Datasets:

nixbel

/

ustest

like 0

Trump’s Shift on Russia Brings Geopolitical Whiplash - The New York Times

Peter Baker

WASHINGTON — A week ago, President Trump was accused of being a tool for the Russians, an unwitting agent of influence, so full of admiration that he defended President Vladimir V. Putin against critics who called him a killer. Now, Mr. Trump is in a diplomatic clash with Mr. Putin’s Russia, his administration accusing Moscow of trying to cover up a Syrian chemical weapons attack on civilians and his secretary of state delivering ultimatums. Even in a presidency marked by unpredictability, the shift from coziness to confrontation has left Washington and other capitals with a case of geopolitical whiplash. The prospects of improving relations were already slim given the atmosphere of suspicion stemming from Kremlin meddling in last year’s election, but the détente once envisioned by Mr. Trump has instead deteriorated into the latest cold war. For Mr. Trump’s camp, the abrupt turnaround simply proved how false the conspiracy narrative was from the start. “If there was anything that Syria did, it was to validate the fact that there is no Russia tie,” said Eric Trump, the president’s son. For some critics, it seemed to be a cynical way of distracting attention from the multiple investigations into possible contacts between associates of Mr. Trump and Russia even as Moscow was trying to help Mr. Trump win the presidency. Either way, it suggested that the relationship between the two powers could be volatile in the months to come, subject to the impulsive reactions of a president with no prior experience in foreign policy, the often strident responses of a Russian leader given to his own moments of pique and the clashing national interests of both countries in key areas around the world. “I was skeptical from the beginning that it would be possible for the United States and Russia, after all that happened in the last few years, to engage in a successful reset,” said Angela Stent, a former national intelligence officer on Russia now at Georgetown University. “What’s surprising is how quickly we returned to the status quo ante we had at the end of the Obama administration. ” John R. Beyrle, a former ambassador to Moscow, said the extremes of the relationship were being exaggerated and it would probably settle back into the middle. “Levels of trust have deteriorated so much that these initial meetings will produce little in the way of agreements and the investigations into likely Russian interference in the election cast a huge shadow that both sides need to acknowledge,” he said. Mr. Trump is the fourth president in a row who came into office determined to reboot the relationship with Moscow, an ambition that often eluded the other three. The difference is that the hacking of Democratic email during last year’s election, for which intelligence agencies blamed Russia, made Mr. Trump’s embrace of Mr. Putin politically problematic. His willingness to overlook Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its armed intervention in eastern Ukraine and, until now, its support for President Bashar ’s government in Syria mystified many experts. He called Mr. Putin “a stronger leader” than President Barack Obama, praised him for “doing a great job” and expressed hope that he would be “my new best friend. ” Michael Morell, a former acting C. I. A. director, wrote last fall that Mr. Trump seemed to be an “unwitting agent of influence” for Moscow. By Tuesday, after Mr. Trump ordered a missile strike against Syria in retaliation for using chemical weapons on its own people, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson arrived in Moscow with a harsh warning that Russia had better give up its support of Mr. Assad. He was greeted with a cold shoulder, denied a meeting with Mr. Putin as no secretary of state has been on a first visit to Moscow going back to the days of Cordell Hull in World War II. Back in Washington, the White House held a briefing accusing Russia of shielding Syria’s chemical weapons attack on civilians. The Russians have responded with harsh language of their own. On Tuesday, Mr. Putin compared Mr. Trump’s action in Syria to President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. And Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev suggested that Mr. Trump has turned out not to be what he presented himself to be during last year’s campaign. “That’s it,” he wrote on Facebook last week. “The last remaining election fog has lifted. ” In the end, he said, Mr. Trump was “broken by the existing power machine” in Washington. Mr. Morell said on Tuesday that despite calling Mr. Trump a virtual Russian agent, he always believed Russian behavior would lead to a parting of the ways. “This seems to be happening now,” he said. But he noted that Mr. Trump has left it to Mr. Tillerson and others rather than speaking out himself. “He needs to do that, and he needs to be critical of the large number of other aggressive actions that Putin has undertaken over the past two years,” Mr. Morell said. Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for Hillary Clinton’s campaign last year, said the shift in tone in recent days did not mean there was not collusion during the election. “Everything we believed happened in the election could be true — Putin wanted him to be president and the administration took the action it took last week,” she said. “It could all be part of the master ruse — or Putin could be upset about it. ” Either way, she said, “There’s no evidence that it changes anything I think happened in the election or that Democrats should back off investigations. And moreover, it’s really weird that he himself hasn’t said anything. ” Mr. Trump will have the opportunity on Wednesday when he hosts NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. European leaders will be listening to what Mr. Trump has to say, given that during the campaign he criticized NATO even as he praised Mr. Putin. Aides to Mr. Trump have been frustrated at the focus on the Russia investigations and the assumptions that the president’s associates did something wrong even though several officials have said no evidence has emerged that proves collusion with Russia. They blame the media for creating a false narrative that they see as now disproved. How, they ask, could Mr. Trump’s team have made secret deals with Russia if his own secretary of state cannot even get a meeting? “It’s interesting that we went from all of these direct links to Russia to now are we disappointed that we can’t even get a meeting with him,” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary. “There is a bit of irony in the question. ” Eric Trump voiced that sentiment in an interview with London’s Daily Telegraph published on Tuesday. The younger Mr. Trump said his father was influenced to retaliate against Syria for using chemical weapons on civilians in part by his sister Ivanka, who was “heartbroken and outraged” by the atrocity. Even though some question the president’s approach to Russia, Eric Trump said his father would not be “pushed around” by Mr. Putin. “He is not a guy who gets intimidated,” he said. The over Russia left lawmakers trying to make sense of it. “It speaks to the broader incoherence of this administration’s foreign policy,” said Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut. “The change in rhetoric on Russia is . I’m glad to see it and I hope it continues, but so far the only thing we know about this administration’s foreign policy is that it will probably change in a week or two. ” But Mr. Murphy said the congressional intelligence committees still need to investigate what happened in last year’s election. If the shift in tone from the administration happened two months ago, he said, it might have undercut that determination. But since then, he said, more evidence has emerged. “There’s now some pretty important meat on the bones of this story,” he said. “The imperative remains to get to the bottom of it. ”

Gaming’s Biggest Stage to Be Open to the Public for E3 2017 - Breitbart

Nate Church

The Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) the largest trade show for the gaming industry, will open its doors to 15, 000 of its most devoted consumers in 2017. [On Monday, February 13, the Entertainment Software Association will open limited ticket sales to what is arguably the most important trade show in the gaming industry. E3 will welcome fifteen thousand fans to join developers, publicists, and members of the media in June. The first 1, 000 to purchase their tickets will gain access for $150. The remainder will need to pay $250 to gain entrance to the ESA’s chaotic digital wonderland. While E3 attendance has never been officially public, prior to 2007 the credentials needed for entry were relatively broad. 2007’s restructuring attempted to curtail the growing crowd but culled much of the event’s excitement along with the vast majority of its attendees. This year’s expo looks to capture the enthusiasm of eager consumers while taking reasonable precautions not to flood the show floor to the point of obstruction. ESA Senior VP of Communications Rich Taylor called it “a strategic decision” for “a changing industry,” made possible “thanks to our members and their vision and leadership. ” According to Taylor, they’ve been listening: The feedback we heard was clear — they wanted to play the games inside the convention center. In addition, exhibitors inside the convention center wanted to have access to the fans. So this year we’re bringing the two together. Is this a step in the right direction for the world’s most famous industry event? Will it bring back some of the major publishers that have decided to host their own separate shows in the recent past? And, most importantly, will I see you at this year’s E3? Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both.

Iran Accuses Thomson Reuters Charity Official of Sedition - The New York Times

Thomas Erdbrink

TEHRAN — A employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, arrested in Iran more than two months ago for unexplained reasons, has been accused of plotting to overthrow the government, Iranian news media reported Wednesday. The detainee, Nazanin 37, is a program coordinator for the foundation, the independent charitable arm of the Thomson Reuters news agency. Both the foundation and Ms. ’s British husband, Richard Ratcliffe, denied the accusations. Ms. was arrested on April 3 in Tehran and taken to the provincial city of Kerman in southern Iran, according to a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps provided to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. Her daughter, Gabriella, who had accompanied her to Iran for a visit with family, is staying with maternal grandparents. The child’s passport was confiscated by the Iranian authorities, severely complicating any possibility of reuniting her with Mr. Ratcliffe. “The British national, Nazanin Zaghari, who was arrested by the intelligence department of the Sarallah Corps of Kerman, has participated in coup plots,” the Revolutionary Guards statement read. “Through membership in foreign companies and institutions, she has participated in designing and executing media and cyberplots with the aim of the peaceful overthrow of the Islamic Republic establishment. ” The statement also accused Ms. of being “one of the chief members of networks of adversary institutions, who — with the direction and support of foreign media and espionage services — has committed her criminal acts over the past few years. ” Mr. Ratcliffe was quoted by Reuters as calling the accusations against his wife “preposterous” charges that appeared to be a political case. He has been outspoken in calling for her release and started an online petition that now has more than 764, 000 signatures. The Revolutionary Guards statement seemed directed at the Thomson Reuters company, a global media powerhouse regarded with suspicion and hostility in Iran because of its British foundations. Reuters merged with Canada’s Thomson company in 2008. “The media corporations of hegemonic governments, especially the British media, have made their best efforts in the recent months to support her in order to weaken the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ determination but this false hope will never come true,” the statement added. In 2012 Thomson Reuters’ press accreditation was suspended in Iran after the news agency was accused of having lied in a video report that asserted Iranian housewives were training to become ninja assassins. (A misleading headline in the report was corrected.) The suspended accreditation followed the closing of the British Embassy in Tehran after it had been attacked by protesters. The government of President Hassan Rouhani has reportedly been in discussions to allow a Thomson Reuters bureau to reopen. are opposed to what they view as increased influence by Westerners. Ms. has never worked inside Iran, according to a statement released on Wednesday by the Thomson Reuters Foundation chief executive, Monique Villa. “Nazanin has been working at the Thomson Reuters Foundation for the past four years as a project coordinator in charge of grants applications and training, and had no dealing with Iran in her professional capacity,” the statement said. “The Thomson Reuters Foundation has no dealings with Iran whatsoever, does not operate and does not plan to operate in the country. ” The intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guards has arrested several dual citizens over recent months. The latest such arrest was last week, when a professor researching women, Homa Hoodfar, was arrested on undisclosed charges. The semiofficial Mashregh news organization reported Wednesday that she was accused of collaborating with two organizations that “are working to diminish religiosity and equal gender rights. ” Mashregh criticized the two organizations, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, and Hivos, a human rights advocacy group based in The Hague, for “emphasizing women’s control of their own bodies and choosing to live single. ”

Feds Establish Support Program for Victims of Criminal Aliens

Bob Price

Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John F. Kelly ordered the director of U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to create a program to assist the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens. The program creates a liaison and authorizes the disclosure of suspect immigration statuses and other pertinent data. [Secretary Kelly ordered the creation of the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office to help reverse policies of the previous administration that kept certain information about criminal aliens the victims of their crimes. “Criminal aliens routinely victimize Americans and other legal residents,” Kelly wrote in a memo obtained by Breitbart Texas. “Often, these victims are not provided adequate information about the offender, the offender’s immigration status, or any enforcement action taken by ICE against the offender. ” I am establishing the [VOICE] Office within the Office of the Director of ICE, which will create a programmatic liaison between ICE and the known victims of crimes committed by removable aliens,” the secretary explained. “The liaison will facilitate engagement with the victims and their families to ensure, to the extent permitted by law, that they are provided information about the offender, including the offender’s immigration status and custody status, and that their questions and concerns regarding immigration enforcement efforts are addressed. ” Kelly ordered the acting ICE director to immediately reallocate any and all resources that were previously allocated to advocate on behalf of illegal aliens to now be used to support VOICE. He ordered the immediate termination of any outreach or advocacy services to illegal aliens. The memo supporting President Donald Trump’s “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States” Executive Order also included the authorization to hire an additional 10, 000 ICE agents and enforcement officers to help in the massive task of rounding up criminal aliens before they can commit further crimes, Breitbart Texas reported. The 680 illegal aliens rounded up in the latest targeted enforcement operation carried out earlier this month represents a tiny fraction of the criminal aliens present in the U. S. according to DHS estimates. A December study by the Center for Immigration Studies estimated there are 820, 000 criminal illegal aliens in the U. S. not deported by the Obama Administration. Courts had convicted many of these aliens for crimes including murder, rape, drug offenses, other crimes, or who had final orders of removal from an immigration judge that was not enforced, Breitbart News reported. Often, the mainstream media refuse to include information about the immigration status of a criminal alien — even after other outlets research and release said information. An example is a Mexican national illegally present in the United States that killed a Houston, Texas, pastor and his wife while he was engaged in street racing. All local media outlets referred to the criminal alien in vague and misleading terms like “Houston man,” or “a man,” Breitbart Texas reported. The omitted information continued to spread despite previous coverage by Breitbart Texas of the case revealing the Mexican national’s illegal immigrant status seven months earlier. The order from Secretary Kelly to provide additional information and resources to victims of illegal alien crime is effective immediately. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.

Venezuelan Opposition Calls for General Strike Against Gov't on October 28

Get short URL 0 9 0 0 The opposition forces of Venezuela have called on their followers to take part in a 12-hour "general strike" on Friday and set a deadline for the government and the elections commission to activate a recall referendum on presidential term. CARACAS (Sputnik) – On Tuesday, the opposition-led National Assembly voted to initiate impeachment proceedings against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro , claiming he had violated democracy, to which the president accused lawmakers of trying to stage a parliamentary coup. © AFP 2016/ George Castellanos Over 20 Injured, Almost 40 Detained in Venezuelan Opposition Protests - Rights Group "We are convening a general strike on Friday, everyone in their homes," Jesus Torrealba, the executive secretary for the Mesa de la Unidad Democratica (MUD) opposition coalition told reporters on Wednesday. Torrealba added that the coalition was giving the government and the electoral commission until Sunday, October 30, to activate the referendum . There will be another rally on November 3 if they fail to comply with the demand, according to him. On Wednesday, opposition leader Henrique Capriles initiated a large-scale peaceful protest across the country to defend the nation’s right to a referendum on Maduro's recall. ...

Texas Boy Known as ‘Copeland Crush’ and His Father Are Mourned - The New York Times

David Montgomery and Christine Hauser

AUSTIN, Tex. — Brodie Copeland, 11, one of the victims of the attack in Nice, France, was such a baseball player that teammates at his club in Texas called him the “Copeland Crush. ” He played second base with the Hill Country Baseball Club, near Austin. The owner of the club, Jonathan Paiz, said Brodie got his nickname because he would “crush” it when at bat. “Basically he would get up there and hit the ball hard,” Mr. Paiz said in a telephone interview. Brodie and his father, Sean Copeland, 51, were two of the victims of the attack, which killed at least 82 others, including nine other children and teenagers, and wounded 202 people. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, noting that the attack occurred less than a year after the attacks in and around Paris, said that for the second time in nine months, the French flag was being flown over the Texas Governor’s Mansion in remembrance. “While every heinous attack like this is tragic,” he said in a statement, “this latest one hits close to home. ” The Copelands were the only two Americans who had been confirmed dead as of Friday night. Three students from the University of California, Berkeley, were among the wounded, according to a statement issued Friday by the university. Two of the students, Vladyslav Kostiuk, 23, and Diane Huang, 20, were discharged after medical treatment and returned to their summer dormitories in Nice, the university said. Daryus Medora, 21, whose leg was broken, remained in the hospital. A fourth student, Nicolas Leslie, 20, was unaccounted for on Friday. They were among 85 students who were on a study abroad program with the university. The Copeland family lives in Lakeway, Tex. near Austin. They were on a vacation that began in Pamplona and Barcelona, Spain, before moving on to southern France. Mr. Copeland was traveling with his wife, Kim, whose 40th birthday celebration on Monday was part of the reason they went on the trip. In addition to Brodie, Mr. Copeland’s other children, his son Austin, 22, and daughter, Maegan, 29, from a previous marriage accompanied them, said Jess Davis, a family representative. On Friday in Lakeway, an affluent Hill Country community, many neighbors of the Copelands were stunned that an act of violence in Europe could reach thousands of miles across the Atlantic to invade their peaceful town. “It’s heartbreaking for everybody,” said Dianne Wood, who lives a few houses up the street from the Copelands and knows the family well. “The Copelands are a sweet family, and we just want to respect their privacy. ” She described Brodie Copeland as “an incredible boy — so much life, so much personality. ” Coleen Serfoss, Brodie’s teacher, remembered him as a “superstar” who stood out in class, on the baseball field and on stage. He aspired to become an actor and had performed in productions of “Cinderella” and “Peter Pan. ” He was also in the school’s honor choir. As they said their goodbyes on the last day of class, Ms. Serfoss recalled, she told Brodie, “When you get your Academy Award, I hope you remember me. ” Her principal called her Thursday night to tell her that Brodie had died. “When I woke up, I was hoping it was a dream until I turned the TV on,” she said at a news conference outside Lakeway Elementary School. Grief over Brodie’s death was palpable among Lakeway teachers. “He was just a very sweet, kind young man,” said Joy Crenshaw, a teacher who often saw Brodie in the school cafeteria. “He always had a smile on his face. ” A tribute to the father and son was set up on the Facebook page of the Hill Country team, where Brodie had been playing baseball since 2014. It shows Brodie frolicking in the French Riviera waters. “Immediately, he made an impact on all of the coaches at HC,” said a page set up by Mr. Paiz, the baseball club’s owner. Mr. Copeland worked at Lexmark, the printing and software company, which issued a statement after his death: “Sean was not only a terrific leader in the company, but a phenomenal person who will be dearly missed. Our hearts go out to Sean and his family, and for everyone who is suffering in France and elsewhere from this senseless violent act. ” Two of Mr. Copeland’s brothers are set to fly to Nice with the State Department to pick up the family and bring everyone home, according to a statement provided by Ms. Davis. The baseball group’s Facebook page became a forum for remembrance and mourning. “No words can describe how we feel,” wrote Jeff Petry. “Sean and Brodie touched our lives in so many ways. Such a good man and a great kid and teammate. ” “We will miss you #8,” wrote another man, Bill Bishop, referring to Brodie’s jersey number. “You will be missed but we know you were needed for bigger and better things. ”

Trump to Host Passover Seder in Washington on Monday Night

Breitbart Jerusalem

The Times of Israel reports: WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump will host a White House Passover seder Monday night, an administration official told The Times of Israel on Sunday, confirming that the new administration will continue a tradition started by former president Barack Obama. [Aside from the president, who is expected to attend, it is not yet clear which members of the administration will participate in the dinner, including Trump’s Jewish Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka. The White House Seder began as an annual tradition under former president Barack Obama, who hosted the first such event in 2009, in the Old Family Dining Room. News that the Trump administration had planned to carry on the custom was first reported by Jewish Insider. Obama sought to establish this ritual after he participated in a Passover dinner during his successful 2008 presidential campaign, when he surprised Jewish members of his campaign staff by holding an impromptu seder in a hotel ballroom in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Read more here.

More beer, less vodka as Russians mull ongoing crisis

Gazeta.ru, Rustem Falyakhov

vodka , beer , russians Visitors at the bar "Aist" (Stork) on Lubyansky Proyezd in Moscow Source:Alexey Kudenko / RIA Novosti The volume of retail trade turnover in Russia continues to decrease. In August, it fell by 0.1 percent compared to the previous month, compared to January-August last year, when it fell by 5.7 per cent, said analysts from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA). They were citing data from the state statistical agency Rosstat and a survey conducted by the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting. The turnover is decreasing because Russians are not only eating less and cutting back on spending on services, but they are also drinking fewer alcoholic beverages. Sales of vodka dropped catastrophically’ From January to August 2016, vodka, liqueurs and brandies accounted for 42 percent of sales volume. Beer amounted to 44-45 percent of total sales of alcohol. Another 12-13 percent was wine production. Other beverages (cider, mead, etc.) made up less than 1 percent of alcohol products bought by people, according to RANEPA's monitoring data. Whiskey or vodka: Which drink will dominate? The range of sales is clearly seasonal. Retailers usually sell more wine, champagne and vodka in December while sales of beer increase by 15-20 percent in mid-summer compared to the beginning of the year. "Retail sales of alcohol have significantly decreased over the past two years. 10.6 percent fewer alcoholic beverages were sold between January and August this year than during the same eight months of 2014," the survey report stated. Retail sales of alcoholic beverages bottomed out in January and April 2016. "Sales of vodka have dropped catastrophically," Alexandra Burdyak, a senior researcher at RANEPA and one of the authors of the study, said. "The drop was 13.4 percent against the same period of last year. The main decline occurred last year, when sales of vodka decreased by 12.6 percent compared to 2014." However, the wine production sector showed a different trend. The traditional New Year increase in sales of wine and champagne dragged on, with wine sales remaining at 2015 levels until May 2016. Burdyak said consumers first finished their earlier stored wine and then, as stocks in cabinets dried out, and lovers of wine and sparkling wines made sure that nothing was happening in the economy, the ruble was not strengthening and the prices of imported alcohol were not decreasing, they began to buy this type of alcohol again. The new generation of consumers According to Burdyak, the decrease in consumption of vodka and other alcoholic beverages has been steady since 2013. Strong alcohol consumption peaked in 2007, and it has been in decline since then. The taste of Russians, born in 1985 and later, has been shaped by western, primarily European influences; they prefer wine, beer and other light alcoholic beverages. However, Vadim Drobiz, director of the Centre for Federal and Regional Alcohol Market Studies (TSIFRRA), believes it is a little too early to talk about a reduction in alcohol consumption in Russia. "Because of the crisis, the main consumers of alcoholic drinks could have switched to cheaper options, this is possible," he said. "But few people are capable of seriously saving on alcohol." Despite falling production, vodka consumption increasing in Russia Drinking away the crisis Vodka consumption fell from 53 percent of retail sales, measured in terms of absolute alcohol content, in 2007-2009 to 39 percent in 2015. During the same period, the share of beer increased from 31-32 percent to 43 percent of total sales of alcoholic beverages. The total volume of retail sales is calculated in terms of absolute alcohol content as follows: Half a litre of vodka (40 percent alcohol) is equal to 200 grams of ethanol; one litre of beer (4 percent) is equivalent to 40 grams, and one litre of wine (12 percent) contains 120 grams of ethanol. These trends appear likely to continue over the next few years, though some analysts have reservations. "It should be borne in mind that consumers, and the Russians certainly in my experience, consider strong alcohol to be an antidepressant," Drobiz said. "And that means that consumption of vodka and other spirits in the context of the ongoing economic crisis is not likely to fall." First published in Russian by Gazeta.ru . Facebook

J. Geils, Whose Band’s Catchy Pop Hits Colored the 1980s, Dies at 71 - The New York Times

Niraj Chokshi

J. Geils, the guitarist who lent his name to the J. Geils Band, which in the early 1980s produced a string of catchy pop hits, including “Love Stinks,” “ ” and “Centerfold,” was found dead on Tuesday at his home in Groton, Mass. He was 71. The Groton police said officers found Mr. Geils in the late afternoon after they were asked to check on him. Mr. Geils, whose full name was John Warren Geils Jr. appeared to have died of natural causes, the police said. No other details were given. The J. Geils Band was formed in the as Snoopy and the Sopwith Camels, while Mr. Geils was attending Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, according to the band’s Facebook page. It switched focus in 1967, recruiting the energetic frontman and lead singer Peter Wolf and becoming the J. Geils Blues Band, an acoustic trio that later turned more toward rock and dropped the “blues” from its name as it added members. The band spent years establishing roots in the Boston area through live shows before signing with Atlantic Records in 1970. That year it released its debut album, titled simply “The J. Geils Band,” to modest acclaim. A in 1971, “The Morning After,” helped push the group to the national stage as its sound developed. Adding bouncy synthesized pop to its blues roots, the band became a major commercial success with the hit single “Love Stinks,” from a 1980 album of the same name. The group’s 1981 album, “” yielded two more hit singles as the group leaned further into the increasingly digital of the era. “I founded the band as a blues band, and it evolved into a bluesy rock band,” Mr. Geils said in a 2015 interview with the website Best Classic Bands. “I don’t care what any recording artist says they all want a No. 1 gold single, and we have two. ” “Centerfold” spent six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, while “ ” reached the No. 4 spot. The J. Geils Band was also exposed to large, audiences through its association with the Rolling Stones, fellow students of the Chicago blues, who took the Boston group on tour as an opening act. As the group prepared to record another album after “” Mr. Wolf left the band, beginning its unraveling. (“Basically, they threw me out,” Mr. Wolf said.) The J. Geils Band went on to release a new album, “You’re Gettin’ Even While I’m Gettin’ Odd,” in 1984, earning Mr. Geils accolades from Robert Palmer, the pop music critic for The New York Times. He wrote that Mr. Geils’s guitar playing combined “the harmonic sophistication of a jazz player with a rocker’s sensibility. ” The group disbanded in 1985 but reunited in 1999 for a brief concert tour. It had since reunited periodically, once to perform at the opening concert for the new House of Blues in Boston in 2009 and the next year as the opening act for Aerosmith at Fenway Park. In recent years the band toured without Mr. Geils because of a legal dispute with his record label, which claimed ownership of the band’s name, according to the Facebook page. He quietly secured the trademark for the name in 2009, according to The Boston Globe. There was no immediate word on his survivors. He told The Globe in 2004 that he and his wife of 28 years, Kris, split up in 1999. John Warren Geils Jr. was born on Feb. 20, 1946, in New York City and grew up in Far Hills, N. J. His father was an engineer at Bell Labs and, Mr. Geils said, passed on his love of jazz to his son, taking him to see Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis perform. He played the trumpet in high school before switching to guitar. After graduation he attended Northeastern University before transferring to Worcester Polytech. An automobile enthusiast, Mr. Geils founded KTR Motorsports out of a garage in Carlisle, Mass. to service vintage Ferraris, Maseratis and other Italian cars. He sold the business in 1996.

#FireColbert Trends as CBS Host Feels Heat for ’Homophobic’ Trump Joke

Jerome Hudson

Stephen Colbert has come under fire on social media for a crude joke he made about President Donald Trump on Monday’s broadcast of The Late Show that some critics claimed was bigoted and homophobic. [While attempting to defend his CBS colleague John Dickerson, Colbert said Trump’s mouth is only “good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c*ck holster. ” Outraged by the remark, social media users quickly made the hashtag #FireColbert a top trending topic on Twitter Tuesday. “Colbert’s homophobic rant was disgusting and we won’t tolerate this behavior,” one user wrote. “Liberals ruin the careers of conservatives all the time, so the #FireColbert campaign is just giving libs a taste of their own medicine,” argued another. Some called Colbert a “homophobe” and a “bigot. ” #FireColbert Colbert is a . Here’s all of advertisers Contact them tell them stop funding him https: . pic. twitter. — Red Pill⏳ (@RedPillDropper) May 2, 2017, Liberals ruin the careers of conservatives all the time, so the #FireColbert campaign is just giving libs a taste of their own medicine. — Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 3, 2017, Hey @CBS #StephenColbert is NOT a comic. I NEVER tune in because of his attitude towards @POTUS @realDonaldTrump #FireColbert, — Rep. B. J. Nikkel (@RepBJNikkel) May 3, 2017, #firecolbert CBS STAND UP AND DO THE RIGHT THING FIRE COLBERT THIS SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED, IF IT WAS SAID ABOUT OBAMA HE WOULD BE GONE, — MIKEM (@09BRAININJURY) May 2, 2017, So, Colbert is saying homophobic things again? Disappointing that CBS supports and empowers this. #firecolbert, — Michael Oxley (@Truthchampion16) May 2, 2017, I don’t know that it was homophobic, but Colbert’s comment was very inappropriate and not funny enough to be worth the risk #firecolbert, — Kimbro13 (@kimbro1360) May 2, 2017, Some social media users called for a boycott of CBS and the network’s advertisers. Time for him to go. Total trash. I will boycott advertisers. #FireColbert, — hank_1972 (@Hank_1972) May 3, 2017, Boycott CBS #FireColbert, — Tricia Ann (@TriciaC0324) May 3, 2017, German Lopez, a reporter for news outlet Vox, wrote that Colbert’s joke pointedly mocked gay people. “In a setting in which Colbert is deliberately trying to find a way to insult Trump, it’s telling that he resorts to suggesting that Trump is engaging in sexual acts with another man. The suggestion is that the worst thing that could happen for these men is if they engaged in homosexual acts together, as if that devalues them as men or emasculates them. ” Colbert’s monologue also included fat jokes about President Trump. “Mr. President, I love your presidency. I call it ‘Disgrace the Nation,’” he began. “You’re not the POTUS you’re the ‘BLOTUS.’ You’re the glutton with the button. You’re a regular ‘Gorge Washington.’ You’re the ‘ ’ but you’re turning into a real ‘ . ’” “Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine,” Colbert continued. “You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a gorilla that got hit in the head. ” Tonight: Stephen tells the President everything journalists, restrained by their dignity, wish they could say. #LSSC pic. twitter. — The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) May 1, 2017, Colbert did not address the firestorm surrounding his comments during Tuesday night’s episode of The Late Show, opting instead to continue to blast Trump and Putin. The CBS host compared the president to author Stephen King, saying Trump just “makes things up. ” He also aired a clip of Trump’s quotes taken out of context. Colbert’s ratings have risen steadily since Inauguration Day. The CBS host has regularly beaten rival Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show since January, though Fallon still usually leads in the adults demographic. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

Trump rape accuser skips press conference, citing threats

Ian Greenhalgh

Vladimir Putin: Who will protect young boys from pedophiles and rapists in Europe? ‹ › Ian Greenhalgh is a photographer and historian with a particular interest in military history and the real causes of conflicts. His studies in history and background in the media industry have given him a keen insight into the use of mass media as a creator of conflict in the modern world. His favored areas of study include state sponsored terrorism, media manufactured reality and the role of intelligence services in manipulation of populations and the perception of events. Trump rape accuser skips press conference, citing threats By Ian Greenhalgh on November 4, 2016 Woman known only as ‘Jane Doe’ alleges Republican presidential nominee sexually assaulted her when she was 13 Attorney Lisa Bloom announces the cancellation of a press conference for Trump accuser ‘Jane Doe’ in Woodland Hills, California, November 2, 2016. Trump rape accuser skips press conference, citing threats A woman who claims she was raped as a teenager by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump failed to show up for a Wednesday press conference during which she was to reveal her identity, citing threats against her. The woman, known in the media by the pseudonym Jane Doe, alleges Trump sexually assaulted her four times in 1994, when she was just 13, during parties organized by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. In 2008 Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in prison for soliciting sex with an underage girl. Reporters packed into the office of Doe’s lawyer in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, where she was expected to speak publicly about her allegations for the first time. However, her lawyer Lisa Bloom appeared alone and explained that the media event was canceled because her client feared for her safety. “Jane Doe has received numerous threats today as have all the Trump accusers that I have represented,” Bloom said. “She has decided she is too afraid to show her face. She has been here all day, ready to do it, but unfortunately she is in terrible fear. We’re going to have to reschedule. I apologize to all of you who came. I have nothing further.” Bloom, who has a court TV show and is a legal analyst for NBC News, is the daughter of Gloria Allred, a civil rights attorney representing three other women making claims against Trump. According to court papers, the woman claims she was offered money to attend the parties and that Trump, who knew her age to be just 13, initiated the sex. On the fourth occasion, Trump allegedly tied her to a bed, exposed himself, and then raped her despite her loud protestations. Trump, she claims, hit her in the face and told her he could do whatever he wanted. He then warned her that if she revealed the abuse, she and her family would be “physically harmed if not killed.” She claims there are witnesses to the assaults and that Epstein also raped her. Trump, who has faced a recent series of claims by women alleging sexual assaults, has categorically denied Jane Doe’s story as a fabrication, part of a smear campaign against him. On Wednesday Bloom tweeted that her firm’s website and emails had been hacked, saying the hacker group Anonymous had taken responsibility. The UK’s Guardian newspaper, which in recent months has been investigating the claims by Doe, reported that she first tried to file a complaint against Trump in April but the paperwork was dismissed due to filing errors. A second lawsuit was submitted in June in New York and California, and then apparently amended again in September. The newspaper noted that the claims have mostly been ignored by mainstream media because they “appeared to have been orchestrated by an eccentric anti-Trump campaigner with a record of making outlandish claims about celebrities,” referring to Norm Lubow, a former producer on the Jerry Springer television show. The Guardian said that in June it discovered a publicist known as “Al Taylor” who tried to sell a videotape of Doe talking about her allegations for $1 million. Taylor, the report said, was linked to Lubow. However, when the Guardian contacted “Al Taylor” to uncover his identity, he replied, “Just be warned, we’ll sue you if we don’t like what you write. We’ll sue your ass, own your ass and own your newspaper’s ass as well, punk.” An initial status conference in Doe’s civil lawsuit against Trump has been scheduled for December 16 in a New York district court, just over a month after the November 8 US presidential elections. Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT, VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians, or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. LEGAL NOTICE - COMMENT POLICY Posted by Ian Greenhalgh on November 4, 2016, With 6 Reads Filed under Politics . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Ubisoft Reveals Sales Down for Quarter, Hipster-Sim ’Watch Dogs 2’ Launch ’Soft’ - Breitbart

Nate Church

Gaming publisher Ubisoft revealed that sales were down 6% for the 3rd fiscal quarter compared to the previous year while Watch Dogs 2‘s launch wasn’t what they had hoped for. [Ubisoft’s 3rd quarter was as much a mixed bag of victory and defeat. While winter sports sim Steep outperformed its relatively muted expectations, simulator Watch Dogs 2 wasn’t quite as “dynamic” as the company expected with a “soft” launch. Still, it reportedly managed to outperform last year’s shaky Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate launch. While interest in MMO shooter The Division has dwindled since its blockbuster release, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot did report a 152% jump in active players since the game’s big October update. Meanwhile, tactical multiplayer shooter Rainbow Six: Siege is healthier than ever, with over 15 million registered players and the highest daily activity yet in a community that continues to expand. Moreover, back catalog games like the aforementioned The Division and Rainbow Six: Siege are driving profits further than usual. Ubisoft’s continued support of their older titles is paying off, and the lack of a 2016 entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise seems to have boosted the sales of previous games in the series. Guillemot said that Ubisoft is “successfully pursuing our transformation into a more recurring and more profitable profile” and that “the positive effects of this transformation are remarkable. ” Finally, Ubisoft reported about $213 million for the Assassin’s Creed movie, a “solid first step. ” While it didn’t exactly wow the critics, gamers around the world seem to have enjoyed seeing the titular Assassins struggle against the machinations of Abstergo’s Templars on the big screen. Ubisoft will be releasing the next major entry this year in the Assassin’s Creed franchise and has delayed South Park: The Fractured But Hole into fiscal year 2017, which could help improve their fortunes over last year. Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both.

Watch: Peter Schweizer Details How John Podesta May Have Violated Federal Law - Breitbart

Pam Key

Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox Friends,” Breitbart editor at large Peter Schweizer, the author of “Clinton Cash,” detailed how the former chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign John Podesta may have violated federal law by failing to disclose stock shares he owned from a company. Schweizer said, “In 2011, John Podesta joins the board of this very small energy company called Joule Energy based out of Massachusetts. About two months after he joins the board of a Russian entity called Rusnano, puts a billion rubles which is about into John Podesta’s company. Now, what is Rusnano? It’s not a private company, Steve. It is a fund directly funded by the Kremlin. In fact, the Russian science minister called Rusnano, Putin’s child. So you have the Russian government investing in one John Podesta’s businesses in 2011, while he is an advisor to Hillary Clinton at the State Department. ” He continued, “So then in 2013, he goes to the White House, to be a special counselor to Barack Obama, and that requires that you, you know, have financial disclosures every year. In his financial disclosure form in 2013, he not only fails to disclose these 75, 000 shares of stock that he has in Joule Energy which is funded in part by the Russian government. He also fails to disclose that he is on one of the three corporate board that this entity has. It’s got this very complex ownership structure. He discloses he is on the company in Massachusetts, that is he on the board of a company in the Netherlands, but he fails to disclose that he is also on the executive order of the holding company. That’s a clear violation of the disclosure rules that needs to be looked at. ” He added, “What makes the Podesta case clear is there was a transfer of money and there was a transfer of a lot of money that stood to make John Podesta a lot of money. That is unique and that’s extremely troubling because at the time that transfer is taking place he is advising Hillary Clinton at the State Department. We know that from the Podesta emails that he is helping her make personnel decisions, speech decisions, policy decisions. He is meeting with her monthly. It’s a transfer of money from a foreign government, at the time, that is he was advising America’s chief diplomat, Hillary Clinton. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Marveling at the Soaking Wet Rockettes of the Olympics - The New York Times

Gia Kourlas

Fred Astaire, as the famous saying goes, may have been a great dancer, but Ginger Rogers did everything he did — only backward and in high heels. At least she had gravity on her side. Synchronized swimmers often perform and without air. Yes, they adamantly believe in the power of theater, as evidenced by their bejeweled bathing suits, gelatin hair and lipstick smiles, but they’re not just fooling around. Underwater for about of each performance, synchronized swimmers require stamina, flexibility, endurance and, always, poise. They are Ginger Rogers, dancing in an pool. Earlier this week at the Rio Olympics, synchronized swimming could be seen in the duet competition — the lithe Russians, Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina, nabbed the gold. (The team event concluded Friday.) In both events, synchronized swimming continues to make a case for itself as a bewitching, if oddly Olympic event. It falls between the cracks of sport and art in a delightful way. If synchronized swimming is viewed as a sport, it should be considered a sport of the soul, in which years of training lead to transcendence and performers mask effort at all times. Elegance of line isn’t merely an ambition, it’s a duty, as technique is wound into artistry and artistry feeds back into the technique. As for the choreography? It can’t be a centimeter out of place. That virtuosity has been even more salient at these Olympic Games, where sports like gymnastics have so emphatically embraced acrobatic force over grace. In synchronized swimming, etherealness is captured in an extreme merging of agility and power. Synchro, as its known, became an Olympic sport in 1984 and was once referred to as water ballet. While it shares many of the same qualities as ballet — the hard training, pointed feet, a precise port de bras (or carriage of the arms) musicality and the constant striving for unattainable perfection — synchronized swimming is its own watery beast. A ballerina’s pointe shoe has something in common with water, the swimmer’s medium. Each makes it possible for a performer to be ethereal each gives the illusion of floating. In water, swimmers can perform feats of technical bravura — lifting a partner without touching the bottom of a pool (that’s against the rules) or moving together as their legs, pointing out of the water, spin in tandem before disappearing beneath the surface. Of course, technique makes these dreamlike visions happen. In eggbeater kicks, also used in water polo, the legs alternate in clockwise and counterclockwise circles to keep the body upright different types of sculling — movements involving the hands and forearms to propel and stabilize — allow a swimmer to spin or stay afloat. Just as with ballet, it’s not about isolated movements, but using the whole body, which is evident with underwater cameras that show synchronized swimmers from head to toe. Suddenly, it makes sense: The core of the body is a vessel, with the hands and legs spinning like propellers to keep it suspended in aqueous space. It’s tempting to want to watch synchro only in those shots that capture what is above and beneath the water. Sculling is gorgeous. But when two bodies sprout from the surface of the water, and you can’t see what’s below, the effect is celestial. Again, it comes down to gravity. The challenges in ballet and synchronized swimming are daunting and, as a former ballet dancer and synchronized swimmer explained to me recently, equally difficult. It’s just that one involves defying gravity on land, and the other involves battling it to not sink in the water. (The key in both: abs, more abs, then even more abs.) In ballet, pain comes from impact with the floor in synchro, pain comes from thrusting up against the water. Since swimmers, like dancers, work so hard to hide their effort, it can be hard to see beyond the shiny package. But while the precision and insistence on glamour in synchronized swimming have much in common with the Rockettes or the work of a choreographer like Bob Fosse, with its positions, synchro is neither nor just full of girls playing dress up. In the water, where they are superhuman nymphs, artistry takes over. On land, they are women: sleek, and modern. At the Olympics, synchronized swimming is an sport, but in the rest of the world, men do it, too. There is a push to bring mixed pairs to the Olympics. Bill May, an American and one of the sport’s most admired practitioners, won a gold medal in his technical duet with Christina Jones and a silver in the free duet with Kristina Lum Underwood at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia. Mr. May, 37, said he hoped that by 2020 mixed duets would be included in the Olympics if so, he would try to be there. Synchronized swimmers don’t age out as rapidly as athletes in other sports. “There are so many different aspects of synchronized swimming that don’t develop until later,” he said in an interview. “It’s like dance. The more you do it, the more you become in tune with your body, with your emotions, with your movements. ” The addition of a mixed duet would surely open the potential of choreography at the Olympics by allowing for a possibly more sensual meeting between partners at the moment, the duets are a lot like watching doppelgängers — fascinating, yet limited. But there is at least one pair to keep an eye on in 2020. This year for their free program, Alexandri and Eirini Alexandri, from Austria — two sisters from a set of triplets — performed to “Swan Lake. ” It was as if they had swallowed and spit out Tchaikovsky’s score, leaving us to bask in its turmoil and thrills. They used their arms to distinction, crossing their wrists delicately as they floated briefly side by side and then, in a fury, pulling their arms out of the water like ferocious wings only to slap them back down again. They weren’t just in the water they used it. They came in 12th out of 12, but I know a swan when I see one.

Florida Gun Range Teaches 5-Year-Olds to Shoot

AWR Hawkins

Jacksonville Clay Target Sports (JCTS) believes education is the key to stopping accidental shootings, so they are teaching kids as young as five gun safety and usage. [JCTS teaches “about 50 children a day how to properly shoot and handle a gun. ” According to First Coast News, Safety Officer Larry Freeman watches over JCTS. He said his dad taught him to use a gun at seven, adding, “He taught me gun safety as a young one and I’ve carried that all through my life. ” Freeman observed: You get rid of the mystique of the gun. That way, now they know what it can do, they’ve seen what it can do and they’ve been taught what it can do. And then they’ll know what to tell their parents if they find one, they won’t be sneaking it off to see how it works and wind up killing somebody. Jacksonville parent Tony Knight agrees with Freeman. He gave his son, Tony Knight Jr. his first gun at age three and says he still stands with Jr. when he shoots, placing his hand on his shoulder to give him support. Knight said he thinks following through — continuing to teach safety and helping them use the gun — is an important part of the learning process. He believes there is no magic age at which someone can begin learning. Rather, a child who can “learn and listen and follow directions” is “ready to be taught the gun. ” Knight’s son said, “People may use them wrong and I think that’s wrong. People should use them for hunting, shooting targets and other stuff, but not harming people. ” He also noted that his father taught him to respect firearms, saying, “It can hurt people, yeah dad taught me it can hurt people. ” Jr. added, “If I see a gun in my house I’m supposed to leave it alone and tell my parents and if they’re not home just leave it alone. ” 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.

