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Music World Bands Together Against YouTube, Seeking Change to Law - The New York Times

Ben Sisario

A few years ago, the biggest enemy of the music industry was Pandora Media. Then Spotify became the target. Now it is YouTube’s turn. In recent months, the music world has been united to a rare degree in a public fight against YouTube, accusing the service of paying too little in royalties and asking for changes to the law that allows the company to operate the way it does. The battle highlights the need to capture every dollar as listeners’ habits turn to streaming, as well as the industry’s complicated relationship with YouTube. The dispute has played out in a drumbeat of industry reports, blog posts and opinion columns. Stars like Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams and Billy Joel have signed letters asking for changes to copyright laws. Irving Azoff, the manager of artists like the Eagles and Christina Aguilera, criticized YouTube in an interview and in a fiery speech around the Grammy Awards. Also, annual sales statistics were released showing that YouTube, despite its gigantic audience, produces less direct income for musicians than the niche market of vinyl record sales. “This is the result of an explosion of views of music videos on YouTube against a backdrop of decline in the recorded music business in general,” Larry Miller, an associate professor of music business at New York University’s Steinhardt School, said of the fight. With more than a billion users, including the youngest and most engaged music fans, YouTube has long been seen by the music business as a vital way to promote songs and hunt for the next star. At the same time, music executives grumble that it has never been a substantial source of revenue and is a vexing outlet for leaks and unauthorized material. It may not be a coincidence that the major record labels are also in the midst of renegotiating their licensing contracts with YouTube this year. In its newest effort, the music industry has asked the federal government to change the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying that the law, which was passed in 1998 and protects sites like YouTube that host copyrighted material posted by users, is outdated and makes removing unauthorized content too difficult. Cary Sherman, the chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, says that even when songs are taken down, they can easily be uploaded again. “This is a new form of piracy,” he said. “You don’t have to go into dark corners and sell stuff out of your car. You can do it in plain sight and rely on the D. M. C. A. to justify that what you’re doing is perfectly legal. ” Europe’s copyright protections are also under review, and last month, Andrus Ansip, the European Commission’s digital chief, called on YouTube to pay more for its content. But so far, YouTube does not seem shaken. In an interview, Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s chief business officer, said that since its inception in 2005, YouTube has paid $3 billion to the music industry around the world. (In earlier statements, YouTube has said that Google, its parent company, paid that amount across all of its sites, but Mr. Kyncl now says that YouTube alone has contributed that sum and that other Google services have added even more.) “Music matters tremendously to us,” Mr. Kyncl said. “Artists matter to us. We are connecting artists and fans on our platforms. ” He also pointed to the site’s new subscription plan, YouTube Red, and said YouTube’s copyright protections were functioning as they should. Content ID, the site’s proprietary system, lets copyright owners keep track of their material, and when the system detects a new video including a tracked song — whether in a full music video or just the background of a clip — the owner can choose to keep the video online or take it down. According to YouTube, 98 percent of copyright claims on its system are made through Content ID, and 99. 5 percent of the claims related to music are handled automatically. YouTube says about half the money it pays in music royalties is related to videos that incorporate music processed through Content ID. “We are working to create what has become the most significant revenue generator in the entertainment industry,” Mr. Kyncl said, “which is a dual revenue stream where you monetize all people: heavy users through subscription, and light users through advertising. ” But the music world argues that YouTube’s financial contributions have not kept pace with the popularity of its streams. In March, the recording industry association’s annual report of sales statistics, usually a dry financial summary, criticized YouTube harshly. It said that free sites like it, which let users pick specific songs on demand, paid $385 million to record labels in the United States — less than the $416 million collected from the sale of just 17 million vinyl records. Spotify paid about $1. 8 billion last year for music licensing and related costs, according to the company’s annual returns, although the average royalty rates for its free tier are not much different from YouTube’s, by some estimates. The fight over the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has touched a nerve. The music industry is bracing for what may be a lobbying battle reminiscent of the one over the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill that was abandoned in 2012 after opposition from technology activists and Internet giants like Google and Wikipedia. The copyright law gives “safe harbor” to Internet service providers that host material. While music groups criticize the law, some legal scholars and policy specialists say any change to it would need to be considered carefully, particularly to preserve protections like fair use. “Anything that rewrites the D. M. C. A. isn’t just going to affect YouTube,” said James Grimmelmann, a law professor at the University of Maryland. “It is going to affect blogs. It is going to affect fan sites. It is going to affect places for game creators and documentarians and all kinds of others. ” In December, the United States Copyright Office asked for comments about D. M. C. A. as part of a review of the law, and filings by record companies show how laborious copyright policing can be. Universal Music said that after Taylor Swift’s album “1989” was released in late 2014, the company devoted a team of employees full time to search for unauthorized copies to date, the company said, it has sent 66, 000 takedown notices to various sites about “1989,” in addition to 114, 000 blocks on YouTube made automatically through Content ID. Maria Schneider, a jazz composer, said in an interview that the problem was particularly acute for independent acts like her, who do not have Content ID accounts, and that the D. M. C. A.’s takedown process discouraged lawful requests. YouTube says that about 8, 000 companies and organizations have access to Content IDand that independents may get access through affiliated companies and industry groups. Mr. Kyncl said the steps in the takedown process were meant to ensure the accuracy of requests and deter false claims. Mr. Azoff said that after the Copyright Office made its request, he and other managers asked artists they represented whether they wanted to sign a letter calling for changes to the law. “Not one artist declined,” he said. “But if there are creators who like their music on YouTube and SoundCloud, that’s fine,” Mr. Azoff said. “The whole point is choice: Artists should be able to choose. ”

AnonVoid (Moderator)

welcome back jeannette trump!

Orlando Gunman Used Assault Rifle With Military Roots, Police Say - The New York Times

C. J. Chivers

A firearm that the authorities said was used on Sunday in a mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla. is a descendant of one of the world’s most widely distributed and familiar infantry weapons, and a type of rifle that has been involved in previous mass shootings in the United States. Chief John Mina of the Orlando Police Department said the gunman’s weapons included a handgun and an “ assault rifle. ” The first were designed in the 1950s by Eugene M. Stoner, a Marine and inventor, who developed the weapon to military standards and for military service. It was an atypical rifle for its time, seemingly futuristic, and made partly with lightweight plastics and aluminum that traditionalists scorned. It fired a bullet — a . 223 — that was also considered revolutionary. The rifle was capable, via a selector lever, of semiautomatic or automatic fire. In the 1960s, under Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, the Pentagon bought vast quantities of the rifle, calling it the for American ground troops in Vietnam. The ’s firepower and reputation for lethality were necessary, in Mr. McNamara’s view, to counter the Kalashnikov assault rifles carried by the North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong. In this way, the and the Kalashnikov became a related pair, the assault rifle of the West springing into service as a response to the more widely distributed assault rifle of the East. A later, and are made in varied forms by multiple manufacturers, and updated versions, including the carbine, remain the standard weapon for most American service members and many allies. Civilian versions have many trade and model names, but are generally referred to as although this name is a rough description and does not indicate whether a particular specimen of the rifle is capable of both semiautomatic fire and automatic fire, or is semiautomatic only. The police have not said whether the weapon recovered in Orlando was capable of automatic fire. Such questions are politically contentious, although depending on a shooter’s skill and the situation, they can sometimes be moot, as aimed semiautomatic fire from a competent shooter can be far more dangerous than automatic fire, which is harder to control and is often inaccurate. that fire only on semiautomatic are generally legal in the United States, and are widely owned by enthusiasts. They are also sometimes used in crimes, and have been involved in some of the most deadly mass shootings in American history, including the massacre in December in San Bernardino, Calif. which killed 14 people, and the attack in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. which killed 26 people, 20 of them children. (That gunman also killed his mother at home before driving to the school.) The ’s once unfamiliar caliber — commonly called 5. — also evolved into a military standard. The combination can cause serious wounds, though the damage is determined partly by the type of bullet fired. Investigators in Orlando have yet to provide details on the bullets that were fired in the attack.

Cranberry Extract Now Proven to Scramble Bacteria Communication, Cuts Virulence

Heather Callaghan

By Heather Callaghan, Editor The power of the cranberry is resurfacing as new research shows the mechanism by which cranberry extract cuts bacteria communication, stops it from spreading and lessens...

MR

Expect people who can't pay the penalties or taxes to be put in prison. This will happen.

‘We never denied Israel’s right to Jerusalem, Temple Mount’

Kaitlyn Stegall

November 7, 2016 ‘We never denied Israel’s right to Jerusalem, Temple Mount’ Levy quizzed him about those controversial issues as well as his support for Syrian President Basher Assad and charges that his country had intervened in the US elections. How does Russia explain its support of the UNESCO vote “to disregard the historic connection between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem,” Levy asked Medvedev. The issue had been blown out of proportion, he responded speaking in Russian, with a Hebrew translation by Channel 2. There have been some ten votes by UNESCO Boards and Committees on such Jerusalem resolutions, Medvedev said. “There is nothing new here,” he said, as he dismissed the significance of UNESCO texts that refer to the Temple Mount solely by its Muslim name of Al Haram Al Sharif. “Our country has never denied the rights of Israel or the Jewish people to Jerusalem, the Temple Mount or the Western Wall,” Medvedev said. “Therefore there is no need to politicize this decision,” Medvedev said, adding that such resolutions, were “not directed against Israel.” Similarly, he said, there was nothing contradictory in Russia’s sale and shipment of the advanced S-300 advanced surface to air missile defense system to Iran.

Mom Fights Back After Son Gets Rejected From Ad Campaign “Because He Has Down’s Syndrome”

Amanda Froelich

Megan Nash is the proud mother of an adorable boy named Asher. Though Asher has a unique look due to Down Syndrome, his genetic condition doesn’t make him any less lovable or charismatic. In fact,...

Beyond the Anti-Trump Protests

Consortiumnews.com

Beyond the Anti-Trump Protests November 17, 2016 Anti-Trump protests broke out shortly after the presidential results were in, but progressives need a more comprehensive and thoughtful approach to the next four years, says Sam Husseini. By Sam Husseini Two views seem to be dominant among progressives regarding Donald Trump: Either protest all he does (people have been holding “anti-Trump” rallies for the past week) or “give him a chance” (let’s see what he does, maybe it will be okay). But both the demonizers and those urging a passive approach are wrong. The “Anti-Trump” approach is hollow. First, to protest a person is dubious. Too often, “progressives” have focused on the personal rather than the policies and actions. Remember “Anybody But Bush”? That’s not a particularly uplifting way of approaching things and doesn’t lead to genuinely positive outcomes. Also, Trump is someone who has said a lot of contradictory things. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in an MSNBC interview. So, you can certainly talk about rights for immigrants or women’s rights or ensuring that anti-Muslim policies do not escalate. But to say “anti-Trump” or to ignore good things that Trump has said is hollow. And, yes, there are good things he’s said. For example, during the primaries, he denounced the “regime change” wars waged by George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: “We’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that frankly, if they were there and if we could’ve spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems; our airports and all of the other problems we’ve had, we would’ve been a lot better off. I can tell you that right now.” But it also doesn’t make sense to say “let’s see what he does.” To stand aside is to allow Trump to be cutting deals with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who will doubtlessly work to take away what populist, anti-interventionist and pro-working-class instincts Trump might otherwise follow. Bernie Sanders has in recent days struck a reasonable tone at times. In this interview and in a statement just after the election, he said: “Donald Trump tapped into the anger of a declining middle class that is sick and tired of establishment economics, establishment politics and the establishment media. … To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him. To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him.” That seems like a reasonable approach although the major problem with what Sanders says is that it ignores foreign policy, a longstanding problem with Sanders. But others are addressing foreign policy: Rand Paul is right to press: “ Will Donald Trump betray voters by hiring John Bolton? ” Diana Johnston at CounterPunch wrote: “ After the Election: Don’t Panic, Think! ” Left-Right Alliances One possible opportunity is for progressives to be forging left-right alliances , as Sanders alludes to above. Indeed, the senator’s biographer, Greg Guma, notes that Sanders has done that in the past at times: Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking to one of his large crowds of supporters. (Photo credit: Sanders campaign) “One unusual aspect of Bernie’s approach in Congress has been to wage congressional battles with people whose stands on other issues he abhors. In fact, much of Bernie’s legislative success has come through forging deals with ideological opposites. An amendment to bar spending in support of defense contractor mergers, for example, was pushed through with the aid of Chris Smith, a prominent opponent of abortion. John Kasich … helped him phase out risk insurance for foreign investments. “And it was a ‘left-right coalition’ he helped create that derailed ‘fast track’ legislation on international agreements pushed by Bill Clinton. The power of that strategy may have reached its apex in May 2010 when Bernie’s campaign to bring transparency to the Federal Reserve resulted in a 96-0 Senate vote on his amendment to audit the Fed and conduct a General Accounting Office audit of possible conflicts of interest in loans to unknown banks.” In fact, if such a right-left approach isn’t followed now, Trump will likely be forging alliances with Ryan and McConnell . In other words, the path ahead for construction policies may be narrow, but it holds the best hope for the next four years. That strategy calls for attacking Trump when he fails his populist promises but working with him when he pursues them. This approach also would likely strengthen populist elements within the Democratic Party and may lead to a de facto realignment of U.S. politics. It may be less glamorous than resisting and filibustering, which may be needed on some issues, but finding constructive overlaps might actually fix some things that need fixing. Last year, in a piece entitled “ In Defence of the Rise of Trump “, I wrote: “[Trump] might pursue the same old establishment policies if he were ever to get into office — that’s largely what Obama has done, especially on foreign policy. Trump says, ‘I was a member of the establishment seven months ago.’ “The point is that the natives are restless. And they should be. It’s an important time to engage them so they stay restless and funnel that energy to constructive use, not demonize or tune them out.” Demonizing Trump supporters has proved disastrous. It’s time for another approach by progressives: engagement. Sam Husseini is founder of VotePact.org .

Gorka Smites Haters, Radical Islamists in Jerusalem Post Speech - Breitbart

Joel B. Pollak

White House foreign policy adviser Dr. Sebastian Gorka won loud applause from the audience at the annual Jerusalem Post conference in New York on Sunday with a strident defense of his record and the Trump administration’s policies. [Gorka, who followed Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog and World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder, was interviewed onstage by the Post‘s Yaakov Katz. Katz did not waste time before jumping into the most controversial issues, questioning Gorka about rumors — spread largely by blogs and websites — of his membership in an Hungarian order. Gorka denied those reports, noting his father’s efforts to protect Jews from the Nazis, and his own lifelong struggle against totalitarian ideologies. He noted that he was “proud” to wear a medal his father had won from the Vitezi Rend order for his anticommunist activism, adding that the new order had nothing to do with its predecessor, which was disbanded after the Second World War. At the @Jerusalem_Post #Jpost17 conference @SebGorka “I have spent my life fighting against totalitarian ideologies”https: . — Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) May 7, 2017, Gorka pointed out that Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, had honored one of the members of the Vitezi Rend as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” for saving Jews during the Holocaust. And he noted that he had long been an advocate for Jews and for Israel, noting that even those publications that had set out to destroy him found no evidence of any antisemitic statements. In addition Gorka dismissed reports that he was leaving the administration as “very fake news,” and downplayed media speculation about infighting in the White House, describing all of the different advisers to the president as “patriots. ” Tragic that a decent man has to respond to such libel. Crowd here at #jpost17 seemed to appreciate that gave @SebGorka a standing ovation. https: . — Jeff Ballabon (@ballabon) May 7, 2017, From there, the discussion moved into foreign policy, with Gorka emphasizing the Trump administration’s commitment to Israel’s security, as well as to the peace process. He also defended the administration’s tough line on radical Islam, criticizing President Barack Obama’s administration for avoiding the religious inspiration of terrorists and for “leading from behind” — which, he noted, was “following,” in plain English. Asked whether he, and the administration as a whole, were Islamophobic, Gorka pointed out that many of the U. S. military personnel he had instructed in were Muslims, and noted that America’s Arab allies saw the struggle as one within Islam, not against Islam as a whole. He stressed the importance of helping Muslims win the war against radical Islamic terror, but without invading and occupying foreign countries. #Gorka: Trump understands the Islamic terror threat and he will obliterate it. #Jpost17, — David Brinn (@davidbjpost) May 7, 2017, He noted that many of the administration’s toughest critics were people aligned with the “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” (BDS) movement, as well as supporters of the Iran deal. Gorka’s critics seemed mostly reduced to fuming at the Jerusalem Post on Twitter. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Teacher Accused of Having Sex with Underage Student Grins in Mugshot

Katherine Rodriguez

A Texas science teacher accused of having sex with an underage student put on a grin for her mugshot when arrested. [Sarah Fowlkes, 27, was suspended from her job at Lockhart High School and faces possible prison time for the alleged crime, the Daily Mail reported. Fowlkes was booked into the Caldwell County Jail and later released. A school administrator reported an inappropriate relationship between a student and a teacher to the police and Child Protective Services, the Houston Chronicle reported. Detectives in Lockhart interviewed a student who said he had sexual contact with Fowlkes. Lockhart Independent School District suspended Fowlkes and notified the State Board for Educator Certification of her behavior. “Lockhart parents entrust their children to us every day, and it is something we do not take lightly,” Superintendent Susan Bohn said in the statement. “Student safety is the district’s most important priority. As soon as we learned of the report, we acted swiftly to involve law enforcement and CPS to conduct a thorough investigation. The district does not and will not tolerate any improper communication or contact between a teacher and child. ” According to a page the school district has deleted from its website, the teacher taught anatomy, physiology, and environmental systems at Lockhart High School since September. Prior to her job at the high school, she taught at Plum Creek Elementary in the same district where she worked since October 2014. Fowlkes is reportedly married.

Trump Joins Line of Critics of Costly Fighter Jet - The New York Times

Michael D. Shear, Christopher Drew and Isabel Kershner

WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump said on Monday that the cost of building the military’s fighter jet, the Joint Strike Fighter, had spiraled “out of control,” and he vowed to save billions of dollars on military programs once he enters office next month. In a Twitter post on Monday morning and a series of comments since last week, the assailed cost overruns for the Lockheed fighter jet that have pushed the project’s cost beyond $400 billion, making the plane the most expensive weapons system in military history. “The program and cost is out of control,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Twitter post just before 8:30 a. m. “Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th. ” Mr. Trump’s verbal assault on the continued a pattern in which the has targeted businesses for criticism and threatened presidential action. Since winning the election, he has challenged Boeing to lower the cost of upgrades to Air Force One, stepped in to stop Carrier from sending jobs to Mexico and taken credit for billions of dollars in investment from the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. But in pursuing the program, Mr. Trump may be facing a target that even he cannot budge. The is just the latest in a long line of critics in both parties who have beat up on the project, only to see it survive thanks to deep political support across the country. Lockheed has spread work on the to hundreds of subcontractors in most of the 50 states, and members of Congress typically oppose any cuts that would cost jobs in their states or districts. It is unclear what alternative the could embrace if the military turns away from the this late in the jet’s development the government has spent about $100 billion on the project, and 204 planes have been built. The Pentagon, under Robert M. Gates, the secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011, canceled a different fighter jet, the leaving nothing but the to replace aging fighters used by the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines. Once in office, Mr. Trump could try to shrink overall costs by trimming back plans to buy more than 2, 400 planes. But doing so simply pushes up the price of each jet. And that in turn could provoke diplomatic incidents with American allies who have contracted to add to their militaries. Higher costs per plane could exceed their budgets, as well. In the end, Mr. Trump’s public criticism of the plane may be about sending a warning message to private companies that contract with the military. While Mr. Trump said throughout the campaign that he would rebuild the nation’s military, his Twitter post on Monday signaled to contractors that they should not try to fleece the federal government. The immediate impact of Mr. Trump’s Twitter post on Monday was financial: After it was published, shares of Lockheed Martin had fallen by 4 percent around midday, reducing the company’s market value by about $4 billion, before rebounding somewhat. Lockheed shares ended the day down about 2. 5 percent, closing at $253. 11 a share. Mr. Trump posted on Twitter just as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter was in Israel to welcome the arrival of two the first of a fleet meant to help maintain Israel’s air superiority in the region. Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Carter described the as “the most advanced aircraft in history” and said, “Israel is our first and only friend in the region that is flying” it. Lockheed Martin’s program manager for the Jeff A. Babione, who was also in Israel for the planes’ arrival, said, “I certainly welcome the opportunity to address any question the would have about the program. ” Mr. Babione added that Lockheed had invested hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce the price of the airplane. Lockheed said that if the government stuck to plans to increase production, it could reduce the average price for each by 2020 to $85 million, about the same as less sophisticated fighters cost. The was designed as a aircraft for all of the branches of the United States military, with the goal of overwhelming adversaries with technological superiority. The jet would be able to evade radar and dodge sophisticated antiaircraft missiles while giving pilots a better picture of enemy threats advancing toward them. But despite initial promises that the plane would save taxpayer money, costs have veered sharply higher over 15 years of development. Mr. Trump has not said how he will seize control of the project’s costs, which have risen despite repeated attempts over more than a decade to restrain spending and fix costly mistakes. In an interview on Sunday, and in a speech to supporters in Michigan on Friday, the accused military officials of failing to negotiate good deals with contractors because they know they might be hired by the companies after their military service ends. “The people that are making these deals for the government, they should never be allowed to go to work for these companies,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox News Sunday. ” “You know, they make a deal like that, and two or three years later, you see them working for these companies that made the deal. ” Mr. Trump said military officials who were in charge of negotiating deals like the project should be barred for life from employment with the companies that they worked with, though he did not cite any examples involving the fighter plane. That would be an expansion of the ’s proposal that people who work for his administration be barred from lobbying for five years. In a hearing this year, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, demonstrated the dilemma for members of Congress and others who worry about the ballooning cost of the project. He hailed the plane as a needed part of the country’s arsenal even as he criticized the program’s inability to deliver on time and within budget. “The full capabilities this aircraft will eventually provide are critical to America’s national security,” Mr. McCain said. “But at the same time, the program’s record of performance has been both a scandal and a tragedy. ” The technology in the and other weapons systems is increasingly complex, and politics tend to exacerbate the problems. To lock in congressional support, the Pentagon often starts building the weapons before testing is complete. Cutting funding in the middle of programs can increase costs in the long run if it reduces the economies of scale in the manufacturing plants. Pentagon officials said recently that they needed an extra $500 million to finish development of the planes. They have also been wrangling with Lockheed over the price of the latest batch of planes. The program is also sensitive diplomatically, and as costs per plane increase, the overruns affect the ability of other countries to buy the jets. Israel, for example, has ordered 33 of the stealth fighters at a cost of more than $5. 5 billion, to come from the assistance Israel receives from Washington, and the Israeli cabinet decided recently to increase the number of planes to 50.

Bernie Promises To Keep Fighting, Hold Clinton Accountable After She’s Elected (VIDEO)

Richard Marcil

Bernie Promises To Keep Fighting, Hold Clinton Accountable After She’s Elected (VIDEO) By Richard Marcil Bernie Sanders is lending his full support to Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton – for now. But how long will he and Clinton remain allies? In a new interview , Sanders said he plans on extending his political revolution. He also intends to hold Clinton – who is expected to win the presidential election next month – to her campaign promises. The Primary and the Platform The Vermont senator put up a long and contentious fight against Clinton during the primary season, capturing 22 states and over 13 million votes. His populist message and democratic socialist platform proved especially popular among Millennials. After the primary season ended, Sanders and his cohorts were able to channel his popularity into the most progressive Democratic Party platform in history. The new platform includes support for a $15 minimum wage, aggressive action on climate change, and the dissolution of banks deemed “too big to fail” – all of which were cornerstone issues in Sanders’ campaign. Still Fighting Now an independent, Sanders has pledged to continue working to ensure Clinton and Congress act on the new platform. “I expect her to appoint people who will head agencies in a way that is consistent with the Democratic Party platform, and if not, I will do my best to oppose those nominees.” Clinton did not embrace many of the platform’s elements in her primary campaign, but has since expressed her support for them. Now Sanders and other senators are brainstorming legislation to ensure progressive policies are enacted in Washington. Elizabeth Warren, another darling of the modern progressive movement, has been “informally” working with Sanders on this legislation. Reining in Wall Street Specifically, he expects that Clinton will close the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington. “I personally believe that a billionaire corporate executive is frankly not the kind of person that working families want to see as secretary of treasury. We need somebody who has a history of standing up to Wall Street and is prepared to take on the financial interests whose greed and illegal behavior has done so much harm.” No Compromise Sanders also expects that Clinton will not try to placate Republicans in an effort to bridge the political divide. Barack Obama made that mistake when he was inaugurated in 2008, and only ended up with even steeper opposition to his plans and policies. Sanders said: “It’s not good enough for me, or anybody, to say, ‘Well, look, Republicans control the House: From Day One, we’re going to have to compromise.’ The Democratic Party, before they start compromising, has got to rally the American people around our ideas and make it clear that if Republicans do not go along with reasonable ideas to benefit the middle class and the working class, they are going to pay a very heavy political price.” And if Clinton doesn’t follow through on Democratic platform policies and a progressive agenda? “I will be vigorously in opposition, and I will make that very clear.” Featured image: Screengrab via New York Times video. About Richard Marcil Richard Marcil is a freelance writer. Connect

Study: Rich People Less Likely to Be Interested In Your Face

Get short URL 0 24 0 0 A new study finds (perhaps unsurprisingly) that the wealthy do not pay attention to others, perceiving them as holding less “motivational relevance." Using Google Glass, a hands-free wearable computer designed to look like eyeglasses, New York University researchers sought to track the eye movements of 61 New Yorkers who were instructed to look at whatever caught their attention while walking down the street. Second Time’s the Charm? Google Reveals New Glass Wearable The Google Glass video camera, placed over the right eye, recorded their gaze. Researchers wrote in the journal Psychological Science that, although socio-economic status did not account for how often a person looked at others, there was nonetheless a correlation between class and interest in others, with wealthier people spending the least amount of time looking at others. Researchers theorized that "people’s social class affects their appraisals of others’ motivational relevance—the degree to which others are seen as potentially rewarding, threatening, or otherwise worth attending to." Here Lives a Wealthy Man: 8 Countries With the World's Richest 1% LiveScience wrote that the "findings make a compelling case that social classes differ in their judgments of other people's significance," adding, "…one possible explanation may be that, for people in higher social classes, other human beings hold less 'motivational relevance' — a psychology term that means how worthy of one's attention something or someone is, based on how much reward or threat might be linked with that object or person." Google Glass can sense where a person turns their head, but not necessarily where the eyes are directed, so scientists followed up with a device that tracks eye movements, timed to street scenes in New York City. This yielded the same outcome. A third study showed 400 participants computer images and found that wealthier people took longer to notices changes in facial expressions. "This finding suggests that social class, like other forms of culture… can shape human cognitive functioning at a deep level," they wrote. ...

After Outcry, Murder Charge Filed in Death of Former N.F.L. Player Joe McKnight - The New York Times

Daniel Victor

A grand jury indicted Ronald Gasser Jr. on Thursday in the fatal shooting of the former N. F. L. player Joe McKnight, handing down a murder charge. The charge is more severe than the one that Mr. Gasser had initially faced in December, when critics complained that racial bias may have affected the investigation. If convicted, Mr. Gasser, 54, would face life in prison with no parole. The death of Mr. McKnight, 28, a star running back at the University of Southern California who later played for the Jets and Kansas City Chiefs in the N. F. L. spurred several days of protests. Supporters and Mr. McKnight’s former teammates were outraged after the police initially freed Mr. Gasser. Though the authorities said Mr. Gasser had admitted to the shooting on Dec. 1, he was not arrested and charged until four days later. Mr. Gasser was initially charged with manslaughter over what the authorities described as a “road rage” confrontation in Terrytown, La. about five miles southeast of New Orleans. “Subsequent to that arrest, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office continued working together in a collaborative effort to develop additional evidence regarding the case,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s indictment comes as a result of that joint effort. ” Mr. Gasser’s bond was also increased to $750, 000. The delayed arrest and lesser initial charge had angered critics, who said that Mr. Gasser, the owner of a telecommunications firm and a real estate business, may have been afforded more leeway because he is white, or that the authorities were less invested in swift justice for a black man’s death. In a fiery response after the initial arrest, Sheriff Newell Normand of Jefferson Parish defended the pace of the investigation, saying the authorities needed time to build a better case in a state that has strong Stand Your Ground laws. Investigators conducted more than 160 interviews and spoke to Mr. Gasser for more than 12 hours, Sheriff Normand said at a news conference in December. “Justice has no time period,” he said. “Justice is not a sprint. It is a marathon. These investigations are marathons. ” The confrontation began around 2:45 p. m. after both men were driving erratically, cutting each other off and zipping in front of each other, Sheriff Normand said. Mr. Gasser became irate and engaged in a “verbal altercation” with Mr. McKnight, the sheriff said. When they stopped next to each other at a red light, Mr. McKnight got out of his car and approached the window of Mr. Gasser’s car, the sheriff said. Mr. Gasser then pulled out a handgun from between his seat and the console and shot Mr. McKnight three times, according to the sheriff.

Living in a 5G World: Wireless Pollution is Getting Out of Control

Lynne Wycherley

Email In Drowning in a Sea of Microwaves , the late geneticist Dr Mae-Wan Ho – a visionary voice who opposed GMOs – identified pollution from wireless technologies as a pressing issue of our times. Noting evidence for “DNA damage … cancers, microwave sickness, [and], impairment of fertility”, she concluded: “Evidence is emerging that the health hazards associated with wireless microwaves are at least comparable to, if not worse than, those associated with cigarette smoking.” Since the advent of radar, followed by mobile phones and dense WiFi networks, such anthropogenic radiation has sky-rocketed. Although it is non-ionising, and does not destabilise molecules directly, evidence of other harm has been growing since 1950s studies on radar workers. According to the updated Bio-initiative Report (2012+) by 29 precautionary scientists, effects on biology feature in several thousand, peer-reviewed papers. Yet troubling new findings rarely filter into the media. Or global Green discourse. Though many studies have reported ‘no significant effect’, research by University of Washington biology professor Henry Lai, and others, reveals that wireless-industry funding is far more likely to yield such findings. “Toujours ils créent doubte” (‘they are forever creating doubt’), explains former Luxembourg Green MP Jean Huss, whose research on the wireless industry inspired the Council of Europe to call for many precautions (2011), including protection of warning scientists, and wired internet in schools. But wireless-product marketing has a loud voice. Few of us realise that genetic effects and free radical damage – both disease risks over time – are the most common, cautionary findings. Device-crowded spaces, such as our peak commuter trains or all-wireless classrooms, may be creating a subtly toxic environment. Wide-ranging, oxidative harm to animals has been found from WiFi sources. And linked pre-diabetic and pre-cancerous changes. Ground-breaking work by biochemistry professor Martin Pall , Washington State University – winner of eight international awards – reveals a viable mechanism for such harm. But as with other ‘inconvenient truths’, it is going unheard. Bee-whispers: the sensitivity of life on Earth Life’s exquisite electro-physiology is still being discovered. Researchers at Bristol University reported in May that bees’ hairs are highly sensitive to flowers’ delicate EMFs. In controlled trials in Switzerland, bees reacted to mobile-phone signals with high-pitched ‘piping’: a cue to desert a hive. Other studies show that mitochondria , the tiny power houses in our cells, are at risk from our new EMFs. And that even DNA , in its delicate antenna-like structure, may be frequency-sensitive. The long-term, ecological implications of our new, anthropogenic radiation are not known. But peer-reviewed studies revealing harm to birds , tadpoles , trees , other plants , insects, rodents and livestock , offer clues. Biology professor Lukas Margaritis, at Athens University, for example, uncovered harm to fruit flies from just a few minutes’ exposure to our everyday wireless devices, including cordless phones, Bluetooth, and even digital baby monitors. Reviewing research, India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests warned that sensitive habitats may need some protection. The UK’s Digital Economy Bill , about to receive its final seal, has sensible proposals for increasing country-wide access to fibre broadband: a technology that does not, in itself, stoke microwave pollution, though wireless add-ons do so. But probe beyond the bill to Ofcom’s 5G consultations, and new EMF exposures emerge: part of global trend. The worldwide rush towards 5G or ‘fifth generation’ wireless rollouts is set to raise our pulsing pollution to new levels. Untested, high microwave frequencies are being lined up to increase bandwidth, automation, and usage – at great profit to the industry. These millimetre and centimetre waves, though too weak to heat us, may pose possible risks to our skin, and deeper surface tissue, including that of plants. High-density transmitters are envisaged. A troubling prospect for the many hundreds of patients seen by professor Dominique Belpomme ‘s clinic in Paris: patients whose disabling symptoms from wireless technologies are supported by new brain scans and blood tests . A delegation of scientists have petitioned for such electrosensitivity to be recognised as an environmentally-induced illness , with an International Disease Code (2015). Rip-tides: when profits outpace caution Pushing for fast rollouts, the wireless industry is also in conflict with the Internatonal EMF Scientists’ Appeal to the United Nations. Signed by 223 scientists from 41 nations, it calls for remedial action – such as new safety limits, wave-free zones, and education of doctors – to protect our DNA, fertility, and nervous systems, plus children and pregnant women, from growing wireless exposure. And from rising, mains-electricity fields. Signs that such caution may be needed are growing. The pulsed, polarized , microwaves used by wireless technologies pose more biological risks than smooth or natural waves. Weak millimetre waves have a known potential to increase antibiotic resistance : what ecological effects might they risk, perhaps, if used universally? Studies also reveal a risk to skin pain receptors . Published associations between radio – masts and skin cancers, though at lower frequencies, plus mobile-phone masts and EMF-sensitive cancers (Adilza Dode, Minas Gerais University 2013), raise further questions. In his summer press conference, Tom Wheeler – former head of the CTIA, the vast telecoms lobby- group, and controversial chair of the Federal Communications Commission – proposed unbridled “massive deployment” of commercial 5G transmitters, taking off in 2020. Anticipating “tens of billions of dollars” of economic growth, with US telecoms “first out of the gate”, he warned “Stay out of the way of technological development! Turning innovation loose is far preferable to expecting … regulators to define the future”. With no mention of health-testing, carbon costs, or corporate responsibility, the FCC voted unaminously to go ahead by releasing swathes of untested high frequencies for private sector exploitation – so setting a trend. To questionable ends: added to other issues, how will our communities be affected by addiction to 5G multi-stream videos? How will it impact our spiritual communion with Nature? Many American health activists, and cautioning scientists, are aghast. Dr Joel Moskowitz, director of community health studies at the University of California, warns “precaution is warranted before 5G is unleashed on the world”. Former government physicist Dr Ron Powell points out the plans “would irradiate everyone, including the most vulnerable to harm from radiofrequency radiation: pregnant women, unborn children, young children…the elderly, the disabled, and the chronically ill… It would set a goal of irradiating all environments”. Fracking the air? Fault-lines in safety This drive to mine the electromagnetic spectrum come-what-may has echoes of fracking, and other headlong trends. In Captured Agency , the Harvard ethics report on the FCC, and the wider wireless industry, Norm Alster exposes ruthless “hardball tactics”, supported by “armies of lawyers”, at expense to our health. Microwaves, Science and Lies (2014), filmed by Jean Hêches across Europe, exposes similar patterns that are driving our pulsed radiation to risky levels. Western “safety limits”, based only on high levels that heat tissue, far exceed those of Russia , China, and some other nations. Professor Yuri Grigoriev , long-serving chair of Russia’s non-ionising radiation protection body (RNCNIRP), warned the UK’s Radiation Research Trust “ionising radiation is monitored…[but] levels of non-ionising radiation are constantly increasing and ubiquitous: it is out of control … Urgent action is needed”. Stealthy pollution-raisers, such as the 5G Internet of Things – with 30 billion tiny transmitters forecast for 2020 – and also, sadly, wireless smart-meters [ 1 , 2 *], vetoed by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine , may run counter to a cherished Green goal: that of nurturing healthy environments. Can we manage our energy, perhaps, in more bio-sensitive ways? Court claims for wireless-meter health harm, supported by medical testimonies – including by neurology professor Andrew Marino (Louisiana) – are sweeping America. Professor Pall explains such meters’ “high intensity” microwave pulses may be more toxic than we realise: “We know from the nanosecond studies these can be very damaging”. Data obtained by a judge revealed all-hour, house-piercing pulses every few seconds. New data-over-wiring innovations (if free of “dirty electricity”) may offer inspiring, alternative ways forward. Chrysalis: a paradigm in waiting To create – in Wheeler’s phrase – a global ‘5G ecosystem’ of wireless super-saturated environments, at insidious risk, over time, to living ecosystems, not least our own bodies, is dysfunctional. And spiritually disturbing. It suggests a mindset deeply at odds with the orchid-like beauty of the Earth. But cleaner innovations, such as LiFi , ‘eco-dect-plus’ phones, and the latest fibre-optics, suggest a wiser course. A new paradigm – safer connectivity, plus more balanced use – is emerging. And reminds of other step-changes in awareness. From pesticides to organic, from smoke-filled to smoke-free. We can accede, if we wish, to our rising, planetary smog. To safety limits as high as the moon, in many scientists’ eyes. And to wireless rollouts’ growing carbon costs. Or taking pause, we may begin to call the industry to account – plus governments lulled by it. We may air helpful new findings, such as risks from tablet-like exposures ( Alexander Lerchl , Jacob Bremens University, 2015). And stark risks from passive exposure, bared by Leif Salford , medical professor at Lund University. We may defend DNA, if we wish, from ionizing and published non-ionizing risks , just as we defend our planet. And alongside French Green Party MPs Laurence Abeille and Michèle Rivasi , plus the interntional Baubiologie movement, we can explore electromagnetic hygiene. Uplifting possibilities for a safer, cleaner world. Lynne Wycherley is a nature poet with six published collections. Working in parallel with pioneering doctors, she has been investigating non-ionising radiation for 5 years. This article originally appeared in The Ecologist . More articles by: Lynne Wycherley next -

Polls Show Trump Winning Texas By Landslide

Sean Adl-Tabatabai

Sean Adl-Tabatabai in News , US // 0 Comments Record numbers of Trump supporters are turning out in their droves to vote for the Republican nominee in Texas. According to Sid Miller, Texas Agriculture Commissioner, a huge surge of Republican voters are turning up to vote for Trump for President in the Lone Star State. According to a Wednesday Fox News interview, Miller says that record numbers of people are turning up on the first and second day of voting in Texas, eager to ensure that Hillary Clinton doesn’t get into the White House. Thegatewaypundit.com reports: Sid Miller : We have a record number of people registered to vote in Texas. We’re having record turnouts, the first day, the second day of voting. And it’s not Bernie Sanders supporters coming out to support Hillary. It’s not Barack Obama supporters coming out to support Hillary. It’s a new surge of Trump voters, many who have never registered to vote. Many who have not voted in eight or ten elections so they’re not reported in the polls… …I know for a fact that the polls are off because they oversample Democrats by eight sometimes up to sixteen percent oversampling Democrats. They’re oversampling women by five to eight percent. So the Republican vote is underreported. Plus there is no way to sample this extra twenty to twenty-five percent of new voters that are Trump voters. They’re not Republican, they’re not Democrats, they’re pragmatists. They’re tired of the status quo and they want change. YUGE RECORD BREAKING VOTES in TEXAS!!! & Its Not Bernie Fans or Obama Voters for Hillary Clinton!! ALLL Donald Trump Folks😃 #wednesdaywisdom pic.twitter.com/Sn79fMhwXG

Russia Announces Plans For Catastrophic New Missile In Preparation For A Clinton Victory

V Saxena

LIST: Politicians Who Take Most Money From Muslim Radicals… Guess Who’s at the Top? Given the Russians’ recent threats regarding the potential election of Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, this is not good news. “Americans voting for a president on Nov. 8 must realize that they are voting for peace on Planet Earth if they vote for Trump,” veteran Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky said earlier this month, according to Reuters . “But if they vote for Hillary, it’s war,” he continued. “It will be a short movie. There will be Hiroshimas and Nagasakis everywhere.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has himself reportedly also made threats, warning of a potential “confrontation” were Clinton to continue prodding Russia with allegations that it has been attempting to rig the U.S. presidential election. “Jeopardizing Russian-American relations in order to gain brownie points internally — I consider this to be harmful and counterproductive,” Putin reportedly said this week. “It’s not funny anymore. If somebody out there wants confrontation, this is not our choice but this means that there will be problems.”

