among others. Wherever we are, it is time to thicken our mutual relationships and cooperate more closely. It is a battle, not between nationals and foreigners, but between workers and parasites, between those who feel the void and wrongness in the rotten core of postmodernity and those who dwell in the last liberal trend, between the realists who want freedom and responsibility in a healthy world of values and cultures against those who ravel in blue pill, media bullshit, complacency, parasitism and cucking for the empire of nothing. We are the future. It doesn’t matter where we are. We are those with true awareness, those with genuine and healthy values, those who struggled to hone their abilities, and most importantly those who actually deserve to inherit the Western world. So, save it and conquer it, country after country, institution after institution, outlet after outlet—or there will be nothing left.

The Top Political Tweets and Hashtags of 2016 - The New York Times

Daniel Victor

Twitter announced on Tuesday the year’s biggest trending topics and most widely shared tweets in news and politics, and while the election loomed large, several of the most popular discussions were focused on matters of identity and safety. Race relations were at the top of people’s minds, with #BlackLivesMatter the popular subject. Alton Sterling, a black man fatally shot by the police in Baton Rouge, La. was also in the top 10. #InternationalWomensDay gathered discussion about gender in March, while #LoveIsLove — a declaration associated with equal rights for gay people that Barack Obama used as Americans held pride parades — was popular in June. Twitter users publicly mourned attacks with #PrayForOrlando and #PrayForNice, while discussion of Brexit, a coup attempt in Turkey and the Panama Papers also made the top 10. But #Election2016 was the leading discussion of the year and the subject of most of the most widely shared political tweets of the year. The most popular political tweet was a quote from Hillary Clinton’s concession speech on Nov. 9. Ms. Clinton’s tweet was the popular tweet of the year in any subject, falling behind one by a Spanish video gamer and one from Harry Styles quoting Taylor Swift. And you thought the American election was the most interesting thing that happened this year. The political tweet might require some explanation. During the campaign, Donald J. Trump posted a criticism of President Obama’s endorsement of Mrs. Clinton. In response, she (or, more likely, her staff) latched on to a common Twitter retort. If you’re still confused, we explained the meme more fully here. Other tweets on the list were more straightforward, such as Mr. Trump’s Election Day declaration, a kind word from a vice president to his pal and an actor responding in despair to the election results. This one came from an everyday user who struck a nerve with a Google search for the name of the current president. Although Mr. Obama sent the tweet below four years ago to celebrate his it got more than 236, 000 retweets in 2016, Twitter said. That was slightly more retweets than Mr. Trump got this year on an tweet after winning the election. Last on the list was a tweet that found resonance among Mr. Trump’s opponents.

Aleppo, Donald Trump, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation: Your Monday Briefing - The New York Times

Charles McDermid

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • Donald J. Trump is continuing to build his cabinet. Members of his transition effort’s economic and domestic policy teams are expected to begin meeting with agency officials today. He has hinted strongly that James N. Mattis, a retired general who helped lead the 2003 invasion of Iraq, will be defense secretary. Here are the latest transition details. _____ • Mr. Trump’s meetings with business leaders since his election, including three Indian real estate executives last week, have raised questions over his conflicts of interests. The Indian business partners are building Trump Towers Pune, a luxury apartment complex south of Mumbai. _____ • Mr. Trump used Twitter to rail at his satirists and critics in the entertainment industry. But Vice Mike Pence said he was not offended when the cast of the Broadway smash “Hamilton” appealed to him from the stage to uphold the rights of a “diverse America. ” Above, Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence attended church on Sunday. Our theater critic argues that airing dissent is part of the purpose of art. _____ • World leaders are discussing trade and the incoming administration of Mr. Trump at the annual Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Lima, Peru. The death of the Trade Partnership is a triumph for China, which is embracing the possibility of an trade deal that could include Russia. On the meeting’s sidelines, President Obama spoke with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, about Syria, where the last few hospitals in the area of Aleppo have been forced to stop providing care.. _____ • South Korea’s political crisis escalated sharply after prosecutors named President Park a “criminal suspect,” saying she acted as an accomplice to her longtime adviser in extorting tens of millions of dollars. Ms. Park is rejecting rivals’ calls to step down or be impeached, while supporters, including a former prime minister, are denouncing the case as a “witch hunt. ” _____ • Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, widely seen as one of the last pillars of Western liberalism, will run for a fourth term. Ms. Merkel, 62, faces strong challenges on the right and left, under the stresses of war in Syria, the arrival of large numbers of migrants and the euro crisis. _____ • The execution of an impoverished farmer, above, for the murder of a village chief has infuriated many ordinary Chinese. The perception that it as yet another harsh punishment meted out to the poorest and weakest members of society is undermining President Xi Jinping’s efforts to restore confidence in the courts. • India’s economy is in chaos, as citizens scramble to spend, save or launder their “black money,” stashes of cash that are mostly in the large denominations Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned. • John Paulson, a hedge fund billionaire who has advised Mr. Trump, has taken an investment stake in Didi Chuxing, the Chinese company that has backing from Alibaba Group and Apple. • The durian season is here, a month early. • Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • More than 100 people died in the derailment of India’s Express train, one of the country’s worst train accidents in years. [The New York Times] • A leader of Malaysia’s reform movement, Maria Chin Abdullah, has become the first person to be detained under the country’s controversial new security law, under which she can be held for up to 28 days without trial. [Straits Times] • Tens of thousands of people joined weekend protests organized by Ms. Abdullah’s group, Bersih, to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak. [The New York Times] • President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines continued his harsh criticism of Western powers in his first meeting with his acknowledged hero, Vladimir V. Putin. [Al Jazeera English] • An annual conference in Washington gathered many white nationalists of the movement. They celebrated Mr. Trump’s election as elevating their fight to preserve white culture. [The New York Times] • In China, a retired music professor is being groomed to be the country’s Trump impersonator. [The New York Times] • The gangs that make El Salvador the murder capital of the world are not sophisticated global cartels but mafias of the poor. [The New York Times] • The political climate in Taiwan has never been more favorable for efforts to legalize marriage. [The New York Times] • Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji Fish Market is still in operation despite being, in the words of the former official who planned to move it, “too old, too small, too dirty and too dangerous. ” [South China Morning Post] • Our Daily 360: Goat yoga is a thing. More than 600 people signed up to a waiting list before the first classes in near Portland, Ore. even started. • A stunning finish to the Macau Grand Prix: A Belgian driver, Laurens Vanthoor, emerged unscathed from a fiery, soaring wreck to find he had won the race upside down. • The Times asked 15 American families to show us the Thanksgiving holiday dishes that speak most eloquently about their heritage and traditions. Among them: Filipino bibingka, Dudhi kofta curry and Cantonese turkey. Let’s start the week traveling the world using sports team nicknames as our passport. The N. F. L. ’s Detroit Lions will continue their long tradition of playing on Thanksgiving. Regal cats aren’t native to the Motor City, but the name was meant to inspire the team to be “the monarch of the league. ” Dreams that the Midwest might one day be tropical may have inspired the team’s use of the Honolulu Blue shade for its jerseys. A more fitting nod to weather can be found at the University of Hawaii, where the teams are sometimes called the Rainbow Warriors. The colorful phenomenon supposedly appeared after a big football victory in 1923. Battle imagery is also a popular and the names aren’t always menacing. The Fighters honor the meatpacking company that owns the Japanese baseball club. In West Africa, Elephants (Ivory Coast) Sparrowhawks (Togo) and Squirrels (Benin) are some of the nicknames that have been used to represent national soccer teams. Back in Asia, Bhutan’s underdog squad has a fearsome moniker: the Dragon Boys. The mythical beast also appears on the national jersey for Wales. As for whales, they’re rarely used in sports. But 100 years ago a baseball team called itself the Whales. Their home, like lions in Detroit, was also unlikely: Chicago. Sean Alfano 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 asiabriefing@nytimes. com.

The Best Sandwich Ever - The New York Times

Sam Sifton

“Your Top 5 favorite sandwiches, in order, please. Go. ” This is a game I play in the car with my children, as if we were characters in a Nick Hornby novel. It’s a diversion to make long travel more bearable. We play it all the time. The children rush to judgment, and as is true for most of us, their answers change along with their tastes. But of late: grilled cheese on white, with tomato soup the B. L. T. from a store in Maine near their uncle’s house, on thick country bread ham and Brie with mustard on baguette a meatball sub from a local deli and — does a hamburger count? (It does not.) Dad’s turn. I count in reverse order: that B. L. T. yes, perhaps with avocado turkey with Swiss, coleslaw and Russian dressing on a kaiser roll peanut butter and gochujang (the Korean paste) on sesame toast a Reuben, on rye of course, with pastrami, Swiss, sauerkraut, more of that Russian. I know a guy who makes those as if he were building violins for Pinchas Zukerman. I pause before the No. 1 slot, as if reflecting I enjoy giving this answer. My most favorite sandwich is fried eggplant, mozzarella and roast beef on an Italian hero, with hot peppers and a slash of mayonnaise. You can find that sandwich at Defonte’s Sandwich Shop, on Columbia Street in Brooklyn, near the exit to the Hugh Carey Tunnel that leads from Red Hook to the Battery in Manhattan. It is a beautiful torpedo of food — crunchy, silken, sweet and spicy all at once. But be careful. It is huge and outrageously rich. If you consume it all at once, it can be the sort of sandwich to lay out the afternoon in stages of grief. Often I omit the roast beef from my order and tell myself I’ll eat only half. I always eat the whole thing and hate myself through my untouched dinner later in the day. Recently, in a fit of ambition, I set out to make the thing at home, both the fried eggplant and the ratio of the ingredients to make it a sandwich, the sort of meal that offers satisfaction without hurting anyone, that delivers deliciousness at a lower cost to the body that consumes it. It is still a colossal feed. It is still the best sandwich. To start, fry the eggplant. You can do this up to a day or two ahead of time. I use small Italian eggplants, eight to 10 inches in length, with dark, shiny skins, firm to the touch. You can leave the skins on, or you can peel them, as do some masters of the game, including the Franks Castronovo and Falcinelli, of the Frankies Spuntinos restaurants in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Then I cut the eggplants into thin planks and salt them awhile, not so much because they’re bitter but because the salt draws moisture from the flesh, collapsing its cell structure and reducing the amount of oil the eggplant picks up when it cooks. Blot them well with paper towels to remove the liquid and the excess salt, and you will be good to go. The frying is serial: A first run through hot olive oil cooks the eggplant and lightly browns it a second, after the cooked eggplant has been dipped in a wash of egg and Parmesan cheese, gives it a slightly puffed crust, browned in spots, salty and oily in the best possible way. (Some old recipes for fried eggplant call for a dip in bread crumbs following the egg, but I think this is overkill.) Let the eggplant drain a little, and the planks will keep, lightly covered, for a few hours on the countertop or for a few days in the fridge. They’re best at room temperature. The rest of the sandwich is shopping: Italian hero rolls, or loaves of Italian bread, as well as fresh mozzarella (though I’ve had good results even with the stuff from the supermarket just be sure to allow it to come to room temperature before assembling your meal). And while you can certainly make the roast beef yourself, let’s not overcomplicate things you’ve already fried eggplant. (Vegetarians can avoid the roast beef.) Lastly, you’ll need pickled Italian hot cherry peppers, which you can slice into rounds and apply as desired. The mayonnaise is my preference. I know some people hate it. In sandwich making, form always follows function. So wherever you come down on the question of mayonnaise, follow your decision with a small stack of fried eggplant on the sandwich’s bottom, followed by another of sliced mozzarella and another of roast beef, then top the whole with the cherry peppers. The eggplant protects the bottom of the sandwich from the moisture of the cheese, while the top absorbs the acidity and fire of the peppers. Fold the mass together, and you’ve got the best sandwich there is. For today, at least. Recipe: The Best Sandwich

Gunfire and Panicked Calls on Police Log of Orlando Shooting - The New York Times

