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Trump, Russia, and the News Story That Wasn’t - The New York Times

Liz Spayd

LATE September was a frantic period for New York Times reporters covering the country’s secretive national security apparatus. Working sources at the F. B. I. the C. I. A. Capitol Hill and various intelligence agencies, the team chased several bizarre but provocative leads that, if true, could upend the presidential race. The most serious question raised by the material was this: Did a covert connection exist between Donald Trump and Russian officials trying to influence an American election? One vein of reporting centered on a possible channel of communication between a Trump organization computer server and a Russian bank with ties to Vladimir Putin. Another source was offering The Times salacious material describing an odd dance between Trump and Moscow. The most damning claim was that Trump was aware of Russia’s efforts to hack Democratic computers, an allegation with implications of treason. Reporters Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers led the effort, aided by others. Conversations over what to publish were prolonged and lively, involving Washington and New York, and often including the executive editor, Dean Baquet. If the allegations were true, it was a huge story. If false, they could damage The Times’s reputation. With doubts about the material and with the F. B. I. discouraging publication, editors decided to hold their fire. But was that the right decision? Was there a way to write about some of these allegations using sound journalistic principles but still surfacing the investigation and important leads? Eventually, The Times did just that, but only after other news outlets had gone first. I have spoken privately with several journalists involved in the reporting last fall, and I believe a strong case can be made that The Times was too timid in its decisions not to publish the material it had. I appreciate the majority view that there wasn’t enough proof of a link between Trump and the Kremlin to write a story. But The Times knew several critical facts: the F. B. I. had a sophisticated investigation underway on Trump’s organization, possibly including FISA warrants. (Some news outlets now report that the F. B. I. did indeed have such warrants, an indication of probable cause.) Investigators had identified a mysterious communication channel, partly through a lead from operatives At one point, the F. B. I. was so serious about its investigation into the server that it asked The Times to delay publication. Meanwhile, reporters had met with a former British intelligence officer who was building the dossier. While his findings were difficult to confirm, Times reporting bore out that he was respected in his craft. And of his material that was checkable, no significant red flags emerged. What’s more, said one journalist frustrated with the process, a covert link seemed like a plausible explanation for the strange bromance between Trump and Putin. There were disagreements about whether to hold back. There was even an actual draft of a story. But it never saw daylight. The deciding vote was Baquet’s, who was adamant, then and now, that they made the right call. “We heard about the communications between the Russians and Trump,” he said. “We reported it, and found no evidence that it was true. We wrote everything we knew — and we wrote a lot. Anybody that thinks we sat on stuff is outrageous. It’s just false. ” I don’t believe anyone suppressed information for ignoble reasons, and indeed The Times produced strong work on former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. But the idea that you only publish once every piece of information is in and fully vetted is a false construct. If you know the F. B. I. is investigating, say, a presidential candidate, using significant resources and with explosive consequences, that should be enough to write. Not a “gotcha” story that asserts unsubstantiated facts. But a piece that describes the nature of the investigations, the unexplained but damning leads, with emphasis on what is known and what isn’t. Running every detail of the dossier, as BuzzFeed did, would have been irresponsible. Writing about a significant investigation would not. Weeks after The Times had the goods, Franklin Foer of Slate and David Corn of Mother Jones each took a turn at such articles. Their stories may not have been precisely what The Times would have done, but they offered a model. If The Times didn’t write about ongoing investigations, it wouldn’t have produced the excellent scoop on Trump associates and Russia that broke Thursday night. Nor would it have so relentlessly documented the F. B. I. ’s pursuit of Hillary Clinton’s emails until all facts were resolved. That investigation was fair game, and so was Trump’s. A wave of readers over the past week have challenged The Times’s decision to sit on its reporting about the dossier. Among them was Michael Russo of Brooklyn, who had this to say: There is an unsettling theme that runs through The Times’s publishing decisions. In each instance, it was the actions of government officials that triggered newsroom decisions — not additional reporting or insight that journalists gained. On the server, once the F. B. I. signaled it had grown wary of its importance — without giving conclusive evidence as to why — the paper backed off. Weeks later, the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, publicly admonished the F. B. I. for being secretive about its probe of Trump. That gave The Times cover to write what it knew about the bureau’s investigation into the bank server. It was the same pattern on the dossier. Only after learning from CNN that Trump and President Obama had been briefed on the document did The Times publish what it had known for months. Its confidence in the material had not changed, nor did its editors know whether the top level briefing meant the government believed the information was true. But the briefing became justifiable cause to publish. In this game between government and press, the government won. insights are easier than decisions. Back then, the media still thought Trump was a weak challenger to Clinton, a that might have made taking the risk of publishing explosive allegations all the more fraught. But it’s hard not to wonder what impact such information might have had on voters still evaluating the candidates, an issue I chided The Times for not pursuing enough in an earlier column. Would more sources have come forward? Would we already know the essential facts? If the new president was in fact colluding with a foreign adversary, journalists and investigators should feel enormous pressure to conclusively establish that fact. If it is not true, both Trump and the country deserve to have this issue put to rest. Updated at 5:25 p. m. January 21, to include clarifying information on the Times investigation.

Matthew McConaughey to Hollywood: ’Embrace’ Donald Trump

Jerome Hudson

actor Matthew McConaughey sent a sobering message to celebrities and the cultural elites protesting Donald Trump’s election and his new administration: get over it. [During an interview with ChannelFi to promote his new film, Gold, McConaughey was asked if he thinks Hollywood had given Trump a chance to govern. “Well, they don’t have a choice now. He’s our president,” the Oscar winner said. “And, it’s very dynamic and as divisive of an Inauguration and time as we’ve had. At the same time, it’s time for us to embrace and shake hands with this fact. And be constructive with him over the next four years. ” Even if you have strong disagreements with Trump, McConaughey says, it’s worth waiting to see what he actually does in his first term in office. “So anyone, even those who may strongly disagree with his principles or things he’s said and done — and that’s another thing, we’ll see what he does compares to what he has said — no matter how much you even disagreed along the way, it’s time to think about how constructive can you be,” he said. Some of the entertainment industry’s biggest stars have spent months protesting Trump’s stunning Election Night victory over Hillary Clinton, and have caused outrage over his Cabinet appointments, his executive orders, and even his pick for the Supreme Court. Celebrities have even gone so far as to launch personal attacks against Trump’s son. But McConaughey says it’s past time Trump’s detractors stop protesting Trump for the sake of protesting. “‘Cause he’s our president for the next four years, at least,” McConaughey said, “the President of the United States. ” McConaughey’s new thriller Gold, in which he plays a prospector in Indonesia, opened in theaters on Jan. 27 and is directed by Stephen Gaghan. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

Arsenic and Lead: Read This Before Eating Rice

Ariana

Rice is a staple food in many cultures, but are certain types of rice dangerous to human health? While fears about lead in rice are based in research, researchers who originally presented the study that found high levels of heavy metal in imported rice are realizing that their results may have been skewed by faulty equipment. Tsanangurayi Tongesayi, a PHD of Monmouth University in New Jersey, first presented his alarming findings at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting in March 2013. He conducted tests on rice imported from Taiwan, China, the Czech Republic, Bhutan, Italy, India, and Thailand, and revealed that the grains of rice could be contaminated with 6 to 12 parts per million lead. That is nearly 10 times the amount of lead that is considered safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Yet, when he replicated those findings in order to get the study published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Health, the levels were less than 1 part per million which was less lower than his previous findings. Tongesai had also sent the original testing equipment back to the manufacturer and the company had reported that it had been miscalibrated. The authors of the study are still trying to understand the lead content in rice and are using other methods to analyze the amount of lead these grains contain. Though the amount of lead in rice is still questionable, detectable levels of the carcinogen arsenic has been found in every one of the 60 rice products tested. Why would arsenic be found in rice? Arsenic can naturally occur in water, soil, and rocks, but its levels may be higher in some areas than others. It can readily enter the food chain and may accumulate in significant amounts in both animals. When eaten, this can have an effect on human health. Arsenic is the primary reason to limit your consumption of rice because it is extremely detrimental to human health. If you still love rice and want to be healthy in your consumption… Transition into eating wild rice which has much lower levels of arsenic than regular rice. Eat rice grown in California because arsenic levels are higher in rice that is grown in areas like Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas and much lower in rice that is grown in the west. Substitute rice for grains like quinoa, buckwheat, millet, and amaranth.

The Destruction of Reason in West

Aidan O'Brien

Dublin, Ireland. The West is feeling more and more like an irrational maze. The banks are mad. The austerity too. But the anti-Russia hysteria is the final straw. It’s not just “anti-Russia”: it’s anti-truth, anti-rational and anti-modern. It’s the end result of postmodernism. What began as irony is now systematic madness. Everything is upside down. Or maybe at last it’s the right side up. Maybe the West to begin with never was the Free World. Wasn’t that the whole point of modernism? Modernism was self criticism. Modernism was critical of the West. And then along came postmodernism. And the West suddenly was off the hook. The West wearing the clothes of postmodernism went on the attack again. The end result is that anything goes as long as the West wins. Forget the truth. Forget the facts. And forget history. Everything apparently is fiction. The West can say what it wants because everything is interpretation. That’s the beauty of postmodernism. You can contradict yourself a million times and laugh it all off. As long as you’ve the power. And that’s the key word: power. Because postmodernism was from the word go a political project. One that was made in the West for the West. The end result is hatred for Russia. And love for “Al-Qaeda”. Why? Because Russia attempted to rationalise the world. It attempted to apply reason to the 21st century. And so the irrational West had to punish it. Listen to Putin in 2007 when he spoke in Munich: “However, what is a unipolar world? However one might embellish this term, at the end of the day it refers to one type of situation, namely one centre of authority, one centre of force, one centre of decision-making. It is [a] world in which there is one master, one sovereign. And at the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within. And this certainly has nothing in common with democracy. Because, as you know, democracy is the power of the majority in light of the interests and opinions of the minority. Incidentally, Russia – we – are constantly being taught about democracy. But for some reason those who teach us do not want to learn themselves. I consider that the unipolar model is not only unacceptable but also impossible in today’s world. And this is not only because if there was individual leadership in today’s – and precisely in today’s – world, then the military, political and economic resources would not suffice. What is even more important is that the model itself is flawed because at its basis there is and can be no moral foundations for modern civilisation.” And listen to him in New York in 2015 when he spoke in the UN General Assembly: “ and so the export of revolutions, this time of so-called democratic ones, continues. It would suffice to look at the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, as has been mentioned by previous speakers. Certainly political and social problems in this region have been piling up for a long time, and people there wish for changes naturally. But how did it actually turn out? Rather than bringing about reforms, an aggressive foreign interference has resulted in a brazen destruction of national institutions and the lifestyle itself. Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster. Nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life. I cannot help asking those who have caused the situation, do you realize now what you’ve done?” Did you hear the plea for reason? Did you hear the cry for modernity? Did you hear the demand for “moral foundations” – for universal values – for international law? Did you hear the defence of national sovereignty and the defence of the UN Charter? The West didn’t. In these two key Russian speeches (Munich ’07 and New York ’15) the West only heard a threat to it’s power. The West’s reply to Russia’s rationalism was and continues to be irrationalism. Media madness, “Presidential” paranoia and Islamic insanity is the West’s response to the truth. And the truth is no secret. But the West just shrugs it’s shoulders and laughs it all off. The truth is Western imperialism: the unipolar world, full spectrum dominance, neo-con mendacity, hybrid warfare, sanctions, speculation, special forces, the CIA, fundamentalism and American Exceptionalism. In short: Putin hit the nail on the head. And the West hit back. Why? Because the West can’t defend itself rationally. There is no good reason for all the wealth found in the West. So there can only be a bad reason: imperial power. And modernism proved beyond doubt that it was bad. However as this power was rolled back in modern times – as the victims of Empire succeeded in liberating themselves – postmodern times came to the rescue of the West. In Nietzsche the West found it’s champion. The will to power was the West’s trump card. And with Nietzsche’s blessing it played it. For Nietzsche all that mattered was power. And whoever had it needed no justification or reason. Truth was a lie. And morality was only for the weak. However if this intellectual climate only emerged and became hegemonic in the late 1970s (think of Reagan and Thatcher) it of course was ever present behind the scenes in the dark corners of Western imperialism. For instance: America’s leading strategist (and Russian “expert”) after World War Two, George F. Kennan, famously put it into words in Memo PPS23 (1948): “We have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its population….Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships, which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. To do so we will have to dispense with all sentimentality….We should cease to talk about vague….unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratisation. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.” Nietzsche could not have said it better himself. The question is though: has this elite Western approach to the world changed since Kennan wrote Memo PPS23? No – it has only become more crass. As a result this Nietzschean worldview is what Russia is up against today. But haven’t we seen this before? Hasn’t Nietzsche in another guise attacked Russia already? Have not the forces of irrationalism invaded Russia before? And did Russia not for our benefit defeat those forces of irrationalism? We still owe Russia. So let’s support it today it by burying Nietzsche. And by resurrecting universal reason and all the ideals which are built upon it. Give modern secular life another chance. Not just in Syria but in the West too. Aidan O’Brien is a hospital worker in Dublin, Ireland.