Donald Trump Rips Media for ’Wrong’ Russia Meeting Report: ’Never Mentioned the Word Israel’

Aaron Klein

JERUSALEM — President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters here that he “never mentioned” Israel during a White House meeting two weeks ago with Russian officials. [He went on to accuse the news media of getting the story wrong. Trump was referring to a news making New York Times report quoting a “current and a former American official” claiming it was Israel that provided alleged classified intelligence purportedly disclosed by Trump to Russian officials during the recent meeting. “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel,’” Trump told reporters here after making brief statements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Never mentioned it during the conversation [with the Russians]. ” “They’re all saying I did, so you have another story wrong,” he said to the assembled reporters. “Never mentioned the word Israel. ” Trump was speaking spontaneously after reporters shouted questions at him at the conclusion of a joint statement with Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister referred to U. S. security cooperation as “terrific. ” The Times report did not claim that Trump disclosed to the Russians that Israel was allegedly the source of the information purported to be about the inner workings of the Islamic State as reportedly discussed with the Russians. The Times’ claim followed a Washington Post exclusive that first reported the purported classified information was allegedly revealed by Trump during a meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador. The Post report cited “current and former U. S. officials. ” Indeed, it was the Times that first outed Israel as the alleged source of the information. The Times’ article failed to note its own report, if accurate, could endanger Israel’s antiterrorism intelligence collection operations. The Post article acknowledged that as president “Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law. ” The Times cited Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, as telling reporters that Trump was not aware of the source of the information. Israeli officials reached by the Times would not confirm that Israel provided the intelligence, which reportedly concerns the inner workings of the Islamic State. McMaster told the Post that “the president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation. ” “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly,” McMaster stated. Later, McMaster stated the leak may put U. S. national security at risk. “I think national security is put at risk by this leak and by leaks like this,” he said. “And there are a number of instances where this has occurred and I think it’s important to investigate these sort of things. ” Trump tweeted he has the “absolute right” as president to share information. As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W. H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining … . — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017, The Post claimed the information was provided through an unnamed U. S. ally: The information the president relayed had been provided by a U. S. partner through an arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U. S. government, officials said. The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. The Times outed that ally as Israel, citing a “current and a former American official familiar with how the United States obtained the information. ” In January, Israel’s respected Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported U. S. intelligence officials from the Obama administration warned their Israeli counterparts not to trust then Trump with intelligence secrets, citing alleged fears that Russia held blackmail information over Trump. Those fears seemed to have been in part referencing the now partially debunked infamous dossier claiming that Russia collected compromising videos of Trump. The dossier, which contains wild and unproven claims about Trump and sordid sexual acts, including the mocked claim that Trump hired prostitutes and had them urinate on a hotel room bed, was compiled by former intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who was reportedly paid by Democrats and Republicans to investigate Trump. Meanwhile, the Obama administration faced its share of accusations that it leaked sensitive Israeli intelligence or military operations. In November 2013, Israeli officials were reportedly furious at the Obama White House for confirming the Israeli Air Force was behind a strike on a Syrian military base. Israeli policy is not to confirm strikes carried out beyond its borders. The Times of Israel reported at the time: Israel’s Channel 10 TV on Friday night quoted Israeli officials branding the American leak as “scandalous. ” For Israel’s ally to be acting in this way was “unthinkable,” the officials were quoted as saying. A second TV report, on Israel’s Channel 2, said the leak “came directly from the White House,” and noted that “this is not the first time” that the administration has compromised Israel by leaking information on such Israeli Air Force raids on Syrian targets. It said some previous leaks were believed to have come from the Pentagon, and that consideration had been given at one point to establishing a panel to investigate the sources. In 2012, Israel suspected the Obama administration had leaked information to prevent the Jewish state from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. ABC News reported at the time: The first report in Foreign Policy quotes anonymous American officials saying that Israel has been given access to airbases by Iran’s northern neighbor Azerbaijan from which Israel could launch air strikes or at least drones and search and rescue aircraft. The second report from Bloomberg, based on a leaked congressional report, said that Iran’s nuclear facilities are so dispersed that it is “unclear what the ultimate effect of a strike would be … ” A strike could delay Iran as little as six months, a former official told the researchers. “It seems like a big campaign to prevent Israel from attacking,” analyst Yoel Guzansky at the Institute for National Security Studies told ABC News. “I think the [Obama] administration is really worried Jerusalem will attack and attack soon. They’re trying hard to prevent it in so many ways. ” Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

How to Stay Safe at the Airport - The New York Times

Shivani Vora

False reports of gunfire at Los Angeles International Airport on Aug. 28 caused panic among travelers, led to the evacuation of the airport and resulted in more than 250 flight delays. A similar incident occurred two weeks earlier at Kennedy International Airport in New York. While there was no real active shooter in either case, the fear that fliers had during these episodes is very real. Crime statistics show that over all, violence in the United States is as low as it has ever been, yet terrorist attacks at airports in Brussels and Istanbul and mass shootings in the United States have caused passengers to fear loud noises and commotion. Here’s what you need to know about airport safety and what to do if you fear that an active shooter is at an airport. What are the chances of an active shooting or a terrorist attack happening at an airport? Very small, said Larry Studdiford, a security consultant for airports and the founder of Studdiford Technical Solutions, a security firm in Alexandria, Va. An estimated 3. 5 billion people flew globally in 2015, according to the International Air Transport Association, a trade association for the world’s airlines, and comparatively, there were only a handful of incidences at airports. “The chances of a passenger being involved in a shooting or attack at an airport are minimal,” he said. “And, while fear of being at an airport is natural following any airport incident around the world, such as what happened in Istanbul recently, you are more at risk of getting into a car accident on the way to the airport than running into trouble at the airport. ” If there’s a crowd of people running around an airport and you don’t know what’s happened, what should you do? Do not follow the crowds running around, said Mike Ackerman, an expert in travel security and the founder and chairman of the Fort security consulting firm Ackerman Group. Instead, try to find a safe harbor in a quiet place, such as a restroom, and move away from the commotion. “Airports, unlike hotels, don’t have evacuation points because they are supposed to be secure, so it’s not like you can easily get out,” he said. Your best bet is to find a way to stay safe within the airport. If you are in an airport, and there is a potential shooter what should you do? The minute you hear a loud noise or any commotion, move away from it — not toward it — Mr. Ackerman said. “There is a tendency for people to be curious when they hear a loud noise and go toward the trouble, but you want to do just the opposite,” he said. How do you increase your chances of staying safe at an airport? When you get to the airport and have checked in, get through security as quickly as possible, said Mr. Ackerman, because if an attack is going to happen, it will likely be in the area before fliers reach security. “Most attacks in airports, including the attacks in Brussels and Istanbul earlier this year, happen before security checkpoints because the bulk of armed personnel are at, and after you get through, security, and a shooter likely doesn’t want to deal with them,” he said. In addition, Mr. Studdiford advised staying away from areas where people tend to congregate, such as ticket counters, kiosks and baggage claim. “If an attack is going to happen at an airport, it’s likely going to be where there are crowds, so you’re better off staying away from these spots as much as possible,” he said. Check in for your flight before reaching the airport, and get through security faster by signing up for TSA at baggage claim, he said, don’t wait at an idle belt — approach it to pick up your bag only when the belt starts moving. Are some airports safer than others? Not really, especially in the United States, said T. J. Schulz, the president of the trade association Airport Consultants Council and an aviation security expert. “Airports are of different sizes and have different layouts, and that doesn’t mean one is safer than another, but airports in the United States, in general, are safe,” he said. And, travelers should have some peace of mind knowing that all domestic airports have a team of security personnel in addition, some have federal security officers, including armed T. S. A. officers, as well local police .

American Dream, Revisited

shorty

Share This: BY PEPE ESCOBAR W ill Trump pull a Brexit times ten? What would it take, beyond WikiLeaks, to bring the Clinton (cash) machine down? Will Hillary win and then declare WWIII against her Russia/Iran/Syria “axis of evil”? Will the Middle East totally explode? Will the pivot to Asia totally implode? Will China be ruling the world by 2025? Amidst so many frenetic fragments of geopolitical reality precariously shored against our ruins, the temptation is irresistible to hark back to the late, great, deconstructionist master Jean Baudrillard. During the post-mod 1980s it was hip to be Baudrillardian to the core; his America, originally published in France in 1986, should still be read today as the definitive metaphysical/geological/cultural Instagram of Exceptionalistan. By the late 1990s, at the end of the millennium, two years before 9/11 – that seminal “before and after” event – Baudrillard was already stressing how we live in a black market maze. Now, it’s a black market paroxysm. Global multitudes are subjected to a black market of work – as in the deregulation of the official market; a black market of unemployment; a black market of financial speculation; a black market of misery and poverty; a black market of sex (as in prostitution); a black market of information (as in espionage and shadow wars); a black market of weapons; and even a black market of thinking. Way beyond the late 20th century, in the 2010s what the West praises as “liberal democracy” – actually a neoliberal diktat – has virtually absorbed every ideological divergence, while leaving behind a heap of differences floating in some sort of trompe l’oeil effect. What’s left is a widespread, noxious condition; the pre-emptive prohibition of any critical thought, which has no way to express itself other than becoming clandestine (or finding the right internet niche). Baudrillard already knew that the concept of “alter” – killed by conviviality – does not exist in the official market. So an “alter” black market also sprung up, co-opted by traffickers; that’s, for instance, the realm of racism, nativism and other forms of exclusion. Baudrillard already identified how a “contraband alter”, expressed by sects and every form of nationalism (nowadays, think about the spectrum between jihadism and extreme-right wing political parties) was bound to become more virulent in a society that is desperately intolerant, obsessed with regimentation, and totally homogenized. There could be so much exhilaration inbuilt in life lived in a bewildering chimera cocktail of cultures, signs, differences and “values”; but then came the coupling of thinking with its exact IT replica – artificial intelligence, playing with the line of demarcation between human and non-human in the domain of thought. The result, previewed by Baudrillard, was the secretion of a parapolitical society – with a sort of mafia controlling this secret form of generalized corruption (think the financial Masters of the Universe). Power is unable to fight this mafia – and that would be, on top of it, hypocritical, because the mafia itself emanates from power. The end result is that what really matters today, anywhere, mostly tends to happen outside all official circuits; like in a social black market. Is there any information “truth”? B audrillard showed how political economy is a massive machine, producing value, producing signs of wealth, but not wealth itself. The whole media/information system – still ruled by America – is a massive machine producing events as signs; exchangeable value in the universal market of ideology, the star system and catastrophism. This abstraction of information works as in the economy – disgorging a coded material, deciphered in advance, and negotiable in terms of models, as much as the economy disgorges products negotiable in terms of price and value. Since all merchandise, thanks to this abstraction of value, is exchangeable, then every event (or non-event) is also exchangeable, all replacing one another in the cultural market of information. And that takes us to where we live now; Trans-History, and Trans-Politics – where events have really not happened, as they get lost in the vacuum of information (as much as the economy gets lost in the vacuum of speculation). Thus this quintessential Baudrillard insight; if we consider History as a movie – and that’s what it is now – then the “truth” of information is no more than post-production synch, dubbing and subtitles. Way beyond the late 20th century, in the 2010s what the West praises as “liberal democracy” – actually a neoliberal diktat – has virtually absorbed every ideological divergence, while leaving behind a heap of differences floating in some sort of trompe l’oeil effect . Still, as we all keep an intense desire for devouring events, there is immense disappointment as well, because the content of information is desperately inferior to the means of broadcasting them. Call it a pathetic, universal contagion; people don’t know what to do about their sadness or enthusiasm – in parallel to our societies becoming theaters of the absurd where nothing has consequences. No acts, deeds, crimes (the 2008 financial crisis), political events (the WikiLeaks emails showing virtually no distinction between the “nonprofit” Clinton cash machine, what’s private and what’s public, the obsessive pursuit of personal wealth, and the affairs of the state) seem to have real consequences. Immunity, impunity, corruption, speculation – we veer towards a state of zero responsibility (think Goldman Sachs). So, automatically, we yearn for an event of maximum consequence, a “fatal” event to repair that scandalous non-equivalence. Like a symbolic re-equilibrium of the scales of destiny. So we dream of an amazing event – Trump winning the election? Hillary declaring WWIII? – that would free us from the tyranny of meaning and the constraint of always searching for the equivalence between effects and causes. Shadowing the world J ust like Baudrillard, I got to see “deep” America in the 1980s and 1990s by driving across America. So sooner or later one develops a metaphysical relationship with that ubiquitous warning, “Objects in this mirror may be closer than they appear.” But what if they may also be further than they appear? The contemporary instant event/celebrity culture deluge of images upon us; does it get us closer to a so-called “real” world that is in fact very far away from us? Or does it in fact keep the world at a distance – creating an artificial depth of field that protects us from the imminence of objects and the virtual danger they represent? In parallel, we keep slouching towards a single future language – the language of algorithms, as designed across the Wall Street/Silicon Valley axis – that would represent a real anthropological catastrophe, just like the globalist/New World Order dream of One Thought and One Culture. Languages are multiple and singular – by definition. If there were a single language, words would become univocal, regulating themselves in an autopilot of meaning. There would be no interplay – as in artificial languages there’s no interplay. Language would be just the meek appendix of a unified reality – the negative destiny of a languidly unified human species. That’s where the American “dream” seems to be heading. It’s time to take the next exit ramp. This piece first appeared Strategic-Culture . NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP CLICK HERE ABOUT THE AUTHOR Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). His latest book is Empire of Chaos . He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com . Note to Commenters Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com We apologize for this inconvenience. What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda? =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.

Volkswagen Emissions Scandal Inquiry Widens to Top Levels - The New York Times

Jack Ewing

FRANKFURT — The investigation into emissions fraud at Volkswagen reached the very top of the company on Sunday after the carmaker said that the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans Dieter Pötsch, is suspected by German prosecutors of violating securities laws. Mr. Pötsch, the former chief financial officer at Volkswagen, is accused of failing to notify shareholders quickly enough of the financial risks of the diesel emissions cheating scandal, which has already led to a $15 billion settlement in the United States and caused the stock price to plunge. The disclosure that Mr. Pötsch is the subject of an investigation is likely to intensify criticism that Volkswagen remains in the hands of many of the longtime insiders who were in charge while the company was producing millions of cars that were deliberately designed to cheat on tests. More than a year after the company was accused of wrongdoing, the scandal is still widening and the damage to Volkswagen’s finances and reputation continues to expand. The investigation of Mr. Pötsch could also provide ammunition to investor groups and mutual funds that are suing Volkswagen in the United States and Germany. The lawsuits claim that Volkswagen managers were aware of the impending scandal and failed to notify shareholders as required by law. The suits could cost the company additional billions of euros. A confidant of the Porsche and Piëch families, who own a majority of Volkswagen’s voting shares, Mr. Pötsch was elevated to chairman of the supervisory board in October 2015. That was a few weeks after the Environmental Protection Agency accused the carmaker of manipulating engine software to conceal illegally high levels of nitrogen oxide emissions. Mr. Pötsch had been the chief financial officer of Volkswagen since 2003 and a member of the company’s management board. As chairman of the supervisory board, Mr. Pötsch oversees the management board. In a statement, Volkswagen said that its management board “duly fulfilled its disclosure obligation under German capital markets law. ” Volkswagen is also under investigation in the United States, not only for programming cars to cheat but also for orchestrating an elaborate starting in early 2014 after tests first cast doubt on what the company claimed were “clean diesel” cars. In fact, the Volkswagen cars emitted as much as 40 times the permitted levels of nitrogen oxides, a family of gases that can cause health problems including asthma and cancer. Nitrogen oxides also contribute to global warming and acid rain, and are a leading cause of the smog that chokes cities like Los Angeles. Volkswagen engineers went so far as to concoct fake engineering data to try to explain a huge discrepancy between the readings in official laboratories and how much the cars polluted on the road, said Alberto Ayala, deputy executive officer of the California Air Resources Board, which did much of the detective work that led to Volkswagen’s exposure. “They lied through their teeth,” Mr. Ayala said in an interview in California last month. The which lasted more than a year, ultimately raised the cost of the scandal to Volkswagen. It has not been able to take advantage of lower financial penalties normally available to corporate wrongdoers who are forthcoming with information and who swiftly take disciplinary action against the responsible employees. Volkswagen has portrayed the malfeasance as the work of midlevel engineers and managers acting without knowledge of top management. But that position has become difficult to defend as more information becomes available from court documents. Lawsuits against Volkswagen by car owners as well as state attorneys general portray a vast conspiracy involving hundreds of Volkswagen employees as well as suppliers like Robert Bosch, the German company that manufactured engine computers for affected vehicles in the United States. The identification of Mr. Pötsch as a target of the investigation could also intensify criticism of the Porsche and Piëch families, descendants of Volkswagen’s founder, Ferdinand Porsche, who own a majority of Volkswagen’s voting shares. Mr. Pötsch is closely associated with the family and is also chief executive of Porsche Automobil Holding SE, the holding company for the family’s shares in Volkswagen. Other investors have criticized the families for poor oversight of Volkswagen and helping to create the corporate culture that led to the wrongdoing. Just one person has been formally charged in the case. In September, James Liang, a Volkswagen engineer, pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to defraud regulators and car owners. Mr. Liang agreed to cooperate with investigators and has not yet been sentenced. Mr. Liang was in the United States, but most of the other potential suspects are in Germany. Attempts to work out plea agreements with the others have so far foundered on differences between German and American laws. In Germany, prosecutors have much less scope to offer defendants reduced sentences in return for guilty pleas. Many of the potential suspects are being careful not to leave Germany, lest they be arrested on American warrants, according to lawyers as well as engineers who have been questioned by investigators. Germany does not usually extradite its citizens, but there is no protection for Germans traveling in other European countries. Prosecutors and Volkswagen have previously disclosed that Martin Winterkorn, the former chief executive of Volkswagen, and Herbert Diess, a member of the management board responsible for the Volkswagen brand, are also under investigation for violating the company’s duty to disclose information that could affect the company’s share price. Mr. Winterkorn resigned shortly after the E. P. A. accused Volkswagen of wrongdoing in September 2015, but Mr. Diess remains a member of the management board. Volkswagen shares have lost a quarter of their value since the scandal came to light. The state of Lower Saxony, which owns 20 percent of Volkswagen shares and occupies two seats on the supervisory board, said on Sunday that Mr. Pötsch was innocent until proven guilty and that it would be wrong to arrive at “rash conclusions. ” In a statement, the state said that members of the supervisory board were briefed on Friday on the latest findings by internal investigators. The report provided “no occasion for further measures,” the state said.

Texas Official Bombshell… MASSIVE Group of Trump Voters Pollsters Didn’t Know About

Gabrielle Cintorino

BREAKING: Trump Takes Lead In Battleground State Of Florida “We have a record number of people registered to vote in Texas. We’re having record turnouts, the first day, the second day of voting,” Miller said. “And it’s not Bernie Sanders supporters coming out to support (Democrat nominee) Hillary (Clinton). It’s not (President) Barack Obama supporters coming out to support Hillary. It’s a new surge of Trump voters, many who have never registered to vote,” he continued. “Many who have not voted in eight or 10 elections so they’re not reported in the polls.” Miller then said he had proof that the polls are being rigged. His proof comes amid Trump’s claims that the election was being rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton. “I know for a fact that the polls are off because they oversample Democrats by 8, sometimes up to 16 percent, oversampling Democrats. They’re oversampling women by 5 to 8 percent,” Miller explained. “So the Republican vote is underreported. Plus there is no way to sample this extra 20 to 25percent of new voters that are Trump voters. They’re not Republican, they’re not Democrats, they’re pragmatists. They’re tired of the status quo and they want change.” Watch the entire interview below: YUGE RECORD BREAKING VOTES in TEXAS!!! & Its Not Bernie Fans or Obama Voters for Hillary Clinton!! ALLL Donald Trump Folks😃 #wednesdaywisdom pic.twitter.com/Sn79fMhwXG — DEPLORABLE TRUMPCAT (@Darren32895836) October 26, 2016

Watch: Gorsuch Responds to Charge From Student Accusing Him of Discrimination Against Pregnant Female Lawyers - Breitbart

Breitbart TV

#Gorsuch asked about letter by student accusing him of encouraging discrimination against pregnant female lawyers https: . pic. twitter. Tuesday at his confirmation before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Neil Gorsuch responded to an accusation made by former Obama administration staffer Jennifer Sisk that he once told students women manipulate maternity leave. Sisk, a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School, alleged Gorsuch made the comments in a legal ethics class. However, when confronted by Sen. Dick Durbin ( ) Gorsuch promptly denied the allegation. Transcript as follows: DURBIN: Let me ask you this specific one. It was 1993 and you were at Oxford, when you believe you first met this professor. Professor Finnis was tapped by the Solicitor General Timothy Tymkovich, to help defend a 1992 state constitutional amendment that broadly restricted the state from protecting gay, Lesbian and bisexual people from discrimination. During the course of the deposition which he gave in support of that effort, Finnis argued that antipathy toward LGBT people, specifically toward gay sex, was rooted not just in religious tradition, but Western law and society at large. He referred to homosexuality as bestiality in the course of this as well. Were you aware of that? GORSUCH: Senator, I — I know he testified in the Romer case. I can’t say sitting here I recall the specifics of his testimony or that he gave a deposition. DURBIN: I guess the reason I’m raising this is this is a man who apparently had an impact on your life, certainly your academic life. And I’m trying to figure out where we can parse his views from your views what impact he had on you as a student what impact he has on you today with his views. GORSUCH: Well, then I guess, Senator, I think the best evidence is what I’ve written. I’ve written over — gosh, written or joined over 6 million words as a federal appellate judge. I’ve written a couple of books. I’ve been a lawyer and a judge for 25 or 30 years. That’s my record. And I guess I’d ask you respectfully to look at my credentials and my record. And some of the examples I’ve given you from my record about the capital habeas work, about access to justice. I’ve spoken about publicly. Those are — those are things I’ve done, Senator. DURBIN: And what about LGBT (inaudible) individuals? GORSUCH: Well, Senator, there are — what about them? DURBIN: Well, the point I made is … GORSUCH: They’re people. And, you know … DURBIN: Of course. But what you said earlier was that you have a record of speaking out, standing up for those minorities who you believe are not being treated fairly. Can you point to statements or cases you’ve ruled on relative to that class? GORSUCH: Senator, I try to treat each case, and each person, as a person, not a this kind of person, not a that kind of person — a person. Equal justice under law is a radical promise in the history of mankind. DURBIN: Does that refer to sexual orientation as well? GORSUCH: Senator, the Supreme Court of the United States has held that marriage is protected by the Constitution. DURBIN: Judge, would you agree that if an employer were to ask female job applicants about their family plans, but not male applicants, that would be evidence of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act? GORSUCH: Senator, I’d agree with you it’s highly inappropriate. DURBIN: You don’t believe it’s prohibited? GORSUCH: Senator, it sounds like a potential hypothetical case. It might be a case or controversy I might have to decide, and I wouldn’t want to it sitting here at the confirmation table. I can tell you it would be inappropriate. DURBIN: Inappropriate. Do you believe that there are ever situations where the costs to an employer of maternity leave can justify an employer asking only female applicants and not male applicants about family plans? GORSUCH: Senator, those are not my words and I would never have said them. DURBIN: I didn’t say that. I asked you if you agree with the statement. GORSUCH: And I’m telling you I don’t. DURBIN: Thank you. In Wang vs. Kansas State, the case involved a professor. You wrote an opinion that noted that EEOC guidance commands deference, quote, “only to the extent its reasoning actually proves persuasive. EEOC’s enforcement guidance on pregnancy discrimination provides as follows. Because Title Seven prohibits discrimination based on pregnancy, employers should not make inquiries into whether an applicant or employee intends to become pregnant. The EEOC will generally regard such an inquiry as evidence of pregnancy discrimination where the employer subsequently makes an unfavorable job decision affecting a pregnant worker. Do you find this instruction to be persuasive? GORSUCH: Senator, I — there’s a lot of words there. And if you’re asking me to parse them out and give you a legal opinion, then I — I fear that you may be — I — I’d respectfully say I’d have to study it in the course of a judicial case. DURBIN: Well, let me bring it right down to the operative words. Whether employee should or should not make inquiries into whether an applicant or employee intends to become pregnant. GORSUCH: Senator, I need to — it sounds like you’re asking me about a case for a controversy. And I — with all respect, when we come to cases in controversies, a good judge will listen. Socrates said the first virtue of a good judge is to listen courteously and decide impartially. DURBIN: I think you know why I’m asking these questions. GORSUCH: No, this one I — I don’t. DURBIN: The reason I’m asking is because about your views on pregnancy women in the work place is because two of your former students from legal ethics and professionalism class last spring wrote to this committee to say how troubled they were by your comments in an April 19th class. It was a discussion regarding the hardship to employers of having female employees who may use maternity benefits. One of these students signed her name publicly to her letter, which is a pretty brave thing to do. That student didn’t just make this issue up after you were nominated. Last night, the University of Colorado Law School confirmed that she had voiced her concerns with administrators shortly after your April 19th class and also confirmed that the administrators told her they would raise this matter with you, though they never actually did so. When we receive information like this which raises questions about your views and conduct on important issues, I want to get to the bottom of it. I mentioned that to you yesterday in my opening statement that I would be bringing this up. So, I just want to ask you to confirm, did you ask your students in class that day to raise their hands if they knew of a woman who had taken maternity benefits from a company and then left the company after having a baby? GORSUCH: No, Senator. And I’d be delighted to actually clear this up. DURBIN: Please. GORSUCH: Because the first I heard of this was the night before my confirmation hearing. I’ve been teaching legal ethics at the University of Colorado for seven or eight years. It’s been a great honor and a pleasure. I teach from a standard text book that every professor — well, I don’t know if every professor — a number of professors at CU and elsewhere use. It’s an excellent textbook — Professors Lerman and Shrag. In one of the chapters in the book confronts lawyers with some harsh realities that they’re about to face when they enter the practice of law. As you know and I know, we have an unhappy and unhealthy profession in a lot of ways. Lawyers commit suicide at rates far higher than the population. Alcoholism, divorce, depression are also at extremely high rates. Young lawyers also face the problem of having enormous debts when they leave law school. As a — and that’s a huge inhibition for them to be able to do public service like you and I are so privileged to be able to do. We talk about those things. There is one problem in the book — and I’d be happy to share with you the book and the teacher’s manual so that you can see for yourself, Senator — which asks a question. And it’s directed to young women because sadly, this is a reality they sometimes face. The problem is this. Suppose an older partner woman at the firm that you’re interviewing at asks you if you intend to become pregnant soon. What are your choices as a young person? You can say yes, tell the truth. Hypothetical is that it’s true and not get the job and not be able to pay your debts. You can lie, maybe get the job. You can say no. That’s a — that’s a choice, too. It’s a hard choice. Or you can push back in some way shape or form. And we talk about the pros and the cons in this acratic (ph) dialogue that they can think through for themselves how they might answer that very difficult question. And Senator, I do ask for a show of hands, not about the question you asked, but about the following question. And I ask it of everybody. How many of you have had questions like this asked of you in the employment environment, an inappropriate question about your family planning? And I am shocked every year, Senator, how many young women raise their hand. It’s disturbing to me. I knew this stuff happened when my mom was a young practicing lawyer, graduating law school in the 1960s’. At age 20, she had to wait for a year to take the bar. I knew it happened with Justice O’Connor, couldn’t get a job as a lawyer when she graduated Stanford Law School and had to work as a secretary. I am shocked it still happens every year that I get women, not men, raising their hand to that question. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify that Senator. Follow Breitbart. tv on @BreitbartVideo

Matthews: ’We’re on the Trail’ to ’Impeachment’ With Comey Firing - Breitbart

Ian Hanchett

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews stated that President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey “for not playing ball” and that with Comey’s firing, “clearly, we’re on the trail there to an impeachment. ” Matthews said, “We already nailed down the fact that he [Trump] fired the guy [FBI Director James Comey] afterwards for not playing ball with him. There’s a lot of evidence here. It seems to me it would take a reasonable person in the direction of, perhaps wanting more information, but clearly, we’re on the trail there to an impeachment. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Comment on Boy says farewell to best friend, 91-year-old World War II vet from next door by Joe

Joe

Grab a hanky… Photo courtesy of Anika Rychner From Today.com : Emmett Rychner was the first to move away. Two years ago, the young preschooler moved to a neighboring town, leaving behind his best friend, Erling Kindem, a World War II veteran who lived next door. Last week, the time arrived for a final goodbye. Erling, 91, died last Saturday, just three days after 6-year-old Emmett paid a visit to the nursing home where he was receiving hospice care. “After we told Emmett that Erling had passed away, he was very quiet for a while,” his mother Anika Rychner told TODAY. “The first thing he said was, ‘So we’ll just have to wait a really long time. I know we’ll see him again in heaven.’” For more than a decade, the two families lived next to each other in a Minneapolis suburb, but didn’t have much of a relationship beyond saying hello. That changed after Emmett came along. “He was about 2 when this all started. He would start venturing over to Erling’s backyard when he was out in his garden with his tomatoes,” Rychner recalled. One day, when Emmett saw Erling pouring dirt around his new sidewalk, he grabbed his toy shovel and wheelbarrow and walked over. Erling was tickled by his new companion and they instantly bonded. From then, Emmett went outside anytime he spotted his buddy. “He would also go knock on Erling’s door and ask if Erling could play,” his mother recalled with a laugh. The two had lawn mower races (Emmett rode his electric toy mower). They played croquet and rode bicycles. And they cared for Erling’s garden, which grew one of the boy’s favorite foods, tomatoes. “He especially liked the cherry ones that he could pick right there and eat in the garden. So he’d help Dad weed the garden,” Erling’s son, Charlie Kindem, told TODAY. Two years ago, Emmett’s growing family moved away to the countryside. A month later, Erling and his wife moved to a senior apartment. But the two friends continued to visit each other regularly. Photo courtesy Anika Rychner “Erling was still driving when we moved away, so we would sometimes come home and find tomatoes from his garden on our front porch, or a note for Emmett with some other treasure he brought him,” Rychner said. “If we hadn’t visited in a while, Erling would call, and we would go visit,” she said. “Or sometimes the kids we’d say, ‘We should go see Erling,’ and we would stop on our way home from school.” Emmett often drew pictures of B-24 bomber planes for his friend, who served as a radio operator and gunner during World War II. “A lot of kids are not comfortable around elderly people because they look different. Emmett always was,” Rychner said. “He was never was shy about hugging Erling and holding his hand.” When Erling’s wife, Joyce, with whom he had five children, died last fall, Emmett and his family attended her funeral. “It was a natural thing,” Kindem said of his father’s relationship with Emmett. “He didn’t talk down to him at all. He talked to him like he was a regular person and not a little kid.” But Erling was always like that, his son said. “Dad was always friendly with kids. Growing up, he would play with us, whether it was baseball or football,” he said. He recalled how Erling flooded the vacant lot next door to their home every winter to turn it into an ice rink. This past spring, Erling moved into an assisted living home. But his heart condition began to worsen and last month, he moved into a nursing home, where he received hospice care. Emmett saw his friend the day after he moved in, and again last week. That was when Emmett read his friend the Lord’s prayer, and Erling encouraged his buddy to listen to his parents. Their final goodbye… “It felt like a goodbye,” Rychner said. Erling passed away three days later. Emmett has been more quiet than usual, but appears to have absorbed the news, in part because his parents had been preparing him. Rychner said she considers it “a wonderful gift” that Emmett had the chance to experience the decline of a friend’s health in such a positive, natural way. She felt proud her son didn’t shy away from Erling, even in his illness. “We all have to experience death at some point in our life of a loved one. That’s an important part of growing up. You can’t avoid it,” she said. Both Rychner and Kindem said they have been moved by the outpouring of support since NBC-affiliate KARE first reported their story two years ago. The station continued to chronicle the friendship and reported the news of Erling’s death. “He has strong faith that he will see him again,” Rychner said. DCG

World War 3 The TRUTH about WW3 #NewWorldOrder

Pakalert

November 1, 2016 at 11:34 pm Russia do not want the end of the human race…. The USA and UK does……But if the humans are to die……. They will die too……Regardless of their rat hole….. YES… the world is force to accept the US dollar at gun point and nuclear weapons…..USA kill 3.7 millions innocent humans of all ages in Iraq…. They kill 400.000 humans i Afghanistan….. They kill 250.000 humans in Syria and blame ASSAD and Russia…They activated the plate destroyer to attack Italy with two Earthquake and punish the minister….They repeated the same in Ecuador twice….The world court and the UN are 1 % corrupted and murders……ISIL, Alqaeda, AL-Nusra and Bocaharanis are already inside USA in various close down military bases……USA will be communist and feudalism one more time…

Donald Trump Wins The Presidency In Historic Mandate Victory As Hillary Clinton Concedes

Geoffrey Grider

Donald Trump Wins The Presidency In Historic Mandate Victory As Hillary Clinton Concedes Reaction to the prospect of a Trump presidency rippled across the globe, with financial markets abroad falling as American television networks raised the prospect that Mrs. Clinton might lose. Asian markets were trading sharply lower, down around two percentage points, and in the United States, Dow Jones futures were down as much as 600 points in after-hours trading. The American people have voted, Donald Trump is president, and the world is in shock “And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:” Daniel 2:21 (KJV) Tonight. the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob spoke quite loudly. Change like this country has never seen, like the world has never seen, has arrived at our doorstep. President Trump has been elected leader of the free world . People, you better buckle up because things are about to become unglued. For well over a year now, we here at NTEB have been telling you that Donald Trump is God’s man for the White House, and that Bible prophecy would be fulfilled in the process. Two very eye-opening articles you need to read are The Real Reason Why Donald Trump Was Chosen To Be The Republican Candidate For President and Why A Bible Believer Is Supporting Donald Trump For President Of The United States . I wrote those articles on May 4 and February 13, respectively. Are YOU ready for what comes next? The liberal news media certainly does not seem to be ready, in fact, they seem to be in quite the state of shock as you can see below. The NYT declared just after 11:30 p.m, Donald Trump was declared the victor in Florida , earning him the state’s 29 electoral votes and giving him a more certain grip on the presidential contest with Mrs. Clinton. How the world is reacting to Trump’s victory: Reaction to the prospect of a Trump presidency rippled across the globe , with financial markets abroad falling as American television networks raised the prospect that Mrs. Clinton might lose. Asian markets were trading sharply lower, down around two percentage points, and in the United States, Dow Jones futures were down as much as 600 points in after-hours trading. CNN: This Sea of Red Has Got to Make You Feel Better Fox News projects: Donald Trump wins FL, Clinton wins CA Chris Wallace: Trump could be our next president Donald Trump wins Florida, CNN projects: Get ready for momentous change like this country has never seen, and while you do that, get ready for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Because it’s coming…

Putin Mocks Clinton Claim Of Russia Election Meddling: ‘Is U.S. A Banana Republic?’