Ranks of Political Prisoners Grow as Democracy Ebbs in Venezuela - The New York Times

Nicholas Casey and Ana Vanessa Herrero

For Braulio Jatar, it was the biggest scoop in years: Venezuela’s president was being chased by a crowd screaming of hunger, banging on pots and pans. The photos and video of President Nicolás Maduro soon appeared on Mr. Jatar’s news site, Reporte Confidencial, and spread throughout the nation. The mob cornering Mr. Maduro was a shock in Venezuela — anger in food lines and even riots were a familiar sight, but no one had ever ambushed the president that way. Before he went to bed, Mr. Jatar fired off a series of Twitter messages, some alluding to witness testimony he would soon broadcast on his 9 a. m. radio show. But he never got the chance. He now sits locked in a jail cell, a political prisoner, rights activists say. Venezuela this week took its biggest plunge yet toward the rule of Mr. Maduro as his loyalists on the Supreme Court gutted the country’s legislature, seizing the powers of the only body seen as a counter to the president’s growing authority. But the move was just part of a slide from democracy that has been gaining steady momentum in the country over the past year — seen starkly in prison cells where the ranks of political prisoners are growing. Those cells are filled with opponents of Mr. Maduro, like a former mayor of a wealthy section of Caracas who was sentenced to more than 13 years on charges of inciting violence academics who have spoken out and journalists like Mr. Jatar, whose family says he was simply doing his job when he was detained in September. At least 114 political prisoners are behind bars in Venezuela, according to Penal Forum, a human rights organization that tracks political arrests in the country, a number that rose from 89 a year ago. The group says that since Mr. Maduro took power in 2013, the government has arrested 6, 893 people and jailed 433 for political reasons. “The level of repression has risen to a brutal level,” said Alfredo Romero, who heads the group. “The rise has come from the unpopularity of Maduro. ” The situation has become urgent for Venezuela’s neighbors, 14 of whom wrote a rare joint statement last week calling on Venezuela to release the prisoners as a step toward restoring democratic norms. This week diplomats from the region met at the Organization of American States, a regional diplomacy group, to discuss steps to possibly expel the country from the group because of its political prisoners, among other accusations of violations of the bloc’s democratic charter. President Trump has also weighed in. In February, he posted on Twitter a photograph of himself and other officials in the Oval Office with Lilian Tintori, an opposition activist whose husband, Leopoldo López, was in jail. Mr. Trump wrote that Mr. López, a former mayor of Caracas, should be released immediately. The taking of political prisoners is not new in Venezuela it is the numbers that have grown under Mr. Maduro, human rights groups say. His predecessor, Hugo Chávez, jailed opponents, including a judge who had opposed him. But analysts say Mr. Chávez more often avoided dissent by channeling the country’s oil revenues, at times more than $100 a barrel, into social programs that bolstered his popularity. Mr. Maduro, however, has been faced with falling oil prices and years of economic mismanagement, which have led to shortages of food and basic medicines. Since October, Venezuela’s currency, the bolívar, has been in free fall, with the dollar rising against it by 350 percent at its height, putting food even further out of reach and sinking the president’s popularity. These conditions led to the protests against Mr. Maduro on Margarita Island, where Mr. Jatar, the journalist, was arrested. His publication, Reporte Confidencial, had a long history of chronicling the ups and downs of the island — which is off Venezuela’s eastern coast — beginning as a weekly leaflet in 2006. It later expanded online, where it continued to operate on a shoestring budget and with a small staff. It became known for its investigations, including of improper land use by a judge and one about a state governor linked to a corruption scheme related to subsidized food. “If no one else would publish it, Reporte Confidencial would put it out,” said Yusnelly Villalobos, Mr. Jatar’s assistant. Mr. Jatar’s wife, Silvia Martínez, said he was once threatened by the authorities when he sent reporters to cover antigovernment protests in 2014. The police raided their home and office, leaving with computer equipment. But that was no preparation for what would happen after the protesters’ harassment of Mr. Maduro that night in September. The protest, which was soon known as news spread online by its hashtag, “#cacerolazo,” or the “great pot banging,” was a deep embarrassment for Mr. Maduro. That week the opposition had amassed an estimated one million people in Caracas to protest food shortages and demand his ouster. The president had flown to Margarita Island for what was expected to be a positive reception in an area where he and Mr. Chávez had both won in elections. After inaugurating a public housing complex, Mr. Maduro stopped his motorcade in the town of Villa Rosa, to walk among a crowd of what he thought were . Instead they chased him through the streets. The next morning Mr. Jatar set off to a radio show, which he also ran, where he planned to continue his coverage of the night’s protest. “I turned on the dial to listen to him,” Ms. Martínez said. But he never showed up at the station he had been arrested by Venezuelan intelligence agents. In the next days, 30 more people were arrested in roundups, according to Penal Forum. They were interrogated before being let go, the group said. But Mr. Jatar was not released. He sits in a jail cell in the state of Nueva Esparta on charges involving $25, 000, which the authorities say they found in his car. Ms. Martínez says that the money was planted, and that Mr. Jatar would have never left such a large amount of money where it might have easily been stolen. “We have no idea who ordered his detention,” Ms. Martinez said. José Miguel Vivanco, the director of Human Rights Watch, which has also investigated the case, said his group concluded that the charges were fabricated in an effort to suppress journalists. “Calling for his release is not just about letting another political prisoner out of jail,” he said. “It’s about protecting free speech. ” The government ombudsman did not respond to a request for comment on Mr. Jatar or other prisoners. Venezuela’s military and prosecutor’s office also did not respond to a written request for comment. Since Mr. Jatar’s arrest, the government has intensified its focus on arresting those it deems subversive. In early January, Mr. Maduro put Tareck El Aissami, the newly appointed vice president, in charge of what he called the “anticoup squad,” a group aimed at punishing those plotting treason or other crimes against the state. On Jan. 12, Irwing Roca, a political activist, was leaving a meeting with Roniel Farias, a city councilman in Ciudad Bolívar, in the country’s eastern interior. Mr. Roca said that a black car was waiting outside for them, and that intelligence agents ordered them inside after taking their telephones. “At no moment did they say why they had taken us,” Mr. Roca said. Mr. Roca said he was held by the agents for three days without food or water. Mr. Farias was released on March 14, with no explanation. The day before Mr. Roca and Mr. Farias were taken, Gilber Caro, a deputy legislator in the National Assembly for Voluntad Popular, an opposition party, was making his way down a highway outside of Caracas when his car was stopped by Venezuelan intelligence agents, his family said. Yeidi Caro, his sister, first learned of the news when a friend called to mistakenly say he was kidnapped. Mr. Caro initially thought he had been taken by criminals demanding a ransom. Ms. Caro saw the news of his arrest being broadcast. “I turned on the television and I saw that the government had him,” she said. The Venezuelan authorities said that they had found the legislator hiding an assault rifle and money to be used for attacks against the government. Officials broadcast a taped phone call between Mr. Caro and Ms. Tintori — the wife of the political prisoner photographed with Mr. Trump in February — in which they said the two had planned chaotic protests to undermine the government. “He is a person with violent characteristics,” Mr. El Aissami, the vice president, said of Mr. Caro.

Death Toll in Mistaken Bombing of Camp in Nigeria Climbs to 70 - The New York Times

Dionne Searcey

DAKAR, Senegal — The number of people killed in an accidental military bombing at a Nigerian camp for displaced people has increased to 70, aid groups said on Wednesday, with at least nine of them humanitarian workers. The mistaken attack came after a military plane targeted an area crowded with people fleeing Boko Haram militants. Medical workers were scrambling on Wednesday to assemble equipment to treat dozens of severely injured people who were still awaiting evacuation from the camp in Rann, in northeastern Nigeria. At least 120 people were hurt in the errant strike on Tuesday by the Nigerian Air Force at the camp, which is near the Cameroon border and houses about 20, 000 people. Initial reports put the death toll around 50. Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian aid group, said three employees of a Cameroonian firm that it hired to provide water and sanitation services in the camp were among the dead. Six local workers for the Nigerian Red Cross were also killed, and 13 others were hurt. injured people were flown to hospitals in Maiduguri, Nigeria, the capital of Borno State. Among them were two young children: a named Yaa Zara with a fractured arm and Kaka Hauwa, 5, whose neck was injured. One of the blasts was so forceful it knocked out two of Kaka’s teeth, the children’s mother, Fati Yasin, 35, said on Tuesday. She said she left her two children at their home in the camp to collect tickets for food distribution when she heard the loud buzz of a fighter jet overhead. “We looked at it in the sky and before we knew it, it had dropped two bombs,” she said. The bomb struck around noon Tuesday, just as aid workers were vaccinating children in the camp for measles and screening them for malnutrition, according to a spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders. In the wake of the bombing, human rights groups were trying to assess how the military could have mistaken such a crowded camp for Boko Haram fighters. A terrorism and counterterrorism researcher for Human Rights Watch circulated on Twitter an aerial view of the encampment dotted with tents and other structures. It is situated near a Nigerian military post. The Nigerian military has been engaged in a fierce battle against Boko Haram, which has ties to the Islamic State, for years. Civilians have often borne the brunt of the war against Boko Haram as soldiers have been accused of rounding up and killing innocent people they suspected of being militants. The military has also been accused of accidentally killing civilians in airstrikes in the past. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has declared victory over the militants on several occasions. But the conflict endures, even though military operations have made huge progress killing and arresting hundreds of fighters. On Tuesday, Mr. Buhari said he regretted the error, and Nigerian military officials also expressed remorse, acknowledging they had targeted the wrong spot. The governor of Borno State said friendly fire incidents have occurred in wars throughout history. “It is gratifying that nobody made any effort to hide anything or sweep things under carpet,” Gov. Kashim Shettima said. “War comes with different kinds of very terrible prizes and this is one of such painful prizes. ” The deadly mistake comes as the United States Congress is considering a sale of warplanes to the Nigerian government. Some politicians and humanitarian workers have criticized selling warplanes to a military with a poor record on human rights. Matthew Page, a consultant who until recently was the State Department’s top expert on Nigeria, criticized the use of air power against militants whose main tactic in recent weeks has been sending one or two suicide bombers at a time in attacks on crowded markets or mosques. “Using air power in this late phase of a counterinsurgency is ” Mr. Page said. “The Nigerian government would be wise to use carefully targeted, operations, not aerial bombing campaigns, to mop up what’s left of Boko Haram. ” In Rann, the International Committee of the Red Cross said six people in critical condition were evacuated on Tuesday by helicopter to Maiduguri. About 90 patients remained with 46 still needing to be evacuated, according to the organization. “The conditions for postoperative care are not adequate, so all the patients must be evacuated to Maiduguri as soon as possible,” said Laurent Singa, a surgeon for the Red Cross in Rann. Mausi Segun, the senior Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch, called on the government to compensate the victims and their families. “Even if there is no evidence of a willful attack on the camp, which would be a war crime, the camp was bombed indiscriminately, violating international humanitarian law,” she said in a statement. “Victims should not be denied redress merely because the government decided the bombing was accidental. ”

Another Day at a Monument to Democracy - The New York Times

Dan Barry

WASHINGTON — The glorious Lincoln Memorial was closed on Inauguration Day, leaving its white marble inhabitant to inspire from a distance. The monument had served as a backdrop for an inaugural concert the night before, and now, in the late morning, construction workers were methodically removing the silvery bars of scaffolding that imprisoned it. Even so, its sole resident could still be seen behind the Doric columns, his gaze trained on the domed Capitol, where a peaceful transfer of power was about to take place. And people still came to be in his presence, some to remind themselves that a country riven by dissent can come together. It has before. No matter that the sky was as gray as the Potomac, or that the cold air felt like a wet sweater. Here they were, from the North and South, East and West, in red Trump hats and blue Hillary jubilant, distressed, feeling a part and apart. They stood in admiration of Lincoln, as workers tore down and cleaned up, including a man collecting debris with a picker, his dog tag laced securely into one of his boots. Ed Rich, he said his name was, while taking a Camel break. years old. A mortgage broker from Annapolis, trying to ride out a slow period. So it’s $12 an hour working for the inauguration, putting up fencing, laying down flooring, snapping up cigarette butts with a metal picker. “I voted for him,” Mr. Rich said of Donald J. Trump, at this point still the . “I think he could make a mess of it, but it could be cleaned up easily. People seem to forget there’s a House and a Senate. ” Mr. Rich tossed his spent cigarette into the box of garbage he was carrying and returned to collecting butts and paper bits, his words nowhere near as eloquent as those of Lincoln, carved into the memorial’s walls, yet in the same vein: the belief — often tested, including on this day — in the country’s democratic system of governance. Generations have come to the Lincoln Memorial to reassure themselves — or to remind the rest of the nation — of this foundational belief. The contralto, Marian Anderson, sang here in 1939, after the Daughters of the American Revolution had barred her from another Washington venue she began with “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty. ” The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of course, delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech here in 1963, after Mahalia Jackson called out, “Tell them about the dream, Martin. ” Even Richard M. Nixon, during a dark moment of his presidency (and that is saying something) came here on a very early May morning in 1970, valet in tow he wound up in profoundly strange conversations with some Vietnam War protesters, his disjointed message: Don’t give up on this country. In their footsteps came others on this inaugural morning. Jerry Naradzay, 56, a physician from Henderson, N. C. cycled up to the monument with his son, Sammy, the father’s broad smile explained by his red “Make America Great Again” cap. He noted that the memorial’s stone had come from both the North and the South to convey unity after division. He then said he had goose bumps just thinking of more than two centuries of peaceful transfers of power. Nodding toward the memorial, Dr. Naradzay said, “This monument represents how the country is bigger than one man. ” Standing nearby in full agreement were four Hillary Clinton supporters from Wisconsin’s North Country. They had made plans for this Washington visit in expectation of a different result, but decided to come anyway, in part to participate in the women’s march on Saturday. So: How did they feel? “Hollow,” said Jackie Moore, 33, a member of the Ashland City Council. Several awkward seconds of silence followed. When conversation resumed, another Ashland council member, David Mettille, 32, and his partner, Teege Mettille, 36, recounted how their blue Hillary shirts had spurred some heckling, but they didn’t mind. It was their way of saying: We’re still here. “We will remember this,” David Mettille said. “We will remember how painful today is, so that four years from now — we work to win. ” Then Teege Mettille noted that they had about a left of President Obama, and off the visitors from Ashland went. It was true: Time was winding down, or winding up. From the ceremony in the distance, beyond the reflecting pool’s greenish waters, came the echoes of ministers beseeching God for guidance, the raised voices of the Missouri State University Chorale, the somber tones of imminent transition. All the while, others came to be in Lincoln’s presence. A retired civil engineer from Virginia who said he had voted for Mr. Trump because a relative is a heroin addict, and because the Mexican border is a sieve. A couple from Utah who voted for Mr. Trump because their community depends on natural gas and oil. Mothers and their adult daughters from Texas and New Mexico, so dismayed that Mr. Trump would soon be their president that they kept their backs to the inauguration. Soon the Mormon Tabernacle Choir could be heard singing “America the Beautiful. ” Then came the distinctive voice of the new president, his assertions of a restored American greatness in all things floating through the gray noon and up the four score and seven steps leading from the reflecting pool to the memorial. No longer he was now President Trump. While the pageantry unfolded, Mr. Rich, the debris collector, kept working. A former Marine, he said he spent six months in Iraq with a mortuary affairs unit, collecting bodies and body parts from the front. Sometimes there wasn’t enough for certain identification, he said, “so you’d write, ‘Believed to be. ’” He said he was making plans to succeed again in the mortgage business, in a country whose form of government he trusts. But for now Mr. Rich had what he called his mission, which was to keep the plaza beneath Lincoln’s gaze clean.

Agents Accuse Feds of Covering Up Record Border Detainee Numbers for 2016 Election

Henry Wolff

Agents Accuse Feds of Covering Up Record Border Detainee Numbers for 2016 Election Brandon Darby, Breitbart, October 30, 2016 A record number of illegal aliens have crossed the U.S.- Mexico border and are in U.S. Border Patrol custody in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV), according to the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC). Border Patrol Agent and NBPC President Brandon Judd spoke exclusively with Breitbart Texas and condemned the leadership of the Border Patrol’s parent agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), for allegedly “keeping this information secret” ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. “We are at breaking point. We have the highest number of illegal aliens in custody in history in Border Patrol’s RGV Sector and this information has been kept from the American public,” said Agent Judd. “The talk of amnesty has once again created pull factors and encouraged people from all over the world to cross Mexico and then cross our porous southern border to illegally enter the U.S. We are simply overwhelmed.” {snip} Agent Judd told Breitbart Texas that Americans should vote their conscience, but they should do so with all of the information available. “This is an issue of the federal government restricting crucial information from the public ahead of a presidential election and it is unacceptable. Americans deserve to know the truth. Our Border Patrol agents deserve for Americans to know what they are really facing. Too many Border Patrol agents have given their lives and left loved ones to grieve for CBP leadership to play these types of political games ahead of such an impactful election.” {snip} Historically, CBP, Border Patrol’s parent agency, has had to correct false assertions and denials. Perhaps the most glaring example occurred in June 2014 when an official CBP Twitter account directly accused this reporter of publishing a false report, only to later admit the report was accurate and true . {snip} UPDATE: Breitbart Texas received this response from CBP: First, the number in custody in RGV is less than half what is was in June 2014. Also, I would refer you to Secretary Johnson’s statement about southwest border security issued October 17. In it, the Secretary addresses the specific issue of unaccompanied children and family units. The statement includes statistics for the full year of fiscal year 2016. You can find it on DHS.gov in the press release section of the website.

Oliver Stone: Trump-Russia Connection a ’Path That Leads Nowhere’

Lucas Nolan

Director Oliver Stone believes Democrats’ repeated inquiries into alleged connections between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russian government is a “path that leads nowhere. ”[In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald to discuss his latest documentary — about Russian President Vladimir Putin — Stone discussed his experience interacting with the Russian leader and what his documentary aims to convey to a Western audience. “It’s not a documentary as much as a question and answer session,” he said. “Mr. Putin is one of the most important leaders in the world and in so far as the United States has declared him an enemy — a great enemy — I think it’s very important we hear what he has to say. ” The documentary will reportedly focus on Putin’s version of events since he became president of Russia in 2000. “It opens up a whole viewpoint that we as Americans haven’t heard,” Stone said. “We went to see him four different times over two years. ” Stone reportedly discussed a number of topics with President Putin, including the case of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. He also noted that the Russian president “talks pretty straight,” and hopes his documentary can help explain Putin’s points of view to a Western audience. When questioned about allegations made by Democrats and the political left that President Trump has direct connections to Russia, Stone replied: “That’s a path that leads nowhere to my mind. ” “That’s an internal war of politics in the US in which the Democratic party has taken a suicide pact or something to blow him up in other words, to completely him and in so doing blow up the US essentially,” he said. “What they’re doing is destroying the trust that exists between people and government. It’s a very dangerous position to make accusations you cannot prove. ” Read the Sydney Morning Herald‘s full interview with Stone here. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com

Trump’s Economic Vows May Be Harder to Hit After a Slow 2016 - The New York Times

Nelson D. Schwartz

President Trump’s target for economic growth just got a little more distant. The government reported Friday that the economy grew by only 1. 6 percent last year, shy of what experts had estimated and well below the 4 percent rate that Mr. Trump has vowed to deliver — a pledge now cited on the White House website. There are plenty of signs of life in the economy. Consumer spending is healthy, and an index of consumer sentiment just hit a high. Stocks have been surging, and the jobless rate is near what the Federal Reserve considers full employment. But however solid, the recovery under President Barack Obama never reached exuberance. It is the second longest recovery in American history but the first in the postwar era in which growth for a full year did not hit 3 percent. Mr. Trump made that data point a focus of his campaign, citing factories that closed during the recession but never reopened and workers who gave up looking for jobs and dropped out of the labor force. And economists, even if they disagree with his policy prescriptions, acknowledge that many areas have been left behind. While Friday’s report will provide more support for Mr. Trump’s argument, the lackluster pace of economic growth may also complicate the new administration’s plans. Indeed, some of the headwinds in 2016 — like a widening trade deficit and cautious spending by businesses — could persist into 2017 and beyond. In particular, lower exports and higher imports also hurt growth in the fourth quarter, which fell to an annual rate of 1. 9 percent from 3. 5 percent in the prior quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. In 2016, personal consumption — which accounts for a majority of economic activity — slowed from 2014 and 2015. In addition, the sharp plunge in oil prices over the same period prompted steep cuts in energy production and exploration, contributing to a drop in business investment. All of this underscores why analysts say that Mr. Trump’s growth rate target of 4 percent is audacious at best and fanciful at worst, especially given broader factors like an aging population and the growth rate of 2 percent or so that has prevailed since the recovery began in 2009. “It would defy gravity,” Diane Swonk, a veteran independent economist in Chicago, said. Four percent growth would require big gains in the size of the work force and productivity, but neither is in the offing, Ms. Swonk said, adding, “It’s simple math. ” At the same time, the Federal Reserve has signaled that it is ready to raise interest rates a few times this year, and a faster expansion would only accelerate the Fed’s plan to tighten monetary policy to head off inflation. Whatever the growth trajectory is in 2017, Fed officials will have a tricky time navigating the political and economic currents under Mr. Trump. Not only did he criticize the Fed chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, during the campaign, but his assessment of the current economy is more downbeat than the Fed’s. One week into the Trump administration, there are many other economic wild cards for policy makers and private forecasters to contemplate, including the impact of congressional efforts to reshape the corporate tax code, trade tensions with Mexico and China, and the proposed repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. Tax cuts could open the way for new spending and investment. But more expensive imports from Mexico could be painful for many consumers, for example, while a trade war with China would hurt American companies like Apple, General Electric and Caterpillar. What is more, although the Commerce Department report focused on the last three full months of Mr. Obama’s second term, anemic economic activity could add to the revenue shortfall the federal government will most likely face from the personal and corporate tax cuts Mr. Trump has discussed. “It’s difficult to see how we would get to 4 percent growth given the current structure of the economy, especially demographics and productivity growth,” said Gus Faucher, deputy chief economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh. “That would be true no matter who is the president. ” The retirement of the baby boomers will limit the size of the labor force, he said, while productivity gains from technology are not expected to accelerate from the current level, as they did with the adoption of the internet or mobile phones in the 1990s. Weak growth does strengthen arguments for a federal program to fortify the nation’s infrastructure — an approach Mr. Trump has advocated that could provide an economic stimulus. Since Mr. Trump’s victory in November, many economists have been raising their projected growth rates for the latter half of 2017 and for 2018. That is not necessarily because they feel Mr. Trump’s policies will prove beneficial in the long run. Instead, it is because the tax cuts and infrastructure investments he has called for could bolster the economy in the short term. Mr. Faucher lifted his growth forecast to 2. 4 percent in 2017 and 2. 7 percent in 2018. Previously, he expected output to expand by 2. 25 percent in each year. “Tax cuts and infrastructure spending represent a much more expansionary fiscal policy than we’ve had in some time,” he said. But Mr. Faucher cautioned that increasing the federal deficit, which stood at $587 billion in 2016, by hundreds of billions more in the coming years could increase interest rates, which were already moving higher. Rates, including mortgage rates for home buyers, are already up more than half a percentage point since the election, on expectations of more borrowing and faster growth. But in economics, as in life, everything cuts both ways. The rise in interest rates has also strengthened the dollar relative to other currencies. While that has been good news for American tourists, a stronger currency is bad news for American exporters, with imports becoming cheaper while the price of products abroad rises. The prospect of a stronger dollar also makes it more difficult to achieve another of Mr. Trump’s economic goals: a revival of the American manufacturing sector. Manufacturers are more dependent on foreign sales than many other businesses, but a rising dollar makes their products less competitive overseas. On Friday, the White House announced a manufacturing jobs initiative, naming chief executives like Andrew N. Liveris of Dow Chemical and Elon Musk of Tesla to the as part of the effort, along with labor leaders from the A. F. L. . I. O. The dollar is rising on expectations of faster growth in the United States and because of the jump in domestic interest rates, which make American financial assets like bonds more appealing to global investors than debt in Europe and Asia. “Mr. Trump can’t control the dollar, and that will be a big factor this year,” Mr. Faucher said. “Trade is likely to be a drag on growth. ”

Russian Hackers Gained ‘Limited’ Access to R.N.C., Comey Says - The New York Times

David E. Sanger and Matt Flegenheimer

WASHINGTON — The director of the F. B. I. James B. Comey, told lawmakers at a Senate hearing on Tuesday that Russian hackers had penetrated the Republican National Committee’s computer records, but he called it a “limited penetration of old R. N. C. ” computer systems that were “no longer in use. ” Mr. Comey’s statement was significant because the committee said weeks ago that it did not lose data to the Russians because of its strong cybersecurity. Donald J. Trump has repeated that assertion and has also said weaknesses in Democratic National Committee systems had opened the way for their systems to be hacked. While Mr. Comey did not go into detail, he appeared to be referring to a attack on a contractor in Tennessee, Smartech Corporation, used by the Republican committee to host some of its websites and handle some lists of donors. Federal investigators have said that a single email server used by that contractor had been penetrated. But it was going out of service and contained outdated material that the Russians probably found to be of little value. People with direct knowledge of the server’s contents said it had been used by Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain. An aide in Mr. Graham’s office said the hacking of the email server in question occurred in June. The Graham campaign was using the server to send news clips and campaign releases, the aide said. In an unclassified report released on Friday, the intelligence community reported that the Russians had attacked “ ” organizations but that they had chosen not to make any of that data public. The report made no specific reference to the Republican National Committee. Pressed on the issue by Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, Mr. Comey said on Tuesday that there was “evidence of hacking directed at the state level” and at the Republican committee, “but that it was old stuff. ” He said there was no evidence “that the current R. N. C. ” — he appeared to be referring to servers at the committee’s headquarters or contractors with current data — had been hacked. There is no evidence that computers used by the Trump campaign or the Clinton campaign were also compromised, though the personal email account of John D. Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, was copied and released as part of the hack. The testimony on Tuesday was the first since the release of the declassified report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, and it came four days after the findings were described to Mr. Trump. The panel, convened by the Senate Intelligence Committee, included James R. Clapper Jr. the director of national intelligence, and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency and of the military’s Cyber Command. John O. Brennan, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Mr. Comey also testified. Mr. Clapper largely repeated the conclusions of last week’s report, including that the goal of the Russian effort was to disparage Mrs. Clinton — whom the Russians hoped to weaken if she won — and over time to favor Mr. Trump. Under questioning, Mr. Clapper said he believed that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his aides had actively ordered the operation that resulted in the hacking, though he left unclear how involved they may have been in the details. After receiving a briefing on the report on Friday, Mr. Trump acknowledged for the first time that Russia had sought to hack into the Democratic National Committee’s computer systems. But he insisted that the effort had played no role in his election, and he said nothing about the conclusion that Mr. Putin preferred him to Mrs. Clinton. Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and the committee’s vice chairman, called the election hacking “one of the most serious events of my public life. ” At times, Democrats on the committee steered the conversation toward whether intelligence officials were investigating any link between the Russians and Mr. Trump’s campaign. But Mr. Comey declined to discuss it. “Especially in a public forum, we never confirm or deny any investigation,” Mr. Comey said. Many Democrats still blame him for Mrs. Clinton’s defeat, citing his ambiguous letter less than two weeks before the election disclosing new questions about emails on her private server. Senator Angus King, independent of Maine, who supported Mrs. Clinton, could not resist an aside. “The irony of your making that statement here I cannot avoid,” he said. Mr. Comey, seeking to establish a nonpartisan air, later joked, “I hope I’ve demonstrated by now I’m tone deaf when it comes to politics — and that’s the way it should be. ” Republicans, for their part, raised few doubts about the intelligence community’s conclusions, but they dwelled little on the report’s finding that Mr. Putin had a clear preference for Mr. Trump. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, suggested that Russia had achieved its broader goal of sowing “chaos and disorder” in the electoral system.

Trump's presidency and the future of US-Russia relations

Trump's presidency and the future of US-Russia relations With Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidency in surprising fashion, Russia Direct sat down with Carnegie Moscow Center Director Dmitri Trenin to discuss the implications of his presidency on U.S.-Russia relations With Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidency in surprising fashion, Russia Direct sat down with Carnegie Moscow Center Director Dmitri Trenin to discuss the implications of his presidency for U.S.-Russia relations. ; U.S. President-elect Donald Trump stands during a rally in Bentonville, Arkansas. Photo: AP Regardless of the early forecasts and preliminary exit polls predicting the loss of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, he won, doing far better than anyone could have predicted. By the end of the night, he had garnered 288 of the required 270 Electoral College votes, with his Democratic counterpart Hillary Clinton having received 215 votes, according to the latest data from CNN . The question is whether Trump now has a political mandate to move forward with his many controversial domestic and foreign policy initiatives. Critics point to the fact that Trump and Clinton split the popular vote almost exactly in half, and that many of the states Trump won were only by virtue of razor-sharp margins. In addition, he will still need to contend with divisiveness within the U.S. Congress, where it may be harder to unite the nation. Primarily, Trump’s victory results from the fact that Americans —faced with social and economic challenges within their own country — became very disappointed with their establishment and political elites as well as with the whole concept of globalization . And this trend is commonplace, not only for the U.S., but also the entire West. Also read: " The real reason why Vladimir Putin needs Donald Trump " As Russia’s Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin wrote via his Twitter account , the American presidential elections show that the current dynamic of the global processes doesn’t meet the expectations of many people. He described the U.S. elections as “the continuation of the Brexit,” with right-wing and populist forces gaining influence throughout Europe. Prominent Western experts echo this view. For example, historian Niall Ferguson, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and Harvard University’s Center for European Studies, argues populists like Trump “are nearly always part of a global phenomenon,” with 2016 having generated “a populist backlash against globalization” and this crisis itself being “global in its scope.” “Populism today has a similarly global quality,” Ferguson wrote . “In June, the British vote to leave the European Union was hailed by populists right across the European continent as well as by Donald Trump in the United States and, implicitly, by Vladimir Putin in Russia.” However, the fact that Trump was finally elected indicates that democracy has proven its resilience, despite any current challenges. ; “Democrats have lost, but democracy has won. America keeps going because it keeps changing. [It is] a bitter pill to swallow, but the body politic needed it,” wrote Carnegie Moscow Center’s Director Dmitri Trenin after the U.S. presidential election results indicted the victory of Trump. Amidst the post-election buzz, Russia Direct sat down with Trenin to discuss the reasons why Americans elected Trump and what it means for U.S.-Russia relations . Carnegie Moscow Center Director Dmitri Trenin. Photo: Russia Direct Russia Direct: Donald Trump is going to be the next president of the United States. What policy toward Russia should we expect from him and how can his presidency affect U.S.-Russia relations? Dmitri Trenin: Trump is unpredictable, in my view. Yet, on the other hand, the reaction to his presidency from the American establishment will also be unpredictable, because Trump won’t be able to conduct and carry out foreign, military and any other initiatives by himself. He will need a team and people. So far, it is very difficult to imagine who will be included in the Trump administration. How will these people be able to work with each other and find common ground? This is also not such an easy question to answer. So, this unpredictability is multilayered in its very nature. That’s why is impossible to outline the Trump administration’s policy. And today this aspect should be taken into account, given the fact that the current agenda of U.S.-Russia relations adds up to one key question, just like it was during the Cold War : How to prevent a hot war? I hope the U.S. and Russia will cooperate and be able to prevent the escalation from spinning out of control and turning into a conflict at the nuclear level. I hope we will avoid such a catastrophe. RD: Some pundits and historians try to find certain logic in the impact of American presidential elections on U.S.-Russia relations throughout history. The logic is very simple: the Republicans are good for the Kremlin — the Democrats are not; the business-minded Republicans are easy to get along with, the idealistic Democrats are not. Thus, Trump is a chance for Russia — Clinton is not. This oversimplified assumption is very popular among many Russian politicians and pundits. What is your take? D.T.: Of course, it is a big oversimplification. It is a myth and it emerged in the times of Republican Richard Nixon’s presidency (1969–1974), when the Soviet Union and the United States established a productive dialogue and the Soviet elites came to the conclusion that their American counterparts saw them as equals, based on their military-strategic parity. This myth was further confirmed by the presidency of Jimmy Carter, who came to power as a Democrat with his ideas on human rights and nonproliferation. During his tenure, Soviet-American relations saw a significant decline. The big difference between the Republicans, whom the Kremlin saw as reasonable and approachable, and the intransigent Democrats was obvious to the Soviet leaders. Nixon and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger were easier to get along with than Carter and his team, who were very difficult to negotiate with. ; Yet if one looks at the problem from a broader historical perspective, the closest relations between Russia and the United States were generally established in the times of Democratic presidents, including Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933–1945) and Bill Clinton (1993-2001), regardless of the fact that the last years of Clinton’s presidency left an unpleasant aftertaste for Russia. Indeed, during Clinton’s tenure the U.S. saw itself as the patron. Washington was both very friendly and too intrusive toward post-Soviet Russia and didn’t see it as an equal partner. But, at any rate, we cannot deny the fact it was a friendship between Moscow and Washington. So, in my view, believing that the Republicans are better for Russia than Democrats is a myth, not to mention the fact that the U.S. is changing today, and the nature of differences between Democrats and Republicans is not the same as previously. RD: Yet where do such myths come from historically? Politically, are there any grounds to come up with such conclusions? D.T.: Yes, there are some reasons to believe in this myth. If we oversimplify, the Republicans embody U.S. business — the Democrats exemplify the ideals of America. However, in reality there is no unanimity — there are many differences within both Republican and Democratic parties. Business is pragmatic. It negotiates, persistently defends its interests and sincerely believes in healthy completion. This is what the Republicans put forward. Meanwhile, the Democrats, since the times of President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), prioritize not material and tangible things, but political ideals such as democratic values. Because the U.S. sees itself as the global center of democracy, the key goal of the Democrats is to make the world safer through democracy. Thus, democracy in this context is seen as the major foundation of security and the entire world order. Such logic implies that moral superiority is much more important than materialism. That’s why the Democrats, unlike the Republicans, more rigorously focus on the domestic policy of other countries and human rights. ; Also read: " Trump, Clinton and the great realignment in American politics " Thus, the co-existence of these two trends — material and moral aspects — shapes American politics. RD: If we extrapolate this to the U.S. policy toward Russia, we face problems at any rate: in the case of idealism, the tensions between two countries will increase if the expectations of two sides about each other won’t come true. Likewise, business-minded and blunt politicians won’t necessarily alleviate these tensions. In contrast, they might aggravate the problem. So, the scheme “Good Republicans—Bad Democrats” is totally flawed. D.T.: Exactly. ; ; ; ; RD: There is a lot of talk about American foreign policy , with the Democrats becoming more hawkish toward Russia and their Republican counterparts being friendlier toward the Kremlin. However, historically, it was vice versa. D.T.: If we talk about Donald Trump, it is the case: He is ready to establish dialogue with Russia. However, if you take the Republican camp in general, there won’t be agreement and unanimity [on how to deal with Russia]. Most importantly, the Republican representatives of the establishment are divided in their view on Trump: Some see him in a very negative light, while the others would like to establish close ties. If we put Russia into this context, it is not seen as a serious problem for American politics despite the fact that it played a role during this year’s presidential campaign as a factor of the pre-election race . However, Russia is not a factor in U.S. foreign policy. It is not a top priority for the United States and the political establishment is hardly likely to overestimate the significance of Russia. And this trend seems to persist in the future. Nobody in the U.S. believes that relations with Russia will be improved until the Kremlin changes its foreign policy course and stops its political rebellion against the system of international relations, established by the United States . Likewise, nobody within the U.S. establishment really believes that Russia’s foreign policy will be changed under Russian President Vladimir Putin, not to mention its domestic policy. Moreover, the U.S. establishment is hardly likely to take Putin very seriously and negotiate with him. And this trend in U.S.-Russia bilateral relations will persist for seven-eight years. The changes that might take place in Moscow-Washington relations will depend to a greater extent on the domestic policies of Russia and the United States.

Justin Trudeau Criticized for Praising Fidel Castro as ‘Remarkable Leader’ - The New York Times

Liam Stack

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada would like the world to know that he was rather fond of Fidel Castro. Or at least, that is the message that many people took from his unusually warm statement on the death of the Cuban dictator, whom he hailed on Saturday as “a remarkable leader. ” “Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century,” Mr. Trudeau said in the statement, which was issued while he attended a summit meeting in Madagascar. He described Mr. Castro, who ruled as a Communist autocrat for almost 50 years, as “Cuba’s longest serving President. ” “While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for ‘el Comandante,’” Mr. Trudeau continued. He added that Mr. Castro was “a legendary revolutionary and orator” whose death had brought him “deep sorrow. ” “I know my father was very proud to call him a friend and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away,” Mr. Trudeau said. (His father, Pierre Trudeau, served as prime minister for over 15 years.) “It was also a real honour to meet his three sons and his brother President Raúl Castro during my recent visit to Cuba. ” Justin Trudeau’s affectionate comments were a radical departure from American reactions to Mr. Castro’s death — the White House diplomatically said it hoped for warmer relations with Cuba, while Donald J. Trump gleefully posted on Twitter, “Fidel Castro is dead!” — and his statement was quickly condemned by political observers in both the United States and Canada. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who is called the Canadian leader’s remarks “shameful and embarrassing. ” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, another said Mr. Trudeau’s statement was “disgraceful” and accused him of “slobbering adulation” of Mr. Castro. In Canada, several members of the opposition Conservative Party condemned Mr. Trudeau’s statement. Kellie Leitch, a lawmaker running for the party’s leadership, criticized the prime minister for his “fawning characterization” of Mr. Castro. Maxime Bernier, another Conservative leadership candidate, called Mr. Trudeau’s praise “repugnant” and rebuked him for suggesting that the Cuban leader’s decades in power had amounted to a form of public service. Mr. Trudeau’s statement also generated a tidal wave of agitated online mockery, the kind of social media blowback to which the telegenic and infinitely prime minister is rarely subjected. In a wink to the moment that brought Mr. Trudeau to national prominence — his televised eulogy for his father in 2000 — jokes about his statement were organized under the hashtag #trudeaueulogies, where critics imagined him waxing poetic about some of history’s great villains. The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 and imposed an embargo on the island for decades, but Canada never pursued similar policies. It began formal diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1945 and maintained them throughout the Cold War, when Mr. Trudeau’s father developed a warm relationship with Mr. Castro. Pierre Trudeau was the first leader of a NATO member state to visit communist Cuba in 1976, and Mr. Castro served as an honorary pallbearer at his funeral, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Hillary’s Warped Notion of American Exceptionalism and Indispensability - Edward Lozansky

Originally appeared at Chronicles Edward Lozansky is president of the American University in Moscow. Jim Jatras is a former U.S. diplomat and foreign policy adviser to the Senate GOP leadership. He recently published a major study, “ How American Media Serves as a Transmission Belt for Wars of Choice .” Perhaps one of the most used and abused political expressions in recent years has been that of “American exceptionalism.” Politicians and commentators routinely invoke it as high principle and accuse their opponents of insufficient devotion to it, or contrariwise blame it for all the ills of the world. For example, in 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin ruffled many Americans’ feathers: “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. . . . We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.” Hillary Clinton weighed in on exceptionalism in an August speech before the American Legion, in which she also took a swipe at Donald Trump : The United States is an exceptional nation. . . . But, in fact, my opponent in this race has said very clearly that he thinks American exceptionalism is insulting to the rest of the world. In fact, when Vladimir Putin, of all people, criticized American exceptionalism, my opponent agreed with him, saying, and I quote, ‘if you’re in Russia, you don’t want to hear that America is exceptional.’ Well maybe you don’t want to hear it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. It needs to be asked, though: when people praise or criticize “American exceptionalism,” are they always talking about the same thing? America, like any country, has its own distinctive history, culture, and traditions. America’s unique founding principles—consent of the governed, due process, constitutionally limited division of powers, representative government—justly have been an inspiration to the world for over two centuries. Thomas Jefferson wrote of the “palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” This “exceptional” idea was new in human history. Any American worthy of the name justly takes pride in it. This is the genuine American exceptionalism of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, lately championed by Reagan. The fact that we have strayed so far from it, both domestically and internationally, is shameful. The unique moral revolution to which the Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor has little connection to the bastard term (usually capitalized as “American Exceptionalism”) that describes post-Cold War U.S. global behavior, by which policymakers in Washington assert both an exclusive “leadership” privilege and unsupportable obligation to undertake open-ended international missions in the name of the “Free World” and the “international community.” This is the counterfeit “Exceptionalism” of a tiny clique of bipartisanapparatchiki—GOP “neoconservatives” and Democrat “liberal interventionists” and their mainstream media mouthpieces —who have little regard for our country’s oldest traditions or the security and welfare of the American people. This second kind of Exceptionalism means that the rules we demand of other countries don’t apply to us (so much for Jefferson’s appeal in the Declaration of Independence to “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind”). Its proponents justify “regime change” in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine, maybe in Russia too . They have wasted trillions of Americans’ tax dollars in the process of making us less safe, not more. Now the Obama Administration is willing to risk confronting Moscow and sparking a new world war in a bid to save al-Qaeda in Aleppo. As Trump has noted: “ You're going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton .” It is this debased and dangerous kind of Exceptionalism that Hillary represents. Closely related is her concept of America’s “indispensability” : “We are the indispensable nation. People all over the world look to us and follow our lead. . . . When America fails to lead, we leave a vacuum that either causes chaos or other countries or networks rush in to fill the void.” It’s no coincidence she is preferred by self-regarded indispensable hacks of both parties who have been up to their elbows in every foreign mess since Reagan. Starting next year, they are eager to give us more of the same. For genuine patriots, the true, uniquely American exceptionalism of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution is our precious inheritance. America’s true exceptionalism is the antithesis of what Hillary and her acolytes intend, as attested by John Quincy Adams : “Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will [America’s] heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.” In scouring the world for monsters to destroy Hillary’s perversion of authentic American principles has more in common with Soviet universalism than the vision of the Founders. In pursuing “ benevolent global hegemony ” the supposed indispensables suggest that other countries and peoples are dispensable—or disposable. In the process, Americans’ freedoms have become disposable too. This is, in a word, un-American—a good old expression that needs to make a comeback. Genuine American exceptionalism and the “America First” policies of Donald Trump don’t mean our withdrawal from the world. U.S. primacy in a multipolar system is something most countries, including Russia and China, would be prepared to accept, however grudgingly. But continuing down the road Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush have blazed for a quarter century promises us just more war, more enemies, and eventual catastrophe. It’s a mistake America cannot afford to make. Did you enjoy this article? - Consider helping us! Russia Insider depends on your donations: the more you give, the more we can do. $1 $10 Other amount If you wish you make a tax-deductible contribution of $1,000 or more, please visit our Support page for instructions Click here for our commenting guidelines On fire

A Sober Look at Everyday Life in Besieged Donetsk

Jafe Arnoldski (noreply@blogger.com)

November 7, 2016 - Aleksey Ilyashevich, PolitRussia - translated by J. Arnoldski - How has life changed in Donbass compared to before the war? For a person who hasn’t had the opportunity to personally visit the Donetsk People’s Republic, answering this question is not easy. Experts argue themselves hoarse on TV screens and instill the most different impressions in us, ranging from Donbass being paradise on earth to a semi-starving ghetto. Where is the truth? As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Of course, life in the DPR is far from our usual ideas about wellbeing, but war doesn’t change people’s lives for the better. Let’s set aside our usually loaded judgements and look at the problem from the other side. Over the past few years of war, the people of Donbass have encountered processes and phenomena with which they never had to deal in peacetime. Some of them are negative and some are positive, but many are difficult to evaluate. They simply exist, and they often offer a better picture of life in the DPR than dry statistics. What exactly are we dealing with? Curfew It is very difficult to adapt to curfew, especially for those who returned to the republics’ cities after a lengthy absence, for which they risk spending a night at the local police department. A second violation threatens 15 days of detention. The curfew lasts from 23:00 until 5:00, but by 22:00 all drinking and entertainment establishments are supposed to be closed so that people can make it home in time. A special permit is needed to be on the streets at night. This equally applies to soldiers. Police law allows law enforcement to act against violators of the curfew very decisively, including up to the use of firearms if necessary. The curfew has been enforced in the DPR since 2014. Since then, it has only been cancelled once - for last year’s New Year’s Eve. The purpose of such measures is not only protecting citizens, but also preventing the DPR territory’s penetration by the enemy’s sabotage-reconnaissance groups. Most people have already become accustomed to the curfew, but they still don’t stop complaining about it (especially young people). Without a doubt, the curfew regime has been one of the most tangible changes in the lives of the republic’s population. Humanitarian aid Compared with 2014 and 2015, the role of humanitarian aid has significantly dropped, but it still comes in to help pensioners whose incomes don’t allow them to purchase all the necessary products. However, it is not only pensioners that receive humanitarian aid, as certain humanitarian aid is specifically provided to patients with diabetes, families with young children, and other vulnerable parts of the population. Deliveries are kept streaming in and, as a rule, problems usually don’t arise. Humanitarian aid came to Donbass along with the war and became firmly established as part of life in every home. Today it is difficult to find a family in which no one stands in line to receive humanitarian aid. Lines Two years of life in semi-wartime conditions has brought many difficulties to the republic’s inhabitants. One of the most noticeable is the rise of queues. It sometimes seems like life here has turned into one big line - lines to the bank, lines for humanitarian aid, lines for salaries (stipends and pensions as well), lines at checkpoints, and lines at the customs checkpoint when going to Russia The main trend in lines in 2016 has been the queues for registering for and receiving passports of the Donetsk People’s Republic. If the passport office begins to accept citizens at 9:00, then people start forming a queue at 5:00. Even those lines which existed before the war have now become even longer with the exception, perhaps, of shop lines. The state apparatus itself is most often at fault, especially since it is more bureaucratized than before the war. But that’s another story. The revival of sports The professional football, basketball, and hockey teams of Donetsk left, so now youth sports are developing much more actively than before. Competitions for young people in different cities of the republic are held with stunning regularity. Caring Russians have contributed to developing sports and the DPR is actively represented and participates in championships in Russia. A recent example: the students sports club called Red Profintern from the city of Enakievo took part in the Russian Taekwondo Cup at the All-Russian Qualifying Tournament for the 2016 world championships of martial arts. Before the war, children never participated in sports at such a level. Children play football in a camp for refugees from Donbass in Russia's Rostov region The authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic have not bet on sports by coincidence. Maintaining youth in an unrecognized state is possible by opening up a sporting future. There are simply no other effective ways. This explains the rapid development of youth sports. The republic’s media Journalism in the DPR today is, unfortunately, at a low level. Many Donbass journalists left during the war. The shortage of personnel has been filled by young people who continue to grow into the place of their older colleagues. Nevertheless, the process of forming and developing a republican media is in full swing. Four television channels operate on the territory of the DPR along with several radio stations, and almost every city has an urban mass newspaper. Local media are developing much more actively today than in the prewar period, as often only they can quickly provide reliable information on what is happening in the state. Changes to school curriculum Curriculum in schools and university has remained fundamentally the same as it was before the war, but certain changes have occurred. Above all, this affects history. If earlier pupils and students studied the history of Ukraine, then today it has been replaced by the history of the Fatherland. By Fatherland is meant Donbass, which is considered in the context of both Ukrainian and Russian history. Something similar is occurring with law students, who have had a hard time. For example, in constitutional law courses, they have to study three constitutions at once: the Ukrainian, Russian, and republican ones. Ukrainian language and literature have not been removed. The number of hours of these subjects remains at the pre-war level. The poets and writers are the same. Even Taras Shevchenko and his displeasure with Tsarist policies has been left in the books. But what has really changed is the situation with admission into universities. If earlier graduates passed the External Independent Testing (similar to the Russian Unified State Exam), then today they have to pass school exams as a result of which they can enroll. The state examinations differ little in assessment though, as the questions are developed according to the same scheme. Education in the DPR has been declared to have transitioned to Russian standards. But by this is understood rather things of a technical nature, while the content of curricula in secondary and higher educational institutions has undergone only some minor changes. The quality of roads and streets The state of roads in the republic, like before, still leaves much to be desired, but the DPR authorities began to handle this as early as 2014. A team of workers laying asphalt is for today’s Donetsk a picture more than ordinary. Even driveways are being repaired. They might not be much better as a rule, but it’s difficult to judge things under shelling. Speaking of automobile roads in Donbass, they’ve been “unloaded” over the years of war, as there are fewer cars. Their number sharply declined during the spring and summer of 2014, when many owners left personal vehicles outside of the republic or feared to exploit their iron horses - using their positions, some “privatizers” acting in the name of the militia didn’t hesitate to “commandeer” cars. In 2015, the city gradually started to be flooded by cars again, but the pre-war traffic still doesn’t threaten the republic’s roads. More than a little has been said about how Donetsk’s frontline streets are cleaner than streets in peace-enjoying Kiev. There are several reasons for this. First of all, there is the selfless work of public services, whose employees have been under fire and killed or received severe injuries. Secondly, the attitude of the people of Donbass towards their city has changed over the war, so they litter significantly less. Thanks to this, Donetsk’s appearance, as well as that of other cities of the republic, has really changed for the better. The cleanliness of streets is one of the main positive changes of recent years. The ruble zone and Russian goods In 2015, the DPR introduced the ruble into circulation alongside the Ukrainian hryvnia. On the republic’s territory was declared a so-called multi-currency zone, where purchases could be paid for in hryvnia, rubles, or even dollars. I myself was witness to when a woman bought bread with a $100 bill and the clerk gave her change in rubles. However, the Russian currency quickly established a monopoly. Today, all financial transactions on the republic’s territory are done in rubles. A small mass of hryvnia remains thanks to the workers of Ukrainian enterprises on DPR territory, who are paid their wages in hryvnia. The republic’s transition to a ruble zone is one of the key changes for residents of the DPR. Goods from Ukrainian manufacturers are almost gone from DPR shelves. Instead of them are products from Russia and Belarus. By and large, the Ukrainian blockade contributed to the resulting product vacuum being filled by competitors. As a result, Ukrainian business lost a multimillion dollar market which fell into the hands of the “Moskal” [derogatory Ukrainian slang for Russians - JA]. Another great Ukrainian “victory,” I suppose. *** As can be seen, life in the Donetsk People’s Republic is complex and not familiar to those who have never lived in a war zone, but it is far from the nightmares described in the Ukrainian media. Local people have learned to live in new conditions in 2 years (even if they haven’t gotten used to it, as you just can’t) and have tried to build the best life possible in every sphere in the republic. Patience, love for one’s native land, and dedication allow people not merely to survive, but to live with dignity despite all the difficulties and problems in the DPR. And there are certainly enough of them, over which people have accumulated more than a few complaints and questions for the local government and the situation overall. Follow us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Donate!