Giving Up ‘Mostly Everything’ to Care for His Wife - The New York Times

John Otis

“Don’t scratch it. ” Those were the first words Abdou Travare’s wife, Ramata, ever spoke to him. He was from Senegal and she was from Mali, but they met on a street in Paris. Both were attending college in France. Mr. Travare had stopped to examine her car, the same make and model as the one he drove, except hers was white and his was green. Just do not get too close to it, she warned him, a playful request that led to a short conversation, an exchange of names and a few laughs. The next day, Mr. Travare intentionally parked his car next to hers, and flirtatiously tried to use his key to open her car door. She was smitten. Five years later, in 1980, the couple married. “We’ve been with each other for a while now,” Mr. Travare, 60, said. Over the past 30 years, they have faced challenges together, including a lengthy time apart in the . During a vacation to San Francisco, Mr. Travare became so fond of the city that he decided to stay and pursue a master’s degree in international finance at Golden Gate University. Three years went by before Mrs. Travare, who had stayed in Mali, was able to join her husband in the United States. Mr. Travare’s job in financial management, one that required him to travel so often that he had to add pages to his passport, allowed him to return to Africa a few times each year to see his wife. He held different jobs in the decades that followed. Whenever career stress overwhelmed him, Mrs. Travare was always there with encouragement and support, he said. In 2009, they moved to New York City. Soon after, Mr. Travare noticed his wife was behaving oddly. “After so many years, you know the person,” he said. “You can just see something is not quite right. ” Mrs. Travare would stare into space or turn on the stove only to leave it unattended. She became obsessed with cleaning and turning on every light in a room. “It was quite strange for me — very, very frightening,” he said. Doctors determined that Mrs. Travare was experiencing the cognitive aftereffect of an unnoticed stroke she had had years before. She already had diabetes and heart disease, and now she was slipping into dementia. The condition worsened over time. Mrs. Travare, 59, now barely speaks, and when she does, her command of English has drastically changed. Many days, she is barely able to leave her bed, and she needs Mr. Travare’s help to walk everywhere, including the bathroom. He stopped working in 2013 to care for her. “I left everything, mostly everything, to be by her side,” he said. But every so often, despite the grave diagnosis, Mr. Travare said, he sees glimpses of his wife’s former self. “I believe one day she will get better and be the same again,” he said. “I still believe it. That’s what keeps me going. ” Mr. Travare receives $733 in Social Security Insurance benefits each month. The couple also receive $215 in Social Security benefits and $350 in food stamps each month. He has spent much of his savings, and has struggled to pay their $1, 335 monthly rent. By this past summer, they were more than $11, 000 in arrears. Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York, one of the eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, helped prevent the couple’s eviction. Staff members from the organization’s HomeBase program secured for the Travares a emergency grant from the city’s Human Resources Administration for $9, 300. Catholic Charities also contributed $300 in Neediest funds toward their back rent. Mr. Travare, who once trotted the globe, now rarely leaves his Bronx apartment, a place so bursting with possessions that a sofa sits in the middle of their kitchen. Their home is crammed with additional pieces of furniture, appliances, paintings and numerous other items, remnants of more prosperous times when the Travares had larger living quarters. Whenever Mr. Travare is able to venture out, it is usually to take his wife to a doctor’s appointment, or to pick up groceries and phone cards to call their families in Africa. Sometimes, he takes his wife to dinner. Much of his remaining free time is spent cooking, cleaning and looking after her. “I don’t see it as a job, I see it as a pleasure,” he said. “Anything she needs from me, I will be here. ”

Black Child With BB Gun Is Shot by Police in Columbus, Ohio - The New York Times

Richard Pérez-Peña

Officials in Columbus, Ohio, appealed for calm, patience and investigative help Thursday, hours after a white police officer fatally shot a boy who had apparently brandished a firearm that was later determined to be a BB gun. Speaking at a news conference, the mayor, the police chief and other officials offered few details about what led to the death Wednesday night of the teenager, Tyre King. They cautioned that the investigation, which will be presented to a grand jury, will not be quick. So far, they said, they do not know of any video recording of the shooting. “Any loss of life is tragic, but the loss of a young person is particularly difficult,” Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said. “Investigations take time, and I ask for everyone’s patience during this difficult time. ” According to the police, officers responded to a report of an armed robbery in the Olde Towne East neighborhood in central Columbus, and saw three males who matched the suspects’ descriptions. Two fled and officers chased them into an alley, where Tyre pulled what appeared to be a gun from his waistband, the police said, and an officer shot him multiple times. The officer was identified as Bryan Mason, a veteran, who fatally shot a man in 2012. His superiors cleared him of any wrongdoing in that episode. He has been placed on administrative leave. Tyre’s death is one in a long string of deaths of black people at the hands of the police in recent years that have drawn national attention, particularly when video is made public. They have prompted sharp debates about race and policing, intense criticism of the police and, in some cases, civil unrest. One of the most scrutinized cases, and one of the most similar to the one in Columbus, also took place in Ohio: the 2014 death of Tamir Rice, 12, who was playing with a pellet gun in a park in Cleveland. Columbus officials made it clear that they were acutely aware of that history, saying it was too early to make parallels to Tamir’s case, and insisting that they were striving for openness and community outreach that critics have said were lacking in other cities. They also repeatedly stressed Tyre’s conduct, the credible threats officers face and the gun culture. “Why is it that a would have nearly an exact replica of a police firearm on him in our neighborhoods?” Mr. Ginther asked. “An eighth grader involved in very, very dangerous conduct in one of our neighborhoods. ” The mayor cited “easy access to guns, whether they are firearms or replicas,” as a serious problem, adding, “A is dead in the city of Columbus because of our obsession with guns. ” Kimberley Jacobs, the police chief, repeatedly referred to Tyre as a “young man,” and said: “This is the last thing that a police officer wants to do in their career. Unfortunately, because of the things that are happening out on the streets, it becomes necessary at times to defend themselves. ” She held up a photograph of a BB gun of the kind found in the alley near Tyre to show how similar it looks to the sidearm used by the Columbus police, a Smith Wesson Military Police semiautomatic pistol. The Columbus Police posted a similar image on Twitter. The photographs show a BB gun that does not have an orange tip or other bright colors sometimes used to distinguish them from lethal weapons. “It turns out not to be a firearm, in the sense that it fires real bullets, but as you can see, it looks like a firearm that can kill you,” Chief Jacobs said. The shooting quickly drew widespread attention on social media, as people took sides to find fault with either the police or the boy. Chief Jacobs said the police were looking for video from security cameras or bystanders’ smartphones, and were interviewing witnesses, including one of the people who was with Tyre. She said it was not clear whether that person would be charged with a crime. “There were witnesses, we believe, to the armed robbery and there were people in the vicinity of the shooting, but we don’t know what they were able to discern,” she said. The Columbus police do not wear body cameras, but they will starting next year, said Mr. Ginther, the mayor, who supports their use.

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Highlights the Struggle for Acceptance - The New York Times

Jenna Wortham

On the penultimate episode of this season’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the last four contestants gathered backstage, waiting to find out who would be eliminated from the competition to be named “America’s Next Drag Superstar. ” As they sat in the “untuck” lounge, they made lighthearted small talk, trading compliments and shade. The conversation turned, suddenly, to activism. Chi Chi DeVayne, a sweet Louisiana queen with a thick, accent, praised Bob the Drag Queen, a gifted, tenderhearted New York comedian, on her work in support of marriage equality. “I wish that I had the guts to stand up for gay rights,” she said wistfully (the contestants often use male and female pronouns interchangeably). Bob smiled and replied, “Go do it, you can start anytime. ” Ms. DeVayne, dazzling in full makeup and a fuchsia ball gown, shook her head firmly. “You can’t do it in Shreveport,” she replied. “They’ll blow your head off. ” That exchange reflected the cultural significance of “Drag Race,” for this particular moment in time. Queer and gay culture has been so widely and incorporated into mainstream popular culture that it can feel commonplace, embraced by default. On the surface, that feels like a positive thing — queer narratives, like those featured in “Carol,” “The Danish Girl,” “Modern Family” and “Transparent” go a long way toward humanizing difference. We may live in troubled times, but this visibility suggests people are finding their way. Yet, pop culture has barely started grappling with more complex and ugly contemporary narratives, ones that make clear that universal acceptance is still a fantasy — like North Carolina’s law limiting bathroom access to transgender people. This is what makes “Drag Race,” which airs its Season 8 finale on Monday night, so valuable. Bob and Ms. DeVayne are both 30, but they may as well be from parallel universes. They, like the show, remind viewers that these discrepancies, these gaping chasms exist. We live in a time of extreme dualities. In a recent interview with E. Alex Jung of New York magazine, RuPaul laid out the subversive function of his show. “They talk so much about acceptance now today and it’s like, yes, but trust me — I’m old,” he said, ”It’s superficial. ” “Things haven’t changed that much. You see it in politics right now,” he added. “And you know, people will have you think, ‘Oh, we’re fashion. We’re gay. That’s my gay over there!’ It’s like, no. We’re still a very, very, very primitive culture. ” Now, more than ever, we need axes of realness to anchor and make sense of this strange world we live in. “Drag Race” has always been a show that knows how to balances scripted moments and genuine interactions — by turning the shadiness and catty drama underlining the plot of almost every major reality show into a theatrical performance, in which contestants earn points for the ability to mock one another. Drag lives to be weird, to mock conformity, and pokes hole in the artifice of normativity, exposing the notion of fixed identity and gender as an inherently flawed premise. “Drag Race,” which in every episode asks competitors to construct new identities and costumes, lives to point out that our meat suits can be altered, that anyone can paint and sew a new persona, that all appearances are illusions anyway. Last season, the show almost deflated that premise. Season 7 was dominated by two contestants, Violet Chachki and Pearl, who both shimmered on the surface, but didn’t seem to have much depth below, at least, none that they were willing to reveal. Phenomenally talented, and already Instagram famous before their first appearance on the show, they were willowy and exceptionally gifted at pulling off classically “fishy” looks, which in drag slang means feminine to the point of passing. They won competition after competition, and praise from the judges. “Drag Race” no longer seemed to exist to expose the performance of hyperfemininity, it seemed to cultivate it. The preference for heteronormative standards of beauty was tremendously disappointing. But this season rebounded from that. One of the earliest and most severe eliminations was a pageant queen. And two of the season’s stronger contestants had male drag names. Weirdness reigned, through strong performances by Acid Betty, with her psychedelic palette, and the transformations of Thorgy Thor, a hippie with dreads and round glasses who invented a new character during every challenge. Kim Chi, one of the show’s first breakout contestants, constructed some of the most sophisticated looks to grace RuPaul’s stage, a combination of flora and fauna and dessert pastry. Charming and chubby, with a lisp, his most revealing moment came when he tearfully revealed that he has hidden his exquisite talents at makeup and costume design from his own mother, for fear she will be repulsed by his love of drag. In another, he confessed that he was a virgin. Moments like that, both shocking and sad, affirmed the importance of “Drag Race,” the rare space on television that relishes honesty and exploration, that doesn’t subscribe to the notion that all is well now that we live in a world. At its best, drag exposes the charade of modern life, the idea that there are set rules to follow, and even if there are, that you can win by following them. Personality, growth, the ability to evolve and, really, to survive, were the traits that the judges prioritized this season. But, you wonder, how can the show itself grow and evolve from here? At this point in its life cycle, RuPaul’s universe has expanded so much that a generation has been weaned on the show and its spinoffs, like “RuPaul Drag U. ” “Drag Race” is its own feedback loop, its own perpetual motion machine. It’s as mainstream as a show about drag can get. At the same time, “Drag Race” flourishes in cultlike purgatory. Even the show’s network, Logo TV, aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender audience, is squirreled away, available only to cable subscribers. Without streaming services like iTunes and Amazon Prime, “Drag Race” might not have the fandom and staying power that it currently does. That won’t matter much on Monday night, when the finale is aired. It’s not yet clear who will win. In the episode, after the group trooped back out to hear the verdict, RuPaul informed Ms. DeVayne that she would not advance to the final round and win the $100, 000 or the title. She seemed unsurprised, and smiled. “You have taught me how to be a better person,” she said, about loving who she is and where she is from. “And $100, 000 can’t buy that. ” At that, Ms. DeVayne snapped her fingers so clear and loud it almost sounded like a bell, before sashaying away.