Steve Watson

Putin Mocks Clinton Claim Of Russia Election Meddling: ‘Is U.S. A Banana Republic?’ “Is the U.S. a banana republic? America is a great power. If I’m wrong, correct me.” American Mirror - October 28, 2016 Comments Hillary Clinton claims she’s the only candidate who will stand up to Vladimir Putin, but she’s also the only candidate who apparently believes the United States is vulnerable enough to not prevent Russia from meddling in the November presidential election. Russian President Putin mocked that notion on Thursday. Vladimir Putin: "Does anyone really think Russia could influence the American people's choice in any way? What,is the US a banana republic?" pic.twitter.com/ngQhJR1AtP “Does anyone seriously think that Russia can influence the choice of the American people?” Putin told a group of academics in Sochi. “Is the U.S. a banana republic? America is a great power. If I’m wrong, correct me.” Hillary Clinton has repeatedly blamed Russia for the disclosures of campaign operative emails by Wikileaks. “We have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election,” Clinton said at the second presidential debate. “And believe me, they’re not doing it to get me elected. They’re doing it to try to influence the election for Donald Trump.” “Anything that goes wrong they blame Russia,” Trump told a crowd in Ocala, Florida days later. “We are being hacked because we have people who don’t know what they are doing. They always blame Russia.” “They say Donald Trump is friends with Putin. I don’t know Putin, folks,” Trump added. “What the hell do I have to do with Putin?” NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles

The Eternal Struggle of the Empty Nester - The New York Times

Henry Alford

The etiquette of the empty nest can bedevil even the most sophisticated parent. Take, for instance, the actress Alfre Woodard. Ms. Woodard said that when her younger child (her son, Duncan) went to college in 2012, her depression caught her in a bind. “Suddenly the thing that made my life vibrant and not like a showbizzy person’s life was gone,” said Ms. Woodard, who can be seen in Netflix’s coming series “Marvel’s Luke Cage. ” “I was leaking. I not only lost Duncan’s presence, but I lost having a lot of big, smelly kids — his friends — in the house all the time. They used to play lacrosse in my driveway. I used to cook for them. ” Lest she make her son uncomfortable, Ms. Woodard tried to obscure her sadness. “I would hide in the bathroom and weep into a wet face towel,” she said. But then she worried that maybe she had overcorrected course and seemed unfeeling. “So I told him, ‘Let’s cry together for a couple of minutes so that you know I’m gonna miss you.’ He said sure. So we stood there for a couple of minutes and then finally he said, ‘O. K. Mom. I’ll be upstairs. ’” Parents have been crying into face towels for centuries. But syndrome has gained especial piquancy in a world in which parents and their offspring are in the habit of texting one another a few times a day, and in which accounts of shootings on campuses are repeated on social media with a frequency bordering on the abject. The pot may be further sweetened by a recent Pew Research Center study’s determination that, for the first time on record, the most common arrangement for people aged 18 to 34 is living with parents. So now those parents whose children do move out are alone in their aloneness. For many empty nesters, landing on the proper spot of the Umbilical Arctic Gale continuum can be tricky. “You have got to leave your kids alone,” Ms. Woodard said. “The only time you text is if you have something really slammin’ to say. Something you know they’re really into. Like, Duncan is a big golfer, so I’ll text, ‘Oh, no, Rory didn’t!’ That’s all I’ll say. What you don’t want to write is ‘Your room is so warm!’ Or ‘Have you eaten?’ Or ‘Do you have any friends?’ ‘Are you drunk? ’” Some parents and students are tempted to use Facebook and Instagram as the world’s cheapest baby cam, though “some students say that no way do they want their parents on social media,” said Karen Coburn, the senior consultant in residence at the office of the vice chancellor for students at Washington University in St. Louis. “Others say they like it because it means they don’t have to communicate with their folks as much because the parents get an idea of what the kids are up to,” Ms. Coburn said. “But one of the worst things a parent can do is to ‘friend’ one of their kid’s friends. One of my students told me, ‘Another student came up to me and said, ‘This old woman friended me on Facebook, I think it might be your mom or grandmother.’ The ‘old woman’ was probably 45. ” Indeed, fences are usually built for a reason. Robert Lindquist, a freshman at the University of Connecticut who is majoring in digital media and design, has imposed a rule on visits from his family. “It started out as a joke,” Mr. Lindquist said. “I’m going to school only an hour and a half away from my parents. It’s not quite as inconvenient as I’d intended. ” Mr. Lindquist said: “The rule applies to any family member. We have a term, ‘the Lindquist Confusion Factor,’ because I have nine aunts and uncles. They’re excellent people, but that many of them can be a little much if you’re not prepared. ” Asked how his parents reacted to the demand, Mr. Lindquist said, “I don’t recall them being overjoyed. ” Some people view the concept of syndrome itself as suspect. Shayla Rivera, a comedian, says in her act that she had to look up the term on the internet: “White women get sad when the children leave the house. What?” Asked about the routine, Ms. Rivera, who has a son and a daughter, emailed from Kosovo, where she was performing for American troops, “As I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, some of the North American vicissitudes were not part of my paradigm. They say that women actually go into their kids’ room and smell their clothing! Are you kidding me? I spent 18 years shutting my son’s door so the smell of dirty socks and other mysterious aromas wouldn’t come into the house. When he left I had to go in there with sage, holy water and a priest. ” All joking aside, Ms. Woodard said that parents may feel a child’s absence even more acutely. “Their house or apartment is smaller, so the kid’s presence is missed more,” she said. “Also, parents probably raised that kid on their own. ” Regardless of the factors when a household is decanted of its young people, it’s clear that kids who leave their home need a lot of room to grow in, and that parents need to hone their listening skills. Once, when Ms. Coburn asked a Washington University student to give advice to a group of the school’s parents, the young woman offered: “Sometimes we want your advice and sometimes we don’t. The challenge is, we won’t tell you which time is which. ” Nina Keneally, a mother of two who lives in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, runs a service called Need a Mom, in which she can be hired as a combination mentor and life coach. “Most of them don’t complain about their parents being in touch too much,” Ms. Keneally said of her clients in their 20s. “But a lot of them talk to me about stuff that they wouldn’t talk to their parents about: relationship problems, or things they’re contemplating doing or not doing. Parents would jump in too quickly, or would be embarrassed about what the kid is proposing. ” Indeed, the greatest lesson for many empty nesters may be learning to be their child’s coach or inspiration rather than a child’s concierge or critic. In 2014, when students at Keene State College in New Hampshire injected a local event called the Pumpkin Festival with and the president of the college chastised her students for failing to “pumpkin responsibly. ” It seems only natural that a parent, on hauling the last box of his child’s shinguards and Harry Potter effluvia into the unsupervised blankness of a dorm room, may fear the advent of pumpkin irresponsibility. In the end, empathy and patience are an empty nester’s Xanax. I asked Ms. Woodard what she would say to her parents today about keeping in touch if she were a young person going off to college. Ms. Woodard didn’t miss a beat: “I would say, ‘I’ll hit you up. ’”

Standing Rock, Trump, Renzi: Your Monday Evening Briefing - The New York Times

Karen Workman and Sandra Stevenson

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Protesters near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation have won a round, but few think their fight against an oil pipeline is over. The Department of the Army said on Sunday that it would seek an alternate route for the pipeline, but some uncertainty remains — Donald J. Trump supports the project and his administration could undo the Army’s decision. Above, veterans joined the protesters. _____ 2. A mistrial was declared in the case of a white former police officer in South Carolina who shot an unarmed black man in the back last year. The jury, a panel of 11 white people and a black man, said it would not be able to reach a unanimous verdict. On Friday, the jury had signaled that it was within a single vote of convicting Michael Slager, who was captured on video firing the fatal shots at Walter Scott. _____ 3. movements across Europe are among the winners after a constitutional referendum in Italy failed and the country’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, above, resigned. The vote deepened concerns that Italian banks could spiral into disaster and worries about the endurance of the euro. In Britain, the Supreme Court began what is expected to be four days of hearings on the government’s efforts to retain a free hand in organizing the exit from the European Union. _____ 4. The North Carolina man who was arrested for firing a rifle in a popular Washington pizzeria confirmed he was motivated by a fake news story about a suspected child trafficking ring allegedly running out of the restaurant and led by Hillary Clinton. Edgar Welch, above, told police he went to the restaurant to “ ” the pedophilia hoax. Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s choice for national security adviser, is under scrutiny for sharing similar conspiracy theories about Mrs. Clinton. _____ 5. Ben Carson, who endorsed Mr. Trump after ending his own presidential bid, was chosen as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He has no experience in government or expertise in housing policy, but he opposes government programs that he says encourage “dependency. ” Mr. Trump is expected to fill a series of other domestic positions this week. So far, he’s selected a mix of wealthy outsiders, Republican insiders and former military officers. _____ 6. Tensions between China and Mr. Trump are escalating, even before the takes office. A editorial in the overseas edition of People’s Daily, the official organ of the Communist Party of China, denounced Mr. Trump for speaking with Taiwan’s president, and Mr. Trump posted messages on Twitter that stepped up pressure on Beijing. The Taiwanese appear to be cautiously embracing Mr. Trump’s attention. _____ 7. The death toll from a warehouse fire in California could continue to rise as the search for victims may go on for days, authorities said. people have now been found dead 11 of the victims have been positively identified. We spoke with residents of the building, who described persistent electrical problems and their escape from the inferno. “It was like something out of a horror film,” one woman said. _____ 8. Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina, above, has conceded in his bid for giving the national Democratic Party a rare cause for celebration. Mr. McCrory, a Republican, drew nationwide attention during his one term for signing a law limiting bathroom access for transgender people. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, declared victory on election night, but the win was contested. _____ 9. “We must never repeat the horror of war. ” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s announcement that he will visit Pearl Harbor, the U. S. naval base that Japan attacked in World War II, effectively reciprocates President Obama’s May trip to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, above, where the U. S. used a nuclear bomb to end the war. Mr. Abe’s visit to Hawaii is set for Dec. 26 and 27, just weeks after the 75th anniversary of the attack in Hawaii, which happened on Dec. 7, 1941. _____ 10. One of our stories today was not the one that we intended to report. Our journalists went to the small town of Iraan, Tex. on Friday to chronicle the high school’s undefeated football team playing a state quarterfinal game. They won. But on the way home, an lost control and collided with a bus carrying the team’s cheerleaders. Liz Pope, above, a fixture of the school community, died and several others were injured. _____ 11. Bob Dylan sent the Nobel Prize committee a speech to be read on his behalf when he is awarded the literature prize in Stockholm on Saturday. Patti Smith, the musician and writer, will perform his “A Hard Rain’s Fall” as a tribute. _____ 12. ’Tis the season to purchase Christmas figurines of famous people squatting to defecate. The unusual holiday tradition from northeastern Spain is not meant to denigrate the politicians and celebrities portrayed. They’re actually a nod to the use of human waste as fertilizer. First made in the 18th century, the small sculptures are usually placed in a Nativity scene. Politicians from the U. S. have been particularly popular this year. Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s Friday’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com.

Dangerous Fruit: Mystery of Deadly Outbreaks in India Is Solved - The New York Times

Ellen Barry

NEW DELHI — Three years ago, Dr. Rajesh Yadav, an investigator with the India Epidemic Intelligence Service, moved to the city of Muzaffarpur, the site of one of the country’s most mysterious outbreaks. And he waited. Every year in as temperatures reached scorching heights, parents took children who had been healthy the night before to the hospital. The children awakened with a cry in the early morning, many parents said. Then the youths began having seizures and slipping into comas. In about 40 percent of cases, they died. Every year in July, with the arrival of monsoon rains, the outbreak ended as suddenly as it began. Beginning in 1995, investigations variously ascribed the phenomenon to heat stroke to infections carried by rats, bats or sand flies or to pesticides used in the region’s ubiquitous lychee orchards. But there were few signposts for investigators. Instead of occurring in clusters, the illness typically struck only one child in a village, often leaving even siblings unaffected. A joint investigation by India’s National Center for Disease Control and the India office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, published in the British medical journal The Lancet Global Health on Tuesday, has identified a surprising culprit: the lychee fruit itself, when eaten on an empty stomach by malnourished children. In 2015, as a result of the investigation, health officials began urging parents in the area to be sure to feed young children an evening meal and to limit their consumption of lychees (sometimes spelled litchi). In two seasons, the number of reported cases per year dropped to less than 50 from hundreds. “It was an unexplained illness for so many years,” said Padmini Srikantiah, a senior epidemiologist with the C. D. C. and the senior author of the paper. “This is kind of emblematic of why we collaborate, to build this kind of systematic approach. ” The Lancet article walks through a medical detective story, as epidemiologists like Dr. Yadav closely examined the lives of hundreds of afflicted children, trying to understand everything they had eaten, drunk and breathed. “It was a very intense situation, because we witnessed children dying in front of our eyes every day, as soon as they arrived at the hospital,” said Dr. Yadav, who now works with the C. D. C. in Atlanta. Especially difficult were the detailed interviews of parents, many of whom had carried a convulsing or comatose child for hours to get to the hospital. “They were in a kind of panic,” he said. “Their children were dying, and it was an unknown thing. ” The first clue: There was no evidence the children had infections. For 20 years, clinicians were unable to determine if the disease, which led to acute brain swelling known as encephalopathy, was caused by an infection — the immediate assumption in many outbreaks here. Investigators pored over records from the previous year’s outbreak and were struck by the fact that many of the sick children did not have a fever. Analysis of spinal fluid samples overwhelmingly showed that the affected children did not have elevated counts of white blood cells, a sign the body is fighting infection. The second clue: Most of the victims had very low blood sugar levels. Having collected biological samples from more than 300 children, the researchers were able to scan a large number of markers — including some they hadn’t suspected. Glucose had never been a particular concern for investigators. But some of the affected children had strikingly low levels, and those with low blood glucose were twice as likely to die, Dr. Srikantiah said. “It seemed to be a little signal,” she continued. “One of the things we heard multiple times from the children’s mothers was that they didn’t really eat dinner properly. ” The third clue: Outbreaks had been associated with the ackee fruit. It was in the fall of 2013, during a conference call with colleagues in Atlanta, that someone mentioned “Jamaican vomiting sickness,” an outbreak in the West Indies that for many decades caused brain swelling, convulsions and altered mental states in children. The outbreak turned out to be tied to hypoglycin, a toxin found in the ackee fruit that inhibits the body’s ability to synthesize glucose, leading to acute hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose levels. “It had been going on for a decade, if not a century, before people really figured out what it was,” Dr. Srikantiah said. “Now, the grandmothers and the mothers teach their kids, ‘Don’t eat the unripe ackee fruit.’ ” By late 2014, laboratory tests confirmed that lychees also contain high levels of hypoglycin, as well as a similar toxin known as methylenecyclopropyl glycine, or MCPG. This was an answer hiding in plain sight. The Muzaffarpur area, in India’s east, produces about 70 percent of India’s lychee harvest, and around the affected villages, “you really couldn’t go 100 meters without bumping into a lychee orchard,” Dr. Srikantiah said, referring to a distance of 330 feet. Though orchards were typically guarded by caretakers, children often ate lychees that were unripe or that had fallen to the ground. But because everyone in the region eats them, it was difficult for many to believe that, in isolated cases, it could set off a catastrophic illness. The fourth clue: Affected children had huge metabolic imbalances. By early 2015, C. D. C. laboratories had developed a test to measure hypoglycin in urine. They found extraordinary abnormalities in the affected children. “The folks in the genetic labs said ‘We haven’t seen anything like this,’ ” Dr. Srikantiah said. “This was clearly abnormal. ” With that established, the investigators asked participants if they would be comfortable issuing recommendations based on their findings: that young children in the affected areas be encouraged to always eat an evening meal, and that consumption of lychees should be limited. Everyone agreed. And it was done.

Investors Move Next Door, Unsettling a Black Beachside Enclave - The New York Times

John Leland

William Pickens III has spent most of his 80 summers in Sag Harbor Hills, a beach community of modest bungalows on the edge of the Hamptons. His principal built the house across the street his family doctor lived two doors down. Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis were his house guests. Those were the people who came to Sag Harbor Hills. About a year and a half ago he noticed a change. There were new buyers, and they were different. They did not mix much, and they identified themselves by names like 81 Harvest Holdings L. L. C. or 45 Hillside Holdings L. L. C. “I don’t know Mr. and Mrs. L. L. C. ,” Mr. Pickens said. “But I know the family on either side of them, because I grew up with them. But who the hell is L. L. C. ?” “It’s worrisome,” he added. “May not be illegal, but it’s worrisome. ” Sag Harbor Hills and its neighboring subdivisions in the Long Island village of Sag Harbor, Ninevah and Azurest, are uncommon among American beach communities. After World War II, when Sag Harbor was home to a robust working class, developers offered parcels in an undeveloped swath of town for $1, 000 or less. Black families bought in, creating three adjoining communities linked by dirt roads. Two nearby subdivisions, Eastville and Chatfield’s Hill, also attracted black home buyers. As in other black enclaves of segregated communities, laborers lived next to professionals and high rollers. For many it was a world of their own, a decompression zone — home in a way that even their city residences might not be, because it had been built by people like them. The racial makeup kept home prices down. White buyers tended to choose other parts of Sag Harbor. That is changing. As house prices in the Hamptons soar, Sag Harbor Hills and its neighbors are now luring investors looking for bargains. A lawyer named Bruce F. Bronster, backed by investors, has bought at least nine properties in the three communities, each registered to a different L. L. C. Others have followed. In November, residents received a mass email saying a buyer was willing to pay up to $600, 000 in cash for houses — was anyone interested? “It feels like a hostile takeover,” Beverly Granger, a retired dentist, said, adding that strangers have come onto her property to post offers to buy. “People are very aggressively buying up properties and wanting to put bigger homes that are out of character for the community. It just feels different. ” On a recent afternoon, the shaded ranch houses and small lots gave Sag Harbor Hills the feel of a quiet suburb, shaggy in a few spots, embellished with home additions in others, all leading to a ribbon of bayside beach. Neighbors waved as they passed one another on the street. Because banks in the 1950s and 1960s would not lend money in areas, the homes that went up were small. So family life took shape outdoors, among neighbors, said Ms. Granger, who has spent summers in Sag Harbor Hills since 1951. “There was no television,” Ms. Granger said, describing life in the hamlet. “You got a little bit of radio. And so you really went in the homes to sleep and eat, and the rest of the time you were outside doing things. ” Neighbors watched one another’s children, she said. Houses tended to stay within families or among friends turnover was rare. With the arrival of celebrities like Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, the restaurateur B. Smith and Allan Houston of the New York Knicks, the communities rivaled Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard as a vacation mecca for successful . Colson Whitehead, writing about the summers of the black elite in his novel “Sag Harbor,” described an oasis apart from his white prep school. “We fit in there,” he wrote. At a village trustees’ meeting this month, residents faced off. Mr. Bronster was seeking approval to build a house of 5, 300 square feet on several combined lots, the biggest in an area where the median house size is 1, 378 square feet. Neighbors, including a group called Save Sag Harbor, which formed to keep stores out of downtown, came ready to oppose him. Mr. Bronster brought backup to the gathering. “He brought his architect, he brought a attorney and some other attorney, and he had aerial photographs and professionally done graphs,” said Victoria Sharp, a former director of the AIDS center at St. Luke’ Hospital in Manhattan. “If Bronster was putting up a house of 4, 000 square feet, people would be fine with that,” Ms. Sharp said. “But putting up a house of 53 hundred square feet represents a tipping point. The next one is 55, and the next one is 59. And he’s got big money behind him and is going to make this neighborhood what it never has been. ” Like others interviewed for this article, Ms. Sharp, who is white, said the tensions were not racial. She said that since moving to Sag Harbor Hills from another neighborhood in the village last February, she has been welcomed into her neighbors’ homes. “It’s exactly why I moved here,” she said. In 14 years in her previous house, she was never invited to a neighbor’s party. “There’s a real sense of community here. And that’s about, unfortunately, to be interrupted. ” Mr. Bronster said he had no intention of changing the community’s atmosphere. He, too, was drawn by the neighborly feel, he said. “I’m especially appreciative of the history of the neighborhood, how it was started, what it means to the residents who live there and how that has enabled the community to develop a very warm and gregarious and welcoming sense,” he said. “That’s why I want to be there. ” He added that he was developing dilapidated houses to rent to “ families that want to be part of the community. ” An even bigger house, of 5, 900 square feet, has been proposed for four combined lots that belong to Robert Kapito, the president of the investment firm BlackRock, who is also one of Mr. Bronster’s investors. Mr. Kapito earned more than $20 million last year, according to company filings. Final approval for the two houses is pending. Renee Simons, who lives next to the site of Mr. Kapito’s proposed house, said that she felt dismissed by the newcomers, and at odds with some neighbors, who hope the new houses will raise the value of their homes. “It feels like us versus them, which is not healthy,” Ms. Simons said. “It’s not what I come here for. There’s such an increase in contention now. ” “We’re on defense,” she said. “So then you get called a . ” Dianne McMillan Brannen, a real estate agent who has lived in Ninevah for 25 years, said she worried about a domino effect: investors combining lots to build bigger houses, which drives up sales prices, which tempts more families to sell, until eventually a historically rare haven looks like just another upscale beach resort. In the last year, she said, 13 houses have been sold to builders or investors, compared with the usual four or five. “An identity is the most important thing that could be lost,” Ms. Brannen said. “This area is not always going to be . You could have 250 homes, and it would be an entirely different set of people here. And those sets of people are not going to regard it as we have regarded it. And they’re not going to have a story to tell about what’s happened previously. And unless we tell that story, it’ll go away. ” Mr. Pickens, whose grandfather was an early field secretary of the N. A. A. C. P. said he welcomed newcomers, whatever their race, but not investors or people with four or five houses and no commitment to the community. “This is sort of reverse integration,” he said. “That’s fine, that’s the American way. But there are 5, 000 miles of coastline in America, and five are commanded and owned by blacks. So we treasure what we own. That begins to disappear. Think about that. So that’s what we’re dealing with. And once you leave here, you can’t afford to come back. ” Of the newcomers, he asked: “Do they really want to be here or do they want to see us out of here? I’m for integration, I’m not for elimination. ”

The Abnormal Normal of Nuclear Terror

Consortiumnews.com

The Abnormal Normal of Nuclear Terror October 28, 2016 Almost goofily, behind Official Washington’s latest warmongering “group think,” the U.S. has plunged into a New Cold War against Russia with no debate about the enormous costs and the extraordinary risks of nuclear annihilation, Gray Brechin observes. By Gray Brechin When Lewis Mumford heard that a primitive atomic bomb had obliterated Hiroshima, the eminent urban and technology historian experienced “almost physical nausea.” He instantly understood that humanity now had the means to exterminate itself. On March 2, 1946, seven months later, he published an essay titled “Gentlemen: You Are Mad!” Not only did madmen, Mumford insist, “govern our affairs in the name of order and security,” but he called his fellow Americans equally mad for viewing “the madness of our leaders as if it expressed a traditional wisdom and common sense” even as those leaders readied the means for “the casual suicide of the human race.” Illustration by Chesley Bonestell of nuclear bombs detonating over New York City, entitled “Hiroshima U.S.A.” Colliers, Aug. 5, 1950. In the 70 years since the Saturday Review of Literature published Mumford’s warning, that madness has grown to be normative so that those who question the cost, safety and promised security of the nuclear stockpile are regarded as the Trojans did Cassandra — if they are noticed at all. “The bottom line on nuclear weapons is that when the president gives the order it mus t be followed, ” insisted Hillary Clinton in the third presidential debate as a means of affirming her own — rather than her opponent’s — qualifications to give that order. “There’s about four minutes between the order being given and the people responsible for launching nuclear weapons to do so.” Four minutes to launch is a minute more than the three to midnight at which the Doomsday Clock now stands. Clinton no doubt calculated that voters would be more comfortable with her own steady finger on the nuclear trigger. I can think of no better proof of Mumford’s contention than the fact that those voters would give any individual the power to abruptly end life on Earth unless it is that her statement went unremarked by those keeping score. The Nobel Mistake Less than nine months into Barack Obama’s presidency, Norway’s Nobel Institute bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize on him largely on the strength of his pledge during his first major foreign policy speech in Prague to rid the world of nuclear weapons. In a 2015 memoir, former secretary of the Institute Geir Lundestad expressed remorse for doing so, saying “[We] thought that it would strengthen Obama and it didn’t have that effect.” President Barack Obama uncomfortably accepting the Nobel Peace Prize from Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2009. (White House photo) Like all modern presidents, Obama quickly learned the political economy of the entrenched nuclear establishment, committing a trillion dollars to the “modernization” of the arsenal and its delivery systems 30 years beyond his presidency. As Obama prepared to leave office, his Defense Secretary Ashton Carter rejected pleas for reducing the stockpile and announced that the Pentagon planned to spend $108 billion over five years to “correct decades of underinvestment in nuclear deterrence … dat[ing] back to the Cold War.” The last Cold War, that is. Such staggering expenditures are, however, even more unlikely to purchase the order and security that Secretary Carter promised than when Mumford issued his warning. That was well before thousands of thermonuclear weapons waited on hair-trigger alert for the order to launch or a glitch that would do so without an order. In his recently published book My Journey At the Nuclear Brink , Bill Clinton’s Defense Secretary William Perry detailed the numerous close calls by which the world has dodged partial or all-out Armageddon and claimed that the likelihood of disaster is growing rather than diminishing. Most of these events are unknown to the public. Former head of the U.S. Strategic Command General James Cartwright bolstered Perry’s claim when he told a San Francisco audience that “It makes no sense to keep our nuclear weapons online 24 hours a day” since “You’ve either been hacked and are not admitting it, or you’re being hacked and don’t know it.” One of those hackers, he said, could get lucky. A Non-existent Debate When Hillary Clinton was asked at a town hall event in Concord, New Hampshire, if she would reduce expenditures for nuclear arms and rein in the corporations that sell the government those weapons, she replied “I think we are overdue for a very thorough debate in our country about what we need and how we are willing to pay for it.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix, Arizona. by Gage Skidmore) Such a debate has never been held and — given the peril, complexity and cost of nuclear technology — it is never likely to happen unless a president of exceptional courage and independence demands it. The profits of weapons production are simply too great and few of the prospective victims understandably want to dwell on the unthinkable when so much more diverting entertainment is available on their Smartphones. Nuclear weapons by their nature are inimical to transparency and thus to the public discussion, control and democracy they ostensibly protect. Nor does Doomsday make for winning dinner banter. The Brookings Institute in 1998 published a study of the cumulative costs of nuclear weapons entitled Atomic Audit . It put the bill to date at $5.5 trillion, virtually none of which was known by the public or even to members of Congress or the President. The cost simply grew and continues to grow in the dark, precluding spending on so much else that might otherwise return in public works and services to those who unwittingly pay for the weapons while also mitigating the causes of war abroad. If she wins, Hillary Clinton’s election to the Presidency will be hailed as historic, but not nearly as historic as if she would sponsor that “overdue” and “very thorough debate” of which she spoke in the city of Concord. Such a debate might begin to lift from her own shoulders — and from those of her successors if there are to be any — what she called “the awesome responsibility” of four minutes to launch. That way lies sanity after 70 years of its opposite. Dr. Gray Brechin is the Project Scholar of the Living New Deal University at the UC Berkeley Department of Geography. He is the author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin which explains the historical context of California’s long but little-known involvement with nuclear weaponry.

Syrian Refugee in Germany Gets $390K in Annual Benefits. And It's Because of Who He Takes Care Of

Parker Lee

The impact of the Syrian refugee crisis has been felt worldwide. While it has helped make immigration a central issue in the U.S. presidential elections, one of the most affected countries has been Germany — with Pew noting that the nation received “442,000 asylum applications in 2015 alone.” Now, a report has emerged from Germany that just one of these immigrants is claiming nearly $400,000 in benefits from the government, due to the fact that he arrived in the country with his four wives... and 23 children. Europe going mad: Syrian refugee in Germany claiming benefits for his 4 wives and 22 children. https://t.co/Cmcn550fym — Michael Heaver (@Michael_Heaver) October 26, 2016 The man — who has been identified only as Ghazia A. — is allowed to have multiple wives under Muslim tradition, but only if he can support them financially. Upon emigrating to Germany, where polygamy is not officially permitted but officials have been 'looking the other way,' Ghazia was forced to choose just one of his four wives as his “main” wife. He then split up his 22 children — one has since married and moved to Saudi Arabia — among the other three. These family members were placed in neighboring homes, some up to 31 miles away. Ghazia explained to German newspaper Das Bild how his wide-ranging family responsibilities have left him unable to work: "According to our religion I have the duty to visit each family equally and not to prioritize any of them. I am practically always on my way to be with my family — yet I would gladly like to work." Noting that “regardless of how one evaluates facts morally, it is never wrong to know the hard numbers,” one German financial manager calculated the state benefits Ghazia would receive for his massive family. According to his estimate , it comes out to roughly $390,000 per year in U.S. dollars. Germany: Syrian Refugee with 4 Wives and 23 Children Claims £320,000 a year in benefits https://t.co/lU2ED6dSn9 — Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) October 26, 2016 While much of the criticism surrounding America's acceptance of refugees has centered on concerns of terrorism , similar cultural clashes have also been seen in the U.S. In August, one refugee family brought a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania school they were placed in, arguing it's not the school they “deserved.” Lawsuit: Expert calls pace at Phoenix Academy ‘totally inappropriate’ for refugee students https://t.co/8AW75hF7tY #LNPinsider #FridayReads — LancasterOnline.com (@LancasterOnline) August 19, 2016 Other, larger concerns have also emerged about the potential culture clash that could come as a result of accepting huge numbers of refugees, particularly involving women. Some have argued that the “brutal ideology in Muslim majority countries” that many refugees were raised to practice places women in Western countries at risk of both sexual assault and violence. In September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that she had lost control of her “open-door” refugee policy, even expressing that she would “turn back time” if she could. With Ghazia's case representing just one situation causing backlash from her citizens, it's not difficult to see why.

La estación de Calatayud del Ave será un colchón al que saltar desde el tren en marcha

Kike García

La estación de Calatayud del AVE será un colchón al que saltar desde el tren en marcha LA ESTACIÓN DISPONDRÁ TAMBIÉN DE UNA MÁQUINA DE VENDING QUE NO FUNCIONA tren Asumiendo al fin que no es rentable que el AVE Madrid-Barcelona se detenga en Calatayud, Renfe ha informado esta semana que la estación de la localidad consistirá a partir de la semana que viene en un colchón situado en el suelo y junto a las vías para que los pasajeros que quieran apearse puedan tirarse desde el tren en marcha sin lastimarse. “Es una estación modelo Pikolín que sustituirá a la actual, que será derribada”, ha explicado un portavoz de la operadora ferroviaria esta mañana. La estación del tren de alta velocidad situada en Calatayud medirá 135×90 centímetros y dispondrá del primer andén viscoelástico de Europa, según defiende Renfe. El procedimiento para que los pasajeros del tren, que viaja a una media de 250 kilómetros por hora, puedan apearse en Calatayud consistirá en situarse en una de las puertas y recibir un pequeño empujón de un miembro de la tripulación. La asistencia de la tripulación será esencial para calcular la trayectoria correcta hacia el colchón, explica la compañía española. Renfe no ha querido detallar qué procedimiento deberán seguir los viajeros que deseen subir al tren. La compañía está haciendo pruebas para ver si una persona puede correr en paralelo al convoy y saltar al interior mientras varios ejecutivos le gritan “vamos, vamos, corre” desde la ventanilla. “En el caso de obligar a los ejecutivos a subir a los trenes en marcha, habilitaríamos un vagón de mercancías con un gran portón de madera y tres ejecutivos vagabundos en el interior que tocarían la armónica y explicarían leyendas del Ibex”, ha explicado el portavoz.

New Company Aims To Explore Intersection Of Technology, Other Thing - The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Pediatricians Ease Screen Time Guidelines New Company Aims To Explore Intersection Of Technology, Other Thing Intuihub officials say the particular thing needs to incorporate the latest technology if it wants to stay relevant. Close Intuihub officials say the particular thing needs to incorporate the latest technology if it wants to stay relevant. NEWS October 26, 2016 Vol 52 Issue 42 · News · Technology SAN FRANCISCO—Explaining how their company was poised to usher in a bold new era of innovation, founders of local startup Intuihub told reporters Wednesday that their mission is to explore the intersection of technology and another thing. “When you look at where the world is going right now, it just makes a lot of sense to take cutting-edge technology and incorporate it into this other thing,” said Intuihub co-founder Martin Fiske, who explained that the other thing will be modernized and streamlined once it is integrated with the latest technological breakthroughs. “We’re looking out at an exciting new frontier, one in which technology will be used to push the boundaries of what the other thing is capable of.” “And we believe there’s no limit to what we can accomplish when we take technology and the other thing and put them together,” Fiske added. Intuihub will reportedly employ groundbreaking advancements in technology to take the other thing in a variety of new and intriguing directions, including some directions, company officials promised, that have never before been imagined. According to the startup’s founders, their work will forever change the way people think about and interact with the thing. Fiske, who reportedly began his career working solely with the other thing but soon realized that adding technology to what he was doing would “open amazing new doors for the thing,” told reporters that his company has an incredible opportunity to revolutionize both technology and the other thing. Five years from now, he said, the thing is likely to be completely unrecognizable by today’s standards. He pointed out that Intuihub is already disrupting the entire landscape by using technology to make the other thing more accessible and convenient. “Technology is evolving, and the other thing needs to evolve along with it,” said Fiske, noting that no other company focusing on the other thing is using technology the way Intuihub is. “The synergy between technology and this thing will be so strong that when the two come together, they may actually create a third thing, one that we believe could be truly world-altering.” After describing their plans to launch a revolution that will change the lives of millions for the better, Intuihub founders confirmed they were also interested in partnering with brands to create more personalized experiences for the thing’s consumers. Share This Story: WATCH VIDEO FROM THE ONION Sign up For The Onion's Newsletter Give your spam filter something to do. Daily Headlines

Trump World’s Darkest Side

Consortiumnews.com

Trump World’s Darkest Side November 8, 2016 Donald Trump’s campaign has exposed and spoken to the real pain and profound alienation of many Americans, but the candidate also has exploited those emotions with lies and appeals to prejudice, says Michael Winship. By Michael Winship When I grow up, I want to be Charlie Pierce , who covers politics for Esquire magazine and has toiled in our scrivener’s trade, as far as I can tell, since the late 1970s. I know, technically, he’s a couple of years younger than I am, but he writes with the fierce wit and well-aimed anger to which I aspire, and as this wheezing milk train of a presidential campaign clanks into the final station, few have been as perceptive when it comes to trying to figure out just what the hell has happened to America this year. Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. (Photo credit: Grant Miller/RNC) Charlie Pierce has done so with great style throughout, but now, thanks to Donald Trump and just hours before Election Day, he has come to the end of his watchdog rope. He wrote on Saturday that Trump — to whom he refers as El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago — had “managed to exceed even my admittedly expansive limits for political obscenity.” Pierce was talking about Trump’s reaction after President Obama responded to an elderly heckler wearing a military tunic at a Friday campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. As the crowd booed the man, Obama said, “Hey! Listen up! I told you to be focused, and you’re not focused right now. Listen to what I’m saying. Hold up. Hold up! … Everybody sit down, and be quiet for a second… First of all, we live in a country that respects free speech. Second of all, it looks like maybe he might’ve served in our military and we got to respect that. Third of all, he was elderly and we got to respect our elders. And fourth of all, don’t boo, vote.” In other words, the President showed poise, grace and yes, class. But shortly after, here’s how the moment was seen through Trump’s eyes at a rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania: “There was a protester and a protester that likes us,” Trump said. “And what happened is they wouldn’t put the cameras on him. They kept the cameras on Obama. … He was talking to a protester, screaming at him, really screaming at him. By the way, if I spoke the way Obama spoke to that protester, they would say he became unhinged.” Unhinged? Really? We all know that Trump seems to get his news from an implanted electrode picking up propaganda signals from the Planet Mongo. But there comes a point when the lies piled upon lies become too much for even the fairest and most equable of us. Hearing Trump’s demonstrably false description of what happened at Obama’s rally, Charlie Pierce finally had it. “Maybe it was because it was so ludicrously provable a lie,” he wrote. “[Trump] didn’t care. He never has cared. His contempt for the democratic processes and for the norms of self-government is matched only by the deep contempt he has for all the suckers who mistake his contempt for the American experiment for their deep disappointment in it. He has measured their intelligence by his heavily leveraged net worth and found them hilariously lacking. “We are all the subcontractors who build his indomitable ego for him and, as such, he can stiff us according to his customary business plan. His campaign long ago became a sickening charade performed by a grotesque charlatan.” The Scene in Reno And so it is. Look, too, at how Trump and his followers at a rally in Reno, Nevada, on Saturday responded to a man with a “Republicans against Trump” sign. Before someone shouted “Gun!” and the moment turned even uglier, Trump had looked down and said, “Oh we have one of those guys from the Hillary Clinton campaign. How much are you being paid, $1,500?” As the crowd booed, Trump said, “Okay. Take him out.” The run-down PIX Theatre sign reads “Vote Trump” on Main Street in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. July 15, 2016. (Photo by Tony Webster Flickr) The protester, a Reno resident named Austyn Crites, described himself as Republican and a fiscal conservative. He told The Guardian he was grateful to the police who removed him from the auditorium for interrogation — they kept him from being further kicked, choked and pummeled by the gang of Trump supporters who surrounded him. Still, he said, “The people who attacked me — I’m not blaming them. I’m blaming Donald Trump’s hate rhetoric, … The fact that I got beat up today, that’s just showing what he’s doing to his crowds.” Throughout the campaign, whenever Trump has egged on his followers, I’ve thought of that line in Young Frankenstein, when the angry Transylvanian villagers are told by the local police inspector, “A riot is an ugly thing, and I think that it is just about time we had one.” Remember what Trump said when a protester was dragged out of a February rally in Las Vegas: “I love the old days — you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks. … I’d like to punch him in the face.” By now, you’ve heard it all before and the litany of lies, outrageous claims and insults has climbed so high that many of us have become numb and weary from the sheer repetition of Trump’s buffoonery. You can only go to so many demolition derbies before the sight of flaming car wrecks becomes routine. Dog Whistles What’s more, you can argue that far more insidious and frightening are the dog whistle attacks appealing to the baser instincts of the bigoted and ignorant. The latest: the closing ad from the Trump campaign that, with anti-Semitic overtones, points fingers at “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class.” Former speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona. March 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore) As Josh Marshall notes at Talking Points Memo , “The four readily identifiable American bad guys in the ad are Hillary Clinton, George Soros (Jewish financier), Janet Yellen (Jewish Fed Chair) and Lloyd Blankfein (Jewish Goldman Sachs CEO)… This is an ad intended to appeal to anti-Semites and spread anti-Semitic ideas… This is intentional and by design. It is no accident.” Here is something Charlie Pierce wrote back in May . Trump, he said, “is riding on a wave of pain that he never has felt.” “He is riding on a wave of anxiety he never has encountered. Beyond their love of him, there is no indication that he is as deeply aware of what has powered his rise as the people whose fear, and doubt, and, yes, hatred has powered his rise. Their job is still to wait in line, cheer on cue, and give him the devotion that he has earned because, after all, he is He, Trump, and they’re not, and that will never change.” Add it all up and to me, this is what it comes down to: Do you want to live in a United States where anger, prejudice and fear rule, and dissent is viewed as treason, or in a country where we try to meet every issue from terrorism to education with clear eyes and a rational mind? This year’s choices are far from perfect, but nonetheless a choice must be made. To quote a founding father who believed in such things: liberty, once lost, is lost forever. This could be democracy’s last stop. Vote. Michael Winship is the Emmy Award-winning senior writer of Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com, and a former senior writing fellow at the policy and advocacy group Demos. Follow him on Twitter at @MichaelWinship .