Richard Pérez-Peña and Frances Robles

It took just 16 minutes. Emergency calls from inside the Pulse nightclub poured into the Orlando police in the early morning of June 12 from panicked and wounded revelers reporting the bloody scene as it played out. Dispatchers noted that they, too, could hear gunshots in the background, according to a police log that was among hundreds of pages of documents about the massacre released by the city on Tuesday. The incident log gives a staccato narration, based on entries made in real time and down to the minute and the second — the most detailed account yet of what happened after Omar Mateen, 29, armed with an assault rifle and a handgun, walked into a bustling club with a mostly gay and Latino clientele and opened fire. It shows the confusion as police officials tried to figure out what was happening, the horror of some victims reporting on their own gunshot wounds, and the abject fear of dozens of people trapped in pockets throughout the club, whispering into their phones, pleading for rescue, and hoping that the gunman would not come for them next. Other documents released on Tuesday raised questions about whether one of Pulse’s exits might have been blocked. At the end of a standoff, for which some have criticized the police’s delayed response, 49 people had been killed and 53 wounded. But nearly all the slaughter took place in just those first 16 minutes. The first report of shots fired came just before 2:03 a. m. and that awful message was repeated no fewer than 30 times, as caller after caller described the massacre, sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish, and sometimes just by picking up the horror in the background on their cellphones. Often, the entries say simply, “Still shooting,” or that people could be heard screaming. At one point, a dispatcher noted having “open line hearing gunshots. ” The gunfire paused for 30 seconds or so, until at 2:08 a. m. the first police officers on the scene attempted to enter the building and engaged in a shootout with Mr. Mateen, who then retreated to a bathroom where people were hiding. Just before 2:19 a. m. about the time the city’s SWAT team was called out, the shooting stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and the killer hunkered down for almost three hours with his hostages. But while the barrage was still underway, evidence of the grim toll began rolling in, noted by dispatchers in entries sprinkled with abbreviations like “c” for caller and “cadv” for “caller advises. ” “Multiple down. ” “Someone is screaming Im shot. ” “My caller is no longer responding, just an open line with moaning. ” “C is shot in the stomach. ” “C is shot in the leg and knee. ” “Cadv his friend (redacted) has been shot in the chest. ” “Cadv sister has been shot twice. ” “Cadv vic is losing a lot of blood. ” “Cadv vic is no longer responding to him. ” Hours after the shooting, the city’s fire marshal, Tammy Hughes, sent a text message to the fire chief, Roderick Williams, saying that a code enforcement official “showed me a picture where the club owner had blocked the exit with a coke machine. ” Fire Department officials said Tuesday that the photo was taken on the day of the shooting, but that no exits had been blocked. A lawyer for the club, Gus R. Benitez, also insisted that all public exits had been clear. Ms. Hughes and Mr. Williams also traded emails on the day of the shooting about a May 27 inspection showing that “an exit was blocked. ” But on Tuesday, officials refuted information contained in city records and said that there had been no blocked exit doors and that the only infractions were minor, nothing more serious than a nonworking light bulb in an exit sign. Ms. Hughes wrote on June 12 that the Fire Department had planned another inspection to make sure the problem was corrected, but it had not yet taken place at the time of the shooting. During the nightclub siege, officers went into Pulse several times to bring out stranded survivors, while callers reported that they were still hiding or trapped in various bathrooms, an attic, an office, a dressing room. The incident log shows that they called repeatedly to report casualties and gunfire, warn that their phone batteries were dying, and express their dread at sounds indicating that the gunman may have been approaching. Some even called from the bathroom where the gunman was holed up to tell police what he had said and what he looked like. “Subj in restroom whispering please help,” a dispatcher wrote. A few times, callers went silent or their calls went dead, leaving dispatchers no way of knowing if they were still alive. At 2:35 a. m. Mr. Mateen called 911 himself to claim responsibility for the attack, and declared allegiance to the Islamic State, the F. B. I. has said. The incident logs show the police trying to pin down the number and location of people still trapped inside Pulse, figure out which bathroom the gunman was in, and determine how serious a threat they were facing. Near the beginning, a caller reported (correctly) that the gunman had an assault rifle, while another reported (incorrectly) that there might be multiple shooters. At 2:51 a. m. when Mr. Mateen was on the phone with a police negotiator, the F. B. I. has said, word came that took the potential danger to another level: “Shooter saying poss explosives in the parking lot,” and a few minutes later in the same call, “Subj is saying that he is a terrorist and has several bombs strapped to him in the downstairs female restroom. ” In addition to the gunman’s own statements, several entries show the people trapped inside confirming that he appeared to have bombs, which turned out to be untrue. At 4:21 a. m. the police rescued the people in a dressing room by pulling an unit out of an exterior wall, and some of those people warned that the gunman planned to strap explosive vests to four hostages. It was that information, officials said, that had persuaded them to make the final assault on the club, using explosives and an armored vehicle to punch through a wall. “SWAT breached,” the log says at 5:02 a. m. At 5:15, as the officers traded gunfire with Mr. Mateen, it notes, “Shots fired north bathroom,” and less than a minute later, “Subj down. ” An entry just before 5:18 a. m. using a police term for armed, states, “Bad guy down strapped. ”

Grandiose Ideas for Donald Trump Inaugural Give Way to Traditional - The New York Times

Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Fandos

Donald J. Trump kicked around ideas for his inauguration in his office at Trump Tower on Tuesday with two of his oldest friends, Mark Burnett and Thomas Barrack Jr. The ideas spilled out from Mr. Burnett, a showman best known for producing “The Apprentice”: a parade up Fifth Avenue, a helicopter ride to Washington from New York that could hold the attention of millions of people expected to watch from around the world. Mr. Trump recalled the conversation Wednesday morning to an audience of donors, lobbyists and supporters at Cipriani 42nd Street during a to help support his transition operation. The details offered a brief glimmer of a sprawling inauguration, full of the kind of showmanship for which Mr. Trump is famous, that could shake up what has become a relatively predictable affair for recent presidents. According to some of the people overseeing the events surrounding Mr. Trump’s as the 45th president, they also bore little resemblance to reality. In fact, they said, Mr. Trump’s celebration would be a relatively subdued affair — marked by Mr. Trump’s own touches, to be sure, but in the mold of past affairs. “It’s going the opposite way,” Mr. Barrack, the private equity investor who is leading the presidential inaugural committee, said in an interview. “The wants this to be simple. He wants this to be about the people. ” “It’s not about putting on the most expensive talent and spending that kind of money to ingratiate himself,” Mr. Barrack added. In many ways, the discussion between the three men in Mr. Trump’s office tower encapsulates the dueling impulses of the a man who enjoys being at the center of attention, but who is also aware that he was elected on a strong populist message of “draining the swamp” of Washington cronyism and extravagance. In reality, Mr. Trump’s festivities are constrained by security concerns surrounding the modern presidency, making some gaudier displays impossible and other ones unrealistic. Each event under consideration must be vetted by the overlapping agencies responsible for securing the transfer of power, including the Secret Service, responsible for a president’s security, and the National Park Service, which controls the Mall in Washington. “You have five gigantic security groups that dictate what can and can’t be done,” Mr. Barrack said. For example, Mr. Barrack said that hopes to open the White House to visitors, as Andrew Jackson did during his 1829 “People’s Inauguration” (and as other presidents did afterward) had simply proven unrealistic. “Unfortunately, security concerns are different than they were in 1829,” he said. Despite the modest nature of the events under consideration, Mr. Barrack said Mr. Burnett was actively involved in producing the inauguration week festivities. He will have a large team to work with, as the committee’s staff in Washington is expected to swell to more than 300 people by Inauguration Day. “Mark is a genius, and the loves him,” Mr. Barrack said. Referring to the Tuesday meeting, he said, “This was about throwing stuff out if you are thinking in the frame of mind of what a global audience would see. ” A schedule of inaugural festivities is expected to be completed by Monday. But after the committee rolled out a series of donor packages last week aimed at enticing wealthy contributors and corporations to open their checkbooks, a rough outline of the week has begun to emerge. It will include an opening “victory reception” for donors, as well as a series of more personal events with the incoming first family, Vice Mike Pence and members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet. Donors will be invited to candlelight dinners on the eve of the inauguration, and some will be able to attend one of two official balls planned for inauguration night. Whatever Mr. Trump and the committee ultimately decide, there likely will be plenty of resources at their disposal. Mr. Trump’s team has already secured roughly $50 million in pledged donations since it began soliciting money in earnest last week, according to two people involved in the effort. The early success puts Mr. Trump in line to easily surpass President Obama’s 2009 inauguration, when his finance team raised a record $53 million to pay for the festivities. He should also easily meet or surpass the $65 million to $75 million goal set by the committee. The event at Cipriani on Wednesday was a affair, featuring some donors who had vehemently rejected Mr. Trump’s candidacy, such as the hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, according to an attendee. Those raising money to support the inauguration said they have seen a similar pattern, securing early pledges from prominent Republican donors who did not support Mr. Trump during the campaign. Corporations, they said, have also been forthcoming. Yet, if Mr. Trump is looking forward to his presidency, he has not yet left the past behind, as was clear Wednesday morning. Another person at the said Mr. Trump delivered a kind of recollection of winning the primaries and his grim odds for the White House. Mr. Trump said that heading into Election Day, he and his wife, Melania, had planned a vacation in the expectation that they would be seeing an early night. He recalled Mr. Obama telling him privately that the president’s advisers had told him on election night, as the numbers looked grim, that North Carolina would be a firewall for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. The attendance at the spoke to Mr. Trump’s change of fortune since becoming . There were at least 850 people in the restaurant. Mr. Trump singled out those in attendance who had been part of the “Never Trump” movement, drawing a large laugh.

Murder Inc. in the White House; Obama’s Drones for Breakfast Club

Thomas C. Mountain

Murder Inc. in the White House; Obama’s Drones for Breakfast Club By Thomas C. Mountain Thomas C. Mountain Elections come and go but when “The Don,” Barack Obama, meets with his inner circle of Capos every Tuesday morning its breakfast with drones as in the Murder Incorporated assassination program. Think about it, every Tuesday morning in the White House this breakfast club decides who they are going to blow to smithereens that week, with fresh fruit and cappuccinos all around. Does Obama lie in bed on Monday nights deciding who to have assasinated the next day? You think I am joking? I went to the same school as Barack Obama, I know it torments the brother to blow away all those women and children at those village weddings but someone has to protect Pax Americana . . . right? Hear it straight from the mouth of Barack in 2012. “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was a strong suit of mine.” . The criminal absurdity of the right to kill at will without consequence when you head the most powerful military on the planet as the commander in chief seems to be completely lost on the American sheeple. As a star basketball player in high school Barry O’Bomber, as he was known, left a life of being the only black kid in an elite school of 3,000 to being amongst black Americans for the first time in his life when he left Hawaii for college on “the continent,” as it is known in the islands. Obama spent most of his childhood completely isolated from blacks, had reached early adulthood before having any black friends and then made his career out of being black. Could this explain his sociopathic behavior? I suspect “Barry,” as his white grandmother renamed him, must know about Murder Inc., the national crime syndicate headed by Lucky Luciano in the 1930s who met regularly to decide whom to kill. Mr. Luciano ended up serving life in a federal prison only to be released to set up the Italian Mafia nationally after WW2 as a part of the CIA’s forerunners plan for murder and mayhem against the Italian Communist Party to prevent them from winning the postwar Italian elections. Impunity to kill, it runs in American history and Barack Obama finds himself surprisingly good at it. Breakfast with drones, approving the hit list alongside expressos and bagels, Tuesday morning is still Murder Inc. in the Obama White House. Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist in Eritrea, living and reporting from the country since 2006. His speeches, interviews and articles can be found on Facebook at thomascmountain and he can best be reached at thomascmountain at g mail dot com. This entry was posted in Commentary . Bookmark the permalink .

High School Basketball Player Scores an Amazing 92 Points in One Game - Breitbart

Warner Todd Huston

A California high school basketball player has stunned the sports world with his amazing feat on Tuesday, when he scored a whopping 92 points in a single game. [Playing for Chino Hills High School, LaMelo Ball went on a tear with a drive to score nearly two thirds of all the points his team earned in its February 7 win over Los Osos, according to the Kansas City Star. The player’s father said LaMelo “went crazy” with a spree of baskets after having already scored 29 points by halftime. @MELOD1P drops 92!! (That’s a Ball Family record) in the @basketball_chhs win over Lososos final @latsondheimer @SGVNSports pic. twitter. — Tommy Kiss (@TomKiss64) February 8, 2017, Ball’s father also noted that LaMelo’s brother, LiAngelo, is usually the top scoring member of the family but LiAngelo wasn’t playing that night. Still, some folks in the district are unhappy with the amazing feat saying that the Ball brothers are ruining team efforts and turning games into star vehicles. “That’s wrong,” Los Osos coach Dave Smith said. “It goes against everything CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) stands for. The Ball boys are very talented and great players, but it’s embarrassing to high school athletics. I’ve been coaching for 35 years, and we’ve turned high school athletics into individualism. ” “It’s amazing to watch a kid score that many points. But it’s tough to say that’s what CIF athletics is about,” Smith concluded. There is still a record to beat, though. The high school scoring record is still held by Danny Heater of Burnsville (W. Va.) High School, who scored 135 points in one game back in 1960. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

Former Penn State President Found Guilty in Sandusky Abuse Case - The New York Times