Gennifer Flowers at Debate? Just Making a Point, Says Team Trump - The New York Times

Ashley Parker and Maggie Haberman

Donald J. Trump’s campaign moved on Sunday to squelch reports — set off by the candidate himself — that Gennifer Flowers, the woman whose claims of an affair with Bill Clinton imperiled his 1992 presidential campaign, would be Mr. Trump’s guest on Monday at his first debate with Hillary Clinton. In television interviews on Sunday morning, Mr. Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, flatly denied that Ms. Flowers would attend the debate, at Hofstra University on Long Island. And Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said that in threatening on Saturday to invite Ms. Flowers, Mr. Trump had merely been making a point. “He wants to remind people that he’s a great counterpuncher,” Ms. Conway said on ABC’s “This Week. ” The specter of Ms. Flowers’s attendance arose during a skirmish of psychological warfare between the two campaigns and their supporters in the to Monday night’s matchup. Mark Cuban, the voluble billionaire who owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and is supporting Mrs. Clinton, announced on Twitter on Thursday that Mrs. Clinton’s campaign had given him a seat at the debate to watch her “overwhelm” Mr. Trump. For good measure, Mr. Cuban — who once hosted a reality television show called “The Benefactor,” and more recently offered $10 million to the charity of Mr. Trump’s choice if the Republican nominee would let Mr. Cuban interview him for four hours about his “policies and their substance” — suggested the debate would become known as the “Humbling at Hofstra. ” On Saturday, Mr. Trump responded even more provocatively. The Mr. Trump, whose second marriage grew out of an affair during his first one, has repeatedly raised Mr. Clinton’s infidelities as a character attack against Mrs. Clinton. Several of Mr. Trump’s advisers have a long history of calling attention to Mr. Clinton’s scandals. Ms. Flowers herself lent credence to the idea: “Yes I will be there,” she wrote in a text message to The New York Times on Saturday. She did not respond to messages on Sunday. Each campaign receives tickets from the Commission on Presidential Debates to give to supporters at its discretion, and campaigns often engage in mind games when picking guests, as appeared to be the case with Mrs. Clinton’s choice of Mr. Cuban. But inviting Ms. Flowers would be in a different category. In 1992, Mr. Clinton denied Ms. Flowers’s claim of an affair, but years later, when asked in a deposition whether he had engaged in “sexual relations” with Ms. Flowers, he admitted having done so one time, in 1977. Ms. Flowers, in recently broadcast interviews, has accused Mrs. Clinton of being an “enabler” and has said the scandal is a relevant issue in 2016. Inviting Ms. Flowers would be risky for Mr. Trump, because he faces a potentially gender gap with women, who might be troubled by such an aggressive and personal move. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” John Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, portrayed Mr. Trump’s Twitter post about Ms. Flowers as yet another example of behavior unbecoming of someone seeking the presidency. “You saw his reaction, which is to do his favorite sport, which is to dive in the sewer and go for a swim,” Mr. Podesta said. But on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Pence, the Indiana governor, sought to put an end to the matter. “Gennifer Flowers will not be attending the debate tomorrow night,” Mr. Pence said. “Donald was using the tweet yesterday really to mock an effort by Hillary Clinton and her campaign to really distract attention from where the people — the American people — are going to be focused tomorrow night, which is on the issues. It’s on the choice that we face. ”

Anxiety grows among GOP congressional staffers

Wayne Madsen

Anxiety grows among GOP congressional staffers By Wayne Madsen Posted on October 28, 2016 by Wayne Madsen With their bosses away campaigning, some for their political lives, a number of Republican staffers in Congress are growing anxious over their future employment. With the Senate now favored to be transferred to Democratic control, GOP staffers for members up for re-election on November 8, as well as Republican staffers assigned to various Senate committees and subcommittees, are shopping around their resumes. Although more senior staff can always expect to find employment with Washington’s many lobbying firms and policy-wonkish institutes and foundations, that is not necessarily the case with younger staffers who may find their future options being limited to Starbuck’s baristas and Uber drivers. On the House of Representatives side, Republicans are expected to lose a number of seats in a Democratic wave but GOP control of the House, barring a dramatic shift, is expected to remain in Republican hands. However, staffers for GOP members who are in close races or facing certain defeat are also scurrying around Washington looking for future employment. In what could be termed poetic justice, many Republican staffers who helped push their bosses’ memes against government “entitlement” programs, including unemployment benefits, may be among the first in line at District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland state unemployment offices come December. Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report . Copyright © 2016 WayneMadenReport.com Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required) . This entry was posted in Commentary . Bookmark the permalink .

FARC Rebels in Colombia Reach Cease-Fire Deal With Government - The New York Times

Nicholas Casey

The Colombian government and the country’s largest rebel group said Wednesday that they had agreed to a clearing a major hurdle in the effort to end one of the world’s conflicts. In a joint statement, the two sides said that they had overcome some of the most intractable parts of a peace deal, which they have been negotiating in Havana since 2012. In addition to a the rebels — known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC — agreed to lay down their arms. The two sides said they would hold a ceremony in Havana on Thursday to mark the attended by Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, the FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño and other Latin American leaders. Negotiators hope a final peace deal will be reached in the days or weeks to come. “Tomorrow will be a great day,” Mr. Santos said in a statement. “We worked for peace in Colombia, a dream which is now becoming reality. ” On Twitter, the FARC responded: “We made it. The path to peace must continue, because it’s not an illusion now, it’s a promise. ” The agreement sets in motion an end to the region’s oldest conflict. An estimated 220, 000 people have been killed in more than 50 years of fighting between the guerrillas and the government. More than five million people are estimated to have been displaced. The agreement to lay down arms sets the stage for what will be one of the largest demobilization of guerrilla fighters in years. An estimated 7, 000 FARC foot soldiers and commanders would be expected to disarm. Many were kidnapped as children by the guerrillas and know no other life than one with the rebels. Under a related agreement reached last year during the negotiations, FARC soldiers would enter into a “transitional justice” system, with reduced sentences for those who confess to crimes that took place during the conflict. In many cases, the punishments are expected to be limited to community service. Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, will assist in reintegrating hundreds of child soldiers whom the FARC agreed in May to release. Many quarters of Colombia celebrated the steps announced on Wednesday. “This is a transcendent step,” said Alejo Vargas, a political scientist who heads a group that brought war victims to Havana to speak with negotiators during the talks. “Even if it’s not the final deal, we can say without a doubt the process is irreversible now. ” Others lent support, but voiced concerns about how the deal would be enacted. Luis Mendieta, a former chief of Colombia’s National Police who was kidnapped for 12 years by the FARC, said he worried that many guerrillas would join criminal gangs rather than disarm. He also said that while the FARC had agreed to lay down arms, he believed the group was continuing to extort Colombians in the countryside they control. “The FARC must now not just begin a but end all their hostilities,” he said. “The two aren’t the same thing. ” The FARC, whose origins date to the early 1960s, was founded as a group that vowed to defend the country’s peasants from governments in Colombia. But as the years wore on, the group found a potent source of revenue in kidnapping city dwellers. By the 1990s, the FARC had also expanded into the coca trade, earning millions by taxing growers and, according to American and Colombian officials, trafficking cocaine. In 1999, the two governments announced Plan Colombia, an aid package in which the United States poured some $10 billion into Colombia to fight drug traffickers. Many FARC leaders have been killed and the group has suffered from mass desertions in its ranks. It counted 17, 000 members in the early 2000s, a group that is estimated at 7, 000 or fewer today. During the negotiations, the Colombian president, Mr. Santos, said he would hold a referendum on the agreement. A peace plan remains generally popular among most Colombians, with recent polls showing a majority — around 60 percent — saying they would vote for it. Among the harshest critics of the deal is Álvaro Uribe, the former Colombian president whose military crackdown on the FARC many credit with forcing the rebels to the negotiating table. Mr. Uribe has repeatedly said the deal amounts to an amnesty for the FARC and has accused Mr. Santos of being a traitor. Jorge Robledo, a leftist senator from an opposition party, says Mr. Uribe’s position is too extreme. While he believes that challenges remain in reintegrating FARC members into society, the opportunity for a is too important to pass up, he said. “Disarming the FARC won’t resolve all of Colombia’s problems,” he said. “Some violence will disappear, some won’t. And other problems will continue in this country, like poverty, unemployment, an agrarian crisis and corruption. But this doesn’t take away from the immense importance that a has for this country. ”

5 Killed at BPM Festival in Mexico - The New York Times

Kirk Semple

MEXICO CITY — Five people were killed early Monday at a crowded nightclub in the popular Caribbean tourist destination of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, when an armed man who had been denied entry opened fire inside the club, prompting a gun battle and a stampede, officials said. Four of the victims, including three members of the security team that had blocked the gunman’s entry, were hit by bullets, and the fifth victim was trampled in the resulting pandemonium, the authorities said. The shooting occurred at the Blue Parrot nightclub, which was hosting the final night of the BPM Festival, an international electronic music event that draws fans from around the world. The gunman entered the club around 2:30 a. m. but was turned away at the door because he was carrying a weapon, said Miguel Ángel Pech, the state attorney for Quintana Roo State, on the Yucatán Peninsula. The man then opened fire, and as patrons threw themselves to the ground or rushed for the exits, security guards at the club “repelled” the attacker, Mr. Pech said, adding that the guards were apparently armed. The victims included two Canadians, a Colombian, an Italian and a Mexican, and at least 15 other people were injured, including at least three Americans, the authorities said. The gunman has not been captured or identified, but several people were detained soon after the shooting and were being held for questioning, officials said. Mr. Pech, speaking at a news conference on Monday morning, did not suggest why the gunman had tried to enter the club with a weapon, but he said the attack was not an act of terrorism. In an interview with Foro TV later in the day, the state attorney said that investigators had not discounted the possibility that the attack had something to do with a fight between criminal groups or with an extortion racket. Investigators at the scene have recovered 20 casings from three firearms, officials said, though it remained unclear whether some of the bullets had been fired by weapons belonging to the security personnel or, perhaps, to one or more patrons. Humera Hamad, a resident of El Paso, Tex. who was on vacation in Playa del Carmen, said she was in the club when the shooting started. “I couldn’t see anything,” she said in an interview. “I just heard a blast and ran out of there, then started jumping fences. ” She added, “I never looked back. ” Fabian González Camacho, 33, was standing outside the club, near the entrance, and ran for safety after the attack began. “I kept thinking: ‘This is going to be a massacre. They are going to kill us all,’” he said. Survivors sought sanctuary in other nightclubs and stores, he said. “A wave of panic, uncertainty and survival kicked in,” he said. “We were all vulnerable people, having fun, getting drunk, many also doing drugs, and then this happened. ” Videos taken after the shooting and posted online showed clubgoers rushing through the streets of the resort town and crouching beneath tables outside nearby clubs and bars, stricken faces bathed in the glow of neon lights. “We are overcome with grief over this senseless act of violence,” the BPM Festival management said in a statement posted on the company’s Facebook page. The festival is an annual event that draws D. J. s, industry professionals and revelers from around the world to Playa del Carmen, on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán. The shooting could put a dent in the robust tourism industry of the Yucatán, which has generally been less violent than many other places in Mexico, attracting millions of visitors to its white sand beaches and Mayan ruins.

Boris Johnson Won’t Seek to Lead Britain, but Michael Gove Will - The New York Times

Steven Erlanger and Stephen Castle

LONDON — In a day of intrigue and betrayal, predictions about the next prime minister of Britain were overturned on Thursday as the presumed favorite, Boris Johnson, said he would not run after his ally in the Brexit campaign, Michael Gove, suddenly announced his candidacy. Mr. Gove had once ruled himself out for the job. His Thursday wrecked Mr. Johnson’s prospects and enhanced those of Theresa May, the home secretary, who had backed the Remain campaign but with little enthusiasm. With Mr. Johnson out, the prospect of a race between Ms. May, 59, and Mr. Gove, 48, the justice secretary, also indicated that the next prime minister would not seek to keep Britain in the single market of the European Union if the price was no restriction on immigration from the bloc. The sense that Mr. Johnson, the former London mayor, might try to reach a softer deal with Brussels, and his unwillingness to promise key jobs to Mr. Gove and other leaders of the campaign to exit the European Union, helped doom his candidacy, legislators said. Mr. Gove said Thursday that he had “come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead. ” Ms. May supported staying in the European Union but was a relatively quiet voice in that debate and made no enemies. She is considered a candidate of continuity who is farther to the right than Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation the day after the vote for to leave the bloc. On Thursday, Ms. May ruled out a second referendum or any effort to rejoin the European Union, emphasizing that there must be better control of immigration. “Brexit means Brexit,” she said. “The campaign was fought, the vote was held, turnout was high and the public gave their verdict,” she said. “There must be no attempts to remain inside the E. U. no attempts to rejoin it through the back door and no second referendum. ” She said that negotiations with Brussels would take years and that they would not start before the end of the year, despite impatience among European leaders. It is notable that the chairman of her campaign is a “Brexit” supporter, Chris Grayling, the leader of the House of Commons. While the bookmakers made Ms. May the new favorite to succeed Mr. Cameron, she is vulnerable to charges that in her years as home secretary, she failed to reduce net immigration to Britain. Also seeking the office are Stephen Crabb, a young Welsh lawmaker who is the work and pensions secretary Andrea Leadsom, the energy minister and Liam Fox, a former defense secretary. The turmoil in the Conservative Party is following a script, with friends betrayed and secret deals, that seems derived from “Game of Thrones,” itself drawn from centuries of English history. Mr. Johnson, in his own speech, included a reference to Brutus in “Julius Caesar,” and spoke of “a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. ” It was not a time to “fight against the tide of history, but to take that tide at the flood and sail on to fortune,” Mr. Johnson said. Mr. Johnson himself played Brutus to Prime Minister Cameron’s Caesar. But he got to be Caesar for only a very short time before Mr. Gove took on the role of Brutus. Mr. Johnson, a betrayer betrayed, seemed more rueful than angry. And he was silent about which candidate he might now support. Mr. Gove, who was a close friend of Mr. Cameron before backing the British exit, appears to have been encouraged to run by Cameron aides who vowed privately to try to block the ascension of Mr. Johnson, regarded as more interested in the game of politics than in the substance. It has been evident in the days since the referendum that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Gove had had no plan for what to do if they won, and that they have disagreements about how to approach the future. Even Thursday morning, Mr. Gove was vague about his aims should he become prime minister. He said his “plan for the United Kingdom, which I hope can provide unity and change” would be unveiled “in the coming days. ” Ms. May, the daughter of a vicar, portrayed herself as a candidate for ordinary voters. “If you’re from an ordinary family, life is just much harder than many people in politics realize,” she said. “You have a job, but you often don’t have job security. ” “Frankly, not everybody in Westminster understands that,” she said, referring to Parliament and the government. If selected by the Conservatives, she would be the second woman to become Britain’s prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher. The five candidates will be winnowed down to two by successive votes by Conservative Party members of Parliament, beginning on July 5. One of those two will then be chosen as the next leader by the 150, 000 or so registered members of the party, with an outcome to be announced on Sept. 9. The opposition Labour Party, too, is in the midst of a leadership struggle. The incumbent, Jeremy Corbyn, overwhelmingly lost a vote among Labour’s members of Parliament, but he has said he will not resign. He faces an expected challenge by Angela Eagle, the former Labour spokeswoman for business. If both Ms. May and Ms. Eagle emerge victorious, women would lead Britain and Scotland. Women would head both main British political parties as well as all three in Scotland and one in Wales. There were auguries on Wednesday when an email to Mr. Gove from his wife, Sarah Vine, a journalist, was leaked. In it, she urged her husband to approach a commitment to Mr. Johnson with skepticism, and to lock down any commitments beforehand, especially on controls over immigration. She encouraged Mr. Gove to have “leverage” in his dealings with Mr. Johnson, claiming that without Mr. Gove’s support, the Conservative Party membership will not have “the necessary reassurance to back Boris” in the leadership vote. In another Shakespearean reference, Ms. Vine has been lampooned on social media as a pushy, plotting Lady Macbeth. Less than two weeks ago, just days before the June 23 referendum, Mr. Gove was adamant that he did not have the desire or the talent to become prime minister. Praising Mr. Cameron “as an exceptional person with exceptional talents,” Mr. Gove told The Daily Telegraph, “I don’t think I have got that exceptional level of ability required for the job. ” Four years ago, Mr. Gove told the BBC, “I could not be prime minister, I’m not equipped to be prime minister, I don’t want to be prime minister. ” But all that was then. Mark Field, a legislator who was planning to back Mr. Johnson, said, “At least it shows that it’s not just the Labour Party that is capable of being a complete shambles. ”

How does the Soviet past affect Russia's relations with the world?

RBTH, Nikolai Shevchenko

fall of the ussr , Valdai , sochi In days when modern Moscow is being accused of pursuing similar ambitions to the USSR, the assembled experts tried to formulate the basic myths about Russia’s Soviet past. Source: Panthermedia / Vostock-photo The world's leading scholars and analysts from the Valdai Club have analyzed collapse of the Soviet Union and compared the direction of current Russian foreign policy to that of its predecessor at a meeting of the international discussion forum in Sochi on Oct. 24-27. In days when modern Moscow is being accused of pursuing similar ambitions to the USSR, the assembled experts tried to formulate the basic myths about Russia’s Soviet past and discussed whether the Kremlin is seeking to re-establish. Deliberately dismantled? "I do not believe that there is an inevitability that in 1991 the Soviet Union had to collapse. There are plenty of reasons why it did not have to occur then," Robert Legvold, Professor Emeritus at Columbia University and director of the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative, told RBTH, adding that none of the main theories that experts put forward in their search for the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 explain the phenomenon fully. Wherever the reasons for the collapse were hidden – in the political and economic system of the USSR or the problem of nationalities that fueled separatist aspirations in some parts of the multinational association – it is still impossible to say with certainty why the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, said Legvold. 13th annual meeting of Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi / Source: Anatoly Strunin / TASS The failure to completely understand the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union fuels the opinion that the Soviet Union was deliberately dismantled. "In Russia, too many people believe that the Soviet Union was dismantled, rather than that it broke down on its own," Andrei Tsygankov, a professor at the departments of political science and international relations at San Francisco State University, told RBTH. The view that the crisis in the Soviet Union was not of a structural nature is confirmed by the fact that in 1988 the economic situation in the USSR improved, Tsygankov said. "Perhaps it was not a structural, but a cyclical crisis. If the policies had been different, it would have been possible to change the situation," he suggested. However, an even more interesting question, according to Tsygankov, concerns the extrapolation of the principles of Soviet foreign policy to modern Russia. Few ambitions "The train has left," said Richard Sakwa, Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent, responding to RBTH's question about whether Moscow is looking for the impact on other countries that it had in Soviet times. It is a mistake to think that any strengthening of Russian influence in the post-Soviet space should necessarily mean the Kremlin's desire to recreate the Soviet Union, he explained. Legvold agreed, arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s infamous words about the collapse of the USSR being "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" should not be interpreted as his desire to restore the Soviet Union at the earliest opportunity. Putin: Use of 'mythical' Russian military threat a ‘profitable business' Contemporary Moscow has no ambitions to involve neighboring countries in Cold War-era blocs, believes Legvold. According to the expert, Russia, like any country, wants to have a say in making regional decisions affecting its interests, but this does not mean that Russia is looking for a way to gain full control over its neighbors. That is why the countries of the Western world should not take Russia as a potential aggressor; Moscow's main task now is to improve the economic and demographic situation in the country, says John Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. At the same time, a number of those gathered in Sochi expressed a belief that criticism of Russian integration initiatives is due to the fact that they call into question the faith of the Western countries that there is no alternative to the modern world order. "The universal system established by the West after 1991 is trying to […] homogenize political space across the globe," said Sakwa. "The development of BRICS and other alternatives is precisely the argument to say that there is now an alternative force, where this unipolar universalism no longer applies." At the same time, Moscow is not looking for ways to oppose the Western world with an alternative world order deliberately, according to experts, who are convinced that Russia's foreign policy initiatives, including its increasingly close cooperation with China, is due primarily to the U.S. and EU policies toward Moscow. "Russians tend to react to the Americans […]. It is the Americans pushing the Russians towards the Chinese which, I believe, is not in America’s national interests," said Mearsheimer.

President François Hollande of France Won’t Seek Re-election - The New York Times

Adam Nossiter

STRASBOURG, France — Battered by months of dismal approval ratings and a stubbornly high unemployment rate, President François Hollande of France announced Thursday night that he would not compete in next year’s election. The unprecedented decision opened up and energized France’s presidential race even as it added further turmoil to the country’s unsettled politics. It also injected new uncertainty into the political dynamic of Europe as and populist forces are gaining strength across the Continent, as well as in the United States. Mr. Hollande had kept France in suspense for months over whether he would seek another term, turning his choice into a kind of national guessing game. His surprise decision — he had been expected to run — was the latest in a series of shocks to French and European politics, which have been upended throughout the year by voter discontent with establishment governance, Mr. Hollande’s included. The announcement — issued by the Élysée Palace, the seat of the presidency — was greeted across the political spectrum as a courageous and dignified decision that, as Mr. Hollande himself made clear, was intended to place the interests of the country above his own. “As a Socialist, because that is my life’s commitment, I cannot accept, I cannot come to terms with the dispersion of the left, with its splitting up,” Mr. Hollande said in a somber statement. “Because that would remove all hope of winning in the face of conservatism and, worse yet, of extremism. ” So low had his ratings fallen — Mr. Hollande plumbed historic depths in some surveys, going as low as 4 percent — that many of his own Socialist colleagues had warned publicly that he was headed for certain defeat if he chose to run. More than that, hanging on to the mantle of for the Socialists threatened to bring the party down with him, rendering it all but irrelevant in elections next spring. That prospect had split his own political grouping wide open. He was even forced to submit to a humiliating primary election — also without precedent — to decide who would be the party’s candidate. Several of his former cabinet ministers had already announced they would run against him. Now, with Mr. Hollande out, the Socialists are thought to have improved their chances, even if only slightly. His prime minister, Manuel Valls, is likely to step up as a leading contender in the primary. Mr. Valls is associated with a kind of toughness that analysts and citizens found lacking in Mr. Hollande, and that could help him compete in the general election against candidates from the right. Those now include a former prime minister, François Fillon, who was chosen on Sunday by the Republican Party’s voters, and the National Front’s Marine Le Pen. Both have ridden a wave of nationalist fervor, anger over immigration and worries about Islamist terrorism, and Mr. Valls has sounded similarly themes. At the same time, Mr. Valls could be tainted by his association with Mr. Hollande’s administration, which has been a study in the slow slipping away of authority. For years an unremarkable Socialist functionary who rose slowly through the ranks, waiting for his turn, Mr. Hollande owed his narrow election in 2012 more to disgust with the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, than to any personal appeal he exerted. Still, the French left was delighted that after years in the political wilderness, it finally had an apparent champion in Mr. Hollande. But he never settled on a clear line of policy. First he campaigned as an Socialist, with threats against finance. Once in office, he quickly veered to giving tax breaks to companies. Finally, he tried to push through a overhaul, but largely backed down after huge street protests. Personal scandals did not help. His image as a leader was severely weakened early on when he was photographed on the back of a motorcycle going to a clandestine tryst with an actress. A separation from his partner followed, as well as a book by her. He then dealt himself a final, perhaps fatal, blow by spending hours confiding the inner workings of his presidency to a pair of journalists. Their book of his confessions, published this fall, was greeted with outrage by members of his party, who were baffled that the man who held the country’s highest office would commit such an act of political suicide. It also made clear that he held basic doubts about socialism, enraging what was left of the party’s rank and file. Analysts have long pointed to Mr. Hollande’s ideological fuzziness — dangerous for a politician faced with a French electorate that has historically demanded clarity and authority from its top leader. But it was his failure to make a dent in France’s unemployment rate — much higher than the national figure of 10 percent among youth in some immigrant suburbs, where it approaches 40 percent — that was perhaps the most decisive blow to his presidency. Months ago, Mr. Hollande suggested that he would not run again if he could not bring it down. He made good on that promise Thursday night. “The major commitment I made to you was to lower the unemployment rate,” a melancholy Mr. Hollande said on national television from the Élysée Palace on Thursday night. “And I devoted to that, with my government, all of my energy, took all of the risks. ” “I lowered taxes on companies, because that’s what is needed to create more jobs. I worked to boost hiring, making worker training a top priority,” Mr. Hollande said. “And I took the responsibility to reform the labor market. The results are there — later than I had said that would be, I admit, but they are there. ” Actually, though, unemployment has not budged significantly during Mr. Hollande’s term. Otherwise, his short speech was a dutiful laundry list of the things he said he had accomplished: legalizing marriage, the Paris climate accord, help for schools, reorganizing France’s local governments. It all lacked a defining stamp, as Mr. Hollande himself appeared to recognize. There was a sense of relief in the immediate reactions of his Socialist colleagues. “This was a difficult choice, reflective and serious,” Mr. Valls said. “I want to express to François Hollande my emotion, my respect, my loyalty and my affection,” Mr. Valls added. He did not announce his own candidacy, but he has been suggesting that he might do so soon. The National Front reacted with glee and mockery to Mr. Hollande’s decision, even though it is now likely to face a much tougher Socialist opponent next year. “It was smart, smart of François Hollande,” said Florian Philippot, a top National Front official. “It’s a good thing for France and the French. It says much about the sense of weariness, the deliquescence, of this term. ”

Hate Speech as a Weapon: Reporters Are Charged for Covering Disturbances

Daily Bell Staff

Hate Speech as a Weapon: Reporters Are Charged for Covering Disturbances 26, 2016 Editor of Austria’s Largest Paper Charged with ‘Hate Speech’ over Migrant Article … An editor of Austria’s largest paper, Kronen Zeitung, is to be tried for hate speech over a commentary he wrote about the migrant crisis last year. –Breitbart News This is part of a larger attack on the Western media, especially the alternative media. It’s surely not a coincidence that these attacks are being launched in several countries. The attack are being coordinated in our view by the same groups involved in the expanding scourge of globalization. More: On 25 October 2015, Christoph Biro wrote of the masses of migrants who were travelling through the Syrian countryside and remarked on the assaults and property damage committed by migrants, reports Kurier. Calling the majority of the migrants “testosterone-driven Syrians”, Mr. Biro recounted the multiple reports of migrants carrying out, in his words, “extremely aggressive sexual assaults”. He also detailed Afghan men had slashed the seats of the trains that were transporting them to Germany because they refused to sit where Christians had previously sat. Biro did not perform the acts but merely reported on them and drew a conclusion. But nonetheless he may go to jail. His case is not isolated but part of a trend. It is one that has reached the US, where Hillary Clinton has hinted at the adoption of similar approaches should she become president. In fact, both Clinton and President Barack Obama have suggested that those who are involved in “hate speech” via media presentations ought to suffer “consequences.” The argument is that such writing disturbs civil society and encourages violence. But this is wrongheaded. People should be prosecuted for actual violence – for deeds not words. ZeroHedge reports: A couple of days ago we noted that protests in North Dakota, over the Dakota Access Pipeline, were growing increasingly hostile with police arresting over 125 people just last weekend alone. Another startling discovery from the weekend was reports of police efforts to shoot down multiple media drones which some thought indicated an increasing hostility toward press seeking to cover the protests. Certainly, Deia Schlosberg, a documentarian who was recently charged with three felonies for filming activists shutting off oil pipelines, would tend to agree. The point here is that Schlosberg is not being prosecuted for deeds, only for her coverage. This is part of a larger effort to conflate reporting with “doing” – and marks a virtual revolution in the way journalism is conducted. In the future, if this tact is pursued, it will be government and law enforcement that can decide what’s going to be covered, depending on the interpretation of the coverage. Conclusion: If the reporting is seen as “inciting” violence or disturbance of civil society, the reporter can face legal consequences as grave or graver than the individuals actually performing the actions. This amounts to virulent censorship.

Lionel Messi and Argentina Miss Again as Chile Wins Copa América - The New York Times

Andrew Keh

EAST RUTHERFORD, N. J. — Lionel Messi had the collar of his shirt pulled up to his nose. With his eyes peeking out just over the fabric, he watched a nightmare unfold. Argentina and Chile had played 120 minutes of ruthless, scoreless soccer on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium. Penalty kicks would be needed to decide the winner of the 45th Copa América. Up stepped Messi, widely regarded as the best player in the world, to take the first shot for Argentina, and he missed, sending the ball sailing over the crossbar and into the crowd. Moments later, he watched as Francisco Silva of Chile buried a shot inside the left post to give his team a shootout win. All of the Argentine players hung their heads near the center circle as the Chileans erupted in celebration. But Messi took a slow, solitary walk across the grass and took a seat on the far end of his team’s bench. He stared at the grass as the Chilean players bobbed up and down in celebration. When he got up again, there were tears in his eyes. The emotions boiled over, and they carried to the locker room. When Messi, 29, he suggested, shockingly, that his national team career was over. “In the locker room, I thought that the national team was finished for me, that it’s not for me,” Messi said. “It’s what I feel right now. It’s a great sadness that it happened to me, that I missed penalty kick that was very important. It’s for the good of everybody. It’s not enough to just get to the final and not win. ” The meeting of Argentina and Chile in the 45th Copa América final was eagerly awaited as an alluring confrontation of two of the finest soccer teams in the world. Yet the game that materialized had all the charm and beauty of a street brawl. Faces puckered in pain and anger. Studded cleats whipped dangerously in the air, aimed at flesh. Bodies collided with other bodies, crumpling and splaying onto the grass. Those in the crowd of 82, 026 — the largest soccer crowd in New Jersey history — who sought a showcase of sophisticated play were instead treated to a stream of crunching tackles, theatrical quarrels, disciplinary cards (eight yellows, two reds). The Chileans, who defeated the Argentines in the same competition last year on Chile’s home soil, will not mind the soreness. Argentina, which has not won a major tournament since 1993, will have a dose of existential despair to accompany the physical pain. Before the tournament, memories of the team’s most recent heartbreaks weighed heavily on Messi’s mind: the Copa América in 2007, in which the Argentines lost a second straight final to their archrival, Brazil the World Cup final in 2014, in which they succumbed to Germany in overtime the Copa América final in 2015, in which they fell to Chile in a penalty shootout. Add 2016, when Chile outlasted them in an unending rumble. “It’s incredible, the fact that we can’t win it,” Messi said. “It’s happened to us again, and by penalty kicks. It’s our third consecutive final. We tried, and it wasn’t for us. ” Messi has played 113 times for Argentina. Last week, with his 55th goal, he became his country’s leading scorer. He has won every award and honor imaginable as an individual and with his club team, Barcelona. But if he does not play another international soccer game, his glittering résumé will have one glaring hole: a championship with Argentina. The game on Sunday had a violent start, establishing a fierce tone, and amid the constellation of superstars on both teams, the referee, Héber Lopes, somehow emerged as the center of attention. The only credible chance of the first half came in the 22nd minute, when Gonzalo Higuaín chipped his shot wide after finding himself one on one with goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. Otherwise, it was a parade of fouls and cards. Marcelo Díaz of Chile picked up a yellow card in the 16th minute for kicking Messi near his midsection. Twelve minutes later, Messi and Díaz collided after Messi had prodded the ball into space on another menacing move, and Lopes ran over holding a second yellow card for Díaz, reducing Chile to 10 men. Two more yellow cards materialized in the 37th minute, after a momentary kerfuffle between Javier Mascherano of Argentina and Arturo Vidal of Chile. Three minutes later, Messi picked up a yellow card for diving. In the 43rd minute, Marcos Rojo of Argentina was issued a straight red card after a slide tackle on Vidal — even though the challenge looked more poorly timed than malicious. On good days, Chile is known for its defense — a system that can make opposing players feel like fish struggling to swim upstream. Argentina at its best can embroider long stretches of passing with the nonchalance of a knitting circle. But reduced to 10 men apiece, the teams resorted to more rudimentary maneuvers. The Argentines had scored 18 goals in their previous five games, but their strategy on Sunday seemed reduced to having Messi try to dribble through the Chilean defense himself. Chile controlled possession, 54 percent to 46, but was severely outshot, . Surrounding the referee, trying to sway him to issue cards to opponents, became a part of the tactical framework of the game. The coaches, Gerardo Martino of Argentina and Juan Antonio Pizzi of Chile, were separated on the sideline at one point. Scoring chances emerged as the game wore on, even as players’ legs grew wobbly, like boxers swaying, seeking a decisive blow, in a bout. The two goalkeepers traded athletic saves in a span of minutes in overtime. Everyone in the stadium — the fans, the players, the referee — seemed exhausted when the game went to penalty kicks. Vidal stepped up first, and his shot was saved by keeper Sergio Romero of Argentina. Then came Messi, who whacked his attempt several yards over the bar. He spent parts of the shootout thereafter on his knees, staring at the ground. Argentina’s fourth shooter, Lucas Biglia, missed, too, setting up Chile’s decisive kick. Messi watched in despair. “There’s not much analysis to go over,” Martino said. “We really had high hopes, and now we’re leaving . ” The sellout crowd — thick with fans of Argentina dressed in light blue and white, speckled throughout with Chile supporters in red — represented one last mass spectacle to cap a month of entertaining games. In recent days, tournament organizers hailed the success of the event, specially scheduled for the 100th anniversary of the tournament and held for the first time outside South America. For the United States, it was a chance to reiterate its capacity to host a future World Cup. The competition drew an average of 46, 119 people per game, more than any other Copa tournament. Sunil Gulati, the president of U. S. Soccer, last week called those figures “World Cup numbers, for an event organized in seven months with 16 teams. ” (The last three World Cups drew averages of 53, 592, 49, 499 and 52, 609 people per game.) The final on Sunday played out under a shadow of scandal, though, with the president of the Argentine Football Association, Luis Segura, and several top soccer officials having been criminally charged in a corruption case in Argentina only three days before the final game. Victor Montagliani, the new president of Concacaf, an organizer of the tournament, said on Sunday that it was something of a miracle that the Copa América had been successfully carried out at all. The tournament figured prominently in the world soccer corruption case announced by the United States Justice Department last year, requiring the associated contracts for media and marketing rights to be torn up. “It was a bit of a Rubik’s Cube to figure it out,” Montagliani said. “This tournament was dead. ” The tournament survived, but it was anguishing for Messi. On Thursday, after the Argentina team plane was delayed, he criticized the federation on his Instagram account, calling it a “disaster. ” He frustration only grew as the weekend went on, through a grueling game against Chile, until he apparently had enough and stepped away from the team altogether.