Why Most People Are Deficient In Magnesium: The Signs and What You Can Do

REALdeal

Osteoporosis (yes, magnesium is more important than calcium for bone health!) Diabetes Kidney Stones “Similarly, patients with diagnoses of depression, epilepsy, diabetes mellitus, tremor, Parkinsonism, arrhythmias, circulatory disturbances (stroke, cardiac infarction, arteriosclerosis), hypertension, migraine, cluster headache, cramps, neuro-vegetative disorders, abdominal pain, osteoporosis, asthma, stress dependent disorders, tinnitus, ataxia, confusion, preeclampsia, weakness, might also be consequences of the magnesium deficiency syndrome.” – Journal of the American College of Nutrition Amazingly, the article referenced above even mentions neuro-vegetative disorders as a possible result of magnesium deficiency. This would include comas. Stress hormone production requires high levels of magnesium and stressful experiences can immediately lead to complete depletion of magnesium stores; could this be a contributing factor to why we see comas after traumatic accidents/injuries? As I mentioned above, magnesium is an electrolyte responsible for brain signals and conductivity. Without magnesium, people in comas may not be able to come to and resume conductivity. Many people with diabetes also fall into diabetic comas. Diabetes is listed as another possible consequence of magnesium deficiency. Could this be a factor in diabetic comas as well? Something to think about and research further! Cravings Do you crave chocolate? Why, when people are stressed out, do they go for chocolate? Chocolate is one of the highest food sources of magnesium. Magnesium is associated with so many disorders that Dr. Carolyn Dean of the Nutritional Magnesium Association has devoted an entire book to discussing how she has treated thousands of patients for a wide array of diseases, with magnesium as the primary component. Her book, The Magnesium Miracle, is a must-read if you have any of the magnesium deficiency symptoms above, or any health problems in general – as there is likely a magnesium component to everything. Check out 50 Studies Suggest That Magnesium Deficiency Is Killing Us . Why Don’t Doctors Find Magnesium Deficiencies In Tests? Unfortunately, conventional medicine has not woken up to the amount of research that has been done on magnesium deficiency. One of the reasons Western Medicine is so off base with magnesium is how they test it: with blood tests. Blood tests do not yield ANY information about magnesium … why? Because the body controls the levels of blood magnesium very tightly. If the magnesium in the blood drops just a little bit, you’re going to have a heart attack. It’s that sample. So to prevent this, the body will rob all of its cells, tissues, and bones of magnesium in order to keep the blood levels constant. If you do a blood test for magnesium, the cells could be completely empty while your blood levels remain constant. What’s worse is that magnesium is not even in your blood. 99% of the magnesium in the body is stored in the cells that get robbed, while a mere 1% of your body’s total magnesium is in the blood. These tests are a complete waste of time, and they’re not educating doctors to this reality. “A serum test for magnesium is actually worse than ineffective, because a test result that is within normal limits lends a false sense of security about the status of the mineral in the body. It also explains why doctors don’t recognize magnesium deficiency; they assume serum magnesium levels are an accurate measure of all the magnesium in the body.” – Dr. Carolyn Dean, The Magnesium Miracle. Why Are We So Deficient? Here’s the short(ish) version: Number one , we’re being poisoned by our food. Number two , we’re increasingly stressed out. We’re running our engines on high to keep up with life and it’s draining us. Stress hormone production requires high levels of magnesium and stressful experiences lead to depletion of magnesium stores. Number three , we’re eating more sugar than ever. For every molecule of sugar we consume, our bodies use 54 molecules of magnesium to process it. Fourth , low levels in the soil and modern farming techniques deplete stores of magnesium. And lastly, magnesium is depleted by many pharmaceutical drugs and estrogen compounds such as oral contraceptives, antibiotics, cortisone, prednisone, and blood pressure medications (“Drug-induced nutrient depletion handbook,” Pelton, 2001). Diuretics in coffee and tea (caffeine) also raise excretion levels. Oh and by the way – flouride competes for absorption with magnesium! Nowadays, nearly everyone is magnesium deficient – no test needed. Refined/processed foods are stripped of their mineral, vitamin, and fiber content. These are anti-nutrient foods because they actually steal magnesium in order to be metabolized. When consumed, they demand that we supplement with magnesium or we are destined to break down eventually due to severe deficiency. Like I said, sugar is the worst offender. Every single molecule of sugar you consume drags over 50 times the amount of magnesium out of your body. Well, what if you eat a healthy diet? Processed products are not the only foods that are devoid of magnesium. In general, magnesium has been depleted from topsoil, diminishing dietary intake across the board while our need for magnesium has increased, due to the high levels of toxic exposure we come across in our daily lives (air, water, plastics, chemicals, the list goes on!). The soil is depleted of magnesium because of the pesticides that are sprayed on all conventionally grown plants and worldwide pollution that affects even the cleanest fields. Pesticides also kill those beneficial bacteria/fungi that are necessary in order for plants to convert soil nutrients into plant nutrients usable by humans. Are You A Cannabis User? Cannabis has so many positive effects in terms of treating diseases such as epilepsy, cancer, and more (read 1 , 2 , 3 and cureyourowncancer.org ). Trust me, I’ll be the first to tell you I’m all for it – it’s a safe and effective herb with countless therapeutic benefits that the government has been hiding for years. The only way they want you using it is if they’ve patented one of its’ chemical compounds and can sell it to you for a profit. However, we should also look at what happens to our body on a cellular level if we use cannabis on a daily basis. Would you take parasite cleansing herbs every day for the rest of your life, or even every few days? Probably not. You’d take them when you’re sick or during a monthly cleanse, or else you’d develop some side effects from overuse. We need to remember that cannabis is a powerful herbal medicine and should be treated in such a way. It turns out that using marijuana tends to deplete the body’s stores of magnesium, with the result that the person feels more on-edge after coming down from the high. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t safe in moderation. It means that over time, if used consistently without proper balance via magnesium replenishment, it can and will cause magnesium deficiency. The Best Ways To Get Magnesium 1. Eat magnesium rich foods grown on organic soil. 2. Take ionic magnesium drops. This is my new favorite method, which I’ve learned from The Magnesium Miracle. 3. Apply magnesium oil to your skin! This is the second best way to raise your levels. 4. Soak in epsom salt baths. This will provide not only magnesium, but sulfur for your liver as well. Additional References (not linked in the article) Oxford Journals – Magnesium Basics: http://ckj.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/Suppl_1/i3.full Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD: http://drcarolyndean.com/magnesium_miracle/

Member of liberal elite struggling to pay rent again

Member of liberal elite struggling to pay rent again 16-11-16 A MEMBER of London’s fancy, stuck-up liberal elite is unable to afford his rent, it has emerged. 29-year-old Tom Logan, who has a smarty-pants media job selling books and DVDs behind the counter at a shop, is behind with rent on his shared flat in Catford. Snooty Logan, who believes in gay marriage, salads and watches television on ‘the internet’, said: “I hoped that being in the metropolitan liberal elite would give me access to the network of socialist-hypocrite millionaire actors who sneer at the honest working man. “Sadly though Judi Dench has not been on the phone offering me her spare room while I get my shit together. “I haven’t even had a tenner from Mark Rylance, and he’s definitely loaded after The BFG .” Namby-pamby tosser Logan, who reads for fun and likes avocados, said: “I’ve just been getting more into debt each month because the landlord, a salt-of-the-earth hard-working builder, has nearly doubled the rent lately “I thought this country was supposed to be too much of a radical leftist utopia for that sort of thing to happen, but apparently not.” He added: “This is all my fault for being such a jumped-up tosser.” Share:

Dem: Charge Republican Who Took Down Anti-Cop Painting - Breitbart

AWR Hawkins

Representative Lacy Clay ( ) wants Representative Duncan Hunter ( ) to face “theft” charges for removing an painting from the walls of the U. S. Capitol complex. [Breitbart News previously reported that the painting was hung in the Capitol complex after Clay chose it as a fitting representation of the August 9, 2014, shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. It depicts police officers as animals with tusks. On January 6 Hunter removed the painting from the wall, saying, “I’ve seen the press [reporting on this painting] for about a week or so. … I’m in the Marine Corps. If you want it done, just call us. ” Hunter then delivered the painting to Clay’s office and said, “Lacy can put it back up, I guess, if he wants to … but I’m allowed to take it down. ” Clay now wants “theft” charges against Hunter. According to The Washington Post, Clay addressed the removal of the painting on Monday, saying that “his staff met Monday with members of the Capitol Police to press theft charges against Rep. Duncan D. Hunter. ” Clay added, “He had no right to take that picture down, it’s thievery. ” Clay plans to rehang the painting on January 10 and will be accompanied by the Congressional Black Caucus while doing it. The artist behind the painting is David Pulphus. Clay defended Pulphus’ animal representation of officers in Ferguson, saying: These are his impressions. Those are his feelings. That’s how he formed his opinion, and he expressed it in his art. So what’s wrong with that? Any black parent would tell you that they have to have this conversation with their children about police and how to act around them, so that’s the conversation we need to be having here. Not about taking some kid’s picture off the wall — it should be about, how do we change these attitudes and improve the relationships between police and the black community? The schism between Clay and Hunter over attitudes toward police officers is a microcosm of the larger divide that exists between the Democrat Party and the Republican Party. For example, during the 2016 presidential race the National Fraternal Order of Police (NFOP) sent Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton a questionnaire to answer. She did not even bother returning it to them. NFOP president Chuck Canterbury said he was “disappointed and shocked. ” Approximately a month later the NFOP endorsed Donald Trump for president. The Hill quoted Canterbury saying, “[Trump] has seriously looked at the issues facing law enforcement today. He understands and supports our priorities and our members believe he will make America safe again. ” AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com.

Fierce Homeless Woman Guarding Trump's Star from Future Vandals Flashes 'Trump-Worthy' Reason for It

Virginia Kruta

Share on Twitter Earlier this week, someone claiming his name was Jamie Otis vandalized Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame.” He pretended to be a construction worker, and attacked the terrazzo and cement star early Wednesday morning with a pickaxe and a sledgehammer. Donald Trump's Walk of Fame star destroyed, police investigate https://t.co/xFfCOdz1iZ pic.twitter.com/qJOsbbjTHp — FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) October 27, 2016 While police searched for Otis, who is likely to be charged with a felony, the star was surrounded by caution tape. Police have monitored the scene as well. But for one homeless woman, that wasn't enough ... The unnamed woman now stands guard at the star, protecting it from further damage and showing her support for Trump through a number of handwritten signs: Very powerful!Homeless Trump Supporter guards Trump's star on Hollywood Blvd... "20 million illegals and Americans sleep on streets" pic.twitter.com/XsDmiMCUNs — America First! (@America_1st_) October 27, 2016 “20 million illegals and Americans sleep on streets in tents.” Homeless woman guards Trump's Hollywood star, surrounded by iPhone &sack of cheap Forever21 clothes, all foreign-made. — Deplorable KYGrifter (@KyGrifter) October 27, 2016 "Did Hillary have sex with that woman senator Weiner's wife. Can Americans go to Mexico for jobs housing medicine." A homeless person guards Trumps star in Hollywood. Even the homeless love Trump. #AmericaFirst #MAGA pic.twitter.com/s4sJ1rNElO — Deplorable Vet (@KGBVeteran) October 27, 2016 “You racist mother-f**kers vote Trump.” — Apafarkas Agmánd (@ApafarkasAgmand) October 27, 2016 “U mother-f**kers know!!! Take care home first. Vote Trump. F**k Mexico.” — Sunflower Girl (@X5MSport15) October 27, 2016 According to the LAPD, vandal James Otis was arrested on Thursday. ABC News reported that Otis — heir to the Otis Elevator family and grandson of the man who invented Listerine — remains unapologetic for his actions. He gave a brief statement with his attorney present: "I'm not at all ashamed of what I've done. What Mr. Trump has done is he's derailed the entire election. I got so upset. I got so frustrated and angry and that's why I did this. I admitted my mistakes. And I'm now dealing with my consequences. Unlike Mr. Trump who has never admitted what he's done." Otis also claimed that his intent was to auction off the Trump nameplate after he removed it from the sidewalk, giving the proceeds to the women that Trump has allegedly sexually assaulted. However, he was forced to return the nameplate upon his arrest Thursday.

Clinton Scandal Avalanche: Bombshells Too Numerous to Cover, Too Unspeakable to Mention

William F. Jasper

From: Marina Abramovic <marinaxabramovic@gmail.com<;mailto:marinaxabramovic@gmail.com>;> Date: June 28, 2015 at 2:35:08 AM GMT+2 To: Tony Podesta <podesta@podesta.com<;mailto:podesta@podesta.com>;> Subject: Dinner Dear Tony, I am so looking forward to the Spirit Cooking dinner at my place. Do you think you will be able to let me know if your brother is joining? All my love, Marina There is much more to the Abramovic-Podesta-Clinton connection than this one e-mail and the social event it makes reference to — and much more than we can cover in this article. However, the MSM pro-Clinton press corps has studiously avoided these ties, except in the few instances where they have ventured into the cesspool to declare that there really is no “cess” there. That was the tack taken by Eric Levitz in a November 4 piece for New York Magazine , a reliable cheering section for Team Hillary throughout the campaign season. Entitled, “Spirit Cooking Explained: Satanic Ritual of Fun Dinner?” Levitz describes Tony Podesta as “a powerful lobbyist and ... a prominent collector of contemporary art.” “The message here is, ostensibly, a dinner invitation that makes playful reference to one of Abramovic’s past works,” writes Levitz . Yes, just a “playful,” “fun dinner,” that’s all. But, according to Levitz, the “tin-foil hat” conspiracy wackos of the “far-right fever swamp” have turned this innocent dinner gathering of the Podesta clan and their artistic muse into something sinister. Well, Mr. Levitz — like the Podestas, the Clintons, Lady Gaga, and Abramovic — apparently hales from a different precinct (if not a completely different planet or universe) than most normal, moral, decent Americans, who would be inclined to find the Abramovic dinner “art” both creepy and sinister. Levitz is not unaware of Abramovic’s ultra-dark side; he includes an imbedded video in his article of her performing her infamous Spirit Cooking . (Warning: graphic content, viewer discretion advised.) The New York mag writer slams the Alex Jones/Info Wars website and Drudge Report for making an issue of these innocuous goings on; they’re obviously unsophisticated rubes with no appreciation for high-toned culture, right? There ain’t no Satanists here, you fools, just artistic types enjoying some campy fun. Right? Well, Drudge and Jones are probably a lot closer to the mark than Levitz. Besides the Spirit Cooking video, Alex Jones includes (among other evidence) a Marina Abramovic portrait (shown above) in which she frames her face with the horns of a bloody goat skull, the symbol of Baphomet, one of the most common Satanic images. Other portraits of the “artist” can be found online showing her with a mouthful of live snakes, as well as her signature fixation on death, cannibalism, and — in general — the lewd, crude, nude, and rude. Marina Abramovic, an unquenchable narcissist, apparently is unsettled by the sudden critical attention, since she is used to being worshipped and fawned over. On November 4, she exploded with the Tweets: “I am not a Satanist! Stop it!” and “My friends, please stop twittering me with tag spiritcooking! Just enjoy art and stop asking me about politics.” Unfortunately for her, she must have forgotten that her Twitter account she used in an attempt to dispel the Spirit Cooking occultism, is “@AbramovicM666.” Probably not the wisest move she’s made. (For an additional spirited and rational discussion of the Spirit Cooking e-mails and their related “context,” see also: Spirit Cooking: Evil In Government: Mike Cernovich, Vox Day and Stefan Molyneux .) The Clinton-Podesta-Abramovic tie-in might be written off by many doubters as merely a titillating, sensational election-eve story scraped up by political opponents. However, it cannot be written off so easily because it goes to the heart of darkness of the Clinton “organized crime cesspool” that the FBI’s former assistant director James Kallstrom referred to. It comes on the heels of a long train of verified stories that are interrelated, most especially regarding criminal activities with minors and children. There is, for starters, the long-running close relationship between hedge fund billionaire (and convicted pedophile) Jeffrey Epstein, whose Manhattan mansion and private island estate in the Caribbean have been the sites for many notorious sex parties — especially for Democratic politicians, celebrities, and high-end political donors. Bill and Hillary Clinton, reportedly, have made multiple trips to Epstein’s lair, known as “Sex Slave Island,” which offers a luxurious getaway excursion outside the jurisdiction of authorities who might get in the way of sexual frolicking with teens — and even younger kids. Hillary Clinton’s ties to Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner and the most recent revelations coming from his computer underscore the fact that at the highest levels of power in Washington, D.C., top officals of both parties for many years have been winking at the criminal sexual exploitation of children by politicians and their high-placed friends. Only rarely do the offenses leak out in a way that ends up with prosecution of the powerful, as in the case of Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, a serial abuser of teenage boys. But, as we have reported, Hastert was just the tip of the iceberg . Related to this same subject matter are e-mails between Hillary Clinton and her then-top aide Cheryl Mills regarding one Laura Silsby, who was arrested and charged with child abduction and child trafficking in Haiti, after the island was devastated by a hurricane in January 2010. Silsby and nine others posing as missionaries for a non-existent Christian orphanage were apprehended by authorities while attempting to smuggle a busload of 33 Haitian children off the island. Turns out they weren’t orphans after all, and their parents accused Silsby of deception. Silsby’s attorney was convicted felon Jorge Torres Puello, who, at the time, was a fugitive from U.S. authorities for alien smuggling. That should have sent up a red flag or two! (Torres Puello was subsequently captured, prosecuted, and sentenced to three years in U.S. federal prison for alien smuggling .) However, thanks to intercession by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton (who was serving as special UN envoy to Haiti, as well as ramrodding his own very profitable Clinton Foundation ventures in the tragedy-struck island), Laura Silsby’s charges were reduced and she was allowed to leave Haiti with time served. Some analysts and critics have suggested that Silsby was kidnapping the Haitian children to be sold to child sex rings. The evidence we have seen thus far does not prove that claim, but neither is it a far-fetched supposition, considering the sordid sexual swamp that many of the high and mighty are mired in, and considering the Epstein-Clinton-Podesta revelations that are pouring out. At the very least, it must be seriously investigated, in light of the evidence available and the global crisis in child sex trafficking. But here, as in virtually every other scandal that has embroiled Hillary Clinton, her establishment media pals have given her a Teflon shield. Ditto for the revelations by Kathy Shelton of Arkansas, who, as a 12-year-old, was raped in 1975 by a 41-year-old drifter. Hillary Clinton was his defense lawyer. In a later interview, Clinton laughed as she recalled how she had gotten her child-rapist client off with some courtroom tricks. Moreover, as the victim recounts, Hillary made it appear that the 12-year-old Shelton was the one at fault. “Hillary Clinton lied, terrorized, & mocked me, defending my rapist,” Shelton has tweeted. While the latest WikiLeaks releases related to sensational sexual matters are grabbing the headlines of the alternative media (and being ignored by the MSM), literally dozens of other hot issues exposed by WikiLeaks from the Clinton-Podesta e-mails have been either totally buried or hugely under-reported by the Clintonista press corps. In addition to the WikiLeaks revelations (and related exposés) that we have covered in the articles listed below this story, we point you to a helpful summary of several dozen Clinton scandals compiled by Montana researcher activist Clarice Ryan for the Gem State Patriot . In addition, there is a more detailed, annotated online resource with URL links entitled, “The Top 100 Most Damaging Wikileaks (so far)” that is a helpful guide to the thousands of leaked e-mails. Photos at top: Hillary Clinton; Marina Abramovic Related articles:

Trump and Betsy DeVos Deliver Disparate Messages in First 100 Days - Breitbart

Dr. Susan Berry

President Donald Trump made the end of Common Core and the return to local control of education the primary items of his campaign’s education agenda, but the woman leading his education department claims Common Core has not existed in the country’s schools since 2015. [I will end common core. It’s a disaster. https: . #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Trump2016 pic. twitter. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016, On Monday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said, “There really isn’t any Common Core anymore,” citing the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which was passed in 2015. ESSA, she claims, “does away with the whole argument about Common Core. ” The secretary’s comments came just several weeks after Trump returned to his campaign statement that he wanted to end Common Core and make education policy once again the domain of state and local governments. “Common Core, I mean, we have to bring education more local,” Trump said at the White House. “We can’t be managing education from Washington. ” The president continued: When I go out to Iowa, when I go out to the different states and I talk, they want to run their school programs locally and they’ll do a much better job … And I like the fact of getting rid of Common Core. You know, Common Core, to me, we have to end it. We have to bring education local, to me. I’ve always said it, I’ve been saying it during the campaign, and we’re doing it. While campaigning in 2016 — after the enactment of ESSA — Trump listened to millions of grassroots parents and teachers who asked him to cut off federal funding for and end the superstructures that made Common Core possible in the first place. “Common Core is a disaster,” Trump noted time and again. While he provided few details of his education plan, he acknowledged the frustration of parents in their attempt to eradicate the Common Core system of math and English language arts standards and tests, and the accompanying massive student data collection, in their states. “For the first time in any presidential campaign, an education issue claimed a place of importance with grassroots citizens,” writes American Principles Project senior fellow Jane Robbins at the Library of Law and Liberty, explaining the basis for the grassroots’ ire at the progressive Common Core policies: In the early days of Common Core, almost no one outside the federal and state education bureaucracies or the insular world of “education reform” had ever heard of it — even though the standards would ignite the largest grassroots movement in American history. Common Core was adopted by state executive branch officials in response to “incentives” from federal executive branch officials, with (in almost every case) no consent from or even notice to elected state legislators. In a joint statement to Breitbart News, parent activists Heidi Huber of Ohio and Jenni White of Oklahoma agree “the very reason billionaire Donald Trump appealed to the everyday Core mom is because he appeared to understand the kitchen table politics of grassroots America. ” Toward the end of his campaign, Trump’s message about ending Common Core was overshadowed by a new message about school choice — one that received significant attention with the announcement of DeVos as his selection for federal education secretary. DeVos had been a major backer of school choice and school vouchers in her home state of Michigan. She had also been a supporter of Jeb Bush and his education foundation, and, ultimately, served as an delegate for establishment Republican candidate John Kasich at the GOP convention. Meanwhile, grassroots parent groups in Michigan also noted that DeVos lent financial and service support to organizations that promoted the Common Core. Upon her nomination by Trump, however, DeVos denied she supported the Core. “I do support high standards, strong accountability, and local control,” she said. “When Governors such as John Engler, Mike Huckabee, and Mike Pence were driving the conversation on voluntary high standards driven by local voices, it all made sense. ” DeVos’s nomination was accompanied by a level of controversy rarely seen for an education secretary. The left — led by teachers unions — began to work against her because of her support for school choice which, they claimed, would redirect funding from public schools. The mainstream media focused its energy on the battle between its own leftwing public school supporters and “conservative” DeVos. As the left often does, it also often made the decision to mock the secretary unfairly, rather than deal with her on the actual issues. After a very shaky confirmation process — which required Vice President Mike Pence to break a tie vote in the Senate — DeVos was finally confirmed. But the controversy continued within the GOP as the secretary began to fill her department with many individuals with ties to Core Jeb Bush, as well as Indiana — where Common Core was “repealed,” but then simply “rebranded” with a new name. Trump’s constitutionalist base continued the drumbeat on eliminating the U. S. Education Department and Washington bureaucrats’ influence on local education policy. Two bills were introduced in Congress with that end in mind, one by Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie (R) and the other by North Carolina Rep. David Rouzer (R). Though DeVos has continued with comments that Common Core is no longer an issue because of its elimination through ESSA, those who have studied the federal law and observed the secretary’s choice of staffers say her comments are typical of the establishment GOP. According to Huber and White, “Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos was not only disappointing, it telegraphed more of the same tone deafness of the previous administration. ” “Betsy DeVos was confirmed and began assembling a team of staffers, most of whom represent pretty establishment Republican experience and positions,” Joy Pullman, managing editor at The Federalist, also tells Breitbart News. The author of a newly released book, The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids, Pullman notes that while school choice is a positive goal, the idea that the federal government should be involved in regulating it in any way suggests the Trump education department is not planning on reducing its influence, as Trump had originally promised. She explains: Everyone without financial or political incentives to the contrary, such as teachers unions, knows that choice exists and it generally works. The real conversation is whether government will destroy it by using laws and regulations to commandeer private and charter options or stay true to the promise of the word “choice” and truly let parents control the style and content of their children’s curricula. Many questions remain unanswered about the Trump administration’s leadership on these issues, and there has been absolutely no action on Trump’s repeated campaign pledge to “eliminate Common Core. ” On the plus side, Trump signed legislation in March that, via the Congressional Review Act, rolled back two education policies — one regarding teacher training programs, and another regarding meeting some ESSA directives. The ESSA rule concerned states’ accountability in identifying failing schools and reporting their plans for improving them to the federal government. Nevertheless, ESSA still requires states to submit their overall education plans to the U. S. Education Department. In March, DeVos’s office released a new guide on how states may fulfill their requirement to the federal government. The guide features a “revised template” offered by the education department itself, and adds that two private groups — the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association — both of which own the copyright to the Common Core standards, may assist states with an “alternative template. ” Ann Marie Banfield, education liaison with the New Cornerstone Research and Policy Institute, tells Breitbart News DeVos’s messages are at odds with how Trump campaigned on education issues: Trump campaigned with the promise to get rid of Common Core and even referenced Gov. Jeb Bush as someone who supported the federal education reform that parents never asked for. The appointment of Betsy DeVos has left many of us underwhelmed and disappointed. You don’t appoint a Jeb Bush crony and expect parents who’ve been fighting against Common Core to be thrilled. In February, conflict between Trump and DeVos was reported by the New York Times, as the president and Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned Obama’s directive, which effectively permitted children to change their sex by simply declaring they have the “gender identity” of the other sex. DeVos reportedly objected to changing Obama’s policy, but was overruled by Trump and Sessions. Pullman observes that Trump’s rollback of Obama’s Title IX guidance is “a win, but it was done over the objections of Secretary DeVos, which is worrisome. ” “Even if you think it’s okay to force naked boy bodies and naked girl bodies into the same private facilities, the federal government has no authority to do what Obama’s Education and Justice departments did in this regard,” she adds. “We would ask president Trump — as he completes the first 100 days of his administration — to consider the tens of thousands of parents who believed his promise to end Common Core, and implore him to invite leading parent activists to the table,” say Huber and White. “It would undoubtedly benefit President Trump, but more importantly, it would serve the children he promised to deliver from the special interests of the FedEd complex. ” Emmett McGroarty, senior fellow at American Principles Project, tells Breitbart News DeVos is not supporting Trump in his stated education agenda. “Secretary DeVos is undermining the Trump presidency,” he asserts. “Great presidents have a great vision and are able to bring it into reality. That invariably means overcoming the timid in their own administration and in Congress. That’s the hurdle President Trump faces. ”

Military Veteran Bonus Scandal Might Be Much Worse Than Initially Reported

Activist Post

By Everett Numbers The Pentagon and Congress are both promising quick fixes to the scandal surrounding excessive National Guard bonus payments to soldiers. However, the...

How Salon Gets Away with Deceiving Its Readers | OffGuardian

Investigative Historian Eric Zuesse Is The Author

written by Admin by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org Before I start this condemnation of lies from ‘liberal’ ‘news’ media, I should indicate that I am a former lifelong Democrat who left the Party over the corruption of the Obama Administration when the corruption became capped by their Democratic National Committee using many devices to steal the Presidential nomination away from Bernie Sanders, to hand it to Obama’s chosen successor Hillary Clinton, whom Obama expected would complete his pro-Wall-Street legacy by passing into law some version of his trade treaties and by Hillary’s conquering Russia, the latter of which goal was a U.S. government project that had actually started in secret on the night of 24 February 1990 when the then-President George Herbert Walker Bush initiated what has since become a ceaseless behind-the-scenes U.S. government program to expand NATO right up to Russia’s borders and ultimately to conquer Russia itself. Though the Cold War ended authentically on Russia’s side in 1991, it never really did end on the U.S. side (that was just a lie) — and Obama-Clinton were hoping soon to culminate the U.S. aristocracy’s conquest of Russia. I remain a committed progressive journalist but am no longer committed to any political party, because now both of the major political parties are vile and no third party in a Presidential system of government stands a realistic chance of controlling either the Executive branch or the Legislative branch of government — its only function is to serve as “spoiler” for one or the other of the two. So: I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, nor a supporter of some ‘third’ Party, but remain unchanged throughout, consistently a progressive, which means totally dedicated to truth and against lies (such as dominate all forms of conservatism). My criticisms of ‘news’media reflect that, no political-party orientation. On November 9th, Salon’s reporter Brendan Gauthier headlined Salon’s top-of-homepage headline of the day, “In Donald Trump’s cabinet from hell, corporatism and cronyism run rampant — and Sarah Palin may be there, too” and reported what was at the time speculation that was sourced to an NBC news report, titled “Gingrich, Giuliani, Priebus Eyed for Top Jobs in Trump White House: Sources” , which stated that: Among the names being considered, according to conversations with three campaign advisers who requested anonymity to speak freely: Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, Newt Gingrich for secretary of state, retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn for defense secretary or national security adviser, Trump finance chairman Steve Mnuchin for Treasury secretary, and Republican National Committee finance chair Lew Eisenberg for commerce secretary. Trump himself has not taken an active part in transition efforts, in part out of superstition: He fears too much planning before a victory might jinx the campaign. In 2012, he was shocked to read detailed stories on Mitt Romney’s preparations for the White House long before election day… Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, a loyal supporter, has taken a major role managing the transition effort, especially as the official transition chief, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has drifted from the campaign… Asked for comment on the above names floated for cabinet posts, Trump campaign spokesman Hope Hicks replied by e-mail that “none of this is accurate.” Gauthier added nothing substantial to that NBC information (of which, maybe, “none of this is accurate”) except to say such uninformative things as that Gingrich “proved himself a rabid Trump surrogate” and as that Giuliani “has been a tireless, if controversial, surrogate for Trump on the trail and in the media.” But in one instance Gauthier linked to a New York Post op-ed by Michael Flynn as being his source by which to allege regarding: “ Department of Defense Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn: Trump’s national security adviser was fired from his post as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, which he attributed to his hawkishness.” That statement about Flynn is outright false. Here is all that Flynn’s op-ed — Gauthier’s cited source — actually said concerning his having been fired by Obama: Two years ago, I was called into a meeting with the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and the director of national intelligence, and after some “niceties,” I was told by the USDI that I was being let go from DIA. It was definitely an uncomfortable moment (I suspect more for them than me). I asked the DNI (Gen. James Clapper) if my leadership of the agency was in question and he said it was not; had it been, he said, they would have relieved me on the spot. I knew then it had more to do with the stand I took on radical Islamism and the expansion of al Qaeda and its associated movements. I felt the intel system was way too politicized, especially in the Defense Department… I was pissed but knew that I had maintained my integrity and was determined in the few months I had left to continue the changes I was instituting and to keep beating the drum about the vicious enemy we were facing (still are)… We’re in a global war, facing an enemy alliance that … picks up radical Muslim countries and organizations such as Iran, al Qaeda, the Taliban and Islamic State. That’s a formidable coalition, and nobody should be shocked to discover that we are losing the war. There was no indication whatsoever in the article, that Flynn had been fired on account of any “hawkishness.” That allegation by Salon was simply fabricated. The reality about Flynn’s firing was the exact opposite: he was too ‘dovish’ to suit the neoconservative Barack Obama, who was now demanding that all of his top military generals support his goal of going to war against Russia. Flynn objected to that by saying that only one war at a time makes any sense, and that this war must be the defeat of jihadists, nothing else — certainly not a war against the other nuclear superpower. Rather than Flynn’s support of Trump being a reflection of their shared ‘hawkishness’, it reflects their strong belief that the view that Barack Obama holds and that Hillary Clinton holds even more strongly — that the war against jihadists must be subordinated to the war against Russia — is a totally upside-down view of the priorities, and that instead of the U.S. supporting jihadists who are warring against Russia and its allies, the U.S. ought to be supporting Russia and its allies who are warring against jihadists. If Salon wants to support the Obama-Clinton view and oppose the Trump view on the basis of truthful assertions, then that’s journalism and it is not mere political propaganda. But if Salon wants to deceive its readers into holding the political viewpoint that they hold, then what else is there to call Salon but a propaganda-site?

Sen. Chuck Schumer Goes Off on Trump Supporter at Fancy NYC Restaurant

Katherine Rodriguez

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) reportedly went on a tirade at a “swanky” Manhattan restaurant Sunday night, screaming at a wealthy patron over her support for President Trump. [Schumer lost his temper when dining at Upper East Side restaurant Sette Mezzo, the New York Post’s Page Six reported. The top Senate Democrat was dining with friends when he ran into former U. S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph A. Califano Jr. and his wife, Hilary, at the restaurant. Witnesses say that Schumer became incensed that Hilary, daughter of CBS founder and chairman William S. Paley, voted for Trump, though her husband is a prominent Democrat. “They are a highly respected couple, and Schumer made a scene, yelling, ‘She voted for Trump!’ The Califanos left the restaurant, but Schumer followed them outside,” one witness said of the encounter. “How could you vote for Trump? He’s a liar! He’s a liar!” Schumer reportedly yelled. Hilary confirmed the encounter with Schumer and called the senator’s actions “really rude. ” “Sen. Schumer was really rude … He’s our senator, and I don’t really like him. Yes, I voted for Trump. Schumer joined us outside and he told me Trump was a liar. I should have told him that Hillary Clinton was a liar, but I was so surprised I didn’t say anything,” Hilary said. Another witness told a different story about Schumer’s encounter with the couple, saying the senator approached the couple’s table first. “It was a pleasant conversation. Joe said the senator was doing a good job on health care. Joe joked that Hilary voted for Trump. The conversation continued outside because everyone left at the same time,” the witness said. In a statement, Schumer’s spokesperson denied that there was a heated encounter at the restaurant. “[He] and his wife ate at the café on Sunday, engaging in unremarkable conversation with patrons who approached their table. There were no heated exchanges with ‎anyone,” the spokesperson said. Schumer has railed against the Trump administration, saying Sunday that President Trump’s proposal for a border wall will not get votes from Republicans or Democrats. He also called on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan ( ) to replace House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes ( ) and announced that Senate Democrats will filibuster Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

When You Have to Go, Japanese Rest Stops Won’t Keep You Waiting - The New York Times

Motoko Rich

The kids are hungry, the driver has a headache and everyone has to go to the bathroom. If you’re traveling by car on a holiday weekend, the last thing you want to find at a roadside rest stop is a long line for a toilet. Companies that run major highway service plazas in Japan go to considerable lengths to ensure you never will, as they compete for the coveted Japan Toilet Award from the transportation ministry. Nexco Central Nippon Expressway, which runs 200 of the rest stops, promises that patrons should never have to wait more than two minutes to use the lavatory. The company’s Neopasa Shimizu stop, one of several near Shizuoka City, about 15 miles from Mount Fuji, shows how. To keep things moving at Neopasa Shimizu, where 25, 000 people may stop on a busy weekend, there are 72 stalls in the ladies’ room, compared with 14 stalls and 32 urinals in the men’s — a ratio meant to combat the longer waits that women often encounter in public facilities. Technology is put to work, too. A sensor in each stall detects whether it is in use, and relays that information to a large monitor screen mounted outside the restroom. Small icons even indicate whether the available toilets are the Western sitting style or the traditional Japanese squatting style. Of course, those who find these elaborate status panels too confusing can always just walk up and down the stalls, looking for an unlocked door.

Votes Being Switched In Multiple States To Clinton

Mikael Thalen

Votes Being Switched In Multiple States To Clinton Electronic voting machines switching votes across the country Owen Shroyer | Infowars.com We now have reports in multiple states that a vote for Donald Trump is being switched to Hillary Clinton. As reported by Infowars Friday, a woman in Hollywood, Maryland came forward this week to claim that her ballot was switched to Hillary Clinton after she had tried to vote for Donald Trump. Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles 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 Victim Of Hillary Chicago Violence Speaks Out - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . Trump Responds To New FBI Investigation Of Hillary - 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

Measles Outbreak in Minnesota Within Somali Community Spreads Through State

Michael Patrick Leahy

The recent measles outbreak in Minnesota, which was confined to 20 members of the Somali community in Hennepin County, part of the . Paul metropolitan area, has now spread across the state. [“The Minnesota Department of Health reports the state’s measles outbreak has spread from Hennepin County to Stearns County, totaling 29 cases, marking a new record,” KSTP reports. “ cases have been confirmed in the Somali community,” KSTP adds. The Minnesota Department of Health added that: “The same number of cases [25] revealed the people affected were unvaccinated. However, in one case, the child had one MMR vaccination. ” MDH reports 28 cases are confirmed in Hennepin County, and one case is in Stearns County. In the past 20 years, 2011 had the most cases with 26 total. The remaining cases have not been verified. All cases are children between the ages of 0 and 5. The city of St. Cloud, located about 65 miles northwest of Minneapolis, is the county seat of Stearns County. Breitbart News asked the Minnesota Department of Health if they could confirm if the four cases of the 29 that were not among the 25 “confirmed in the Somali community” were in the general population not part of the Somali commuity. “No — they simply haven’t been verified yet,” a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Health tells Breitbart News. “Most likely Somali. There’s always a bit of a lag pending investigation,” the spokesperson adds. Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger blamed the measles outbreak on “misinformation” that was provided to the Minnesota Somali community, not on the health practices common in that community. “This outbreak is about unvaccinated children, not specific communities. Unfortunately, the Minnesota Somali community has been targeted with misinformation about vaccine risks. We’re partnering with Somali community leaders and health care providers to counteract that misinformation,” Ehlinger said in a statement released by the Minnesota Department of Health earlier this month. “There are people of all backgrounds around the state who have chosen not to protect themselves or their children. Often that decision is based on good intentions and inaccurate information. It’s the responsibility of all of us who care about the health of Minnesota children to make sure people have accurate information and take action to protect their families and their communities,” Ehlinger added in an additional statement issued by the Minnesota Department of Health on Monday. That statement also specifically addressed the Somali community in Minnesota: MDH also recommends that all Somali Minnesotan children statewide who have already received their first dose of MMR vaccine get their second dose now. This special vaccine schedule is commonly recommended during outbreaks instead of waiting until 4 to 6 years old for the second dose. Parents of Somali Minnesotan children should contact their child’s health care provider and specifically tell them the child needs the MMR vaccine. This may help avoid a longer wait associated with scheduling a routine appointment. . Paul is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, estimated to be around 70, 000. “Since FY 2002, 100, 246 Somali refugees have resettled in the United States, according to the State Department’s interactive website. Of these, 99. 9 percent, or 99, 909, are Muslim,” Breitbart News reported in December. Assimilation of resettled Somalis in this country has been a significant problem, and continues to be so. In 2016, two Somali refugees, one in a Minnesota mall, the other at Ohio State University, attacked and injured more than 20 Americans. Both refugees were killed by law enforcement during the attacks. On the public health front, Somali refugees in Minnesota have been identified as responsible for 22 percent (161 out of 732) of the cases of active tuberculosis (TB) diagnosed between 2010 and 2014, despite accounting for about one percent of the state’s population, as Breitbart News reported. “Hennepin County is also the site of two recent cases of active tuberculosis at local public high schools . . . The letter to parents from St. Louis Park Public Schools informing them of the case of active TB in January was sent in three languages: English, Spanish, and Somali, ” as Breitbart News reported. Recently, female genital mutilation (FGM) within the American Somali community has come to the forefront as a significant problem as well. Earlier this month, two doctors and another person were arrested in Livonia, Michigan on charges of conducting illegal FGM procedures on young Somali girls transported from Minnesota. In 2014, the Refugee Womens Health Center in Phoenix, Arizona told NBC News that 98 percent of all Somali women treated there (a total of 247 over five years between 2010 and 2014) were victims of FGM.