Jess Bidgood and Richard Pérez-Peña

Five years after a child sex abuse scandal rocked Penn State, damaging its reputation, exposing a revered coach as a serial predator and sending him to prison, a jury on Friday convicted the former president of the university of child endangerment for failing to stop the abuse. On its second day of deliberations, the jury in Harrisburg, Pa. found Graham B. Spanier guilty of one misdemeanor count, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10, 000 fine. He was also found not guilty of two felony charges, for his handling of allegations against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant coach. Mr. Sandusky was convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing 10 young boys and was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. In 2013, Penn State agreed to pay $59. 7 million to 26 sexual abuse victims in exchange for an end to their claims against the university. The extent and nature of the abuse shocked the State College, Pa. community, upended a university that has long adored its vaunted football program and badly tarnished the reputation of the beloved head coach, Joe Paterno, who was among those suspected of turning a blind eye to his assistant’s conduct. The fallout was swift and in higher education, sports and even state politics. Mr. Paterno, an icon on campus and the most victorious coach in major college football, was dismissed, and died soon after. Much of his coaching staff was dismissed. The university commissioned an investigative report that harshly criticized Mr. Spanier and other administrators, though he disputed its findings. Mr. Spanier, once a leader who oversaw a period of expansion, was removed as president, though Penn State confirmed on Friday that he remained a tenured faculty member, on paid leave. Tim Curley, the athletic director, and Gary Schultz, a senior vice president, were forced to leave. When Kathleen G. Kane ran for state attorney general in 2012, one of her main themes was that Gov. Tom Corbett had dragged his feet on the Penn State investigation when he was attorney general, part of a male power structure that she said protected its own. But the cases against Mr. Spanier, Mr. Curley and Mr. Schultz, brought after she was elected, sputtered after legal delays, and some of the charges were dropped. Ultimately, the proceedings against the three men outlasted Ms. Kane, who fell from power in her own scandal, convicted of perjury and abuse of her office. Mr. Schultz and Mr. Curley, who pleaded guilty last week to one misdemeanor charge each, testified for the prosecution. The three men had been told of possible sexual assault, but “instead of reporting it to authorities, they consciously turned their backs and the abuse continued,” Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s attorney general, said after the verdict. “These leaders endangered the welfare of children by both their actions and inactions. There are zero excuses when it comes to failing to report the abuse of children to the appropriate authorities. ” Sam Silver, Mr. Spanier’s lawyer, said, “There always have been substantial questions in this case that need to be reviewed and resolved by the appellate courts, and we fully intend to pursue an appeal. ” The scandal was one in a series of recent cases sending a message that campus crimes — particularly sex crimes — cannot be kept as quiet, or treated as lightly, as they once were. Administrators have been fired from several colleges and universities that failed to report assaults or treat them seriously, including Kenneth W. Starr, who was removed last year as president of Baylor University. “College administrators have been put on notice that if you know an employee is sexually assaulting people and you leave them in place, you could be held responsible, including legally responsible,” said John D. Foubert, a professor of higher education at Oklahoma State University who has written extensively on campus sexual assault. But the circumstances at Penn State set it far apart from most campus sexual assault cases: It involved the abuse of children, a nationally renowned sports program and the downfall of Mr. Paterno. And the criminal charges that resulted, not just against the attacker but against administrators accused of covering up his crimes, have no parallel in recent memory. The count on which Mr. Spanier was convicted was charged as a felony, but the jury instead chose to convict him of the misdemeanor version of it. The jury acquitted him of another felony count of child endangerment, and a charge of conspiracy, also a felony. “I’d be foolish to be disappointed,” said Laura Ditka, the deputy attorney general who was the lead prosecutor. Asked if she would seek jail time for Mr. Spanier, who remained free on bail, she said, “We aren’t there yet. ” Children’s advocates called the administrators’ convictions a victory for accountability. “We can no longer put institutional loyalty above protecting kids,” said Cathleen Palm, the founder of the Center for Children’s Justice, a nonprofit that pushed for changes to Pennsylvania’s child abuse policies in the wake of the scandal. Supporters of Mr. Spanier and Mr. Paterno held up the acquittal on the conspiracy charge as vindication. “The story should be that there was no conspiracy to cover up child abuse at Penn State,” said Maribeth Roman Schmidt, the executive director of Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, an alumni group opposed to the sudden ouster of Mr. Paterno and the administrators. Mr. Spanier has long maintained that he was unaware of the seriousness of the accusations against Mr. Sandusky, who prosecutors said met his victims through his charity work, drawing them in with trips to football games and other gifts. The trial, which began with jury selection on Monday after years of legal delays, offered victims and their families the possibility of new information about what the university’s officials knew about Mr. Sandusky. Supporters of Mr. Spanier and the administration hoped it would absolve the university of some wrongdoing. “In the view of the jury, with respect to Spanier, and by their own admission, as to Curley and Schultz, these former leaders fell short,” Penn State said in a statement released after the verdict. “And while we cannot undo the past, we have rededicated ourselves and our university to act always with the highest integrity, in affirming the shared values of our community. ” Mr. Spanier sued the university, accusing it of violating their separation agreement. The university countersued, seeking to recoup more than $5 million it has paid him. Prosecutors contended that Mr. Spanier, along with Mr. Curley and Mr. Schultz, was aware of a 2001 report that Mr. Sandusky had showered with a young boy at the university, but that they failed to tell the authorities, acting instead to keep the matter quiet. That choice, prosecutors said, allowed Mr. Sandusky to keep abusing boys for years. They have often pointed to an email written by Mr. Spanier about the episode, after the decision was made to go to Mr. Sandusky directly and tell him to get counseling, rather than alerting the authorities. “The only downside for us is if the message isn’t ‘heard’ and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it,” Mr. Spanier wrote. That could be assessed later, he wrote. For now, he said, speaking to Mr. Sandusky directly was a “humane and a reasonable way to proceed. ” Prosecution witnesses included Mike McQueary, a former assistant coach who testified that he had told Mr. Paterno, Mr. Curley and Mr. Schultz that he had seen Mr. Sandusky molesting the boy in the shower. A victim of Mr. Sandusky’s who said he was abused in 2002 also testified at Mr. Spanier’s trial. Mr. Spanier’s lawyers called no witnesses in his defense, but, according to news media reports, told the jury that prosecutors had failed to provide evidence that he knew Mr. Sandusky was accused of sexual abuse. Instead, they said, he made a “judgment call” and took action about what he knew. Mr. Spanier’s lawyers have said that the charges against him were politically motivated and an attempt to distract from state prosecutors’ failures to stop Mr. Sandusky sooner.

You’re Fired! Trump Wins Big, Clinton Is Going To Jail

Starkman

Via Yournewswire Let the swamp draining begin. And when the murky stench begins to clear we all know what we will see – a bloated, slimy creature called Hillary Clinton shivering in the shallows. SPONSORED LINKS Removed from the corridors of power, she won’t be able to say “I don’t recall” 357 times to FBI investigators and get away with it. Her people won’t be able to plead the fifth every time they are asked an incriminating question. Hillary is going down, and a lot of her cronies are going with her. The arrogance of the Democratic establishment in thinking the country would endorse these people is staggering. Podesta, essentially a foreign agent for Saudi Arabia – with a brother, Tony, a Spirit Cooker who is actually on Saudi books as an agent. You can’t make this stuff up. And don’t forget Huma Abedin, thrown off the the campaign in a disastrous, scandal-riddled final week, exposed as being lax with national security – and having close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Her only experience prior to employment as a Hillary State Dept aide? 10 years working at a radical Islamic journal with links to jihad. The Democrat campaign was a dumpster fire. Burn, baby, burn. The Democratic establishment should never have nominated such a liability for president. The people wanted Bernie Sanders. The DNC should have let the primary election play out democratically, as their name suggests they would. But no, they interfered, suppressed the voice of their people, and forced a flawed, roundly disliked and distrusted candidate into the full glare of a brutal election season. On election night the Democratic establishment got the pounding they deserve. Never let the mainstream media’s disgraceful collusion with the Clinton campaign be forgotten. May the ignominy live forever. Funneling questions to Clinton so she could defeat her primary rival in debates, colluding with Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta – at his house – to “frame the message” and “frame the race,” lying to the American people about their first amendment rights, attempting to scare the population away from being informed. CNN is a PR firm, the propaganda arm of the establishment, not a member of the fourth estate. They have been thoroughly exposed by WikiLeaks in 2016. RIP Clinton News Network. Go to hell. Don’t forget about the ongoing FBI investigation into the corrupt Clinton Foundation. When Comey cleared her of wrongdoing this week, he was referring to her email scandal. The less publicized Clinton Foundation investigation is still ongoing. The probe was going to hound her into the White House, but now it’s going to throw her in the jailhouse.

North Korea Threatens ’Super-Mighty Preemptive Strike’ to Reduce America to ’Ashes’

John Hayward

In the latest installment in North Korea’s stream of murderous threats, the official newspaper of the Workers’ Party said a North Korean preemptive strike would annihilate both South Korea and the continental United States. [“In the case of our preemptive strike being launched, it will completely and immediately wipe out not only U. S. imperialists’ invasion forces in South Korea and its surrounding areas but the U. S. mainland and reduce them to ashes,” wrote the Rodong Sinmun newspaper. Reuters notes that North Korea “regularly threatens to destroy Japan, South Korea and the United States and has shown no in its belligerence after a failed missile test on Sunday, a day after putting on a huge display of missiles at a parade in Pyongyang. ” Also, the North Koreans are characteristically incensed by the current round of U. S. Korean military exercises, an aerial training program called “Max Thunder,” which is scheduled to run through April 28. North Korea always denounces training exercises involving America, South Korea, and other allies, portraying them as practice sessions for a invasion and sometimes even as the first stage of an invasion disguised as a training exercise. Pyongyang’s rhetoric might be as barbaric as ever, but its actions suggest pressure from the U. S. and China has forced the Kim regime to back away from further provocations, at least temporarily. The analysts who were concerned about an imminent nuclear test at the test site, timed to coincide with last weekend’s North Korean state holiday celebrations, now report satellite imagery that shows several volleyball games being played at the site. Three volleyball courts are up and running, with a fourth apparently under construction. The analysts at watchdog group 38 North note that the volleyball games could be a deception, and the site remains capable of conducting a nuclear test at any time. U. S. intelligence agencies are working to establish just how serious China is about the North Korean crisis. A U. S. defense official told CNN that China put its cruise bombers on “high alert” on Wednesday and appears to be conducting intense maintenance on a large number of military aircraft. CNN’s source believed China is making an effort to “reduce the time to react to a North Korea contingency. ” Russia has also moved troops and military equipment to the North Korean border, possibly to prepare for a wave of refugees after military hostilities or the collapse of the Kim regime.

Jennifer Palmieri and Clinton Camp Caught Hiding 55k Emails

The European Union Times

RED ALERT! BIG WIKILEAKS DEVELOPMENT! CLINTON CAMP CONSPIRED TO WITHHOLD EMAILS FROM STATE DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATORS! Jennifer Palmieri , the Director of Communications with the Hillary Clinton campaign, and top Clinton advisors conspired to withhold emails from FBI investigators. Palmieri and top Clinton advisors committed conspiracy with campaign consultants to only turn over 55,000 emails to the State Department knowing there were more emails they were withholding. This email was released by Wikileaks on Thursday November 3, 2016. From the email: Re: Emails development From:jbenenson@bsgco.com To: Jim.Margolis@gmmb.com Date: 2015-03-05 00:01 Subject: Re: Emails development Definitely Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 4, 2015, at 8:01 PM, Margolis, Jim <Jim.Margolis@gmmb.com> wrote: > > Yes. > If there is a release of the 55K, are there others that are not being > released? > > On 3/4/15, 7:25 PM, “Jennifer Palmier I” <jennifer.m.palmieri@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Team – wanted to let you know that Cheryl is working with State to get >> agreement on release of the 55k pages of emails she have to State. The >> hope would be that we are able to say tonight to the press that we are >> working with State to get emails released soon. Not sure where those >> discussions will land, but hope is either State agrees to release on >> timely basis or we pledge to release them ourselves in ten days/week. >> Assume you all would agree this is right move? >> >> Sent from my iPhone Source