Assad in Person: Confident, Friendly, No Regrets - The New York Times

Anne Barnard

DAMASCUS, Syria — The guns were silent atop Mount Qasioun and the lights on its slopes twinkled over Damascus as President Bashar of Syria welcomed a group of Western visitors into his palace on Monday night, presenting himself as a man firmly in control of his country. He radiated confidence and friendliness as he ushered a group of British and American journalists and policy analysts into an elegant sitting room where he claimed that the social fabric of Syria was stitched together “much better than before” a chaotic civil war began more than five years ago. It was as if half his citizens had not been driven from their homes and nearly half a million had not been killed in the bloody fighting for which he rejected any personal responsibility, blaming instead the United States and Islamist militants. “I’m just a headline — the bad president, the bad guy, who is killing the good guys,” Mr. Assad said. “You know this narrative. The real reason is toppling the government. This government doesn’t fit the criteria of the United States. ” It was a surreal meeting for me after years of writing about a devastating and intractable war that has reduced several of Syria’s grand city centers to rubble and prompted accusations of war crimes. While hundreds of thousands of Syrians are besieged and hungry, here was Mr. Assad, secure in his palace because he has outsourced much of the war to Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah forces whose influence has grown to a degree that makes some of his own supporters uncomfortable. He was on a mission to convince the West that their governments had made a mistake in backing his opponents and that he was secure in his position as the custodian of Syrian sovereignty. Waxing philosophical, he spoke of every Syrian’s right to be “a full citizen, in every meaning of this word,” and likened intolerant versions of religion to a computer operating system that needed to be updated. He promised that a new era of openness and dialogue was underway in Syria and said that he was thinking ahead about how to modernize Syrians’ mentality after a war that he believed his forces were assured of winning. Mr. Assad ruled out political changes until then and declared that he planned to remain president at least until his third term ends in 2021. Even as Mr. Assad and his inner circle tried out this new line of openness about the situation in Syria, they were hardening their stance against compromising with domestic or international opponents. They contended that the United States was actively backing the Islamic State and other extremist militants, and called allegations of war crimes against Syrian officials politically motivated, fabricated or both. Despite “thousands of Syrians killed by the terrorists,” Mr. Assad asserted, “no one is talking about war crimes” by his opponents. In fact, the day before, the United Nations special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, followed by Amnesty International and other international rights groups, condemned the rebel groups’ indiscriminate shelling of sections of Aleppo, attacks that have killed scores of civilians in recent days. But it is Syrian government warplanes that have indiscriminately pounded residential areas daily for years government forces that have imposed starvation sieges and state detention facilities that hold thousands of people — including peaceful protesters, bloggers and other civilians arrested seemingly at random — who languish without trial, often under torture. We asked Mr. Assad about these things, of course. “Let’s suppose that these allegations are correct and this president has killed his own people, and the free world and the West are helping the Syrian people,” Mr. Assad said in English. “After five years and a half, who supported me? How can I be a president and my people don’t support me?” He gave a small giggle and added, “This is not realistic story. ” Indeed, Mr. Assad has managed to hold on not only because of decisive intervention by foreign fighters, but also because of deeper support in some quarters than many thought he had. Mr. Assad said on Monday that while much of his support came from people who may dislike his policies or the Baath Party he heads, they fear that the alternative would be extremist rule or state collapse. “They learned the value of the state,” he said, acknowledging that this support could diminish if the war ends. “That’s what brought them towards us, not because they changed their mind politically. ” Mr. Assad’s remarks came after a conference organized by the British Syrian Society, headed by his Fawaz Akhras, that was billed as part of a new openness and an effort to compete in what has been termed a news media war. I was among several dozen international journalists and analysts who attended the conference as a way to get into the country after more than two years of being unable to obtain a visa. There was no sign that the policy requiring journalists to travel with minders and to go through elaborate hoops to visit specific areas had changed. But Damascus, the capital, appeared less tense than on my last visit, in 2014. New bars are packed in the historic old city. After advances by forces and what the government calls reconciliation deals with besieged suburbs, artillery fire no longer pounds those districts daily, and rebel mortar fire hits the city less frequently. The message from government officials and Assad supporters echoed the president’s: They believe they are winning and they are ready to engage with the West, but on their own terms. “It is up to the West to rethink about their policies,” the Syrian foreign minister, Walid told a group of us on Monday, adding that the government would welcome, though it did not expect, cooperation from the United States. Mr. Moallem said the government would fight to defeat any militants refusing to return to government rule — be they Kurdish groups in the northeast, or the groups and rebels fighting in Aleppo. He dismissed the possibility of any deal that would retain local opposition control in eastern Aleppo, saying that would “reward those murderers. ” Mr. Assad said during our meeting that “until this moment, we still have a dialogue through different channels,” even to the United States. “But that doesn’t mean to give up our sovereignty and transfer Syria into a puppet country,” he added. The confident statements come amid a much more complicated picture. Despite Russian air support and thousands of militia fighters from Iraq and Hezbollah, the government’s push to retake the half of Aleppo is facing stiff resistance and counterattacks. The Syrian pound is worth of its prewar value against the dollar. Millions of Syrian children are unable to attend school. The Islamic State still holds large swaths of Syria. Mr. Assad, in a dark suit and trademark tie, met us at the top of the palace’s sweeping staircase, saying he found it “more cozy” than the official one. There were no security checks. Hanging in the grand entryway was a painting of a distorted, grimacing figure, a signature work by the Syrian artist Sabhan Adam, who draws inspiration for his “human monsters,” his website says, from “the pain, fear and phobia which our society constantly suffers from. ” Mr. Assad joked about his love of technology — “I follow the gadgets on a daily basis” — and noted with pride that 4G mobile phone technology had been introduced in Syria during the war. But he brushed off reports that he loved video games. “The last video game I played was Atari,” he said. “Space Invaders. ” Pressed on how Syria might be restructured or reformed, he said the first change needed was in its mental “operating system,” which he said was based on religion. Ideologies based on “bad interpretation” of Islam had fueled the war, he said, rejecting analysts’ contentions that his government had accelerated the process by building mosques and funneling jihadist fighters to Iraq during the United States occupation. “Islamization means ‘I don’t believe in anyone who doesn’t look like me, behaves like me, thinks like me,’ ” he said. “Secular means freedom of religion. ” He denied the existence of political prisoners and grew steely when asked about people detained for protesting or writing against the government. “If you support the terrorists, it’s not political prisoner,” he added. “You are supporting the killers. ” He said that he had released tens of thousands of prisoners through amnesties to pave the way for “any solution in our society” but that he had the authority to release only those who had been tried and sentenced. Asked about specific detainees whose families have heard nothing of them for years, he demanded proof, saying: “Do you have documents? Did they see them in prison?” Mr. Assad said he was fighting to preserve state institutions and criticized Western intervention. “Good government or bad, it’s not your mission” to change it, he said.

Opioid Prescribing Gets Another Look as F.D.A. Revisits Mandatory Doctor Training - The New York Times

Barry Meier

A pain management specialist, Dr. Nathaniel Katz, was stunned in 2012 when the Food and Drug Administration rejected a recommendation from an expert panel that had urged mandatory training for doctors who prescribed powerful painkillers like OxyContin. That panel had concluded that the training might help stem the epidemic of overdose deaths involving prescription narcotics, or opioids. At first, Dr. Katz, who had been on the panel, thought that drug makers had pressured the F. D. A. to kill the proposal. Then an agency official told him that another group had fought the recommendation: the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest doctors organization. “I was shocked,” said Dr. Katz, the president of Analgesic Solutions, a company in Natick, Mass. “You go to medical school to help public health and here we have an area where you have 15, 000 people a year dying. ” Now, as the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal and state agencies scramble to find solutions to the vexing opioid problem, the role of doctors is coming back to center stage. The Obama administration recently announced that it supported mandatory training for prescribers of opioids. On Tuesday, a new F. D. A. panel of outside experts will meet to review once again whether such training should be required. The hearing will almost certainly touch off an intense debate inside the medical community and focus attention on medical groups like the A. M. A. which have resisted governmental mandates affecting how doctors practice for both ideological and practical reasons. The panel is expected to make its final recommendation on Wednesday. An F. D. A. spokeswoman said the agency now supported mandatory training. Since 2012, the F. D. A. has required drug companies that produce opioids — drugs like OxyContin, fentanyl and methadone — to underwrite voluntary educational courses on the medications. In a surprise, last week many of those manufacturers came out in support of rules requiring doctors to have specific training or expertise in pain management before getting a license from the Drug Enforcement Administration to prescribe a strong opioid. The approach, which would require congressional action, would ensure that prescribers got “appropriate training in pain management with opioids so their patients can continue to access treatment options,” the group said. Dr. Patrice A. Harris, who is the chairwoman of the A. M. A. ’s Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse, said the organization was committed to helping doctors better use opioids. But Dr. Harris added that the A. M. A. continued to oppose mandatory opioid training for doctors because many physicians do not prescribe the drugs. She added that the group also opposed laws that require doctors to check databases before issuing a prescription for a narcotic painkiller. Such laws, which a growing number of states have adopted, are intended to help doctors identify patients who seek prescriptions from multiple physicians and to help doctors avoid prescribing dangerous combinations of drugs. Data shows that when such programs are voluntary, many doctors do not use them. “We know these tools are a great tool in the toolbox,” said Dr. Harris, who is a psychiatrist. “But they are not a panacea. ” Doctors say measures like checking prescription databases take up more time in days already filled with bureaucratic duties, and many express ideological concerns about government’s reach into medicine. And experts say many doctors believe that their practices and their patients are not responsible for the opioid problem. Timothy Condon, a former official at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said he encountered that attitude in 2010 when several federal agencies approached the A. M. A. and medical groups representing specialists to seek their support for mandatory physician training. “The message was, who are you as feds to tell us how to practice medicine, you already regulate us so much,” said Mr. Condon, who is now a research professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He added that when he countered that the scale of the prescriptions that doctors were writing for opioids was central to the overdose problem, the response from the medical group was “silence. ” Mandatory training before prescribing the drugs is not the only area where government officials and medical experts are cautiously circling each other. The Obama administration has asked American medical schools to incorporate new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about how to treat pain into their curriculums. Along with urging physicians to try nondrug approaches first, the guidelines suggest that opioids be used sparingly. So far, however, only about of the 145 teaching institutions that belong to a major organization, the Association of American Medical Colleges, have agreed to incorporate the C. D. C. guidelines into their programs. Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, the organization’s president, said his group and medical schools were actively working to reduce inappropriate opioid use. But he added that many institutions preferred to develop teaching guidelines based on their own expertise. In addition, Dr. Kirch said that medical school leaders feared that committing to one federal guideline could lead to a situation where lawmakers imposed agendas on physicians that are not in the interest of patient care. Last week, the F. D. A. released data showing the impact of a voluntary approach to educating doctors. The figures showed that only about half of the 80, 000 doctors who the agency had hoped would receive training by March 2015 had completed it. While the agency said the results “make it difficult to draw conclusions regarding the success” of the program, it also raised concerns that requiring training could make it harder for patients to get needed drugs. The F. D. A. will also ask the panel to review whether doctors who prescribe narcotics like Percocet or Vicodin should have access to training. The medical community is not monolithic in its views. Recently, for example, the Massachusetts Medical Society supported legislation in that state imposing a limit on an initial opioid prescription to a supply. Some doctors and dentists give patients 60 or 90 painkillers, enough for a month, giving rise to potential misuse of the drugs or opening a door to addiction. Dr. Katz, the pain expert in Massachusetts, said he understood the resistance of physicians to mandates, including the fear that malpractice lawyers will seek to wield them as weapons. But he has been urging regulators for about 15 years to require doctors to undergo mandatory training. “There is incredible rationalizing that exists,” he said. “There is a problem, and patients and doctors are a part of it. But doctors think it is not me and it is not my patients. ”

John Pilger: ‘The Truth Is... There Was No One To Vote For’ :

informationclearinghouse.info

John Pilger: ‘The Truth Is... There Was No One To Vote For’ Video - Going Underground John Pilger tells us what has been revealed by Trump winning the US election. Plus, what does a Donald Trump presidency mean for the Middle East? Posted November 10, 2016

Mosquito Army Released in Zika Fight in Brazil & Colombia

BBC

Mosquito Army Released in Zika Fight in Brazil & Colombia "Vaccinating mosquitoes..." Image Credits: flickr, 31031835@N08 . Scientists are planning to release an army of millions of modified mosquitoes in areas of Brazil and Colombia. They say the unusual approach is an attempt to provide “revolutionary protection” against mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika and chikungunya. The mosquitoes are infected with a bug called Wolbachia which reduces their ability to spread viruses to people. The $18m dollar project is funded by an international team of donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Jonah Goldberg: Comey Wins Credibility Contest with Trump - Breitbart

Pam Key

.@JonahNRO: ”If it’s a contest between James Comey’s credibility and Donald Trump’s credibility,” Comey wins ”10 out of 10 times.” pic. twitter. Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” while discussing former FBI Director James Comey testifying to Congress next week, Trump critic and National Review senior editor Jonah Goldberg said, “If it’s a contest between James Comey’s credibility and Donald Trump’s credibility,” Comey wins “10 out of 10 times. ” Goldberg said, “I know. But I mean, everything in Washington is sort of a hot mess right now. And I think that, you know, the fact that the Trump White House couldn’t give anybody to come on here and talk about terrorism is a sign of the disarray that they’re in. ” He continued, “Anyway, so their actual attack mode, I think all it does is please the people who are already in Donald Trump’s column. And if it’s a contest between James Comey’s credibility and Donald Trump’s, I think Comey’s brand wins that, you know, 10 out of 10 times. ” Follow Pam Key On Twitter @pamkeyNEN

The Republican Party Finally Set Free From The Grip Of The Bush Crime Family And Other Phonies

Geoffrey Grider

NTEB Ads Privacy Policy The Republican Party Finally Set Free From The Grip Of The Bush Crime Family And Other Phonies To the Bush Crime Family, Colin Powell, William Kristol, and all the other phony Republicans who were exposed, you will not be welcome in the new America under President Donald Trump. You are fakes, frauds, phonies and criminals. Now that you're out, stay out and don't come back. by Geoffrey Grider November 10, 2016 Donald Trump single-handedly took down the entire corrupt wing of the Republican Party Donald Trump’s run for the presidency over the past year and a half revealed some amazing things, it flushed out the rats that had hijacked the Republican Party like the Bush Crime Family and others. While George W. Bush declared that he and his wife Laura “ would not be voting in this election “, his father George H.W. Bush actually voted for Crooked Hillary Clinton . (If you’d like a cheat sheet of the rest of the Republirats who jumped ship, click here .) Why did many of the pretend Republicans not vote for Donald Trump? Because they are part of the New World Order elite globalists, and they could not possibly support Trump’s America First agenda. The Bush Crime Family, after 28 years of corrupting the GOP, was finally exposed to the sunlight and what an ugly sight it was. For more information on this topic,please read NTEB’s The Top 5 Conspiracy Theories That Were Proven To Be True Because Donald Trump Ran For President . If you are just hearing about this for the first time, it will be an eye-opener. The GOP is frequently referred to as the “party of Reagan” , but that’s not really a true statement. It used to be the party of Ronald Reagan after the 1980 revolution , but shortly after Reagan’s term ended it was hijacked by the Bush Crime family. For over twenty years now, the Republican Party has been a festering witches cabal of New World Order elites and Bohemian Grove acolytes. The Bush Crime Family – Three Generations of Treason The November 1989 edition of SPY magazine featured photos of Bohemian Grove men dancing around dressed up as women . The article included artist renditions of the Moloch idol and discussed how they bus in male prostitutes and how AIDS is a big problem. In July of 2004, a New York Post article reported how a top gay-porn star, Chad Savage, serviced the moguls at the Bohemian Grove. Bigwigs who have attended the two-week retreat include George H.W. Bush , Dick Cheney, Alan Greenspan, Walter Cronkite, Alexander Haig, Jack Kemp, Henry Kissinger , Colin Powell , John Major, William F. Buckley, Justin Dart, William Randolph Hearst, Jr., Caspar Weinberger, Charles Percy, George Schultz, Edward Teller, and former C.I.A. director William Casey. A Brief History Of Molech, the Owl, the Bushes and the Bohemian Grove: The corrupt liberal media all said in lockstep that Donald Trump will “ destroy the Republican party “, but it was only a half-true statement. All the people who defected when Trump was nominated were people who needed to be expunged from the Grand Old Party of Lincoln and Reagan. To the Bush Crime Family , Colin Powell , William Kristol , and all the other phony Republicans who were exposed, you will not be welcome in the new America under President Donald Trump. You are fakes, frauds, phonies and criminals. Now that you’re out, stay out and don’t come back. Geoffrey Grider NTEB is run by end times author and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Grider. Geoffrey runs a successful web design company, and is a full-time minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to running NOW THE END BEGINS, he has a dynamic street preaching outreach and tract ministry team in Saint Augustine, FL. NTEB #TRENDING

A Jewish Reporter Got to Ask Trump a Question. It Didn’t Go Well. - The New York Times

Laurie Goodstein

Jake Turx is a newly minted White House correspondent for a publication that has never before had a seat in the White House press corps: Ami Magazine, an Orthodox Jewish weekly based in Brooklyn. He is a singular presence in the briefing room: a young Hasidic Jew with side curls tucked behind his ears and a skullcap embroidered with his Twitter handle. When President Trump called on him at a news conference on Thursday, saying he was looking for a “friendly reporter,” Mr. Turx was prepared. He had spent an hour crafting a question about a recent surge of with a preamble that he hoped would convey his supportive disposition toward Mr. Trump. But the exchange did not go the way he expected. A few hours later, with the clip replaying on social media and Jewish groups issuing news releases, Mr. Turx, 30, was still reeling. He said in a telephone interview, “Regretfully, today was a day I wish we could have done over. ” His editor, Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter, watched aghast from the magazine’s offices as his young correspondent received a from the president: “It was a very disheartening moment for us, to watch him being berated. ” The exchange began with Mr. Turx standing up from his seat and gesturing slightly toward his fellow reporters: “Despite what some of my colleagues may have been reporting, I haven’t seen anybody in my community accuse either yourself or anyone on your staff of being . We understand that you have Jewish grandchildren. You are their zayde,” which is Yiddish for “grandfather” and often a word of great affection. At that Mr. Trump nodded slightly, and said, “thank you. ” “However,” Mr. Turx continued, “what we are concerned about and what we haven’t really heard being addressed is an uptick in and how the government is planning to take care of it. There’s been a report out that 48 bomb threats have been made against Jewish centers all across the country in the last couple of weeks. There are people committing acts or threatening to — — ” At that, Mr. Trump interrupted, saying it was “not a fair question. ” “Sit down,” the president commanded. “I understand the rest of your question. ” As Mr. Turx took his seat, Mr. Trump said, “So here’s the story, folks. No. 1, I am the least person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life. No. 2, racism, the least racist person. ” Mr. Turx tried to interject, realizing how the encounter had turned. He said he had wanted to clarify that he in no way meant to accuse Mr. Trump of but instead intended to ask what his administration could do to stop the incidents. But Mr. Trump would not let him speak again, saying, “Quiet, quiet, quiet. ” As Mr. Turx shook his head with an incredulous look on his face, Mr. Trump accused him of having lied that his question would be straight and simple. Mr. Trump said, “I find it repulsive. I hate even the question because people that know me. … ” He went on to say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, during his visit to the United States on Wednesday, had vouched for Mr. Trump as a good friend of Israel and the Jewish people and no . Mr. Trump concluded that Mr. Turx should have relied on Mr. Netanyahu’s endorsement, “instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question like that. ” “Just shows you about the press, but that’s the way the press is,” Mr. Trump said. At the news conference, Mr. Turx was referring to a rash of incidents that have shaken many American Jews since Mr. Trump was elected. On three separate days in January, Jewish synagogues, community centers and schools across the country received what seemed to be a coordinated wave of telephone bomb threats that led to evacuations and F. B. I. investigations. Other Jewish institutions have seen an uptick in vandalism and graffiti in the last few months. It was the second time in two days that Mr. Trump was asked to denounce and offer American Jews a dose of reassurance. In his joint news conference with Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Trump responded to a question about by breezily recounting the size of his Electoral College victory and then reminding the reporters that his daughter, Ivanka, his Jared Kushner, and their three children — Mr. Trump’s grandchildren — are all Jewish. The League issued a statement on Thursday that said, “It is why President Trump prefers to shout down a reporter or brush this off as a political distraction. ” David Harris, chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, said, “Respectfully, Mr. President, please use your bully pulpit not to bully reporters asking questions potentially affecting millions of fellow Americans, but rather to help solve a problem that, for many, is real and menacing. ” Surveys show that Mr. Trump was not the choice of the majority of American Jews, who tend to vote for Democrats and came out in force for Hillary Clinton. Many Jews have been critical of Mr. Trump for not more forcefully denouncing and racists like David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who endorsed Mr. Trump during the campaign. Many Jewish leaders are also wary of Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s White House strategist, because of the close affinity between Breitbart News, which he once ran, and the white supremacists in the movement known as the . On Friday, the leaders of Reform Judaism, which includes more than a third of American Jews and is the largest stream of American Judaism, announced that they opposed the confirmation of David M. Friedman as ambassador to Israel. The leaders said in a statement that Mr. Friedman, who has supported Israeli settlements in the West Bank, was unqualified, intemperate and held “extreme views” on Israel that will endanger “both American and Israeli security. ” Mr. Trump was popular among many Orthodox Jews. They were reassured to see the Orthodox Jews in his family and attracted to his hawkish line on Israel, his support of vouchers for religious schools and his promise to ban Muslim immigrants from entering the country. Rechy Frankfurter and her husband, Rabbi Frankfurter, founded Ami Magazine more than six years ago to serve a conservative Jewish audience. It circulates in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia and is one of several news publications serving the community. Ami Magazine comes out weekly and has three sister publications: one for women, one for teens and a cooking magazine called Whisk. The magazine interviewed Mr. Trump before he declared he was running for president and did so again during the campaign. “We didn’t do a political endorsement of him, but I really wanted the president to be elected, and I do want him to succeed,” said Rabbi Frankfurter, the editor in chief. Mrs. Frankfurter, the magazine’s senior editor, said it was clear that Mr. Trump was not an and that Mr. Trump “must have misheard the question” from the magazine’s reporter. “The president is very sensitive to such an accusation, and we find the fact that he’s sensitive to it reassuring,” she said, because it means he understands how awful it is to be thought of as an . Rabbi Frankfurter, whose parents survived the Holocaust, said, “Perhaps the president should speak out more vigorously than he has. He’s got a bully pulpit, and he should use it for good reasons. ” After the news conference, Mr. Turx, a pen name, said that he had had conversations on Thursday evening with White House staff members and that he and members of the Orthodox Jewish community were “extremely confident” that the White House would give “the proper help, guidance and collaboration” on .

Hillary “attack dog” David Brock plotting with Soros, Steyer, Sussman to “kick Trump’s ass”

Tyler Durden

VIDEOS Hillary “attack dog” David Brock plotting with Soros, Steyer, Sussman to “kick Trump’s ass” If there is one thing that is missing from the most scandalous political election in recent history, it is an attempt to physically eliminate the president By Tyler Durden - Friday, November 18, 2016 9:42 AM EST The last time we encountered David Brock , Hillary Clinton’s so called media “attack dog”, was two months ago when we exposed a money laundering scheme involving over a dozen of his Pro-Clinton SuperPACs. Now, it appears that unable to concede defeat, the man who aligned his career with Hillary Clinton, is going for blood, and is soliciting the help, but mostly money, of Clinton’s top donors. According to Politico , Brock is launching his own Koch-brothers-like donor network to finance attacks on President-elect Donald Trump and to rebuild the political left after Trump’s stunning victory over Clinton last week. In an email sent out on Thursday night, Brock emailed more than 200 of the biggest donors on the left, including finance titans George Soros, Tom Steyer and Donald Sussman all of whom invested millions of dollars in Clinton’s campaign with nothing to show for it, inviting them to a private retreat in Palm Beach during inauguration weekend to assess what Democrats did wrong in 2016, figure out how to correct it and raise cash for those initiatives. “ This will be THE gathering for Democratic donors from across the country to hear from a broad and diverse group of leaders about the next steps for progressives under a Trump Administration ,” Brock wrote to the donors in an email. “What better way to spend inaugural weekend than talking about how to kick Donald Trump’s ass?” Brock said. The retreat, which is planned as the first in a series of regular gatherings, will feature appearances by an array of Democratic elected officials, operatives and liberal thinkers and group officials, Brock explained in an interview. While it is unclear how many of the addressed billionaires confirmed their presence at this “secret” gathering, Brock predicted there would be significant interest, noting that the keynote address at his last major donor conference, back in 2013, was delivered by former President Bill Clinton. It is unclear how much Clinton received for one hours of his time. Brock is a self-described “right-wing hitman-turned-Clinton enforcer ” who has used his relationships with some of the left’s wealthiet supporters and billionaire donors to build an armada of aggressive political outfits that have become pillars of the institutional left and that raised a combined $65 million during the 2016 cycle. As profiled previously, Brock’s groups include the conservative media monitoring non-profit Media Matters, the opposition research super PAC American Bridge and the legal watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. That’s not all: other groups in his network include the liberal media-funding vehicle American Independent Institute, the media-training non-profit Franklin Forum and the for-profit social media operation ShareBlue, which The New York Times described as “Hillary Clinton’s Outrage Machine.” A seventh group, a super PAC called Correct the Record that was created to coordinate directly with Clinton’s campaign , is winding down, though Brock said that a number of its functions and personnel likely will be absorbed by his other groups. And yet one wonders if Brock’s attempt to square things up with Trump isn’t too little, too late, especially for a many who like Huma Abedin, has been so closely associated with Hillary and her now defunct political career: Brock acknowledged in the interview: “There is no question that we poured our heart and soul into this election for Hillary, but these institutions were built before her campaign and were intended to outlast it.” To separate himself from the Clintons whom he serves so well over the years, Brock said in his email to donors that he created Media Matters more than a decade ago to help the left push back during George W. Bush’s presidency. “In 2005, we were part of a successful progressive effort to regroup, retool and recover,” he wrote. “While today’s situation is more dire, media matters more than ever.” But the biggest problem for Brock is that he is likely stepping on the very toes of those whose money he is after: as Politico notes, the Palm Beach retreat seems to be a challenge to the 12-year-old Democracy Alliance, a club of liberal financiers that was started by Soros and a handful of other major donors to fund the institutional left . In fact, the club, which held its annual winter meeting this week in Washington, helped launch Media Matters, and many of Brock’s donors belong to its ranks. Brock said he’s inviting the president of the DA, as the club is known, to his Palm Beach retreat. There is one way Brock’s network hopes to differentiate itself: while the Democracy Alliance at its winter meeting discussed ways to push back on the Trump administration, many of the group’s members have tried to train its focus on pressuring Democrats from the left on issues like fighting climate change, money in politics and drug laws; Brock however is more overtly and aggressively political, and has been “largely agnostic on the philosophical divisions with which Democrats are grappling.” “We don’t think of this as representing a faction of the Democratic Party, but a cross-section of it, so we’re not going to precook things ideologically,” he said. “It is very politically minded, and there is an urgency to it.” At this point two questions emerge: one of the main reasons why Clinton lost is precisely due to behind the scenes scheming such as this, where political “attack dog” operatives would meet with billionaires and strategize how to shift public perception on any number of items. That has now been proven to be a losing strategy. Have the democrats truly not learned anything from their most shocking failure in history? The next question is just how much more “overtly and aggressively political” will Brock, whose organizations have been alleged to be behind a number of the anti-Trump riots in recent months, be in his quest to take down, or rather “kick the ass” of Donald Trump. Because if there is one thing that is so far missing from the most scandalous political election in recent history, it is an attempt to physically eliminate the president. We can only hope that the “hitman-turned-Clinton enforcer” will not decide to go that far.

Dem Strategist Jamal Simmons: Trump’s ’America First’ Is Really ’White America First’ - Breitbart

Pam Key

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” during the roundtable segment, Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons said President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks are “starting to make it seem a little bit also like America first is really white America first. ” Simmons said, “The thing that is so concerning to me is that the president is undermining all the American institutions. He’s going after the press he’s going after the judiciary, things we’re talking about. It’s starting to make it seem a little bit also like America first is really white America first. Because if you look at what he’s doing, he’s going after immigrants. Even in the administration — the reason we know who Colin Powell and Condi Rice are is because Republican presidents appointed them to significant jobs. ” “This president doesn’t have Latinos, in unusual jobs in his cabinet,” Simmons continued. “This is something that I think we all have to worry about. The United States of America has been moving in a direction for about 30 or 40 years, where everybody gets to participate. We have been teaching our children that. You see Democrats, progressives, but also independents on the streets because this president is moving us away from that direction. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Trump Lines Up Establishment Republicans to Vouch for Rex Tillerson - The New York Times

Michael D. Shear

WASHINGTON — After waging an assault on the Republican establishment, Donald J. Trump changed course on Tuesday and enlisted the party’s high priests of foreign policy to help him win the confirmation of Rex W. Tillerson as secretary of state. Several former Republican secretaries of defense and state sought to dismiss bipartisan concerns about Mr. Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil chief executive, over his relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. At the center of the debate are questions about Mr. Tillerson’s vocal opposition to American sanctions imposed on Russia as he pursued oil and gas deals in that country. Their mobilization showed how much Mr. Tillerson’s nomination is already a Congressional proxy fight over Mr. Trump’s embrace of Russia and Mr. Putin. Democrats issued blunt denunciations of the idea that a energy executive could adequately represent the national interests of the United States. So did several leading Republicans, whose party orthodoxy has been for decades. “I have serious concerns about his nomination,” said Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. Senator Ben Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, declared himself “deeply troubled” by Mr. Tillerson’s opposition to sanctions imposed by the United States on Russia after its intervention in Ukraine in 2014. Democrats and liberal activists also expressed deep concern about the fate of human rights and climate change under a State Department led by Mr. Tillerson, a veteran of the country’s largest oil company. At the other end of the political spectrum, social conservatives condemned him for playing a role in reversing the Boy Scouts’ longstanding policy of excluding gay people, an issue that became a cultural flashpoint for the religious right. And when he faces lawmakers during hearings before the Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Tillerson will almost certainly be grilled about his finances, his tax returns and his personal investments — questions that Mr. Trump managed to largely avoid answering about himself during his presidential campaign. “Rex Tillerson’s philosophy on international religious freedom, Middle East instability, foreign assistance and relations with countries like Russia and China must be closely examined before confirmation,” Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, said on Tuesday in a statement on Facebook. Mr. Trump’s effort to counter those concerns began early Tuesday morning, almost immediately after his Twitter message making the nomination official: “I have chosen one of the truly great business leaders of the world, Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, to be Secretary of State,” he posted at 6:43 a. m. A series of statements followed from former Vice President Dick Cheney and former secretaries of state James A. Baker III and Condoleezza Rice, among others. In an interview, Robert M. Gates, who served as secretary of defense under President Obama and President George W. Bush, strongly endorsed Mr. Tillerson, a longtime friend, calling him someone who “knows the world like the back of his hand. ” Mr. Gates, whose consulting firm has represented Exxon Mobil, said that senators concerned about Mr. Tillerson’s relationship with Mr. Putin are basing their criticism “on a superficial watching” of video clips of the Exxon executive receiving the Russian Order of Friendship in 2013 with Mr. Putin. Mr. Gates said he recommended Mr. Tillerson to the because he is someone with decades of experience negotiating with foreign leaders. “I think it’s a mistake to confuse having a friendly relationship based on business with sympathy or friendship,” said Mr. Gates, who acknowledged in an earlier statement that Exxon has been a client. “I think Rex is a realist, and I think he will absolutely put America’s interests first in any negotiation. ” During the 2016 primary campaign, Mr. Trump often railed against a Republican establishment that he accused of trying to prevent him from becoming president. On Tuesday, his transition staff proudly released statements of support for Mr. Tillerson that included some of his fiercest critics, including Jeb Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida who fought a losing battle for the party’s presidential nomination. Mr. Gates had written one of the most scathing statements, writing in a Wall Street Journal article in September that “a temperamental, and lip, uninformed is too great a risk for America. ” Mr. Trump’s willingness to embrace the very establishment that he once scorned is partly a reflection of the difficulty that Mr. Tillerson faces in his confirmation battle. Over the past several days, Republican and Democratic lawmakers warned that Mr. Tillerson would face intense scrutiny about his relationship with Russia and with Mr. Putin. Mr. Tillerson has been publicly skeptical about Russian sanctions, which have halted some of Exxon’s biggest projects in Russia, including an agreement with the state oil company to explore and pump underground resources in Siberia that could be worth tens of billions of dollars. Democrats seized on Mr. Tillerson’s background as the leader of an oil company to raise doubts about his commitment to environmental issues. A native of Wichita Falls, Tex. who speaks with a strong Texan twang, Mr. Tillerson, 64, runs a company with operations in about 50 countries, and has cut deals to expand businesses in Venezuela, Qatar, Kurdistan and elsewhere. “He and other company executives led Exxon Mobil in funding outside groups to create an illusion of scientific uncertainty around the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change,” Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, said in a statement. Ms. Tanden, who has been a longtime confidante of Hillary Clinton, added, “This misinformation campaign directly narrowed the world’s window of opportunity to cut emissions and avert the catastrophic effects of climate change. ” Amnesty International said in a statement that “Rex Tillerson’s nomination is deeply troubling and could undermine human rights in the U. S. and abroad. ” A former national president for the Boy Scouts, Mr. Tillerson was involved in opening the Scouts up to gay scouts and leaders. Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, wrote on his organization’s website that Mr. Tillerson “caved to the pressure of the far left, irreparably splitting the Scouts and destroying a proud and honorable American tradition. ” Mr. Perkins also cited Exxon’s financial donations to Planned Parenthood, calling them “upsetting at best. ” Mr. Trump appeared unfazed by the potential roadblocks to Mr. Tillerson’s confirmation. In his statement making official his decision to nominate Mr. Tillerson, the lavished praise on the Exxon executive for his business acumen and knowledge of the world. “His tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for secretary of state,” Mr. Trump said. “Rex knows how to manage a global enterprise, which is crucial to running a successful State Department, and his relationships with leaders all over the world are second to none. ” Mr. Tillerson said in the statement that he shared Mr. Trump’s vision for “restoring the credibility of the United States’ foreign relations,” and he vowed to “focus on strengthening our alliances, pursuing shared national interests and enhancing the strength, security and sovereignty of the United States. ” Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who was a finalist to become Mr. Trump’s secretary of state and will oversee confirmation hearings as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued an enthusiastic statement. “Mr. Tillerson is a very impressive individual and has an extraordinary working knowledge of the world,” Mr. Corker said. “I congratulate him on his nomination and look forward to meeting with him and chairing his confirmation hearing. ”

Installing a Torture Fan at CIA

Consortiumnews.com

Installing a Torture Fan at CIA November 19, 2016 Exclusive: The CIA’s torturers can breathe a sigh of relief after President-elect Trump tapped a defender of “enhanced interrogation techniques” to become CIA director, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. By Ray McGovern Trump’s selection of Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo, an open aficionado of torture practices used in the “war on terror,” to be CIA director shows that Trump was serious when he said he would support “waterboarding and much worse.” Earlier, there had been a sliver of hope that that, while on the campaign trail, Trump was simply playing to the basest instincts of many Americans who have been brainwashed – by media, politicians, and the CIA itself – into believing that torture “works.” The hope was that the person whom Trump would appoint to head the agency would disabuse him regarding both the efficacy and the legality of torture. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas. But such advice is not likely from Pompeo, who has spoken out against the closing of CIA’s “black sites” used for torture and has criticized the requirement that interrogators adhere to anti-torture laws. He has also opposed closing the prison at Guantanamo, which has become infamous for torture and even murder. After visiting Guantanamo three years ago, where many prisoners were on a hunger strike, Pompeo commented, “It looked to me like a lot of them had put on weight.” There is little doubt that the champagne was flowing on Friday at CIA headquarters, from the seventh-floor executive offices down to the bowels of that building where torture practitioners have been shielded from accountability for 15 years in what amounts to the CIA’s internal “witness protection” program. Indeed, relief over the Pompeo appointment came in the nick of time. For one fleeting moment earlier in the week, there was some panic at the hint that the International Criminal Court might show more courage than President Barack Obama in bringing torture perpetrators to justice. That suggestion caused a moment of angst up and down the CIA’s ladder of authority, from supervisory felons, such as Director John Brennan and agency lawyers, down to the thugs hired to implement the amateurish but gruesome regime of torture depicted in gory detail in the Senate Intelligence Committee investigative report , Published in December 2014 and based on original CIA documents, the report’s Executive Summary revealed a range of gruesome practices from the near-drowning sensation of water-boarding to the forcible rectal feeding of detainees. Pompeo’s Defense Pompeo responded to the findings by personally attacking Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein. He claimed she had “put American lives at risk” and he called CIA participants in the torture program “heroes, not pawns in some liberal game being played by the ACLU and Senator Feinstein.” Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (left) argues with ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern about the Senate torture report on CCTV America’s “The Heat” on Dec. 11, 2014. (Screenshot from program) Pompeo seemed to be taking his cue from former chair of the House Intelligence Committee Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, who, right after the Senate report was released, boasted to me on live TV that he had been briefed on “90 to 95 percent” of the cruel practices laid bare in the Senate investigation. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “ Clashing Face to Face on Torture .” Torture also has its supporters in the Senate, which will be called on to confirm Pompeo as CIA director. At a Senate hearing on May 13, 2009, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, gave a tip of the cap to the Spanish Inquisition, which he cited as proof that torture could elicit some useful confessions (as it was used in the Fifteenth Century to detect “crypto Jews” and to burn several thousand heretics at the stake). During a hearing on detainee interrogations, Sen. Graham said : “Let’s have both sides of the story here,” pointing out that there could be evidence that torture produced “good information.” Graham added, “I mean, one of the reasons these techniques have survived for about 500 years is apparently they work.” On Wednesday, I was given nine minutes on radio to comment on the ICC’s tentative move to seek accountability for American torture practices. But Pompeo’s nomination on Friday is sure to dispel the brief moment of anxiety among the CIA’s torturers. Congressman Pompeo is living proof that you can get all A’s at West Point, graduate first in your class, and still flunk the Constitution with its quaint Eighth Amendment prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.” Not knowing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights apparently makes you a good pick to head the CIA. As member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), Pompeo also was protective of the National Security Agency’s systematic abuse of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against illegal searches and seizures. The selection of Pompeo came a few days after Vice President-elect Mike Pence told ABC that he would model his handling of the job after former Vice President Dick Cheney under President George W. Bush. Though Pence may have meant Cheney’s assertive role and interaction with Congress, there was also Cheney’s advocacy for “regime change” wars and what the Bush administration called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which earned Cheney the label from The Washington Post, “Vice President for Torture.” Cheney has never been repentant about his aggressiveness in the “war on terror.” “I’d do it again in a minute,” he has declared . Real Expert on Torture Yet, even as Bush-Cheney apologists found excuses and euphemisms for torture, Gen. John Kimmons, head of Army Intelligence, told a Pentagon press conference on Sept. 6, 2006 – the same day he knew that President Bush planned to advertise the efficacy of his “alternate set of procedures” – that torture did not result in sound information. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney receive an Oval Office briefing from CIA Director George Tenet. Also present is Chief of Staff Andy Card (on right). (White House photo) Conceding past “transgressions and mistakes,” Kimmons insisted: “No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. I think history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence of the last five years, hard years, tells us that.” (Emphasis added) That’s also what I learned as a young Army Intelligence officer 50 years ago. Cheney, Hoekstra, Graham, Trump, Pence and Pompeo can keep whistling on the dark side, but there is zero evidence to challenge what Gen. Kimmons had to guts to point out on that important day. The Senate Intelligence Committee report of December 2014 should have long since laid to rest the canard that torture “works.” On a moral level, I also cannot quite fathom the attitude of Pence – who says, “I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order” – tolerating torture and torture advocates. If memory serves, Jesus Christ was tortured to death. Lest I seem to be coming down too hard on how so many fundamentalist Christians wink at (or applaud) torture, I must concede that – after 9/11 – the growing acceptance of practices like torture, previously widely condemned as totally unacceptable behavior, gained willing acceptance among many non-fundamentalist Christians, as well. Many years ago when I studied ethics at Fordham, New York City’s Jesuit university, I was taught that there was one immutable category called “intrinsic evil,” which included slavery, rape and torture. Somehow, torture slid out of that category when Fordham’s president, Rev. Joseph M. McShane, SJ, succumbed to the “celebrity virus,” and decided to ask alumnus (then-White House aide on counterterrorism and now CIA Director) John Brennan to give the Commencement address in 2012. Brennan had publicly defended the practice of extraordinary rendition (aka kidnaping, most often for torture). Brennan was also on the routing for emails regarding CIA torture procedures. (It is important to note that, without a demonstrated “need to know,” no one is included as an addressee on such delicate matters.) Adding insult to the injury of giving Brennan such an important invitation, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in “Humane Letters” (what might seem like a sick joke), as fellow honoree, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, applauded from the same platform. When a number of graduating seniors objected to this profaning of their graduation, President McShane gave a glib gloss on torture and drone killings in these words: “We don’t live in a black and white world; we live in a gray world.” (A group that I helped found, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, has written a number of Memoranda on torture and most recently on the CIA’s cover-up of torture , an issue completely neglected in the corporate media.) Ray McGovern works for Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He served as an Army Intelligence officer and then a CIA analyst for a total of 30 years, and is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

Trump: ‘I’m a Nationalist and a Globalist’ - Breitbart

Penny Starr

On the eve of the 100 days in office milestone, President Donald Trump claims he is both a nationalist and a globalist — despite campaign promises that his presidency would reject globalism and put America first. [“Hey, I’m a nationalist and a globalist,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. “I’m both. ” “And I’m the only one who makes the decision, believe me,” Trump said. But Trump also said that he would terminate NAFTA “if we’re unable to make a deal, but hopefully we won’t have to do that. ” Trump’s remarks come as debate swirls around his presidential campaign promise to end the North America Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA in contrast to his recent assertion that he will “negotiate” a revision of the treaty that has guided U. S. trade policy with Mexico and Canada since 1994. The Journal reported that Trump received almost calls from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Following those conversations Trump said, “They’re serious about it and I will negotiate rather than terminate. ” “Meanwhile, Sonny Perdue — the agriculture secretary who took office two days earlier — and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met with Mr. Trump and showed him a map indicating the states where jobs would be lost if the pact collapsed, according to a person familiar with the matter,” the Journal reported, noting that many of the states on the map supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election. “Those conversations, along with a flood of calls to the White House from business executives, helped steer Mr. Trump away from an idea that some of his own advisers feared was a rash and unnecessary threat to two trading partners who fully expected to renegotiate the agreement anyway,” the Journal reported. “I expect the administration to closely consult with Congress before such major decisions are made,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch ( ) chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees trade. “Withdrawing from NAFTA would have significant effects on the America economy. ” Following Trump’s election in November, Chriss Street penned a commentary for Breitbart News focused on how Trump’s “America First” message would strike a blow to “world socialism. ” “The election of Donald Trump now represents an existential threat to World Socialism across the planet,” Street wrote. “Socialists know that when President Reagan went rogue with his muscular capitalist policies, communism quickly imploded. Trump has already torn up the Partnership, which would have internationalized the law covering $28 trillion in trade and investment, about 40 percent of global GDP. “Trump seems determined to destroy “Socialist Globalization” with the same capitalist tax cuts and regulatory relief that President Reagan used to destroy communism,” Street wrote. In an interview with conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham last month, former presidential candidate and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan said abandoning his populist economic message would be “fatal” for Trump’s presidency.

Clint Eastwood Thanks America – TruthFeed

Amy Moreno

Politics By Amy Moreno November 10, 2016 Last night’s win for Donald Trump was one of the record books. President-elect Trump delivered one of the greatest political upsets of all time to win the White House from a career criminal and save America. While liberals are crying and looking for safe spaces, patriots all over America celebrate the fact that America is no longer under the politically correct stranglehold of the past eight years. Clint Eastwood thanked America for doing their duty. Thank you America, I don’t have long left to live but now I know the last few years will be great, I can’t thank you enough #PresidentTrump — Clint Eastwood (@EastwoodUSA) November 9, 2016 Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Presidency and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter.

Watch: Stephen Colbert Mocks Rachel Maddow For Lengthy Trump Tax Tease - Breitbart

Breitbart TV

Wednesday on CBS’s “The Late Show,” host Stephen Colbert mocked MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for her lengthy tease a night earlier that led up to the release of President Donald Trump’s 2005 tax forms. “I hold in my hand something very significant,” Colbert said. “It is a joke — a joke that we have confirmed has been heard by Donald Trump. We believe this is the first time any joke dealing with Donald Trump has been released. ” Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo

Devin Nunes: Trump and Transition Team Members Surveilled-Not In Connection to Russia - Breitbart

Michelle Moons

House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes announced Wednesday that members of President Donald Trump’s transition team, including the were “incidentally” surveilled by the intelligence community, additional names of the transition team were “unmasked,” and that the information was not obtained in relation to Russia. [Nunes recalled his recent confirmation that information on members of the Trump transition team had been incidentally collected by the intelligence community on numerous occasions. “Details about U. S. persons associated with the incoming administration, details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value, were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting. ” “Third, I have confirmed that additional names of Trump transition team members were unmasked,” said Nunes. When later asked by reporters if the President was also included in the incidental collection of information, Nunes replied, “Yes. ” In response to another reporter, Nunes said “it’s possible” that Trump’s personal communication was collected. Rep. Nunes later went on to say of “dozens” of reports he has seen thus far, “I have seen intelligence reports that clearly show that the and his team were, I guess, at least monitored and disseminated out in intelligence in what appears to be … intelligence reporting channels. ” He added that he is, however, awaiting further information. The representative’s fourth point was emphatic, “ … none of this surveillance was related to Russia or the investigation of Russian activities or of the Trump team. ” He made clear that the House Intelligence Committee will investigate surveillance of Trump associates and subsequent dissemination of information gathered. He stated that the goal is to determine: Who was aware of it, Why it was not disclosed to Congress, Who requested and authorized the additional unmasking, Whether anyone directed the intelligence community to focus on Trump associates, Whether any laws, regulations, or procedures were violated, Nunes said that he believes the collection was done legally, but questions remain as to unmasking and the dissemination list of information collected during the transition during the months of November, December, and January. Rep. Nunes characterized the information that was collected as “A lot of it appears like it was … it was essentially a lot of information on the and his transition team and what they were doing. ” He said he has asked the Directors of FBI, NSA, and CIA to “expeditiously comply” with his March 15 letter and provide a full account of such surveillance activities. Nunes called the NSA very, very helpful. He expects additional information to come on Friday. Rep. Nunes said he has not seen any information that has anything to do with Russia or the Russian investigation. He said that while he expects more information and did not make an absolute determination on how the information was collected, “It was not criminal, it was normal, foreign surveillance is what it looked like to me, but let’s wait until we get all the information. ” “This appears to be all legally collected foreign intelligence under FISA, where there was incidental collection that then ended up in reporting channels and that was widely disseminated,” said Nunes. Rep. Nunes said he was surprised and alarmed by the discovery of this information, “because we went through this about a year and a half ago as it related to members of Congress … ” Nunes stated that he would travel to the White House in the afternoon to share the new information he has with President Trump. Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana

Planet nine might be pulling our solar system out of alignment

Anonymous Coward (UID 67372355)

Report Copyright Violation Planet nine might be pulling our solar system out of alignment Astronomers have speculated for years that there could be a large planet in the outer reaches of our solar system, but no such object has ever been directly observed. However, the harder we look, the more plausible the existence of “planet nine” becomes. Astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of Caltech have added another piece of evidence to the debate. Their observations indicate that planet nine could be causing a “wobble” in the solar system.