Kaiser Sousa

when i awoke this morning the Dow Jones Propaganda Index was down 72 points… then in a matter of only a few minutes it inexplicably reverse ramped almost 100 points to turn positive… it was then that i decided to scour the Lamestream media, Alt-Media, and lastly ZeroHedge headlines to uncover what could be behind such a preposterous, absolutely fraudulent spike across all the Fraud indices… however before i could conclude my inquiry the DJPI spiked another 50 plus points to recapture the all important, CON fidence inspiring 18,200 mark coincidentally beginning exactly in the last 30 minutes of “trading” in the EuroPeon cesspool of fraud and manipulation - Londone… it was then that i realized that what had occurred was the same bullshit i’ve witnessed for the last 5-7 years running…that being that the Fraud Markets ramped on ABSOLUTLEY NO GENUINE POSITIVE MACRO-ECONOMIC, GEO-POLITICAL NEWS OR DATA WHATSOFUCKINGEVER… at that moment , roughly 9:14 am, i realized that for todays "Fraud Markets Wrap” to be posted latter in the day, i could simply “cut & paste“ from previous commentaries regarding what the rest of the day would portend because as i and many others have learned - “When the same bullshit happens every day there’s no need to type…just cut and paste…” - Kaiser Sousa - so thats precisely what i did… "then, of course yet again all of the U.S. Fraud Indices entered into the sideways shuffle, ridiculous narrow “trading” pattern you all now as “suspended levitation” for the bulk of the day…” - Kaiser Sousa - from every day the last 2 years. http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/djia then in the famous last 2 hours of “trading”, and despite the “markets” coughing up the phony reversal implemented by “you know who”,they nonetheless fought to the death to hold on to those “green shoots” with “investors” piling into such noted bail weathers like , BOEING, NIKE, GE, and DISNEY pushing the DJPI back above the 18,200 mark… proving that the recovery in the land of the “exceptional’s” continues to shower its’ waiters, bartenders, fast food servers, and interest income starved senior citizens with generational wealth and prosperity for all… lastly, as for the blatant attempts to hold the phony paper prices of Gold & Silver within ridiculous “trading ranges” while the global financial and monetary system crumbles before “eyes that dare to see” alike every fiat currency (WITHOUT EXCEPTION!!) has throughout history - lets just say this…how much more obvious can the Fed, Exchange Stabilization Fund, ThreadNeddle St. inbreeds, and Scum St. flunkies make it for you DEATH TO THE FUCKING MONEYCHANGERS.

Texas County Enacts "Emergency Paper Ballots" After "Software Glitch" In Voting Machines

Tyler Durden

Texas County Enacts "Emergency Paper Ballots" After "Software Glitch" In Voting Machines Oct 26, 2016 1:50 PM 0 SHARES Just yesterday we noted several social media complaints from Texas voters who alleged that when they voted a straight republican ticket that voting machines were switching their presidential selection to Clinton/Kaine. While most undoubtedly dismissed these reports as conspiracy theories, new official reports from Chambers County, Texas suggest that there might be some truth to the voting machine "irregularities". According to an NBC affiliate , polling stations in Chambers County had to enact emergency protocols yesterday and revert back to paper ballots after a "glitch" was discovered in the county's voting machines. The issue was actually discovered on Monday morning when Chambers County Clerk Heather Hawthorne was casting her own ballot and the voter next to her noticed that one of her votes was not filled in when she reviewed her electronic ballot Hawthorne told 12News on Tuesday. An error in the voting machine programming by Election Systems & Software (ES&S) caused votes for one statewide court of appeals race not to be entered when a voter tried to vote straight ticket in either party according to a release from Chambers County. ES&S is the vendor that Chambers County contracts with to program their voting machines. The Texas Secretary of State's office informed Hawthorne to create emergency paper ballots to continue voting until the problem could be fixed according to the release. Below is the official press release from the Chambers County Clerk: Of course, these confirmed reports from Chambers County seem eerily similar to problems reported yesterday on social media from people who also experienced problems when voting a "straight republican ticket." The following report also surfaced in Arlington, Texas from a person who voted a straight republican ticket only to find just before submitting her ballot that her presidential choice had been switched to Clinton/Kaine . After reporting the error to polling officials, the voter was told that these errors "had been happening." This Reddit user also noted multiple reports of voting errors across the state of Texas. Of course, the real question is how many people submitted erroneous ballots before this "glitch" was caught and how many other "software glitches" exist in other counties around the country that will never be caught?

Need to Burn Fat? Eat Dinner Early or Skip It to Help Weight Loss

Heather Callaghan

By Heather Callaghan, Editor Now that people are catching on that obesity equals toxin storage and endocrine problems – losing excess weight is more important than ever. “Meal...

Here’s what happened when a Hillary supporting MIT professor decided to analyze her emails…

Michael Krieger

VIDEOS Here’s what happened when a Hillary supporting MIT professor decided to analyze her emails… In practice, as recent history has repeatedly shown, the right to vote, by itself, is no guarantee of liberty By Michael Krieger - November 7, 2016 A few days ago, Cesar A. Hidalgo published a very important article titled, What I Learned From Visualizing Hillary Clinton’s Emails . So who is Cesar Hidalgo? César A. Hidalgo is associate professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab and the author of Why Information Grows: The evolution of order from atoms to economies. He has also lead the creation of data visualization sites that have received more than 100 million views, including datausa.io, dataviva.info, atlas.media.mit.edu, immersion.media.mit.edu, pantheon.media.mit.edu, streetscore.media.mit.edu, and others (see chidalgo.com for more details). At this point, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m highlighting this guy’s post two days before the Presidential election. It’s for two reasons. First, the piece offers a very good representation of the sort of peer pressure that can come down upon an academic for being seen as having the “wrong” political opinion. Second, and perhaps most important, his email visualization tool taught him that the current state of our government in these United States simply can’t achieve the best outcomes for the public at current scale (size, geographic/cultural diversity, etc). With all that out of the way, I’m going to highlight what I found to be the most powerful part of his piece. Enjoy: So what did we learn by making this dataset accessible? We learned a few things about what Clinton’s emails said, about how the media works, and about how people interpreted the project. We made clinton.media.mit.edu publicly available last Friday night (October 28, 2016). We launched with a single story , written by Alejandra Vargas from Univision. My intuition was that the story was likely to get picked up by other news sources. After all, the tool facilitated people’s ability to read and understand the content of these emails, and the connections of the people involved in them. But I was wrong—it has been nearly a week since we released the project and no other major news source has picked up the story, despite having been viewed by more than 300,000 people in less than a week. So how did we get so much traffic without any news coverage? The answer is social media. So far, the tool has been shared widely on Twitter, Facebook, and for a brief but intense time, on Reddit. Its spread has been fueled by different motives, and also, has been battled in different ways. Many reporters shared the news on their personal accounts understanding that the tool represents a different form of data reporting, or data journalism: one where people are provided with a tool that facilitates their ability to explore a relevant dataset, instead of being provided with a story summarizing a reporter’s description of that dataset. Another group of people that shared the news were interface designers, who understand that there is a need to improve the tabular interface of present day email clients, and that the inbox we presented in this project was an attractive new alternative. But many people also shared our site claiming that this was evidence of Clinton’s corruption, and that the site supported Trump. More on that later. But the spread of the site was not without its detractors. A few hours after we released the site I received a message from a friend telling me that what I had done was “a huge mistake” and that I should have waited to post this until “later in the year.” A few days later, outside my lab, a member of a neighboring research group called me a “Trump supporter” and told me that I should have only made that site available if it also included Trump’s emails. I told him that I would be happy to include them, but I had no access to the data. In haste, this colleague began emailing me news articles, none of which provided access to the alleged public dataset of Trump emails. Later, a friend of one of my students posted the news on Reddit, where it went viral. And I mean really viral. It became the top story of the Internetisbeautiful subreddit, and made it to Reddit’s front page. It collected more than 3,000 upvotes and 700 comments. But as the story peaked, a moderator single-handedly removed it in an authoritarian move, and justified this unilateral silencing of the post by adding a rule banning “sites that serve a political agenda or that otherwise induce drama.” Of course, the rule was added AFTER the post was removed. Reddit appears to be rampant with censorship these days. So when it comes to media, social or not, I learned that providing information directly to people so that they can inspect it and evaluate it, is a value that many people consider second to supporting their preferred electoral choice. The twist is that I don’t support Trump. In fact, I don’t support him at all. I think he is potentially a threat to global security, and also, a candidate that has shown repeatedly to be a dividing rather than unifying force. He has failed to respect contracts numerous times, defrauding contractors; and he certainly has shown little respect for people’s development by creating a fraudulent university. So I think he is ill prepared for most jobs, including a difficult one like that of being president. I support Clinton in this election, and even though I don’t get to vote (As a green card holder I just pay taxes), I want her to win next Tuesday. I really do. But I understand that this is my own personal choice, a choice that I want to make sure is informed by my ability to evaluate information about the candidates directly, and by a media that is more transparent than the one we now have. Trust me, if I had Trump’s tax records, I would also think it is a good idea to make a tool that makes them more easily digestible. But my reason to make that tool, once again, would not come from my support for Clinton, or my opposition to Trump. It would come from my support for a society where people have direct access to relevant sources of information through well-designed data visualization tools. Now here’s where we get into very important lessons about the future. So what did I learn about Clinton’s emails? One of the advantages of helping design a data visualization tool is that you get an intimate understanding of the data you are visualizing. After all, you have to explore the data and use the tool to make dozens of design decisions. In this case, the development cycle was particularly fast, but nevertheless I got to learn a few things about the data. Of course, the whole point of making this tool is that you can use it to come up with your own interpretation of the data. That said, you might be curious about mine, so I’ll share it with you too. What I saw on Clinton’s emails was not surprising to me. It involved a relatively small group of people talking about what language to use when communicating with other people. Also, it involved many unresponded-to emails. Many conversations revolved around what words to use or avoid, and what topics to focus on, or how to avoid some topics, when speaking in public or in meetings. This is not surprising to me because I’ve met many politicians in my life, including a few presidents and dozens of ministers and governors, so I know that what work means to many people in this line of work, on a daily basis, is strategizing what to say and being careful about how to say it. I am sure that if we had access to Trump’s emails we would see plenty of the same behavior. So what I got from reading some of Clinton’s email is another piece of evidence confirming my intuition that political systems scale poorly. The most influential actors on them are spending a substantial fraction of their mental capacity thinking about how to communicate, and do not have the bandwidth needed to deal with many incoming messages (the unresponded-to emails). This is not surprising considering the large number of people they interact with (although this dataset is rather small. I send 8k emails a year and receive 30k. In this dataset Clinton is sending only 2K emails a year). Our modern political world is one where a few need to interact with many, so they have no time for deep relationships — they physically cannot. So what we are left is with a world of first impressions and public opinion, where the choice of words matters enormously, and becomes central to the job. Yet, the chronic lack of time that comes from having a system where few people govern many, and that leads people to strategize every word, is not Clinton’s fault. It is just a bug that affects all modern political systems, which are ancient Greek democracies that were not designed to deal with hundreds of millions of people. On another note, this exercise also helped me reaffirm my belief that the best way to learn about the media is not by reading the news, but by being news. I’ve had the fortune, and misfortune, to have been news many times. This time, I honestly thought that we had a piece of content that some media channels would be interested in and that it would get picked up easily. I have many reporter friends who are enthusiastic about new forms of data journalism, and that actually have been positive and encouraging this week. So I imagined that there was a good chance that a reporter would see the site, go to his or her editor, and say: “Hey, I have an interactive data visualization of all Clinton’s emails. Can I write a story on it?” and the editor would say: “Of course, make it quick.” I don’t know if these conversations actually happened, but given the large volume of traffic our project received I would be surprised if they didn’t. I learned that the outcome was not the one I intuited. And this brings me to my final point, which is that while I support Clinton in this election, and I think Trump is a bad choice for president (a really bad one), I still think that we should work on the creation of tools that improve the ability of people to personalize scrutinize politically relevant information. I now understand that much of the U.S. media may not share that view with me, and that I think this is an important point of reflection. I hope the media takes some time to think about this on November 9 (or the week after). Also, the large number of people who were unable to interpret our tool as anything but an effort to support or oppose a political candidate — and that was true for both liberals and conservatives — speaks to me about an ineffective public sphere. And that’s something I think we should all be concerned about. This polarization is not just a cliché. It is a crippling societal condition that is expressed in the inability of people to see any merit, or any point, in opposing views. That’s a dangerous, and chronic, institutional disease that is expressed also in the inability of people to criticize their own candidates, because they fear being confused with someone their peers will interpret as a supporter of the opposing candidate. If you cannot see any merit in the candidate you oppose, even in one or two of the many points that have been made, you may have it. So that’s how this election has muddled the gears of democracy. When we cannot learn from those we oppose, or agree when they have a valid point, our learning stops. We keep on talking past each other. I know that this election has made learning from those we oppose particularly difficult, but the difficult tests are the ones that truly show us what we are really made of. These are the situations that push us to see past we don’t like, or don’t agree on, so we can rescue a lesson. You may not agree with me, but I hope at least I gave you something to think about. While his points about media censorship and peer pressure are self-explanatory, I want to take a quick moment to discuss his most meaningful insight, which is the idea that “ political systems scale poorly.” This is hugely important, because as the current status quo system collapses, many of us in the Western world will be presented with an incredible opportunity to do things completely different. Unfortunately, none of the candidates in the 2016 election (including Sanders and Trump) have been promoting the idea of political decentralization, which is the direction I think we need to move toward. In voting for Brexit, that’s exactly what the British people professed a preference for, and it’s what we need here in America. In some important ways, I think we should look back toward the original concept of government as understood by our founders. A loose-knit collection of largely self-governing states that are bonded together in certain important ways, yet independent and sovereign in all other ways. Indeed, I think we can break things up even further than that, but let’s start there for the time being. If we want to stick with representative democracy, I think for it to work best, it needs to be very local. I think the future of mankind depends on us getting our political systems right, and I think governance has to be shifted to the local level as much as possible. This all reminds me of Aldous Huxley’s extremely prescient warning in his 1958 book Brave New World revised (see my review of it), in which he wrote: Or take the right to vote. In principle, it is a great privilege. In practice, as recent history has repeatedly shown, the right to vote, by itself, is no guarantee of liberty. Therefore, if you wish to avoid dictatorship by referendum, break up modern society’s merely functional collectives into self-governing, voluntarily co-operating groups, capable of functioning outside the bureaucratic systems of Big Business and Big Government. Bottom line: We need to decentralize everything, especially government.

BookCourt, a Literary Cornerstone in Brooklyn, Is Closing - The New York Times

Eli Rosenberg

Bookselling is a tough business these days, but BookCourt in Brooklyn seemed destined to stay. One of the foremost independent bookstores in the area for decades, BookCourt flourished, as did the borough, and it grew into one of the country’s premier literary hot spots. Its owners, Henry M. Zook and Mary B. Gannett, seemed to have found the secret to success after opening the store 35 years ago. But on Tuesday, Mr. Zook and Ms. Gannett said they planned to shut BookCourt on Dec. 31, sending a gasp through its literary community and its Cobble Hill neighborhood. BookCourt had weathered the upheaval of the bookselling industry over the last 20 years as reading habits changed and online outlets like Amazon rose. It withstood the 1999 opening of a Barnes Noble store just a few blocks away and even outlasted the owners’ marriage. But the store could not survive one fundamental thing: the desire of both owners, now in their 60s, to retire. “We know the store will be missed, and we are very proud of what we accomplished,” Mr. Zook and Ms. Gannett wrote in a statement. They said that the longevity could be explained in part because they had “invested in the neighborhood and the real estate which housed the bookstore. ” Over the years the couple bought the two stately buildings that house the store on bustling Court Street. Since its opening in 1981, BookCourt has hosted many famous authors who have stopped in the city for readings, lectures and talks, including Junot Díaz, Megan Abbott and Don DeLillo. And it has been a base for the writing community that has swelled in Brooklyn and a springboard for many authors. The novelist Emma Straub said she did her first reading at BookCourt in 2009, around the time when she started working as a bookseller and sold copies of a novella she wrote at the store. “Lots of people I sold them to were editors that then bid on my novel later,” Ms. Straub, 36, said. Ms. Straub has had launch parties for all of her books here. “For me, there was no place more important,” she said. Dennis Johnson, a founder of Melville House, a publishing company in Brooklyn, said he was shocked that the store was closing. “They’re really supportive of little publishers like us,” he said. Mr. Johnson said that in the early 2000s, Mr. Zook would sell books at a few of his events. “He said, ‘I’ll bring a load down and sell them for you,’” Mr. Johnson said. “I doubt he made any money. ” Mr. Zook and Ms. Gannett had opened the store long before the borough’s resurgence as a thriving cultural center and hip place to live. Zack Zook, 32, a son of BookCourt’s owners, grew up in an apartment above the store. In the 1990s the block had overgrown vacant lots full of rusting automobiles. Rats abounded, he said, and some of the store’s workers had been mugged nearby. “It was radically different than it is now,” he said. The vacant lots have been replaced by a Starbucks and a grocery store. The novelist Jonathan Lethem said the store also influenced Brooklyn’s literary boom. “To have a neighborhood bookstore like that was part of the formation of the character of the place as we now know it,” he said. Ms. Gannett and Mr. Zook’s statement did not say why they decided to retire at the end of the year, but Zack Zook said his mother no longer lived upstairs and his father had moved upstate. “They got in early. They were able to make sound investments,” Zack Zook said. “Usually when you make a significant investment, there is some kind of return. ” On Tuesday, customers quietly perused the store. A woman with a dachshund on her lap read a children’s book in the window. A clerk moved his arms like a windmill to a song on the stereo. One man conversed about the suburbs as a clerk dusted the store shelves. The air smelled of hardwood floor and the pages of books. “It’s just the sort of amenity people move to Brooklyn for,” said Betsy Sand, who had been buying books at the store since it opened. She recalled that after Hurricane Sandy, “this place was the neighborhood gathering place. ” Nationally, statistics indicate that independent bookselling is on the rise. The American Booksellers Association, which represents independent booksellers, said its membership included more than 2, 300 stores in 2016, up from 1, 651 in 2009. And a couple of stores have even expanded. Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, which opened in 2009, added a shop in Gardens last month. Word, in Greenpoint, opened an outpost in Jersey City. Ms. Straub and her husband plan to open a bookstore, a decision that came to them after learning BookCourt was closing. First, they asked Mr. Zook and Ms. Gannett to let them take over the store. “But that didn’t work out,” Ms. Straub said. Instead, they will try to open a store nearby. “We decided that we couldn’t stomach living in a neighborhood with no independent bookstore,” Ms. Straub said.

Leaked Audio Of Hillary Clinton Proposing ‘Rigging Election’

Eddy Lavine

posted by Eddie Hillary Clinton proposed rigging a foreign election in a 2006 meeting with Jewish Press editors, and now the leaked audio has been posted on the web to prove it. Speaking to the editorial board of the Jewish Press at their office in Brooklyn, Clinton also said it was a mistake to allow Palestinians to hold a democratic election. “ I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake ,” said Senator Clinton. “ And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win. ” The audio tape was never released and has only been heard by the small handful of Jewish Press staffers in the room. According to Eli Chomsky, an editor and writer, his audio cassette is the only recording of the meeting. Nobody had heard it since 2006 – until today when he released it to the world. However mainstream media have attempted to blacklist the story, and Control The Record employees have been actively working to remove it from internet forums and social media. The tape is 45 minutes and contains much that is no longer relevant, but Clinton’s casually delivered comments about denying Palestinians democratic elections – stating that if they must have them, they should be rigged – has taken on new relevance in the midst of persistent allegations from Republicans that the Clinton camp is attempting to rig the Nov. 8 election. Fixing foreign elections Recalling the 2006 meeting, Chomsky says he was taken aback that “ anyone could support the idea—offered by a national political leader, no less—that the U.S. should be in the business of fixing foreign elections .” Clinton also discussed the problem of global terror, and articulated phrases that Trump has accused her being reluctant to use publicly. “ I think you can make the case that whether you call it ‘Islamic terrorism’ or ‘Islamo-fascism,’ whatever the label is we’re going to give to this phenomenon, it’s a threat. It’s a global threat. To Europe, to Israel, to the United States…Therefore we need a global response. It’s a global threat and it needs a global response. Chomsky is then heard asking Clinton a question about potential conflict in Syria – and Clinton gives him an entirely different answer to the public position she is pushing now. In fact, she sounds just like Donald Trump does in 2016. “ Do you think it’s worth talking to Syria—both from the U.S. point [of view] and Israel’s point [of view]? ” Clinton replied, “ You know, I’m pretty much of the mind that I don’t see what it hurts to talk to people. As long as you’re not stupid and giving things away. I mean, we talked to the Soviet Union for 40 years. They invaded Hungary, they invaded Czechoslovakia, they persecuted the Jews, they invaded Afghanistan, they destabilized governments, they put missiles 90 miles from our shores, we never stopped talking to them.” The conversation moves on, but then Clinton returns to the topic. “ But if you say, ‘they’re evil, we’re good, [and] we’re never dealing with them,’ I think you give up a lot of the tools that you need to have in order to defeat them…So I would like to talk to you [the enemy] because I want to know more about you. Because if I want to defeat you, I’ve got to know something more about you. I need different tools to use in my campaign against you. That’s my take on it. ” Chomsky said that he held onto the tapes for all of these years due the Jewish Press’s reluctance to “ say anything offensive about anybody, ” but in the current election rigging climate he considered the contents of the tape to be in the national interest. “ I went to my bosses at the time, ” Chomsky said. “ The Jewish Press had this mindset that they would not want to say anything offensive about anybody—even a direct quote from anyone—in a position of influence because they might need them down the road. My bosses didn’t think it was newsworthy at the time. I was convinced that it was and I held onto it all these years .” source:

Orlando Medical Examiner: ‘Take a Typical Homicide Scene, Multiply It by 50’ - The New York Times

Frances Robles

ORLANDO, Fla. — Corpses do not faze him but Joshua D. Stephany, Orlando’s chief medical examiner, still has the image of what he saw inside the Pulse nightclub on the morning of the slaughter seared into his head. Strobe lights were still flashing. The television was still on. Purses and cellphones were strewn about the floor. And there were bodies everywhere. “What you saw was drinks that were just served. You saw bills that were about to be paid. You saw food,” said Dr. Stephany, 41, who was called into duty hours after Omar Mateen barged into the popular gay nightclub and opened fire. people were killed in the attack. “Time just stopped. ” Although he had been filling in for about a year, Dr. Stephany was officially made Orange County’s chief medical examiner two days after the slaughter at Pulse. On his first real day on the job, his office completed 18 autopsies. He said he performed at least seven of the 49 autopsies. The exact number he is not certain of. He lost count. He and his four colleagues, aided by two state pathologists called in from elsewhere in Florida, have now conducted autopsies on all 49 victims as well as the assailant. Out of respect for those who were killed, Mr. Mateen’s corpse is being held in a different part of the morgue, in an area typically used for decomposing bodies. Determining the cause of death was routine in this case, as all of the victims had bullet wound after bullet wound. “So you kind of take a typical homicide scene, multiply it by 50, even that just won’t prepare you for what you see,” he said. “I don’t think you can find anybody more experienced than medical examiners to go to that type of events, but to see the sheer number of decedent is almost surreal. ” The pathologists put aside their emotions, he said, as they sought to identify everyone. The technicians photographed, and fingerprinted the bodies to confirm their identities. They inspected tattoos. They washed blood off the victims’ faces so they could be compared to photographs from their driver’s licenses and Facebook profiles. The identity of one victim frustrated the team for dozens of hours, until Dr. Stephany realized that a wallet he had picked up off the ground at the club as evidence contained the person’s name. In autopsy after autopsy, the doctors documented every wound and plucked every bullet, noting where it entered and the direction it traveled. “It doesn’t appear anyone suffered,” he said. “Everyone went down where they were. I don’t think anyone had prolonged suffering. ” A New Hampshire native, Dr. Stephany has conducted several thousand autopsies in his life. He has seen his share of overdoses, suicides, hangings and car crashes. But he said he knows this case, his first as the chief, will be one he will not forget. “It hasn’t been able to sink in yet,” Dr. Stephany said. “I don’t think there’s any way it could not affect you immediately or eventually. ”

DHS Kelly Slams Obama’s Policies, Proclaims ’Sacred Duty’ To Protect America - Breitbart

Neil Munro

The Department of Homeland Security was improperly restricted by officials working for President Barack Obama, says John Kelly, the new DHS secretary. Politicians who complain about the implementation of the border laws passed by Congress “should have the courage and skill to change those laws, otherwise they should shut up and support the people on the front lines,” Kelly said. Read the full speech here. Follow Neil Munro on Twitter @NeilMunroDC or email the author at NMunro@Breitbart. com

Syrian boys BANNED from swimming pool after girls as young as NINE sexually assaulted (Pinned)

Dumachii

Report Copyright Violation Syrian boys BANNED from swimming pool after girls as young as NINE sexually assaulted The girls - sisters aged 9, 11 and 14 - were surrounded and molested by seven migrants, the youngest of whom was just seven.The father of the schoolgirls said he had dropped them off at the swimming pool as a treat for the older girl’s 14th birthday.He said as soon as they started swimming they were harassed by the boys who surrounded them in the pool.The man said: “Five of the boys touched the girls' breasts and bottoms.” He said his 11 year-old daughter managed to get away from the youths and ran to the pool supervisor to ask for help. Police were called and arrived soon after.A police spokeswoman said the suspects were being investigated for sexual offences. Read More: [ link to www.express.co.uk ] Follower of ChristExamined under the lens of true biblical christianity, Roman Catholicism is reduced to an elaborate system of blasphemous paganism dressed in a garb of Christianity. Anybody with an iota of common sense guided by the spirit would recognise that Jesus Christ is the Rock of God, and the revelation of this, which Peter has garnered, is upon which the Church is to be built. Historically, symbolically and doctrinally; Catholicism sets itself up above God and his word, and is most definately the 2nd Babylon to which all the great reforms alluded to."God is a spirit; and those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth"Facebook Page about the Pope:

US Supreme Court: Transgender Bathroom in Schools

US Supreme Court: Transgender Bathroom in Schools November 02, 2016 For the first time the US Supreme Court will take up the issue of Transgender Bathrooms being forced on schoolchildren. The transgender bathroom and locker room issue has been debated in states across America since President Obama earlier this year publicly announced that Title IX anti-discrimination law includes transgender self-identity, he even weighed in specifically on the particular case in Virginia that has made it's way to the Supreme Court. Caitlyn Hope, a 17-year-old began to self-identify as a boy in 2014. She has not undergone sex change surgery but is undergoing hormone therapy. Caitlyn legally changed her name to Gavin and started to use the boys' showers, toilets, and locker rooms at school. "This is the first time that the Court will be addressing the question of whether laws protecting against sex discrimination in education are applicable to 'gender identity,'” Liberty Counsel noted. Parents voiced their concerns when hearing about what was happening at the school. Despite school board attempts to accommodate by building private, single-stall bathrooms and to keep school common bathrooms gender separate, they were sued. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought a lawsuit on Caitlyn's behalf, demanding that she may use all of the school's facilities. It is expected that the Supreme Court ruling next year will have direct impact on community bathroom laws, such as North Carolina's HB2, which keeps public bathrooms gender separate. There are currently only eight justices on the Supreme Court, and with Republicans disallowing hearings on Obama’s nominees, either pro-transgender Hillary Clinton or pro-life Donald Trump will nominate someone to fill the vacancy. On November 8th YOU will decide! Original article by www.lifesitenews.com / TRUNEWS analysis.

В ООН заявили о намерении доставить гумпомощь в 25 труднодоступных районов Сирии

RT на русском

27 октября 2016, 00:40 В ноябре ООН планирует доставить гуманитарную помощь в 25 осаждённых и труднодоступных районов Сирии. «Властям Сирии был представлен план по доставке гуманитарных конвоев на ноябрь. Он включает запросы на оказание помощи 904 500 человек в 25 труднодоступных и осаждённых районах», — приводит РИА Новости слова заместителя генерального секретаря ООН по гуманитарным вопросам Стивена О'Брайена. В октябре количество районов, куда был разрешён доступ гуманитарным конвоям, составляло 29. При этом, по словам дипломата, доступ не был получен к восточному Алеппо, а также трём областям в провинции Дамаск. Согласно данным ООН, в осаждённых и труднодоступных районах Сирии проживает почти 5,5 млн человек. Подписывайтесь на наш Telegram , чтобы быть в курсе самых важных новостей. Для этого достаточно иметь Telegram на любом устройстве, пройти по ссылке и нажать кнопку Join.

Police One: Conditioning Britons to ’Run, Hide, Tell’ Does Not Demonstrate Resolve

AWR Hawkins

In the wake of the June 3 London Bridge attacks, Police One warns that conditioning Britons to “run, hide, tell” does not demonstrate resolve. [Instead they show that the tactic reveals “an aversion to the use of force in [which] may embolden … terrorists. ” Police One praises the Brits who did what they could to buy time by throwing drink glasses, bar stools, etc. at the London attackers. The response was not without demonstrations of courage. But the overarching mindset of “run, hide, tell” instead of “Move! Escape or Attack!” betrays a conditioning that seeks a means of retreat instead of a means of counteraction it is a response from a position of weakness instead of a position of strength. Police One quotes Winston Churchill’s 1940 address to the House of Commons: We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills we shall never surrender. But the word “fight” does not appear to be in the lexicon of those behind 21st century social and psychological conditioning in Britain. And this is tragic because some people will be forced to fight for their lives. Police One explains, “Yet, in the end, there may be no other alternative for the public but to fight. Running and hiding may work, depending on the circumstances and a person’s proximity to the epicenter of an attack, but for some people, there will be no suitable alternative but fighting. ” The lack of emphasis on “fighting” is part of a paradigm that impacts the Metropolitan Police as well. After all, “the majority of British police officers are not trusted with lethal force tools and the officers who are actually equipped with firearms operate in a culture where their use is highly discouraged by authorities. ” So it comes as not surprise that one of the officers near the June 3 terror attacks had only a “club” for both an offensive and defensive tool. Police One asks, “Is it possible that the British are emboldening these attackers by failing to demonstrate their resolve and their commitment to confronting evil with force?” They suggest Churchill would answer in the affirmative. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com.

POLL: What Are We Going To Do With These Women, At All, At All?

Gerry McBride

0 Add Comment THE women in this country, honestly, what are we going to do with them? If they’re not giving out about bodily autonomy, they’re complaining about wage equality or something like that. Don’t they have enough? When will they quit whining and giving out? It’s like they got the vote in 1918 and then just kept nagging and nagging, wanting more and more. It’s no longer legal for husbands to rape their wives, we sorted that out in 1993. The last of the Magdalene Laundries was shut in 1996… and now they’re still going on about the 8th amendment. Lads, what will we do with them at all? POLL: What Are We Going To Do With These Women, At All, At All? Ignore them, they'll get bored soon Tell them they look lovely, that'll distract them for a while Just Repeal the 8th, Jesus, enough already Take the vote off them again

Israel settlements legal, Trump aide says, playing anti-Iran video message on Mount Zion

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Israel settlements legal, Trump aide says, playing anti-Iran video message on Mount... Israel settlements legal, Trump aide says, playing anti-Iran video message on Mount Zion By 0 60 GOP nominee Donald Trump does not believe that settlements built by the Zionist regime of Israel in Palestine are illegal, his advisor on Israel says. David Friedman, who was campaigning for the New York billionaire at a restaurant on Mount Zion (Jabel Sahyoun) in East Jerusalem al-Quds, made the comments to AFP after the Wednesday rally. “I don’t think he believes that the settlements are illegal,” Friedman said. He also said the former reality TV star is “tremendously skeptical” about the so-called two-state solution, promoted by the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama during his eight years in office, but to no avail. David Friedman (L) exiting the Federal Building with Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump, (R) following their appearance in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, New Jersey, February 25, 2010. (Photo via Bloomberg News) The Obama administration has already voiced criticism over Tel Aviv’s expansionist policies, considered illegal…

The Hill: Priebus, Bannon Trash Reports of Division - Breitbart

Breitbart News

Jonathan Easley writes at The Hill that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen Bannon deny that they are not getting along despite recent stories to the contrary. From the Hill: In a joint phone call with The Hill on Wednesday, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen Bannon furiously pushed back at reports of division, saying there is no friction between them. Trump aides are particularly angry with a story published Tuesday by the conservative outlet Bannon once ran, Breitbart News, in which anonymous sources blamed Priebus for tumult at the White House and suggested that the chief of staff’s job was in immediate jeopardy. But Bannon and Priebus insisted that they’re working closely and amicably together and that reports to the contrary are false. “Reince is doing an amazing job,” Bannon told The Hill. “We are executing on President Trump’s agenda in record time. That’s because Reince is getting the job done. ” Read the rest of the story here.

Failed weapons systems cost Pentagon $58 billion over two decades

RT

Failed weapons systems cost Pentagon $58 billion over two decades Published time: 26 Oct, 2016 19:47 Get short URL The Pentagon building in Washington, DC. © AFP The Pentagon loves to throw good money after bad ‒ to the tune of nearly $60 billion on failed big-ticket weapons systems over the last two decades, according to a new internal Department of Defense review. From the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) that focused on fighting the last war to its RAH-66 Comanche stealth helicopters that never quite got off the ground, between 1997 and October 2016, the Pentagon invested $58 billion on weapons technology it never received. That doesn’t include the boondoggle that is the F-35 jet , which was finally declared “ready for combat” at the beginning of August. The FCS ($20 billion) and the Comanche ($9.8 billion) are just two of 23 major weapons programs that were canceled before they were finished, and together the two Army projects made up more than 50 percent of the “sunk costs” outlined in the Pentagon’s annual internal acquisitions performance review. The 224-page report by Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall was published earlier this week. Read more 5 costly Pentagon projects of dubious merit The report noted how much money was spent on each canceled program, how far along in the process they were before they were killed, and if any of the technology was rolled up into new programs. For example, although the FCS was canceled, parts of it ‒ including many of the manned ground vehicles and the Intelligent Munitions System ‒ were swept up into a current program called the Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization Program. Most of the programs were killed before they blew through their budgets, but eight of them spent all the money allotted to them before the Pentagon canceled them, the report found. The Government Accountability Office, a Congressional watchdog, conducted an audit of Pentagon spending in 2011 and found $70 billion in waste, the New York Times reported at the time . Much of the overspending happened because the DOD started building weapons systems before the designs were fully tested, the auditors said. With acquisitions overruns long being a thorn in the side of the Pentagon’s budget, in March the Air Force enlisted IBM’s Jeopardy! -winning cognitive computer , Watson. Two contractors are currently working to create programs that would enable Watson to navigate the 1,897-page Federal Acquisition Regulation, helping potential government vendors actually bid for military contracts. The project is expected to become operational by 2018. Another way the Pentagon has sought to cut down wasted spending is through the latest update to its acquisitions program, called ‘Better Buying Power 3.0’, which was announced in April 2015 . The program was designed to have “a stronger emphasis on innovation, technical excellence, and the quality of our products,” Kendall wrote in a memo ordering the program's implementation. It calls on the military-industrial complex to make projects more affordable in terms of funding, schedule and manpower throughout the entire lifespan of their products. It will also reward contractors for successful expense management, and ask them to eliminate unproductive processes and unnecessary bureaucracy. Of course, holding contractors accountable for their failures when it comes to major cost overruns or weapons systems that don’t work is easier said than done. And it doesn’t help when someone at the Pentagon thinks it’s a good idea to spend money on bomb-sniffing elephants .

Hillary Clinton demands answers and Democrats call foul

Kaitlyn Stegall

October 31, 2016 Hillary Clinton demands answers and Democrats call foul he FBI has announced it is investigating new emails sent by Hillary Clinton on a private server during her time as Secretary of State, sending her campaign into panic mode just 11 days before the presidential election. The emails were found during an investigation into illicit text messages between Anthony Weiner, a former congressman, and a 15-year-old girl, according to The New York Times . Huma Abedin, Mr Weiner’s wife, is one of Mrs Clinton’s closest aides and was pictured with her on Friday as the news broke. Email (will not be published) (required) Website Sow a seed to help the Jewish people Follow Endtime Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Endtime Ministries | End of the Age | Irvin Baxter Endtime Ministries, Inc. PO Box 940729 Plano, TX 75094 Toll Free: 1.800.363.8463 DON'T JUST READ THE NEWS... understand it from a biblical perspective. Your Information will never be shared with any third party. Get a 2-year subscription, normally $29, now just $20.15. ONLY 500 deals are still available. Offer available while supplies last or it expires on December 31, 2015. close We are a small non-profit that runs a high-traffic website, a daily TV and radio program, a bi-monthly magazine, the prophecy college in Jerusalem, and more. Although we only have 35 team members, we are able to serve tens of millions of people each month; and have costs like other world-wide organizations. We have very few third-party ads and we don’t receive government funding. We survive on the goodness of God, product sales, and donations from our wonderful partners. Dear Readers, X close We have experienced tremendous growth in our web presence over the last five years. In fact, in 2010 we averaged 228,000 pageviews per month. Last year we averaged just over 2,000,000 pageviews per month. That’s an increase of 777% in five years! However, our servers and software are outdated, which causes downtime on occasion for many of you and additional work hours and finances to maintain for us at Endtime. Updating our servers and software as well as maintaining service for a year will cost us $42,000. If each person reading this gave at least $10, our bill to provide FREE broadcasting and resources to the world via our website would be covered for over a year! Learn more - Click Here ► Dear Readers,

New bionic eye implant connects directly to brain

Alex Ansary

New bionic eye implant connects directly to brain 11/03/2016 RUSSIA TODAY Scientists may have made a significant breakthrough in restoring human sight, as a woman who had been blind for seven years has regained the ability to see shapes and colours with a bionic eye implant. The 30-year-old woman had a wireless visual stimulator chip inserted into her brain by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) surgeons in the first human test of the product. As a result, she could see colored flashes, lines, and spots when signals were sent to her brain from a computer. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, suffered no significant adverse side effects in the process, according to a statement. The device, which was developed as part of the Orion 1 programme by Second Sight, uses technology to restore sight by bypassing the optic nerve to stimulate the brain’s visual cortex, according to chairman Robert Greenberg. It is designed for those who cannot benefit from the Argus II retinal system that was unveiled at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital last year, but has limited application, as it depends on the patient having some retinal cells. This new system goes one step further by sending signals directly to the brain. It has the potential to restore sight to those who have gone completely blind for virtually any reason, including glaucoma, cancer, diabetic retinopathy, or trauma, according to the manufacturer. The next step is to connect the implant to a camera on a pair of glasses, and the company plans to seek FDA approval in 2017 to get the go ahead to conduct these trials. UCLA neurosurgeon Nader Pouratian, who implanted the stimulator, said the results of the surgery are promising. “Based on these results, stimulation of the visual cortex has the potential to restore useful vision to the blind, which is important for independence and improving quality of life,” he said.