Will Trump Dump The Wahabbi Autocrats? | New Eastern Outlook

Author

Country: Saudi Arabia US leaders almost always justify their foreign policy with words about “democracy” and “human rights.” Especially when talking about the Middle East, the insincerity of such words are blatantly obvious. While US leaders criticize Iran and Syria for alleged human rights violations, the entire world can see that the US allies in the region are serial human rights violators. Israel has been widely condemned for its treatment of Palestinians. Saudi Arabia is a country where even the basic notion of human rights does not exist. The Kingdom is an absolute monarchy where people can still be executed by beheading or crucifixion in the 21st century. Crimes punishable by death under the Saudi regime include “sorcery” and “insulting the King.” Under Saudi law, the people are not citizens with rights, but rather “subjects” who are essentially the King’s property. Qatar is yet another repressive regime. Like Saudi Arabia, it is an absolute monarchy, where a King serves as the unelected autocrat. Bahrain is known not only for its lack of democratic structures, but for its repression of the Shia Muslim majority who frequently take to the streets, demanding their rights. The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, and almost every other US-aligned regime in the Arab world has a primitive political system, centered on an autocratic monarchy. These regimes are known to torture, behead, flog, repress free speech, oppress religious minorities, and do all kinds of things US leaders claim to oppose. This does not prevent the United States from selling weapons to these regimes, or from purchasing their oil. This also does not prevent the USA from establishing military bases on their soil, and otherwise coddling them. In fact, the Financial Times describes how the United Arab Emirates is becoming a beloved “tax haven” for the rich and powerful in the western world. While western leaders love to talk about human rights, they have no problem with autocratic emirates handling their money . The Roots of Wahabbi Terrorism More shockingly, the involvement of these regimes in terrorism has not deterred US support. It took 15 years for the classified 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission report to be released. The pages revealed that Saudi government officials had collaborated with the 9/11 hijackers. It furthermore revealed that Saudi Arabia had been uncooperative and offered minimal support to US officials with their investigations during the aftermath of the attacks. The Saudi Royal family owes its reign to the British Empire. During the 1800s the British discovered that the House of Saud were useful allies against the Ottoman Empire, and were more than willing to sell their oil at a reasonable price. The Saudi monarchy professes a particularly conservative brand of Islam known as “Wahabbism.” While not every Wahabbi has been involved in terrorism, Al-Queda, ISIS, Al-Nusra, Osama Bin Laden, Omar Mateen, and nearly every Middle-Eastern or Central-Asian terrorist who has menaced the world in recent years has been an adherent of Wahabbism. Wahabbism is particularly anti-Western and anti-American. Opponents of the Saudi ideology it often call it “Takfirism,” a term that refers to Wahabbi’s willingness to kill other Muslims with whom they disagree. The relationship between Wahabbi fanatics and Britain’s wealthy has not ended. A recent article in the Financial Times describes how British Houses of Finance now specialize in “Islamic Banking.” While many Islamic scholars describe the very concept as fraudulent, many financial institutions are accommodating sultans, emirates, and princes who adhere to strict Wahabbi laws. Islam forbids lending money for interest, so many financial institutions have invented loopholes with hidden fees, investment returns, and other mechanisms that can accommodate strict adherents . During the 1980s, the CIA worked with the heir of a wealthy Saudi construction dynasty to build a Wahabbi army. Osama bin Laden was sent to Afghanistan to build an army of “Mujihadeen” to topple the People’s Democratic Party. The USA worked closely with the fanatical Wahabbi terrorists to battle the Marxist government of Afghanistan and their Soviet allies. Currently, the United States works with Saudi Arabia to fund a Wahabbi insurgency against the secular Syrian Arab Republic. ISIS and Al-Nusra are known to be terrorists inspired by the Saudi ideology. The Saudis have been caught directly helping them out. Among the US backed “moderate rebels,” many Wahabbis can also be found. Most of the various US-aligned autocracies in the Middle East can be linked to Wahabbi forces in Syria. Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and other regimes have made the goal of “regime change” in Syria a priority, and many ISIS fighters have emerged from their respective populations. Is The Tide Turning? While the past three presidencies of Bush, Obama, and Clinton have involved massive coddling of the Saudi regime, Donald Trump often spoke against Saudi Arabia during his Presidential campaign. Furthermore, in a recent move, the US Congress dramatically overrode Barack Obama’s veto, and passed the controversial JASTA bill, allowing victims of terrorism to sue the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in US courts. While Trump often appealed to ignorant and Islamophobic sentiments among Americans, he also appealed to an isolationist desire to stop meddling around the world. Trump made fighting ISIS, the Wahabbi extremist group unleashed amid US-Saudi regime change efforts, a key plank of his campaign. Will Trump live up to his words? Will the USA end its alliance with Pro-Wahabbi autocratic regimes that are linked to terrorism? Though Trump spoke against the Saudis and talked of fighting ISIS, his campaign included reckless denunciations of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Trump’s speeches often seemed to lump Iran in with ISIS, ignoring the fact that Iranian Revolutionary Guards are on the battlefield each and every day, risking their lives to defeat ISIS. Iran is greatly threatened by ISIS terrorism. ISIS and most Wahabbis consider the Islamic Republic of Iran to be led by “Shia Apostates.” ISIS and other anti-government forces in Syria have recruited fighters from around the world on the basis of toppling Syrian President Bashar Assad because of his Alawi faith, which Wahabbis consider to be a variation of Shia apostasy. Contradictory Middle East Positions For too long, the USA has been targeting secular, nationalist governments like the Baathist regimes of Iraq and Syria, the Islamic Republic of Iran, or Gaddafi’s Libya. In doing so they have been passively helping and strengthening the bloodthirsty Wahabbi fanatics who these regimes have held back, and whose ideological foundation is promoted by Saudi Arabia. If Trump is serious about stopping ISIS and the surrounding wave of Wahabbi terrorism, he will immediately end the US financial and military relationship with the Saudi regime, as well as the nearby, pro-Wahabbi autocracies. Furthermore, Trump will need to end his irresponsible demonization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and join with the Iranians, the Russians, the Syrian government, and China in the fight against ISIS terrorism. If Trump were to do this, it would be one of the most dramatic shifts ever seen in US foreign policy. During his campaign, Trump has taken two somewhat contradictory positions in relation to the Middle East. While he has denounced Saudi Arabia and talked about how US “regime change” policies have strengthened terrorism, he has also repeated the anti-Iranian talking points of Netanyahu, and spoken with great admiration for Israel. Israel has been the greatest direct beneficiary of the US policy in the Middle East. Each regime the US has targeted in the region–Syria, Iraq, and Iran–have been outspoken opponents of Israel who directly support Palestinian resistance. Meanwhile, the Wahabbi-linked autocrats denounce Israel in words, but do very little to threaten its existence or strength. Israel’s primary enemies, Iran and Syria, are also the primary target of the Wahabbi fanatics and the Saudi monarchy. Israeli and Saudi Arabia may denounce each other, but their foreign policies both center on hostility to what the Saudis call “the Shia crescent.” Regarding the Middle East, the new President will be forced to decide whether he seeks to continue aligning US and Israel foreign policies, and targeting Iran and Syria, or whether he wants to end Wahabbi terrorism, and stop cooperating with the regimes actively linked to it. Trump is often perceived as quite unpredictable. Whichever choice he makes, it is likely to surprise many people. Caleb Maupin is a political analyst and activist based in New York. He studied political science at Baldwin-Wallace College and was inspired and involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook” . Popular Articles

The Source of our Rage: The Ruling Elite Is Protected from the Consequences of its Dominance

Gillian

Leave a reply Please read my election note at the end of the essay – C H Smith Charles Hugh Smith – There are many sources of rage: injustice, the destruction of truth, powerlessness. But if we had to identify the one key source of non-elite rage that cuts across all age, ethnicity, gender and regional boundaries, it is this: The Ruling Elite is protected from the destructive consequences of its predatory dominance. We see this reality across the entire political, social and economic landscape. If I had to pick one chart that illustrates the widening divide between the Ruling Elite and the non-elites, it is this chart of wages as a share of the nation’s output (GDP): 46 years of relentless decline, interrupted by gushing fountains of credit and asset bubbles that enriched the few while leaving the economic landscape of the many in ruins. The Ruling Elite once had an obligation to uphold the social contract as a responsibility that came with their vast privilege, power and wealth (i.e. noblesse oblige). America’s Ruling Elite has transmogrified into an incestuous self-serving few unapologetically plundering the many. In their hubris-soaked arrogance, their right to rule is unquestioningly based on their moral and intellectual superiority to “the little people” they loot with abandon. Rather than feel a responsibility to the nation, America’s Elite views the status quo as a free pass to self-aggrandizement. Much has changed in America in the past 46 years. Not only have wages and salaries declined as a share of “economic growth,” but the wealth that has been generated has flowed to the top of the wealth/power pyramid (see chart below). Social mobility has also declined drastically: Restoring America’s Economic Mobility , as has trust in government and key institutions. As Frank Buckley, the author of The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America observed: “In a corrupt country, trust is a rare commodity. That’s America today. Only 19 percent of Americans say they trust the government most of the time, down from 73 percent in 1958 according to the Pew Research Center.” The top .01% has seen its share of the household wealth triple from 7% to 22% in the past four decades, while the share of the nation’s wealth owned by the bottom 90% has plummeted from 36% to 23%. Distribution of wealth in the US since 1917 (image) As I described in America’s Ruling Elite Has Failed and Deserves to Be Fired and Now That the Presidential-Election Side Show Is Finally Ending…. , the economy is rapidly undergoing structural changes that tend to reward the top 5% class of technocrats and managers and the top .1% with millions in mobile capital, while leaving the bottom 95% in the dust. The ever-widening wage gap (image) Rather than address this rising inequality directly and honestly, the Ruling Elite has parroted propaganda and policies that protect their gains while obfuscating the reality that most American households have been losing ground for decades, a decline that has been masked by replacing real income with rising debt. The ceaseless parroting of the Ruling Elite and the Mainstream Media that prosperity has been rising for everyone is nothing less than the destruction of truth. This propaganda has one purpose: to mask the inequality and injustice built into the American status quo. The rapid concentration of wealth has also concentrated political power in the hands of a few who seamlessly combine public and private modes of power. This wealth and power protects the Ruling Elite from the perverse consequences of their dominance. Their precious offspring rarely serve at the point of the American military’s spear, they never lose their jobs or income when corporations shift production (and R&D, etc.) overseas, and they are never replaced with illegal immigrants paid under the table. Rather, the Ruling Elite is pleased to pay immigrants a pittance to care for their children, clean their luxe homes, walk their dogs, etc. This is why we’re enraged: we bear the consequences of the Ruling Elite’s dominance. The system is rigged to benefit the few, who use their wealth and power to protect themselves from the destructive consequences of their self-serving dominance. This rage is as yet inchoate, sensed but not yet understood as the inevitable result of a broken system and a predatory Elite that exploits the system to maximize their private gain by any means available. Election Note : As I write this Tuesday evening, it appears Donald Trump may win the presidency. For those who cannot understand how anyone could possibly vote for Trump, please read the above essay again and ponder what people were voting against by voting for Trump. They may well have been voting against the corrupt, self-serving status quo rather than voting for the individual Donald Trump. There are very few opportunities for powerless non-elites to register their disapproval of the nation’s Ruling Elite and the corrupt status quo. Voting for an outsider in a national election is one such rare opportunity. As I noted in October, The Ruling Elite Has Lost the Consent of the Governed (October 20, 2016). If you still don’t understand how Trump could win, please read the above essay as many times as is necessary for you to get it: the status quo of corrupt self-serving insiders generates injustice and inequality as its only possible output. Charles Smith is a Contributing Writer for Shift Frequency SF Source Of Two Minds

Even Penguins Have Children Who Won’t Leave the Nest - The New York Times

Nicholas Bakalar

Galápagos penguin chicks have it good. Even when they are old enough to hunt on their own, they beg their parents for food — and the parents give in. Recently researchers in the Galápagos watched as fully fledged birds squeaked and pleaded until their parents turned to them and regurgitated a meal into their mouths. One big young bird, recorded on video, was fed, then followed his parent squeaking for more until the besieged adult escaped by diving into the water. The study is online in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. In the Galápagos, food supplies vary. When times are good and there is plenty of food, one way of assuring the survival of the species is for parents to help their adult children with some extra nourishment. Galápagos penguins forage just offshore, close to their nests, and return to the nest site after the young fledge, so parents and fledglings are likely to encounter one another frequently. Only one other of the 18 species of penguins is known to do this: the Gentoo penguins. These birds, which inhabit Antarctica and nearby islands, feed their young after they have fledged for about 12 days, probably to give them time to learn how to hunt for themselves. The Galápagos penguins, the only penguins that live north of the Equator, are endangered, with fewer than 2, 000 left in the world. They are not always so . “When conditions are good, they can raise two chicks in a season and continue to feed them,” said Dee Boersma, a professor of biology at the University of Washington and the lead author of the study. “When there’s little food around,” Professor Boersma continued, “they save themselves, forgetting about both eggs and chicks. ”