Media Matters brags taking Lou Dobbs off CNN, Glenn Beck off FOX: Project Veritas

The European Union Times

Project Veritas Action has released the sixth video in a multi-part series that is sending shockwaves through the DNC and the Clinton campaign. In a new video released by Project Veritas Action, a PVA journalist exposes how his pay for play with Robert Creamer landed him a meeting with Bradley Beychock, the President of Media Matters For America, an organization that has been attacking James O’Keefe for years. Bradley Beychock is first seen in the undercover video bragging how he is responsible for taking knowable conservative voices off TV stations with pressure campaigns: “Lou Dobbs from CNN left now and he is on FOX Business, Glenn Beck off of FOX News.” So it seems that there is simply no tolerance and no room left for conservatism in the media, yet they claim the system isn’t rigged? Of course its rigged! During the meeting, Beychock gave the PVA journalist a tour of their offices. He also proudly boasted about the Media Matters assault on conservative writer and political consultant Roger Stone. “So I think for Trump, our big role as a media watchdog has been to take his MVPs and put them on the sidelines. So the first one was Roger Stone,” said Beychock. James O’Keefe interviewed Stone and showed him the footage, to which Stone responded. Shortly after James O’Keefe and Roger Stone were interviewed together on Alex Jones’s show, Media Matters put up the Alex Jones interview on their website. Media Matters is funded by Clinton confidante George Soros. Project Veritas Action Fund (AKA Project Veritas Action) was founded by James O’Keefe to investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud and other misconduct. Source

Country Duo Big &amp Rich to Perform at Trump Inauguration Gala

Jerome Hudson

Country duo Big Rich have been added to the entertainment lineup for Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration gala. [The “Lovin’ Lately” singers will perform at Great America Alliance Inaugural Gala, a event set for January 19th in Washington, D. C. Country music rapper Cowboy Troy is also expected to perform at the event, which is presented by the Republican Party of New York and Great America Alliance. “We’re thrilled to be performing in our nation’s capital during this historic moment in time,” Rich said in a press release. “A presidential inauguration is a uniquely American event, so we are honored to be a part of it and hope to help make it a memorable event. ” Singer John Rich has the Republican party. In 2008, Rich wrote Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign song “Raising McCain. ” Rich also has history with Trump, having been the winner of Trump’s NBC reality series, Celebrity Apprentice, in 2011. The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced last week that some 40 groups, including high school bands and military organizations, were accepted to perform in the inaugural parade. The Rockettes dance troupe, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and teenage opera singer Jackie Evancho are slated to perform at Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson

The 8 Biggest Threats to Humanity Exposed

noreply@blogger.com (Alexander Light)

The 8 Biggest Threats to Humanity Exposed These individuals and families are the real people behind our political corruption, our planet's... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/the-8-biggest-threats-to-humanity.html These individuals and families are the real people behind our political corruption, our planet's destruction, and our economic enslavement. It's time the world learns their names. With attention squarely focused on the criminality of politicians , particularly that of the US presidential candidates, it’s easy to overlook the people really responsible for all this chaos. Much of the US’ political landscape for over a hundred years, and arguably long before, has been controlled by a small minority of wealthy families and individuals with a specific agenda. Through political and economic machinations over the years, these groups and their minions have funded both sides of wars and profited from them. They own the corporations who pollute our planet and exploit us all.They own the banks which make us slaves to imaginary debt. They own the politicians and police forces that are meant to serve us, yet they seek to undermine us and our “democracy” at every turn. Regardless of where you live, the following people are working against all of us, seeking only to procure still more power and influence and control every aspect of our lives. It’s about time we learned their names. 1. The Rockefellers The Rockefellers are arguably one of the most evil families in American history.J.D. Rockefeller, the US’ first billionaire, was responsible for monopolizing the American Medical establishment over 75 years ago, and led the campaign to discredit other natural remedies in favor of the pharmaceutical industry he helped to create. He and his descendants later funded the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations, which used Freudian techniques to influence the opinion of the masses. Graduates of this institute went on to assume leadership roles in mainstream media, the government, and corporations. David Rockefeller is the only surviving grandson of J.D. Rockefeller, and, as such, continues his family’s dark legacy by using his incredible personal wealth. He has openly admitted that his family’s long-standing plan has been to create a one world government controlled by elites saying: “Some even believe [the Rockefellers] are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’, conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I’m proud of it.” David Rockefeller has been instrumental in planning the advent of this “new world order” via his influence in the Bilderberg Group , Trilateral Commission, and the Council of Foreign Relations. 2. Henry Kissinger Henry Kissinger is a war criminal like no other , though some of his proteges – such as Hillary Clinton – have come close. Not surprisingly, he’s been one of David Rockefeller’s closest friends since 1954.Kissinger, while serving as Nixon’s Secretary of State, oversaw a bloody coup in Chile , an illegal bombing campaign in Cambodia, and millions dead in Vietnam. (Read more here ).However, because of his insider connections to the military-industrial complex, Kissinger ended up being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize , a decision so outrageous that several members of the Nobel committee resigned in protest. Though Kissinger no longer serves as secretary of state, he still wields enormous influence and works as a consultant for some of the biggest names in US and international politics. He has served as a mentor to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and has been largely influential in the development of the US’ system of perpetual war.His legacy is evident in the never-ending ‘War on Terror’ , and in the extrajudicial killings of US citizens via the covert drone war. 3. Larry Summers Larry Summers may not be very well-known, but his influence has been substantial nonetheless.Summers was a key player in economic policy under Bill Clinton’s administration, serving various important positions within the US Treasury until becoming the Secretary of the Treasury in 1999. Summers, along with his mentor Robert Rubin, were responsible for deregulating the US banking system via the removal of the Glass-Steagall Act, making him more responsible than any other person for the economic crisis of 2008, as well as the economic crisis we are soon to face.Not only that, Summers also conspired with a cabal of banker big-shots to deregulate the banks of the entire world. Summers and his cronies forced nearly every government in the world to sign the Financial Services Agreement, an addendum to the international trade agreements managed by the World Trade Organization. The only country that refused was Brazil, one of the few countries who avoided the worst of the 2008 crisis. Summers pushed all of this deregulation to make the bankers richer as the 2008 crisis was essentially a massive wealth transfer from the people to the bankers. With Summers still very influential in the US government, his work will only make the inequality divide in the US worse with time. 4. George Soros George Soros is one of the most notorious billionaires in the world. Soros made it rich as a currency manipulator, famously making a billion dollars in one day by initiating a British financial crisis and betting on the outcome.During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Soros was accused by the Malaysian government of bringing down the nation’s currency through his insider trading activities. He did something similar in England, prompting Thailand to call him an “economic war criminal.”Yet, Soros is more well-known for his funding of political causes, as well as his machinations that helped lead to Europe’s refugee crisis . Soros has also been accused of rigging elections as he has strong ties to several of the companies which produce electronic voting machines. Many of these Soros-funded voting machines malfunction and even switch votes. Soros also pushes for a “one world government” , and has worked to erode American sovereignty as well as the sovereignty of other nations in pursuit of that goal. 5. The Rothschilds Last but not least, we have the Rothschild family. The Rothschilds are arguably the richest family in the world and essentially own a majority of the world’s central banks – which are private institutions in most countries – as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The Rothschilds’ most well-known patriarch, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, once said : “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws.” This has been the maxim of the Rothschild family ever since. The Rothschilds are also responsible for Zionism , a racist ideology opposed by many Jews , and the State of Israel, which has caused numerous wars in the Middle East in its short history and is responsible for the unbelievable suffering of the Palestinian people. ( The Rothschilds are also the founding fathers of Israel, owning about 80% of it ). With so much money and so much power, the Rothschilds have incredible amounts of influence in US and international politics, so much so that even Hillary Clinton has begged them forgiveness in leaked emails . This one family has the power to economically destroy any nation that doesn’t do what the Rothschilds want. — Reference And the list is not complete without... 6. Bill Gates (and his wife) The list of serious threats to mankind's existence is not complete without one of the world's top depopulationists: Bill Gates. He was involved in some of the most disgusting depopulation scandals of this century, yet the mainstream media continues to portray him as a savior and hero.He and his wife are responsible for pushing depopulation vaccines in developing countries, via their sick foundation: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During a TED Talk , Bill Gates explained that the increase of CO2 volume is caused by a high number of humans being alive and breathing: "The world today has 6.8 billion people... now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, healthcare, reproductive health services, we could lower that [number] by perhaps 10 or 15%." Their oral Polio vaccination program caused 47,500 cases of paralysis in India. "Clinically indistinguishable from polio paralysis but twice as deadly, the incidence of NPAFP was directly proportional to doses of oral polio received. Though this data was collected within the polio surveillance system, it was not investigated." You can read more on the subject here . Bill Gates' "philanthropy" included using 30,000 Indian girls as Guinea Pigs for testing an alleged cancer vaccine. Even though the Gates foundation has the wealth to give these tribes access to clean water, sanitation services, nutrition and low stress living conditions, they instead push for HPV vaccines and call them "well-being" shots.The young girls, aged 9 – 15, were instructed to line up for three doses of the vaccine. As the months rolled on, the health of the 16,000 girls rapidly deteriorated. Five of the girls died shortly thereafter.In Vadodara, Gujarat, another 14,000 or more tribal children were put to the test. This time the Gates Foundation carried out their humanitarian healthcare mission by providing the HPV vaccine called Cervarix, made by Glaxo SmithKline.Instead of seeing their health improve, the tribes reported numerous, bizarre adverse events in the days, weeks and months following vaccination.Young girls in India lost weight, appetite and stamina. 16-year-old Aman Dhawan had no idea he was even signed up for the vaccine trial.Soon thereafter he began to lose weight and energy, as the life was sucked right out of him. The same problem broke out among girls in Colombia, where the same vaccine had been doled out to the young girls there.When health reporters and activists visited Andhra Pradesh, they met more than 100 young girls who were now having epileptic seizures, severe mood swings and migraine headaches.The toxins that had been deliberately injected into them caused additional health problems such as early menstruation, heavy bleeding and menstrual cramps – problems the tribes had not experienced before in such severity or magnitude.You can read more on the subject here . George Soros and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation were also traced at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak. Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone, which has been at the eye of the Ebola storm, houses a US biosecurity level 2 bioweapons research lab with links to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Soros Foundation. There, US biodefence scientists have been working on viral fevers such as Ebola for decades.A nurse who worked there broke the story that they are responsible for the EBola outbreak, but lab quickly insisted she was mentally ill. You have to wonder how a mentally ill person was considered fit to work in such a sensitive and dangerous facility. But of course, she probably was completely sane, and just fearless enough to tell the truth.You can read more on the subject here . Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has now started the sterilization of Indian girls. According to Science Alert, 6,000 women have already been subjected to the anti-fertility injections and Melinda Gates is now planning to roll out the anti-fertility contraception to millions of women, according to the Hindustan Times. You can read more on the subject here .His infamous foundation is also working on developing GMO mosquitoes that will one day carry this kind of vaccines (or maybe even deadly viruses) to unsuspecting human beings. Recently, Bill Gates has pushed the population control agenda one step further: he announced the development of a remote-controlled contraceptive microchip , which can be implanted under the skin and last up to 16 years.The remote-contraception thing may sound fancy and cool at first, until you realize that the microchip can easily be implanted under the skin of millions without their knowledge and consent, and used as a population control tool. You can read more on the subject here . 7. Ted Turner Even less shy about the depopulation agenda, CNN founder Ted Turner is explaining to anyone that is willing to listen why he supports the reduction of the world's population by at least 2 billion: “We’re too many people; that’s why we have global warming.” Unfortunately for him and other fervent depopulationists, both the overpopulation myth and the man-made global warming hoax , have been repeatedly debunked. (The world's resources are not evenly distributed, hence the high number of starving people whilst, at the same time, others are trowing away more than 50% of their food. It has nothing to do with overpopulation, and everything to do with the obsolete & oppressive financial system , as well as the poor management of Earth's resources. As for the "man made" global warming, the sun is responsible for temperature fluctuations, just as it has been for billions of years before humans were even around. If CO2 was the cause of global warming, then stopping the mindless deforestation and starting a global campaign of reforestation would solve the problem in a very cost effective way. But because the sun — and not people — is responsible for the Earth's warming and cooling cycles, the deforestation continues and we are being taxed from all sides for using the products that are made available to us. How is this going to stop the rising levels of CO2 is eluding me, but the general population fell for the scheme and people such as Al Gore are going to become billionaires for pushing a hoax ). Ted Turner's "one child per family policy" could be taken more seriously if he would lead by example. But, just as Leonardo di Caprio is preaching about the importance of having a low CO2 footprint whilst traveling in private jets, Mr. Turner wants us to have a maximum of one child per family, whilst he has five children himself. Well, I guess these rules would only apply to us, the "peasants," and not to the members of the "elite." 8. Zbigniew Brzezinski Brzezinski infamously stated that: “In earlier times, it was easier to control a million people, literally, than physically to kill a million people” while “today it is infinitely easier to kill a million people than to control a million people.” To the NWO, who are heavily into eugenics and depopulation, it is no big deal to kill a million people. As you can see, the members of the ruling "elite" talk about us like we are cattle.Their plan, as laid out in the Georgia Guidestones , is to reduce the world’s population to 500 million, which is a much “manageable” amount. You can read more on the subject here . Just like Henry Kissinger, a top architect of the New World Order , Zbigniew Brzezinski is partially responsible for spilling the blood of millions around the world.Asked in 1998 if he regrets being one of the architects who engineered the CIA-instigated battle between Afghans and Russians (which resulted in 12,000 direct deaths), he replied: “Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it?” 6 billion dollars later and a 10-year war, over a million were reported dead . I guess, being responsible for the death of over a million people gives Brzezinski a thrill. Addendum The list is far from being complete, but these eight figures are some of the most visible depopulationists of the moment. Of course, this is all part of the New World Order plan of the 13 "elite" families , which includes reducing the world's population by about 90%. By Whitney Webb, TrueActivist.com and Alexander Light, HumansAreFree.com Dear Friends, HumansAreFree is and will always be free to access and use. If you appreciate my work, please help me continue. Stay updated via Email Newsletter: Related