Tiny Homes Banned In U.S. At Increasing Rate As Govt Criminalizes Sustainable Living

Activist Post

By Justin Gardner As the corporatocracy tightens its grip on the masses – finding ever more ways to funnel wealth to the top – humanity...

Judges Inventing New Reasons to Obstruct Donald Trump’s Popular Immigration Reforms - Breitbart

Neil Munro

A federal judge in Hawaii says Muslims in America are unfairly and illegally discriminated against by Donald Trump’s effort to curb the immigration of violent Muslim refugees from Muslim countries. [Another judge in Wisconsin says a Syrian who recently was given asylum — and who is not even a citizen — has the right to ask a fellow judge for visas to fly his relatives into the United States, regardless of opposition from the U. S. government’s border, police and intelligence, and immigration agencies. Three California judges and a judge in Washington State say the President’s sole right and solemn duty to guard the borders ends when a state suffers financial harm because its universities can’t import more customers from restricted countries. These judges are competing with each other to throw invented legalistic roadblocks in front of Trump’s legal and proper defense of the nation’s borders, said Hans Von Spakovsky, a former lawyer at the Department of Justice who is now working for the Heritage Foundation. “I don’t think the [various judges] have any professional shame about it — in fact, they’re being applauded by newspaper editors for actually ignoring the [Congress’] law and [Supreme Court] rulings based on their own personal policy preferences,” he told Breitbart. The judges’ grab for power, despite the plain text of the Congress’ law and despite prior Supreme Court decisions, “is destructive of the rule of law, which is the entire basis of our Republic,” he said. “It is a very bad development that threatens our democracy … [and] it looks like it is going to get worse [because] we’re going to have more and more litigation, and it is very clear that the progressive left wants to use the courts to fight way our democracy works,” he said, adding “I think what they doing is very . ” The only fix, he said, is for Trump to aggressively push the Senate to confirm good judges for the 110 empty judicial seats around the nation. Trump will be aided in this push because the Senate’s former Majority Leader, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, changed the Senate rules to lower the thresholds to end filibusters of judicial confirmation debates. “The Trump administration has to remember that Harry Reid ended the [ ] filibuster for judges except for the Supreme Court [so] all they need are 51 votes to get any judge confirmed … They were given a gift by Harry Reid and they need to take it,” he said. Trump must also disregard the Senate’s traditional “blue slip” process, which gives Senators a quiet veto over nominees to judicial seats in their states. Democrats used that process to push President George W. Bush to nominate progressive judges to states during his eight years in the White House. One of Bush’s “blue slip” progressives judges blocked Trump’s Executive Order in Washington State by declaring that universities and companies can ask judges to override Presidents’ curbs on immigration. Trump and the GOP Senators “have to override that” veto, Spakovsky said. The judge in Washington State, James Robart, declared Feb. 3 that “the [president’s] executive order adversely effects the State’s residents in areas of employment, education, business, family relations, and freedom to travel. These harms extend to the States by virtue of their roles as parens patriae of the residents living within their borders. ” That judge was backed up by three judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who court decisions from domestic cases to declare that the danger of jihadism is less urgent than universities’ foreign revenues: the University of Washington was in the process of sponsoring three prospective employees from countries covered by the Executive Order for visas it had made plans for their arrival beginning in February 2017, but they have been unable to enter the United States. The University of Washington also sponsored two medicine and science interns who have been prevented by the Executive Order from coming to the University of Washington … Under the “third party standing” doctrine, these injuries to the state universities give the States standing to assert the rights of the [foreign] students, scholars, and faculty affected by the Executive Order. … the public has a powerful interest in national security and in the ability of an elected president to enact policies. And on the other, the public also has an interest in free flow of travel, in avoiding separation of families, and in freedom from discrimination. We need not characterize the public interest more definitely than this when considered alongside the hardships discussed above, these competing public interests do not justify a stay [upholding Trump’s policy] The Wisconsin decision was announced March 10 by Judge William Conley of the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, who went several steps further by saying an individual, who is not even a citizen, has the right to overrule the president if he or she can get a judge to agree. According to the Wisconsin judge’s order: Plaintiff is a Sunni Muslim who, after being fully vetted by U. S. immigration authorities, was granted asylum status because of the torture and religious persecution he had suffered in Syria. he thereafter filed derivative asylum petitions to reunite with his wife and his only surviving child … .. President Trump’s efforts to impose an immigration ban by executive order are threatening to stop Plaintiff’s derivative asylum petitions in their tracks. From 2o13 to 2015, government data shows that 25, 565 foreigners got asylum status — and according to Judge Conley — the right to bring their families into the United States regardless of Congres’ laws and the policy that an elected president promised to implement if he was democratically voted into the White House. In Hawaii, Judge Derrick Watson decided that the elected President’s policy of defending Americans from Muslim jihadis who emerged from Muslim culture in Muslim countries might hurt Hawaii’s tourism industry, saying in his order that: The State points to preliminary data from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which suggests that during the interval of time that the first Executive Order was in place, the number of visitors to Hawai‘i from the Middle East dropped (data including visitors from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen) … Because there is preliminary evidence that losses of current and future revenue are traceable to the Executive Order, this injury to the State’s proprietary interest also appears sufficient to confer standing. The judge also opposed the President’s national defense against Islam’s violent doctrines by quoting the Muslim cleric’s testimony about”ethnicity” and children’s worries, saying: [“My children] are deeply affected by the knowledge that the United States — their own country — would discriminate against individuals who are of the same ethnicity as them, including members of their own family, and who hold the same religious beliefs. They do not fully understand why this is happening, but they feel hurt, confused, and sad. ” Alongside the judges’ escalating and expanding claims of their judicial power over elected presidents, the written law is entirely clear that the written Constitution and the elected Congress give only the elected president and his deputies the legal power to accept or deny entry of alien foreigners into the United States. Here’s the relevant statute, 8 U. S. C. § 1182 (f): (f) Suspension of Entry or Imposition of Restrictions by President, Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate. The Supreme Court has accepted and validated this “plenary power” of the elected president. For example, the court declared in its 1950 judgment lawsuit, titled Knauff v. Shaughnessy, that “It is not within the province of any court, unless expressly authorized by [congressional] law, to review the determination of the political branch of Government to exclude a given alien. ” In 2015, the Court reasserted that judgment in Kerry v. Din, saying: The state action of which Din complains is the denial of [spouse] Berashk’s visa application. Naturally, one would expect him — not Din — to bring this suit. But because Berashk is an unadmitted and nonresident alien, he has no right of entry into the United States, and no cause of action to press in furtherance of his claim for admission … So, Din attempts to bring suit on his behalf, alleging that the Government’s denial of her husband’s visa application violated her constitutional rights … In particular, she claims that the Government denied her due process of law when, without adequate explanation of the reason for the visa denial, it deprived her of her constitutional right to live in the United States with her spouse. There is no such constitutional right. And, Here, a long practice of regulating spousal immigration precludes Din’s claim that the denial of Berashk’s visa application has deprived her of a fundamental liberty interest. Although immigration was effectively unregulated prior to 1875, as soon as Congress began legislating in this area it enacted a complicated web of regulations that erected serious impediments to a person’s ability to bring a spouse into the United States … This Court has consistently recognized that these various distinctions are “policy questions entrusted exclusively to the political branches of our Government, and we have no judicial authority to substitute our political judgment for that of the Congress. ” But that case was decided by 5 to 4, with former Justice Antonin Scalia providing the critical fifth vote against the block of four progressives who would have granted foreigners a conditional right to immigrate into the United States, regardless of government or voter preferences. Scalia is dead, and the Senate has yet to vote on his nominated successor, Judge Neil Gorsuch.

Comment on West Point Academy And Children Are The New Champions For Gay Marriage by para para dinle

para para dinle

West Point Academy And Children Are The New Champions For Gay Marriage By Jonathan Lenhardt on November 4, 2013 Subscribe Another day, another bit of ground my socially conservative Republican counterparts have lost on the gay marriage debate. This past Saturday, November 2, 2013 West Point Military Academy’s Cadet Chapel hosted the first ever male same-sex marriage ceremony . This follows two female same-sex marriages late in 2012. Needless to say, somebody at the academy has decided to join the 21st Century and not a moment too soon; gay marriage was made legal in New York State way back in mid-2011 . Still, long time coming aside, it was a huge day for West Point graduates 28-year-old Larry Choate III (Class of 2009), and 27-year-old Daniel Lennox (Class of 2007), and we at Liberal America sent our congratulations. Sadly, however, there is still a raging debate on gay marriage and whether or not it should be made legal courtesy of the Big G, (U.S. Federal Government). Fifty two percent of Americans say yes according to a Gallup poll conducted this past July, and we already know what we, here at The Liberal Conservative , think about federal laws on not just gay marriage but marriage in general – spoiler alert: we’re for gay marriage, just not via federal law. Now the thing that the far-right, Tea Party-indoctrinated “Republicans,” have to realize is that there is a certain group of people to which they have fallen behind on this matter, and many others. This is a group of people that they should be ashamed and embarrassed to have fallen behind. This is a group of people who have proven to be more mature, more merciful, kinder, and warmer than they are. Children . If you’ve ever checked out any of the ?Kids React To…? videos on YouTube such as the one above or this one or – more importantly – this one , then you’re familiar with the work of The Fine Brothers , Benny and Rafi. They’ve been at this for a while now and, as The Daily Dot explains, when they’re not getting kids’ reactions to things like, Nyan Cat, Justin Bieber, or Rebecca Black, they have their delightful cast of youngsters tackling issues like race relations, rape culture, bullying, and, yes, ?gay marriage. Thirteen children were asked to react to videos of same-sex marriage proposals and offer their opinion. With the exception of a single young boy, the children reacted universally positive; and then with anger when they inevitably discover that not everybody is allowed to marry who they love in the United States – the “freest” nation on Earth. To the proposals themselves the kids, Californians aged 5 to 13 years, were floored by the displays of love they were fortunate to witness in the videos. And when he discovered the truth about gay marriage in America young Dylan wondered: Why would you be that mean to someone? Indeed. Why would we be that mean to someone? Someone in the audience yells “Religion!” and I roll my eyes in disappointed concurrence. This author’s personal favorite reaction comes from 5-year-old Lucas who, apart from looking gloriously like Zachary Quinto as Spock, turns to one of the Fines after the first video and asks “So, they’re gay?” When this is confirmed he simply lets out a nonchalant and confirming, “Oh.” Standing against gay marriage is..illogical.

Megan Fox on ‘Ninja Turtles’ and Female Stereotypes in Film - The New York Times

Melena Ryzik

Fans of Megan Fox have had to exercise patience: The actress, by her own admission, doesn’t work much. “I’ve never made more than two movies a year,” she said. Her recent arc on the Fox series “New Girl,” was, then, an unexpected treat, and she will reappear next season, she said, as a love interest and comic foil. And she returns as April, the adventurous reporter and stalwart buddy in the sequel “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” out on Friday, June 3. A case of bronchitis caused her to miss the premiere in New York, where the movie was filmed, but Ms. Fox spoke afterward by phone from Los Angeles about her unambitious career path and her working relationship with the producer and director Michael Bay, who first propelled her to stardom in “Transformers,” and is behind the “Turtles” movies. As a mother of two young sons, with a third child on the way (with the actor Brian Austin Green) Ms. Fox, 30, long ago gave up playing Halo, but she still gravitates toward the fantasy universe. “If I got sent 10 scripts and one of them was for an action or or gaming movie, that’s the first one I’m gonna read,” she said. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Is it important for you to play women who are both strong and physically attractive? I don’t get a whole lot of say in terms of character development on movies like these. It’s not like I’m in there helping them write the script saying, “April should do this, because this is what a real feminist would do. ” In terms of what’s available for women to play in general in Hollywood, it’s pretty scarce. You have these stereotypes that still dominate films: the nag, the trophy, the escort. [Laughs.] I haven’t been sent a nag script yet, but I do get plenty of, like, “interesting stripper. ” Or, “She’s super funny, but she’s also an escort, but that’s what makes it funny!” Would you rather have more say? [On “Ninja Turtles”] if I had said, I feel like my integrity is being compromised wearing this schoolgirl uniform, they would listen to that, of course. But that wasn’t something that affected me in a negative way at all. On a movie like this, I don’t mind doing [the scene] as written, but I do do a lot of improv. I’m sort of a ballsy talker, and so I bring that to the character whenever it’s appropriate to the scene. That never makes it in. How did the “New Girl” role come about? I don’t watch a lot of television, so I didn’t know about it. They wanted to pitch it to me, and I thought that was so bizarre, because I’m not known for working in television, and not known for comedy, even though I’ve done a couple. And I loved it. I was taken aback by how weird and offbeat and fun [the show] is, and the character falls right in line with how I like to play to my own comedic timing. You’ve said that you’re not very ambitious as an actress. Why not? I know [that] idea is a very strange thing because usually actresses are all ambition, and are driven to achieve and they’re workaholics, for the most part. And I’ve never been that way. I’m not necessarily very passionate about acting per se. I don’t feel validated by being on a set or making a movie. I have a lot of fun making these movies, but it’s not a representation of my innermost being. You and Michael Bay had a public falling out after you compared him to Hitler in an interview. You weren’t in the fourth “Transformers. ” How did you mend fences? I had to ride out two years of very negative press. There’s this perception that I was sort of thrown out of Hollywood. The positive thing was that it forced me to be very introspective and go, ‘You were not totally right in this situation.’ I reached out to him, and we had a very genuine exchange. From that point forward, it was good. What kind of movies would you like to do? I actually prefer doing these kind of movies, which always surprises people because they always assume that everyone wants to be the suffering artist, making these festival pieces. There’s something that’s more athletic about the process of making these movies, there’s more adrenaline involved, there’s more risk factor, there’s more chaos, and so I just find it to be a more exciting experience. These are also the kind of movies that I prefer to watch, because they’re an escape into a supernatural world, which has always been where I prefer to daydream, anyway.

Chicago Tribune Editor Says Facebook’s Anti-Fake News Algorithm is Killing Their Traffic - Breitbart

Allum Bokhari

The deputy editor of the Chicago Tribune has accused Facebook of causing a decline in their web traffic, blaming the social network’s new algorithm, which is designed to surface “accurate” and “relevant” stories. [In a post on Medium, Tribune deputy editor Kurt Gessler revealed that the paper had seen a rapid decline in its median Facebook organic post reach after November, with the number of articles being read by fewer than 10, 000 readers “skyrocketing,” according to Gessler’s analysis of the data. (Via Kurt . com) Facebook did change its algorithms around the same time the Tribune’s median traffic began to drop. In January, Facebook’s “trending news” feature was changed from its previous model, which tailored results to the personal preferences and interests of users, to one which surfaced news based on geographical region. According to reports, the change was introduced to favor “real news” over “fake news. ” The Chicago Tribune, of course, is one of the most influential and respected mainstream papers in the U. S. and clearly considered itself a part of the mainstream media’s fight against “fake news,” which reached a height in the weeks and months immediately following Donald Trump’s election. “We are going to point out fake news when we see it,” The Tribune’s Facebook account posted in late December. In January, Facebook also changed the algorithm of its users’ news feeds, again with a focus on finding “real news. ” According to Facebook, the new algorithm would “incorporat[e] new signals to better identify and rank authentic content. ” The algorithm is also intended to surface “timely” and “relevant” content. This is what Gissler — who does not believe a paper as mainstream and respectable and established as the Chicago Tribune could ever be accused of peddling fake news, much less admitting to it and correcting themselves afterwards — believes is hurting his paper. Given that I hope the Tribune passes muster for “authentic,” let’s focus on the second half. What exact signals are being used to determine what “timely” means? It purports to favor topics that are being discussed in real time. In addition to rejecting the idea that the Chicago Tribune might not always publish authentic content, Gissler also fails to consider that the of the paper’s drop in traffic is also right after the general election. While some news sites have avoided a slump, others, like Slate and Politico, saw traffic declines of 40 percent or more after the election. The legacy news industry is increasingly troubled by the power of Facebook and Google, which together are extending their dominant position in digital advertising. The British press industry publication Press Gazette recently launched a campaign against the “duopoly” of Google and Facebook, urging them to cut old media in on their ad revenue, as well as do more to tackle “fake news. ” If Gissler’s suspicions are correct, however, tackling “fake news” might not get legacy media the results they wanted. You can follow Allum Bokhari on Twitter and add him on Facebook. Email tips and suggestions to abokhari@breitbart. com.

Humans Came Out Of Australia Not Africa

Daily Bell Staff

Humans Came Out Of Australia Not Africa By DailyBellStaff - November 05, 2016 … Man searching for toilet in Australia’s outback makes astounding discovery of 49,000-year-old human settlement … Archaeologists working with traditional Aboriginal owners have discovered astounding evidence of the earliest human habitation of inland Australia. – Sutff, NewZealand’s Largest Online Source Australian habitation keeps getting pushed back and this discovery mentioned above pushes it back farther. But apparently not far enough. There are alternative explanations that claim Aborigines are somewhere in the area of 300,000 years old. This theory claims that Aborigine people colonized the world including Africa. The theory is supposedly based on inaccurate African DNA samples and more accurate Australian DNA samples You can see a comprehensive article here. There are a number of fascinating YouTube videos on the subject as well (if YouTub hasn’t taken them down). The article refers to a paper, Recent African Genesis of Humans, by Professors Alan Wilson and Rebecca Cann. This paper was said to have established that humans came out of Africa. It was the “final word,” but then came this: Not long after their paper was published Rebecca Cann realised they were mistaken. In 1982 she examined the mitochondrial DNA of 112 Indigenous people, including twelve full-descent Aboriginals, and the results were in total opposition to what they assumed was fully resolved. Nevertheless, Cann was obliged to contradict a central tenet of their paper, stating that “mitochondrial DNA puts the origin of Homo sapiens much further back and indicates that the Australian Aboriginals arose 400,000 years ago from two distinct lineages, far earlier than any other racial type.” Not only was the emergence of Aboriginal Homo sapiens “far earlier” than any Africans, she provided a sequence and motherland. The Australian racial group has a much higher number of mutations than any other racial group, which suggests that the Australians split off from a common ancestor about 400,000 years ago. By the same theory, the Mongoloid originated about 100,000 years ago, and the Negroid and Caucasian groups about 40,000 years ago. Alan Wilson was “desperate” to reclaim validity for the paper’s initial conclusions and visited Australia twice. He sampled “mtDNA of 21 full-descent Australian Aboriginals and provided 15 different strands.” The results led Wilson to decide that there must have been “15 pregnant females on board.” He tried again in in 1989 but was no more successful. The second sampling included a “similar percentage (70%) of mutation was present.” Wilson quit at this point, conceding that humans had not come out of Africa initially. It seems too far out to admit, but while Homo erectus was muddling along in the rest of the world, a few erectus had got to Australia and did something dramatically different – not even with stone tools – but it is there that Homo sapiens have emerged and evolved… Homo sapiens would have evolved free from competition out of a small band of Homo erectus 400,000 years ago. There are at least ten Australian sites claimed to be older than 60,000 years, granted every date is challenged by conservative critics, but even so, all are the products of respected academics. What needs to be accepted is that if just one date proves to be correct, irrespective of whatever judgment is passed on the other nine, it can be confidently declared as a fact that Australia was not settled by African Homo sapiens 60,000 years ago. The Aborigine culture is based on so-called Dreamtime narratives that provide a history of Aborigine society. In fact, Egyptian inscriptions have been found in Australian caves. It is perfectly possible that Egyptian culture was in some sense initiated in Australia. The idea is that human culture generally is Australian. Illustrations of big, high-prowed boats have been found on rock walls in Australia. These are sea-going vessels. It is fairly clear that Aborigines reached South America perhaps 40,000 years ago and were subsequently attacked by waves of immigrant Indians. The Aborigines retreated to the bottom of South America, and islands there, where their descendants remain. Fascinating technology exists in Australia. Most significant are hand-sized “melted rocks” that also serve as star-maps. Even today we don’t have the technology to melt successive layers of rock, one on-top of the other. And these melted rock maps have further elaborations. They seem to provide maps of the astrological heavens, hundreds or thousands of different constellations. The aborigine culture yields up numerous secrets. The tribes owned their land for tens of thousands of years and thus we can see that ownership of land is an organizing factor of mankind. They had confrontations but these were often individual in nature. The aborigine culture existed in Australia without major, ongoing wars, apparently. This is a larger lesson that indicates quite clearly that our current hyper-militarization is a kind of farcical propaganda. Human beings don’t have to live in a perpetual state of war. The information about the Aborigine past is useful in other ways as well. It shows us more clearly than ever that there are two kinds of cultures in the world. There is tribal culture that organizes itself in harmony with “nature” and is both inclusive and democratic. Then there is “urban” culture that seeks to put people into huge metropolises where every facet of person’s life can be controlled. Currently urban culture is ascendant. And the more one contemplates it, the more it seems purposeful rather than coincidental. Everywhere, tribal culture is under attack. In the Americas, tribal culture has been considerably diminished. Pacific cultures have lost tribal elements and these are only being gradually rediscovered. It turns out that there was a pan-Pacific culture that included canoe travel without maps. The navigator steered using perceptions of the waves and the sky. Often the navigator would supposedly go into a trance and stay in a semi-wakeful state for weeks at time. There was a whole culture associated with this sort of navigation and a pervasive education that could take decades to master. It had nothing to do with “drifting rafts” visiting other islands coincidentally. The aborigine culture has been virtually wiped out in Australia like other tribal cultures. But the more we understand about these cultures, the better. Unfortunately, there are considerable, organized barriers in the way. For instance, it is surely likely that organized human habitation took place more than 5,000 years ago. It is possible that coastal cities exited 10,000 years ago or longer. These cities were wiped out in a huge flood, or so the hypothesis goes. But there are evidences of this ancient culture including a city more than a mile offshore beyond India’s Western coast. The Indian government indicated it would investigate a decade ago but has not yet. The current archaeological bias involves a narrative of human civilization that begins with Sumer and ascends from there. But it is perfectly possible that the story of humanity is a good deal more complicated and includes ebbs and flows. The current archaeological bias militates against tribalism. We are supposed to believe that human society has ascended in perpetual progress. That makes anything that comes now better than what came before, which benefits elite strategies for continually organizing and manipulating humankind. Conclusion: It’s perfectly possible that human history is a good deal different than what we’ve been told. One place to begin a reexamination is Australia.

After Debate Duke Says USA becoming Banana Republic

Dr. Patrick Slattery

After Debate Duke Says USA becoming Banana Republic November 3, 2016 at 9:27 am After Debate Duke Says USA becoming Banana Republic This is what the viewing audience thought about who won the debate!

What Are Donald Trump’s Views on Climate Change? Some Clues Emerge - The New York Times

Erica Goode

So far, Donald J. Trump has said very little about climate change and energy policy beyond his Twitter posts on the issues. He has called global warming a “hoax,” for example, and claimed that the Chinese fabricated climate change (just a joke, he later said). And in an interview this week with Reuters, he said that he was “not a big fan” of the Paris climate accord, and that “at a minimum I will be renegotiating those agreements. ” But more clues about Mr. Trump’s views on environmental issues emerged this week from a briefing on energy policy prepared for the presumptive Republican nominee by Representative Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota and an early supporter of Mr. Trump. Mr. Cramer, who defines himself as a climate change skeptic, discussed in his briefing paper a variety of government regulations that Mr. Trump might do away with if he were president. They included the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, currently pending in the courts, as well as a federal rule intended to protect waterways and wetlands, and a regulation setting standards for methane emissions that the Environmental Protection Agency completed last week. In an interview, Mr. Cramer said he wrote in the briefing paper that a growing number of Americans wanted action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. And he outlined a broad energy policy that embraced all types of fuel sources — including coal, oil, solar, wind and hydropower — that he called an “ energy message. ” Mr. Cramer, from a heavy and state, said it was important that any policy does not “punish coal” or other fossil fuels. Mr. Trump may soon share more of his views. His press secretary, Hope Hicks, said that the campaign “will have more to say on the topic soon. ” He is scheduled to speak at an oil conference in North Dakota on Thursday. Whenever Mr. Trump does fill in more details on the topic, he will have eager audiences both inside and outside his political party. Republican leaders worry that Mr. Trump’s views, his Twitter messages notwithstanding, could end up somewhere left of the party’s mainstream. “I think there is concern about where he stands because he hasn’t come out strongly one way or another,” said a Republican aide who insisted on anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Environmental groups, for their part, have seized on each new scrap of information to warn of disastrous consequences should Mr. Trump be elected. “Trump and Cramer are two peas in the climate denial pod, who would make reckless attacks on the progress we have made in the fight against climate change,” Seth Stein, a spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters, said in response to news reports Thursday afternoon about Mr. Cramer’s briefing paper. If Mr. Trump were to acknowledge the reality of climate change, that might provide some Republican politicians with political cover to do so as well. Since 2010, when a Republican member of Congress, Bob Inglis, lost his bid after saying he would favor a carbon tax, many in the party have regarded any mention of climate change as the equivalent of political suicide. (Mr. Inglis has since focused on persuading conservatives to be “less averse” to addressing climate change, and started a nonprofit group, the Enterprise and Energy Initiative, focusing on conservative responses to the problem.) Yet polls have repeatedly found that a majority of Republican voters, particularly young ones, believe that climate change is real and that the government should take action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale program on Climate Change Communication, said that a nationally representative survey of 1, 004 registered voters, conducted in March in conjunction with George Mason University, found that 56 percent of Trump voters agreed that climate change was occurring. Just over half of them, however, thought those changes were caused by natural changes in the environment, rather than the result of emissions. The number of Americans over all who say climate change is real has risen to 73 percent from 66 percent two years ago, according to the Mason poll. But the jump among those who believe in global warming was steepest among Republicans, with a 16 percent increase in two years among all Republicans, and a 19 percent increase among conservative Republicans. Jay Faison, a North Carolina businessman who describes himself as a conservative Republican, said that denying climate change was “the No. 1 issue” that could pull voters away from supporting a candidate, according to research conducted by ClearPath, the organization he founded to promote clean energy and climate change policies that could appeal to conservatives. Mr. Faison, who has said he will devote $10 million to persuading Republican candidates to address climate change, said that a platform that emphasized clean energy solutions could make a difference of 1 or even 2 percent in close elections — “which decides a whole lot of elections. ” Like many on both sides of the political aisle, Mr. Faison said he had no idea what Mr. Trump’s views on climate change might be. But he noted that the candidate once said in an interview that he believed in “immaculate air. ” “If you believe in air pollution, then perhaps we could get to the same place,” Mr. Faison said. “If we have cleaner energy solutions and it brings more energy independence, more jobs and lower air pollution, then we would do these things even if we don’t agree with scientists on climate change. ” It is a view that echoes those expressed by Mr. Cramer, who in the past has said he would support a small carbon tax if the revenue went to research on clean fuel technologies. “There is no downside in reducing emissions from fuel,” said Mr. Cramer, who added that “the climate is clearly changing,” but that he was skeptical about how much humans were contributing to the change and about the regulatory solutions offered by Democrats. Climate change has long been far down on the list of issues that voters say are important to them. (Developing clean energy was ranked No. 21 of 23 issues by Trump supporters in the Mason survey). But Jerry Taylor, the president of the Niskanen Center in Washington, a libertarian think tank, said that the importance of issues in voters’ minds might change during an electoral campaign if a candidate talked about them repeatedly. Mr. Taylor said that if Mr. Trump continued to deny the existence of climate change, Hillary Clinton could use that to claim that Republicans were and out of touch with reality. “Climate contributes significantly to the poor branding of the Republican Party,” he said, adding that just because an issue was a low priority to voters “doesn’t mean it can’t be used to devastating effect against you. ”

Yellow Cab, Long a Fixture of City Life, Is for Many a Thing of the Past - The New York Times

Winnie Hu

John McFadden no longer sticks his hand out for a yellow cab. He has plenty of other options at his fingertips. With a couple of taps on his phone, he lines up rides with Via, a service that shuttles him around Manhattan with strangers for a flat rate of $5. When he wants to ride alone, he taps again, this time summoning a car through Uber. “I used to go out and hail a cab, but this is more convenient,” said Mr. McFadden, 47, a photographer. “We all use our phones all day, every day. ” The yellow cab may be as synonymous with New York as pizza, Broadway and the Empire State Building, but more and more it is no longer the ride of choice. This fixture of city life — a touchstone of popular culture in movies like “Taxi Driver’’ and the hit television series “Taxi” — was once the main alternative to subways and buses, hailed by rich and poor alike. Cabdrivers were the ambassadors of the streets, welcoming newcomers, passing along city lore and dispensing advice even when no one asked. But yellow cabs — which now number just 13, 587 — have lost significant ground to a growing fleet of black cars summoned by apps with short, catchy names and loyal followings: Uber, Lyft, Via, Juno, Gett. The average number of daily taxi trips fell by more than 100, 000 in November 2016 from the same month six years ago as these apps have taken off. Today, more than 60, 000 black cars are for hire in the city. More than 46, 000 are connected with Uber, though they may also work for other services too. And the competition is fierce. The services offer discounts and promotions along with options such as car pools, the ability to rate drivers and GPS tracking. They have flooded neighborhoods where taxi service has long been spotty and are now competing in areas like Midtown Manhattan, where taxis once flourished. And they appeal to a new generation of riders who live on their phones, ordering everything from groceries to books and movies. “It won’t be long before this is an Uber town instead of a town,’’ said Evan Rawley, an associate professor of management at the Columbia Business School. “ apps have gained a huge market share in a short period of time. They have expanded the market, but also stolen share from taxicabs. ’’ Many owners and drivers are struggling in a city with more transportation options than ever, including a new subway line on Second Avenue and the proliferation of Citi Bikes. The medallions that give cabs the right to operate have plummeted in value, going for less than half of the $1. 3 million price recorded in 2013 and 2014, though industry experts have cautioned that their value was inflated. At the same time, many drivers have defected to the new services, which often offer more flexible hours and bonuses, resulting in so many taxis sitting idle in parking lots and garages that they have become known as “taxi graveyards. ” Over all, yellow cabs made an average of 336, 737 daily trips and $4. 98 million in fares in November, down from 463, 701 trips and $5. 17 million in fares in the same month in 2010, according to city data. “I don’t remember the last time I took a yellow cab,” said Stacey Moorehead, 51, who works in advertising. “My son had a bar mitzvah every single weekend for six months. I never took a cab. I either took Via or Uber to take him there and to pick him up. ” Kwabena Boateng, 46, a cabdriver since 2001, says that things have gotten so bad that many of his friends now work for Uber. He makes less than he did even three years ago. “I am still contemplating what to do,” he said. Still, Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which represents the owners of 5, 500 medallions, said the industry was evolving to meet the demands of passengers and drivers, introducing its own apps, Arro and Curb, and opening a new center in Queens to provide training and recruit new drivers. “This is always going to be an iconic town,” Mr. Woloz said. “Uber is the same everywhere — there is nothing ‘New York’ about them — kind of like McDonald’s or Starbucks. But yellow taxis are unique to New York City and, while maybe a little retro, they are as vital and soulful as ever. ” New York City’s taxi industry grew out of the hansom cabs of the 1800s, according to Graham Hodges, the author of “Taxi! A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver. ” After a businessman, Harry N. Allen, was overcharged for a ride, he started the first fleet of cabs in 1907. The shiny red cars were imported from France, equipped with fare meters and lined up at a stand outside the Plaza Hotel. As the years went on, yellow taxis became popular because the color was easy to spot from a distance, Mr. Hodges said. John Hertz, the founder of Hertz car rental company, started the Yellow Cab Company in Chicago in 1915. Yellow became the official color of New York’s medallion taxis in 1967. There were more than 16, 000 cabs in New York before the city began regulating the number in 1937 out of concerns that an oversupply had led to reckless driving, congestion and fares. “It became part of our consciousness,” Mr. Hodges said. “They’re really essential to the quotidian life of the city. ” Yellow cabs still have their fans. Sean Lawrence, 28, a freelance producer, said he preferred hailing a cab because it was less complicated than fiddling with an app and because cabdrivers knew their way around. “I like to think the hail is here to stay,” he said. But others have never even set foot in a yellow cab. Since moving to the city in June, Chip Hermann, 25, an associate at a financial services company, has used only Uber, Lyft, Via or Juno. “Maybe I’ve missed that ‘New York experience,’ but I don’t really want it,” he said. “It just makes sense to use technology to make things cheaper and easier. ” Uber, which started operating in New York in 2011, is by far the largest of the services. It provided an average of 226, 046 rides per day in October 2016, followed by Lyft, with 35, 908 rides, according to city data. Via had 21, 698 rides Juno, 20, 426 and Gett, 7, 227. “Before you used to see a sea of yellow now you see a sea of black,” said Robert Perez, 63, a cabdriver for two decades, as he pointed to a line of black cars on West 38th Street. While black cars have long served Wall Street banks and law firms, they were not for casual or users because they had to be prearranged. Only taxis were allowed to pick up people on the street. But now, with smartphone apps that can dispatch cars in minutes, there is little practical distinction between them. But owners and drivers complain that while they serve the same customers as the apps, they are more heavily regulated by the city. Uber, for instance, can use surge pricing to charge higher fares during peak times while cabs are locked into fixed rates. By 2020, half of all yellow cabs must be while the new services have no such mandate. “Some progress has been made in leveling the playing field, but a lot more work needs to be done,” Mr. Woloz said. Meera Joshi, commissioner of the Taxi Limousine Commission, said regulation was needed “to protect the rights of passengers, drivers and those they share the street with. ” Alix Anfang, an Uber spokeswoman, said the company filled a gap, serving many neighborhoods where yellow taxis were scarce and other transportation options limited. “We have consistently grown fastest in communities outside of Manhattan,’’ she said, “because there is a huge market of people who want a reliable, affordable way to get around but, before Uber, were left stranded. ” Via started in 2013 with five sport utility vehicles on the Upper East Side, where subways are crowded even with the new line on Second Avenue and taxis are in short supply during commuting periods. The service now has more than 1, 500 cars crisscrossing much of Manhattan, as well as making stops in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and at the airports. Via has also expanded to Chicago and Washington. Uber and Lyft have their own version of a city car pool, UberPool and Lyft Line. Daniel Ramot, 41, Via’s and chief executive, said his service was inspired by the shared taxis in Israel known as “sherut” that supplement the public transit system. Mr. Ramot said he could have used Via himself when he worked for a biotechnology research company in Midtown in 2012. At the end of a long day, he would join the line of people at the curb, all trying to hail cabs. “It was not a happy moment, especially if you’re trying to get home and do something,” he said. “I could just visualize these vans coming up the avenues picking people up and dropping them off. ”

Marine Le Pen Sharpens Attack on Emmanuel Macron in French Debate - The New York Times

Adam Nossiter

PARIS — The French leader Marine Le Pen clashed sharply with her probable presidential opponent, the centrist Emmanuel Macron, over immigration, integration and France’s role in the world, during a marathon televised debate Monday night, a vivid prelude to the election battle to come. Facing off for the first time in a debate that stretched for three and a half hours, Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Macron offered the starkest of contrasts, with the National Front leader providing a dark picture of a France besieged by immigrants and Islam, and her rival preaching conciliation. The debate also included the three other main contenders — the Socialist Benoît Hamon, the Republicans’ François Fillon, and the candidate Mélenchon — but it was the fight between Mr. Macron and Ms. Le Pen that riveted attention. Mr. Macron, a former economy minister who founded a political movement centered on France’s stagnant economy, but who has never held an elected office, appeared flustered at times as Ms. Le Pen displayed a mocking smile. The first round of voting in the presidential election will be on April 23, and the top two candidates will advance to the second round on May 7. Opinion polls show that Mr. Macron and Ms. Le Pen are the most likely to make it to that runoff — a result that would be a stunning rebuke for France’s two main political parties, the Socialists and the Republicans. Ms. Le Pen, inheritor of the populist National Front party from her father, concentrated her fire Monday night on her younger opponent. Mr. Macron, 39, has advanced more by offering a fresh face than by political savvy, and Ms. Le Pen, 48, sought to exploit his vulnerability, forcing him to define himself in opposition to her strident positions. She accused Mr. Macron of supporting the “burkini,” the swimsuit at the center of a rancorous debate last summer over displays of the Muslim faith. “We’ve got Islamists in our country,” Ms. Le Pen said. “The demands are incessant,” she said, citing food and clothing. An unsettled Mr. Macron shot back: “I’m not putting words in your mouth. I don’t need a ventriloquist. ” “The trap you are falling into, Madame Le Pen, with your provocations, is to divide society,” he said, adding that she was making “enemies out of more than four million French men and women whose religion happens to be Islam. ” The other three candidates present Monday night tried to get shots in at the two . Mr. Fillon was once favored to win the election, but he has been wounded by a series of scandals, most notably charges of embezzlement over allegations that he put family members on the government payroll for nonexistent jobs. He sought during the debate to project a reassuring image of gravity, but he was forced to acknowledge that he “might have made some mistakes. ” Most recently, he was accused of accepting two suits worth 13, 000 euros, or about $14, 000, from a political fixer. That has left Mr. Fillon vulnerable to sly insinuations about his ethics. Mr. Hamon, for instance, pointedly described himself as someone who would be “an honest and fair president,” free from the influence of “money and lobbies. ” Mr. Hamon, the Socialist candidate, has promised a guaranteed “universal income” and has spoken of cutting the already reduced French workweek, but his chances are thought to be lowered by the presence of Mr. Mélenchon, whose positions are largely similar. Ms. Le Pen, who also faces accusations related to fictional jobs, accused Mr. Mélenchon of being a “Robespierre” when he called on voters to “reward the virtuous and punish those who don’t seem so. ” Mr. Macron, for his part, projected an image of innocence and virtue, and Ms. Le Pen aimed directly for it, with the most savage blast of the evening aimed at his reputation for speaking at length but saying little. After a windy declaration by Mr. Macron on protecting France’s “independence,” Ms. Le Pen, whose campaign is centered on a withdrawal from the European Union, mockingly repeated the word before firing back. “You’ve spoken for seven minutes, and I have no idea what you said,” she said. “You haven’t said anything. Every time you talk, you take a little of this, and a little of that, and you never settle on anything. ”