A New York Holiday Tradition to Count On? Big Crowds - The New York Times

Winnie Hu

Bruna Gomes has made the holiday rounds in New York City. The glittering windows at Macy’s. The Radio City Rockettes with Santa. The pilgrimage to the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. Her new tradition? Staying home. “I promised myself I’d never go back because it’s so crowded,” Ms. Gomes, 22, said. It is supposed to be a festive time of year. But tell that to all the New Yorkers confronted by the crush of humanity at many of their cherished holiday destinations. Moms strategize about the best times to visit department store Santas with the precision of a military campaign. At Macy’s Santaland, desperate dads have tried to bribe the elves to skip past the long lines. The throngs of ice skaters and shoppers descending on Bryant Park’s Winter Village have taken up all the seats, choked walkways and brought foot traffic to a shuffle. The famed window displays along Fifth Avenue get so many admirers that just catching a glimpse can be hard, let alone taking a family photo. When Ms. Gomes broke her promise and recently took a friend to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, she found herself stranded in the middle of an intersection on Fifth Avenue. “I got stuck there,” she said. “I was literally standing in the crowd. ’’ As if New York City did not already have plenty of people, the holidays draw more each year as surely as children make wish lists and doormen count on tips. From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, the city attracts five million visitors — seemingly undeterred by security concerns — who provide a boon to businesses and the city’s bottom line but who also overrun subways, streets and attractions. The annual “Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes” plays to an audience of more than a million, or roughly the population of San Jose, Calif. each season. Every day, about 800, 000 people pass through Rockefeller Center, where the outsize tree draws crowds to match. Macy’s Christmas windows attract, on average, 8, 000 to 10, 000 people an hour, up from 5, 000 to 7, 000 a few years ago, according to the store. Upstairs, on the eighth floor, inch through a maze of Christmas trees, stuffed reindeer and caroling snowmen in a painted village. For those who know to make reservations ahead of time, there is an express similar to the used at Disney’s theme parks, guarded by elves who have been offered a $20 or $50 bill by line skippers. The are not just piling into Manhattan. At the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, an annual holiday train show with model rail cars whirring past miniature replicas of city landmarks — new this year, the Queensboro Bridge and the Coney Island Cyclone and Wonder Wheel — brought out a record 266, 000 visitors last year, up from 165, 000 in 2010. Of course, what would New York City be without crowds? Want peace and quiet? Try the North Pole. Gregory Holmes, 32, who was visiting last week from Nashville, said he did not come to New York for serenity. “I love big crowds of people enjoying themselves that’s what New York is about, the hustle and bustle,” said Mr. Holmes, who was power shopping — spending more than $1, 500 on clothes and shoes at stores including Macy’s, HM and Uniqlo — in between taking in the sights. “More money is coming out of my pocket in the past three days than in the past two months. ” But even New Yorkers used to crowds are finding more visitors under foot and in the way. Kimberly Charles, a stylist from Brooklyn, says the window displays are so beautiful that she wants to stop and look. Yet, whenever she takes five steps toward them, she finds everyone else has the same idea. In recent years, she has mostly stayed away from the windows, though she cannot completely avoid the who block the sidewalks. “It’s not road rage, it’s foot rage,” she said. “You’re just trying to get around everybody and keep going. ” Near the Holland Tunnel the other evening, Ms. Charles stopped short for another reason. Oshun Brown, 20, an was turning pirouettes on Varick Street, handing out free candy canes, and posing with pedestrians for “elfies. ” Ms. Charles walked past him and then turned around to get a candy cane. The holiday congestion had inspired a local group, Hudson Square Connection, which runs a business improvement district in the neighborhood, to start a new tradition: dispatching eight prancing and caroling elves along with traffic managers to keep the peace at heavily congested intersections. “There’s only so much you can do about congestion, so we thought, ‘Let’s make it fun,’” said Ellen Baer, the president of the Hudson Square Connection. Some holiday destinations have taken steps to reduce lines. At Bryant Park’s Winter Village, nestled among Midtown Manhattan skyscrapers, the free ice rink drew 247, 989 skaters last winter, more than double the number from a decade earlier. Hundreds used to wait two or three hours in lines that wrapped around the park. This year, the park streamlined the process and introduced a system that sends skaters text messages when it is their turn. The New York Botanical Garden accommodated the growing numbers at its train show by increasing the exhibit space by half, to 12, 800 square feet, last year. It has also added more night hours where alcohol is served, with 11 “bar car nights” this year, up from three in 2011. And it has timed tickets so visitors do not have to wait in line. “Every year, it’s more popular,” said Henry Cabrera, the botanical garden’s associate vice president for visitor experience. “It’s a great problem to have. Probably in five years we’ll be thinking of what to do next. ” Along Fifth Avenue, the holiday sightseers have been joined this year by political aficionados and gawkers hoping for a glimpse of Donald J. Trump, who lives and works at Trump Tower. Lloyd Kemp, 59, a Brooklyn resident who collects donations for the homeless, said he usually sets up outside Bergdorf Goodman, a block from Trump Tower, but was asked to move by the police as part of tighter security. So there was Mr. Kemp on the sidewalk in front of Saks Fifth Avenue, tucked in between the windows and the metal barricades lining the street. One tourist after another stopped to ask him directions. The nearest subway? A good restaurant? He answered cheerfully in a booming voice. One woman, leaning back to take a photograph, tripped and fell against a barricade. He caught her arm. Another asked who had the best windows this year. Mr. Kemp’s money was on Saks, his new home. “This is more crowded than Trump Tower,” he said. “And this is more pleasant because people come here to uplift their spirits. ” As Christmas approaches, some of the biggest crowds can be found outside Macy’s Herald Square. It can be chaos, said Crosby Reynolds, 27, a street cleaner. People are crammed together. Some are yelling at others to get out of the way. They step on the litter he is trying to pick up. “I kind of wait until it loosens up a little and then I sneak in,” he said. Mr. Reynolds has yet to bring his son to see the Macy’s windows. “It’s too much,” he said. “I see enough when I’m here. ”

Runway vs. Red Carpet - The New York Times

Vanessa Friedman

MILAN — Didn’t Isabelle Huppert look great? And Viola Davis? What about that peachy color on Nicole Kidman? Such were the whispers going around at the Giorgio Armani show on Monday, the morning after the night before — which is to say, in the bleachers of the Armani Theater just a few hours after Mr. Armani had dressed those nominees for what is arguably the biggest fashion show of them all, the Academy Awards. Perhaps acknowledging that it’s almost impossible for the runway to compete with the red carpet these days — no one, after all, understands the power of Hollywood, and how it can be harnessed for fashion, better than Mr. Armani — the designer kept the gowns in Milan to a minimum (one final showstopper in a rainbow of swirling crystals, a black velvet column twinkling stars) and instead concentrated on a multiplicity of fluid trousers and natty jackets in jewel tones and tactile fabrications. Plus a somewhat new idea: skinny pants with an insert of pleated silk chiffon attached in the front or back in a contrasting color to create a . A skant? A pirt? It was one way to startle people away from the slide shows on their cellphones and into attention. In one of the more unfortunate coincidences of timing, the Milan women’s wear season draws to a close in the long shadow of the Oscars. It tends to make for a pretty anticlimactic ending. Everyone is focused on the clothes over there, when they are supposed to be focused over here. What’s a designer to do? Take a cue from the movies, apparently. Arthur Arbesser, for one, part of the fresh crop of names in the city, started with Wim Wenders’s 1987 film “Wings of Desire,” set in the Berlin circus scene, and then embraced — well, not gold, but bronze, in the form of gleaming vinyl, as well as a kaleidoscopic mix in knits and cotton shirting, vinyl and latex. The multiple stripes and squares tumbled together in a not entirely successful mix of clownish proportions. Stella Jean, meanwhile, another also went Eastern bloc, though even more literally, upping the narrative by weaving a tale of the Cold War and Siberia (and Syria, too) full of military memorabilia and folkloric fantasy. Think with velvet epaulets, gold fringe and rows of decorative medals paired with skirts depicting village scenes in winter, babushka headgear and leopard print, patchworks of silk and brocade. Less dramatic, however, was Salvatore Ferragamo, where Fulvio Rigoni, making his official debut as design director for women’s wear, beat a strategic retreat toward the long, lean and mostly neutral. Dresses were sleeveless and patched together from abstracted animal prints, sometimes with a trompe l’oeil cape of a sweater hanging off the back, as if the model had just shrugged out of her cardigan outerwear came complete with curving double portrait collars (including on a long sleeveless puffer coat, one of the weirder ideas) and trousers were . Paired with Paul Andrew’s towering stacked heels on bootees, the collection looked like the beginning of an idea that had not yet burst into bloom. For posies, as well as leopard print, ruched sheaths, velvet trouser suits, robot appliqués, chubbies (don’t be a cuddly puma, wear one instead!) elaborately embroidered denim, prints, puppy prints, tuxes of all types, corsetry, and a gold Lurex crocheted minidress with hearts all over, there was Dolce Gabbana. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana had what seemed like an of their own, but instead of golden statuettes, there were golden tiaras. On almost everyone. I know this, not because I was at the show (The New York Times, as we have pointed out before, is not invited to attend the collection, for reasons rooted in history that began long before I arrived at the newspaper) but because it became a social media sensation thanks to the digital reach of the millennials, children of and influencers who walked in the show (alongside a few models and many very good customers) — a combined total of approximately 65 million followers on Instagram, according to the website fashionunfiltered. com. As a result, I could watch it. So I did! Given the emphasis the brand has placed on its relationship with the digital generation over the last year or so, it seemed the appropriate thing to do. The livestream (and related coverage) wasn’t quite as long as a feature, but almost. Seemingly pitched as a celebration of family — the family the brand has made, and literal family, as relatives of all generations walked — it came complete with celebrity front row (see: Rene Russo, Christie Brinkley, Jamie Foxx, Pamela Anderson) attracted by the fact their children were strutting in the show. Between that and the frenzy generated by a from the teen idol Austin Mahone (10 million Instagram followers) no one seemed to pay much attention to the clothes. Though that could also be because — save, perhaps, for the Justin Bieber — they looked like they had come straight from the Dolce archive of greatest hits. There’s something for everyone inside. But then, the collection was almost beside the point. Which could be summed up fairly simply: If you can’t beat ’em, and don’t want to join ’em, go viral on ’em. Now to Paris.

D.C. Bar Will Offer Free Drinks Every Time Trump Tweets about Comey - Breitbart

Tony Lee

A Washington, DC bar will give away free drinks every time President Donald Trump tweets about former FBI Director James Comey during Comey’s Thursday testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The mainstream media are covering Comey’s testimony like the Super Bowl, and multiple D. C. bars will open in the morning to host viewing parties. D. C.’s Union Pub announced on its Facebook page that it will open its doors at 9:30 a. m. and buy “a round of drinks for the house every time Trump Tweets about Comey during his testimony!” The “special” offer will run “til Comey’s testimony is over, or 4pm, whichever is earlier. ” The Washington Post’s Robert Costa reported that Trump “does not plan to put down Twitter on Thursday” and may even “live tweet if he feels the need to respond. ” I’m told by two WH sources that Pres. Trump does not plan to put down Twitter on Thursday. May live tweet if he feels the need to respond. — Robert Costa (@costareports) June 6, 2017,

Google Violence at Temple U Popular Across the Country

Andrew Anglin

Migrant Crisis Disclaimer We here at the Daily Stormer are opposed to violence. We seek revolution through the education of the masses. When the information is available to the people, systemic change will be inevitable and unavoidable. Anyone suggesting or promoting violence in the comments section will be immediately banned, permanently. Daily Stormer Presents: Dr. David Duke Š Copyright Daily Stormer 2016, All Rights Reserved

Wife of Orlando Gunman Is Charged Under Antiterrorism Laws - The New York Times

Erin Marie Daly, Richard Pérez-Peña and Adam Goldman

OAKLAND, Calif. — She fired none of the shots, she was nowhere near the bloody scene, and none of the evidence made public so far hints that she shared her husband’s violent jihadist ideology. Yet Noor Zahi Salman, the widow of the gunman who massacred revelers at an Orlando nightclub, stood before a federal judge on Tuesday as the only person charged in the attack. In the early hours of June 12, Ms. Salman’s husband, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub, and wounded 53 others in one of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil. Before being fatally shot by the police, Mr. Mateen, a security guard, declared his allegiance to the Islamic State. Though suspicion and scrutiny naturally fall on people close to someone who commits terrorism or mass murder, it is rare for a wife or a girlfriend to end up facing charges. But in a brief hearing in federal court in Oakland, a federal prosecutor, Roger Handberg, explained why the authorities considered Ms. Salman an exception. “She knew he was going to conduct the attack,” Mr. Handberg said. An indictment unsealed on Tuesday accused Ms. Salman, 30, of “aiding and abetting the attempted provision and provision of material support to a foreign terrorist organization,” a charge that can carry a sentence of life in prison. She was also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly misleading police officers and federal agents, who interviewed her for 12 hours on the day of the shooting. Ms. Salman went with her husband to buy ammunition, drove him to Orlando when he apparently scouted his target, and knew that he watched jihadist propaganda videos. Those could be innocent acts or indications of criminal culpability, depending on her own intent and what she knew of his. Her fate could turn on evidence about her frame of mind, including how much she was controlled by her husband, who she has said abused her. “We’ve seen the government trying to widen the definition of ‘material support,’ and the increased visibility of women being involved in jihadist movements” makes it easier to imagine charging them with terrorism, said Nimmi Gowrinathan, a visiting professor at the City College of New York who studies women in violent situations around the world. In an interview last fall with The New York Times, her only public statement since the attack, Ms. Salman said she had not known what her husband planned to do, a claim that her uncle, Al Salman, made repeatedly outside the courthouse on Tuesday. Prosecutors, who plan to pursue the case in a federal court in Florida, gave little new information, leaving unclear what evidence they had or why seven months had passed before charges were filed. Ms. Salman, who was arrested on Monday and has a young son fathered by Mr. Mateen, has been living with relatives in Rodeo, Calif. northeast of San Francisco. Visibly shaking in a and gray jail uniform, Ms. Salman stood in court Tuesday and, in a barely audible voice, told Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu, who had to ask her to speak up, that she understood the charges against her. Only when she was led from the courtroom did she raise her head and let her eyes search the packed gallery. On Wednesday, the judge will consider whether to grant bail. The married couple who fatally shot 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif. in 2015 provide the clearest case of a wife as accomplice, but examples remain rare. A study of more than 100 terrorists in Western countries who acted alone or in pairs found that most of them were single. percent confided in someone about their plans, the authors found, but research showed that only 4 percent told a spouse, a girlfriend or a boyfriend. The closest parallel to Ms. Salman may be Katherine Russell, the widow of one of the Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and the mother of his child. The bombs detonated at the race in 2013 were made in the home she and her husband shared, and testimony at the trial of the surviving bomber — Ms. Russell’s Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — indicated that her computer had been used for a search on the rewards that come to the widow of a martyr for Islam. Ms. Russell talked to investigators but refused to testify before a grand jury without immunity from prosecution. Federal agents investigating the case were eager to bring charges against her, but prosecutors decided not to. Ms. Salman and Mr. Mateen’s former wife, Sitora Yusufiy, have both said that he beat them severely and tried to control every aspect of their lives. Citing that abuse, a lawyer for Ms. Salman, Linda Moreno, said recently that it was “misguided and wrong to prosecute her. ” Experts say that domestic violence is a common trait among mass killers and terrorists, and that close relatives are often among their victims. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was also accused of domestic violence by a previous girlfriend. “Misogyny and extremism work together very often, so abuse is entrenched in these cases,” Dr. Gowrinathan, the City College professor, said. But, she added, sympathy for women as victims of abuse tends to evaporate in terrorism cases. At the time of the Pulse shooting, Ms. Salman was at home in Fort Pierce, Fla. a drive from Orlando, but the indictment charged that she had been abetting her husband’s plans since at least late April. Prosecutors say she knowingly misled the F. B. I. agents and Fort Pierce police officers who interviewed her. The indictment also says the government wants her to forfeit more than $30, 000, which may be connected to the jewelry she has said her husband lavished on her in the final days of his life. In interviews last year, friends and acquaintances described Ms. Salman as a relatively naïve young woman, a doting mother who could have unwittingly witnessed the buildup to her husband’s attack. The daughter of Palestinian immigrants, she struggled in high school, they said, but earned an associate degree at a community college before meeting Mr. Mateen, a son of Afghan immigrants, on an Arab dating website. “I was unaware of everything,” Ms. Salman said in the Times interview last year. “I don’t condone what he has done. I am very sorry for what has happened. He has hurt a lot of people. ” She said that she had known her husband was viewing jihadist videos, but that she had disapproved and forced him to turn them off so that their son would not see them. She said that the drive to Orlando had seemed innocent, and that the ammunition purchase was unremarkable for a security guard who practiced at a shooting range. The F. B. I. questioned Mr. Mateen after he told in 2013 that he had ties to terrorist groups like Hezbollah, and again in 2014, when his name came up in another terrorism case. But agents never found evidence that he was plotting an attack. In the Times interview, Ms. Salman said she had thought that if her husband had been a danger, the F. B. I. would have arrested him.