Washington D.C. Insider Says Obama Might Disclose UFO Truth Before January 2017

Lance Schuttler

Washington D.C. Insider Says Obama Might Disclose UFO Truth Before January 2017 Nov 18, 2016 6 0 Steven Basset is the only registered UFO disclosure lobbyist in Washington D.C. and just yesterday, he made a public announcement that is very timely indeed. Steven runs the Paradigm Research Group , which lobbies for the official political announcement disclosing the truth about the UFO/extraterrestrial phenomenon that the U.S. government has been covering up for decades. Steven Basset has pushed for disclosure for over 20 years in Washington D.C. In a press release from November 17th, 2016, Basset said the Paradigm Research Group was contacted by a source within the military/intelligence community and that the basis of the message was that the “persons who are directly involved in the management of the extraterrestrial issues want Disclosure to take place under President Obama and are ready to work with the Secretary of Defense if approached.” Basset goes on to explain that the Paradigm Research Group has publicly stated before that the Clinton team has had an agenda to disclose to the world the existence of extraterrestrial beings if she became president. Since she lost the presidential race, that is no longer an option, but instead, may force the issue to happen quicker and while Barack Obama is still president: “The Clintons now have a choice to make of historic proportions. Should they immediately take interviews with top journalists and discuss in greater detail what they know about the ET issue and what transpired during the Rockefeller Initiative from 1993-1996 , the resulting media storm will force the Pentagon and the White House to reach the necessary understanding allowing Barack Obama to be the Disclosure president. Or should they remain silent and allow the truth embargo to continue on into the next administration.” When will the truth be announced? While the amount of information and steps needed for the Secretary of Defense to brief the White House is immense, Steven says the pressure is building quickly for Obama to be the one to make the historic announcement: In order for the Secretary of Defense to approach the White House regarding Disclosure, he must reach down into the military/intelligence complex for the needed information to proceed. Although the managers of the ET issues are constrained by the highest level of classification, Paradigm Research Group is convinced they are ready to provide that information because there is a growing internal consensus Disclosure must take place under President Obama. This process is time sensitive. Disclosure would need to happen early enough for the nation [and world] to absorb such extraordinary information and settle down prior to the inauguration. There would also be time to prepare various government agencies for the engagement of the media and the public going forward. Then the new president would be stepping into a relatively stable and organized post-Disclosure status. With this in mind, Paradigm Research Group would assert Disclosure after January 6th, 2017 would not be a responsible option. The means the Clintons have a choice to make and a few weeks to reach a decision.” While some may still be skeptics of the notion that there are other beings in our universe, we must keep in mind the number of insiders who have revealed what they know as well as the positions they’ve held to acquire such knowledge. As we reported earlier today , full UFO disclosure is inevitable. With former NASA astronauts, physicists, scientists, engineers and high ranking military personnel blowing the whistle for several decades now, we see that the world is getting closer to learning the truth. With respect to this announcement from Paradigm Research Group just yesterday, we must keep a couple things in mind. First, in the grand scheme of the disclosure process, it is not crucially important if this announcement takes place under Obama before Trump’s inauguration in late January of 2017. If such an announcement is not made before then, we mustn’t believe the push for disclosure is or has been a failure. We must keep in mind the bigger picture and specifically the words from the press release, “there is a growing internal consensus Disclosure must take place…” That is what is important. It’s the fact that there is such momentum and pressure building within the political and military/intelligence community for this announcement to be made public. What are your thoughts about this latest announcement? Will Obama be the disclosing president? Or will Trump? Or will some other world leader make the announcement? When do you think it will happen? Lance Schuttler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Health Science and does health coaching through his website Orgonlight Health . You can follow the Orgonlight Health facebook page or visit the website for more information and other inspiring articles.

President Obama’s Interview With Samantha Bee Will Have You Rolling On The Floor Laughing (VIDEO)

April Hamlin

President Obama is known for his humor, but his interview with Samantha Bee is downright hilarious. During his final days in office, Obama has been making rounds on talk shows. When he sat down with the host of Full Frontal this week, the result was simply priceless. Bee took a few shots at him for his age, asking if he would consider an appearance on Antique Roadshow and pointing out the white in his hair. Obama reminded her that he was still president, after all, but Bee was hell bent on making this an interview to remember. She finally asked Obama if he would “mess” with Donald Trump once he was done serving as Commander in Chief. “After you leave office, have you thought of just whispering in Donald Trump’s ear, ‘You were right, I wasn’t born here,’ just to, like, mess with him?” Bee asked. “I think it’s fair to say that I will be organizing my post-presidency where I’m not close enough to him to whisper into his ear,” Obama shot back. They did discuss some important issues, such as young voters and the struggles that Hillary Clinton may face as the first woman to serve as President of the United States. But the playful back and forth between President Obama and Bee is too funny to miss. It also reminds us just why it is that we are going to miss this man so much when he is gone. Watch the interview, here : Featured image via video screen capture Share this Article!

“The Second American Revolution Is Happening” – U.S. Intelligence Agencies Have Started A Counter Coup Against Clinton

Contributing Author

Editor’s Note: Is it any wonder that Hillary Clinton is being hit from all sides? The tens of thousands of leaked emails, the re-opening of the FBI investigation, and overwhelming support by military officers for Donald Trump suggest that those working for the military, law enforcement and the intelligence community will do whatever they can to keep Hillary Clinton from becoming their new boss. Former United States Department of State official Dr. Steve Pieczenik is a psychiatrist who has over 20 years experience in resolving international crises for four U.S. administrations. Pieczenik was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, and James Baker. His expertise includes foreign policy, international crisis management, and psychological warfare. He served the presidential administrations of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the capacity of deputy assistant secretary. He has come forward with a series of videos that expose the Clintons, explains that they co-opted many central facets of our government including the White House, the judiciary, the CIA, and the FBI. and claims that the corrupt couple belongs to a high-level pedophile ring. Pieczenik explains that it was not the Russians who provided information to WikiLeaks – US intelligence offered the data to Julian Assange. This counter-coup is working against Hillary Clinton and her campaign. Here, Pieczenik discusses the Clintons’ connections to Anthony Weiner , Jeffrey Esptein’s Lolita Express, and more. In this video, Pieczenik reveals the details regarding Democratic Party ‘Fixer,” Jeff Rovin. Dr. Pieczenik tells us “the second American revolution” is happening. I hope he’s correct, because we certainly need it. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple We encourage you to share and republish our reports, analyses, breaking news and videos ( Click for details ).

MacGuineas: U.S. Faces $14 Trillion Deficit in 10 Years as Interest Is ’Single Fastest-Growing Part of the Budget’

Dan Riehl

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, discussed with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow the serious nature of current and future budget issues facing the nation. [“We are on track if we do nothing over the next ten years — doing nothing, passing no laws — we will borrow nine trillion dollars,” said MacGuineas on Tuesday’s show. She also pointed out that as of now, Trump’s current plans based upon his campaign rhetoric would add another five trillion dollars to the deficit. “Our debt is already at record levels,” she added. “It’s about percent of GDP, and we will borrow another nine trillion dollars because of automatic spending growth. ” MacGuineas said, “Not many people notice, but the single part of the budget is interest on the debt. ” “If we do nothing, at some point, we’ll have a debt crisis,” she added, discussing the ramifications at length. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern.

Russia Freezes Coordination with U.S. in Syria Following American Airstrikes

Breitbart Jerusalem

(AP) MOSCOW — Russia reacted to U. S. military strikes on its ally Syria Friday by cutting a hotline intended to prevent midair incidents, a response that demonstrates Moscow’s readiness to defy Washington and could even put the two nuclear superpowers on a course toward military confrontation. [President Vladimir Putin signaled he was ready to risk a clash with the U. S. and abandon hopes for mending ties with the U. S. under President Donald Trump, rather than accept the humiliation of standing by while his ally is bombed. Russia’s decision to suspend the hotline established after the launch of the Russian air campaign in Syria in September 2015 effectively means that Russian and U. S. planes could fly dangerously close to each other during combat missions, raising the risk of inadvertent or deliberate clashes in the crowded skies over Syria. By freezing the information channel between the two potent militaries, Russia is signaling to Washington that it will tolerate no further strikes on Syrian government facilities. Syria has aging aircraft and air defense missile systems, while Russia has deployed dozens of its cutting edge warplanes and air defense batteries at its base in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia. It also has a strategically important naval outpost in the Syrian port of Tartus, which is protected by air defense assets. Further upping the ante, the Russian Defense Ministry said it will now help strengthen Syrian air defenses. U. S. officials accused Russia of failing to ensure Syrian President Bashar Assad’s commitment to a 2013 deal for the destruction of Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal. The U. S. says that arsenal was tapped for a chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province. Trump cited the chemical attack as justification for the missile strike on a Syrian air base. But the Kremlin insists Assad’s government wasn’t responsible for the attack, saying civilians in Khan Sheikhoun were exposed to toxic agents from a rebel arsenal that was hit by Syrian warplanes. “President Putin believes that the U. S. strikes on Syria represent an aggression against a sovereign state in violation of international law under a pretext,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement. “Washington’s move deals a significant blow to . S. relations, which are already in deplorable shape. ” Until the attack on the Syrian air base, the U. S. had avoided striking Assad’s forces for fear of provoking a clash with the Russian military. The action comes ahead of U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s trip to Moscow next week. The Kremlin initially had been encouraged by Trump’s goal of repairing ties with Moscow, which plunged to War lows under President Barack Obama, but hopes for a thaw have withered amid the congressional investigation of possible links between Trump campaign officials and Russia. The U. S. missile strike could make it all but impossible to improve relations. “Some people here thought that it would be easy to deal with Trump,” Yelena Suponina, a Mideast expert, said in televised remarks. “No, it will be very difficult. He’s not only ready to make tough decisions, he is unpredictable. ” Mikhail Yemelyanov, a senior member of the lower house of parliament, warned that the U. S. action raised the threat of a direct clash between Russia and the U. S. “Consequences could be grave, up to military confrontation and exchange of blows, nothing can be excluded,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency. Tillerson said Russia had “failed in its responsibility” to deliver on a 2013 deal it helped broker to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal. “So either Russia has been complicit, or Russia has been simply incompetent on its ability to deliver,” he said. By ordering the strike, Trump threatened the military assets of Assad, who has enjoyed Russia’s support throughout the conflict. Russia’s military has helped turn the war in Assad’s favor and Moscow has used its U. N. Security Council veto to protect Damascus from censure. Russia also has important military facilities in Syria that could be put at risk if Assad is removed from power, a goal of Western powers that had recently been put on the back burner because of the focus on fighting Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq. Peskov said the U. S. gave Russia advance notice about the strike. He added that Moscow believes it makes no sense to maintain the hotline. Asked if the decision to freeze the information exchange could raise the risk of midair incidents, Peskov said it was the U. S. attack that increased such danger. Peskov wouldn’t say if Russia could use its military assets to protect Syrian facilities from future U. S. strikes. Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russia will quickly “strengthen the Syrian air defense system and increase its efficiency in order to protect Syria’s most sensitive infrastructure facilities. ”

Romania Set for First Female, and First Muslim, Prime Minister - The New York Times

Kit Gillet

BUCHAREST, Romania — In a surprise move, Romania’s largest political party nominated a woman from the country’s Tatar minority for prime minister on Wednesday. If she wins approval from the president and Parliament, she will be both the first Muslim and the first woman to hold the post. The Social Democratic Party scored a resounding victory in the Dec. 11 general election, winning more than 45 percent of the vote. Together with its smaller ally, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, it holds a majority of the seats in Parliament. Ordinarily, the leader of the largest party is designated by the country’s president to become prime minister. But the Social Democrats’ leader, Liviu Dragnea, would have been a problematic choice: He was convicted of electoral fraud and given a suspended sentence in April. President Klaus Iohannis has said that the country’s next prime minister should be untainted by criminal convictions or continuing investigations. So the Social Democrats turned instead to Sevil Shhaideh, 52, a relatively figure who served as minister of regional development for six months in the last Social government. “It’s a surprising choice,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, a professor of political science at University in Cluj. “People were expecting somebody controlled by Dragnea, but from the party’s upper levels, not a relative newcomer. ” “Picking Shhaideh suggests that Dragnea will control the government without taking direct responsibility,” Professor Miscoiu added. “She is not stained in a direct way, so Iohannis has no official reason to reject her. ” Professor Miscoiu said the choice might have also been intended to counter accusations of orthodoxism and nationalism during the campaign. Referring to the Social Democratic Party, he said: “P. S. D. are saying implicitly with this nomination: ‘You accused us of being nationalist and orthodoxist — look what we do, don’t you like it?’ ” The nomination of Ms. Shhaideh took many observers by surprise. “We have seen many names put forward in the last days, but her name was not among them,” said Paul Ivan, a senior policy analyst at the European Policy Center in Brussels and a former Romanian diplomat. Ms. Shhaideh is thought of as more of a manager than a politician, Mr. Ivan said. “She is seen as a technocrat,” he said. “She’s an economist who has worked in local and regional administration for many years. ” Ms. Shhaideh has spent most of her career in Constanta, a port on the Black Sea, and not in Bucharest, the capital. But she is seen as close to Mr. Dragnea. She was secretary of state in the Development Ministry when Mr. Dragnea was its minister, succeeding him when he stepped down in 2015. He attended her wedding to a Syrian businessman. Ms. Shhaideh and her husband own three properties in Syria, according to a declaration of financial interests from July 2015. Muslim women have very rarely served as heads of state or government in Europe. The few previous examples were in countries with Muslim majorities: Tansu Ciller was prime minister of Turkey in the 1990s, and Atifete Jahjaga was president of Kosovo from 2011 to 2016. By contrast, more than 80 percent of Romanians are Orthodox Christians, while fewer than 1 percent are Muslims. “There will clearly be part of the electorate that won’t like it,” Mr. Ivan said of the party’s choice of Ms. Shhaideh. “They also won’t like that the two most powerful political positions in Romania will be taken by those from ethnic and religious minorities. ” (Mr. Iohannis, the president, is Protestant and of German ancestry.) Even so, Mr. Ivan said he did not think Ms. Shhaideh’s faith would make her seem alien to fellow Romanians. “Generally, Romania’s Muslim community, the Turks and Tatars, the Islam they practice is a very moderate one,” he said. “They have lived more than 100 years in a country, they’ve been through a socialist regime. If you look at Shhaideh, her head isn’t covered. ” There appeared to be little chance that the appointment of Ms. Shhaideh would soften Romania’s position on migrant quotas. Romania was one of the European Union member countries that initially opposed the setting of mandatory quotas for the relocation of migrants, many of whom are from the Middle East or northern Africa. “Ironically, the fact that she is a Muslim will prevent her from being too bold on areas like refugees, simply because it is so easy to demonize and say, ‘Of course you say that, you’re a Muslim,’ ” said Radu Magdin, brand ambassador of Smartlink Communications, a political consulting group. “Her team will advise her not to get involved in issues where things can become personal. ” Now that Ms. Shhaideh has been nominated, the next step is for the president to formally designate her as the next prime minister that could happen this week. She would then need to be confirmed in office by a vote of confidence in Parliament.

Police Seize $1 Million of Super Drug from Home

Ryan Saavedra

Pennsylvania State Police raided the home of Kerri Malloy on Wednesday after postal workers notified them of a delivered package that contained carfentanil, CBS Pittsburgh reported. [Carfentanil, a tranquilizer designed to put down elephants, is 10, 000 times more potent than morphine and is 100 times more potent than fentanyl. A dose of carfentanil the size of a grain of sand is considered a lethal dose for a human being. “It’s so dangerous that while our people are gathering evidence they have to be in full suits that you would see for the clandestine team,” said Public Relations Officer Stephen Limani. State police indicated that the 5 grams of carfentanil seized are enough to make 50, 000 stamp bags of heroin. At $20 per stamp bag, Limani said that 5 grams of carfentanil are enough to create $1 million of the product. “I would be shocked if this delivery did not end up killing a large quantity of people in our area,” Trooper Limani told reporters. In addition to the carfentanil, police also discovered a grow operation of 136 marijuana plants. Police confirmed that child and youth services are also involved in the case because a child was among those living in the home. Ryan Saavedra is a contributor for Breitbart Texas and can be found on Twitter at @RealSaavedra.

Why Flu Shots Are the Greatest Medical Fraud in History

noreply@blogger.com (Alexander Light)

. Why Flu Shots Are the Greatest Medical Fraud in History As one of the very few independent voices willing to stand up against the scientific dogma of our mo... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/10/why-flu-shots-are-greatest-medical.html As one of the very few independent voices willing to stand up against the scientific dogma of our modern medical regime, I've long felt a need to communicate the dangers of flu shots to the public so that people can have better information to prevent vaccine injuries and save lives. This doesn't mean I'm opposed to the theory of vaccination, by the way. In fact, I'm the author of A Blueprint for Safer Vaccines , an audio guide to saving lives and preventing vaccine injuries and deaths. To my knowledge, I'm the only independent journalist in the world who is scientifically trained to run an atomic mass spectrometry laboratory, which I've been running for nearly a year now and testing the heavy metals content of organic superfoods like cacao , common vaccines as well as the ability of water filers to remove toxic heavy metals . I'm the creator of the Low Heavy Metals Verified standard and I'm the inventor of patent-pending nutritional formulas for capturing heavy metals during digestion and binding with the radioactive isotopes of cesium (such as Cesium-137) to eliminate them from the digestive tract.Both of these patents are on file with the U.S. patent office awaiting a decision. My independent atomic elemental analysis of flu vaccines, published in the summer of 2014, proved that flu vaccines contain over 50 ppm mercury, an extremely toxic heavy metal linked to kidney failure, birth defects, spontaneous abortions and neurological damage. This finding has never been refuted by anyone. In fact, it was affirmed by vaccine proponents who insisted that it is perfectly safe to inject pregnant women, young children and senior citizens with mercury even though the flu vaccine insert itself readily admits there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in such groups. Believe it or not, there are still millions of people, doctors, pharmacists and even journalists who do not yet realize there is a very high concentration of mercury in influenza vaccines given to pregnant women, children and senior citizens. Most people, you see, have been lied to by the media which has stated over and over again that mercury was removed from all vaccines. That's simply not true. It's still there. And toxic mercury is present in influenza vaccines at a level that's literally 25,000 times higher than the EPA limit of mercury in drinking water. [7] It's 100 times higher than the highest level of mercury contamination I've ever tested in ocean fish. See the evidence for yourself To prove the presence of mercury in influenza vaccines, I'm going to show you four irrefutable pieces of evidence: 1) Photographs of a 2013 / 2014 influenza vaccine box admitting, in very small print, to the addition of mercury to the vaccine as a preservative. 2) Photographs of the influenza vaccine insert once again repeating the admission that the vaccine contains mercury. 3) A screen shot from the Centers for Disease Control website which admits that vaccines still contain the following ingredients: Aluminum, Antibiotics, Egg Protein, Formaldehyde, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and Thimerosal, a mercury-containing chemical compound. 4) Lab results from the Natural News Forensic Food Lab which confirmed almost precisely the same level of mercury claimed by the manufacturer (GlaxoSmithKline). Before I show you the irrefutable evidence, there is some good news in all this testing. As part of this Natural News investigation, I tested several different vaccines, including an HPV vaccine. Mercury levels were extremely low in these other vaccines. Only the flu shot contained extremely high mercury levels. Influenza vaccine box admits safety never established for pregnant women As you can see below, the box for this Flulaval Influenza Virus Vaccine readily admits the use of thimerosal which contains mercury. (Of course, you have to use a magnifying glass to see this.) In microscopic text on the package insert, it says straight out, "Register women who receive Flulaval while pregnant in the pregnancy registry by calling 1-888-452-9622." Yet, at the same time, the insert also admits that "safety and efficacy have not been established in pregnant women." In other words, this vaccine containing mercury is being promoted for use in pregnant women even when no safety in pregnant women has ever been established. It's also important to note that when people are being given flu shots, they are never handed the package or the insert, so they have no opportunity to read any of this information unless they specifically ask for it. It's not like a food item with a "Nutrition Facts" label. Vaccines are sold in "stealth" mode where patients have no idea what's in them and no opportunity to read possible warnings. As further proof of this point, consider the fact that this flu vaccine comes with only one insert, yet it's a 10-dose vial intended to be injected into 10 different people. Clearly, if there's only one insert but 10 people, then 9 out of 10 people can't possibly be handed the insert. Unethical medicine administered without informed consent (a violation of medical ethics) In fact, from a legal perspective, vaccines are routinely injected into people without informed consent. Virtually no one administering vaccines ever explains the risks vs. benefits of vaccines as is required under medical ethics and state medical law. In nearly all cases, patients are simply hoodwinked and told there are no risks at all. The second piece of evidence to reveal here is the package insert for the influenza vaccine, a document printed in microscopic text that's almost impossible to read without a magnifying glass. Of course, the intention is that no one ever read this document, because it contains shocking admissions of the total quackery and marketing deception behind flu shots. As you can see from this snapshot, the package insert readily admits that each vaccine dose "contains 50 mcg thimerosal (<25 mcg="" mercury="" p=""><25 br="" mcg="" mercury="">In case you're wondering, "mcg" means micrograms. A microgram is 1/1000th of a milligram. Mercury is toxic at any dose when injected into the body, even in micrograms. There is no such thing as a "safe" form of mercury when injected. In fact, the ethyl form of mercury used in vaccines is many times more toxic than methyl form once it enters human cells. Click here for a fascinating interview with mercury toxicity expert Dr. Chris Shade who explains this extremely important concept.The same paragraph shown above also admits the vaccine contains formaldehyde, a potent neurotoxic chemical. Vaccine insert admits safety and effectiveness have never been established <25 br="" mcg="" mercury="">What's even more astonishing about this insert is that it openly admits the flu shot is a complete medical hoax, backed by nothing but voodoo woo woo faith-based dogma (and clever marketing).Here are actual words from the insert (which is much more lengthy than the snapshot shown above):"There have been no controlled trials adequately demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after vaccination with Flulaval.""Safety and effectiveness of Flulaval have not been established in pregnant women, nursing mothers or children.""Safety and effectiveness of Flulaval in pediatric patients have not been established.""Flulaval has not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility.""Do not administer Flulaval to anyone... following previous administration of any influenza vaccine."CDC admits use of mercury, MSG, formaldehydeFor those "mercury denialists" who still can't believe flu shots given to pregnant women contain high concentrations of toxic mercury, even the CDC reluctantly admits this fact on its own website.Here's a screen shot from the CDC's vaccine additives page , which miraculously hasn't yet been removed from their site:<25 br="" mcg="" mercury=""> Laboratory results from the Natural News Forensic Food Lab The final piece of irrefutable evidence on all this comes from my own scientific laboratory , where I run ICP-MS instrumentation to test foods, beverages, dietary supplements and other items for heavy metals contamination.I was the first food researcher to document high levels of tungsten in brown rice protein , and I've exposed alarming levels of lead in pet treats . I've also exposed high lead in ginkgo biloba herbal supplements imported from China .When I finally got around to testing vaccines, I was shocked to find over 51,000 ppb mercury in the Influenza Virus Vaccine.Why was I shocked? Because I don't recall ever seeing anything run through my ICP-MS instrument with that high a concentration of mercury. The mercury in this flu vaccine was the HIGHEST concentration of mercury I've ever seen in anything, period! And this is a product that's injected directly into the bodies of pregnant women, where mercury goes right into the developing fetus.What's even more interesting is that this finding once again confirms the accuracy of my lab instrumentation because it's almost in perfect agreement with the level of mercury detailed on the vaccine package insert.Let's do the math:* Each dose of an influenza vaccine is 0.5 mL in volume* My lab found just over 50 ppm of mercury in the vaccine liquid.* 50 ppm (concentration) x 0.5 mL (volume) equals 25 mcg of mercury.Guess what the package insert says? (Up to) 25 mcg of mercury per dose. Near-perfect agreement, in other words. My finding of 51 ppm rather than 50 ppm either means my own tests were off by about 2% (which is still considered very accurate for ICP-MS testing) or that GSK put 2% extra mercury into the vaccine.And just so you know I actually did the tests, here's what else we found with other analytes:Aluminum: 0.4 ppmCadmium: zeroLead: zeroSo, I can confidently say that the flu vaccine won't poison you with lead, cadmium or arsenic because it contains none of those things. Even the aluminum level is quite low and not a concern at this very low level. The real problem is just the mercury, at least as far as elements go. Why won't vaccine makers remove the mercury? Good question. Everybody knows mercury is toxic to inject into the human body. That's not debated except by irrational anti-science denialists who refuse to acknowledge the Table of Elements.You have to wonder: why choose mercury as a preservative? And why do both the CDC and FDA continue to look the other way as an entire branch of modern medicine poisons our women and children with a neurotoxic heavy metal?And if vaccine promoters, propagandists and patent holders want the world to accept all their vaccines, why don't they just remove the mercury and be done with it? If they take out all the toxic elements, resistance to vaccines would all but evaporate.Why vaccines are the "anti-science" medical voodoo of the modern worldEver wonder why they don't conduct legitimate clinical trials on flu vaccine efficacy? Probably because they know the results would have to be faked to show any efficacy at all. That's what Merck did with its mumps vaccines, according to two former virologists who worked there. They spiked human blood samples with animal antibodies to fabricate positive results. Yep, vaccines work so poorly that even the manufacturers have to fake their own results to show any efficacy.Vaccines are the one medicine where no scientific evidence of safety or efficacy is required by anyone: not the FDA, not the CDC and not the media. Congress even passed a law protecting the vaccine industry with absolute legal immunity, even when they manufacture and sell defective products that injure and kill people . How's that for medicine we can all trust? Think about it: this is a product that contains multiple neurotoxins in very high concentrations; a product backed by no safety trials or efficacy data; a product linked to numerous serious adverse reactions; and yet a product that enjoys absolute legal immunity thanks to the U.S. government.If that's not outright medical quackery, I don't know what is.For the record, I'm not an opponent of all vaccines. But I do believe -- as do a rapidly increasing number of other clear-thinking people -- that medicine should not poison our women and children . It's time for mercury to be removed from all vaccines, once and for all. Anything less is medical negligence. New video interview about flu shot failures Ultimately, We the People will be victorious in the removal of mercury from all vaccines -- an idea that's already well accepted across much of Europe. And when that day comes, it will be yet another victory for the Natural News fan base, an amazing community of millions of remarkable people working together for the protection of our children, our health and our world.See my recent video interview with Next News Network's Gary Franchi on why flu shots are failures: By Mike Adams , author of Food Forensics Related

More Measles in Minnesota: 69 Cases Now Confirmed - Breitbart

Michael Patrick Leahy

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) reported on Monday that the number of confirmed measles cases in the outbreak that began in April has increased to 69. [For the first time, MDH is confirming that the outbreak has spread beyond the Somali community in Minnesota to white and Hispanic residents of the state. of the 69 cases of measles are in Somali Minnesotans, seven are and three are MDH reported. Though the number of cases continues to grow, the cases have not spread beyond four counties: Three cases are in adults, 66 are in children (ages years). of the 69 cases have been “confirmed to be unvaccinated. ” Of the remaining four cases, “1 had 1 dose of MMR [and] 3 had 2 doses of MMR. ” Since 1997, the number of measles cases diagnosed in Minnesota has exceeded double digits only once, in 2011, when 26 cases were diagnosed. The current measles outbreak is the largest in the state since 1990, when a total of 460 cases of measles were confirmed. Experts say the outbreak is likely to continue to spread. MDH officials have said the initial infection that sparked the current measles outbreak was due to a foreign traveler. “Measles is a rare disease in Minnesota and in the U. S. however, measles is still common in other parts of the world. Most measles cases occurring in Minnesota result from someone traveling to or from countries where measles is common, and who are infectious with measles after arriving in Minnesota,” the MDH website states. As part of its public information program to promote vaccinations, MDH offers a Think Measles “[l]etter size poster with a reminder to get vaccinated for measles before international travel,” that is available in nine languages, including English, Amharic, Hmong, Khmer, Oromo, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. The outbreak began in the Somali community, which has seen vaccination rates plummet over the past decade. MDH officials blame that drop in vaccination rates on who have spread the medically discredited claim that vaccinations are tied to autism to the Somali community in Minnesota. . Paul is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, estimated to be about 70, 000 in total. “Since FY 2002, 100, 246 Somali refugees have resettled in the United States, according to the State Department’s interactive website,” Breitbart News reported in December. In Olmsted County, which is about 70 miles southeast of Le Sueur County, “a public forum has been scheduled for Monday evening in Rochester to discuss Minnesota’s worst measles outbreak since 1990,” the Post Bulletin reported: The Somali Health Advisory Committee has organized the forum in hopes of addressing the Somali community’s increasing resistance to the MMR vaccine because of fears of its links to autism, a claim that has been debunked repeatedly by the science community. Abdirashid Shire, director of Rochester’s Health and Research Institute for Somali Americans, and Nasra Giama, a nursing professor at the University of Minnesota Rochester and a Mayo Clinic researcher, will lead the discussion. Representatives from Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center, Olmsted County Public Health and Minnesota Department of Health are expected to attend and participate in the discussion. “The primary goal is to talk about childhood health issues, specifically about trying to dispel the myth about the link between MMR and autism and the importance of vaccines,” Dawn Beck, associate director of the Olmsted County Public Health, told the Post Bulletin: Despite ongoing efforts from MDH and other health agencies in recent years, Minnesota’s Somali community has seen its vaccination rate plunge from nearly 90 percent to the . In Olmsted County, Somalis have an MMR vaccination rate of 75 percent, according to 2016 data. Despite good news locally, Olmsted County’s recent Community Health Needs Assessment identified immunizations as one of its top five priorities in 2017. Minnesota state officials now believe the current measles outbreak, combined with increased rates of tuberculosis and syphilis, has become a significant public health problem in the state. Minnesota Health Commissioner Ed Ehlinger said earlier this month: In recent months, state and local public health officials have had to respond to a series of infectious disease outbreaks including resistant tuberculosis, hundreds of new cases of syphilis, and now, the largest measles outbreak the state has faced in nearly 30 years. These outbreaks come on the heels of extensive public health efforts in 2016 for the Zika virus response and in for Ebola preparedness. With state and local response costs for the first half of 2017 approaching $3 million just for measles, tuberculosis and syphilis, I respectfully request that the legislature create a public health response contingency fund of $5 million to ensure sufficient resources are available for immediate, actions to protect Minnesotans from infectious disease outbreaks and other unanticipated public health threats. “Governor Dayton has given me his support for this proposal and we will advocate for its inclusion in any final legislative budget agreement,” Ehlinger noted.

Breitbart Exposed White House Visitor Logs as a Transparency Con - Breitbart

Joel B. Pollak

Critics are blasting President Donald Trump for ending an policy of releasing White House visitor logs on Friday. [The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for example, called the move “the latest in a series of efforts by President Trump to avoid public accountability. ” In reality, the White House visitor logs rarely informed the public of anything. They were a fig leaf that let the Obama administration claim transparency while hiding its real operations. (Update: Moreover, the Obama administration went to court to resist releasing the visitor logs, at least initially.) Andrew Breitbart was the first to catch onto President Barack Obama’s con game. In March 2011, he posted an essay — at the Huffington Post, no less — titled: “The White House Guess List: How Obama Pulled a Fast One on the American People — in the Name of ‘Transparency. ’” Breitbart pointed out that “the visitor logs may hide more than they reveal”: The White House is still holding back “tens of thousands” of visitor logs, according to congressional testimony last week by Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, who also added that “the Obama administration is less transparent than the Bush administration. ” We also know that some of the most important presidential visitors don’t even walk into the White House. The administration meets K Street lobbyists at Caribou Coffee, and holds secret meetings in Jackson Place townhouses where there are no visitor logs. The visitor logs that have been released are problematic, because they are simply lists of names, with no way to verify whether a specific name belongs to a particular person. … With no way to verify, there is no real transparency. The visitor logs were a key part of President Barack Obama’s claim to have run “the most transparent administration in history. ” But in every other way, he was one of the least transparent presidents in the era. Obama “set a record” for failing to comply with Freedom of Access to Information Act requests, among other sins. Obama’s visitor logs were no deterrent to the crooked and malevolent. Logs revealed that activist Robert Creamer, a convicted felon and the man behind an effort to instigate violence at Trump campaign events, visited the White House some 340 times, with 45 visits including the president himself. The media never cared, nor did he. Arguably, two wrongs don’t make a right. The fact that the Trump administration took advantage of the Good Friday holiday to announce the policy change might suggest some degree of moral doubt. Yet the fact is that visitor logs were never a useful tool to enforcing executive transparency. Better tools are needed, and it is foolish to pretend otherwise. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

German Local Authorities Halt Pro-Erdogan Islamist Rallies

Breitbart London

BERLIN (AFP) — German local authorities on Thursday blocked rallies by Turkish ministers aimed at promoting a referendum that would expand President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers, citing capacity problems. [The Union of European Turkish Democrats had been due to hold one rally later Thursday in the western town of Gaggenau, with Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag as the guest speaker. But Gaggenau authorities withdrew an earlier agreement for the group to rent a hall for the event, saying it did not have the capacity to host so many people. “Because the event is now known across the region, the city expects a large number of visitors. However, the Bad Rotenfels hall, parking lots and access road are insufficient to meet that demand,” the town’s authorities said in a statement. “Due to these reasons, the hall rental agreement with the UETD has been revoked,” it added. Separately, Cologne city authorities said they would no longer allow the UETD to use a hall on Sunday, when Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci is expected to make a rally speech. “The event can and will not happen there,” a spokeswoman for Cologne city authorities told AFP. It was unclear if Zeybekci would be able to find an alternative site. The UETD had earlier reserved a room in the city hall of the district for a “theatre event” said the spokeswoman. But on Wednesday, the group said it would now host an “information event”. The city said however that it would no longer make the site available to the group, citing difficulties in guaranteeing security at such short notice. Turkish politicians including Prime Minister Binali Yildirim have sparked controversy over their visits to Germany to hold political rallies. Germany is home to about three million people of Turkish origin, the legacy of a massive “guest worker” programme in the 1960s and 70s and the biggest population of Turks in the world outside of Turkey. And Erdogan’s government is keen to harness their votes for the April 16 referendum, which would discard the post of prime minister for the first time in Turkey’s history. Critics say the new presidential system will cement rule in the country. relations have been strained by a series of disputes since the failed coup that aimed to oust Erdogan last July. The latest issue dogging ties is Ankara’s provisional detention of a German journalist on charges. Deniz Yucel, 43, a correspondent of the German newspaper Die Welt, has been held since February 18 in connection with news reports on an attack by hackers against the email account of Turkey’s energy minister. Berlin’s sharp criticism of Ankara’s massive crackdown after the failed putsch has also irked Turkey.

Day Without Illegals Becomes a Political Dud - Breitbart

Neil Munro

The “Day Without Immigrants” turned out to be a day without many protestors or any political impact, but with many Mexican flags, angry slogans, and a muted response by amnesty advocates. [The Thursday turnout in most cities was few hundred protestors, despite some employers shutting their workplaces. But organizers did get a turnout of several thousand people in North Carolina and Chicago. NBC described the national turnout as merely “thousands,” despite an estimated population of roughly 11 million illegals. WATCH: Thousands take part in #DayWithoutImmigrants protests across the US on Thursday. https: . pic. twitter. — NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) February 16, 2017, In recognition of the low numbers, the response from immigration politicians and activists was muted. Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for Democratic Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, tweeted nothing about the marches. Neither did the National Immigration Forum. Linda Sarsour, Muslim organizer of the Women’s March, simply tweeted “solidarity. ” Although the event was a political dud, the organizers will likely use it as a basis for larger, future protests. The organizers claimed they represent roughly 31 million immigrants and roughly 11 million illegal aliens. If the organizers turned out 30, 000 protestors, that represented 0. 27 percent of the illegal population, and 0. 097 percent of the immigrant population, most of which was at work in in school during the scattered protests. Even though employers shut their workplaces, many of the missing illegals were likely hard at work in their second or third jobs. While there are panoramic photos of the two largest demonstrations in Chicago and Charlotte, N. C. photographs from the small demonstrations tend to be ground level and also close up. which allows the photographers to hide the small scale of a group from viewers. Activists are blocking major intersection in #DC at U St NW and 14th St NW for #DayWithoutImmigrants pic. twitter. — The Task Force (@TheTaskForce) February 16, 2017, Just 250 people, at most, turned out in Reading, Pennsylvania. Largest immigrant march in history of Reading Pa. 250 strong. #nobansnowallsnoraids #freedaniel working people not ”coastal elites” pic. twitter. — Make the Road PA (@MakeTheRoadPa) February 16, 2017, Long Island also has a large immigrant population, and a major problem with gangs, but the demonstration was very small. Long Island stands with immigrants! #UnDiaSinInmigrantes #DayWithoutImmigrants #freedaniel #HeretoStay pic. twitter. — Angel Reyes Rivas (@Areyesrivas) February 16, 2017, A small turnout in Minnesota, whose population includes tens of thousands of Somalis. Native American group performs in front of Minnesota capitol as part of ’Day Without Immigrants’ protest in St. Paul https: . pic. twitter. — ABC News (@ABC) February 17, 2017, The growing population in Tennesee provided a small contingent. Unthinkable that people are protesting about illegal immigrants breaking the law encouraging others to do the same. #DayWithoutImmigrants pic. twitter. — Tennessee (@TEN_GOP) February 16, 2017, The turnout in Texas was very small, in a state with a huge population of immigrants and illegal aliens. #DayWithoutImmigrants #atx nearly at the capitol, group began marching at 11 pic. twitter. — Nicole Rosales (@NicoleRose_KVUE) February 16, 2017, There was a turnout in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A of the protest in Grand Rapids today. #DayWithoutImmigrants #StopTrump #Resist! pic. twitter. — SeriouslyUS? (@USseriously) February 17, 2017, Here are two images of the Washington event. The biggest turnouts were in Chicago and Charlotte, where city officials estimated the turnout at 8, 000. 1000s took the streets of Chicago, Charlotte, Detroit more protesting ICE Trump’s racist immigration polices | #DayWithoutimmigrants pic. twitter. — agitator in chief (@soit_goes) February 16, 2017, Some demonstrators waved the flag of their home countries, underlining their identity as foreigners from countries whose primary exports include cheap labor for U. S. employers. In Chicago, one set of protestors listened to speeches under the flags of Mexican, Ecuadorean, and El Salvador. #UnDiaSinInmigrantes Chicago🌹✊🏽🙌🏽 YOU GUYS MUST WATCH! !! pic. twitter. — Johanna (@johannaortiz_) February 17, 2017, immigration reformers noted the failure of the protests. The problem with a general strike is that if it doesn’t actually work, it exposes its organizers as paper tigers. #daywithoutimmigrants, — (((Mark Krikorian))) (@MarkSKrikorian) February 17, 2017,

Is D.N.C. Email Hacker a Person or a Russian Front? Experts Aren’t Sure - The New York Times

Charlie Savage and Nicole Perlroth

WASHINGTON — Who is Guccifer 2. 0, the Romanian “lone hacker” responsible for copying thousands of emails and other files from the Democratic National Committee — a real person, or a front created by Russian intelligence officials? Technology specialists have been debating that question since June 15, when CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the Democratic National Committee, announced that sophisticated hacker groups with Russian links were responsible for breaching the committee’s computer servers. Within hours of the announcement, someone using the moniker Guccifer 2. 0 started a blog to mock that finding, posting several of the stolen documents and claiming sole credit. But the publication by WikiLeaks of an archive of the committee’s internal emails — and the uproar they caused on the eve of the Democratic National Convention — have focused wider attention on who, or what, is operating behind that name. While WikiLeaks has not said how it obtained the emails, Guccifer 2. 0 claimed in a blog post last month to have sent them to WikiLeaks. Cybersecurity specialists have pointed to an array of forensic and technical evidence suggesting that Guccifer 2. 0 might not be a Romanian as claimed. That evidence included metadata hidden in the early documents indicating that they were edited on a computer with Russian language settings. American intelligence officials believe that Guccifer 2. 0 is a front for the G. R. U. Russia’s military intelligence service, according to federal officials briefed on the investigation. In blog posts, Twitter messages, and electronic chats with journalists, Guccifer 2. 0 has insisted such skeptics are wrong. Against that backdrop, Guccifer 2. 0’s words are taking on heightened interest. They may be clues to a person’s decision to intervene in the American election, or they may be a case study of a Russian information campaign — the work of different intelligence officials, crowded around a keyboard. “Just because the Wizard of Oz says he’s a wizard doesn’t actually mean he is,” said Peter Singer, a security strategist at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute. The original “Guccifer” (pronounced ) is a real person: Marcel Lazar Lehel, a Romanian hacker who used the pseudonym Guccifer to hack various accounts belonging to American celebrities and government officials, including members of the Bush family, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and Sidney Blumenthal, an informal adviser to Hillary Clinton. Mr. Lehel was arrested in Romania in 2014 for hacking the email accounts of several Romanian officials. In April, he was extradited to the United States to face hacking charges and pleaded guilty in May before a federal judge in Alexandria, Va. While awaiting sentencing, Mr. Lehel claimed to have hacked Mrs. Clinton’s private email server, but federal officials have found no evidence to support his claim. Mr. Lehel is known for his fixation on what conspiracy theorists call the Illuminati, a shadowy group that they believe controls the world. The first Guccifer 2. 0 blog post, and messages Guccifer 2. 0 sent along with packages of files that same day to the websites Gawker and The Smoking Gun, also denounced the Illuminati. Other oddities also arose. Technical specialists, scouring metadata on documents posted to Guccifer 2. 0’s blog, found some that were last marked by a person with a user name in Cyrillic that appeared to be a nod to Felix E. Dzerzhinsky, best known for establishing the early Soviet secret police forces. On June 21, Motherboard, an online technology magazine, posted a Twitter chat log of an interview with Guccifer 2. 0, in which the person using that account claimed to be Romanian and denied working with the Russian government. Pressed on why Russian language markings showed up in the metadata of the documents he had sent out, Guccifer 2. 0 claimed that was just a “watermark. ” “I don’t like Russians and their foreign policy. I hate being attributed to Russia,” Guccifer 2. 0 wrote. During the interview, Motherboard switched from using English to Romanian and to Russian. Guccifer 2. 0 claimed not to speak Russian and abruptly cut off the interview. Motherboard later reported findings of linguistics specialists who said that his Romanian answers did not seem like those of a native speaker, and that the syntax of several of his English lines echoed Russian sentence constructions. And a linguistic analysis provided to The New York Times by Shlomo Argamon, a chief scientist at Taia Global, a cybersecurity firm that has questioned cyberattack attribution claims in the past, also concluded that Guccifer 2 is Russian. Mr. Argamon, who is a professor of computer science and the director of the master of data science program at the Illinois Institute of Technology, found seven oddities in the hacker’s English text, five of which pointed clearly to Russian as the speaker’s native tongue. “The linguistic evidence consistently points towards the writer being either a native Russian speaker,” Mr. Argamon said. “It is possible that the writer is a Romanian speaker who has studied Russian. However, the writer denied knowing any Russian, and so the most reasonable conclusion is that he is a Russian native speaker rather than a Romanian native speaker. ” On June 30, Guccifer 2. 0 posted additional documents from the Democratic National Committee’s servers on the WordPress blog. The post again denied Russian links, and spoke admiringly of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence analyst who leaked archives of surveillance documents and Chelsea Manning, the Army private who sent a huge trove of military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks in 2010. That post accused Mrs. Clinton of being “bought and sold,” in contrast to Mr. Trump, who it said “has earned his money himself. And at least he is sincere in what he says. ” But the post still expressed opposition to Mr. Trump’s ideas “about closing borders and deportation policy. ” Of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the post said, “He never had a chance to win the nomination as the Democratic Party itself stood against him!” The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress, reported on July 13 that Guccifer 2. 0 had reached out to it and had provided documents about Democratic campaign donors and lobbyists. It quoted Guccifer 2. 0 as saying in an electronic chat, “The press [is] gradually forget[ing] about me, [W]ikileaks is playing for time and [I] have some more docs. ” The next day, Guccifer 2. 0 posted those documents on the blog. That was the last blog posting. The Guccifer 2. 0 Twitter account posted a few more messages. The most recent one, on July 22, expressed excitement that WikiLeaks had posted the archive of nearly 20, 000 Democratic committee emails that “I’d given them! !!” Since then, that account has fallen silent, too. No messages were posted even as the Democratic Party chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned and Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager accused the Russian government of providing the leaked emails to WikiLeaks to help Mr. Trump.