CONTROVERSIAL BRITISH COMMENTATOR Katie Hopkins upsets CNN host by calling her out for her network’s blatantly biased promotion of Hillary Clinton

BareNakedIslam

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7 Foods That Will Naturally Cleanse Your Liver

REALdeal

by Jonathan Benson The primary way in which your body expels toxins is via the liver, which detoxifies and cleanses your body by continuously filtering the blood of poisons that enter it through the digestive tract, the skin, and the respiratory system. But when your liver becomes overworked as a result of stress or excessive exposure to toxins, your entire system can be thrown off balance, and your health severely compromised. Since the liver is also responsible for producing bile, another form of detoxification that is metabolically necessary for the breakdown and assimilation of fats and proteins from your food, it is exceedingly important that your liver be properly maintained. Without a well-functioning liver, your body will be unable to cleanse itself and absorb nutrients, which is a recipe for a health disaster. “The thousands of enzyme systems that are responsible for virtually every body activity are constructed in the liver,” writes Dr. Karl Maret, M.D., about the importance of vibrant liver function. “The proper functioning of the eyes, the heart, the brain, the gonads, the joints, and the kidneys, are all dependent on good liver activity.” “If the liver is impaired from constructing even one of the thousands of enzyme systems the body requires, there is an impairment in overall body function and a resultant greater metabolic stress on the individual.” So here are seven important foods you may want to begin incorporating into your diet in order to maintain a healthy liver. Garlic, grapefruit, green tea, and green vegetables Garlic contains numerous sulfur-containing compounds that activate the liver enzymes responsible for flushing out toxins from the body. This bulbous relative of the onion also contains allicin and selenium, two powerful nutrients proven to help protect the liver from toxic damage, and aid it in the detoxification process. Grapefruit is rich in natural vitamin C and antioxidants, two powerful liver cleansers. Like garlic, grapefruit contains compounds that boost the production of liver detoxification enzymes. It also contains a flavonoid compound known as naringenin that causes the liver to burn fat rather than store it ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk ). Green tea is loaded with catechins, a type of plant antioxidant that has been shown in studies to eliminate liver fat accumulation and promote proper liver function ( http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v26/n11/abs/0802141a.html ). This powerful herbal beverage also protects the liver against toxins that would otherwise accumulate and cause serious damage. Leafy green vegetables such as bitter gourd, arugula, dandelion greens, spinach, mustard greens, and chicory also contain numerous cleansing compounds that neutralize heavy metals, which can bear heavily on the liver. Leafy greens also eliminate pesticides and herbicides from the body, and spur the creation and flow of cleansing bile. Avocados, walnuts, and turmeric Rich in glutathione-producing compounds, avocados actively promote liver health by protecting it against toxic overload, and boosting its cleansing power ( http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/12/001219074822.htm ). Some research has shown that eating one or two avocados a week for as little as 30 days can repair a damaged liver. Walnuts, which contain high levels of l-arginine, an amino acid, glutathione, and omega-3 fatty acids, also help detoxify the liver of disease-causing ammonia. Walnuts also help oxygenate the blood, and extracts from their hulls are often used in liver-cleansing formulas. Turmeric, one of the most powerful foods for maintaining a healthy liver, has been shown to actively protect the liver against toxic damage, and even regenerate damaged liver cells. Turmeric also boosts the natural production of bile, shrinks engorged hepatic ducts, and improves overall function of the gallbladder, another body-purifying organ. To learn more, visit: http://www.globalhealingcenter.com

Trashlandia: Portlanders Embark to Found New Country on Floating Garbage

Tuesday, 15 November 2016 The New Nirvana? Not willing to sit by and see what happens under a Trump presidency, a hearty group of 55 pilgrims has already left Portland, Oregon with the first barge to start a new nation. Their destination, the huge and elusive Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Patch is a huge loose-knit patch of floating garbage, mostly small plastics, that floats with the massive circular currents in the Northern Pacific. The smallest estimate of the size of The Patch is 270,000 square miles, roughly the size of Texas. So there's some room to set up house. "It will take us a bit to move in, but it can't be worse than what's coming in the U.S." said Jennifer Griswell, communications representative. The initial group must first stabilize the mass into one unit. Their plan involves an ingenious mix of six-pack rings, dental floss, used plastic diapers, discarded shoes, mattresses, yoga mats and carpet. They will have to work fast to claim the territory however. There is a commercial cleanup project that has been brewing since 2012, The Ocean Cleanup, founded by Dutchman Boyan Slat. The brave pioneers will need to plant their flag quickly. Make pinkwalrus's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!)

A Divisive President at City College, and a Long List of Personal Expenses - The New York Times