A Sour Surprise for Public Pensions: Two Sets of Books - The New York Times

Mary Williams Walsh

When one of the tiniest pension funds imaginable — for Citrus Pest Control District No. 2, serving just six people in California — decided last year to convert itself to a 401( k) plan, it seemed like a . After all, the little fund held far more money than it needed, according to its official numbers from California’s renowned public pension system, Calpers. Except it really didn’t. In fact, it was significantly underfunded. Suddenly Calpers began demanding a payment of more than half a million dollars. “My board was somewhat shocked,” said Larry Houser, the general manager of the pest control district, whose workers tame the bugs and blights that threaten their corner of California citrus country. It is just a few miles down the road from Joshua Tree National Park. It turns out that Calpers, which managed the little pension plan, keeps two sets of books: the officially stated numbers, and another set that reflects the “market value” of the pensions that people have earned. The second number is not publicly disclosed. And it typically paints a much more troubling picture, according to people who follow the money. The crisis at Citrus Pest Control District No. 2 illuminates a profound debate now sweeping the American public pension system. It is pitting specialist against specialist — this year in the rarefied confines of the American Academy of Actuaries, not far from the White House, the elite professionals who crunch pension numbers for a living came close to blows over this very issue. But more important, it raises serious concerns that governments nationwide do not know the true condition of the pension funds they are responsible for. That exposes millions of people, including retired public workers, local taxpayers and municipal bond buyers — who are often retirees themselves — to risks they have no way of knowing about. “One of the first things I think you should do is publish that number for every city,” said William F. Sharpe, professor emeritus of finance at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business who won the Nobel in economic science in 1990 for his work on how the markets price financial instruments. He is also a California resident who voluntarily helped his city, crack the secret pension code — figuring out the market value of its debt to its retirees in 2011 before Calpers resolved to start divulging the information later that year. “We just about nailed it, which made us feel very good for ourselves — but very bad for the city,” Professor Sharpe said. On a market basis, the city turned out to be $48 million short of what it owed retirees, or four times what the official numbers showed. The two competing ways of valuing a pension fund are often called the actuarial approach (which is geared toward helping employers plan stable annual budgets, as opposed to measuring assets and liabilities) and the market approach, which reflects more math. The market value of a pension reflects the full cost today of providing a steady, guaranteed income for life — and it’s large. Alarmingly large, in fact. This is one reason most states and cities don’t let the market numbers see the light of day. But in recent years, even the more modest actuarial numbers have been growing, as populations age and many public workers retire. In California, some struggling local governments now doubt they can really afford their pension plans, and have told Calpers they want out. In response, Calpers has calculated the heretofore unknown market value of their pension promises — and told them that’s the price of leaving, payable immediately. Few have that much cash, so it’s welcome to the Hotel California: You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. Calpers says it must bill departing governments for every penny their pensions could possibly cost because once they cash out, Calpers has no way of going back and getting more money from them if something goes wrong. Calpers keeps that money in a separate “termination pool. ” Things went differently for Citrus Pest Control District No. 2. It withdrew first, before realizing the shortfall. Then, four months later, it got the unexpected bill from Calpers. “I was opening the mail and thinking, ‘Can this be right?’ I thought they put an extra zero on it,” said Tim Hoesterey, one of the district’s two employees. The bill came just as the district was building up a war chest to fight a virulent new citrus blight, a disease that had already devastated groves in Florida. The directors had armed themselves by raising a growers’ tax per acre fivefold. Suddenly, paying Calpers would wipe out the whole citrus blight reserve. Some wondered if they should just declare bankruptcy. “There are people selling their farms, trying to get out of the business, because they can’t make a profit anymore,” Mr. Hoesterey said. He called Calpers to see if the district could get a break, an extended due date, or even stay with Calpers after all. Calpers said no. It was a done deal. A Calpers spokeswoman, Amy Morgan, said such questions suggested “a misunderstanding of the purpose of Calpers. ” “Calpers does not exist to make money,” she said. “Calpers exists to fully pay out benefits that are promised to its members. ” She said the law required Calpers to perform a complete valuation after the termination date had passed, and to recover all the money needed to ensure that the retirees would be paid in full. Today in California, both the market values and the actuarial pension values for many places are available on a website run by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. But for the 49 other states, the market numbers remain unknown. The numbers are “close to the truth of the liability,” Professor Sharpe said. But most elected officials want the smaller numbers, and actuaries provide what their clients want. “Somebody just should have stopped this whole charade,” he said. For years, people have been trying to do just that. In 2003, the Society of Actuaries, a respected professional body, devoted most of its annual meeting to what was called “the Great Controversy” — the notion that the actuarial standards for pensions were fundamentally flawed, causing systemic underfunding and setting up a train wreck when baby boomers retired. It drew a crowd. The problem reaches far beyond pensions, and into the $3. 7 trillion municipal bond market. The reason is that municipal bond ratings take into account the strength (or weakness) of government pension plans. If those numbers have been consistently wrong, as dissidents argued, then actuaries were helping mislead the investors buying municipal bonds. Arguably, the flawed standards worsened the problem with each passing year: Actuarial values determine the annual contributions that states and local governments make to their pension plans, so if the target numbers are too low, the contributions will always be too small. Shortfalls will be compounding, invisibly. Much of the debate surrounded the routine practice of translating future pension payments into today’s dollars, which is called discounting. The tiny pension plan at Citrus Pest Control District No. 2 shows clearly what the problem is. With everybody either retired, or about to be (Mr. Houser will retire later this year) there is no guesswork in determining everybody’s pensions. The actuaries at Calpers project each of the future monthly payments due to Mr. Houser and the other five retirees, assuming they will live to age 90. (Mr. Hoesterey is not included because his retirement benefit is the new 401( k) plan.) Then, they translate all those future payments into today’s dollars with a rate — often called a discount rate. This is exactly how a lender would calculate a home mortgage. The problem is, which rate should be used? An economist would say the right rate for Calpers is the one for a bond, like a Treasury bond, because public pensions in California are guaranteed by the state and therefore . And that’s what Calpers does when it calculates market values. It used 2. 56 percent when it calculated the bill for the pest control district, producing a $447, 000 shortfall. But the rest of the time, Calpers and virtually all other public pension funds use their assumed annual rate of return on assets, now generally around 7. 5 percent. Presto: This makes a pension appear to have a much smaller liability — or even a surplus. That was the case with the pest control district for years. And since there seemed to be a surplus, Calpers said the district owed no annual contributions. Calpers’s numbers hid it, but the six members’ pensions were going unfunded. “Every economist who has looked at this has said, ‘It’s crazy to use what you expect to earn on assets to discount a guaranteed promise you have made. That’s nuts! ’” Professor Sharpe said. But what he calls crazy is enshrined in the actuarial standards. And since adhering to the standards makes public pensions look affordable, there is a powerful incentive to preserve those standards. “Actuaries shamelessly, although often in good faith, understate pension obligations by as much as 50 percent,” said Jeremy Gold, an actuary and economist, in a speech last year at the M. I. T. Center for Finance and Policy. “Their clients want them to. ” Mr. Gold was also a ringleader of that stormy professional meeting in 2003. Since then, there have been more conferences, monographs, speeches, panels and recommendations — to say nothing of an unusual spate of municipal bankruptcies and insolvencies in which ailing pension plans have played starring roles. And yet little has changed. Even as Citrus Pest Control District No. 2 was scrambling to find the cash to pay its unexpected bill this year, another fight broke out within the American Academy of Actuaries, which represents the profession in Washington, over the same issues. An academy task force had commissioned a paper on how financial economists would measure public pensions. But during the peer review process, the opus was spiked, the task force disbanded and the four authors — Mr. Gold among them — barred from publishing the work elsewhere. Accusations of censorship flew. The four authors said the academy’s copyright claims were false. The academy’s president, Thomas F. Wildsmith IV, said in a statement to members on the academy’s website that the paper “could not meet the academy’s publication standards. ” In a separate email message to The New York Times he said the academy was committed to helping the public understand the different measurements, and provided a position paper concluding that both measures are useful, but for different purposes. Then the Society of Actuaries, which handles the education and testing of actuaries, joined the fray. It posted the suppressed paper on its own website, albeit with the authors’ names removed. It claimed to hold the copyright jointly with the academy. It also added a statement that the paper did not reflect the position “of any group that speaks for the profession” but called the authors “knowledgeable. ” The society’s president, Craig W. Reynolds, sent an email message citing other efforts “to develop strong funding programs that are responsive to a rapidly changing environment. ” The four authors then issued a revised version of their paper, with their names on the front — and a claim that they held the copyright. The paper, which runs 19 pages, says in brief: Use market values for public pensions. Professor Sharpe noted that Calpers’s method was “virtually the precise approach advocated in this paper. ” Almost, but not entirely. At Citrus Pest Control District No. 2, Mr. Hoesterey said Calpers added a final twist. It took so long to calculate the district’s final payment that the bill arrived four months after the district’s withdrawal date — and then it charged four months’ interest, at 7. 5 percent, on the late payment. Ms. Morgan, the spokeswoman, said the lag was “unfortunate but unavoidable. ” Mr. Hoesterey said Calpers should have warned the district well in advance how big the bill might be, to give it time to find the money. “I kept asking: ‘Does this seem fair to you? What other organization conducts business like this? ’” he said. Seeing no way out, the district paid the whole thing.