Jackie Mason Rips Congress: No Time for Health Care and Tax Reform Votes, But Plenty of Time for Fundraisers - Breitbart

Daniel Nussbaum

In these trying times, Jackie Mason is the Voice of Reason. [In this week’s exclusive clip for Breitbart News, Jackie questions why lawmakers can’t seem to get the three things Americans want most — health care, tax reform and the continuing resolution — passed once and for all. “I could see where it’s impossible to climb two mountains at the same time, or drive two cars at the same time, or dance with two elephants at the same time,” Jackie says. “But you can’t pass three resolutions at the same time? How long does it take?” “Let’s assume somebody said it was a fundraiser, are you coming? Yes or no? Would you be able to answer them? What if they told you there’s two fundraisers, or four fundraisers?” Jackie challenges. “Would you say you have no time to do all of them? You would have time to do ten thousand of them. But as soon as a vote is involved, which takes a second, you have no time. ” Jackie also wonders about the qualifications needed to become a congressman. “If you want to become a barber, you know there’s a state test to become a barber? In other words, in this country, they protect you from a bad haircut, but if you want to run the country, they’ll take any schmuck in the world,” he says. “Even a plumber has to take a state test,” he adds. “Why do you think the toilets in this country are working perfectly, but the government is full of … you know what I’m talking about. ” Sadly, Jackie says things will never change because lawmakers make the same amount of money whether the country is running or not. And despite all the fear of a government shutdown, Jackie thinks it could actually be a good thing. Check out the video above to see why. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

Colbert Again in Character — as Himself — at the Conventions - The New York Times

James Poniewozik

This year, the political conventions pulled off an amazing feat: They rebooted a familiar figure, someone who spent years in the public eye going through shifts, and who emerged from the quadrennial partisan ritual reintroduced and reinvigorated. I’m referring, of course, to Stephen Colbert. When “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” began on CBS in September 2015, it came with enormous expectations and risks. Mr. Colbert was following in David Letterman’s footsteps as well as his own, having created a satirical performance piece for the ages on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report. ” His move to a late night show might have been a reinvention of the form it might have been a bust. Instead, for most of the year, it just … was. There was the occasional newsworthy interview, like his emotional September talk with Vice President Joe Biden, grieving the recent loss of his son. There were a few experiments, like letting the director Spike Jonze shoot a video in which Mr. Colbert shared an existential moment with Grover from “Sesame Street. ” Night by night, “Late Show” was fine but inessential. Even as a flabbergasting election unfolded, you were less likely to think, “What is Stephen Colbert going to say about this?” than “I wonder what Stephen Colbert would have said about this. ” Then, for the two weeks of the conventions, “Late Show” aired live, and it came back to life. Mr. Colbert brought his old buffoonish conservative commentator character back, bearing a Captain America shield, with guest appearances by his old compadre Jon Stewart. He brought out Laura Benanti to spoof Melania Trump’s plagiarism scandal. He ambushed the stages of both conventions in character as the “Hunger Games” host Caesar Flickerman. The combination of live TV and politics was like a comedy speedball that “Late Show” injected straight into its heart. Where had CBS been keeping this guy? And how can we keep him on the air? Obviously, only so much of this special is reproducible . Mr. Colbert isn’t likely to start doing a live show every night, nor to band together with Mr. Stewart to the old Comedy Central lineup on CBS. But the convention weeks showed off strengths that “Late Show” can and should keep playing to. The most important: Don’t waste Mr. Colbert’s time and ours on topics and guests he’s not engaged in. When he’s had to host stars plugging movies or read off questions to the 2016 Super Bowl’s most valuable player, Von Miller (in his live special after the big game) it felt like the job was defining Mr. Colbert instead of him defining the job. For the last two weeks, Mr. Colbert was focused almost entirely on the most important thing going on in the country and the culture, and his interest and energy showed. That doesn’t necessarily mean doing nothing but politics. Mr. Colbert is not that boring. His interview with Mr. Biden had political overtones — the vice president was still considering a presidential run. But what made it great was how Mr. Colbert drew on his humanity and Catholic faith to dive deep to the stuff that mattered. He can pull off celebrity interviews, too, when there’s a real shared interest, as when he and Key recently geeked out on their love of improv. Speaking of which: Mr. Colbert’s revival of his Comedy Central character and his zany turn as Flickerman reminded us that he’s TV’s best performance artist not currently running for president. “Late Show” might want to let him try on more characters. It could also cultivate a stable of other performers — Mr. Colbert also worked well as ringmaster and hype man for Mr. Stewart and Ms. Benanti. But letting Mr. Colbert be Mr. Colbert will definitely mean politics, and these days, that’s inevitably going to mean alienating viewers. After the Orlando, Fla. terrorist shooting in June, Mr. Colbert took apart Donald J. Trump’s response by diagraming a word cloud of the candidate’s insinuations — “Obama,” “something going on,” “radical Islam” — and the connecting lines formed a swastika. It was savage and hilarious and guaranteed to turn off a sizable chunk of the electorate. Mr. Colbert has tried to spread his fire around. When the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, decried big money in politics at the Democratic convention, he snarked that her outcry “resounded throughout every corner of the Wells Fargo Arena, from the CNN Grill to the Comcast Xfinity Live complex!” But clearly nothing fires his satirical synapses right now like Mr. Trump. That’s the guy CBS hired, though. He couldn’t be a Johnny Carson or Jay Leno, amiably poking at the nonpartisan foibles of both sides for a audience, even if that were still possible today. And it isn’t. That sort of comedy was a product of a less polarized political era, one with less niche programming and more swing voters, with liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats, with some consensus on the basic functions of government. comedy doesn’t work when the road no longer has a middle wide enough to ride a bicycle down. That’s why, where past “Tonight” hosts made light fun of politics, today Jimmy Fallon is most effective when he avoids politics altogether. He’s good at it, and the ratings are great. It’s a familiar coping mechanism for people burned out by apocalyptic news and vitriolic social media feeds: Please, let’s just not talk about it for an hour. But the cerebral Mr. Colbert is not a kind of guy that is his bug and his feature. I don’t pretend to know whether his show’s drift was driven by CBS, Mr. Colbert’s artistic desire to grow and move on, or both. His convention shows suggested, though, a way to change without renouncing his past works — just as Mr. Letterman eventually found a distinctive voice on his “Late Show” while hanging on to signature features like the list. On Wednesday night of the second week, Mr. Colbert announced some bad news: Because of an complaint, he could never use the original “Stephen Colbert” character, or his commentary segment “The Wørd,” again. Instead, he was bringing on “Stephen Colbert,” the original character’s “identical twin cousin,” and introducing a new commentary feature, “The Werd. ” “I cannot reasonably argue,” Mr. Colbert deadpanned, “that I own my face or my name. ” But in so doing, he very much did own it: He is who he is. And there’s no reason for his show to fight it.

Fake News from CNN: Legal Expert Says Schumer’s Attacks on Trump’s Pick to Head HHS ’Are Entirely About Politics’

Michael Patrick Leahy

The Presidential Transition Team called a CNN story about Dr. Tom Price ( ) “junk reporting” and late Tuesday requested “that CNN retract this blatantly false story,” noting that the network failed to accurately report all the facts. [Though the term “fake news,” which Trump used in a news conference last week to describe CNN’s reporting, was not specifically used, it is clear the Presidential Transition Team considers this latest story from CNN yet another report from that network to which those words also apply. Price, who will appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Wednesday for his confirmation hearing to become the secretary of Health and Human Services, is one of eight Trump cabinet nominees Schumer has vowed to stop. A legal expert familiar with the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012 tells Breitbart News that allegations made by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) on Tuesday and first reported by CNN that “Donald Trump’s pick to quarterback the replacement of Obamacare, Tom Price, might have broken the law with a questionable stock purchase” are baseless and “entirely about politics. ” Late Monday, CNN reported that “Rep. Tom Price last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, raising new ethics concerns for Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary. ” “The Office of Congressional Ethics needs to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into these potential violations of the STOCK Act before Rep. Price’s nomination moves forward,” Sen. Schumer said in a statement first reported in the CNN story. “The transaction being harped about is so small it barely clears the law’s reporting requirements,” Brady Toensing, former Senate legislative aide and current white collar criminal defense attorney, experienced in defending federal lawmakers and executive branch employees, tells Breitbart News. “Most importantly, the stock purchase was done through a broker without the Congressman’s knowledge, which is the end of the story for allegations like these. I suspect his accusers are well aware of this, which means these allegations are entirely about politics,” Toensing adds. “Dr. Price’s Morgan Stanley financial advisor designed his portfolio and directed all trades in the account. Pursuant to the arrangement with Morgan Stanley, the financial advisor, and not Dr. Price, has the discretion to decide which securities to buy and sell in his account,” the Presidential Transition Team said in a statement. The statement continues: Dr. Price’s financial advisor periodically rebalances his portfolio to ensure proper diversification. On March 17, 2016, Morgan Stanley undertook a comprehensive rebalancing of Dr. Price’s portfolio. In the course of that rebalancing, the advisor purchased 26 shares of Zimmer Biomet, worth $2, 697. 74, on behalf of Dr. Price. The STOCK Act of 2012 applied insider trading laws, which have governed the conduct of executives in publicly traded companies for decades, to members of Congress and employees of the executive branch of the federal government. Those laws require that prosecutors must establish that two elements must be proven to obtain a conviction for violation of insider trading rules: (1) The person who orders the trade in the stock has a fiduciary duty, to shareholders in the case of the an executive in a publicly traded company, or to the United States and citizens of the United States in the case of a member of Congress or an employee of the executive branch of the federal government and, (2) The person must make a trade in the stock on the basis of material, information. “If Tom Price didn’t direct or even know about the trades, how could he be trading on the basis of material information?” a second attorney, an expert in securities law, who is a partner in a major international law firm, tells Breitbart News. “He reported all these trades. None of them were hidden. His broker rebalanced his portfolio,” the attorney notes. The attorney says: Some of the stock purchases were in health care, some were energy, some were financial institutions. If you look at the disclosure there were 34 trades on March 17, and while they included some health care companies they also included: Bank of America, American Express, Lowes Corporation, United Technologies, Xerox Corp, Williams Co, Nike, and Ross Stores. Republicans were quick to point out the highly political nature of Schumer’s attack on Price, as well as CNN’s role in spreading the narrative. “I hate to interrupt *the narrative* but it seems awfully relevant that these trades were made Price’s knowledge,” Brendan Buck, an aide to Speaker Paul Ryan ( ) tweeted on Tuesday. At least one other media publication noted the partisan nature of the Democrats’ attack on Price. “No lawmaker has faced insider trading charges since the law was approved, but it has given ammunition to Democrats eager to question Price’s trading activity,” the Hill reported late Tuesday: Democrats have gone so far as to call for Price’s confirmation hearing to be delayed until ethics investigators have had a chance to review the activity. Sens. Al Franken ( .) Elizabeth Warren ( .) and Tammy Baldwin ( .) said Tuesday that Price’s confirmation should not go forward until an ethics probe has determined no wrongdoing was committed. “Allowing Congressman Price’s nomination to move to a hearing with questions about his ethical qualifications left unanswered would send an early, clear, and deeply troubling signal that the Senate’s critical oversight functions will be given a back seat to the demands of the Trump Administration,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter Wednesday to Sen. Lamar Alexander ( .) who chairs the committee vetting Price. Presidential Transition Team spokesperson Phil Blando said in a statement on Tuesday: Any effort to connect the introduction of bipartisan legislation by Dr. Price to any campaign contribution is demonstrably false. The only pattern we see emerging is that Senate Democrats and their liberal media allies cannot abide the notion that Dr. Tom Price is uniquely qualified to lead HHS and will stop at nothing to smear his reputation. But late Tuesday, Schumer repeated and expanded upon his original allegation to CNN’s Manu Raju. “If he knew about it, it could very well be a violation of the law,” Schumer said. “Now they say there’s a broker, it’s kind of strange that this broker would pick this stock totally independently of him introducing legislation that’s so narrow and specific to this company,” Schumer added. In a highly unusual move, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest joined the partisan narrative about Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services. “This doesn’t seem like a complicated scheme this seems like exactly the kind of financial entanglement that’s left a lot of people feeling alienated from Washington, D. C.,” Earnest said on Tuesday. The Presidential Transition Team noted that “[a] key point is that if Price divested today, the total profit on this stock investment would be less than $300”: Dr. Price’s financial advisor periodically rebalances his portfolio to ensure proper diversification. On March 17, 2016, Morgan Stanley undertook a comprehensive rebalancing of Dr. Price’s portfolio. In the course of that rebalancing, the advisor purchased 26 shares of Zimmer Biomet, worth $2, 697. 74, on behalf of Dr. Price. 26 shares divided by $2, 697. 74 is $103. 76 per share. ZBH stock closed at $115. 20 on January 13, 2017. Dr. Price’s 26 shares were worth $2, 995. 20 at the end of closing that day. Accordingly, his stock holdings in ZBH have risen a total of $297. 46 since March 17, 2016. “No one has alleged he’s traded based on insider information,” the securities law expert who is the partner in a major international law firm tells Breitbart News. “The fact of the matter is Dr. Price personally didn’t direct these trades. The broker had the discretionary authority of the account to execute the trades,” the legal expert adds. Previous reporting by CNN’s Raju was popular at the Democratic National Committee, where staffers mentioned earlier stories Raju wrote in several emails included in those that WikiLeaks released.

California Today: School Bond Measure? Why You Should Care - The New York Times

Mike McPhate

Good morning. Welcome to California Today, a morning update on the stories that matter to Californians (and anyone else interested in the state). Tell us about the issues that matter to you — and what you’d like to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. Want to receive California Today by email? Sign up. As we take a closer look at the 17 voter initiatives on the ballot this November, one of the less prominent measures with a lot of money at stake is Proposition 51. Though it will likely get overshadowed by flashier topics like marijuana and the death penalty, a yes vote would allow the state to issue $9 billion in bonds for school construction projects. Backers have raised more than $9 million to fight for its passage, according to The Sacramento Bee’s Data Tracker. Most of the proceeds from Proposition 51 would go toward upgrading the state’s buildings, with another $2 billion set aside for community colleges. Those bankrolling the effort are mostly construction groups that have a profit motive to see it pass. Supporters say the measure comes at a time of dire need. It’s been 10 years since the last statewide school bond measure and many of California’s roughly 10, 000 public schools are outdated and crumbling. A couple weeks ago, for example, a school in Daly City canceled classes after its aging sewer system backed up into the bathrooms. Dozens of school districts, state lawmakers and business groups have endorsed Proposition 51. Last week, the editorial board of The San Francisco Chronicle did too, calling it “a statewide commitment to the success of local schools. ” While many opponents acknowledge a need to upgrade infrastructure, they say Proposition 51 is the wrong way to go about it. In February, Gov. Jerry Brown called it a “developers’ $9 billion bond” that would deepen school inequity. The funding process favors schools that apply for projects early, meaning affluent districts with more seasoned administrators could muscle out poorer ones. “It’s a blunderbuss effort that promotes sprawl and squanders money that would be far better spent in communities,” Mr. Brown said. Critics argue that local districts are more than capable of issuing bonds of their own for schools and housing developers should shoulder more of the costs. The editorial boards of The Mercury News in San Jose and The San Diego have opposed the initiative. The bond would cost Californians roughly $8. 6 billion in interest by the time it is paid off in 35 years. They would pay that bill through taxes, reductions in services or both. Californians tend to approve bonds for school upgrades, and a poll conducted in April suggested that they were likely to favor a statewide measure in November. If opponents hope to turn that tide, they have work to do. Want to go deeper? Dive into analyses by the Legislative Analyst’s Office and the League of Women Voters of California. What are the issues with the schools in your area? Tell us at: CAtoday@nytimes. com. Your response may be featured in an future newsletter. • Kamala who? Many voters remain undecided or unaware of the candidates in the United States Senate race. [KQED] • How a congressional race in Santa Barbara became one of the most expensive in the country. [Los Angeles Times] • Economists may not like it, but rent control is spreading to the Bay Area’s suburbs. [San Francisco Chronicle] • Elon Musk said Tesla is readying improvements to its Autopilot technology that might have prevented a fatal accident in May. [The New York Times] • Apple is helping revive Nintendo’s great franchise with Super Mario Run, coming exclusively to iOS. [The New York Times] • Kim Chambers set off on a record bid to swim 93 miles to Tiburon from Sacramento. In the end, she couldn’t do it. [The New York Times] • Recovery on Cobb Mountain: Nearly a year after the Valley Fire, a family struggles to reclaim their lives. [Sacramento Bee] • Alexis Arquette, a transgender actress born into a famous Hollywood family, has died at 47. [Los Angeles Times] • A deadly fungus has moved inexorably across the Sierra Nevada, leaving thousands of frogs dead. [KPCC Radio] • Separating financial reality from the romantic vision of being a vineyard owner is not easy. [The New York Times] • A San Francisco Opera staging of “Dream of the Red Chamber” hopes to succeed where similar efforts have struggled. [The New York Times] • On Monday, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter will visit one of the department’s outposts in Silicon Valley. On Tuesday, he’ll meet with artificial intelligence researchers. • Beyoncé is to perform twice in California, at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, and Levi’s Stadium on Saturday. Our critic called an earlier stop on the tour “a display of a female power. ” • The Monterey Jazz Festival starts Friday. Among the stars: Wayne Shorter, Pat Metheny and Branford Marsalis. • The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards will be held Sunday. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” led the nominations with 23, followed by “The People v. O. J. Simpson” and “Fargo. ” Research centers at U. C. Davis are interrogating some of the planet’s most pressing problems. There are the Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Center for Poverty Research … the Coffee Center. U. C. Davis recently announced what it said would be the world’s first university research hub focused on studies of coffee. Plans for the center grew out of the popularity of the undergraduate course called Design of Coffee. Introduced in 2013, it now has the highest enrollment — more than 1, 500 students a year — of any elective course at Davis, surpassing favorites like Introduction to Human Sexuality. The Coffee Center is being financed with a $250, 000 gift from Peet’s Coffee, the chain. William Ristenpart, the director of the center, said researchers would explore “everything you do after you pick the cherry, through the washing, drying, roasting, brewing and tasting. ” U. C. Davis also offers courses in winemaking and beer brewing. Asked what beverage the university might turn its attention to next, Professor Ristenpart said a colleague was soliciting funding for a distillation center. “So, I suppose craft cocktails could be next,” he said. California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley.

Obama Takes In a Broadway Show, but Shuns the Spotlight - The New York Times

Sopan Deb

Barack Obama has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office last month, and he largely avoided the spotlight on Friday night — at least as much as a former president can when he is attending a Broadway show. Shortly after the lights went down at the American Airlines Theater on West 42nd Street, there was a blur, and the brief shining of a flashlight. Three people quickly took their seats several rows back from the stage: Mr. Obama his eldest daughter, Malia and Valerie Jarrett, who was a senior adviser to the president. A woman sitting nearby let out a small yelp, but most of the audience at the revival of Arthur Miller’s “The Price’’ did not realize they were watching a Broadway show with someone who was, until recently, the most powerful person in the world. The play, starring Mark Ruffalo, Danny DeVito, Jessica Hecht and Tony Shalhoub, centers on two estranged brothers and their quest to reconnect. “Well, I actually didn’t know he was sitting in the row,” said Laralyn Mowers, 37, who lives in Astoria, Queens. She was sitting five seats to the right of Mr. Obama and did not realize he was there until a friend told her at intermission. “I had a really bad day and it all just changed. ” Ms. Mowers said she was actually irritated when the trio first came in. “Who is so rude to come in after the show starts with the flashlights and everything?” she said. Mr. Obama wore glasses during the show. At one point during the second act, he and his daughter sat in identical poses: right hands pressed to their chins while intently observing the drama before them. Just before intermission, again in darkness, Mr. Obama, his daughter and Ms. Jarrett were whisked backstage to greet the cast and to take pictures with the crew. Once more, most of the crowd was oblivious to his presence. After the play ended, the Obamas and Ms. Jarrett joined the crowd in a standing ovation for the cast, the most visible they had been all night. Minutes later, they were gone. The audience members who managed to see the former president were heard expressing surprise that he had been there. The Obamas have mostly kept out of sight since President Trump’s inauguration. After leaving office, Mr. Obama and Michelle Obama went to the British Virgin Islands at the invitation of Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group. Mr. Branson challenged him to a kitesurfing contest. Mr. Obama won. Photos of a smiling Mr. Obama kitesurfing and wearing his baseball cap backward set off a flurry of jokes on the internet and on late night comedy shows. A common thread: Was he ever coming back? Mrs. Obama was spotted by the Daily Mail leaving a SoulCycle class in Washington this week. And on Thursday night, the former president was spotted leaving a restaurant with Malia in New York City’s Little Italy. The Obamas have shown a fondness for Broadway. In 2009, Mr. Obama whisked Mrs. Obama away from Washington for a Saturday dinner and a theater date, taking in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. ” Five years later, the Obamas attended a performance of “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Denzel Washington. Mr. Obama took both of his daughters to see a matinee performance of “Hamilton” in 2015. Last March, instead of leaving Washington, he brought “Hamilton” cast members to the White House to perform and to conduct a workshop with high school students. In November, Mr. Obama appeared at a for Democrats that featured a special performance of the hit musical. Of course, Mr. Obama is not alone among politicians who attend Broadway shows. Hillary Clinton has been spotted at four Broadway shows since her defeat in November, and was greeted with adulation. In an episode that garnered much attention, Mike Pence, then the vice was treated by a cast member to a brief statement about inclusion after seeing “Hamilton” in November. Mr. Trump, who helped finance a Broadway play in his 20s, and has said he is a fan of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, was not pleased. During Friday’s performance of “The Price,” a line from Mr. DeVito’s character, a furniture dealer, about the federal government being unreliable drew the biggest laugh of the night. Mr. Obama sat . “He said that he was happy that it was while he was not in office,” Mr. Ruffalo said during an interview after the show.

DHS Authorizes Hiring 10K Immigration Officers

Bob Price

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John F. Kelly authorized the hiring of an additional 10, 000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and enforcement officers. The move by DHS delivers on a promise made by President Donald Trump to increase enforcement — particularly in removing criminal aliens inside the borders of the U. S.[Secretary Kelly ordered the director of ICE to immediately begin the process of hiring 10, 000 to effectively enforce the immigration laws in the interior regions of the U. S. according to a DHS memo obtained by Breitbart Texas. In addition, Kelly authorized the agency to hire additional operational and mission support staff, along with legal staff. Kelly said the memo implements the Executive Order, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” issued by President Trump on January 25. ICE agents and enforcement officers were used earlier this month to conduct a targeted roundup of criminal aliens in metropolitan areas across the country. Agents and officers arrested more than 600 criminal aliens in 11 states, Breitbart Texas reported. The operation spawned a rash of “fake news” reports, tweets, and other social media comments that sparked unnecessary fear among immigrants not in the sights of the targeted operation. “I believe ICE is out in public arresting people in order to retaliate against our community for standing up for our values against people like Abbott and Trump,” Austin City Councilman Casar posted on Facebook. “Trump and his allies will do everything they can to divide Americans, invoke fear in vulnerable neighborhoods, and demonize an entire community of people. ” “Of those [680 aliens] arrested, approximately 75 percent were criminal aliens, convicted of crimes including, but not limited to, homicide, aggravated sexual abuse, sexual assault of a minor, lewd and lascivious acts with a child, indecent liberties with a minor, drug trafficking, battery, assault, DUI and weapons charges,” Secretary Kelly wrote in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. ICE enforcement officers routinely execute targeted enforcement operations to remove violent criminal aliens from the country. The additional 10, 000 agents and officers will allow the DHS to more efficiently carry out its mission of enforcing immigration laws in the interior of the country. Some of the operations conducted in the past include (according to DHS statistics): The memorandum from Secretary Kelly is effective immediately. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.

Prison Labor is Slavery by Another Name

Otherwords

Prison Labor is Slavery by Another Name Prison Labor is Slavery by Another Name By 0 151 Right now there’s a national movement mobilizing to raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage of $15 an hour. But imagine if instead of earning even that much, you could only earn a few cents an hour. If that sounds like something from the developing world, think again. The reality is our prisons are perpetuating slave labor . Every day, incarcerated people work long hours for barely any money. Meanwhile, prisons charge inmates for everything from telephone calls, to extra food and convenience items, to occupying a bed. In an official statement announcing the start of the historically largest nationwide prison strike, the IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee wrote: “In one voice, rising from the cells of long term solitary confinement, echoed in the dormitories and cell blocks from Virginia to Oregon, we prisoners across the United States vow to finally end slavery in 2016.” The prison system profits from mass incarceration. Prisons have numerous incentives to fill beds — including the cheap labor prisoners provide — and very little incentive to treat prisoners like human beings. (Photo: Shutterstock) Current minimum wage laws don’t apply to people in prison, nor do labor rights regulations. So prisoners experiencing grueling hours or cruel treatment don’t have any recourse to file complaints or seek restitution. On the contrary, clear human rights violations – including chain gangs — go unchecked all the time. And the prison system targets an already incredibly vulnerable population. Most inmates aren’t just low-income — they’re the poorest of the poor. In 2014, prior to their incarceration, inmates generally made over 40 percent less than their peers. Much of the prison population only wound up in the system in the first place because of policies that criminalize race, poverty, and mental health. Some are there because they couldn’t afford to post bail after facing minimal charges. Others end up back in the system because of stigma and policies that make it difficult to find a job as an ex-convict. Others still are locked up for being homeless and sleeping on the street, or stealing food. Many with mental illnesses end up cycling between the emergency room and a jail cell. But even those with steady work, once inside prison, can’t continue to earn a decent living. On just a few pennies an hour, prisoners can’t support themselves or their families, or earn enough to survive once they reenter society. People who spend years or even decades behind bars lose years worth of wages and have few resources for food or rent post-incarceration. It’s easy to see how prisons trap people in a cycle of poverty that helps ensure that even if released, they’re likely to end up back in prison. The majority of these prisoners are people of color who’ve been disproportionately targeted for imprisonment — from racial profiling to the failed war on drugs that targeted black communities starting in the 1980s. And it’s not just the wages that are reminiscent of slavery. One in ten prisoners is subject to physical and sexual abuse by guards and fellow inmates, according to the first National Former Prisoners Survey . There’s no real infrastructure to address the physical and mental consequences that come with this abuse. Meanwhile, prison wardens, correction officers, and prison administrators are rarely held accountable for their actions. Some of these injustices have inspired the Department of Justice to end federal contracts with private prisons, but that’s not enough. The Eighth Amendment states that cruel and unusual punishment is illegal in this country. Yet, today people are slaving away in prison factories, under working conditions that first prompted the rise of the labor movement. Prisoners are human beings who deserve the same human rights and dignity as the rest of us. We must end the practice of prison labor. It’s slavery by another name, and we have a clear obligation to ensure that slavery is completely eradicated in the United States.

Michigan Allots $87 Million to Replace Flint’s Tainted Water Pipes - The New York Times

Julie Bosman

The State of Michigan has agreed to spend $87 million in a proposed settlement to replace thousands of lead pipes throughout Flint over the next three years, the latest effort by state and city officials to fix the contaminated water system. The state may use a combination of federal and state funds for the project, which, if approved, would settle a lawsuit brought last year by a coalition of Flint residents and national groups. The suit blamed city and state officials for failing to protect residents from drinking water for more than a year. A federal judge is expected to review the agreement during a hearing in Detroit on Tuesday. The proposed deal also calls for the state to provide free bottled water and to conduct extensive testing of Flint’s tap water for lead in the coming months. By January 2020, the agreement says, the city will have replaced pipes in and around thousands of homes — perhaps 18, 000 of them — speeding up a project that began last year to replace corroded lead pipes. Pipes made of lead or galvanized steel are expected to be replaced with copper. “This proposed agreement is a win for the people of Flint,” said Dimple Chaudhary, a lawyer for the National Resources Defense Council. “It provides a comprehensive framework to address lead contamination in Flint’s tap water. The agreement is a significant step forward for the Flint community, covering a number of critical issues related to water safety. ” The lawsuit was filed against Michigan and Flint officials in January 2016 by a group including the Natural Resources Defense Council the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan Concerned Pastors for Social Action and Melissa Mays, a Flint resident. The group asserted that the state and the city were in violation of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Ari Adler, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Snyder, said he could not comment because the agreement was still under mediation. Under the terms of the deal, residents are entitled to lead testing of their water four times a year. Residents who are homebound may receive deliveries of bottled water, and nine distribution centers will offer free bottled water, filters and replacement cartridges for filters. Teams dispatched by the city will inspect water filters on faucets, ensure that they are installed correctly and explain proper use to residents, a step to further educate people in Flint about lead contamination. In April 2014, Flint officials switched the city’s water source from Detroit’s water system to the Flint River, and residents immediately began to report health problems, water discoloration and foul smells from their faucets. It took more than a year before state officials publicly acknowledged the problem. Experts said that water from the Flint River had corroded the pipes and caused lead to leach into the water. Jacob D. Abernethy, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, collaborated with Flint officials on a study last year that analyzed the water system and the undertaking to replace lead pipes in homes. He said that finishing the replacement in three years seemed possible with enough money and resources. The pipe replacement in Flint did not begin as quickly as officials had initially hoped. “It’s been a slow project for a lot of reasons,” Mr. Abernethy said. “There’s a lot of hurdles in the way: The City Council has to approve the locations. Every time you want to go to a home, you have to get approval from the homeowner. Contractors encounter problems they didn’t expect to find. ” But after months of construction, he said, officials in Flint “have figured out how to make this thing go fast. ”

In a California Valley, Healthy Food Everywhere but on the Table - The New York Times

Thomas Fuller

SALINAS, Calif. — As Americans gather around Thanksgiving tables, chances are that the healthier parts of their menus — the tossed salads, broccoli casseroles or steaming bowls of roasted brussels sprouts — were grown here in the Salinas Valley. A long strip of deep and fertile soil pinched by sharply rising mountains, the valley has more than doubled its output of produce in recent decades and now grows well over half of America’s leaf lettuce. Yet one place the valley’s bounty of antioxidants does not often appear is on the tables of the migrant workers who harvest it. Public health officials here describe a crisis of poverty and malnutrition among the tens of thousands of farmworkers and their families who tend to the fields of lettuce, broccoli, celery, cauliflower and spinach, among many other crops, in an area called the salad bowl of the nation. More than a third of the children in the Salinas City Elementary School District are homeless overall diabetes rates are rising and projected to soar and 85 percent of farmworkers in the valley are overweight or obese, partly because unhealthy food is less costly, said Marc B. Schenker, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies the health of farmworkers. “The people who grow our food can’t afford to eat it, and they are sicker because of it,” said Joel Diringer, a public health specialist and advocate for farmworkers. “It’s an incredible irony that those who work in the fields all day long don’t have access to the fresh produce that they harvest. ” For decades, the fields of the Salinas Valley have been a revolving door of migrants, from the Okies of John Steinbeck’s writings to the Latin American immigrants who tend the fields today. percent of farmworkers in California are foreign born, primarily from Mexico, according to the United States Department of Labor. While the valley’s vegetables are reaching an number of American households, public health officials say there are no signs of improvement in the living conditions and diets of farmworkers. The popularity of sugary drinks and cultural preferences for filling but foods like tacos and tamales contribute to the obesity of farmworkers and their families, public health officials say. Because an estimated half of agricultural workers in the Salinas Valley are in the country illegally, many do not have health insurance and go without treatment until symptoms become acute. The combination of high rents and low incomes — wages typically fall in the range of $10 to $15 an hour — leaves farmworkers with minimal and often inadequate money for food and is a contributor to the housing crisis in Salinas. Homelessness has risen so steadily in recent years that the Salinas City Elementary School District now has a liaison for students without permanent housing. Cheryl Camany, the school district’s homeless liaison, listed the types of dwellings where some farmworkers slept: “Tents, encampments, abandoned buildings,” she said. “They could be living in a toolshed, a chicken coop. ” Poverty and neglect among farmworkers is by no means new. Steinbeck, the valley’s most famous native son, wrote in the 1930s about the “curious attitude toward a group that makes our agriculture successful. ” “The migrants are needed, and they are hated,” he wrote, a sentiment that residents here feel has been revived with the election of Donald J. Trump as president and his promises to deport undocumented workers. At a diabetes and nutrition awareness class held at a nursery school in King City, overweight women from farmworker families were given a barrage of statistics on the dangers of poor diets, especially those excessive in sugar. “Two in five Americans will develop diabetes,” Lisa Rico, the instructor, told the class in Spanish. “But for us it’s one in two. ” The class was run by the Natividad Medical Foundation, a nonprofit that is part of Natividad Medical Center, a large hospital in Salinas. Ms. Rico read to the class the findings of a survey of 1, 200 young people in Monterey County, which includes Salinas: 72 percent of children under 10 years old and 83 percent of teenagers said they drank at least one soda a day adolescents drank 4. 5 times as many sugary drinks as water. A study published in March by the U. C. L. A. Center for Health Policy Research reported that 57 percent of residents in Monterey County had diabetes or prediabetes, just slightly above the California average of 55 percent. But Dr. Dana Kent, the medical director for health promotion and education at the Natividad Medical Foundation, said estimates among farmworkers might be low, especially among those who are undocumented and fearful to obtain medical services. “We get a sense that there are a lot of people out there who are undiagnosed,” Dr. Kent said. On a recent afternoon, workers from Mexico and El Salvador harvested heads of iceberg lettuce in a field in Gonzales, a city in the heart of the Salinas Valley. The workers moved so quickly — slicing, trimming the outer leaves and putting the heads of lettuce into plastic bags — that they looked like actors in a film played at an accelerated speed. Angelica Beltran, the supervisor, said her workers typically ate six to eight tacos while at work and had two or three sodas during their shift. “No one drinks diet soda,” she said. “It doesn’t taste good. ” Despite the frenetic pace of the work, farmworkers suffer from what Melissa Kendrick, the head of the Food Bank for Monterey County, calls the “obesity paradox of the poor. ” “They are fat, yes, but they are malnourished because all they are eating is garbage,” she said. The consumption of cheap, starchy food has been a major contributor to the epidemic of obesity across America. But the rates among farmworkers here are significantly higher: 85 percent are overweight or obese compared with 69 percent nationally. Some farmworkers in the Salinas Valley sleep next to the vegetables they cannot afford to buy. In a row of dusty, apartments straddled by railway tracks and vast fields of broccoli, Maria Hernandez, 60, pays $520 a month for two tiny rooms, each about 18 feet across. Her extended family are Mexican immigrants who have spent their lives farming and picking strawberries, celery and other crops. She became aware of the need to eat healthily when both her mother and her sister were diagnosed with diabetes. “Although we are surrounded by it, we don’t eat it because it’s expensive,” said Antonia Tejada, Ms. Hernandez’s daughter, who works the night shift at McDonald’s. “We will buy a big bag of beans instead of a little thing of broccoli for $2 that won’t feed even one person. ” Only an hour south of Silicon Valley, the Salinas Valley is a rural setting with urban prices. Israel de Jesus, who works as an interpreter at the Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, crowded into a home that rented for $1, 600 a month when he was doing farm work. “There’s no way to save money because of the bills and the rent,” Mr. de Jesus said. “But you have to save money so you can make it through the winter. ” Even when vegetables and other healthy foods are available or affordable, farmworkers sometimes opt for the satisfaction of comfort food. Brigita Gonzalez rises every day at 3:30 a. m. to prepare food for her husband, who leaves for the fields an hour later. When she made him a salad once to accompany his tacos, he returned in the evening with the salad unfinished. Ms. Gonzalez says her husband was needled by for eating a salad: “Everybody was like, ‘What are you eating? ’” Ms. Kendrick of the food bank said demand was strong for healthy foods, cultural preferences notwithstanding. The food bank gives out about five million meals a year and is raising money to build a large food warehouse on a plot. Ms. Kendrick, who previously worked in Silicon Valley, said she was motivated by the idea that malnutrition and hunger were fixable in a country with so much wealth. “I’ve spent time in India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia — third world countries where poverty is everywhere,” she said. “It’s shocking when it’s in your home state. ”

N.H.L. Says Its Players Will Not Participate in 2018 Winter Olympics - The New York Times

Ben Shpigel

T. J. Oshie dominating in a thrilling United States shootout victory over Russia. Sidney Crosby scoring an overtime goal on home ice to lift Canada to the gold medal over the United States. Henrik Lundqvist stretching across the goal line with seconds remaining to secure gold for Sweden. Some of the more memorable moments in Olympic hockey history have involved N. H. L. players, but new ones will probably have to be forged without them next winter in South Korea. Citing a majority of owners’ overwhelming opposition to disrupting the regular season, the N. H. L. announced Monday that it would not participate in the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, depriving the Games of the world’s best players in a showcase sport. Players in the N. H. L. have participated in every Olympics since 1998, and many have expressed interest in playing at next winter’s Games. Lundqvist, the Rangers’ stellar goaltender, said on Twitter that the league’s decision wasted “a huge opportunity to market the game at the biggest stage” and that he was disappointed “for all the players that can’t be part of the most special adventure in sports. ” The Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin has said he plans to represent Russia at the Pyeongchang Games no matter what the N. H. L. might decide, raising the possibility that the next battle for the owners might be with individual players who do not want to obey the league. The National Hockey League Players’ Association said in a statement that players were “extraordinarily disappointed and adamantly disagree” with the league’s decision. “N. H. L. players are patriotic and they do not take this lightly,” the association said. “A decent respect for the opinions of the players matters. This is the N. H. L. ’s decision, and its alone. It is very unfortunate for the game, the players and millions of loyal hockey fans. ” N. H. L. owners and officials do not like the idea of shutting down the league for a few weeks. They have argued that they deserve a portion of the revenue that the International Olympic Committee receives from the tournament, and they do not like the injury risk. Several stars, among them Islanders center John Tavares and Red Wings center Henrik Zetterberg, sustained injuries at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. “The league isn’t ” N. H. L. Commissioner Gary Bettman told Chicago business leaders last month. “We’ve been to five of them. The problem is the clubs are to the season. To disappear for almost three weeks in February when there’s no football, no baseball, there’s only basketball and us. To do it where there’s no programming for the NHL Network, for NHL. com, for all of our social media platforms — we just disappear. ” The United States Olympic Committee responded to the decision with a statement posted on its website: “We’re disappointed that the N. H. L. has decided not to participate and feel for the players who were looking forward to the Games. That said, we’re confident U. S. A. Hockey will build the team to compete and win in Pyeongchang. ” Bettman has been hinting at a potential Olympic absence for about a year, telling reporters before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals last May that “our teams are not interested in paying for the privilege” of participating. The N. H. L. endorsed another global event, the World Cup of Hockey, held in Canada in September. The competition ended two weeks before the season, and coupled with mandated breaks for each team, it created a compressed schedule comparable to that of an Olympic year. Players and coaches have complained that the schedule has led to fatigue and poor play. The N. B. A. is the only other one of the four major North American sports leagues that sends its players to the Olympics, but basketball is contested at the Summer Games, during the league’s . When baseball was a medal sport, from 1992 to 2008, Major League Baseball would not permit its players to compete for similar reasons as the N. H. L. ’s: a lengthy interruption of an inflexible schedule that would cost owners and the players’ association about three weeks’ worth of revenue. Minor leaguers and college players competed instead, as could be the case with the hockey teams for the United States and Canada in Pyeongchang. “We knew it was a very real possibility for many months and certainly respect the decision of the N. H. L. ,” Dave Ogrean, executive director of U. S. A. Hockey, said in a statement. “The good news is that because of our efforts over the course of many years, our player pool is as deep as it has ever been, and we fully expect to field a team that will play for a medal. ” The president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, René Fasel, said recently that the federation needed the N. H. L. ’s decision on 2018 by the end of April. Though the N. H. L. ’s statement on Monday ended with “We now consider the matter officially closed,” it remains to be seen whether the decision is, in fact, final. Negotiations for the 2014 Sochi Olympics stalled four years ago, but an agreement was reached on July 19, 2013, less than seven months before the opening ceremony. Furthermore, although the N. H. L. said in its statement that the I. O. C. had let it be known that the league’s participation in the 2022 Beijing Games was contingent on its presence in Pyeongchang, the league is striving to make inroads in China. Refusing to send its players there could ruin an opportunity to tap a new market. Last week, Bettman traveled to China to announce that the Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings would play two exhibition games there in September, in Shanghai and Beijing, where the Kontinental Hockey League of Russia recently installed a team. In its statement, the N. H. L. said it had been open to hearing from the I. O. C. the I. I. H. F. and the players’ association on ways to make Olympic participation more attractive to the team owners. “A number of months have now passed, and no meaningful dialogue has materialized,” the N. H. L. said. The I. O. C. which had previously paid travel and insurance expenses for N. H. L. players, had said it would not do so for the 2018 Games. The I. I. H. F. stepped in to cover those costs instead, but that concession did not satisfy the league.