David W. Chen

After Lisa S. Coico took the helm in 2010 as the president of the City College of New York, the flagship of the City University of New York system, she proved to be a divisive figure on the school’s Harlem campus. But when Ms. Coico resigned abruptly on Friday, it was not the deep budget cuts, or her contentious relationship with much of the faculty, or the high administrative turnover, including five provosts in the last six years, that apparently forced her out. It was her own expenses — and it was not a new problem. Since at least June, federal prosecutors have been investigating Ms. Coico’s use of college funds to pay personal expenses, and other matters, an inquiry that has been gaining momentum. Then, on Thursday, The New York Times presented evidence to the college suggesting that a memo from 2011 concerning reimbursements had been fabricated, possibly to mislead prosecutors. The Times also questioned whether Ms. Coico had repaid a $20, 000 security deposit for a rental home, or kept the money for herself. The news of Ms. Coico’s departure, coming late Friday on the eve of a long holiday weekend, represented a swift and unexpected downfall for a president whose appointment had been met with great fanfare. Effective immediately, it leaves a college once known as “the poor man’s Harvard” in disarray at a time when public higher education is increasingly starved of public funds. It also raises questions about who knew how much and how early. And over the weekend, speculation intensified among staff and faculty members as to whether people close to the president would also be implicated, and whether the federal investigation would spread to other parts of CUNY, the largest public urban university in the country. A graduate of Brooklyn College, Ms. Coico was the first CUNY alumna to head City College. As a former provost at Temple University with a science background, Ms. Coico, 60, was chosen to lead an ambitious expansion of City College’s science programs, and to focus on . But from the outset, Ms. Coico had a difficult relationship with some faculty members. She was also criticized for her handling of the budget: Last year, when CUNY asked its colleges to cut their budgets by at least 3 percent, City College, citing increased personnel costs and declining enrollment, cut its budget by 10 percent, or $14. 6 million. Behind the scenes, there were also questions about her personal spending going back to the middle of 2011, roughly a year after her appointment. Ms. Coico, who had an annual salary of $400, 000 at that point, was using the college’s main vehicle, the 21st Century Foundation, to pay tens of thousands of dollars for housekeeping, furniture, seasonal fruits and organic nuts, among other items. Anxious about the amount she was spending, especially given the fact that many of City College’s students come from families and struggle to pay even its modest tuition, some began “questioning its appropriateness, since the president had a substantial housing allowance meant for such things,” said one longtime official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being entangled in the investigation. Ms. Coico had a housing allowance of $5, 000 per month when she was hired, which was increased to $7, 500 per month in July 2010. By August 2011, according to an email between two school officials, the college had begun to itemize more than $155, 000 of her spending in three categories — “college,” “personal” and “iffy. ” Another email later discussed the need to “recoup the funds. ” She was later ordered by Frederick P. Schaffer, CUNY’s general counsel, to repay the college $51, 000, or roughly of the expenses in question, because she had not received prior approval for moving and other expenses. She fulfilled that obligation by January 2016. Ms. Coico was also informed that any furniture bought with foundation funds — including $50, 000 worth for a rental home in Larchmont, N. Y. — belonged to City College. Moreover, she was asked to return a $20, 000 security deposit at the end of her lease in Larchmont. Ms. Coico and her husband bought another home in Westchester County in April 2013, property records show. When asked if she repaid the $20, 000 deposit, the college declined to comment. In recent years, Ms. Coico’s troubles seemed to fade. The school opened a new science center and, this fall, a medical school. Michelle Obama delivered this year’s commencement address. But this summer, The Times took a closer look at her expenses, and reported that CUNY’s Research Foundation, which manages research funds for the entire system, had ultimately covered Ms. Coico’s personal expenses from her early years as president. Using Research Foundation funds that way raised concerns because they could include money from federal grants, which are typically earmarked for expenses, such as staff and equipment, and have strict guidelines about how they are used. Having a university pay its leaders’ personal expenses has generated controversy elsewhere. Stanford was embroiled in a scandal in the 1990s in which government grants improperly paid for flowers and the depreciation on a yacht, and ultimately prompted the resignation of its president. In recent months, two chancellors in the University of California system — at Berkeley and at Davis — resigned in part because of an outcry over their handling of expenses. Two weeks after the Times report was published, a subpoena was issued by the office of Robert L. Capers, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. A spokeswoman for Mr. Capers declined to comment, citing office policy. But now, the authenticity of a key document that the college turned over to prosecutors has been challenged by more than a dozen people who have been involved with the college’s finances or have been briefed on the investigation. They spoke anonymously to avoid retaliation or getting entangled in the investigation. The memo in question is just one paragraph long and is bureaucratic in nature. Addressed to an employee at the provost’s office named Luisa Hassan, and dated Sept. 15, 2011, it begins, “As we have discussed,” and is attributed to Ron Woodford, a manager at the college’s 21st Century Foundation. It goes on to say that some of Ms. Coico’s expenses “were inadvertently paid” by that foundation, when they should have been paid by CUNY’s Research Foundation. The memo then asks Ms. Hassan to process an invoice for $155, 176 to “rectify the funding source,” for what it calls “ expenses associated with the appointment of the new president. ” But the memo surfaced on July 13, almost five years after it was supposedly written, when Felix Lam, the chief financial officer of City College, it to Ms. Hassan, according to people who heard about the incident afterward. Roughly 30 minutes later, Ms. Hassan got an email from a lawyer representing the 21st Century Foundation, telling her that she “must preserve, and may not alter,” any documents related to Ms. Coico, among others, because of the federal investigation. The timing of Mr. Lam’s delivery troubled some college officials, who noted that he had managed to get the memo into the package of documents being prepared for investigators just in time. If the memo is authentic, it would indicate that approval for using the Research Foundation funds had come from two relatively employees. That would insulate Ms. Coico and other officials from being directly involved in, or even aware of, any payment decisions. Were the memo proved to be backdated or manufactured, the responsible parties could be open to charges such as obstruction of justice, legal experts said. In an email to college officials including Mr. Lam sent the day after Mr. Lam gave her the memo, Ms. Hassan questioned its authenticity. “I never received the attached memo that you gave me yesterday from Ron Woodford and I never spoke directly to him regarding this matter. ” She wrote that any request for payment would have had to come from her supervisor, Jim Styer. The Times obtained a copy of the email. Ms. Hassan declined to comment. But she has told people involved in the investigation that she does not recall meeting, much less corresponding, with Mr. Woodford until at least 2013, and has no records of any email exchanges with him until about the same time. Mr. Woodford directed all questions about the memo’s authenticity to “the management and the lawyers. ” As to whether he and Ms. Hassan could have independently authorized a transfer of that size from one foundation to another, Mr. Woodford said: “You know we’re people. We don’t make decisions like that. ” In addition to the federal investigation, James B. Milliken, CUNY’s chancellor, hired Andrew J. Levander, a former federal prosecutor, to conduct an internal review. That review is now nearing completion. By Friday afternoon, a day after The Times contacted university officials, Mr. Milliken had decided that Ms. Coico could no longer remain in office. So he told her by phone that she had to resign, or else face termination, according to two people briefed on the process. College officials declined to comment, out of respect for the continuing internal and federal investigations. On Sunday, William C. Thompson Jr. a former New York City comptroller who is the new chairman of CUNY’s board of trustees, urged the state inspector general to open a third investigation, into “all of the college foundations, alumni associations or other affiliated entities including the CUNY Research Foundation. ” He said that Ms. Coico had “improperly used funds from the college’s 21st Century Foundation to pay for certain personal expenses,” and that “despite her representations to the contrary,” she had not repaid all the money. Ms. Coico declined to comment in an email on Sunday. As for the purported Sept. 25, 2011, memo given to Ms. Hassan, at least four college officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation said that they were willing to tell prosecutors that they believed the memo was fake. Neither Ms. Hassan nor Mr. Woodford, one official said, “were or are in a position even now to initiate or take action on such a request independently. ” The officials also note that the titles used for Ms. Hassan and Mr. Woodford did not match the ones they used at the time. In another incongruity, the invoice number on the September 2011 memo does not follow the chronological order of invoices from the 21st Century Foundation before and after that date. In an interview, Mr. Styer, who was Ms. Hassan’s supervisor in 2011, said that he did not recall having ever seen the memo either. He said it struck him as odd and “not the way business was done. ” “If Luisa is saying she never saw that memo,” said Mr. Styer, who left City College in 2013 and is now an elected official in Salford, Pa. “I think she’s correct. ”

Re: Trump Tells Media Secret Obama Story Behind 2016 Election

NaturalBoredCitizen

Email Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been criticized for his response as to whether he’d accept 2016 election results. His exact words: “I’ll keep you in suspense.” Several pundits think that statement cost him the election. But read more broadly, the way the subliminal mind does, and his response was brilliant, revealing his astute instincts emanating from the newly discovered unconscious super intelligence (which we all possess). His word “suspense” implies an unfolding drama. Indeed, the depth of this drama is immeasurable. But Trump’s telling America a secret story. His story is told through his super intelligence which quick reads situations before telling what it perceives between the lines. Trump’s super-intel is naturally attuned to other persons’ subconscious confessions. They do so in the symbolic language of “protests too much” denial and “log in your eye” projection along with other key imagery. His super-intel quick reads Hillary Clinton and the media and conveys his response indirectly in code. There’s far more to the media’s insistence that Trump was violating rules by not accepting election results. The media asked, “Are you going to play by the rules of prior presidential candidates?” But the big picture behind this election focuses on presidents playing by the rules, specifically the rule of law. Unconsciously, Trump’s answer implied that the candidacy of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, raises serious rule of law questions. For two weeks the media harangued Trump complaining he’d not played by society’s accepted rules of sexual conduct. That criticism continued while they ignored Hillary’s longtime enabling of her husband’s abusive sexual behavior and her documented harassment of his victims as well as her own sexual escapades. The media wanted to turn this sexual matter into the central rule of law issue while a far more important rule of law issue regarding the nation’s foundation still sits on the table. As Roger L. Simon of pjmedia.com wrote on March 23, 2016, “The very backbone of our country was the rule of law. Without [it]… America as we know it does not exist.” Simon declared Americans must be convinced that the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email matter was handled justly and that Obama dare not interfere. Neither condition was satisfied. Obama avowed long before the Department of Justice ruled that Hillary was innocent. Then FBI Director James Comey in July 2016 detailed many of Hillary’s rule of law violations and in a denial confession—reading through his “protests too much”—revealed she should have been prosecuted although Comey lacked the courage to see it through. (On October 28 th under pressure from newly discovered emails he reopened the investigation.) As Simon warned, Democrats nominated an illegal candidate who should have been tried for breaking the law. Trump reiterated that Hillary shouldn’t have been allowed to run. Trump also reading Obama’s law-breaking Yet there’s a deeper, far more powerful story Trump unconsciously hints at —one which terrifies Democrats and the entire political class. Trump demonstrates his subtle super-intel instincts. He’s far ahead of the media’s conscious take. Deep down, Trump focused on Barack Obama who facilitated Hillary Clinton’s violation of the law in her email scandal. Trump alludes to a far more significant rule of law issue. His super-intel continues asking the greatest question regarding the legality of any presidential election in U.S. history: the question of Obama’s citizenship in 2008 and 2012. From 2008 to 2015, Donald Trump stood strong, demonstrating presidential-type leadership by insisting on respect for the Constitution. He questioned Obama’s failure to produce evidence of legal U.S. citizenship. When Obama produced his alleged birth certificate under pressure in 2011, Trump was aware that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s panel of document examiners declared it a phony . The media buried the issue. Reporters abused millions of Americans, including Trump, by labeling them racist conspiracy theorists—a basic projection reflecting that the PC media was itself “enabling the Obama conspiracy” at the expense of our Constitution. Don’t believe Trump’s no longer a birther. Only recently, to avoid media harassment, did he claim that he accepted Obama’s U.S. citizenship. But besides the birth issue, Trump saw that Obama continually functioned as an illegal president . To America’s detriment he repeatedly violated laws on a whim, for example by ignoring immigration laws. When Obama continually neglected to protect America’s national security, Trump confronted him. Trump recognized Obama had increasingly enabled Islamic terrorists while simultaneously building up terrorist Iran, even giving them a nuclear bomb on a layaway plan and cash money to boot. Following the June 11, 2016 Orlando massacre perpetrated by an Islamic terrorist, Trump confronted Obama, observing that Obama wouldn’t identify the enemy—call them by their name, “Islamic terrorists”—and Trump suggested Obama unconsciously knew the many reasons he should resign the presidency. On the surface, Obama became enraged, but unconsciously Trump elicited from Obama the most shocking confession imaginable. Secretly Obama wants the truth known. On the heels of Trump’s challenge, Obama explained between the lines of two speeches on June 12 and 14, that he was truly a mind-controlled Stockholm Syndrome prisoner of radical Islam, programmed at an early age in his own home. The decoded details are described in my book, The Stockholm Syndrome President, How Trump Triggered Obama’s Hidden Confession . As he intuitively put together the story of his life, Obama learned the horrifying family secret that his Muslim father had wanted him aborted. (My scientific forensic profiling approach confirmed that Obama’s super-intel imagery pointed toward a near abortion which matched his life’s circumstances including a promiscuous 17 year-old mother unexpectedly pregnant from a casual affair.) His father had also emotionally “killed him” by abandoning him. Obama felt that pain on a daily basis, and then he learned that his father physically abused his mother and two later wives in Kenya. The near-death by abortion and constant death experience at the hands of his anti-American Muslim father became fixated in Obama’s mind. He became frozen in terror—suffering a deep early-childhood trauma—terrified that his father would kill him at any moment. When he was a child, his father was radical Islam to him—both one and the same. To stay alive Obama became an unconscious Stockholm Syndrome victim controlled by Islam—explaining his repeated capitulations to them as president and his curious refusal to use that term. Obama’s Stockholm Syndrome remains buried deep in his psyche. Only his unconscious super-intel can tell his story in its psycholinguistic language. In his recent speeches, he unknowingly confessed in key images such as “doing the terrorists’ work for them” or key denials “then the terrorists would win. I’m not going to let that happen.” But Obama further confessed in his June 14 speech, that he was programmed as “a radical Islam mole” to carry out a major robbery from America— first by stealing the rule of law and running as an illegal president. In fact, Obama has robbed America in many ways: economically with massive debt and hampering business; robbed us of our borders with massive illegal immigration; of gains in racial harmony; of safe communities, of police safety, of inner city safety, of affordable health care, of military power and of our world leadership role. All the while his policies have strengthened terrorist Iran and radical Islam. Now return to Trump’s threatened refusal to accept the election results. Consider his brilliant super-intel message to the media: “You keep America in suspense about how you avoid the rule of law both with Hillary Clinton and especially Obama, and I will keep you in suspense as to what I’ll do about it.” Consciously Trump may not yet fully appreciate his deeper plans, but he hints at them strongly. If Trump wins he could appoint a special committee of document examiners to study Obama’s birth certificate. As Obama and Clinton have reversed themselves on gay marriage, Trump could simply change his mind about the need to clarify Obama’s birthplace. But if Trump loses he could still rise to the occasion by putting rule of law money behind a renewed investigation. He could potentially mobilize an abused citizenry. Rule of law Americans could demand Congress take action and legally obtain Obama’s birth records—as Obama himself, the traumatized child, has unconsciously encouraged. Obama’s super-intel, like Trump’s and all others, fully espouses the rule of law. And the need for America to re-embrace its moral compass is the most significant story of the election of 2016. Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook , Google Plus , & Twitter . You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here . shares