Mar-a-Lago Neighbors Discover Costs of Trump’s Visits - The New York Times

Jane Smith and Frances Robles

PALM BEACH, Fla. — For some of the businesses and government agencies that surround President Trump’s “Winter White House,” the effects of his frequent weekend getaways to can best be told in numbers. ■ $200, 000 in lost fuel sales at a large local airport in a single visit this month. ■ 75 at a new restaurant in just one night. ■ $60, 000 a day to pay overtime to sheriff’s deputies who guard the many closed roads, a tab that is about $1. 5 million over all since the election. ■ 250 private flights grounded every day. A month into his presidency, Mr. Trump arrived at his private club here, for a third weekend in a row this Presidents’ Day weekend. For the locals, that’s at least three days of clogged roads and strict security protocols that hurt local businesses and frustrate residents. Although economic development officials are ecstatic over the free publicity provided by news reporters’ live waterfront shots — and the excited buzz in the area is palpable — others are exasperated over the drain on small businesses and the circuitous routes residents have to drive to avoid two miles of closed roads. Secret Service rules restricting private flights have grounded operations at Palm Beach County Park Airport in Lantana, nine miles south of Mr. Trump’s club, where most of the business is conducted on Saturday and Sunday. That means no parachute jumping, banner advertising, flight lessons or chopper trips. Business owners there are hoping that a president who campaigned on improving the economic prospects of the little guy will be sympathetic to the havoc his visits wreak. “This is a good test of his words versus his actions,” said Jonathan Miller, whose company, Stellar Aviation Group, runs the airport. He said he had lost $30, 000 with each of the president’s visits. Dave Johnson, the owner of Palm Beach Aircraft Services, which maintains and operates planes at Lantana, said he employs eight people full time and provides transportation for clients including doctors, lawyers and other professionals who travel throughout the country for work. But when Mr. Trump is in town, no private flights can take off within a radius, and arriving flights have to first stop elsewhere for security clearance. “We never dreamed that he’d be here every weekend — that’s the killer,” Mr. Johnson said. “I’m getting customers that have been with me for years, and they’re actually moving their aircraft to other airports so they can fly. ” The Palm Beach County airport director’s office tallied the losses during Mr. Trump’s visit Feb. 3 to 6 to . A sightseeing business canceled 19 tours and turned away a dozen . One flight school business had to scratch $14, 000 worth of flight lessons. One company is in negotiations to move its fleet out of the county, which would mean a loss of a quarter of the airport’s fuel sales, according to the office’s analysis. “It’s a very busy airport with a lot of men trying to make a living,” said Bruce Pelly, the airport director for Palm Beach County. “You got flight training, aeronautics, a propeller shop, paint shops, maintenance companies. You got all kinds of businesses going on down there. We are obviously trying whatever we can to get that airport functioning in some form or fashion. ” Mr. Pelly said he had “offered everything we can think of” to make the airport secure. The Secret Service’s response so far: “No. ” The White House and the Federal Aviation Administration referred calls about the matter to the Secret Service. The Secret Service did not respond to requests for comment. “In their view, that airport is too close to ” Mr. Pelly said of his conversations with the Secret Service. “We are not giving up. ” Jorge Gonzalez, who owns SkyWords Advertising, said he might have to. He said his business had lost $42, 000 because of Mr. Trump’s visits, during which his planes were grounded. He hopes to last through May, but his wife said that at this rate, 30 days was more likely. “We are hoping his visits slow to once a month,” Mr. Gonzalez said. This isn’t the first time a president’s travels have caused local disruptions. President Barack Obama’s visits to Hawaii were a source of frustration for pilots and aviation businesses there that had to abide by similar restrictions. And President Bill Clinton’s frequent visits to White Plains during his presidency brought additional chaos to an already busy Westchester County Airport. Sascha Bennemann opened Costa Palm Beach, a Mediterranean restaurant at the Esplanade shopping complex at the east end of the county’s toniest shopping district, Worth Avenue, just as Mr. Trump began his regular trips. On the second Saturday in February, when a stretch of South Ocean Boulevard that runs in front of was closed, cutting the town in two, 70 people did not show up for dinner, amounting to a loss of about $5, 000, Mr. Bennemann said. He showed a photo of himself golfing with Mr. Trump last year, to underscore: “It’s nothing personal. ” Mr. Bennemann noted that increased foot traffic had offset some of his losses, and other Worth Avenue shop owners also said the visits had brought an increase in pedestrians. “For us, we have had some of the best days ever on weekends,” said Tatiana Van Zandt, who owns Trillion, a luxury clothing store. “The hum is exciting. ” Kelly Smallridge, the president and chief executive of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, said her agency would never have been able to afford the countless hours of free publicity. “Certainly this is the greatest advertising campaign in terms of name recognition an economic development board can hope for,” Ms. Smallridge said. Although Palm Beach had already been viewed as a place to vacation or retire, Mr. Trump’s visits have brought “panache and glamour,” which have caught the attention of a wider spectrum of people, including hedge fund and money managers, she said. Laurel Baker, executive director of the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce, said, “If we want to be the Pollyanna of Palm Beach, all of the focus on the town is wonderful. ” Residents on that stretch of closed road have to carry ID cards to get back to their homes, even when out walking their dogs. Club members must park their cars at a parking lot down the street to be screened before they can enter through the club’s south entrance. The road closing splits the island in half, forcing residents to drive off the island into neighboring West Palm Beach if they want to shop or eat on the other half. The road was closed again at 8 a. m. Friday and was expected to remain closed till late Monday evening. “No one is for road closures it’s an inconvenience,” said Kirk Blouin, the town’s public safety director. “But most recognize it’s a necessity for the security of the president. ” St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, in West Palm Beach at the western end of the Southern Boulevard Bridge, was holding its 42nd annual Greek Festival this weekend. “If they see the road closed, they will find something else to do,” said the Rev. Andrew Maginas, who said the festival was a critical . “We pray for him at every service to do right by our country, but we are sad that his visit comes during our festival. “We are hoping he can build a helipad soon on grounds. ”

Salesforce Rules Out a Bid for Twitter - The New York Times

Michael J. de la Merced and Quentin Hardy

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter may have to fix its problems on its own, at least for now. Salesforce. com, the enterprise software maker that had been the most likely bidder for the embattled social media company, has declined to pursue a takeover. “In this case we’ve walked away,” Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s chief executive, told The Financial Times in an interview published on Friday. As Salesforce exits, virtually no other suitors seem likely to emerge. Rumors of potential other bidders — Google, Disney and Apple were among the names floated — quickly evaporated. That leaves Twitter largely on its own, at least in the near term. And the move will please Salesforce investors, many of whom detested the idea of a pricey and distracting bid for the social network. Shares of Twitter, which had stabilized on the hopes that Salesforce might still make a bid, dropped about 5 percent in afternoon trading on Friday, to $16. 88. And shares of Salesforce rose about 5 percent, to $74. 27. Mr. Benioff confirmed his remarks but declined to comment further. A spokeswoman for Twitter, Kristin Binns, declined to comment. The interview all but confirms that Twitter will need to pursue a plan rather than looking to a new owner that could shield it from the skepticism of stock market investors. Despite its prominence as a forum for public discussion — especially during the presidential race — Twitter has still lost ground to competitors old and new. Some Twitter users have been leaving the service, and the company has found it difficult to persuade people to join. Its advertising revenue growth is also on a path toward slowing down. Twitter has been emphasizing its mission around live events and commentary, stressing initiatives based on video, like its broadcasts of some N. F. L. games. Twitter executives and the board have tried to buy more time to show that they can refocus the company on those live events and increase its appeal. During the weeks when rumors of a Twitter deal reached fever pitch, speculation swirled around potential divides within the company’s board. Among those who opposed a sale, at least at first, was Jack Dorsey, its and chief executive. More recently, Mr. Dorsey had become increasingly open to selling the company. Without a deal, Mr. Dorsey and his team are more likely to face tough questions when earnings are reported on Oct. 27. Twitter executives have considered selling some units or laying off employees, as The New York Times reported last month. It could sell Vine, the mobile service, or MoPub, a mobile advertising business. The investment banks Goldman Sachs and Allen Company are advising it on its options. “There is declining advertising interest in Twitter,” said Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “When you overlay that with the company’s current fundamentals, you’ll see very little top line revenue growth next year. ” At the same time, companies mooted as potential buyers had decided that Twitter at its current valuation — its market capitalization has surpassed $13 billion at certain points — was too expensive and required too much work to fix. Salesforce’s investors are probably feeling some relief. For much of its existence, Salesforce has relied on acquisitions to grow, augmenting its core management offerings. But 2016 has proved a particularly active time for at the company. Salesforce has bought 13 companies for more than $4. 4 billion. Shareholders were upset that in August, Mr. Benioff agreed to pay $582 million for a company called Quip, a maker of collaboration software that had negligible revenue. But Mr. Benioff said he needed its founders to rebuild his corporate architecture for the next new things in corporate software. A bid for Twitter — a company with significant challenges — represented to many investors an act of overweening ambition. At a $12 billion market cap, Twitter would have been the largest deal yet for Salesforce, which is worth $50 billion. It was Salesforce’s initial takeover approach that set off the flurry of speculation about a takeover, and as recently as early as this month, Mr. Benioff telegraphed his interest in buying what he called “an unpolished jewel. ” In an interview during his annual customer conference this month, he said he was attracted to Twitter as a way for companies to field customer complaints and promote themselves, and pursued the deal in part to learn more about the current tech market. Some of that may have been bluster. Mr. Benioff has often treated his company a bit like a both in his generous stock grants to employees and his . Yet many large Salesforce shareholders, including the mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, sent emails and other messages to Salesforce executives voicing their displeasure. The prospect of a shareholder revolt could have proved disastrous for the company, which relies heavily on its stock for its and to pay its employees. A sustained drop in Salesforce’s stock price would harm both activities. In a meeting with analysts last week, Mr. Benioff sounded unusually contrite and somewhat shocked that his impetuous style had riled his biggest shareholders. “We will think through everything, but we would never do a deal that would ever do the kind of things that I have been reading in the emails,” Mr. Benioff said at that meeting. By Friday, Mr. Benioff conceded that Twitter was a deal he could afford to pass up. “It’s not the right fit for us for many different reasons,” he said in the Financial Times interview.

Five Reasons Why Belief in Authority is the Most Dangerous Superstition

stevew

5 Reasons Why Belief in Authority is the Most Dangerous Superstition Belief in authority is dangerous, and doubly so when the majority is under its spell. “Question authority, including the authority that told you to question authority.” — Sixth grade girl Let’s get something straight, here at the outset. There’s nothing wrong with authority itself. It’s the belief part that messes everything up. Anyone can claim authority. But such authority only matters if others believe in it. I can claim that I’m an authority on unicorns, but I better have the credentials to prove it. And it would also help if unicorns existed. But the point is this: If enough people “believe” that I’m an authority on unicorns, and they “believe” that I have dissected a unicorn and revealed the magical quality of its insides that causes it to shit rainbows, then I’ll not only have violated truth, I’ll have violated the minds of others and taken advantage of their ignorance. But, and here’s the rub, it’s their fault for not questioning my so-called authority. As Albert Einstein said (himself an authority in the field of physics), “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” So if we’re correct to question Einstein’s revolutionary theories, then we’re exponentially correct to question my unicorn theories. Respecting a prestigious authority, or taking into consideration important knowledge gleaned by someone who is an authority in a particular domain of knowledge is fine. It’s even okay that sometimes we allow people to violate our minds. We allow artists to do it all the time. No, it’s when we “believe” in authority, when we blindly follow a perceived authority, that things go wrong. Belief implies non-questioning. But let’s sail right past semantics and art and get down to brass tacks. Belief in authority is dangerous. And it’s doubly dangerous when the majority of people are under its spell. Here are five reasons why. 1.) It Can Cause Otherwise Good People to do Evil Things “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” MARK TWAIN So back to my authority on unicorns. Did you know that unicorns also created the universe? Yup! Not only do they shit rainbows, they also puke universes. The last unicorn died for our sins in a forest of fiery crosses. And the only commandment that survived the test of time is this: “Anyone who questions the fact that unicorns created the universe are godless heathens and deserve to die and spend eternity in the fiery pits of a Tennessee summer afternoon.” Now enter unquestioning idiots with hooked-on-authority soup for brains. They “believe” the Last Commandment of the Unicorns. They believe it so much that they refuse to question it, lest other believers think they are not true believers. Lest they get ostracized by the status quo. Lest they look “crazy” in the eyes of their fellow believers. Now just replace The Last Commandment of the Unicorns with the Bible or the Koran or the Constitution of the United States, or state-driven police enforcement , or the belief that “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” The problem is that people will fight, and kill, and murder, and commit both genocide and ecocide, for what they believe in. But they might not have fought so violently and thoughtlessly had they simply taken into consideration ALL those claims of authority and moved on smartly with their lives. The best way to maintain a healthy skepticism, and not devolve into an ignorant, sycophantic, violent mess, is to take things into consideration and question them rather than believe in them. 2.) It Leads to the Idea That We Need to Give a Group of People Permission to Control Us “The multitudes have a tendency to accept whoever is master. Their very mass weighs them down with apathy. A mob easily adds up to obedience. You have to stir them up, push them, treat the men rough using the very advantage of their deliverance, hurt their eyes with the truth, throw light at them in terrible handfuls.” VICTOR HUGO By the way, the Church of the Last Unicorn is in charge of everything. It is the power behind all nation states. It pulls the strings of presidents. It whispers dark secret nothings into the ears of queens. It tugs the coattails of emperors. Its poison-soft invisible rainbow-powers saturate all things. You might as well just give into it. You might as well just let them pull your strings through the indirect authority of strategically placed men. It’s just the way things are, after all. Or, you could question it all. You could question the almighty Unicorns. You could question the kings and queens and emperors and presidents and judges and lawyers and cops. You could question all authority, especially the so called authority of the state . It’s so easy even a sixth grader understands it (see opening quote). The alternative is devolving into a statist. A statist is a person who believes that a group of people have the right to force, coerce, enslave, rob, and murder others. Statism is a mental disorder brought on by years of indoctrination. The problem is that the majority of the world’s population has been conditioned and brainwashed into believing in the almighty power of the state. The problem is that the majority of people are too afraid to question the state, lest they become ostracized by the statist-junky status quo. The problem is that most people don’t even know that they don’t know that there is an alternativ e. 3.) Power Given to Authority Tends to Corrupt “I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people who believe it.” GEORGE CARLIN Here’s a little secret: The Pope has unicorn powers. Then again, so does Colin Kaepernick . Keep in mind, the unicorn power is a righteous power. It’s a loving power that had, and has, the greatest of intentions. It created the universe, after all. And if you don’t believe it, then feel free to rot in Hades, Illinois, located directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis (according to Uncyclopedia: the content-free encyclopedia ). But I digress, the problem with power isn’t its intent. The problem with power is that it tends to corrupt the one wielding it. And when it comes to absolute power –well, we all know where that leads. So since we all know that power tends to corrupt, and since we all want power anyway, it behooves us all to be circumspect both with it and against it. So it stands to reason not to give power to authority by believing it, but to use the power of authority instead by undermining it. And the best way to use the power of authority is to use it against the authority by questioning that authority. It’s a social leveling mechanism par excellence, similar to the Native American concept of counting coup. As Elie Weisel said, “Every question possesses a power that does not lie within the answer.” We just need to use that power more effectively, especially against ourselves. Unicorns forbid! 4.) It Leads to An Ignorant and Apathetic Citizenry “The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental.” ROBERT ANTON WILSON In the Unicorns we trust! Their powers are ubiquitous. Their symbols of control are hidden in all the world’s national flags, waiving influentially over the weakened masses. Their horns are the invisible bone funnels in everyone’s pie, siphoning power like it was blood pudding. Oh, I forgot to mention, blood pudding is a unicorn’s favorite dish. Obey, or go without! When it comes down to it, obedience to authority is a disease of laziness and indifference. It hinders the progressive evolution of our species by undermining anything that might challenge the current system for the better. Forget “for the worst.” Fighting for the better at risk of the worst is far superior to shirking the better in fear of the worst. Similarly, worst case scenarios should not be avoided at the expense of healthy progress. Healthy progress should be embraced at the risk of worst case scenarios. Otherwise we don’t get anywhere but where we are. Which is great if “where we are” is perfect. But since perfection is not possible, we must be willing to risk upsetting the all-too-precious apple cart (or blood pudding cart, in this case) in order to progress. If, as Jose Ortega y Gasset said, “Man, whether he likes it or not, is a being forced by his nature to seek some higher authority. If he succeeds in finding it of himself then he is a superior man; if not, he is a mass-man and must receive it from his superiors,” then it is incumbent upon us to have the courage to shirk our inner mass-man in order to discover self-authority through self-questioning. As long as we are responsible with our own power, and as long as we don’t allow anyone to hold too much power over us, then we might just be able to get out of our own way as a species. Because, as it stands now, we are definitely in our own way. Especially since following authority in today’s world means giving into debt-slavery , kowtowing to an expropriating state, and being unwitting accomplices to genocides past and ecocides future. As the authors of The Fuck-it Point surmised,“Obedience to authority is not a valid excuse; not when doing what we’re “supposed to do” means letting this civilization-machine continue to kill life on earth just to make commodities out of living beings and life easy only for some.” Share:

Newshour panelist cries in joy after being able to hear own voice and complete sentence fully

Ashwin Kumar

Newshour panelist cries in joy after being able to hear own voice and complete sentence fully Posted on Frequent panelist on Times Then Now’s prime-time debate program, The Newshour, AAP spokesperson, The Ashutosh burst into tears on camera yet again, thanks to the sheer joy of being able to hear his own voice and the overwhelming feeling of being able to complete his sentence fully without being interrupted. (Image via intoday.in) The former IBN7 editor described his emotional experience to The UnReal Times , but not before asking “The Modi” to answer for his own emotional outburst. “There is the Youtube video of the deff babie who is able to hear the human voices, including his own, for the first time, after being fitted with the hereing aide. The babie’s joy is just prizeless !!! That is exactly how I felt when I was able to hear my own voice on the Newshour for the first time !!! Not only that, I was also able to fully complite my sentence without any interruptions !!! It’s an unbelivable feeling !!! My wife told me that the Mogu and the Chhotu also started crying on seeing me crying on the TV !!!” The Ashutosh exclaimed. Recounting his earlier experiences on the Arnab era Newshour, the AAP spokesperson said, “With the Arnab, I could not hear my own voice and I still used to talk. Once in a while, the audiance wud laugh after I said something and I used to realize that way that I had said something stupid, like filibusting or simply ‘the’ing random people or things. Also, I figured out that I would never really be able to complete any sentence, so I started shortening my sentences to 2-3 words, like in the bank-e-scam episoade. Of course, soon later, AAP boycoatted the Arnab. Now, thank the God, there is no need for all these struggles !!! The journalism is back in the Times Now !!!” While being strong opponents in every other topic under the sun, in this regard, however, The Ashutosh found strong consonance from rival spokesperson, the BJP’s Sambit Patra. “I can fully understand what The Ashu went through and how he must’ve also finally felt yesterday. I too, could often never hear what I myself used to squeal but soon enough, even though the topic would be in our favor, the hot seat would somehow shift to mine and I would often be blasted for something the Congress or the AAP did. Even though I haven’t gone to the post-Arnab Newshour, I can fully feel what The Ashu feels,” Patra added. According to sources, the Congress party too, is mulling a return to The Newshour. “Boy, I can’t wait to return to the Newshour and finally be able to talk about 2002 at length,” a thrilled Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha exclaimed. Tweet About Ashwin Kumar 1 of the proud columnists of URT, former co-editor of URT Tamil, amateur musician, Real Harris Jayaraj devotee, UnReal T. Rajendar fanatic, passionate about stopping female foeticide.

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University of Wisconsin Students Demand Free Tuition for Black Students

Warner Todd Huston

A group of mostly white students at the University of is demanding that the school offer a wholly free education to black students, even if they are convicted criminals. [The group, the Associated Students of Madison, demanded that the school offer free tuition, free living expenses, and cancel all fees for all African American students as a form of “reparations” for the practice of slavery that ended 150 years ago, Fox News reported. “The university’s rhetoric suggests that it is committed to diversity and inclusion, so this legislation compels the university to move towards action — which is imperative,” said the resolution’s author, ASM Student Council Rep. Tyriek Mack. “If no one challenges the university’s empty promises, then the racial composition will remain stagnant. ” Calling it the “Cognitive Dissonance Resolution,” the ASM policy proposal demands free tuition for all black people, including formerly incarcerated criminals. Free tuition, free housing, and no fees would save a black student up to $20, 000 a year. The resolution also demands that universities spend ten percent of their donations on financial aid. Another provision called on the school to weigh admittance by geographical regions, instead of grades. While black students make up only two percent of the student body, University spokeswoman Meredith McGlone insisted that the proportion of students of color has grown from 11 to 15 percent under current administration policies, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. On the other hand, the State of Wisconsin itself is only six percent black, while the U. S. population is 12 percent black. In the end, McGlone said that some of the things the student group wants are not even legal. “It’s unclear that the methods that they’re suggesting are either legal or the best approach to accomplishing those goals,” McGlone said. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

Make music great again, with these 10 Trumped up album covers

Poke Staff

Next Swipe left/right Make music great again, with these 10 Trumped up album covers We’ve previously seen how the addition of Donald Trump can ruin perfectly good films , now the tiny-handed man baby ruins 10 albums. 1. — Suzanne McCusker (@SuzMcC72) November 2, 2016 2. https://twitter.com/Okeating/status/793820751782633472

Prescription Painkiller Deaths Dropped 25% in States That Legalized Marijuana

Starkman

In all states that have legalized medical marijuana, there has been a 25% reduction in deaths related to the overdose of legally prescribed painkillers. There is still heated controversy in the United States about whether or not marijuana should be legalized for recreational use, let alone medicinal purposes. Via HumansAreFree After reviewing a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2014, you’ll likely agree that it’s much safer for cannabis to be doled out than most prescription opioids. For the study, researchers analyzed all deaths caused by opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2010 in the U.S. Then, they determined the association between medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic-related deaths using linear time-series regression models. The various models helped the researchers determine that in every state that legalized medical marijuana between the aforementioned years (a total of 13 states), there was a 25% reduction in deaths related to the overdose of legally prescribed painkillers. “The difference is quite striking,” said Colleen Barry, the study’s co-author and health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, to Newsweek. It is hypothesized by the researchers that in states where medical marijuana is legal, patients are opting to smoke cannabis to alleviate their pain rather than consume prescription opiates, as the latter tend to cause side effects. In addition, marijuana accounts for 0 deaths per year, whereas overdose of opiates are responsible for over 14,000 deaths annually (source). While the statistics speak volumes, not everyone is in agreement with the findings. Dr. Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer at the national non-profit addiction treatment agency Phoenix House, says that the immediate reduction in overdose deaths is extremely unlikely to be a result of the herb being substituted. This, he says, is because physicians rarely prescribe marijuana for chronic pain. “You don’t have primary care doctors in these states [prescribing] marijuana instead of Vicodin,” he argues. The physician believes that the states that have legalized medical marijuana are more likely to actively treat and help prevent addiction. In his mind, this is a far more likely scenario for the decrease in overdose deaths. While more studies undoubtedly need to be carried out to pinpoint the cause of this phenomenon, this news is heartening at the very least.

Colombian Opposition to Peace Deal Feeds Off Gay Rights Backlash - The New York Times

Nicholas Casey

For the president’s many opponents, it was never just about derailing the peace deal. As Colombia debated how to end 52 years of war with the nation’s largest rebel group, there was the soccer player from the beloved national team who condemned the agreement, singled out President Juan Manuel Santos and accused him of practices that were “not of God. ” Then there were the angry marches across Colombia this summer against a gay education minister, which soon grew into a wellspring of opposition to Mr. Santos’s government and the peace deal he was championing. “My compatriots march in defense of family values,” declared Álvaro Uribe, the conservative former president who spearheaded the charge against the peace deal and rallied Colombia’s religious voters against it. Mr. Santos’s push to end the war has earned him enormous recognition internationally, culminating in the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. But he has faced stiff resistance in Colombia, where he is confronted by a growing cultural divide. When Colombians last weekend rejected the peace deal between Mr. Santos’s government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the decision shocked the region and laid bare generations of anger at the rebels. Many Colombians felt the guerrillas would have gotten off too easily in a deal that would have allowed a vast majority of them to avoid prison. But critics of the agreement appear to have harnessed something else as well: a resurgent conservative movement, angered by Colombia’s socially liberal tilt in recent months. “The opposition used that argument regarding gay marriage, abortion, religion to attract and rally against the peace accords,” said Juan Carlos Garzón, a researcher at the Ideas for Peace Foundation, a research group in Colombia. “It was an effective strategy to drive the most conservative voters against the peace agreement. ” Colombia has long been one of the region’s most conservative countries. But the tone was beginning to change in the last year. In April, Colombia’s highest court legalized marriage, and last year it removed barriers to adopting children for gay individuals and couples. The country, torn by long drug wars, legalized medical marijuana late last year. A push to lift restrictions on abortions also emerged this year as the Zika virus spread. Then came the deal with the FARC. For some conservatives, it was bridge too far: a pact with a Marxist guerrilla organization that had terrorized Colombia for decades. “People have used the reaction to the peace agenda to talk about a larger conservative rollback in Colombia, a broadened cultural war,” said Winifred Tate, an anthropology professor at Colby College in Maine who studies Colombia. The accord’s defeat — aided by low turnout in regions that voted for the peace deal — allowed social conservatives to flex their muscle, as Mr. Santos was forced to court his opponents in an attempt to salvage what remained of the agreement. Two days after the vote, Mr. Santos took his negotiators to meet with a large group of evangelical Christian pastors to discuss their concerns. Mr. Santos must also negotiate with Mr. Uribe, his immediate predecessor, who has repeatedly called him a “traitor” for promoting a peace deal that includes reduced sentences for rebel war crimes. The two sparring leaders met on Wednesday, with Mr. Uribe outlining a list of demands like bans on political participation for rebels and punishments for those who had kidnapped children. And Mr. Uribe made a nod to his social conservative backers. “We presented our worries about family values,” he said. Even after Mr. Santos won the peace prize on Friday, Mr. Uribe remained defiant, calling the peace accord “damaging to democracy” and demanding that Mr. Santos change it. While the Nobel Prize may provide a morale boost for the peace camp, some observers warned that the country’s deep polarization would continue. “It’s not likely the agenda of the extreme right will change,” said Nazih Richani, a professor at Kean University in New Jersey who studies Colombia. Susana Correa, a lawmaker in Mr. Uribe’s Democratic Center Party, said she believed the deal contained a kind of subtext that undermined family values and supported nontraditional views on gender and sexual orientation. Hours after Mr. Santos won the peace prize, Ms. Correa said her party would still be using this “new era of modifications and corrections” to seek a more socially conservative text for the deal. “The Catholic and evangelical churches have joined us in complaining that in no part of the agreements God is even named,” she said. The fight between social conservatives and Mr. Santos’s government came to a boil this summer over education. Gina Parody, the country’s education minister, who is gay, proposed mixed bathrooms and changes to uniforms to put less emphasis on gender. She also proposed creating a manual for students related to sexual orientation, following an order by the country’s courts to do so. The proposed changes drew ire from the country’s far right. One politician accused Ms. Parody of “gay colonization. ” By thousands of protesters — supported by Mr. Uribe — gathered throughout Colombia, waving signs denouncing marriage and urging the country to defend the traditional family. As the controversy over the manuals continued, Ms. Parody temporarily stepped down from her post, taking a job as one of the central figures in the campaign to support the peace agreement in the national referendum. Soon the two issues — the peace deal and the fight over sexual orientation and gender — became linked in the eyes of many. “Colombians marched a month ago when the government tried to impose, through these manuals, gender ideology in Colombian education,” said Alejandro Ordoñez, Colombia’s inspector general at the time. Government officials, he argued, were “using peace as an excuse to impose their gender ideology. ” Evangelical Christian leaders were also starting to rally against the deal on moral terms, saying it did not offer justice to the victims. The war left more than 220, 000 dead and displaced five million. In a YouTube video posted last month, Johan Molina, a popular minister, complains that the agreement had not been “written in common language,” confusing its intent. He said a group of pastors and other experts had studied the terms and found that the deal conflicted with the Bible because of its leniency on the rebels. “There has been no repentance of any of FARC’s leaders, and the people can’t give forgiveness to those who have not asked for it,” Pastor Molina tells his congregation in the video. The religious message against the vote was gaining traction beyond Christian leaders. Before the vote, Daniel Torres, a Colombian soccer player, produced an online video in which he urged Christians to vote against the deal. “I want to tell you that what you have come up with, and the practices you are doing, are not of God nor come from God,” Mr. Torres said, speaking to Mr. Santos while the video showed a photo of the president bowed at an indigenous cleansing. “This will bring nothing good to our country. ” Other religious leaders made the argument that the deal would benefit gay and transgender residents directly. Pastor Marco Fidel Ramírez of the Family International Church in Bogotá, the capital, said he believed the architects of the deal planned to use the agreement to advance marriage, though he had no direct evidence to support that assertion. “This was a fundamental objection and a danger to the natural family in Colombia,” he said. “A family in Colombia consists of a man and a woman. ” Marcela Sánchez, the director of Diverse Colombia, a group representing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, said the accord contained no such provisions. But, she said, the right waged a fierce disinformation battle to convince people otherwise, especially on social media. The effect, in addition to derailing the peace deal, was increased homophobia, Ms. Sánchez said. After the failure in the referendum, Ms. Parody, the education minister who had campaigned for the deal, permanently resigned from her education post, leaving the country without its most prominent gay leader. “It’s sad in this country that there are people who have more fear of homosexuality than war,” Ms. Sánchez said.

Rodrigo Duterte, Aleppo, Donald Trump: Your Morning Briefing - The New York Times

Charles McDermid

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • A deal to end the brutal assaults on the Syrian city of Aleppo fell through and artillery shelling resumed. It was the latest bitter whiplash for the thousands of civilians and medical staff members unable to flee the ruined city for territory held by the government. A nurse said he hoped the world would hear “our final scream. ” _____ • President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, whose antidrug campaign has left more than 3, 000 people dead, made some of his most controversial comments to date. In his years as the mayor of the city of Davao, he said, he would patrol on a motorcycle, “looking for a confrontation, so I could kill,” he told a Manila newspaper. Killing suspects “personally,” he said, helped goad police officers — “just to show to the guys that if I can do it, why can’t you?” _____ • Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan welcomes President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for two days of talks, hoping for progress in a territorial dispute. The meetings come against a backdrop of uncertainty in relations between the U. S. and China, and tensions over the evidence of Russian interference in the U. S. election on behalf of Donald J. Trump. The top U. S. commander in the Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. speaking in Sydney, acknowledged threats from China, ISIS, North Korea and Russia, pledged continued commitment to the region and signed a deal to fly Raptor jets from the city of Darwin. _____ • The Federal Reserve, citing the steady growth of the American economy, raised its benchmark interest rate slightly, just the second increase since the global economic crisis of 2008. U. S. stocks rose briefly, and then slid as investors appeared to realize that the Fed was likely to be leaning against growth and inflation in the future. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. _____ • As part of his campaign to stimulate the economy, Mr. Trump and three of his children met with the leaders of the world’s most elite and successful technology companies: Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla and others. Before reporters were ushered out of the room, he said, “I’m here to help you folks do well,” adding, “And you’re doing well right now and I’m very honored by the bounce. ” _____ • “Can an American Dream sick with the American Disease last for long?” China’s state media outlets are having a field day since Mr. Trump’s election, depicting a nation blighted by corruption, social and political polarization, reckless debt and a weak news media. _____ • Yahoo disclosed that 1 billion user accounts were hacked in 2013 and sensitive information may have been stolen, the second major breach the company has disclosed. Here’s how you can protect yourself. • Japan removed a longstanding prohibition against gambling, amid projections of a $40 billion a year industry. “Japan is seen as the crown jewel of Asian gaming development outside of Macau,” an analyst said. • A giant American private equity group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is among a group of investors offering $5. 5 billion for Tatts Group, the Australian gambling operator. Tatts shares jumped on anticipation of a bidding war. • Meitu, best known for an app that beautifies selfies, begins trading in Hong Kong with a valuation in the vicinity of $5 billion, offering a gauge of international interest in Chinese . • Amazon announced its first delivery by drone: an Amazon Fire streaming device and popcorn flown two miles from an English warehouse to a customer identified as Richard B. Aviation rules (and weather) still bar easy expansion. • Nintendo’s Mario goes mobile. The beloved plumber will be available on mobile devices in Super Mario Run, $9. 99 for full access to the game. • The U. S. blocked an arms deal to Saudi Arabia over concerns about civilian casualties in Yemen. [The New York Times] • The Pentagon tightened rules on combat for the second time this year, aiming to increase protections for civilians. [The New York Times] • Australia’s Defense Department failed to account for nearly $200 million in spending over and above the service contracts for military bases. [Sydney Morning Herald] • Japanese officials pushed the U. S. military to ground its troubled Osprey aircraft after one crashed off Okinawa. [Asahi Shimbun] • India’s demonetization is having a disastrous effect on Nepal’s already sagging economy. [Reuters] • Women from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos account for almost 40 percent of the migrant construction workers in Thailand. [Associated Press] • French terrorism suspects were men in their 30s with no warning signs of radicalization. [The New York Times] • A wave more than 62 feet high was detected between Iceland and the United Kingdom, the World Meteorological Organization said. [BBC] • A visitor to Japan ponders what lessons the U. S. might take from a work culture that weathered long years of a painfully damaged economy without unleashing destabilizing resentment. • Al Franken, a Democratic senator who once made a living satirizing politicians, envisions an unfunny future under the Trump administration. • And meet the Michael Jordan of darts. Michael van Gerwen, a Dutchman, has won 25 tournaments this year and has been ranked No. 1 since 2014. Even so, he still has something to prove. The death of John Glenn has resurfaced memories of his famous orbit of Earth in 1962. Back then, there wasn’t much debris to block his view or threaten his spacecraft. Not so anymore. Humans have created millions of pieces of “space junk” during the past 60 years of space exploration. While most are less than 10 centimeters in diameter, even tiny objects can threaten spacecrafts and communications satellites. “Going at 17, 500 miles per hour, a little marble can wipe out a space station,” said John Crassidis, an University at Buffalo engineering professor. When bits of junk collide, they often break apart, creating more debris. Adding to the clutter are the abundance of satellites technology companies are launching these days. NASA has called for stronger international regulations. “It’s a political mess,” Dr. Crassidis said. Japan, though, is stepping forward to confront the challenge. Last week its national space agency launched a spacecraft featuring a cable that can safely guide debris into Earth’s atmosphere. If the mission works, it could lead to more innovative approaches, like one a Japanese entrepreneur, above, recently discussed with The Times. He wants his company to be the leader in extraterrestrial trash collection. Its slogan: Space Sweepers. Giovanni Russonello contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes. com.