How to Save the Conversation at Your Post-Election Thanksgiving Dinner

Pamela Bofferding

Sometimes going home for the holidays is hard (there’s a reason liquor sales swell during these occasions!). Often, Thanksgiving dinners bring far-flung family members together at a single table under one roof, and that, even in the best of circumstances, can lead to stress and awkward conversations. Add in the fact that this is an election year and you’re bound to encounter some strain while you pass those mashed potatoes across vastly different ideologies. I’ve heard from more than one friend or family member that they won’t be attending holiday dinners this year, and I think that’s really a shame. I’d encourage anyone thinking about going that route to reconsider; the following tips can help to make your Thanksgiving dinner manageable and enjoyable and can help you focus on your families’ similarities, rather than differences. Remember the Golden Rule of Polite Conversation If you’re an activist of any sort this may be difficult to adhere to, but the two topics that are best to leave on the coat hook are your religious and political views. Remember last year when Uncle Joe successfully convinced everyone at the table to convert to his exact religious and political beliefs? Yeah, that didn’t happen. No matter how zealous your convictions, if you truly want to make the two hours of Thanksgiving dinner comfortable, you need to skip that kind of talk. Now is no time to be passive-aggressive either: leave the political-themed hats and t-shirts at home. Focus instead on the personal: how people are doing in their jobs, what hobbies they are participating in, how their kids are doing. If someone tries to bait or lead you into a conversation that approaches one of the two danger zones, be nice but don’t engage. I once escaped a horrible conversation with a distant cousin by complimenting her earrings. Really, this is no different than abstaining from talk about your digestive issues or the road kill you saw on the drive over—it’s just plain rude to go there. And if your family happens to all hold the exact same beliefs and convictions, well, how nice for you! (Though you should know that for years my family assumed I shared their same political opinions when I absolutely did not—consider this might be the case for the person next to you at the table.) Thankful for Place Settings When I host Thanksgiving dinner at my house, each place setting has a little piece of paper with the subject heading “I am thankful for:” and 5 blank lines. I also give out fountain pens like these as a little gift to my guests. As everyone is seated, they fill out their lists. We take turns over the course of the dinner reading our lists. This is a great way to focus on what really matters to us and to help us share in our gratitude. Do Your Part Preparation is key in all situations, so having a couple of talking points in your conversation arsenal is smart. Avoid lulls in conversation by contributing. Think about something positive or meaningful that happened to you recently—a beautiful place that you visited or a great (non-political!) book or movie that you saw—and have an anecdote ready. When all else fails, you can always talk about the food: what your favorite part of the meal is, how certain dishes were prepared, and how good the wine is (but go easy on the wine!). Pamela Bofferding is a native Texan who now lives with her husband and sons in New York City. She enjoys hiking, traveling, and playing with her dogs. This information has been made available by Ready Nutrition Originally published November 17th, 2016 Southern Girl’s Survival Guide to Thanksgiving – The Thanksgiving Club Sandwich Negotiate Like a Pro With These 5 Powerful Tips How to Spot the Sociopath in Your Midst What to Do If Your Partner Thinks Prepared = Paranoid

The 5 Biggest Threats To Humanity Exposed

Whitney Webb

With attention squarely focused on the criminality of politicians, particularly that of the US presidential candidates, it’s easy to overlook the people really responsible for all this chaos....

Trump Will Issue New Travel Order Instead of Fighting Case in Court - The New York Times

Adam Liptak

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department told a federal appeals court on Thursday that it would not seek a rehearing of a decision that shut down President Trump’s targeted travel ban. Instead, the administration will start from scratch, issuing a new executive order, the department said. Last Thursday, a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, blocked the key parts of the original executive order, which suspended the nation’s refugee program as well as travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The panel said the original ban was unlikely to survive constitutional scrutiny. The Justice Department said that the panel’s decision was riddled with errors but that the flaws it noted would be addressed in the new executive order. “Rather than continuing this litigation,” the Justice Department’s brief said, “the president intends in the near future to rescind the order and replace it with a new, substantially revised executive order to eliminate what the panel erroneously thought were constitutional concerns. ” “In so doing,” the brief said, “the president will clear the way for immediately protecting the country rather than pursuing further, potentially litigation. ” In a news conference on Thursday, Mr. Trump said the new executive order would be issued next week. In its brief, the Justice Department urged the appeals court to await the new order and then vacate last Thursday’s decision. It is not clear that the issuance of a new and narrower executive order will make the case before the Ninth Circuit moot or that the court will agree to vacate the decision even if it did. The Supreme Court has said the “voluntary cessation” of a government action does not usually make a case moot if the government remains free to resume the conduct after the case is dismissed. In calling for a legal the Justice Department avoided a Supreme Court test of the original executive order. A tie on the Supreme Court would have left the panel’s decision in place. Mr. Trump’s travel ban, issued Jan. 27, caused confusion and protests at airports nationwide and was immediately challenged in court. Many federal judges blocked aspects of the order. The broadest injunction was issued on Feb. 3 by Judge James L. Robart of the Federal District Court in Seattle, acting in a lawsuit filed by the states of Washington and Minnesota. Judge Robart required the administration to roll back the key aspects of the order, and travel from the affected countries resumed almost immediately. The next day, the Justice Department filed an emergency appeal, saying that national security concerns required immediate action from the appeals court. The panel heard arguments a few days later, and in a unanimous decision last Thursday, it refused to reinstate the ban. Many legal scholars, including ones who disapproved of the ban, have criticized the reasoning in the panel’s ruling. The Justice Department’s brief tracked many of those critiques, saying the panel’s decision was plagued by misunderstandings about the scope of the original executive order and the president’s authority to address immigration. “In other circumstances,” the brief said, “the panel’s multiple errors in sustaining a substantially overbroad injunction, and thereby prohibiting enforcement of a lawful executive order designed to protect the nation’s security, would warrant” review by a larger panel of the Ninth Circuit. “Such review is not called for at this time,” the brief said, given the forthcoming executive order. In their own brief filed Thursday, Washington and Minnesota agreed with the administration on one thing: that no rehearing of the panel’s decision was warranted. But the states argued that the panel’s ruling had been careful and correct. “The panel’s order thoroughly considered the legal precedent and the parties’ arguments and neither overlooked nor misunderstood a point of law or fact,” the brief said. The briefs came in response to a request from the appeals court. Last Friday, an unidentified appeals court judge called for a vote on whether the panel’s ruling should be reheard by a larger panel of the Ninth Circuit. If a majority of the court’s active judges vote to rehear the case, it would typically be considered by an panel made up of the circuit’s chief judge and 10 judges chosen at random. Rehearing motions filed by parties and requests for votes on rehearings requested by judges are not particularly unusual. The Ninth Circuit rehears decisions issued by panels 15 to 25 times a year, the court said. The Ninth Circuit has 25 active judges 18 were appointed by Democratic presidents. Even if the Ninth Circuit agrees to vacate the panel’s decision, challenges to the original executive order will continue in other courts. And the new executive order may draw fresh legal challenges.

Egyptian Court Clears Way for Hosni Mubarak’s Release - The New York Times

Declan Walsh

CAIRO — Egypt’s top appeals court cleared former President Hosni Mubarak of any responsibility for the killing of hundreds of people during the 2011 protests that ended his rule, sweeping away the final legal hurdle to Mr. Mubarak’s release from detention. The ruling drew cheers from Mr. Mubarak’s supporters, who have in recent years cast off the stigma once associated with his name to air increasingly vocal demands for his release. But it represented a bitter landmark for the millions of Egyptians who risked their lives to oust Mr. Mubarak and his circle during the heady, uprising in early 2011. None of the figures who grew rich and influential during his time in power are still in jail. The sole exception is Mr. Mubarak himself, who has been under guard for years at the Maadi Military Hospital in Cairo, at a room overlooking the Nile. But the decision to keep him in detention is widely seen here as a political matter rather than a legal one — constructed to avoid any embarrassment to Egypt’s current leader, President Abdel Fattah who sometimes praises the 2011 revolution. In contrast, thousands of Egyptians who rose against him in 2011 are stuck in prison, in many cases after mass trials that drew stinging international criticism. The prisoners include supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, but also activists, lawyers and journalists who dared to challenge Mr. Sisi. “It’s pretty telling that Mubarak, who ran the country into the ground, gets acquitted, and people who gave their everything to try and do something for the country are sitting in prison,” said Ahdaf Soueif, an author whose nephew, the activist and blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah, is in jail. Some Egyptian prisoners have been held without trial for years, often in terrible conditions, in stark contrast with the relatively gilded conditions enjoyed by Mr. Mubarak. According to supporters who have visited him, Mr. Mubarak gets regular deliveries of flowers, newspapers and takeout restaurant meals, as well as a constant stream of visitors. Occasionally, Mr. Mubarak emerges onto the balcony to wave at cheering supporters gathered at the hospital gates. His sons Alaa and Gamal, who were convicted on charges of embezzling millions of dollars of state money, were released from prison in 2015 and are often sighted in restaurants and shops in upscale Cairo neighborhoods. In the past six years, Mr. Mubarak has faced a slew of criminal charges for corruption and misrule. He was often seen glowering with anger when he appeared in court and was forced to sit inside a cage. But he has been convicted in just one corruption case, which concluded in 2015 when an appeals court upheld a sentence. The judge allowed Mr. Mubarak to count time served against the sentence. Alternately defiant or embittered, Mr. Mubarak never publicly displayed much contrition for his actions during his three decades in power. On Thursday he was flown by helicopter to the courtroom, where he sat in a wheelchair and smiled at supporters from the defendant’s cage. Among those watching from the public gallery was his son Gamal, once groomed as his successor. Yousri Abdelraziq, a lawyer and Mubarak supporter who was present in court, said the former president was in a buoyant mood after his acquittal. “He fully intends to go home, perhaps in a month or two,” he said. He suggested that Mr. Mubarak might want to go to his palatial villa at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, which was the subject of a different, failed corruption case. The final case against Mr. Mubarak centered on accusations that he ordered shootings by security forces that led to the deaths of 239 people during the 2011 uprising. In 2012, a court sentenced Mr. Mubarak to life in prison, but an appeals court ordered a retrial, which resulted in his initial acquittal in 2014. Thursday’s ruling confirmed that acquittal, prompting renewed speculation that Mr. Sisi might release Mr. Mubarak from detention, though it could prove politically awkward. In speeches, Mr. Sisi regularly pays tribute to the 2011 uprising, which was supported by the Egyptian military. “If they let Mubarak out, what does that say about 2011 — that the military got it wrong?” said Hisham A. Hellyer, author of “A Revolution Undone: Egypt’s Road Beyond Revolt. ” Still, Mr. Sisi’s tenure is more strongly defined by the tumultuous events that brought him to power, when the military he led toppled the democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, in 2013. Since then Mr. Sisi has cracked down hard on the Brotherhood, while his supporters have sought to portray the events of 2011 as a result of foreign interference in Egypt. Some Egyptians believe that Mr. Sisi might want to free Mr. Mubarak before the presidential election set to take place next year, as a means of drawing a line under the 2011 uprising. Mr. Sisi himself has yet to make his views clear. Mr. Mubarak, for his part, has always insisted he did nothing wrong. After a list of charges against the former president was read aloud in court on Thursday — quite possibly for the last time — he responded curtly: “It did not happen. ”

Russia Moves to Soften Domestic Violence Law - The New York Times

Ivan Nechepurenko

MOSCOW — Russian lawmakers on Wednesday moved to decriminalize some forms of domestic battery for offenders who do not do serious physical harm to their victims. Members of the State Duma passed the controversial amendment to the Russian criminal code in its second reading, which essentially assures it will go to President Vladimir V. Putin for his signature. The amendment treats a first conviction for domestic battery as an administrative offense, carrying a penalty of a $500 fine or 15 days in jail. If Mr. Putin signs the measure into law, only injuries like concussions or broken bones, or repeated offenses committed in a family setting, would lead to criminal charges. Defenders of the measure say it will protect parents’ rights to discipline their children and generally reduce the state’s role in domestic life. “In the traditional Russian family culture, relations between ‘fathers and sons’ are built upon the authority of parents’ power, mutual love and personal indispensability as the basis for children’s upbringing,” said Yelena B. Mizulina, one of the initiators of the new legislation and author of a law that banned “gay propaganda” aimed at minors. Opponents called it a step back to medieval times and a license for violent behavior by domestic tyrants. “It is clear that lawmakers recognized violence as a norm of family life,” said Svetlana G. Aivazova, a Russian specialist in gender studies. “This shows that Duma deputies are not simply conservative or traditional, it shows that they are archaic. ” Ms. Aivazova and other experts say that Russia has a serious problem with domestic violence. Citing data provided by Russia’s Interior Ministry, Ms. Aivazova told Mr. Putin in 2015 that “40 percent of all grave violent crimes are committed in families. ” In 2013, she said, more than 9, 000 women died in criminal assaults and more than 11, 000 were badly injured. In 2014, she said, “more than 25 percent of all murders were committed in families. ” In the United States, by comparison, 11, 766 women were killed by a husband or boyfriend in the years 2001 to 2012, an average of about 1, 000 a year in a country with about twice the population of Russia. Ms. Aivazova asked Mr. Putin to support a special law on the prevention of domestic violence that had already been passed in 143 countries, including Russia’s neighbors Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Mr. Putin thanked her, but the law remained in the State Duma, and Ms. Aivazova said she was not optimistic about its prospects. In the past, Mr. Putin has expressed concern about domestic violence, even in the absence of serious injury. “I think we should not slap children and justify it based on some old traditions,” he told journalists at his last news conference in December. “There is a short distance from slaps to beating. ” The new legislation was pushed by conservative members of the Russian parliament and the Russian Orthodox Church, who were incensed last summer when lawmakers criminalized domestic violence, acting upon a recommendation by the Supreme Court. The Russian Orthodox Church, which has steadily increased its influence in social policy in recent years, said in a statement last year that physical punishment was a Russian tradition and thus should be protected as “an essential right given to parents by God. ” “There is absolutely no doubt that children should be defended against true criminal activities,” the church said. “But you cannot equate such criminal assaults with rational and moderate use of physical punishment by loving parents. ” Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, said the new legislation was a sign of the state’s determination to “make conditions for strong families to emerge. ”