Watch: Rapper Waka Flocka Flame Wipes Butt with Trump Jersey

Daniel Nussbaum

Rapper Waka Flocka Flame showed fans enjoying his concert in Athens, Georgia this week what he really thinks about Donald Trump — by pausing the show to wipe his butt with a jersey bearing the ’s name. [Video captured by a fan at the Georgia Theatre shows the rapper and former presidential candidate — real name Juaquin James Malphurs — pausing the show to inspect a jersey another fan had held up. “Throw that sh*t up here,” Flame instructs the audience after identify the object as a Trump jersey. [Warning: Clip contains nudity] A fan showed @WakaFlocka a trump jersey while he was performing. Here’s what Flocka thought about it.. #georgiatheatre pic. twitter. — Dro (@LifeofDro) January 17, 2017, He proceeded to wipe his bare butt with the jersey before throwing it down on the stage and exclaiming, ‘F*ck Trump. ” The rapper was mostly silent during the 2016 presidential campaign, but did draw attention when he tweeted in November that he couldn’t wait for America to get its first black president, “because Obama don’t count. ” He later issued a tweet clarifying the comment. In April 2015, Flame announced his own presidential candidacy with a campaign video produced for Rolling Stone. The rapper and his running mate, DJ Whoo Kid, promised to immediately legalize marijuana nationwide, outlaw walking in public for those with feet over Size 13 and focus on education reform. “Education is important. We need to start teaching these kids more reality, skills, traits,” he said in his campaign video. “So we’re gonna teach the kids more reality skills, and they gotta learn my lyrics before they get out of school, or else they f*cking fail and they gotta start from third grade all over again to twelfth. ” Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

Prince Died Without a Will, According to Court Documents Filed by His Sister - The New York Times

Ben Sisario

Prince died without a will, according to court documents filed by his sister on Tuesday, potentially causing big complications for that star’s sprawling financial estate and musical legacy. In probate documents filed with the Carver County District Court in Minnesota, Tyka Nelson, 55, Prince’s sister, said that her brother died without a spouse, children or surviving parents, and that “I do not know of the existence of a will. ” Ms. Nelson’s petition also listed five as heirs, and asked the court to appoint a special administrator for the estate “because no personal representative has been appointed in Minnesota or elsewhere. ” Minnesota law treats surviving the same as full siblings, raising the possibility of a family battle. In the music business, Prince — who died on Thursday at 57 — was known as a mercurial star who cycled through lawyers and representatives frequently, and who often preferred to deal personally with record companies, concert promoters and even digital music services. But that history of could have severe consequences if Prince did not leave an orderly estate — a strong possibility if no will turns up, several lawyers and executives said. “It could be a huge tragedy,” said Howard E. King, a veteran entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles who represented Prince in the past. “You could have a difference in valuation of hundreds of millions of dollars depending on whether the right people get in there to manage the legacy of Prince. ” A lawyer for Ms. Nelson did not respond to requests for comment. The probate court has not identified an executor, and estimates of Prince’s net worth and of the value of his estate have varied widely. Forbes magazine last estimated his earnings in 2005, when it said that he made $49. 7 million before taxes that year. But Prince’s worth could be much greater now, particularly since two years ago he took control of his valuable publishing catalog — the copyrights for songwriting — and negotiated a favorable new deal with Warner Bros. his former record company. Since his death, Prince has sold at least 650, 000 albums and 2. 8 million tracks in the United States, according to Nielsen. Beyond his music, Prince, who was born Prince Rogers Nelson, owned extensive property in the Minneapolis area. Its value is unclear, but Paisley Park, his studio complex in the suburb of Chanhassen, Minn. has been assessed at over $7 million, according to Carver County public records. Since Prince’s death, music industry executives — including even those he dealt with closely — have been anxiously awaiting word about who controlled the estate, which includes Prince’s “vault” of unreleased recordings. This voluminous collection has long been legendary among fans and collectors, and Prince stoked that interest. “I didn’t always give the record companies the best song,” he once told Rolling Stone. But who now has the power to make the decisions about the music in that vault is unclear. Prince was known to be exacting in his dealings with record companies, and fought hard to retain as much control as possible. Ms. Nelson’s petition, which was first reported by TMZ, asked the court to name an affiliate of the Bremer Bank in St. Cloud, Minn. as the special administrator, saying that the bank had provided financial services to Prince and had knowledge of his business affairs. A bank spokeswoman said it was not bank policy to reveal information about customers, but added that “our sympathies are with family and fans in mourning the loss of a talented musician and Minnesotan. ” In addition to Ms. Nelson, the document lists as heirs three John Nelson, Alfred Jackson and Omar Baker and two Norrine and Sharon Nelson. An autopsy was performed on Prince, but its results are not expected for several weeks. A police investigation is continuing. As fans have swarmed Paisley Park and other musical sites around Minneapolis, the music industry has also been paying tribute to Prince, with executives hoping that the estate is sorted out quickly and managed well. A frequent comparison has been to the estate of Michael Jackson, who was badly in debt when he died in 2009 but had a will that estate has since earned hundreds of millions of dollars. “Prince was a major star and a cultural influencer, but he was a human being,” said Kenneth J. Abdo, an entertainment lawyer in Minneapolis. “It comes down to taking care of business. If you don’t take care of it, you’re leaving a mess to the family or the courts. ”

L.A. Sheriff Faces Protests for Opposition to ’Sanctuary State’ - Breitbart

Adelle Nazarian

Over 100 people gathered in front of the Hall of Justice in Downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday evening to protest L. A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell’s opposition to State Senate Bill 54, which would declare all of California a “sanctuary state. ”[According to the Los Angeles Daily News, protesters held up signs that read, “One struggle, united” and “We demand immigrant rights. ” David Abud, with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, reportedly spoke over a loudspeaker against SB 54. He said McDonnell’s “argument is that if we don’t pass this, ICE is going to our community with deportation. That is a ridiculous argument. ” Last month, 161 illegal aliens were arrested throughout Southern California by federal immigration authorities. (Some raids are reportedly ongoing.) The raids took place over the course of several days and resulted in the arrests of 680 illegal aliens across multiple states. That, in turn, upset many of the state’s Democratic lawmakers. SB 54 was introduced by California State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León ( Angeles) in December. In February, Breitbart News reported that de Léon said that “‘half his family’ was in the country illegally, using false documents, and eligible for deportation under President Trump’s new executive order against ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions. ” According to the Daily News, McDonnell wrote to De León earlier this month: “SB 54 would not allow the safe transfer of custody rather it would force immigration enforcement agents into our communities in order to search out and find the person they seek. While doing this, they will most surely cast a wide net over our communities, apprehending and detaining those not originally the target of the enforcement actions. ” Breitbart News reported that on Tuesday, newly L. A. Mayor Eric Garcetti released a new set of protections for illegal aliens that cement the city’s status as a sanctuary city, and defy the Trump administration’s efforts to ensure compliance with federal law. SB 54 is likewise cast as a direct rejection of President Trump’s recent executive crder, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States. ” The January 25 Executive Order states: “Sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States willfully violate Federal law in an attempt to shield aliens from removal from the United States. These jurisdictions have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic. ”

'America Has Lost' in the Philippines as Duterte Calls for Alliance with Russia and China - Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar

Media skeptic 'America Has Lost' in the Philippines as Duterte Calls for Alliance with Russia and China 'Maybe I will also go to Russia and talk to Putin, and tell him there are three of us against the world - China, Philippines, and Russia' Strategic Culture Foundation «Your honors, in this venue I announce my separation from the United States… both in military and economics also». Thus Philippines President Rodrigo «The Punisher» Duterte unleashed a geopolitical earthquake encompassing Eurasia and reverberating all across the Pacific Ocean. And talk about choosing his venue with aplomb; right in the heart of the Rising Dragon, no less. Capping his state visit to Beijing, Duterte then coined the mantra – pregnant with overtones - that will keep ringing all across the global South; «America has lost». And if that was not enough, he announced a new alliance – Philippines, China and Russia – is about to emerge; «there are three of us against the world». Predictably, the Beltway establishment in the «indispensable nation» went bananas, reacting as «puzzled» or in outright anger, dispersing the usual expletives on the «crude populist», «unhinged leader» . The bottom line is that it takes a lot of balls for the leader of a poor, developing country, in Southeast Asia or elsewhere, to openly defy the hyperpower. Yet what Duterte is gaming at is pure realpolitik; if he prevails, he will be able to deftly play the US against China to the benefit of Filipino interests. «The springtime of our relationship» It did start with a bang; during Duterte’s China visit, Manila inked no less than $13 billion in deals with Beijing – from trade and investment to drug control, maritime security and infrastructure. Beijing pulled out all stops to make Duterte feel welcomed. President Xi Jinping suggested Manila and Beijing should «temporarily put aside» the intractable South China Sea disputes and learn from the «political wisdom» of history – as in give space to diplomatic talks. After all, the two peoples were «blood-linked brothers». Duterte replied in kind; «Even as we arrive in Beijing close to winter, this is the springtime of our relationship,» he told Xi at the Great Hall of the People. China is already the Philippines’ second-largest trade partner, behind Japan, the US and Singapore. Filipino exports to these three are at roughly 42.7 percent of the total, compared to 22.1 to China / Hong Kong. Imports from China are roughly 16.1 percent of the total. Even as trade with China is bound to rise, what really matters for Duterte is massive Chinese infrastructure investment. What this will mean in practice is indeed ground-breaking; the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will definitely be involved in Philippine economic development; Manila will be more involved in promoting smooth China-ASEAN relations in all sorts of regional issues (it takes the rotating chair of ASEAN in 2017); and the Philippines will be more integrated in the New Silk Roads, a.k.a. One Belt, One Road (OBOR). Three strikes; no wonder the US is out. And there’s even a fourth strike, embedded in Duterte’s promise that he will soon end military cooperation with the US, despite the opposition of part of the Filipino armed forces. Watch the First Island Chain The build-up had already been dramatic enough. On the eve of his meeting with Xi, talking to members of the Filipino community in Beijing, Duterte said, «it’s time to say goodbye» to the US; «I will not ask but if they (the Chinese) offer and if they’ll ask me, do you need this aid? [I will say] Of course, we are very poor». Then the clincher; «I will not go to America anymore … We will just be insulted there». The US was the colonial power in the Philippines from 1899 to 1942. Hollywood permeates the collective unconscious. English is the lingua franca – side by side with tagalog. But the tentacles of Uncle Sam’s «protection» racket are not exactly welcomed. Two of the largest components of the US Empire of Bases were located for decades in the Philippines; Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base. Clark, occupying 230 square miles, with 15,000 people, was busy to death during the Vietnam War – the main hub for men and hardware in and out of Saigon. Then it turned into one of those Pentagon «forward operating» HQs. Subic, occupying 260 square miles, was as busy as Clark. It was the forward operating base for the US 7th Fleet. Already in 1987, before the end of the Cold War, the RAND corporation was alarmed by the loss of both bases; that would be «devastating for regional security». Devastating» in the – mythical - sense of «defending the interests of ASEAN» and the «security of the sea-lanes». Translation; the Pentagon and the US Navy would lose a key instrument of pressure over ASEAN, as protecting the «security of the sea-lanes» was always the key justification for those bases. And lose they eventually did; Clark was closed down in November 1991, and Subic in November 199 It took years for China to sense an opening – and profit from it; after all during the 1990s and the early 2000s, the absolute priority was breakneck speed internal development. But then Beijing did the math; no more US bases opened untold vistas as far as the First Island Chain is concerned. The First Island Chain is a product, over millennia, of the fabulous tectonic forces of the Ring of Fire; a chain of islands running from southern Japan in the north to Borneo in the south. For Beijing, they work as a sort of shield for the Chinese eastern seaboard; if this chain is secure, Asia is secure. For all practical purposes, Beijing considers the First Island Chain as a non-negotiable Western Pacific demarcation zone – ideally with no foreign (as in US) interference. The South China Sea – which in parts is characterized by Manila as the Western Philippine Sea - is inside the First Island Chain. So to really secure the First Island Chain, the South China Sea must be free of foreign interference. And here we are plunged at the heart of arguably the key 21st century hotspot in Asian geopolitics – the main reason for the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia. The US Navy so far counted on the Philippines to oppose the proverbial, hyped up «Chinese aggression» in the South China and East China seas. The neocon/neoliberalcon industrial-military complex fury against «unhinged» Duterte’s game-changer is that containing China and ruling over the First Island Chain has been at the core of US naval strategy since the beginning of the Cold War. Beijing, meanwhile, will have all the time needed to polish its strategic environment. This has nothing to do with «freedom of navigation» and protecting sea-lanes; everyone needs South China Sea cross-trade. It’s all about China - perhaps within the next ten years - being able to deny «access» to the US Navy in the South China Sea and inside the First Island Chain. Duterte’s game-changing «America has lost» is just a new salvo in arguably the key 21st century geopolitical thriller. A Supreme Court justice in Manila, for instance, has warned Duterte that, were he to give up sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal, he could be impeached. That won’t happen; Duterte wants loads of Chinese trade and investment, not abdicate from sovereignty. He’d rather be ready to confront being demonized by the hyperpower as much as the late Hugo Chavez was in his heyday.