Now is the Best Time to Start Seeds For Spring

Ariana

Leeks Vegetables that do not like to be disturbed include many of the root vegetable varieties such as Carrots, Beets, Turnips, and Parsnips. Many of the root vegetables are cold-hearty and can withstand colder temperatures, and therefore be directly planted in the ground as soon as temperatures are above 39 F for the season. Several vegetables that are a bit trickier include corn, beans, and peas. These vegetables have a much more sensitive root system and do well when they are directly planted into the ground once the season has come, after the last frost when temperatures begin to warm and sunlight increases. When your seedlings have matured enough and the temperature outside is warming, it is time to start thinking about getting your vegetables outside and into the garden. This typically happens after the last frost, when the outdoor temperature is above 59 F. If nighttime temperatures drop a lot lower than this, wait another week or two. Cold weather can rot seedlings and shock them, even killing tender crops. Once you are confident that temperatures and weather outside is optimal, begin to harden your seedlings and prep them for transplanting. To do this, place your seedlings outside in a shaded area with filtered light and slowly, over the course of a week, expose them to more and more sunlight. Seedlings grown indoors are usually quite fragile and soft, and need time to harden before being planted outside in the ground. Once your seedlings have been planted in the ground, ensure that they are watered immediately. Some may droop or wilt as a result of being transplanted, but most will rebound after they have had time to adjust to their move. Be sure not to over water new transplants because they will be unable to use all the moisture around them and soon rot. Starting seedlings inside will give you a fun activity to do indoors and your garden will thank you in spring! Ariana Marisol is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. She is an avid nature enthusiast, gardener, photographer, writer, hiker, dreamer, and lover of all things sustainable, wild, and free. Ariana strives to bring people closer to their true source, Mother Nature. She graduated The Evergreen State College with an undergraduate degree focusing on Sustainable Design and Environmental Science. Follow her adventures on Instagram.

Muslim College Chaplains Extend a Hand Across Religious Divides - The New York Times

Samuel G. Freedman

MINNEAPOLIS — Emma Blom grew up in the Scandinavian heartland of rural Minnesota, reliably attending her small town’s Lutheran church. She spent each childhood summer in vacation Bible school and played the piano for Sunday worship services. “Borning Cry” was her grandmother’s favorite hymn. Catholics were a scattered minority on the Minnesota prairie, Jews even rarer. As for Muslims, Ms. Blom had never met one. “I knew the women wore stuff on their head,” she recalled. “I didn’t even know it was called a hijab. ” Then, as a sophomore at Augsburg College here in 2014, Ms. Blom felt her faith wavering. She had been shaken by her grandmother’s death, and drew no solace from her church’s rituals. One of her classes scrutinized the Bible for sexism and misogyny. Was she a Christian anymore? Was she even a believer? She didn’t dare to ask any of her Lutheran friends, for fear of being judged and found wanting. Still struggling this fall, Ms. Blom turned to perhaps the most unexpected counselor and confessor of all: Augsburg’s Muslim chaplain, Fardosa Hassan. And from Ms. Hassan, 26, a Somali refugee who had never seen snow until arriving in Minnesota as a entering fifth grade, Ms. Blom heard words that sustained her. Doubt was the necessary companion of belief, Ms. Hassan assured her, not its irreversible solvent. Divine texts can be interpreted by human hands and in modern ways. One devout person’s truth is not necessarily another’s. Two months after the conversation, Ms. Blom is attending church again, feeling more settled in her soul. In this encounter across chasms of difference, Ms. Hassan embodied the vital role that dozens of Muslim chaplains like her are playing at colleges and universities throughout the nation. These chaplains serve as doors that open two ways — welcoming and integrating Muslim students who fear hostility at a time of rising Islamophobia, and normalizing Islam to students who have absorbed a narrative of it as an oppressive and violent religion. “My role is to help students negotiate this multifaith, diverse environment,” said Ms. Hassan. “I’m going to give them a tool for when they go out of this institution, so they know how to be respectful of others. A lot of times, people are afraid even to ask the questions of people who are different. So I say, begin with friendship. Start by saying hello. ” Across the United States, nearly 40 Muslim chaplains serve private universities, according to Abdullah Antepli, the chaplain at Duke University and a leader in the national association of Muslim chaplains, which also includes those serving in hospitals, the military, prisons and various community settings. (For reasons of church and state separation, public universities cannot pay for clergy of any kind, although a Muslim chaplain at the University of Michigan is supported by private donations.) Virtually all these chaplains have been hired since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In their polarizing aftermath, the chaplains both chose and were compelled to become cultural and religious interlocutors. For each one of those chaplains provided a face, if not the face, of the “ummah,” or global community of Islam. “If you have a Muslim among the Jews and Christians and Buddhists and humanists, you get better integrated into the life of the school,” said Heidi Hadsell, the president of Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, which has a program to train Muslim chaplains. “They act as advocates for Muslim students, but also a bridge to other communities. And that’s critically important. It’s a way of people on campus knowing a Muslim. ” There is probably no college that stands more astride the religious divide than Augsburg. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and has traditionally attracted the vast majority of its students from white Protestant denominations. Yet its campus directly abuts the neighborhood that is the epicenter of Minnesota’s population of 31, 500 Somali Muslims. Perhaps nowhere else in the United States does a hockey rink sit so close to a halal meat market. With the growth of Minnesota’s Somali population over the past the most common national news from the area has concerned the dozens of young men who joined the Islamic State or the Shabab militant group — or were apprehended trying. In September, a Somali man shouting “Allahu akbar” stabbed 10 people at a shopping mall in St. Cloud, 65 miles from Minneapolis, heightening fears of homegrown terrorism. Such explosive events, though, obscure the less dramatic assimilation of Somali immigrants here. One serves on the Minneapolis City Council. Another won a seat in the state legislature on Election Day. As of 2006, Somalis in Minnesota owned 600 businesses and had $164 million in buying power, according to a report by the American Immigration Council, and those numbers have certainly increased in the subsequent decade. So when Paul C. Pribbenow became president of Augsburg in 2006, he looked to the Somali community for prospective students. Having written his doctoral dissertation about Hull House, Jane Addams’s landmark settlement house in Chicago, Dr. Pribbenow conceived of Augsburg as the “ equivalent. ” As he recently put it: “What does a settlement house do? It listens to neighbors and learns how to be a neighbor. ” With a student body of about 2, 500, Augsburg’s Muslim enrollment increased to 101 in 2016 from 11 in 2007. Ms. Hassan, in the graduating class of 2012, was one of those students. Her family fled Somalia’s civil war in 1991 and lived in Ethiopia and Kenya for several years before she came to Minneapolis in the care of her grandmother. Equipped with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and international relations, Ms. Hassan went to work for an interfaith group in St. Paul. Augsburg, meanwhile, got a harrowing reminder of its lingering gaps in meeting the needs of Muslim students when one was shot and killed near campus in 2008. The college pastor, the Rev. Sonja Hagander, realized to her shame that there was no Muslim religious figure on campus to help students grieve. As a Lutheran, she felt almost an impostor in the role. So when Augsburg created a position of Muslim student program associate, Ms. Hassan applied and was hired in August 2015. In the role, she addresses classes, organizes service projects, leads field trips to local mosques and started a service for Friday Prayers, known as jummah, on campus. She also makes sure there are plenty of Doritos when members of the Muslim Student Association turn up for their meetings. For Ms. Hassan, such efforts are necessarily . If a Christian student like Ms. Blom represented one vector of her outreach, then Mohamud Mohamed typifies the other. The son of Somali refugees, he memorized the Quran by age 13 and began teaching in a weekend madrasa a year later. His default position before he went to college was to assume that the most rigorous version of Islam was the most genuine. At Augsburg, Ms. Hassan utilized Mr. Mohamed’s religious training to have him, rather than an outside imam, lead Friday Prayer. She also nudged him to move the sermons away from fire and brimstone and toward issues of social justice, such as the Black Lives Matter movement. As a result, the prayer service has begun to attract some Christian and atheist students for its political message. And in at least one small way on one campus, Islam itself has been demystified and defanged. “They feel like there’s no more mystery about it,” Mr. Mohamed, 19, said of students. “It’s not some secret ritual. It’s a way for us to be ambassadors for Muslims. ”

NATO Goes On High Alert To Block Donald Trump Presidency, Put Hillary Clinton In Power

The European Union Times

A gravely written Ministry of Defense ( MoD ) report circulating in the Kremlin this morning is warning the Security Council ( SC ) that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) has now placed upwards of 300,000 of its military forces on “high alert” that this Western alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg claims is due to growing tensions with Russia —but that Federation intelligence analysts state are intended to be used, instead, for a full-scale invasion of the United States to prevent Donald Trump from assuming the presidency. [Note: Some words and/or phrases appearing in quotes in this report are English language approximations of Russian words/phrases having no exact counterpart.] According to this report, MoD intelligence analysts became “concerned/alarmed” over a 25 October US military joint air defense exercise in the Arabian Sea that coordinated US Navy aircraft carrier defense of US Air Force transport and refueling aircraft—but that further analysis revealed was but a precursor to a much larger planned American military “event” scheduled for 14 December as part of the Pentagon’s planning for the upcoming inauguration of their next president. The Pentagon’s planning for their 14 December “event”, this report continues, involves the Atlantic Ocean deployment between the United States and European Union of the aircraft carriers USS George H.W. Bush , USS George Washington and USS Abraham Lincoln whose fighter aircraft will be defending the US Air Forces’ Air Mobility Command’s ( AMC ) staggering deployment of 200 KC-135 Stratotanker air-to-air fueling aircraft, 150 C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, 150 C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and 75 C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft—all of which are “planned/scheduled” to leave the US empty, and return fully loaded. Raising MoD “fears/concerns” even more about this planned Pentagon “event”, this report notes, is all of the US military commanders involved in it being given copies of a cryptically written Executive Order signed by President Obama 3 days ago (4 November) that states “ global health security is a core tenet of our national strategy for countering biological threats ” and directs the US Defense Department and US Secretary of State to cooperate, coordinate and communicate with unnamed foreign defense ministries . With relations between the United States and the equally globalist European Union hanging in the balance as the majority of the EU’s leaders fear a Donald Trump presidency , this report continues, many in the US are openly warning that Hillary Clinton, and the leftist forces loyal to her, are preparing to stage a “ false flag ” attack to regain their hold on power—including one of the most feared and powerful American political operatives named Roger Stone who is, likewise, openly warning it could very well happen. As to why Hillary Clinton fears a Donald Trump presidency, MoD intelligence analysts in this report explain, is due to the massive exposure to the American public of her many crimes—including her cover-up of child rape and sex trafficking. Making Hillary Clinton’s dire situation even worse, this report continues, was FBI Director James Comey, yesterday, basically informing her that he wasn’t prepared to indict her for her email crimes—but that US government “deep state” sources are now leaking was a “ploy/gambit” to keep President Obama from pardoning her before Donald Trump could assume the presidency. With Hillary Clinton having disgraced the entire journalism profession in America for decades to come, this report says, these propagandists crimes against the citizens of US continue to astound the whole world—including the once respected television news network CNN now being proven to have colluded with Clinton to destroy Donald Trump. But to one of the greatest crimes against the American people these Hillary Clinton propagandist journalists are responsible for, this report says, is their failing to tell them that her top aide, Huma Abedin, is, in fact, an imbedded spy bought and paid for by Saudi Arabia that the Federation has warned the US government about for decades. But to the shockingly worse crime being committed against the American people, this report concludes, is President Obama himself now openly calling for all illegal immigrants in the United States to vote for Hillary Clinton, and pledging that the corrupt government he now controls will do nothing about it. And though not mentioned in this MoD report, there are no greater examples of how corrupt the Obama-Clinton regime has made America then the cases of a young California single mother named Mariza Reulas who is facing years in prison for the crime of selling a single supper to a member of her ladies food club and the destruction of MIT professor Cesar Hidalgo for daring to tell to the truth about Clinton’s emails—both occurring while Hillary Clinton, and all of the criminals associated with her, are still able to walk free—but if Donald Trump is allowed to survive he may be able to save, along with the United States itself. Source

Trump’s “Conservative Revolution” (A view from Oz)

The Saker

2142 Views November 16, 2016 35 Comments Guest Posts The Saker by Iman Safi The major political parties of Western democracies; the Conservatives on one hand and the Liberal Progressives on the other hand, irrespective what specific names they give themselves, are by-and-large based on the “traditional” so-called right versus left divide. This divide has taken many shapes and forms, and of course a huge array of names and descriptions, and this is why to pinpoint the doctrinal difference between them, it is perhaps best go back to the basic difference of conservatism versus liberalism; the desire to maintain as opposed to the desire to change. This is basically why political preference was grossly gravitated to by the norms of human nature. Thus, the privileged were attracted to conservatism whilst the underprivileged were lured by the need for change. In this rapid time of change, change at all levels, those sharp dividing lines have been merging at times and splitting at others. In their denial to this paradigm shift, the major parties in the West have lost what originally defined them; and when their constituents tell them that they do not see any difference between them any longer, instead of listening to them, they shun them and tell them that they are wrong. It is of little wonder therefore that new kids are coming on the block; new kids who can strike in the weakest spot of the underbelly of the major parties, and they strike when the eyes of the major parties are either closed, or at best, in denial. Enter the Greens. As both major parties move closer towards the center, or at least as they are perceived to do so, gaps are created at the extremes of the conservative-progressive divide. Even if the major parties are not indeed either moving closer or towards the center, the fact that they are perceived to do so by voters is enough reason to send votes swaying in any direction as perceived. The Greens were quick enough and smart enough to capitalize on one of the perceived vacuum corners and jumped into the left progressive former nook. Fairly quickly they came to embody what the traditional progressive left side of politics used to uphold and defend, and was supposed to continue to do so. Thus, in a rather short period of time, just 2-3 decades in fact, the Greens vote now accounts to nearly 10% in most Western democracies, and it is on the rise. On the other extreme, the protagonists of the extreme right, had to wait a bit longer for a more opportune moment. The wave of refugees and ensuing terrorism that the short-sighted politics and the wars that both major parties created gave them the golden goose they had been waiting for. Ironically however, in most Western nations, many major new concerns, including the concern about refugees, come from both the very privileged and the very underprivileged combined. The two diametrically-opposite socio-economic dipoles found quite a bit of common ground that united them. Thus, and perhaps for the first time in history, the desire to change did not come exclusively from the bottom. The days of the French Revolution seem to have gone. The days of hungry people taking to the streets demanding bread are long forgotten. This created the foundation of the Trump’s “Conservative Revolution”. Whilst this term sounds oxymoronic, it describes the status quo of the paradigm shift that major parties in all Western nations are seemingly and conveniently choosing to ignore to their own peril. The “Conservative Revolution” is a new social phenomenon, originating from both extreme of the socio-economic divide crashing the center and the rot that traditional politics has festered around the mid-point shades of grey. The muddled up and muddied new scenario is something that traditional conservative and progressive parties are not used to. In their tradition of assuming that power is exclusive for either one of them for the taking, they have built a high and huge wall of arrogance that they do not seem to want to surmount. For some reason, they seem to believe that their self-perceived oppositeness is as real and as permanent as black and white. It is time that they realize that they are both seen as, with the risk of repetition, slightly different shades of grey and that there is a new clearer brand of black and white emerging. For some mysterious reason they believe that their presence is etched in stone that they will always be here, and that even when in opposition, it is only a question of time before they get re-elected and voted in. It is time that they wake up, and get a reality check. In Trump’s “Conservative Revolution”, not even the American Republican Party (ie the GOP) had fully endorsed him, and ultimately, for better or for worse, his win was his own; not the GOP’s. Above all, Trump used primarily his own funds, and in more ways than one, he owes nothing to none, none at all but his loyal inner circle and, of course, his voters nationwide. So apart from Trump and his close inner circle, who are those who believe that they are the winners in the USA? Obviously and sadly, the ultra-right including the KKK and the like, and this is the main cause of fear and concern among the ranks of the truly educated liberal-minded Americans, and for good reasons. They simply do not know what to expect next. It is no wonder therefore that the rest of the Western World is at loss trying to deal with the Trump win tsunami. Right here in Australia, even the staunch ultra-right Australian former PM John Howard, a prime mover and shaker who was instrumental in pursuing Bush to invade Iraq, is at loss and in total despair facing Trump’s win. Traditionally after a GOP win, this man should now be rejoicing. After all, he was the one who said eight years ago that Al-Qaeda would be happy to see Obama win. But thus far, Trump does not give the impression that he is the regular conservative warmonger that Howard likes to see in the Oval Office. Quite the contrary in fact. The world is changing and changing fast. The biggest paradigm shift after the end of WWII was the breakup of the USSR and the establishment of the so-called “New World Order” in which the USA was the sole superpower. The “New World Order” is coming to an end. In fact, it already did when Russia unilaterally decided to send its Sukhois to bomb ISIS in Syria. The economic strife that the USA is suffering from, its shrinking global influence and needless and expensive wars that it had been engaged with almost continuously since the end of WWII has reached a tipping point that President-elect Trump is savvy enough to acknowledge, and forward enough to openly and overtly decide that he wants to deal with in a fiscally-pragmatic and conciliatory manner. Unless Trump does an Obama and changes course soon after his inauguration, a new era in foreign American policy, an era that is primarily America-centric rather than hegemonic will set the course of global events in a new direction. Other nations, and specifically the two major parties of Western democracies will have very few choices. They will either have to acknowledge and accept this change, find a way in which they can redefine themselves in order to be able to find a nook for themselves within it, or simply stick to their waning guns and allow to fall to 3 rd and 4 th ranks in power and allow the Greens and new ultra-right to become the two new de-facto major parties. The ball is in their courts, but not for a long time. The longer they take to redefine themselves, and the longer they continue to bury their heads in the sand, the Greens will continue to chew away votes from the progressive parties and the ultra-right will do the same from the conservative parties. As a matter of fact, in this particular unprecedented situation, the major parties can lose votes in any direction, but mostly towards the one seen closer to them. Unless the major parties wake up, and they are the devil the West knows, the West will soon find itself under the control of either the far right or the far left; the devils that no one really knows, let alone, wants to know. To be explicit and specific, in Australia this will mean that unless the ruling Liberal-National Coalition on one hand and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) on the other hand reach a new bi-partisan foreign policy agreement that will endeavour to sever the unconditional and rather outdated loyalty to the America tag, a tag that the USA itself is possibly no longer interested in keeping, then in the not too distant future when Australians go to the polling booths, they will eventually have to choose between either the Greens or the infamous xenophobic Pauline Hanson One Nation Party. Not surprisingly, the ruling Australian conservative government is at a total loss because it is now facing the prospect of having to contend with the love-child of the “Conservative Revolution”, an American President that they have not seen the likes of before, someone they cannot place in any position on the right to left track; definitely not in any position they are familiar with. Prime Minister Turnbull had no option but to congratulate the President-elect in a rather morbid manner that, when looked at in between the lines, one would argue that Turnbull might as well have said that Australia will accept the decision of the American people even if they vote in a moron and a thug. On the other hand, former opposition ALP leaders, two of whom are former Prime Ministers Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd have genuinely welcomed the change. Another former ALP leader who never reached the top job, Mark Latham, was excited to see that this change may mean that the USA will no longer be the world police. But Keating put it very strongly when he urged Australia to act like a grown-up nation and sever the unconditional loyalty to the America tag ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=paPrAG6IY_8&app=desktop ). I have not been scanning who has been saying what, but I would not be surprised if what Paul Keating had to say was quite unique and not matched with any post US-election statements coming from any Western leader or former leader. Once the fears resulting from Trump’s pre-election statements about women, Hispanics, Muslims etc… are dissipated, if they get dissipated, and if he remains true to his word on international policy, Western leaders of the conservative and progressive parties that rule in alternation will have to redefine and realign themselves, otherwise they may either get squeezed into oblivion or swept away by their own home-grown “Conservative Revolutions”. Will Trump keep his promises on international matters? Will Australia take Keating’s advice and lead the West into a new era of how to deal and cooperate with the new USA if indeed a new USA is on the rise? Very pertinently, will Trump realize that he cannot unite people if he is going to adopt social policies based on segregation? This sounds like expecting him to keep certain election promises and denounce others; and expectation that he keeps the election promises on international affairs and revoking those on social justice issues, a big dose of wishful thinking, but will his stand on the social issues that are causing concern within and outside America take a back step? We can all hope, because as the world stands at the edge of the cliff of a nuclear confrontation between the superpowers, something that most Westerners seem to be totally oblivious to, a very precarious position that the Obama/Clinton legacy has put the world into, humanity needs miracles to be saved, and when we need miracles, all we have left is prayer and all the hope we can afford to have. As a die-hard leftie, I hope that the traditional left wakes up and takes the lead in adopting its own rebirth; a doctrinal renaissance that will see the world from a vantage point of working towards partnership and conflict resolution, because right now, the bi-partisan agreements between the two major parties of any Western Democracy, Australia included, is nothing short of being a disgraceful bi-partisanship of war. The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world $27.95

1999 Rape Case Swirls Around Nate Parker and His Film ‘The Birth of a Nation’ - The New York Times

Cara Buckley and Serge F. Kovaleski

“The Birth of a Nation,” a drama about the Nat Turner slave rebellion, upended the Sundance Film Festival, selling for a record $17. 5 million and instantly vaulting to of next year’s Oscar race. Scheduled to be released Oct. 7, the film is now attracting unwanted attention because of renewed interest in a case in which the film’s director, writer and star, Nate Parker, was accused — and later acquitted — of rape when he was a student at Penn State. His college roommate, Jean McGianni Celestin, who received a credit on the movie, was also charged. Last week Deadline. com and Variety asked Mr. Parker about the case, and on Tuesday, Variety reported that his accuser committed suicide in 2012 at age 30. In a statement to The New York Times, the woman’s family said: “We appreciate that after all this time, these men are being held accountable for their actions. However, we are dubious of the underlying motivations that bring this to present light after 17 years, and we will not take part in stoking its coals. While we cannot protect the victim from this media storm, we can do our best to protect her son. For that reason, we ask for privacy for our family and do not wish to comment further. ” But the woman’s sister, Sharon Loeffler, said that statement did not represent the sentiments of other family members or the woman herself. “I know what she would’ve said,” Ms. Loeffler said, “and that would be, ‘I fought long and hard, it overcame me. All I can ask is any other victims to come forward, and not let this kind of tolerance to go on anymore. ’” Ms. Loeffler said her sister had believed there were other victims and had been broken by the 1999 case and its aftermath. “These guys sucked the soul and life out of her. ” Mr. Parker took to Facebook on Tuesday evening to say he had just learned of the death and was filled with sorrow. “I can’t help but think of all the implications this has for her family. I cannot — nor do I want to ignore the pain she endured during and following our trial. ” He maintained his innocence, but added that he wished he had been more empathetic at the time, writing: “There are things more important than the law. There is morality,” and adding, “I look back on that time as a teenager and can say without hesitation that I should have used more wisdom. ” Here’s a look at the case. WHAT WE KNOW Mr. Parker was accused in 1999 of raping a fellow student at Penn State. The victim, whose name is not public, said that Mr. Parker and his roommate, Mr. Celestin, raped her while she was intoxicated and unconscious, according to court documents, and that they later harassed, intimidated and stalked her after she pressed charges. Both men said that the sex was consensual. Mr. Parker, who, according to court transcripts, had had consensual oral sex with the woman previously, was acquitted of the charges. Mr. Celestin, who received a “story by” credit on “The Birth of a Nation,” was convicted of sexual assault, but his case was appealed. There are conflicting accounts about the outcome. The woman, under the name Jane Doe, then sued Penn State for failing to protect her from harassment the case was settled for $17, 500. According to court records, the victim had twice attempted suicide after the alleged rape. According to a court document, as a result of the harassment, the accuser “suffered severe depression, sleeplessness, and anxiety attacks. ” She also said that her apartment had been broken into and that her files on the case had been “disturbed. ” On Tuesday, it emerged that the woman killed herself in 2012, overdosing on sleeping pills, according to Variety’s interview with her brother. WHAT MR. PARKER HAS SAID ABOUT THE CASE In an interview with The Times last weekend on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. where he was appearing with Spike Lee at a film festival, Mr. Parker said that he had never wanted to hide his past, and that he had made a conscious decision not to change his Wikipedia page, which included references to the 1999 case. “I talked about it publicly and I never sought to hide it,” he said. “It was the most painful thing I have ever had to experience. I can imagine it was painful for a lot of people. ” He also said that he “welcomed the conversation. ” “It’s a serious issue. I get it,” he said. “The reality is there is a problem on campuses in America, and violence against women is not taken seriously enough. And the dialogue and the discourse isn’t loud enough. I think there’s even more that can be done to educate university students, men and women. Being a father of daughters” — he has five daughters, three with his wife — “it’s important to say if something happened, to lift your voice. ” He later said: “They say the oppressor is anyone who’s not on the side of the oppressed. I stand firmly on the side of the oppressed. ” Asked if justice had been served in the case, he replied: “I was cleared of all charges. We’re talking 17 years later. We’re discussing a case which was thoroughly litigated. I was cleared of everything. At some point I have to ask myself, ‘How often am I willing to relive it? ’” WHY THIS IS A STORY NOW Backed by Fox Searchlight, Mr. Parker has just embarked on an extensive campaign to promote the film, and media scrutiny is heightened. While the case was written about in 1999 in local newspapers and in a 2007 profile of Mr. Parker in The it only garnered widespread attention after Deadline published details from the court transcripts. “The Birth of a Nation” tells the story of Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831. The film was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival this year, shortly after the slate of Oscar acting nominees set off an outcry as well as a larger conversation about the lack of diversity in Hollywood. Almost everything about the film seemed a remedy to all that, including its name, a sharply pointed reappropriation (not a remake) of D. W. Griffith’s landmark and racist 1915 film of the same title. Born into poverty, Mr. Parker, whose previous films include “The Secret Life of Bees,” “Red Tails” and “Beyond the Lights,” had made telling Turner’s story a passion project, even turning down other work. He wanted Americans to face the legacy of slavery head on, and said the country’s aversion to doing so led to countless problems, including tensions between the police and black Americans. Support for the film surged. Last weekend, at the film festival on Martha’s Vineyard, Mr. Parker and his Aja Naomi King, appeared on a panel with Mr. Lee, who urged audience members to pack the theaters when it opens. At Sundance in January, Mr. Parker received a standing ovation from a packed audience before the film began. Afterward, there was a bidding war, with Fox Searchlight emerging the victor and paying a festival record for the right to distribute the drama. This week Variety reported that in light of new attention around Mr. Parker over the rape case, Fox Searchlight would be changing its release plans and possibly refusing to grant more interviews with Mr. Parker for a few weeks, but a studio spokesman said Tuesday that those suggestions were untrue and that the release and marketing of the film would go ahead as planned.

Girl Asks Her 20 Boyfriends To Each Give Her an iPhone, Uses The Money To Buy a House

Eddy Lavine

Many Women Suffer From Fungal Infections And They Can Cure Them At Home Ξ [November 1, 2016] BLOG Girl Asks Her 20 Boyfriends To Each Give Her an iPhone, Uses The Money To Buy a House posted by Eddie We have heard the stories about Apple fanatics selling body parts and changing their passport in order to get the latest products from the company , but this latest story coming from China gives a different perspective on how you can use Apple devices as a tool. As a rather strange tool, in fact: an entrepreneurial Chinese woman is said to have convinced 20 men that she has been dating to buy her iPhones, which she would then sell and use the money as a downpayment for a house. The purchase of a house is probably the single biggest one-time spending in the lifetime of a person, and it could take long years of hard work, so it is indeed remarkable that the woman found the quick way to get there (however, not the most ethical one, arguably). Let’s make it clear: the story seems to have started on local Tian Ya Yi Du forum, where someone by the nickname Proud Qiaoba told the story of how her co-worker Xiaoli (not her real name) asked each of her 20 current boyfriends to buy her the new iPhone 7. How in the world is it possible to simulatenously date 20 people remains a mystery that gives this whole story a bit of a fairy tale aura, but knowing that China suffers from a terrible male-to-female ratio let’s assume that is somehow possible. Xiaoli, whose life remains veiled in secrecy, then sold all of the phones to a suspiciously particular place: mobile phone recycling site Hui Shou Bao, all for a total of 120,000 Chinese yuan, the equivalent of around $17,500. The woman then used the cash for a downpayment towards a countryhouse home. Xiaoli broke the news when she invited her co-workers for a house warming party. “Everyone in the office is talking about this now. Who knows what her boyfriends think now this news has become public.” From Qiaoba we also learn that Xiaoli “is not from a wealthy family. Her mum is a housewife and her dad is a migrant worker, and she is the oldest daughter. Her parents are getting old and she might be under a lot pressure hoping to buy them a house… But it’s still unbelievable that she could use this method!” It does indeed sound quite fantastical and made-up, and some have theorized that it’s all just a theory to popularize the local Hui Shou Bao phone re-seller (the company has confirmed that it had indeed sold 20 iPhones from a single person recently). Meanwhile, the whole story quickly started becoming popular in China: a ’20 mobiles for a house’ hashtag went trending on local microblog Weibo and has been used more than 13 million times. Reaction sway from admiration for Xiaoli’s boyfriend-getting and management skills to sheer awe and condemnation of her actions. Whatever it is, Xiaoli – if she even exists – is now said to shy away from the public eye and to refuse interviews from media. That’s actually not surprising… those 20 boyfriends surely would not be happy about her actions. Source:

Massive Spike In Obamacare Health Premiums Could Boost Trump To Victory

Ben Marquis

Trump Says He Will Sign Very First Bill to Repeal Obamacare “This is ready-made advertising for Republican candidates to use nationwide,” stated Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. “If you’re a Republican candidate, it would be malpractice not to talk about it, highlight it or advertise on it.” To be sure, Trump has been hitting the issue hard over the past several days, mentioning the rate hikes at four separate rally appearances in a 24-hour period this week. “ Repealing Obamacare and stopping Hillary’s healthcare takeover is one of the single most important reasons that we must win on Nov. 8,” Trump told rally-goers Tuesday afternoon in Sanford, Florida. Advertisement - story continues below Other Republicans have been quick to jump on the issue as well, including vulnerable incumbent GOP senators like Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Roy Blunt of Missouri. Should these Republican senators and others maintain a focus on Obamacare during the final two weeks, they stand a good chance of fending off the Democrat effort to wrench control of the Senate away from the GOP. The same applies to Trump, should he refrain from media distractions and continue harping on the failures of Obama and his health care law, particularly in hard-hit swing states like Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, to name just a few. And he will have Obama to thank personally for paving the way to a Trump presidency through his horribly flawed Obamacare law. Advertisement - story continues below

Ossoff Campaign Told Volunteers to Say ’He Lives Three Blocks Away from the District,’ Reporter Shows Distance Is Three Miles

Michael Patrick Leahy

It has been reported for several months that Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate seeking to win the special election in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District on Tuesday, does not live in the district. [Last month, an Ossoff campaign worker told volunteer canvassers that if asked about their candidate’s residence, they should say that “he lives three blocks from the district. ” (Beginning at the 55 second mark in this YouTube video, the Ossoff campaign worker says, “This falls into the category of if you don’t know, you can say I don’t know. But, yeah, I mean, he lives three blocks away from the district. ”) Brent Scher, an intrepid reporter for the Washington Free Beacon, put that Ossoff campaign claim to the test on Monday, and discovered that the actual distance from Ossoff’s residence to the Sixth Congressional District is three miles rather than three blocks: I set out to walk from Ossoff’s current residence in the northwest corner of Emory University to a section of the sixth district (outlined in green in the below screenshot) that juts down into the fifth district on Buford Highway. It would have been a shorter trip, by the way, to Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District, but that’s not where Ossoff is running. I drew myself my own little map, knowing that my phone would be taxed by my attempt to put the entire quest on Facebook Live, and set out at 10:32 a. m. for the International Cafe, which I determined to be the closest landmark inside the sixth district. I documented the early parts of my journey in the above video, but eventually the treacherous conditions of the long walk were too much for my Motorola Droid Turbo to handle. Shortly after my attempts to Facebook Live crashed and burned, my entire phone followed suit. Scher says he arrived at the International Cafe, “the closest landmark inside the sixth district,” after walking for about two hours. He took an Uber back to where he had parked his car to begin his walk. “My Uber from the International Cafe back to my car, which was parked by Ossoff’s place, was 6. 55 miles and took 18 minutes and 45 seconds. My walk was about 3. 2 miles,” Scher wrote. “A lot longer than 3 blocks,” Scher concluded. The outcome of Tuesday’s election between Ossoff and Karen Handel, the Republican candidate, remains too close to call.

Japanese troops deploy to South Sudan risking first overseas conflict since World War 2

Michael Krieger

Japanese troops deploy to South Sudan risking first overseas conflict since World War 2 The move risks pulling the troops into conflict for the first time in more than seven decades By Michael Krieger - 11.21.2016 @1:18 PM EST The re-miliarization of Japan has been on my radar and caused me much concern in recent years. I’ve covered the topic on several occasions, with the most recent example published over the summer in the post, Japanese Government Shifts Further Toward Authoritarianism and Militarism . Here are the first few paragraphs: One of the most discomforting aspects of Neil Howe and William Strauss’ seminal work on generational cycles, The Fourth Turning (1997), is the fact that as far as American history is concerned, they all climax and end with massive wars. To be more specific, the first “fourth turning” in American history culminated with the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the second culminated with the Civil War (1861-1865), while the third ended with the bloodiest war in world history, World War II (1939-1945). The number of years between the end of the Revolutionary War and the start of the Civil War was 78 years, and the number of years between the end of the Civil War and the start of World War II was 74 years (76 years if you use America’s entry into the war as your starting date). Therefore, if Howe & Strauss’ theory holds any water, and I think it does, we’re due for a major conflict somewhere around 75 years from the end of World War II. That brings us to 2020. The more I look around, the more signs appear everywhere that the world is headed into another major conflict. From an unnecessary resurgence of a Cold War with Russia, to increased tensions in the South China Sea and complete chaos and destruction in the Middle East, the world is a gigantic tinderbox. All it will take to transform these already existing conflict zones into a major conflagration is another severe global economic downturn, something I fully expect to happen within the next 1-2 years. Frighteningly, this puts on a perfect collision course with the 2020 area. Although I felt World War 3 was a virtual lock under Hillary Clinton, the election of Trump does not negate historical cycles or current geopolitical trends, and the world continues to move in a very dangerous direction. While the below snippet from a Reuters article published today may not seem like a big deal, it’s just a small part of a much larger trend. Via Reuters : A contingent of Japanese troops landed in South Sudan on Monday, an official said – a mission that critics say could see them embroiled in their country’s first overseas fighting since World War Two. The soldiers will join U.N. peacekeepers and help build infrastructure in the landlocked and impoverished country torn apart by years of civil war. But, under new powers granted by their government last year, they will be allowed to respond to urgent calls for help from U.N. staff and aid workers. There are also plans to let them guard U.N. bases, which have been attacked during the fighting. The deployment of 350 soldiers is in line with Japanese security legislation to expand the military’s role overseas. Critics in Japan have said the move risks pulling the troops into conflict for the first time in more than seven decades. All it would take is a sharp global economic downturn to push world “leaders” towards overseas conflict in order to distract from problems at home. The risk is very real.

Donald Trump Rescued From Stalled Elevator in Colorado Springs - The New York Times

The Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS — The Colorado Springs Fire Department said that Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, had to be rescued from an elevator that was stuck between the first and second floors of a resort. In a statement released on Saturday, the department said that it was called at 1:30 p. m. on Friday to rescue about 10 people, including Mr. Trump, who were trapped inside the elevator at The Mining Exchange, a Wyndham Grand Hotel and Spa resort. The department said the firefighters opened the top elevator hatch and lowered a ladder into the elevator. Mr. Trump and the others used the ladder to climb out of the elevator to the second floor. The department said no injuries were reported. The Trump campaign confirmed that the incident occurred but did not provide details. During a rally on Friday at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Mr. Trump criticized the city’s fire marshal for limiting the number of people allowed to attend his speech at the building where the event was held. Fire Marshal Brett Lacey told the Colorado Springs Gazette that he had already agreed to allow a 10 percent increase in seating at the venue.

Prosecutors Say Trump Tower Climber Wanted Publicity - The New York Times

Eli Rosenberg

The man who scaled Trump Tower last week told investigators he did so for “the publicity,” which he hoped would earn him a meeting with Donald J. Trump, Manhattan prosecutors said in court on Wednesday. Prosecutors said the man, Stephen Rogata, 19, made the statement after he was detained for the Aug. 10 stunt. It turned into an international spectacle, streamed over social media and broadcast by television news. Mr. Rogata appeared in Criminal Court through a video link to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he has been under psychiatric care since the episode. Wearing a pale blue hospital outfit, his brown hair covering most of his face, Mr. Rogata sat quietly as prosecutors read the charges, including reckless endangerment and criminal trespassing. Judge Kevin McGrath set bail at $10, 000 cash or $5, 000 bond. Prosecutors said Mr. Rogata, who lives in Virginia, walked into the Midtown tower’s atrium, sneaked into a area and began his climb of the building’s exterior on the fifth floor. Mr. Rogata had been scaling the building for nearly three hours when he was grabbed by officers who had removed a window on the 21st floor. The climb, which was watched by millions of viewers on television and online, as well as hundreds of people from the streets below, was the latest chapter for Trump Tower, since Mr. Trump began his presidential campaign there last summer. On Wednesday, Pierre Griffith, an assistant district attorney, said that Mr. Rogata told investigators he had wanted to give Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, “secret information” that “has to do with when he’s president, how he’s going to govern. ” Prosecutors said Mr. Rogata told investigators that he had hoped to make it to the top of the building but also knew he would quite likely be arrested. Mr. Rogata, prosecutors said, waited for his parents to leave home before driving to New York City, where he arrived on Aug. 9. He bought climbing equipment online in the weeks before the stunt and practiced on a building in Virginia, Mr. Griffith said. Mr. Griffith asked the judge for a $20, 000 bail, saying several items fell out of Mr. Rogata’s backpack as he climbed, including a laptop computer. “This defendant’s crime endangered not only himself and people beneath him,” but also emergency responders, he said. But Judge McGrath lowered the amount after being petitioned by Mr. Rogata’s lawyer, Tara Collins of the Legal Aid Society. Ms. Collins said Mr. Rogata had been receiving psychiatric treatment at Bellevue. She described him as a good student — a member of the debate and the cross country teams in high school — who volunteered for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. He works at a plant nursery, she said. She described Mr. Rogata’s father as a “ ” officer in the Navy with a specialty in flight navigation, and said both of his parents had visited him at the hospital. Mr. Rogata, she said, “did something that was profoundly stupid with hopes of meeting someone who he will never get to meet. ”

Boxing Judges and Refs Removed After Suspicious Results - The New York Times

Ken Belson

RIO DE JANEIRO — Several referees and judges have been removed from the Olympic boxing competition after officials reviewed their decisions, fueling suspicion of dubious results in some matches at the Rio Games. A spokesman for the federation that governs the boxing tournament said Wednesday that the names of the referees and judges who were dismissed, and the matches that were tainted, would not be released because he did not want to “besmirch their families. ” The international federation, known as AIBA, said in a statement that the committee that reviews officiating had assessed all 239 bouts at the Rio Games through Tuesday and had “determined that less than a handful of the decisions were not at the level expected. ” The federation statement also said that “the concerned referees and judges will no longer officiate at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. ” The move came a day after Michael Conlan, an Irish bantamweight, accused the federation of corruption and suggested that Russian boxing officials had bribed judges. Conlan’s accusations came in an tirade after he lost his quarterfinal to Vladimir Nikitin of Russia. Nikitin won a unanimous decision, but the public response to the verdict suggested that many observers believed Conlan should have won. The judges’ decision in the fight was not the first at the Rio Games to draw scrutiny. On Monday, the crowd jeered when another Russian fighter, Evgeny Tishchenko, was awarded a unanimous decision over Vassiliy Levit of Kazakhstan, who appeared to have won the bout handily. Two of the three judges who scored Conlan’s bout — Jones Kennedy Silva do Rosario of Brazil and Udeni Talik Bandara Kiridena of Sri Lanka — returned to officiate on Wednesday. All three judges had scored the fight in favor of Nikitin. The judges of the fight, the heavyweight gold medal match, were also unanimous in their decision. Only one of them, however, made a repeat appearance. Armando Carbonell Alvarado of Colombia judged two fights Wednesday, while Michael Gallagher of Ireland and Kheira Sidi Yakoub of Algeria judged none. The boxing federation did not say how many decisions it deemed insufficient, and it did not specify what was wrong with those decisions. None of the decisions will be overturned, AIBA said. Coaches at the boxing venue Wednesday said that the scoring system left a lot of room for interpretation and that the judges, although well trained, were not infallible. They also expressed relief that the issue of inadequate judging was being addressed, although they dismissed the accusations of corruption. “I’m glad some action was taken,” said Billy Walsh, a coach of the United States team. “Anybody can make a mistake, but it’s happened too often. ” Kay Koroma, who also coaches the Americans, said, “I don’t think it’s corruption it’s just bad decision making. ” AIBA invited people with evidence about bribing judges to step forward. “With regard to corruption, we would like to strongly restate that unless tangible proof is put forward, not rumors, we will continue to use any means, including legal or disciplinary actions, to protect our sport” and the referees and judges “whose integrity is constantly put into question,” the federation’s statement said. The federation chooses from 36 judges and referees at the Rio Games. AIBA picks five judges to work each bout and prohibits judges from a fighter’s country, or from a country in conflict with a fighter’s country, from working a bout. After each fight, a computer program randomly determines which three of the five judges’ scorecards will be counted. The other two scorecards are thrown out. Still, questions about judging will continue. “If they really prove that there was some kind of corruption, it is really very sad, but for now there’s no proof of anything, only rumors,” said Mateus Alves, a Brazilian coach.

In Just 11 Days Scientists Destroyed Breast Cancer Tumors Without Chemo

Dikran Arakelian (noreply@blogger.com)

Share on Facebook Research presented by Professor Nigel Bundred at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Amsterdam revealed that they had tested the effectiveness of a pair of drugs known as Herceptin (a.k.a trastuzumab) and Lapatinib. The two drugs are commonly used in breast cancer treatment already, but this is the first time they had been combined together and used before surgery and chemotherapy. What they found was they were able to eliminate some types of breast cancer in just 11 days. Funded by Cancer Research UK, they aimed to use these drugs to combat a protein called HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) which affects the growth and division of cancer cells . It's also more likely to return than other cancer types. What also makes this treatment so appealing is the fact that it eliminates the need for chemotherapy and surgery. The temporary side effects like hair loss, vomiting and fatigue are also avoided, making treatment less impactful on the body. Chemo is not entirely effective, nor is it the right choice for a lot of patients, so any alternatives are welcomed. Study Results 257 women with HER2 positive breast cancer were selected for the study, with half being put on the drug combo and the other half were the control group. What they found was that of those on the drug, 11% had no cancer cells remaining within two weeks and 17% of cases featured dramatically shrunken tumors . Compared to the control group who were only given Herceptin, they were found to have 0% with no trace of cancer cells and only 3% showed a drop in tumor size. Clearly, the two drugs combined have a major effect on breast cancer cells as opposed to being used on their own. The problem currently, however, is that Herceptin's licensing makes it only available for use alongside chemotherapy and not alone. The results of this study may help to change that though. Although there's still a lot of work to be done, hopefully, this is a major step in the fight against one of the world's deadliest diseases. With medical advancements improving every year, it's entirely possible this could happen sooner than we think!