Against Hillary's Malevolent Matriarchy

Ilana Mercer

What feminists can learn from Melania Trump. October 28, 2016 Ilana Mercer In recent interviews, Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, observed wryly that almost every malicious, lie-filled article about herself or he husband was written by a … female. Indeed, women seem to have a particular stake in bringing Mr. Trump down. The contrast between Mrs. Trump and the many histrionic shrews prosecuting her husband is stark. In both her interviews with CNN's condescending Anderson Cooper and Fox News's Ainsley Earhardt, Mrs. Trump was the embodiment of "strength." When a liberal woman declares she's a strong woman (usually uttered in a tart-like, staccato inflection), she's using a cliché. Look at her actions. You'll see that "strong" to liberal distaff means kicking and screaming until she brings others into compliance with her worldview and ways. A "strong" liberal woman is one who hammers you about your obligation to fork-out for her Trojans and her Trivora. And if birth control fails our liberated libertine, then you're on the hook for her abortions and abortifacients. And don't dare doubt any of the intemperate charges leveled by this prototype liberal succubus against a man, any man. To doubt her is to harm her. It was not without significance that Hillary Clinton’s first general election speech, in June, was before Planned Parenthood. At the time, media buried the story of one named Rajiv K. Fernando , who had donated to the Clinton Foundation and was given a seat as Hillary’s nuclear weapons advisor. Watching this, I was thinking endemic corruption, the $19 trillion debt, the dire jobs report, the terrifying prospect of negative interest rates and the fate of savers. But Hillary and her gyno-brigade in media and across the country were cheering for a universal right to taxpayer-paid dilation and curettage (D&C). Melania Trump, on the other hand, is authentically strong. In her refusal to impart salacious tell-all tidbits to interviewers, in the way she guards her privacy and that of her family; in her serene, gracious, and beautiful manners and bearing—Mrs. Trump exemplifies a European woman's good breeding. She's a class act. Her enemies are the cultural underclass. Nor does Mrs. Trump display any of the histrionics about men exhibited by her American counterparts. There are images on the Internet of presidents being inappropriate with women. In particular, you can watch a grainy YouTube clip of Barack Obama appearing to be showing off his crotch to giggling female reporters. In another, the president, with France's Nicolas Sarkozy, is eying the shapely behind of a young woman passing by. Much to media chagrin, Melania refused to get worked up about the 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which her husband engaged in locker-room talk. Men will be men. If they're not saying it; they're thinking it. More material than her mien were Melania Trump's words of reason. On the Soviet-style witch-hunt launched against her husband with media mediation, she said this: “All sexual assault allegations should be handled in a court of law. To accuse someone, man or woman, without evidence is damaging and unfair.” This was the exact verdict of famed defense attorney Tom Mesereau, about the Bill Cosby pile-on. Quit the feeding frenzy. Give the man his due process. Investigate the women, counseled Mesereau, Esq., at the time. The very embodiment of the malevolent liberal matriarchy rising is the sainted Michelle Obama. The First Lady was lauded for an unhinged anti-Trump address to the nation's women. In a world where Americans have been beheaded on camera, women raped en masse on Europe's streets, and Christians exterminated in the Middle East—the First Lady bewailed being "shaken" to her shallow core by raunchy words. "I can't stop thinking about it," groaned Michelle about Mr. Trump's Access Hollywood indiscretion. It "has shaken me to my core in a way I could not have predicted." The ritualistic decapitation on the altar of a Catholic priest by Muslim migrants in France: That's something "I can't stop thinking about." The machine-gunning of five Macy's shoppers and employees by a Turkish Muslim immigrant (Arcan Cetin), in my neck of the woods: That "has shaken me to my core in a way I could not have predicted." Again, Mrs. Obama's pitiful case against Mr. Trump has strengthened nothing but her drama-queen credentials. Candidate Clinton crowed that Mrs. Obama's long whinge for women was a "compelling and strong case about the stakes in the election, about who we are as Americans." Indeed, the implicit case Michelle put to women is this: a mammoth national debt, a shrinking job market, rising lawlessness and racial strife, an annual intake of mostly Third-World immigrants exceeding 3 million, the dangers to life and limb of importing more Islam: fuhgeddaboudit. What counts, whimpered Michelle Obama, voice trembling—yes, Mrs. Obama almost brought herself to tears—was to ferret out microaggression, and find a safe-place to hunker down. As I write, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has stormed a stage somewhere for Hillary Clinton. Phony Pocahontas is hollering about the power of "nasty women" to immiserate. Clinton and Warren make for a resentful, domineering, power-hungry pair, who’ve made it big in life through the use of state power. The human backdrop to their displays of female force invariably looks the same. Whereas Trump rallies are packed with hope-filled, beaming faces; a Clinton-Warren affair is festooned with malevolent-looking, aggrieved women and their frightened, low-T houseboys. The background music: enfeebled squeaking courtesy of a female pop “singer” like Katy Perry, whose out-of-tune yelps and bedroom whispers would be unheard, if not for the marvel of Auto-Tune. (Auto-Tune is the “holy grail of recording” that “corrects intonation problems in vocals or solo instruments, in real time, without distortion or artifacts.” It was invented by a male engineer.) Shudder. If this melodramatic, neurotic message is the voice of America's women—and legions of Republican women have seconded it—then count me with HER, with Melania.

Multiple universes and enhanced life

Gillian

Leave a reply Notes toward a theory of overlapping universes “If everything is already connected to everything, as we’re told, the universe would be one dead hot dog, long past its expiration date. We should, instead, be considering a universe of separated forces, and when they come in contact, they can produce sparks of surprise, novelty, spontaneous energy, and synchronous possibilities…” (The Magician Awakes, Jon Rappoport) “The 19th French Impressionist painters were all dedicated to revealing light in nature. They made all their subjects bathe in it. But each painter pursued that goal in a different way, as if he were describing a different universe. Perhaps they were also showing the collision of several universes…” (The Magician Awakes) Jon Rappoport – Consider a different way of looking at things: The life we are living has an invisible characteristic which is massively important. This characteristic is the meeting and overlapping of separate universes. When this phenomenon occurs, it produces what some people call synchronicity. The important thing is: this synchronicity is spontaneous in the moment and alive and vital and brimming with possibility. If we recognize it, it “fills the cup to the brim” and spills over. It is abundant. Some physicists claim that, in order to make sense out of quantum theory, in order to track its implications, you need to accept multiple universes. If you wanted to move into even deeper waters, you would consider the proposition that such universes interconnect and overlap. During roughly the same period that quantum theory appeared, painters were exploring simultaneous universes. Cubism and Collage (Picasso, Braque), Surrealism (Dali, Max Ernst, Roberto Matta). Writers were moving that direction (Rimbaud, Andre Breton, Apollinaire, Jarry). Conceiving of this universe as one space-time continuum would naturally lead to the question, “Why not more than one continuum?” Dreams, in their episodic unfolding, shift radically from one scene to another, and the dreamer isn’t jolted out of sleep by the changes. He goes on the ride. He’s absorbed in the action. He’s a kind of explorer, on a search, and if the voyage takes him from one universe to another, so be it. But in waking time, we want our experience to be serial, to follow the rules. We want our language to bolster the rules. Subject, verb, object. And so we ask, as well, that our problems lead to solutions in a straight line. Occasionally, we might wonder whether there is an entirely different way to effect solutions, particularly when we’re dealing with a stubborn or chronic problem. In a way, that was my impetus for developing what I call Magic Theater, based on Psychodrama, in which people would improvise roles in dialogue with each other. For example, when faced with Problem X, the person plays the role of “the person who has already solved X.” And in this role, he speaks with “someone who is struggling with X.” A new situation is invented, where two separate universes, so to speak, collide and overlap. Or a person plays the role of Problem X itself and speaks as that problem, to someone who is playing the role of “an inhabitant of a universe in which Problem X could never exist.” In a general sense, you simply have two people play the roles of inhabitants of vastly different kinds of universes. They sit and talk to each other. In approaching the subject of simultaneous overlapping universes, the notion of synchronicity pops up. Thirty years ago, I used to walk around Los Angeles with my camera snapping hundreds of pictures. At the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, on a Saturday afternoon, I was standing outside the main building taking pictures of Rodin’s large sculpture, The Burghers of Calais. A heavy-set woman wearing a long coat suddenly stepped into the scene and looked up at one of the Burghers. I caught her in the frame and snapped the shot. Later, when the black-and-white photo was developed, it turned out that her overhanging hair-do was nearly identical to the piled up arrangement of hair on the Burgher she was staring at. Her head was the same wedge shape as the Burgher’s. The similarity and the dissonance (a metal man, a flesh-and-blood woman, from two different epochs) were startling. A few minutes later, inside the Museum, I was focusing my camera on a very large painting of several 18th-century courtesans reclining on a couch in a luxurious chamber hung with rich heavy curtains. This was just the kind of painting I would ordinarily pass without a second glance. Two girls stepped in front of the painting and looked up at it. I snapped several shots. Later, after developing them, I saw that the girls were wearing all sorts of costume bracelets and rings. The contrast between the girls’ and the courtesans’ jewelry, and between the young fresh faces of the girls and the opulent experienced faces of the courtesans, was quite marvelous—and the photo diminished the distance and separateness between the girls and the painting. The universe of the girls and universe of the painting suddenly met and overlapped. As a wandering photographer in Los Angeles, I experienced many of these spontaneous synchronicities. This was a different order of reality. I would never have found it, had I not been carrying a camera and taking pictures. It would have been invisible. But there it was, on film. I was prompted to think that the reality of the street is much more than we usually believe it to be. That “more” is actually there, all the time. But we stumble past it. The “more” is multiple universes. We ignore them, because we’re trained to. Suppose we are actually living in multiple universes all the time, and the gist of it, all the time, is the spontaneity and surprise and novelty that imparts life and vitality to the whole operation. If we could see it. And we don’t see it, because every time we experience a glimpse of it, we discount it as “fantasy,” and we stash those moments, as memories, in the place where they seem to belong, THE IMAGINATION. And then, by living with imagination, we re-discover simultaneous overlapping universes…. We expect and insist on a flow of cause and effect in space. That’s the way we conceive of events. A to B to C to D. This is the story of investigation in this universe. And it works, of course. It works brilliantly. What happens in an engine? Trace the flow of energy through the working parts and out into another mechanical framework where the energy gets something done. A to B to C. I’m simply proposing an additional way of looking at events. As an analogy, take this odd view of magnetism. The piece of iron is already “attract-able.” It has that quality. And the quality involves vibration, motion, a reaching out. And then we have the magnet, which already has the quality called “capable of attracting something.” And the magnet and the piece of iron are separate and simultaneous worlds. And it is this fact that gives strength to the overall attraction. The magnet and the piece of iron could forever exist as separate. They could never meet. They are self-contained worlds. They aren’t inherently connected because of their “attitudes” toward attraction. They are whole and separate. Then, when they come near each other, there is an explosion, an overlapping, which stems from what they already are. And in the same way, separate but simultaneous percolating of different processes in the body meet and overlap. Side by side “worlds” operating in their own ways, in the body, create a condition of health. Imagine that each “world” in the body exudes energy radiations, its own particular DIFFERENT radiations. The neurotransmitters do. The hormones do. The blood system does. The digestive system does. The immune system does. And so on. And when all these distinct and different energy outputs, as multiple universes, meet and overlap, you get health. We are tuned to say, “Well, health is expected and understood when everything is working well. We know about health. We’re very familiar with it.” But suppose the situation I described above—separate universes in the body simultaneously existing side by side—IS REALLY A SYNCHRONICITY, in the sense that its nature is surprise. A thing that wasn’t predicted and isn’t blandly familiar at all. Just as people you never expected to be walking on the street at the same moment are showing up on the same street at the same moment, and you never notice that surprise because you’re trained to expect the category called “people walking on the same street”—in that same sense, these worlds of operation in the body are all about surprise and novelty and are really of a fantastic nature—and THAT is somehow why health appears. Spontaneity, over and over and over again. And suppose we are actually living in multiple universes all the time, and the gist of it, all the time, is the spontaneity and surprise and novelty of the overlappings. And we don’t see it, because every time we experience a glimpse of it, we discount it as “fantasy,” and we stash those moments in the place where they seem to belong, THE IMAGINATION. Many people, these days, want to say “TOGETHER, not SEPARATE.” They have their reasons, which are too tiresome to rehash. I’m suggesting that separate can be brilliant, can imply simultaneity, spontaneity, the juice of life, multiple universes. After all, when physicists say “multiple universes,” do you immediately jump in and say, “Well, they’re just one really big universe”? Do you? Or do you admit the fascination of OTHER universes not inextricably bound to the same laws as this one? Other places, other events, other people, different, thrilling. When you dream, do you tell yourself all dreams are actually one big glob of dreaming, or do you jump in and explore the unique landscape in front of you in the dream you’re in? And isn’t it exciting when one dream collides with the next one, and you make the jump—from one universe to another? So…what makes the life we know interesting and intriguing and thrilling and worth living is actually: the collision of multiple universes that naturally deliver spontaneity, surprise, novelty, and synchronicities that give us the chance of discovering new paths and roads and futures. And along those roads, we can invent greater futures than we had previously imagined… Jon Rappoport is t h e author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED , EXIT FROM THE MATRIX , and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX , Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29 th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at NoMoreFakeNews.com or OutsideTheRealityMachine . SF Source Jon Rappoport