Seeking the Final Faces for a 9/11 Tapestry of Grief, Loss, Life and Joy - The New York Times

David W. Dunlap and Susan C. Beachy

Albert Ogletree, a food handler with Forte Food Service, was working in the cafeteria at Cantor Fitzgerald in the north tower of the World Trade Center when a hijacked jetliner careered into the skyscraper. He is one of the 2, 983 people killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993, when the trade center was bombed. He is also one of only 10 victims whose portraits are not in the vast gallery at the National September 11 Memorial Museum, on the trade center site in Lower Manhattan. Museum officials have tried for years, without luck, to find someone who can furnish a picture of Mr. Ogletree — on vacation, perhaps under a mortar board at graduation beaming with happiness at his wedding or hunched over a sketch pad drawing cars, something he loved to do. Faces have defined the events of Sept. 11 since the earliest hours. On lampposts, bulletin boards and hospital walls, “Missing” posters beseeched to recall whether they had seen this face or that. Faces filled the pages of The New York Times and other publications and websites. Portraits were carried, facing the public, by survivors at memorial services and protest gatherings. The museum’s goal is simple and increasingly challenging: to gather every face and weave it into the overwhelming tapestry of grief, loss, life and joy on display in the memorial gallery. “Our objective from the was to make sure that anyone declared a victim is depicted on that wall,” Jan Seidler Ramirez, the museum’s chief curator, said. Those victims include everyone killed on Sept. 11 in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa. as well as the six people killed in the 1993 bombing. “To make that connection to the names outside, that’s really at the heart of our mission,” Dr. Ramirez said. “We’re not about abstract statistics. We’re about honoring each and every person who was killed that day, creating an opportunity for friends and family to see the faces they loved. ” Three families have told museum officials they do not want their relatives’ portraits shown publicly. That leaves seven to find. The gallery has room for 3, 000 portraits, arrayed in 250 columns and 12 rows. The 10 victims whose portraits are missing can be found in their alphabetical spots. Instead of a face, each is represented by a single leaf, green tinged with red, of a swamp white oak, the kind planted on the plaza, where the victims’ names are inscribed in panels around twin memorial pools. The missing pictures the museum seeks are of Gregorio Manuel Chavez, 48 Kerene Gordon, 43 Michael William Lomax, 37 Wilfredo Mercado, 37 Mr. Ogletree, 49 Antonio Dorsey Pratt, 43 and Ching Ping Tung, 44. (Visitors to the gallery can pick out the other three by finding the oak leaves and accompanying names. Given their families’ wish for privacy, The Times is not identifying them.) Four of the seven — Mr. Chavez, Ms. Gordon, Mr. Ogletree and Mr. Pratt — worked in food service, suggesting that they came from families whose public footprint may not be too large. And whether those killed were poor or rich, their survivors might well have moved away from New York. Addresses have grown out of date. Telephones have been disconnected. Trails have gone cold. It has been 15 years, after all. Gathering nearly 3, 000 portraits, an extraordinary enterprise in itself, began long before the museum opened. The first cache, Dr. Ramirez said, came from the Justice Department, which had assembled photographs to introduce as evidence at the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 plot. Those proceedings ended in 2006. Then came head shots from the New York Fire and Police Departments, the Port Authority Police Department and companies or institutions with a large presence at the trade center, like Cantor Fitzgerald, Aon, Marsh McLennan and the Windows on the World restaurant. of all those killed at the trade center on Sept. 11 were either firefighters or Cantor employees. The biggest step forward came with the collaboration of a group called Voices of September 11. Its Living Memorial is composed of images and remembrances from family members. The group asked contributors if the content of their tributes could be transferred to the museum. Nearly 500 said yes, Dr. Ramirez said. By the time the museum opened in 2014, 21 portraits were missing. More than 100 have either been added or replaced with better pictures or versions of existing portraits. “We’re constantly trying to figure out how to find somebody who keeps the memory candle lit who can help us,” Dr. Ramirez said. This month, The Times’s research desk joined the search. Mr. Chavez. Born in the Dominican Republic, he worked at Windows on the World. Calls to his widow were not returned, Dr. Ramirez said, and attempts to reach a niece and a nephew were fruitless. The Times found a woman living in Manhattan who may be his sister and forwarded her contact information to the museum it did the same with information for a man who may be Mr. Chavez’s son. Ms. Gordon. She came to New York from Kingston, Jamaica, and worked for Forte as a food handler. Dr. Ramirez said the museum had been in touch with her son and her sister in 2012 and 2014, but no picture had materialized. The Times found the name of a woman in Queens who may be a relative and sent it to the museum. Mr. Lomax. A native of Manchester, England, Mr. Lomax was an executive at Aon. He lived in Brooklyn. Three efforts to reach his widow were unavailing, Dr. Ramirez said, and the September 11 U. K. Families Support Group did not have his picture. The Times printed a head shot of Mr. Lomax in 2002 and provided the museum with leads to his widow and to his father. Mr. Mercado. He was a purchasing agent for Windows on the World and was killed in the 1993 bombing. Born in Lima, Peru, Mr. Mercado lived in the East New York section of Brooklyn. Dr. Ramirez said the museum had “tried extensively” to reach his widow. The Times found what appears to be a picture of Mr. Mercado on the Facebook page of one of his daughters and forwarded what may be her telephone number to the museum. Mr. Ogletree. He came from Michigan. A “distant cousin” has told the museum he might be able to locate a photograph and send a copy to the museum, Dr. Ramirez said. Mr. Pratt. A native New Yorker, Mr. Pratt worked as a food handler for Forte. “The next of kin had a disconnected phone,” Dr. Ramirez said. “There was no email address and nothing but returned letters from the address of record. ” She said the museum was now working on leads with the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, which serves survivors of those who worked in the food, beverage and hospitality industries. Mr. Tung. A resident of Queens and native of Hong Kong, Mr. Tung was employed at the First Commercial Bank. Letters to his widow were returned as undeliverable in 2012, 2013 and 2014, Dr. Ramirez said, and there was no answer at a home telephone number. The Times learned that Mr. Tung might have gone by an Anglicized first name and provided the museum with the phone number of someone in Queens whom he may have known. “There is no trail we will not pursue,” Dr. Ramirez said. Now there are a few more.

Barring Reporters From Briefings: Does It Cross a Legal Line? - The New York Times

Adam Liptak

WASHINGTON — A ruling issued on Monday by a federal judge in Manhattan, in a case brought by a freelance journalist without a lawyer, may interest the White House. The judge said that the New York Police Department may have violated the First Amendment by revoking the press credentials of the journalist, Jason B. Nicholas. The ruling was preliminary, and the Police Department said it had legitimate reasons for its actions. But Judge J. Paul Oetken’s decision was timely, following as it did the exclusion of several news organizations from a Friday briefing at the White House. “It has been held impermissible,” Judge Oetken wrote, “to exclude a single television news network from live coverage of mayoral candidates’ headquarters and to withhold White House press passes in a or arbitrary fashion. ” Last Friday’s developments at the White House crossed that legal line, said Jameel Jaffer, the director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “That was unconstitutional,” he said. “If you exclude reporters from briefings that they otherwise have a right to attend because you don’t like their reporting, then you have engaged in viewpoint discrimination. ” Viewpoint discrimination by the government in a public forum is almost always unconstitutional. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, on Friday barred journalists from The New York Times, BuzzFeed News, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, Politico, the BBC and The Huffington Post from a daily briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer admitted only reporters from a group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed. After the session, Mr. Spicer’s deputy said all White House journalists were represented by the small, rotating press pool that covers the president’s daily movements and shares its reporting with the rest of the press corps, and that Mr. Spicer had merely opted to add a few other organizations to that group. Repeated attempts by The Times to be included in the group of confirmed attendees were unsuccessful. An email to an official in the White House press office inquiring about whether a Times reporter would be allowed in and requesting access was not answered. A Times reporter who went to the White House briefing room to try to gain access was turned away and told he could not be included. The White House’s rationale for allocating seats at the briefing, if accurate, would probably pose no First Amendment issues. But there are reasons to think the White House singled out news organizations whose work it dislikes. “We’re going to aggressively push back,” Mr. Spicer said, according to a recording of the session provided by a reporter who was allowed to attend. “We’re just not going to sit back and let, you know, false narratives, false stories, inaccurate facts get out there. ” Public officials are not required to give reporters perfectly equal access, of course, and exclusive interviews and selective leaks are commonplace and lawful. But First Amendment experts said the allocation of government resources like press passes and access to public forums like news conferences must be based on neutral criteria rather than discrimination based on what the journalists had written. Lots of interactions between the government and the news media do not implicate those kinds of First Amendment concerns. In 2006, for instance, a federal appeals court ruled that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Maryland did not violate the First Amendment rights of two Baltimore Sun reporters by prohibiting state employees from talking to them because he was unhappy with their reporting. “It is common knowledge,” Judge Paul V. Niemeyer wrote for a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. “that reporting is highly competitive, and reporters cultivate access — sometimes exclusive access — to sources, including government officials. Public officials routinely select among reporters when granting interviews or providing access to nonpublic information. ” But press credentials and seats at government news conferences are a different matter, according to a 1977 decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “White House press facilities having been made publicly available as a source of information for newsmen, the protection afforded news gathering under the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press, requires that this access not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons,” Judge Carl E. McGowan wrote for a unanimous panel. “Not only newsmen and the publications for which they write, but also the public at large have an interest protected by the First Amendment in assuring that restrictions on news gathering be no more arduous than necessary, and that individual newsmen not be arbitrarily excluded from sources of information. ” Scott Gant, a lawyer with Boies Schiller Flexner and the author of “We’re All Journalists Now: The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age,” said Friday’s developments were troubling. “The exclusion of certain news organizations from press briefings, if motivated by disagreement or displeasure with their coverage of the administration, may well have crossed an important constitutional line — potentially constituting violations of the First Amendment,” he said. First Amendment experts said the decision to bar reporters from Friday’s briefing was of a piece with the Trump administration’s hostility to much of the news media. “Unhappiness with and criticism of the press by American presidents has been the norm, not the exception,” said Floyd Abrams, a leading First Amendment lawyer. “But daily denigration of the press as the enemy of the American people and statements that the use of confidential sources by journalists ‘shouldn’t be allowed’ is both novel and dangerous. ” But Michael W. McConnell, a law professor at Stanford, said news organizations can be too and too quick to invoke the First Amendment. “Criticism of the press is not an attack on freedom of the press, any more than criticism of the president is an attack on the presidency,” he said. “In my opinion, the press should respond to President Trump’s criticism not by taking umbrage at the criticism but by doing the best, most professional job it can do, including covering Trump fairly and accurately. ” Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, said Mr. Trump may have violated important norms even if he crossed no legal line. “A president has every right to criticize the media, and almost all presidents do on occasion,” he said. “It is also legitimate to point out that there is liberal bias in many outlets. But Trump’s comments go well beyond that and often verge on trying to delegitimize the media as an institution. That’s a bad thing. ” Mr. Spicer’s actions on Friday may turn out to be a blip. Or they may be the first step toward the sort of constitutionally forbidden discrimination that worries many First Amendment experts. Mr. Nicholas, the journalist who sued the police department, said he saw a connection between his case and what happened at the White House. “When President Trump excluded certain media outlets from an otherwise open press event,” he said, “then the White House engaged in precisely the kind of discrimination that is unconstitutional under the court’s decision in my case. ” “When government authorities get to pick and choose who among the press gets to cover an event,” Mr. Nicholas said, “everyone loses, the public first and foremost. ”