Marco Rubio Inches Closer To Unemployment As Poll Shows Florida Senate Race Tie

Jason Easley

A PPP poll of Florida found: Candidates who have been vocal in their support for gun violence prevention perform well in Florida. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump by four points (48/44), and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Patrick Murphy is tied with Republican incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio, 46/46. By an almost two to-one margin, 51/26, Florida voters would be more likely to vote for a candidate for U.S. Senate who supports strengthening gun laws, suggesting ample room for growth for gun safety candidates before the election next month. The poll was conducted by PPP the Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC, and it illustrates the dilemma that the Florida Senate race has created for Democrats. Democratic leadership is divided on spending more money on expensive Florida media, but there are polls that suggest that Sen. Marco Rubio’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Patrick Murphy, has a chance of winning the seat. If Rep. Murphy can beat Sen. Rubio, the defeat would likely put an end to Rubio’s national political career or at least force the Florida Republican to put the brakes on his plan to run for president in 2020, and instead focus on a run for governor. Democrats have a real chance to send Marco Rubio to the unemployment line. Rubio has been a disinterested Senator, who just like Ted Cruz, seems only interest in his Senate seat as a platform from which to launch his presidential ambitions. Rubio has provided poor service to his constituents , and doesn’t deserve to return to the US Senate. Sen. Rubio has refused to commit to serving his full Senate term, which should tell voters all they need to know about his commitment to them. Democrats have a chance to solidify their potential Senate majority by sending Marco Rubio home. With cash to spend and less than two weeks left in the campaign, they’d be foolish not to take it. Marco Rubio Inches Closer To Unemployment As Poll Shows Florida Senate Race Tie added by Jason Easley on Fri, Oct 28th, 2016

Black Harvard Students Holding a Graduation of Their Own - Breitbart

Breitbart Tech

BOSTON (AP) — Black students at Harvard University are organizing a graduation ceremony of their own this year to recognize the achievements of black students and faculty members some say have been overlooked. [advertisement

New Orleans Police Officers Plead Guilty in Shooting of Civilians - The New York Times

Campbell Robertson

NEW ORLEANS — A legal journey that was set off more than a decade ago with the shooting of unarmed citizens by police officers in the desperate days after Hurricane Katrina wound toward a close on Wednesday when five former officers pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy, obstruction of justice and civil rights charges. The plea agreements drew prison terms from three to 12 years. Those sentences were significantly shorter than those handed down when the men were convicted five years ago in verdicts that were later thrown out. But the agreements were supported by the families of the victims and brought some degree of conclusion to a nearly endeavor that in ways presaged the current struggles over police and accountability in places like Baltimore, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo. “Today is the first day of the rest of my life,” Sherrel Johnson, the mother of James Brisette, one of the two people who were killed in the shootings, told reporters after the hearing. “Someone confessed ‘I did it. I did it.’ And that did my heart all the good in the world. ” The officers — Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius, Officer Anthony Villavaso and Officer Robert Faulcon, as well as a detective, Arthur Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the shooting — were initially indicted on state charges in 2007. But from there the case would be undergo years of troubles and reversals, eventually becoming drawn into a scandal in the federal prosecutors’ office here that took down the local United States attorney. The Danziger case was one of several federal prosecutions of police officers for killings in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with 18 current and former officers facing charges at one point. These cases did not find an easy path in the courts the prosecution of another police shooting, that of Henry Glover, ended mostly in acquittals. But the cases did prompt the United States Justice Department to examine the city’s police force as a whole, and in 2012, the force was brought under a federally mandated consent decree, a blueprint for an overhaul of the department’s practices. That consent decree remains in place. “Serving as an officer is one of the most complex and difficult jobs in our society,” Kenneth A. Polite Jr. the current United States attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, said at a news conference after the hearing. “At the same time, when individuals ignore their oath of office, and instead violate the civil rights of the public they are sworn to serve, they will be held accountable. ” The case began on Sept. 4, 2005, in a city still without order and drowning in floodwaters. Two groups of families and friends, all of them black, were crossing the Danziger bridge in search of food and relatives when police officers rushed to the scene in a Budget rental truck. The officers, responding to a distress call, opened fire with shotguns and sending those on the bridge, all of whom were unarmed, diving and running for cover. Four people were severely injured — one woman lost part of her arm — and two were killed: James Brisette, and Ronald Madison, a developmentally disabled man who took a shotgun blast in the back. The state indicted seven officers, but that indictment was dismissed for improprieties involving the grand jury. Six were then charged by federal prosecutors in 2010, and the next year five of them went to trial together. (The case of a retired sergeant, Gerard Dugue, was severed from the others. He is still waiting for a new trial after an earlier mistrial.) At the federal trial of the five officers, defense lawyers emphasized that the men were rushing to the bridge under the belief — mistaken, as it turned out — that a policeman had been shot, and that under the extreme circumstances of the time, they should not be harshly judged. But prosecution witnesses, including other officers at the scene who had pleaded guilty, said officers had fired without warning and immediately after the shootings began to construct what would become an elaborate . All of the men were found guilty and faced sentences of six to 65 years. At their sentencing, however, Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt of Federal District Court delivered a lengthy speech condemning the prosecution for its plea deals and its use of problematic witnesses, and deploring the mandatory minimum sentences he was forced to impose. Two years later, he threw out the convictions, citing a scandal that had been unfolding in the local United States attorney’s office, involving senior prosecutors who had anonymously commented under online articles in the local media about cases on trial. Describing his own investigation into the scandal and his frustration with the Justice Department’s internal investigation, Judge Engelhardt insisted that the Danziger case be retried. His disdain for the Justice Department at the 2011 trial that was still on stark display on Wednesday, when the judge said that the Danziger case “might most be remembered by the ” of the prosecutors. A panel of appeals court judges upheld Judge Engelhardt’s order for a new trial last year. In recent weeks, the lawyers from the Justice Department withdrew, which Judge Engelhardt deemed necessary for the case to move forward. Under the terms of Wednesday’s deal, the four officers involved in the shooting received sentences ranging from seven to 12 years, with credit for time served. The fifth man, Mr. Kaufman, who was accused in the got three years. “This has been a terrible ordeal for our family, our friends and our community,” said Lance Madison, who was arrested — under false pretenses — by officers on the bridge just minutes after one of them shot and killed his younger brother Ronald. “I’m thankful that our mother is still with us and is able to see justice being served, and for these officers to finally be held accountable for their crimes. I hope and pray that no other family ever has to go through what we have gone through. ”

Highlights: Italy Considers What’s Next After Matteo Renzi Loses Referendum - The New York Times

The New York Times

■ Prime Minister Matteo Renzi offered his resignation on Monday, as promised. But Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, said in a statement that he had asked Mr. Renzi to delay stepping down until Parliament passes a budget for 2017. ■ Mr. Renzi had said he would resign after voters rejected changes to the Constitution that he supported in what amounted to a referendum on the prime minister’s government. ■ The decision to hold a referendum is another example of why political scientists say such votes are often “messy and dangerous. ” ■ The results represented another victory for movements in Europe. “Times have changed,” said Beppe Grillo, the leader of the populist Five Star Movement. As promised, Mr. Renzi submitted his resignation to Mr. Mattarella on Monday evening at the Quirinale Palace, the president’s official residence, but the president asked Mr. Renzi to defer his resignation to see through the approval of his government’s budget. “Given the need to complete the parliamentary process to approve the budget law,” Mr. Mattarella asked Mr. Renzi to postpone stepping down until the budget, now being discussed in the Senate, had been passed, according to the statement from the president’s office. An official from the office said the budget was expected to be passed this week. Mr. Mattarella’s request was not unusual: His predecessor, Giorgio Napolitano, had “frozen” the resignations of two prime ministers so that pending laws could be passed. Before his meeting with the president, Mr. Renzi briefly conferred with his cabinet at the Chigi Palace, the prime minister’s residence in Rome, where the night before Mr. Renzi announced in an emotional news conference, “the experience of my government ends here. ” Once Mr. Renzi’s resignation eventually takes effect, Mr. Mattarella will work with Italian political leaders to discuss what comes next. — ELISABETTA POVOLEDO and JASON HOROWITZ Italy greeted the news of Mr. Renzi’s symbolic defeat with uncertainty on Monday. A headline in the daily La Repubblica declaring, “The No Triumphs, Renzi Quits,” echoing the sentiment in most newspapers. Commentators acknowledged Mr. Renzi’s dignified reaction to what mostly seemed a vote against his tenure, and they called for responsibility from political forces. “Now the reality is the risk of a return to the swamps and to instability,” Mario Calabresi, editor in chief of La Repubblica, wrote in a editorial on Monday. “A scenario that Italy really doesn’t need. ” Once Mr. Renzi’s resignation is official and he steps down, Mr. Mattarella would then hold talks with the political parties trying to form a caretaker government or call early elections. According to the Italian news media, one candidate who could lead a temporary government is Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, a technocrat. The speaker of the Senate, Pietro Grasso, a longtime magistrate, is also a possibility. Although most opposition parties are pushing for quick elections, opponents of Mr. Renzi in his Democratic Party are more inclined to take their time. — GAIA PIANIGIANI Beppe Grillo, the leader of the Five Star Movement who campaigned against the proposed constitutional changes and against Mr. Renzi, declared on Monday that “times have changed. ” How much so may depend on Mr. Grillo’s ability to parlay his latest success into a full sweep of the political establishment he has thumbed his nose at for years. Mr. Grillo, a former comedian, said that Italians should waste no time pressing for a new electoral law and for the dismantling of the old order. “You should vote as soon as possible,” he said in a blog post on Monday to rally his supporters against the usual jockeying by parties for power in a caretaker government. “The parties will do anything to drag their feet,” he said. The Five Star Movement won a quarter of the vote in 2013 national elections. Mr. Grillo said then that cooperating with traditional parties in any sort of alliance would be akin to capitulation. “The existing political class must be expelled immediately,” he said in an interview at that time with The New York Times. — JEFFREY MARCUS A breakdown of returns shows that opposition to the constitutional changes was widespread, though more pronounced in the south. Only three regions backed the changes: the historically leftist areas of Tuscany and in central Italy, and Adige in the far north. In the economically struggling Sicily and Sardinia, which voted against the changes, the divide between the camps was as large as 44 percentage points. The pattern was similar in areas with high unemployment and social problems. “The country isn’t growing, and voters blamed their personal condition on the government,” said Stefano Folli, a commentator for La Repubblica. The results also reflected a generational divide. According to a survey reported by the news channel Sky TG24, young voters rejected the proposed changes, while more than half of those over 55 supported them. — GAIA PIANIGIANI In analyzing the results, Italian pundits did not always agree, except on one point: the severe consequences for Mr. Renzi. “Does Renzi represent the country from a political, cultural point of view? Yesterday’s vote is a clear rejection of Renzi’s economic policies and of how he envisioned the country,” the political commentator Mario Sechi said. Mr. Renzi “doesn’t represent the zeitgeist of the nation, which did not follow him,” he added. For Mr. Sechi, the Five Star Movement is the clear victor, even if the “no” campaign brought together divergent political forces. Sergio Fabbrini, director of the Luiss School of Government in Rome, said the outcome was less clear. Rejection of the constitutional changes was actually a reaction to Mr. Renzi’s “reformist program that in some way threatened a big part of the social political equilibrium,” he said. The nearly 60 percent of the population that voted against him is “highly divided, with nothing in common, and no leader,” Mr. Fabbrini said. What joins them is a conservative, outlook. “Within that, you have the most extreme left and right. ” The person to watch in the short term is Mr. Mattarella, the president. “This is the first real test of the president of the Republic, who has kept mostly in the background,” said Antonio Polito, deputy director of the daily Corriere della Sera. — ELISABETTA POVOLEDO The euro recovered from early losses, and European stocks edged up. It was a muted reaction, in part because a vote against the constitutional changes had been expected, giving investors time to adjust their portfolios. Also, political instability in Rome is not unusual. But analysts said Italy was not in the clear, and there is potential for market turmoil in the case of government paralysis and of delays to plans to fix Italy’s ailing banks. The euro first fell as much as 1. 5 percent against the dollar in Asian trading after the vote, but recovered by the morning in Europe, and it even gained ground compared with last week. Major European stock markets were all slightly higher. — JACK EWING The vote results and Mr. Renzi’s decision to step down drew a jubilant response from other populist leaders in Europe. “Italians have disavowed the E. U. and Renzi,” Marine Le Pen, the head of the National Front in France, wrote on Twitter. “We need to listen to this thirst for nations’ freedom and for protection!” With polls predicting that Ms. Le Pen will reach the 2017 presidential election runoff, she has sought to build an platform calling for a “Frexit” and a “People’s Spring. ” The vote in Britain to withdraw from the European Union, known as Brexit, and Donald J. Trump’s recent victory in the United States have put wind in her sails. The Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who recently refused to attend his trial, used Twitter to congratulate “Italia + Matteo Salvini,” a reference to the leader of the Northern League. — BENOÎT MORENNE Writing in Italy’s leading economic newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, the columnist Guido Gentili said that after the referendum, Italy needed to show through actions and legislation that it “is not impermeable to reform. ” The image of Italy as a nation that “bobs more or less happily in stagnant water between the third largest public debt in the world and a banking system in a deep coma” must be “vigorously contested,” he wrote. Vincenzo Boccia, the president of Italy’s main business lobby, Confindustria, said the referendum results highlighted the need to tackle pressing economic issues like “debt, deficit and growth. ” “Growth is the only way to eliminate inequalities and poverty,” he said in a statement issued Monday morning. Italian companies have been making “crucial efforts” to compete in international markets, he added, and need the government to back them up. — ELISABETTA POVOLEDO The populist victory in Italy was hailed by many leaders across Eastern Europe, where similar sentiments are on the rise, but their reaction was tempered by widespread concern that the results would accelerate the fraying of the European Union, upon which the region has come to depend. Poland, the largest economy in the region, seemed torn between praising a victory by populists who share its governing party views and worrying about vulnerability to Russia. “This would be a major blow not just for the E. U. but for the eurozone,” Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said in an interview with Polish state radio. “What will the future bring?” Tomas Sedlacek, chief macroeconomic strategist in Prague for the lender CSOB, tied the Italian defeat directly to Mr. Trump’s victory and predicted a dire future. “Democracy, and the future of the euro in Europe, is truly walking on the edge of a knife,” he said. In Slovakia, where sentiment is widespread, many residents say that embracing the currency led to higher prices for everyday goods. “We can expect a referendum about leaving the eurozone,” predicted Richard Zulik, leader of Slovakia’s liberal Freedom and Solidarity party. — RICK LYMAN Finance ministers from the 19 countries that use the euro expressed relief that the economic reaction to the Italian referendum was muted. Yet the vote could still roil the European Union: It threatens to embolden opponents of the single currency, which could destabilize the Italian economy and foment turmoil in the banking sector. Helping to stoke that concern is Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy’s oldest lender, which faces questions about whether it has sufficient capital. Asked whether a planned capital increase for the bank would now be delayed, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, emphasized that Italy first needed to select a new leader. Even as Brussels scrambled to stave off negative financial consequences, ministers from fiscally hawkish countries like Germany and the Netherlands will not want to be seen by their own electorates as being overly permissive toward Italy. — JAMES KANTER

Marvel Abandons Fan Base: Un-American ‘Captain America’ on 24/7 Anti-Trump Rant

Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

From actor Chris Evans (Captain America) to director Joss Whedon, the Marvel Comics franchise is committing harikari in the most unbecoming of ways: through unapologetic, partisan bashing of a democratically elected president they can’t stand. [Evans has expressed deep contempt for what he considers to be in the ignorant masses of Americans that voted Donald Trump into the White House. These are, however, the very masses that make up the core viewership of Marvel’s superhero movies. “People were just so desperate to hear someone say that someone is to blame,” Evans said in a recent interview with Esquire magazine. “They were just so happy to hear that someone was angry, hear someone say that Washington sucks. ” “I feel rage,” he said. “I feel fury. It’s unbelievable. ” “They just want something new without actually understanding,” he continued. “I mean, guys like Steve Bannon — Steve Bannon! — this man has no place in politics. ” Evans’ trolling of Trump on Twitter seems more an obsession than a pastime, and the actor seems to blame the President for all of the country’s woes. They did not die because of you. They died because of a hateful, ignorant, pathetic, EMBOLDENED piece of trash. https: . — Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) May 29, 2017, Unacceptable. This man disgusts me. If you dont think Trump has played a role in this unapologetic wave of ignorance and hate, you are WRONG https: . — Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) May 15, 2017, This administration LOVES to distract. This will only make it harder for women to stay healthy. Government $ can’t be spent on abortions! https: . — Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) April 14, 2017, Of course, no one expects Hollywood actors to be intellectually sophisticated, but to have them try to infect Americans with their own ignorant bigotry is really a bridge too far. In large part, the bizarre rants the Marvel folks carry out on Twitter and elsewhere are abortion driven. Spitting in the face of their conservative fan base that is overwhelmingly Whedon and Evans, along with other Marvel stars such as Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) and Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) fawn over Planned Parenthood while painting abortion foes as backward and unenlightened. “As most of you know, Planned Parenthood has been under attack for many years now for another service they thankfully offer, providing a safe place for legal abortions,” Johansson said during a Variety luncheon last year. “A woman’s right to choose what to do with her body shouldn’t just be a woman’s rights issue. It’s the year 2016, and this is a human rights issue. ” Whedon recently went so far as to produce a short video panegyric to Planned Parenthood, calling America’s largest abortion provider a “beacon of hope” for the nation, while imagining how horrible life would be without Planned Parenthood to eliminate the unintended consequences of sexual libertinism. Why actors and filmmakers feel an irresistible urge to allow partisan politics to get in the way of their craft is a mystery, but whatever their motives such unrestraint often has consequences. It’s only a matter of time before Marvel’s fan base calls them out for their hypocrisy. are not what patriots pay to see. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome

Eleven Madison Park Plans a Makeover and a Summer Pop-Up - The New York Times

Florence Fabricant

The restaurant’s ratings are as good as it gets: three stars from Michelin and four from The New York Times. But for all the success of Eleven Madison Park, its owners, Will Guidara and the chef Daniel Humm, are about to start a major overhaul. They plan to close the Manhattan restaurant on June 9 to renovate the kitchen and the dining room, and to ship the operation and staff to a more casual, temporary setting in the Hamptons. If all goes well, they expect to reopen in with a new look and a revised menu with some new dishes. “It’s time for a change,” Mr. Humm said. “We’ve been at the restaurant for 11 years, and it’s been open for 20 years. We’re still using Danny Meyer’s brasserie. ” Mr. Humm was referring to the restaurant’s original owner, who sold it to them in 2011. Back then, they considered closing and renovating but held back because they thought it was more important to establish their footing. So they made only small changes over time to their stately dining room, with its Art Deco geometry and soaring casement windows overlooking Madison Square Park. The kitchen is also nearly 20 years old its renovation will require closing the restaurant. Mr. Humm has already ordered a Molteni stove from France, a of cookery with a comparable price tag. But he does not plan to outfit his kitchen with lots of electronic gear. “We cook in a pretty traditional way,” he said. The partners are entrusting the redesign, which has not been completed, to Brad Cloepfil, who has offices in New York and Portland, Ore. and whose only restaurant work has been in Portland. He designed the Museum of Arts and Design, at Columbus Circle, and the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. Mr. Cloepfil knows Eleven Madison Park well and has been a regular customer. “I’m thrilled to be doing this,” he said. “It’s a great, elemental, historic room that needs preserving and updating. ” The partners want to open up the entrance, which is now partitioned from the dining room, and rearrange seating to give the whole room a more symmetrical, central focus. There will be rugs on the terrazzo floors and more color everywhere: grays, blues, greens and golds. “I’m not making a design statement,” Mr. Cloepfil said. “If people are startled, I will have failed. ” The most significant change will be in the bar area, which will be enlarged somewhat and given a more distinct identity. The partners decided that during the renovation this summer, they would need to find a way to keep the staff working. “We thought about what New Yorkers did in summer — they go to the Hamptons,” Mr. Guidara said. Once the restaurant closes, they will move into a big white farmhouse on Pantigo Road in East Hampton. For decades, it was the Spring Close restaurant in the past few years it has been Moby’s, for fish. They’re calling their EMP Summer House it will open in late June with an indoor restaurant, a dining room under a tent with picnic tables for dinners like lobster boils, and another outdoor area. The equipment they will no longer need in Manhattan will outfit the kitchen. Reservations for indoor seating will be taken online starting on May 1. Only cards from American Express, Mr. Humm and Mr. Guidara’s partner in this project, will be accepted. In before Eleven Madison Park closes, the partners will replace its current menu with an $295 tasting menu recalling favorites over the years. Dishes will include sea urchin cappuccino, carrot tartare, foie gras with maple syrup, poached chicken with black truffles, and the dessert called Milk and Honey. When the restaurant reopens, Mr. Humm plans to offer multicourse tasting menus that are similar to the present format, perhaps with more choices. (The particular dishes have not been determined.) In recent years, the number of courses has gradually been reduced, and the number of choices increased. “We’ll be starting over in many ways,” Mr. Guidara said. “And we’ll finally be making the restaurant truly our own. ”

North Dakota’s Public Bank Is Funding Police Repression at Standing Rock

North Dakota’s Public Bank Is Funding Police Repression at Standing Rock Posted on Nov 4, 2016 By Matt Stannard / Cowboys on the Commons Matt Stannard The brutal repression of indigenous and allied protesters at Standing Rock has shocked the conscience of fair-minded Americans, particularly those advocating economic and ecological reform. Although the protesters had in some cases been encroaching on “company land,” they had done so peacefully, and their chief modes of political action have been prayer and nonviolent civil disobedience. The crackdowns of the last few weeks have seen attack dogs and rubber bullets causing bloody injuries to protesters, detention and malicious prosecutions, and other dehumanizing behavior from the cops and soldiers deployed there by North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple. For those of us in the public banking movement, used to holding up the Bank of North Dakota (the nation’s only public bank) as an example of how promising public banks are, the recent news that Dalrymple and an emergency spending panel voted to add $4 million in additional credit onto a $10 million line from BND, to fund law enforcement expenses at Standing Rock, is troubling. It means BND is using its heralded public power over fractional reserve banking to pay for those rubber bullets and a host of logistical expenses involved in arresting and evicting protesters the federal government has refused to evict, citing free speech concerns. This financing is part of one of BND’s core functions: providing emergency loans. A more positive deployment of that function happened in 1997, when BND provided emergency loans for the Grand Forks flood, at a time when communities desperately needed loans before receiving slow-moving FEMA reimbursements. Unlike the need to abuse the flood was a real public emergency–the flooding caused structure fires and destroyed dozens of buildings via fire or water. Property losses in Grand Forks topped $3.5 billion. There were 50,000 evacuees. BND provided over $70 million in funds for relief. The Bank of North Dakota was conceived a century ago in the molding of distinctly American, agrarian-socialist populism. North Dakota farmers were in trouble, getting cheated by the big banks and big grain companies headquartered in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Those entities knew they had farmers at their mercy, and so all the interest rates were double-digit, all the loan terms were unfavorable (and less favorable to those who relied on them the most), and as the grain companies operated every grain elevator along the railroad route; those companies offered farmers destructively low prices, often cheating on tonnage because the farmers had nowhere else to go. In 1915, led by a struggling farmer named A.C. Townley, a group of North Dakotans formed the Nonpartisan League to push back against those powerful grain and banking interests. The NPL ended up taking political power in the state, creating both the Bank of North Dakota and the North Dakota Mill and Elevator. Today, those two public utilities are the only institutions of their kind under any state government in the U.S. They’ve long outlived the NPL, whose inexperienced political leaders were subject to constant attacks and red-baiting from big business interests, exacerbating NPL infighting and corruption, culminating in the recall of Governor Lynn Frazier, alongside whom the state legislature had created one of the most progressive state agendas in American history. Since then, for understandable reasons, BND has been militantly apolitical. BND President and CEO Eric Hardmeyer has explicitly repudiated arguments that the BND ought to be a model, despite his effective touting of its successes. The Bank exists to help the state and its businesses function well and to maintain liquidity and economic stability. BND created the infrastructure for North Dakota’s oil boom, and if the state were to commit to a truly proactive transition to renewable and clean energy (it has taken baby steps), the BND would make it happen financially–with an efficiency that would put the rest of the country to shame. But in the present political reality, cops and soldiers are brutally cracking down on Standing Rock protesters, and BND is funding it, and that makes BND not truly apolitical, but a facilitator of injustice. Public banks are tools, not sources of virtue in themselves. In the hands of bad policymakers, they can prop up bad policies. So what do we do with this unfortunate knowledge, besides continuing to support the Standing Rock protesters, calling the governor regularly (if you do, please mention that using BND to finance repression is shameful), and pushing for a just and sustainable transition to clean energy (including economic support for energy sector workers and their families)? What do these unfortunate events teach us about our movement? First, the awful actions in North Dakota don’t undermine the idea of public banking. If anything, they’re more evidence against private ownership and shareholding in both fossil fuels and the financial sector. In financing those rubber bullets and smoke bombs, BND is paying the security costs of private corporations, subsidizing the worst of big oil capitalism. But as my colleague, Ira Dember, pointed out to me yesterday, North Dakota is rich in wind and is building wind farms. That four million dollars could have been better lent to develop additional wind resources and technology, and to train workers to transition from oil fields to wind farms and more. That depends on a larger movement, which I’ll talk more about below. Second, the actions illustrate the folly of pushing for state and local control without accompanying universal human and environmental rights. Economic and environmental justice advocates have long promoted local autonomy as a bulwark against big corporations and their puppets in national and state government. But local governments (often pushed by state legislators and governors) can do violence to indigenous communities just as they have enforced segregation and lynchings in the South. Human rights and environmental protection must be encoded in national and international norms and these norms need to have a complimentary and non-oppressive relationship with local communities. That makes our coalition-building and policy-making tasks bigger and more challenging. It makes allies and communication more important, and demands clarity about various movements’ and organizations’ ethical frameworks. Third, you can’t keep people you disagree with ideologically out of single-issue movements. Sometimes this can be frustrating: There are all sorts of people in the public banking movement, including a few supporters who aren’t committed to ending fossil fuel consumption, and even weirder and more disturbing, a tiny handful of extremists who want to take down big private banks because they associate banking with Jews. Thankfully, those toxic forces don’t show up in any significant numbers (and the Public Banking Institute has explicitly repudiated them). While the movement is primarily white and bourgeois, there are powerful non-white, non-bourgeois voices in it, and its alignment with the New Economy Coalition and other economic justice coalitions helps considerably. It matters who you do your activist business with. Finally, whatever your own organization’s commitment to justice, the policies and institution your movement creates, if it is lucky enough to create them, will only be as socially positive and ethically correct as the people working inside of them, and the communities overseeing them. Public banks can fund a post-carbon, sustainable energy transition–but only if people successfully demand a post-carbon, sustainable energy transition. Public banks can create safe and prosperous communities for all, but only if that’s what communities are already committed to. Public banking advocates, in particular, ought to emphasize the ways public control of state and municipal finance can fund new structures of work and production that neither exploit nor extract. That has always been the most powerful argument for public banks: that they can produce justice because as community-controlled entities, we can make them just. Matt Stannard is policy director at Commonomics USA and was formerly on the Public Banking Institute ’s board of directors. The views expressed in this post are his own. TAGS:

Conway to Chuck Todd: ’We’re Going to Have to Rethink Our Relationship Here’ - Breitbart

Pam Key

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” during a very contentious interview, President Donald Trump aide Kellyanne Conway told host Chuck Todd, “We’re going to have to rethink our relationship here,” if he continued to ask why press secretary Sean Spicer told a “falsehood,” about Trump’s inaugural crowd size. Todd asked, “I’m curious why president trump chose yesterday to send out his press secretary to essentially litigate a provable falsehood when it comes to a small and petty thing like inaugural crowd size. my question to you is why do that.? After her answer Todd again said, “You did not answer the question. Why did the president send out his press secretary who is not just the spokesperson for Donald Trump, he is also the spokesperson for all of America at times. He speaks for all of the country at times, why put him out there for the very first time in front of that podium to utter a provable falsehood? It’s a small thing, but the first time he confronts the public it’s a falsehood. ” Conway said “Chuck, if we’re going to keep referring to our press secretary in those types of terms, I think we are going to have to rethink our relationship here. I want a great open relationship with our press. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Orlando Police Defend Actions as Clock Ticked in Massacre - The New York Times

Richard Pérez-Peña, Frances Robles and Eric Lichtblau

Some details of the Orlando nightclub massacre are known to the minute: The first reports of gunfire came at 2:02 a. m. The gunman made a 911 call at 2:35 a. m. in which he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. By 5:15 a. m. as hostages fled to safety, he lay dead or mortally wounded in a scene of unimaginable carnage. Many questions persist about those three hours at the Pulse nightclub, and about how law enforcement handled the crisis on June 12. Orlando police officials have been peppered with queries from the public, survivors and the news media about whether they should have confronted the gunman sooner and whether any of the victims were shot by the police. The city’s police chief, John Mina, and other officials have repeatedly defended the delay in storming a bathroom where the gunman had taken hostages, and have deflected questions about whose bullets did what damage. On Monday, Chief Mina answered in a way that left open the possibility that some of the 49 people killed and 53 wounded were, in fact, hit by police gunfire. “That’s part of the investigation, but here’s what I will tell you: Those killings are on the suspect,” he said. The chief spoke at a news conference with local and federal law enforcement officials outside the club to release a partial transcript of the gunman’s conversations with the police during the siege, and to fill a few gaps in the official account of what took place. But the news conference seemed intended just as much to reject criticism of the police. “I think there was this misconception that we didn’t do anything for three hours, and that’s absolutely not true,” the chief said. He said the police had used the time to rescue patrons, get the lay of the building, put resources into place, determine where people were hiding and talk to the gunman. Federal law enforcement officials at Monday’s news conference offered vigorous praise of local agencies and their personnel. “They should not be ” said A. Lee Bentley III, the United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida. “Lives were saved because of their heroic work. ” The killer, Omar Mateen, spoke with the authorities four times for a total of 29 minutes while holding hostages in a bathroom where victims lay bleeding. The transcript released by the F. B. I. covered only the first, brief call and fragments of the last call the substance of his statements was made public last week but not the precise language. In the first call, to 911 at 2:35 a. m. which lasted less than a minute, Mr. Mateen, 29, took responsibility for the shootings “in the name of God the merciful,” and declared allegiance to the Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr . He demanded that the United States halt its bombing in Syria and Iraq. He talked with a police negotiator at 2:48 for nine minutes, at 3:03 for 16 minutes and at 3:24 for three minutes. In the last call, he claimed — falsely, it turned out — to have explosives. “There is some vehicle outside that has some bombs, just to let you know,” he said. “You people are gonna get it, and I’m gonna ignite it if they try to do anything stupid. ” He said he had a vest of the kind “used in France,” an apparent reference to explosive vests used by Islamic State attackers in Paris in November. “While the killer made these murderous statements, he did so in a chilling, calm and deliberate manner,” said Ronald Hopper, an assistant special agent in charge of the F. B. I. ’s office in Tampa, Fla. The F. B. I. at first released a transcript redacted to avoid mentioning the Islamic State and Mr. Baghdadi by name, which officials described as an effort not to play into the group’s propaganda. That drew ridicule in the news media and from some Republicans, led by Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who suggested the Obama administration was playing down the attacker’s radical Islamist motivation. Hours later, the F. B. I. released what it said was an unedited transcript of the first 911 call, with the names. The material released does not include any mention of a hatred of gays, which the bureau has been investigating as a possible motive. Federal officials declined to release transcripts of all the calls, or of 911 calls made by people trapped inside Pulse, or audio recordings of any of them. The first calls about a shooting came at 2:02 a. m. according to a timeline released by the F. B. I. The timeline did not say whether Mr. Mateen exchanged gunfire with an officer working security, as some officials have said. At 2:04, more officers arrived, and at 2:08, officers from multiple agencies entered the club, and they and Mr. Mateen opened fire. “That engagement and that initial entry caused him to stop shooting, retreat, and barricade himself into a bathroom,” Chief Mina said. Officials did not say how many officers fired in that gun battle, or how many rounds. The Orange County medical examiner, Dr. Joshua D. Stephany, said in an interview that autopsies of victims had not made any determination about who fired the fatal shots. In an interview, the SWAT commander, Mark Canty, said he doubted any fatalities resulted from police bullets. Members of his team, he said, “are trained to kind of identify the targets. ” But it is not clear whether any officers in that gunfight were from the SWAT team, and it is clear that some were not. The full team was not called to the scene until 2:18. From the time Mr. Mateen retreated to the bathroom, Chief Mina said, “There was no shooting in that period until the commencement of the operation. ” Survivors who were in that bathroom have said Mr. Mateen had sprayed it with gunfire, killing and injuring several people, but their accounts did not make clear whether that happened before or after the firefight with the police. Former hostages agreed that a long period without shooting followed, though some have said Mr. Mateen shot a few more people at the end of the siege, after officers began to storm the building. Officials here have insisted that the police followed protocol in not trying to force a showdown that could have claimed more lives. In fact, Mayor Buddy Dyer said the department’s practices called for officers to retreat 1, 000 feet once there was a threat of explosives, but they did not. Chief Mina said that throughout the standoff, officers went into the club, putting themselves in danger to rescue people. Some survivors have told stories to that effect Angel Colon, tearfully told of being unable to walk after having been shot several times, and expressed gratitude to an officer who pulled him to safety. But others who escaped with their lives have not been so complimentary. Norman Casiano said that after hiding and then making his way toward the club entrance, “I poked my head out, and the police actually shot at me. ” “I started crying and yelling, ‘I’m a victim, I’m a victim, please, I’m hurt, I’m injured, I’ve been shot twice,’ ” he said. Jeannette McCoy, 37, who escaped early on, was furious at the caution of the police, yelling at them to end the matter. “I wanted this guy dead,” she said, but “they gave him so much time. ” At 4:21 a. m. officers pulled an out of a wall, creating an escape route for people hiding in one room of the club. Eight minutes later, according to the F. B. I. timeline, some people who been inside had told the police that the gunman had said he was going to put explosive vests on four hostages within 15 minutes. That prompted the decision to storm the club, officials have said. While the gunman and his hostages were in one bathroom, officials decided to breach the building’s outer wall at another bathroom nearby, to free people trapped there, and make a path in. A team from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office placed explosives on the wall. Those were detonated at 5:02 a. m. but did not break all the way through, so officers used an armored vehicle to punch through the wall. But officials have said their aim was off, and they had to try multiple times to find the right spot for a hole. At 5:14 a. m. there were gunshots, as officers traded fire with Mr. Mateen. At 5:15, word came across the radio: the suspect was down. The F. B. I. said it had collected more than 600 pieces of evidence and conducted more than 500 interviews. One of those interviewed, Mohammad Malik, said that Mr. Mateen, a longtime friend, told him two years ago that he had listened to recordings of Anwar the radical cleric who was killed in an American drone strike in Yemen. Mr. Malik told a reporter that he told the F. B. I. at the time, and the bureau investigated but did not bring charges. The F. B. I. has said it looked into Mr. Mateen in 2014. Investigators continue to believe that Mr. Mateen acted on his own, inspired by extremist groups but not directly in contact with them. They are still looking into what his wife knew, to determine whether she should face charges. Agent Hopper appealed for the public’s patience with a case so complex that agents were still combing the crime scene. “This investigation is one week and one day old,” he said, “and it may last months, and even years. ”

‘I’m Nobody’? Not a Chance, Emily Dickinson - The New York Times

Holland Cotter

“In the Trumpian sense of the term, she’s the ultimate ‘nasty woman.’ An inspiration. Volcanic. When I start to write about her, I always feel, . ” The volcano referred to is Emily Dickinson, as described by the contemporary poet Susan Howe in the catalog for an exhibition, “I’m Nobody! Who are you? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson,” opening on Friday at the Morgan Library Museum. The show is one of the largest gatherings ever of prime Dickinson relics, and it comes with an aura the size of a city block. It instantly turns the Morgan into a pilgrimage site, a literary Lourdes, a place to come in contact with one aspect of American culture that truly can claim greatness, which we sure can use in an political moment. The show has a mission: To give audiences a fresh take on Dickinson. Gone is the Puritan nun, and that infantilized charmer, the Belle of Amherst. At the Morgan we get a different Dickinson, a person among people: a member of a household, a a citizen. She was born in 1830 to rural gentry in Western Massachusetts, and one of the earliest items in the show gives an impression of modest Yankee privilege. It’s a portrait of Dickinson at around age 10 with her older brother, Austin, and young sister, Lavinia, done by a local artist, Otis Allen. It’s sort of a big deal to have it here: This is the first time it has left Houghton Library at Harvard since it arrived there in 1950. And the Morgan displays it well, against wallpaper that replicates the original, only recently uncovered, in Emily’s Amherst bedroom. In a sweet coincidence, the roses on the paper echo the flower the holds in her portrait. As the daughter of a — her father, Edward, was elected to the United States Congress in 1853 — and a lifelong consumer of newspapers and periodicals, Dickinson had a good sense of what was happening in the world. She went to grammar school, and was a bookworm, but had friends and a poised, dry sense of humor, as some teasing early letters to her brother suggests. In 1847, she spent a year as a boarding student at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, her one stint in higher education. And from that time came what many devotees will consider the exhibition’s star attraction: the daguerreotype of the Dickinson with her pale skin and eyes. It’s another rare visitant — it last left home at Amherst College in 1986 — and it’s almost a shock to see how small it is: like a holy card or a talisman. Dickinson said that she liked Mount Holyoke, but I don’t know. It had its stresses. Part of the curriculum was religious, with students expected to make a profession of faith before graduating. The school informally divided potential candidates into three categories: those who would readily comply those who would need some persuasion and “” to whom they paid special attention. Dickinson, who had developed an allergy to orthodoxy, was a and proud. It’s important, in presenting a revisionist view of her, especially a normalizing one, to note that from the start, resistance was her natural mode, and one that grew increasingly pronounced, and eventually acute. The end of her schooling signaled the start of a new phase of her life. She was again at home and beginning to work in a serious way on poetry, which required concentration and a degree of isolation: a commitment, the willingness, I guess you could say, to make a vow. I think it wasn’t easy. The 1850s were a period of personal tumult. Her school friends had dispersed. Several had married. Among them was Susan Gilbert, with whom she had forged a tight emotional and intellectual bond, and whom she relied on as a first reader and editor of her poetry. In 1856, Gilbert — there’s a picture of her here — married Austin and lived with him in the house next door to the family homestead. By 1858, Dickinson had accumulated enough poems to begin collecting them in handwritten, booklets known as fascicles. And from around this time comes what is thought to be another portrait, a daguerreotype that surfaced in 2012 and is on public view at the Morgan. It’s a portrait of two seated women, the one on the left tentatively identified as Dickinson the other one as her friend, and possible romantic partner, Kate Scott Turner. In the show, it’s placed side by side with the earlier, authenticated photograph. The Dickinsons in each, with their candid, unguarded gaze, share a clear, if inconclusive, resemblance. And her pose in the dual portrait is extremely moving. Far from being the timid, removed figure of myth, she looks directly at the camera and reaches, in a to touch the back of her friend. Much of Dickinson’s poetry from this time has an experimental, incendiary flair images of combat and violence occur. It’s as if she were experiencing the Civil War before it happened. And when it did happen, her production soared. Oddly, in the midst of the conflict, war was rarely her active theme. But like Walt Whitman, who began working as the equivalent of a psychiatric nurse in a military hospital in Washington, Dickinson seems to have been caught up in the atmosphere that gripped the nation, a mood probably not entirely different from the one found in a divided America now. Whitman was permanently shaped by the war and its waste. Whether Dickinson was, I don’t know. But when it was over, her life changed. She began to withdraw. Communication was through writing: letters as intricately composed as puzzles, notes as brief as tweets, poems sent out like gifts. The primary relics from this time forward are her manuscripts of poems. Nearly 1, 800 survive 24 examples are in the show, organized by Mike Kelly, head of archives and special collections at Amherst College, and Carolyn Vega, assistant curator in the Morgan’s department of literary and historical manuscripts. The manuscripts come with questions of legibility. Dickinson’s penmanship grew eccentric over time, as did her compositional methods. Transcribing her work has become a complex science, particularly in the matter of rendering the alternative phrases and words she included in drafts. It was as if she were deliberately creating poems that demanded reader participation, poems that could be endlessly rewritten. And maybe as her conviction grew that she would always be her own best audience, she turned poems into art objects, sculptures and pictures: A draft of a poem that begins “The way hope builds his house” is composed on a bit of paper — an envelope flap? — shaped like a house. In the show’s catalog, aptly titled “The Networked Recluse: The Connected World of Emily Dickinson,” the art historian Marta Werner analyzes the visual nature of the manuscripts. Yet what matters most in Dickinson is the element most easily passed over in an exhibition: words. And they warn us, whenever we focus on them, against trying to normalize Dickinson, against trying to make her acceptable and explicable. She was an outsider, and as such a disrupter. Was she a feminist? Not in the modern sense, though an idea of female power as a protean force was central to her thinking, as it was to the writers she loved: Emily Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot. Central, too, was her disdain for the false power of churches, fathers, governments, God, ego. Even her most poems, like the one for which the show is named, slice away at that power: This little anthem to outsider solidarity, delivered with a lift, is both cute and furious, a joke and a call to arms. Some of its references translate neatly into the present of ethical bogs, Pepe the Frog, a new . Its paranoia is of the moment, too, for many with a grain of Otherness in their makeup. Dickinson did, as a woman who said no to a culture that wanted her to be a wife, a mother, a social creature on its terms, when she had other plans. And to pursue them she assumed the guise of a Nobody: invisible, independent, ignoring the knock on the door. The fringe for her was a position of strength, not deprivation. This truth should not be lost in the rebranding campaigns periodically conducted on her behalf. Nor should it be forgotten that defending difference took a lifelong fight, one which she was willing and able — supremely able — to wage. That’s a revolutionary talking. And her voice carries, subaudibly explosive, through this show.

New NASA Footage Films UFO Flying Past

BlackProject

New NASA Footage Films UFO Flying Past page: 1 link Here the video shows a very odd craft zooming past. It looks to be very direct on its movement and shows no sign of being as NASA love to use ''debris'' flying by. It is on its own and on its own path. Be nice to see what others think about this footage I have no idea whether this is coming from NASA hardware or not. It states on the video also 2016, I presume this is new. It would seem we are being visited all the time, by our visitors. Star people, ET's. edit on 27-10-2016 by BlackProject because: (no reason given)

Obamacare Architect on Rising Premiums: It’s Not a Big Increase

admin

Washington Free Beacon October 26, 2016 Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, a chief architect of Obamacare, described the recent announcement of rising health care premiums under the Affordable Care Act as “not a big increase.” Emmanuel served as a special health care policy adviser to the director of the Office of Management and Budget in the White House at the beginning of President Obama’s first term. Emmanuel spoke with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Tuesday and was asked about a recent government report that stated health care premiums were slated to rise by 25 percent next year in the 39 states served by the federal online exchanges. Ruhle started by asking Emmanuel, “Why should Americans have faith in the Affordable Care Act?” This article was posted: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 7:36 am Share this article

QUALIFIED! Joe Biden explains reason Hillary set up private email & server (Hint: This doesn’t help her) – twitchy.com

Posted At Am On October

QUALIFIED! Joe Biden explains reason Hillary set up private email & server (Hint: This doesn’t help her) Posted at 9:30 am on October 28, 2016 by Doug P. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Joe Biden, VP and possible future secretary of state , is trying to help Hillary out of a huge jam: Interviewed by @jdickerson for @FaceTheNation , @VP says @HillaryClinton didnt understand "the gravity" of setting up own e-mail system. pic.twitter.com/abIZ1f0kvO — Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 28, 2016 Didn’t understand the gravity? Nice try, Joe: Ummm… Not helpful Joe. Not helpful IN THE EXTREME. https://t.co/gpiIsLL0qg — 0☀️Annie (@bloodless_coup) October 28, 2016 So to quote Dave Chapelle: “I’m sorry officer I … didn’t know I couldn’t do that." https://t.co/a1mLeOv0KL — Ben Howe (@BenHowe) October 28, 2016 "I'm sorry officer. I didn't understand the gravity of robbing that bank. My b. Won't happen again. I promise. I think." https://t.co/H61mYqtgyo The truth is that when it comes to understanding gravity, Hillary Clinton rivals Sir Isaac Newton: @BenHowe What she did understand was the gravity of FOI.