Kids on Their Own in Calais: the Tip of an Iceberg-Cold World

Sam Albert

Email Some eight to ten thousand refugees have been living in an improvised camp in Calais currently being demolished by French officials. All they’ve gotten from the French government so far has been tear gas and the bulldozers set to tear down the tents and shacks where they have survived amid the cold and mud thanks to the help of fellow refugees and humanitarian volunteers and organizations. The NGO Help Refugees said that as of 24 October it had a list of 1,028 “unaccompanied” children in the camp, 49 under the age of 13, one an 8-year-old boy. These are kids who lost their families at home, or were separated from them as they travelled across half the world thorough the most difficult and dangerous conditions imaginable. Many of these children – about 40 percent, according to the NGO Terre d’Asile – came to Calais, on the English Channel, because they have family in the UK and are therefore legally entitled to asylum there. During the first ten months of this year, under public pressure, the UK admitted a grand total of 79. This came only after an enormous outcry among British people. A Parliamentary measure to admit all refugees under 13, sponsored by a prominent member of the House of Lords, who was himself given asylum in the UK as a 6-year-old fleeing the Nazi persecution of Jews, went largely ignored until the last week, when the British authorities finally let in 200. It took a strong protest from the British Dental Association to stop plans to x-ray the teeth of children claiming asylum to prove their age. Many other refugees in Calais are entitled to enter the UK because they have a spouse or other close relative to live with there, but neither the British nor French governments care to implement European Union laws and agreements. This is, in fact, official UK government policy. Prime Minister Theresa May was infamous for her rabidly anti-foreigner positions when she was Home Minister. She took the lead among her European counterparts in cutting off funding to Italian-led search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, calling saving lives a “pull factor” for “threats we face”. When the French police attacked and destroyed about half the Calais camp earlier this year, 129 children simply went missing. A Help Refugees spokeswoman says she fears this will happen again, since no government will take responsibility for these children. One reason that many people do not want to leave the camp is that they have built up ties, mutual-help networks and other arrangements that enable them to survive. They have no reason to believe that the French and other authorities who have displayed nothing but alternating neglect and brutality will offer an acceptable solution to their predicament. These kids reached Calais after travelling through many other countries whose governments were no more welcoming than France. What will happen to these refugees when their camp is bulldozed? The plan is for them to be herded into buses, split up into small groups and sent to hundreds of “welcome centres” scattered across the country. Five of these centres have already been fire-bombed. Right now there are about 500 media people in Calais – NGO members say they fear that when the camera lights go out, refugees who have refused to get on a bus “voluntarily” will be attacked by security forces or the small fascist bands that a thousand police mysteriously cannot hold back sometimes. The biggest nationality group in the camp is people from Afghanistan, who literally crossed mountains and deserts to flee the mess the US and Nato made of their country. Under a recent agreement with the Western powers, the Afghan government is to accept the forcible return of its refugees in Europe, as many as hundreds of thousands. Ethiopians (whose government is closely allied with the US), Eritreans and other Africans are not generally considered deserving of refugee status. Trying to get by as an “illegal” immigrant is the most rational choice for many people, rather than applying for asylum, getting fingerprinted and maybe expelled. Some people have come to Calais seeking safety in numbers after being forced out of smaller camps in Paris and elsewhere. The people in Calais are not just some unfortunate anomaly, an exception that proves the rule that the world is OK. Their desperate presence tells the truth about an unacceptable world dominated by a handful of countries that have prospered at the expense of the vast majority of the planet’s people, through both plunder and war, and the normal workings of a global system of exploitation. The fact that there are 63.5 million refugees and displaced people in today’s world, according to the UN, is an irrefutable proof – only one of too many – that the capitalist-imperialist system does not work for humanity and the planet. While the British, French and other European governments squabble among themselves about who should help which immigrants, each taking in as few as possible as slowly as possible, some people not only refuse to accept this inhumanity but take responsibility to do something about it. A middle aged, middle class woman in the French city of Nice, near Italy, heard on her car radio that French police were blocking the city’s train station to keep out refugees who had walked across the border. She dropped her daily schedule, went to the station, invited refugees into her car and drove them to train stations where the police would not be expecting them. Someone snitched on her and she was arrested and hit with a huge fine. Overnight hundreds of people sent her enough money to pay it. A New York Times article refers to “a French underground railroad, moving African migrants”. While lots of “citizen collaborators tip off the French police”, “a low-key network of citizen smugglers are countering police efforts in a quasi-clandestine resistance, angered by what they see as the French government’s inhumane response to the crisis.” (4 October 2016) The “migrant crisis” that governments today consider a police problem could become part of a political crisis, with big questions at stake about what kind of society people want, or will accept. What do the imperialists, fighting amongst themselves to run this world, mean by the words “migrant crisis”? For them, it is a “crisis” that a few people have slipped into Europe, the UK, the US, Australia and other imperialist fortresses. To promote racism, they call the Calais camp “the jungle,” when their capitalist system has turned our planet into the dog-eat-dog place it is today. The real crisis is not Calais but the world. The system’s own workings are generating vast upheavals that no wall can hold back, and that cry out for the overthrow of this system in country after country. Postcript 28 October The prefect in charge of evacuating the camp pronounced “Mission accomplished”, meaning that the site has been emptied and the riot police will not allow anyone to come back. The departure was hastened by massive fires consuming tents and shelters, which the prefect claimed trhe migrants themselves had set because it was a “custom” in their cultures. According to the 28 October Le Monde , about a hundred refugees are sleeping in the cold and rainy streets of Calais, some of them minors, with no place to go. Some people who let seem to be very happy with their new lodgings, according to Le Monde and other media, but police are accompanying the buses taking them to nearly every corner of the country, with orders not to let anyone change their mind along the way. About 90 people were taken straight to jails, with no explanation as yet. This article originally appeared in A World to Win News Service, to which Sam Alber is a regular contributor. ( Web site: aworldtowinns.co.uk

Pelosi: Obamacare ’Has Succeeded In Every Way’ - Breitbart

Ian Hanchett

Nancy Pelosi: The Affordable Care Act ”has succeeded in every way” https: . #PelosiTownHall https: . During a town hall on CNN on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Representative Nancy Pelosi ( ) argued that Obamacare “has succeeded in every way. ” Pelosi said the law had three purposes: “to increase coverage — to expand those who got healthcare, to improve benefits, and to lower costs. And it has succeeded in every way. ” She added that “Some of the costs are still going up because of the costs of prescription drugs,” but they’re increasing at a slower rate than at any time that this has been measured. Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

PARIS: After destruction begins on their squatters camps, Muslim illegals scream that they are “humans, not beasts”

BareNakedIslam

PARIS: After destruction begins on their squatters camps, Muslim illegals scream that they are “humans, not beasts” But nobody is buying it. Illegal alien Muslim invaders have staged a mass protest in Paris over their treatment by French authorities following destruction of their makeshift camps. Masses of Muslim freeloaders sleeping in the streets joined local bleeding hearts to demonstrate at their encampment near the Stalingrad Metro station. UK Daily Mail (h/t therezam) One man held up a sign saying ‘human, no beast’ as a man used a loud speaker to lead the march, which happened late last night. It came 24 hours after violence broke out at the site with gangs of men attacking each other using sticks as makeshift clubs. The fighting unfolded just hours after demolition workers supported by riot police began smashing up an illegal camp full of UK-bound migrants in Paris. It also came in the wake of the destruction of the Calais Jungle which saw refugees transported around the country. It is not yet known what caused the fight in Paris. There had already been scuffles on Monday as mainly Afghans and Eritreans tried to save their possessions during the raid, which started soon after 8am. It followed thousands of Muslim freeloaders arriving in the French capital following the razing of the Calais Jungle refugee camp last week. While some 5000 Jungle residents agreed to be bused to resettlement centres around France, many others headed off independently, saying they still wanted to get to Britain. Up to 3000 set up tents on the pavements around the Stalingrad Metro station, which is close to the Gare du Nord Eurostar hub in the north of Paris. Shortly before Monday’s clearance French president Francois Hollande said: ‘We won’t tolerate the camps any longer.’ Referring to the Paris clearance, Mr Hollande said: ‘We are going to carry out the same operation as in Calais.’ CRS riot police around Stalingrad said there would be a ‘gradual operation’ which is likely to go on all week until all the camps are gone.

Indian Teenager Begins a Lonely Climb in Women’s Golf - The New York Times

Lisa D. Mickey

Aditi Ashok is only 18 years old, but like any aspiring pro golfer, she knows the story of Ok Hee Ku and Se Ri Pak, who in the 1980s and ’90s changed women’s golf by starting the South Korean wave. Ashok may be that trailblazer for India. She was among the early leaders in the women’s tournament at the 2016 Rio Olympics and parlayed that experience into two victories in the fall on the Ladies European Tour, where she earned top rookie honors for 2016 and finished second in earnings with seven finishes. Golf is an emerging sport somewhere behind cricket, soccer, field hockey and tennis in India, a nation of more than 1. 3 billion people. But that may change soon, thanks to players like Ashok. Anirban Lahiri is the only native of India with full status on the PGA Tour. Currently ranked 86th in the world, Lahiri has been ranked as high as 33rd. Arjun Atwal, currently ranked 969th, remains the only Indian winner on the PGA Tour, with his victory at the 2010 Wyndham Championship. Daniel Chopra, winner of two PGA Tour titles, grew up in India but is a Swedish citizen. But no Indian woman has ever won an L. P. G. A. Tour event. Ashok, at No. 100, is the Indian woman since Simi Mehra, who played on the tour for several years beginning in 1997 and attained a ranking of No. 17 in 1998. Only six Indian women are currently world ranked, compared with 148 Indian men. “Golf is definitely growing in India, but for the number of people we have, we still don’t have enough players, especially women players,” said Ashok, who is from Bangalore. Ashok found herself in the spotlight when she returned home as an Olympian last summer. Weeks later, she won the Ladies European Tour event in India and added a second win the next week in Qatar. “There was clearly a huge sense of pride from the local crowd when Aditi won the Hero Women’s Indian Open,” said Bethan Cutler, who handles communications for the Ladies European Tour. Cutler called Ashok’s win a “game changer for female golfers” in India. When asked what she thought it would take for her country to embrace golf, Ashok was pragmatic. “It’s not just about golf, and it takes more than talent,” she said. “It’s the culture. It’s about sports in general, and once the changes and girls start picking up sports, there will be more players in golf. ” The Professional Golf Tour of India offered 25 tournaments last year for male professionals, many of whom also competed on the Asian Tour and the European Tour. But Indian women had fewer opportunities, with 16 tournaments on their Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour. With significantly fewer women playing the game in India, it took more than a decade for the small professional Women’s Golf Association of India to grow to 30 members. Champika Sayal, secretary general of the association, and Mehra helped establish a professional tour for Indian women. Mehra organized a Skins Game in 2005, inviting three L. P. G. A. players to India to play an exhibition. A young Indian pro also competed in the event, alongside Mehra. “I remember it being quite historic and emotional for everyone involved,” said Heather one of the invited pros and now the L. P. G. A.’s chief tour operations officer. Mehra won 25 amateur tournaments throughout Asia before turning professional and becoming the L. P. G. A.’s first Indian player by qualifying for the tour in 1996. She won three times on what is now the Symetra Tour and posted two finishes on the L. P. G. A. tour, where she played until 2008. Professional sports for women was a foreign concept in India in the 1990s, when Mehra began her golf career. She had no support from her country on any level and was encouraged only by her peers on the L. P. G. A. Tour. “I felt completely alone and a bit lost during my first few years on tour,” said Mehra, now 44. “But I had amazing women as my idols and friends who made me feel like I belonged there. ” Those L. P. G. A. peers donated their used golf equipment and balls to Mehra, who shipped the golf gear to India to help girls get started in the game. She would travel back and forth between the United States and India, shuttling equipment, playing in tournaments to support fledgling Indian events, and reminding her compatriots that opportunity existed. “It’s a little easier when you see someone else do it,” Ashok said when asked about India’s history in golf. “I still listen to Simi because of all she’s gone through. ” The number of Indian women playing professional golf still lags behind the number of female pros in many other nations, but it has grown from Mehra’s early roster of one. At last year’s Hero Women’s Indian Open, now sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour, the field of 113 players included 17 Indians. The growth of the Women’s Indian Open has become a visible milestone since the first national championship for Indian women was started in 2007 by Sayal, Mehra and others — 43 years after the men’s inaugural national championship. Another sign is the increase in girls playing golf. “There were three or four girls between ages 7 to 12 when I was a junior,” Ashok said. “Now, there are between 15 to 20 girls. That’s not a lot, but it’s getting better. ” Access to golf is also an issue in India, Ashok said, adding that there were six courses within one hour of her Bangalore home. “We don’t have a lot of space in India, but even if there were more driving ranges, it would help make golf more accessible and help promote the game,” she said. Ashok embraced golf at 5½ while having breakfast with her parents at a golf club in Bangalore. Their breakfast table overlooked the driving range, where players were hitting balls. After breakfast, the family walked over to the practice green, where Ashok was handed a putter and some golf balls. Two hours later, she left in love with a new game. She and her parents began taking lessons and playing golf together. “We were very intrigued,” said her father, Pandit Gudlamani Ashok, who works in real estate. Aditi played her first round of golf when she was just over 6. Her father thought she would be tired, but was surprised when she wanted to play more. Her mother, Mash Ashok, said: “We played regularly as a family, but as soon as she was keen and started playing it competitively and started to set her goals, we couldn’t play as often because of her schedule. It was more about being her support than playing golf ourselves. ” India did not offer separate tournaments for girls when Ashok began playing, so from age 7 to 12, she competed with boys. She could not outhit the boys in distance, so she sharpened her short game as the equalizer. Ashok captured attention in her homeland for the first time at 13 when she went head to head against Mehra in a 2011 professional event. She beat Mehra in a playoff. “That was huge,” Ashok said. “Simi is a fierce competitor, but she encouraged me. When I won that event, I knew I wanted to be a professional. ” When Ashok won the Women’s Indian Open in November, she edged out the L. P. G. A. veterans Brittany Lincicome and Belen Mozo. In Qatar, she won by three shots over the European Solheim Cup player Caroline Hedwall. “Aditi has a bright future, and India has an iconic young female golfer,” Sayal said. “Golf is finally coming of age for women in India. ” Ashok passed another milestone in early December when she earned high conditional status at the L. P. G. A.’s annual qualifying tournament in Florida, which will allow her to play in a number of tour events and give her the opportunity to move up should she play well. Now the second Indian member of the L. P. G. A. Ashok plans to play at least six European Tour tournaments this year, and as many L. P. G. A. events as possible. “What she has achieved is truly remarkable,” Mehra said. “I wish her all the success in a wonderful journey. ” Others hoping to follow Ashok’s success include seven Indian women who competed in the recent Ladies European Tour qualifying tournament in Morocco. When Ashok won the 2015 event, there were only two Indians in the field. “I think our country never thought that we could have contenders in golf,” Ashok said. “But if golfers from a small country like Korea can have success, it can be done by top players from India. ”

PressTV-Scotland warns of Brexit implications

Foreign Policy Scotland's Secretary of State David Mundell (Photo by AFP) Scottish Secretary of State David Mundell has warned about the consequences of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU), saying Brexit would cut access to the single market. Mundell told members of the Scottish Parliament on Thursday that neither Scotland nor any other part of the UK was going to get a “special deal” during the negotiations with the EU. "So there are very specific issues to specific industries, but there won't be special deals and it's absolutely wrong to characterize a suggestion that certain areas of the country will get a special deal and Scotland will not,” he said. “I accept on one level, if we are leaving the EU then essentially we are leaving the single market but access to the single market can, I think, continue in a way that doesn't involve tariffs or barriers,” the secretary continued. British and Scottish officials have long been engaged in a war of words over the Brexit process, with Scotland asking for an “equal” role in the negotiations. During an EU referendum on June 23, Scotland voted 62 percent to 38 percent to remain in the 28-member bloc, but Britons voted to leave, 52 percent to 48 percent. British Prime Minister Theresa May has made it clear that she will complete the Brexit process by 2019 and that Scotland holds no veto over it. Scotland, in response, has threatened to secede from the UK in order to preserve its EU membership, which in turn guarantees the nation’s access to the EU single market. Last year, Scotland’s first attempt for independence from the UK was blocked by voters in a referendum. Mundell told MSPs that the possibility of a second referendum was already harming Scottish businesses, even more than Brexit. “It is already evident, because I understand that the surveyors organization have said there is a drop off in the take up of commercial property in Scotland,” he said. Experts warn that in case of a hard Brexit, the UK may lose its preferential access to the EU's single market and suffer from soured relations with other EU members. Loading ...

Donald Trump Fires Corey Lewandowski, His Campaign Manager - The New York Times

Maggie Haberman, Alexander Burns and Ashley Parker

Donald J. Trump fired his divisive campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, on Monday as he confronts urgent challenges heading into the general election — a strategic shift after months of concerns from party officials and donors about Mr. Lewandowski’s stewardship of the campaign. The exit occurred a month before Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is to secure the official nomination at the party’s convention in Cleveland. It reflected a broader adjustment by the campaign as it grapples with a late start to anxiety among party leaders and a skeletal staff — all while Mr. Trump’s likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, swiftly builds out her operations in swing states. Mr. Trump had faced increasing concerns from allies and donors, as well as his children, over whether Mr. Lewandowski, who had never before worked on a national race, was able to direct a battle against Mrs. Clinton. Among those who had voiced concern was Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who told Mr. Trump last week that relations between his committee and Mr. Lewandowski had become increasingly strained, and that a change would be welcome, according to three people briefed on the discussion. Republicans across the spectrum welcomed the firing as a positive step, but they suggested that it needed to be followed by consistent changes in performance from the candidate himself. Mr. Lewandowski was fired at a Monday morning meeting with Mr. Trump and Mr. Trump’s two older sons, Eric and Donald Jr. said two others briefed on the meeting, who were not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Trump and Mr. Lewandowski had what was described as a “very open conversation. ” Mr. Lewandowski’s time was primarily spent on the campaign trail with the candidate, and aspects of the operation were largely handled by the chief strategist, Paul Manafort. For months, Mr. Lewandowski had been a lightning rod for controversy, making headlines about himself that overshadowed his boss. This included his being charged with misdemeanor battery — a charge later dropped — after he was accused of grabbing a reporter as she approached Mr. Trump in Florida in March. It was not immediately clear whether someone new would be named campaign manager, but it was clear that the existing Trump team believed most of the duties had already been assumed by other people, principally Mr. Manafort. “Ultimately, Paul is in charge,” Barry Bennett, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said. “He’s got the experience to help get Mr. Trump across the finish line. ” As a young Republican operative, Mr. Manafort helped manage the 1976 convention floor for Gerald Ford in his showdown with Ronald Reagan, the last time Republicans entered a convention with no candidate’s having clinched the nomination. He performed a similar function for Reagan in 1980, and played leading roles in the 1988 and 1996 conventions, for George Bush and Bob Dole. Trump allies and critics alike regarded Mr. Lewandowski as a fierce defender of Mr. Trump’s idiosyncratic approach to the presidential race. At a moment when many in the party have pressed Mr. Trump to soften his message and build a more conventional political operation, Mr. Lewandowski hewed closely to the mantra he had developed during the Republican primaries: “Let Trump be Trump. ” The limitations of that approach have been on vivid display in recent weeks. Mr. Trump has struggled to raise money from establishment donors, and he has drawn fresh criticism from Republicans and Democrats for his racial attacks on a federal judge and his revived proposal to bar Muslims from entering the United States in the wake of the gay nightclub massacre in Orlando, Fla. With the Republican National Convention looming, he faces the task of broadening his team to include people with previous presidential campaign experience and uniting a party that is often not in lock step behind him. Mr. Trump has also been turning his attention to for the first time, a task over which Mr. Lewandowski had assumed oversight, and one that has gone slowly for the campaign. The campaign has aired no ads for the general election, and neither Mr. Trump or his advisers have yet to publicly bless a “super PAC” that could raise significant amounts of money to support his presidential bid. “It would be welcome if new people come in who have more experience and can move him to a more inclusive, more campaign,” said Fred Malek, a fixture in Republican Party . But he added: “How much the absence of a national kind of campaign is due to Corey and how much is due to Donald is kind of hard to tell. It looks to me like Trump drives his own train. ” In announcing Monday morning that Mr. Lewandowski “will no longer be working with the campaign,” Hope Hicks, the campaign’s spokeswoman, said in a statement that “the campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication, and we wish him the best in the future. ” The firing followed regular reports of turmoil in the campaign. Mr. Lewandowski was often at odds with Mr. Manafort, who was brought on in March when the candidate seemed poised for a lengthy fight over Republican delegates. Mr. Lewandowski was said to have resisted certain moves that would have increased the number of staff members, at times blocking Mr. Manafort from making hires or later undoing them. But the people briefed on Mr. Lewandowski’s departure said the circumstances went well beyond any one episode or relationship. One stressed that the move had been in the works for many weeks, particularly since it had become clear that Mr. Trump would be the Republican nominee. Mr. Trump’s son Donald Jr. described the split as “amicable” in an interview with NBC. And Mr. Lewandowski gave a series of interviews Monday afternoon in which he tried to brush aside questions about the internal particulars of his departure. He said he wished nothing but the best for Mr. Trump, and suggested that Mr. Trump’s doing well could only be good for him. “If Donald Trump wins, that’s good for Corey Lewandowski,” Mr. Lewandowski said on CNN. He played down any suggestion of tension between him and Mr. Trump’s children, and said every campaign expanded its operations for a general election. Mr. Lewandowski, 42, a New Hampshire resident with deep ties to the state, had made himself a delegate to the convention months ago and is still the chairman of that state’s delegation. Few inside the campaign were given any warning about the dismissal of Mr. Lewandowski, who was on the campaign’s daily 8:30 a. m. conference call on Monday, according to a person briefed on the developments. Mr. Bennett, the senior Trump campaign adviser, declined to predict whether there would be other significant changes. But he said Mr. Lewandowski deserved credit for helping Mr. Trump get where he is. “There is no doubt what Corey did in the primary was amazing — helping him get more votes than anyone else has ever gotten, a record turnout in 45 out of the 50 states, record low expenditures,” Mr. Bennett said. “None of that’s ever been done before. ”

Вашингтон не выполняет своих обязательств по борьбе с "Джебхат ан-Нусра"

Мир Ни взятые на себя обязательства по борьбе с террористической группировкой "Джебхат ан-Нусра"*, ни обещания оказать влияние на представителей оппозиционных групп с целью соблюдения ими режима прекращения огня в САР так и не выполнены полностью США. Об этом говорится в распространенном в четверг документе с фактами выполнения РФ своих обязательств по договоренностям с США по Сирии и их нарушений Вашингтоном. 0 комментариев 0 поделились Разрушенный Алеппо. Фото: AP С текстом этого документа можно ознакомиться на сайте Министерства обороны России. Как ожидается, он будет внесен на рассмотрение в СБ ООН в Нью-Йорке в ближайшее время. В документе, в частности, указывается, что США не осуществляли в Сирии борьбу с признанной СБ ООН террористической группировкой "Джебхат ан-Нусра" и не предоставляли РФ полной информации о расположении боевиков этой группировки в САР, что затрудняло их отделение от представителей умеренной оппозиции. Вместо взятых на себя обязательств по организации гуманитарного доступа в г. Алеппо, США допустили заминирование силами оппозиции все подступы к Алеппо, а лидеры оппозиционных групп отказались пропустить гуманитарные конвои ООН. Из-за вполне определенных указаний из Вашингтона американские специалисты, прибывшие в Сирию для создания совместного исполнительного центра (СИЦ) России и США, целью которого является планирование совместных ударов по объектам «Джабхат ан-Нусры» и ИГИЛ, так и не приступили к работе. Также Вашингтон предоставил список из 138 умеренных оппозиционных групп, при этом две из них оказались принадлежащими к террористической группировке ИГ*, а 8 - к "Джебхат ан-Нусре"*. 28 июля 2016 года односторонним решением США прервали контакты по горячей линии между авиабазой Хмеймим группой своих политический и военных экспертов в Аммане (Иордания). Напомним, как сообщала Правда.Ру, о том, что российская сторона подготовила документ с фактами, подтверждающими выполнение Москвой взятых на себя обязательств по договоренностям в контексте мирного урегулирования в Сирии и невыполнение этих обязательств Вашингтоном, который Россия намерена распространить в СБ ООН, сегодня в ходе брифинга сообщила официальный представитель МИД России Мария Захарова. Сделано это будет для того, чтобы прекратить постоянные инсинуации на на тему о том, что РФ не выполняет свои обязательства в контексте мирного плана по Сирии. *"Джебхат ан-Нусра" и "Исламское государство" - террористические организации, запрещенные в ряде стран мира, в том числе, и в России. Читайте последние новости Pravda. Ru на сегодня

Obama's Departure is One Reason to Feel Optimism for Trump's Arrival

Danny Haiphong

2016 elections by Danny Haiphong Fears of Trump should not obscure the fact that Barack Obama’s reign was a disaster. “Black America is in a worse condition than before, working class people as a whole have lost ground to a low-wage economy, and the world is closer to a World War III scenario than at any point prior.” The struggle continues, but “it is important to ensure that the protests against Trump are not allowed to be channeled back into the Democratic Party graveyard.” Obama's Departure is One Reason to Feel Optimism for Trump's Arrival by Danny Haiphong “Only gridlock saved Social Security and Medicare from being privatized during his Presidency.” Thousands have taken to the streets across the country to protest Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 elections. The protests have mainly centered on Trump's racism, sexism, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric spewed during his campaign. Protesters have yet to wrestle with Trump's positions on foreign policy and trade that made him a pariah to the majority of the ruling class. The struggle against capitalism and imperialism in the US remains immature even in the midst of positive growth in the movement against police brutality and racism in recent years. While Trump's overt bigotry gives cause for protest, there is one benefit of the Trump moment that should not be understated. That benefit is the much needed conclusion of the Obama era. Democrats across the US are in a state of mourning over the departure of Obama. Democrats heralded Obama as the quintessential professional and consummate politician. His celebrity was peppered by the appearance of intelligence and rationality in the face of so-called Republican "obstructionism." Obama's rule was advertised as a victory for the Black Freedom movement. His Administration possessed a vast marketing apparatus that defended him as the lesser-evil alternative to the racist vitriol of the White Man's Republican Party. “Obama's rule was advertised as a victory for the Black Freedom movement.” Black Agenda Report was one of the few on the left that warned of the dangers of Obama in 2008. Once elected, Obama became virtually untouchable. Criticisms of his policies were condemned as racist and insensitive to the needs of Black America. The needs of Black America and the entire left for that matter suddenly became aligned with whatever Obama did. Obama moved forward to protect the banks, escalate war, and erect the largest national security state ever assembled. He instantly became the austerity President, waging a war of privatization on public education with the expressed plans to do the same to Social Security. Only gridlock saved Social Security and Medicare from being privatized during his Presidency. The full scope of Obama's legacy has been discussed in earlier issues and will not be analyzed here. What is important is that the left will no longer have Obama to defend its alignment with US imperialism. No longer will the left be able to fall back on the first Black President to sanitize his record. Obama's immigration policies deported nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants with little protest. His Administration painted itself as a friend of women and LGBTQ identified people despite the fact that his policy of proxy and drone warfare murdered tens of thousands of women and children in Yemen, Syria, Libya, and Honduras. “The left will no longer have Obama to defend its alignment with US imperialism.” Obama was able to conduct a greater assault on oppressed people than the prior Bush Administration, making him the most effective evil Wall Street could buy. Obama took over as President in a period where the US was mired in two unpopular occupations abroad and an economic crisis at home. These conditions prompted the ruling class to choose Obama as the required form of counterinsurgency necessary to crush resistance before it started. After making a number of promises to end "dumb wars" and institute a single payer healthcare system, Obama entered office ready to the bidding of the ruling class. Eight years later, Black America is in a worse condition than before, working class people as a whole have lost ground to a low-wage economy , and the world is closer to a World War III scenario than at any point prior. The massive protests to Trump's victory are in part a release of popular energy brought on by the departure of Obama. Unrest began with the formation of the Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter movements. However, neither of these movements articulated Obama's role in creating the conditions for social insurgency and movement. The 2016 elections changed the landscape dramatically. The Sanders and Trump campaigns set millions into motion in protest of the two-party establishment. Obama's departure will be another breath of fresh air into the internal rot of the imperialist system. It is thus important to ensure that the protests against Trump are not allowed to be channeled back into the Democratic Party graveyard. “After making a number of promises to end "dumb wars" and institute a single payer healthcare system, Obama entered office ready to the bidding of the ruling class.” Obama will leave Trump a set of conditions that he cannot possibly maintain without popular unrest. Obama departs office only inches from World War III with Russia and China. Poverty and wealth inequality worsened under his administration . Not even clever distortions of statistics could hide the large number of workers currently unemployed or underemployed in the low-wage economy. School closures, food stamp cuts, and bank bailouts have unleashed the neo-liberal wasteland that Trump spoke about in his campaign. It appears early on that the left has rejected the viability of Trump's calls to regulate the banks and renegotiate trade deals in favor of working people. Many have ignored Trump’s “populist” rhetoric and have focused all the energy of resistance on his white supremacist proposals to ban Muslims and deport millions of undocumented people. However, this moment is just as much about Obama's departure as it is Trump's arrival. The US imperialist system is facing multiple crises that relate directly back to the economic stagnation of global capitalism. It would be a mistake not to demand Trump stay true to his “populism” just as it was a mistake when the left failed to demand Obama stay true to his promises. Whatever the case, the departure of Obama is a welcome site, and the left should use the room afforded by it to wage an intensified effort to build the organizational basis for social revolution in our time. Danny Haiphong is an Asian activist and political analyst in the Boston area. He can be reached at [email protected]

World wildlife ‘falls by 58% in 40 years’

Alex Ansary

World wildlife ‘falls by 58% in 40 years’ 10/27/2016 BBC NEWS Global wildlife populations have fallen by 58% since 1970, a report says. The Living Planet assessment, by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and WWF, suggests that if the trend continues that decline could reach two-thirds among vertebrates by 2020. The figures suggest that animals living in lakes, rivers and wetlands are suffering the biggest losses. Human activity, including habitat loss, wildlife trade, pollution and climate change contributed to the declines. Dr Mike Barrett. head of science and policy at WWF, said: “It’s pretty clear under ‘business as usual’ we will see continued declines in these wildlife populations. But I think now we’ve reached a point where there isn’t really any excuse to let this carry on. “We know what the causes are and we know the scale of the impact that humans are having on nature and on wildlife populations – it really is now down to us to act.” However the methodology of the report has been criticised. Image copyright CARLOS DREWS / WWF Image caption The report looked at data collected on 3,700 species of vertebrates over the last 40 years The Living Planet Report is published every two years and aims to provide an assessment of the state of the world’s wildlife. For freshwater species alone, the decline stands at 81% since 1970 Dr Mike Barrett, WWF This analysis looked at 3,700 different species of birds, fish, mammals, amphibians and reptiles – about 6% of the total number of vertebrate species in the world. The team collected data from peer-reviewed studies, government statistics and surveys collated by conservation groups and NGOs. Any species with population data going back to 1970, with two or more time points (to show trends) was included in the study. The researchers then analysed how the population sizes had changed over time. Some of this information was weighted to take into account the groups of animals that had a great deal of data (there are many records on Arctic and near Arctic birds, for example) or very little data (tropical amphibians, for example). The report authors said this was to make sure a surplus of information about declines in some animals did not skew the overall picture. The last report, published in 2014, estimated that the world’s wildlife populations had halved over the last 40 years. This assessment suggests that the trend has continued: since 1970, populations have declined by an average of 58%. Dr Barrett said some groups of animals had fared worse than others. “We do see particularly strong declines in the freshwater environment – for freshwater species alone, the decline stands at 81% since 1970. This is related to the way water is used and taken out of fresh water systems, and also the fragmentation of freshwater systems through dam building, for example.” It also highlighted other species, such as African elephants , which have suffered huge declines in recent years with the increase in poaching, and sharks, which are threatened by overfishing. If pressures – overexploitation, illegal wildlife trade for example – increase or worsen, then that trend may be worse Dr Robin Freeman, ZSL The researchers conclude that vertebrate populations are declining by an average of 2% each year, and warn that if nothing is done, wildlife populations could fall by 67% (below 1970 levels) by the end of the decade. Dr Robin Freeman, head of ZSL’s Indicators & Assessments Unit, said: “But that’s assuming things continue as we expect. If pressures – overexploitation, illegal wildlife trade, for example – increase or worsen, then that trend may be worse. “But one of the things I think is most important about these stats, these trends are declines in the number of animals in wildlife populations – they are not extinctions. By and large they are not vanishing, and that presents us with an opportunity to do something about it.” Image copyright SCOTT DICKERSON Image caption There are still many gaps in our knowledge of the world’s vertebrates However, Living Planet reports have drawn some criticisms. There are some numbers [in the report] that are sensible, but there are some numbers that are very very sketchy Stuart Pimm, Duke University Stuart Pimm, professor of conservation ecology at Duke University in the United States, said that while wildlife was in decline, there were too many gaps in the data to boil population loss down to a single figure. “There are some numbers [in the report] that are sensible, but there are some numbers that are very, very sketchy,” he told BBC News. “For example, if you look at where the data comes from, not surprisingly, it is massively skewed towards western Europe. “When you go elsewhere, not only do the data become far fewer, but in practice they become much, much sketchier… there is almost nothing from South America, from tropical Africa, there is not much from the tropics, period. Any time you are trying to mix stuff like that, it is is very very hard to know what the numbers mean. “They’re trying to pull this stuff in a blender and spew out a single number…. It’s flawed.” But Dr Freeman said the team had taken the best data possible from around the world. “It’s completely true that in some regions and in some groups, like tropical amphibians for example, we do have a lack of data. But that’s because there is a lack of data. “We’re confident that the method we are using is the best method to present an overall estimate of population decline. “It’s entirely possible that species that aren’t being monitored as effectively may be doing much worse – but I’d be very surprised if they were doing much better than we observed. “

It Took Less Than 12 Hours For Eric Trump To Break The Law On Election Day

April Hamlin

Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr Well, that sure didn’t take long. Only 12 hours into Election Day and Eric Trump has already broken the law. The Trump family isn’t known for their ability to follow the law. Eric Trump apparently decided to start off his day by voting for his narcissistic dad and then breaking the law by posting a picture of his completed ballot on Twitter. Image via Buzzfeed This just happens to violate New York election law. Oops. But hey, it’s not like this has been a law for a long time right? Only 126 years. The law stipulates that any person who “[s]hows his ballot after it is prepared for voting, to any person so as to reveal the contents … is guilty of a misdemeanor.” Eric Trump was quickly notified that his tweet, featuring a pic of his ballot, was illegal. Image via Buzzfeed The law was recently challenged by a group of voters who asked a federal judge to issue an injunction that would allow voters to take ballot selfies. The judge denied their request, ruling on Nov. 3 that, “The public’s interest in orderly elections outweighs the plaintiffs’ interest in taking and posting ballot selfies.” According to the judge, the posting of ballot selfies would slow down the voting process, causing unnecessary delays, and threaten the guarantee of “election integrity.” Eric Trump eventually removed his tweet, but thanks to screenshots, it hasn’t actually gone away. I have to ask at this point, can’t these people get anything right? Seriously, they managed to screw up voting? By breaking the law? With Twitter ? Of course, they did. Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images Share this Article!

Obama: ‘We Cannot Deny the Legacy of Racism’ in Justice System - Breitbart

Charlie Spiering

President Barack Obama is finishing his term with a lengthy essay on criminal justice reform in the Harvard Law Review, arguing that Americans should recognize systemic racism in the system. [“[W]e cannot deny the legacy of racism that continues to drive inequality in how the justice system is experienced by so many Americans,” Obama wrote in his 56 page essay. Obama cited studies from the NAACP showing that and Hispanics were more likely to be stopped by law enforcement officials and suffer stricter penalties in court. “If we are to chart honestly the path for criminal justice reform, we must confront the role of race and bias in shaping the policies that led us to this point,” Obama wrote. Obama defended his decision to free 1, 324 prisoners during his presidency, either through pardons or clemency. “While not a substitute for the lasting change that can be achieved by passage of legislation, the clemency power represents an important and underutilized tool for advancing reform,” Obama explained. Follow Charlie Spiering on Facebook

Female Veterans Release Anti-Trump Ad That Will Cripple His Campaign [Watch]

Amanda Froelich

Donald Trump likes to boast about the endorsement he’s received from military personnel, but he’ll have to work a lot harder to win over those who serve if he is elected as the next...

A Dream That Survived Life in a War Zone and Life on the Streets - The New York Times

Emily Palmer

Idi Diallo started playing soccer when he was 5, living in a small Ivory Coast village, kicking a ball on his family farm through two rocks that served as the goal. Even as he played, he could see troops fighting in the distance and hear gunfire ringing out in the civil wars that raged through his childhood. He practiced every day, dreaming of playing in professional European soccer leagues. He had never seen a soccer game on television — played on pristine fields with roaring fans — but at 11, he left his family for Abidjan, the country’s largest city, to play for a local team for the next three years. He also joined the Ivory Coast national team and traveled to Ghana, where the team made the semifinals in a tournament of African nations. In 2010, he got a chance to play in Italy for the AC Milan Football Academy Camp, a youth program sponsored by the elite Italian football league. But when a relative in Milan was unable to house him, he decided to pursue his dream in the United States. Then 15, Mr. Diallo boarded a plane with a friend of his brother’s and headed to New York. They settled in the Bronx, but when his companion returned to Africa a month later, Mr. Diallo found himself alone on the streets. A practicing Muslim, Mr. Diallo found refuge at the Musa Mosque Islamic Center in the Bronx, where he often slept in the prayer hall. He also informally played soccer with the Fordham University team. “He’d have played me, but I didn’t have a diploma,” Mr. Diallo said of the coach, recalling an interaction on the field. “He said, ‘Where do you come from?’ And I said, ‘You don’t want to know. ’” Then a friend at the university invited him to play in pickup games at Heritage Field, the site of the original Yankee Stadium. That is where Mr. Diallo met Fernando Rodriguez, a high school basketball coach battling advanced melanoma, who watched the games. Mr. Rodriguez approached Mr. Diallo after a game to compliment his performance. Mr. Diallo spoke little English, but he recognized Mr. Rodriguez’s accent and responded in Spanish — the language he had chosen to learn at the soccer academy in Ivory Coast. “So from then, we started talking,” Mr. Diallo said with a smile. “It was a good moment. As time went by, he asked me about my life. I don’t like talking about my problems the past is in the past. But he’d take me to eat at a nearby cafeteria, and he’d ask small questions. He asked where I lived, and I said, ‘No house for me,’ and he invited me to stay with him. ” A month after their initial meeting, Mr. Diallo accepted an invitation for a dinner and saw Mr. Rodriguez’s spare room. “There was no way I’d find something better than that,” he recalled thinking. Mr. Diallo, then 17, moved in and enrolled at Urban Assembly Media High School in Manhattan, starting as a 10th grader. He took classes to learn English and joined the soccer team, which won the championship in his first year. Mr. Rodriguez became Mr. Diallo’s legal guardian and started filling out paperwork to adopt him. But his health continued to decline, and a year after taking in Mr. Diallo, he was admitted to a hospital. This time, it was Mr. Diallo’s turn to take care of the man who had taken him in. He took warm meals to him and visited him often, updating him on his success at school. Mr. Rodriguez still managed to sponsor Mr. Diallo for his green card and help him apply for legal immigration status. Four months after Mr. Rodriguez died, Mr. Diallo learned that his immigration application had been approved. “When he passed away, it was hard,” Mr. Diallo said, shaking his head. “He’d become my father. ” He played a game the day of Mr. Rodriguez’s funeral. And he continued classes. “I had to stay in school,” he said. “I couldn’t give up on something he’d helped me work toward. ” On a cold November morning, Mr. Diallo sat inside Create Young Adult Residences, a transitional housing program serving men 18 to 25, where he has lived since February 2015. Create is affiliated with Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York, one of eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Mr. Diallo, now 20, recalls with pride the life he has lived after his mentor’s death. He graduated from high school in June and was accepted to both the College of Staten Island and LaGuardia Community College. It is a far different future from the one he imagined in Ivory Coast, where he spent few years getting a formal education schools were often closed during the wars. He received a $2, 000 scholarship from the National Association for Education and Homeless Children and Youth. The New York Public Library awarded him a laptop for academic excellence, and Catholic Charities used $350 from The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund to pay for his schoolbooks. Financial aid will cover his academic costs for the first two years at both schools. It will not cover his room and board, but he qualifies for an $800 rental subsidy from the city. In addition to working part time as a waiter, bringing in about $600 a month, he plays midfielder for Boca Juniors affiliated with Argentina’s premier student soccer league. He travels to Long Island three days a week to practice, and has had tryouts with professional soccer clubs across the country, including the San Francisco Deltas and LA Galaxy II. Additional tryouts are scheduled for FC Miami City and Orlando City Soccer Club in January. He has also been invited for a return tryout in Los Angeles later in January but is unable to afford the plane fare. He laughed and shook his head, reflecting on the future, hopeful yet unwilling to wish too much. “If God gets me on a team — whatever team — this year, and I do well . ..,” he said, his words trailing off. “With agents watching those games, you never know. ” He is waiting to choose a college until he hears back from professional soccer teams, and plans to start classes after tryouts conclude in February, studying business accounting or physical therapy. If he makes a team this year, he said, he plans to continue school in that city. Regardless of where the next few months take him, Mr. Diallo said, he will keep working to become a professional soccer player. “I could do without anything — live on the street — to play soccer,” he said. “And I’ve done that. I’ve been dreaming about this day since I was born. ”