Shooting at anti-Trump Protest in Portland. ‘African-American male’ Suspected (Photo, Video) - Russia News Now

This post was originally published on this site southfront.org Donate Photo from the scene by @RedheadNomad/Twitter At least one person has been injured in a shooting at an anti-Trump protest in Portland, the United States. The incident took place on Morrison Bridge in Portland, police said. “One person down. Everyone needs to leave the area immediately!” police wrote on Twitter. However, nobody leaved the scene. According to Police, the possible suspect in the shooting is an “African-American male, late teens, 5’8″, thin, wearing black dark hoodie and saggy blue jeans.” The violent protest with protesters throwing projectiles at officers and police deploying tear gas is ongoing the third nigh in a row. Thousands of people have been out in the streets across the US since Trump won the 2016 presidential race on November 8, defeating Hillary Clinton. The protests are massively supported by the mainstream media and Soros-linked non-governmental organizations . According to aviable information at least part of protesters is paid to participate in the riots ($15-$18 per hour) . Some experts believ ethat the ongoing events in the US look similar to the developments in Ukraine in 2014 when ‘unknown snipers’ shot in the crowd to provoke an additional violence during the protests. [embedded content]

CBO Report: AHCA Drops Number of Insured by 23 Million by 2026 - Breitbart

Sean Moran

The Congressional Budget Office report states that under the American Health Care Act (AHCA) 14 million people will lose insurance in 2018 and 23 million will lose insurance by 2026. [The Congressional Budget Office reported that the legislation would reduce federal deficits by $119 billion between 2017 and 2026, mainly because of its cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare insurance subsidies. The final version of the AHCA reduces the deficit by less than $32 billion compared to the previous version. The House passed the AHCA without a CBO score that would allow lawmakers and the American people to evaluate the bill’s effects on costs and health insurance coverage. Previous versions of the AHCA estimated that 24 million Americans could lose insurance by 2026, while the previous version would save $150 billion over the next ten years. The CBO believes that there are several factors that the AHCA could contribute to the stability of the individual market, including subsidies to purchase insurance, grants patients for patients through the Patient and State Stability Fund. The budget office added, that although the AHCA’s tax credits are less generous compared to Obamacare’s subsidies, the tax credits would lower average premiums enough to attract enough healthy people to stabilize the individual health insurance market. The House pushed through the AHCA after they added the MacArthur amendment, which allows states to obtain waivers to repeal Obamacare regulations that raise the cost of premiums, known as community ratings and essential health benefits. Essential Health Benefits require that health insurance plans must cover certain services such as doctors’ services, inpatient or outpatient hospital care, prescription drugs, pregnancy, childbirth, and mental health. Community ratings regulations prevent health insurers from varying premiums within a certain area based on age, gender, or health status. According to the CBO, healthy patients would be able to purchase individual health insurance with relatively low premiums, however, less healthy Americans might have to pay higher premiums, and might lose insurance in states that choose to eliminate Obamacare’s community ratings and essential health benefits regulations. The CBO projected that in 2018, average premiums would rise by about 20 percent in 2018, and 5 percent in 2019, however, in 2020 states will be able to obtain waivers that would rescind Obamacare regulations. The CBO projects: The CBO estimates that the AHCA will reduce Medicaid spending by more than $834 billion over the next ten years, primarily through ending Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and creating a limit on Medicaid payments. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden ( ) and Health Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess ( ) released the following statement, saying that the AHCA will reduce premiums and stabilize the health care market. “The American Health Care Act is the first step in our efforts to repeal Obamacare and rebuild our broken health care system. CBO continues to find that through our bill, premiums will go down and that our reforms will help stabilize the market,” said chairmen Walden and Burgess. “Our plan puts states and patients in the driver’s seat, creating an innovative fund to help lower premiums and other costs. As the Senate continues its work on this vital bill, we encourage them to further these critical principles. ” The Department of Health and Human Services released a new report that noted that under Obamacare individual health insurance premiums doubled. House Republicans passed the AHCA earlier this month without waiting for the CBO score. Read the rest of the CBO report here:

Americans Trapped Between Fear and Faith

Cherese Jackson

The result of the 2016 election has thrown this country for a loop. Some celebrate the win of President-elect Donald Trump while others continue to mourn the current president’s ultimate transition of power. A number of Americans are excited to see what a non-politician will do in a political environment, while others are worried that he will maintain the antics that awarded him the Oval Office. The country continues to experience a great divide that has many Americans trapped between fear and faith. The previous perspective of the nation, according to some, included a series of victories and a country on an incline. However, others disagree by saying President Barak Obama is the worst “thing” to ever happen to the White House. Ironically, many of these same people “believe” racism did not exist until he became president. In the same vein, others feel the division crisis, which includes race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation among other issues will increase with the induction of Trump as the leader of the free world. Today, America is shrouded in a most un-American pessimism as many within this great country remain trapped between fear and faith. On one side of the divide, there are people who are fed up with the mistreatment and injustice they have experienced. These millennials have decided to take matters into their own hands with protests and other questionable behavior patterns. Undoubtedly, if hope continues to decrease, violence will increase and blood will continue to spill in the earth. On the other side, there are people who embrace the faith of a changed country “made great again” with the entrance of new authority. As such, Trump serves as a beacon of hope to his core supporters. He seemingly indulges their ambitions to maintain America’s system of oppression and inspires them in dangerous ways that have the potential to lead to serious consequences. Instead of seeking unity, Americans from all sides are fighting to be right. However, when hate overpowers love, no one is right. In order to understand the fear surrounding the election results, a conversation would need to take place in search of real issues. Not enough people are interested in problem-solving. Onlookers who criticize and judge a generation that is destroying their town as they march through the streets, only serve as fuel for their fury. People have called them animals and all sorts of derogatory statements, without realizing that it is a terrible thing to feel trapped or caged. Before adding insult to injury, it may help if “outsiders” were more empathetic to their experience. The crisis of America will not change simply by the transference of power; it can only be made better by the conveyance of love. It is time for Americans join together and bridge the gap between fear and faith with the spread love as they continue to seek change. Otherwise, things will get worse. In many corners of the country and across the globe, the calamity has been met with love, compassion, and sympathy as people from all lifestyles join in a time of celebration and mourning. Even still, if people are not careful hate will find a way to slide through the cracks. However, if given the chance love will always prevail. People’s view of the election is based on their experiences. Allow them to embrace their feelings and encourage them to find peace. Today the sitting President and President-elect met for the first time and did just that! Why? Because love still trumps hate. Opinion by Cherese Jackson (Virginia) Source: Politicus USA: Trump Supporters Saying ‘Give Him A Chance’ Forget How They Treated President Obama Photo Credits: Top Image Courtesy of Max Goldberg – Flickr License Inline Image Courtesy of DonkeyHotey – Flickr License Featured Image Courtesy of KAZ Vorpal – Flickr License America , election , Hope , Protests

Clinton Pulls Up In Pickup To Bring Illegal Mexicans To Vote

Colm Williamson

0 Add Comment IN A last ditch effort to rile support this morning, presidential candidate for the Democratic party Hillary Clinton was spotted in Florida driving a pickup truck full of illegal Mexican workers to a local voting centre. It is understood the 69-year-old is to spend the majority of the day shuttling the demographic to polling stations across the key state, who have long been publicly chastised by Republican candidate Donald Trump for working illegally in America. “We expect Hillary to bring over one hundred thousand illegals to voting booths today,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook explains, “she is a very dedicated woman, and if anything this shows that. Hopefully this will be enough to swing it in Florida”. Mr. Trump previously threatened to build a wall on the border of Mexico if elected – one of the main cornerstones of his campaign – but this later backfired due to the fact that America is a pluralistic society and 59% of all unauthorized immigrants in the US hold residence in the 6 key voting states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. “He really shot himself in the foot with that one,” Mook added, “He should have been nice to the illegals, like we’ve been, and then deal with them later if that’s what keeps us popular. Which we’ll probably do, once we’ve got what we wanted from them”. The Trump campaign’s decision to begin building walls around polling stations has been criticised by election experts, who have said he should have begun construction months ago. “It was build walls around polling stations months ago or stop being such a racist dick, but obviously only one of these things was possible,” an election expert explained.

From Albany to Prison: Ex-Lawmakers on Life Behind Bars - The New York Times

Vivian Yee

Down the hall came Inmate No. a fist of a man diminished by the loss of the $2, 500 suit and the $800 shoes he had just been forced to exchange for a jumpsuit, following a guard to his cell. First night in federal prison, and he was already headed to solitary confinement, his case too notorious for him to mingle safely with the others. He remembers the cell being clammy and dark. It made him think of Rikers Island, where his father had been held after being arrested when Pedro was 11. But this was a few grades higher: the Metropolitan Detention Center, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a windowless cage looming over New York Bay. From the next cell came a voice, pricking him out of his numbness: “Hey, Espada! Hang in there. You’re the senator, right?” the voice said. “My mother voted for you. ” Senator, he was: Pedro Espada Jr. once the powerful man in New York State. And “senator” he remains — even today, three years into a sentence for stealing money from a nonprofit. There are a lot of “senators” in America’s federal prisons these days. In May, three more corrupt New York State lawmakers are expected to join the jumpsuited ranks, three more cautionary tales from a State Legislature with no apparent shortage of them. There is Sheldon Silver, a Democrat and former Assembly speaker, who was convicted of abusing his office in return for nearly $4 million in kickbacks. There is Dean G. Skelos, a Republican and former Senate majority leader, who was found guilty of selling official favors for payments and jobs for his son. Convicted last fall in overlapping trials that sent Albany into upheaval, the two men are to be sentenced within 10 days of each other in May, with Mr. Silver’s sentencing scheduled first, on Tuesday. And then there is John L. Sampson, all but eclipsed by the convictions of Mr. Silver and Mr. Skelos, who led the Senate Democrats for three and a half years. Mr. Sampson was convicted last year of trying to thwart an investigation into allegations that he had embezzled state funds. He is to be sentenced on May 19. Like many of those convicted before them, Mr. Silver, Mr. Skelos and Mr. Sampson have asked for minimal or no prison time. Prosecutors, sentencing guidelines and recent history suggest they should not expect any leniency. If interviews with four former lawmakers — two currently incarcerated and two who have been released — are a guide, the three men are in for a prolonged humbling. Their former colleagues tell of spiritual awakenings, physical survival and mental toughening. But what figures largest in these personal narratives — what they say has sustained them throughout — is the belief that they were wrongly prosecuted. Contrition? What for? Outside, their names are synonymous with scandal. Inside, they command a measure of respect. “I have a title for life,” said Efraín González Jr. a Democrat and former state senator from the Bronx who was convicted in 2009 and spent almost six years at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, N. J. before being released in February. “I introduced myself as Efraín. But they called me senator. ” With the expected arrivals of Mr. Skelos, Mr. Silver and Mr. Sampson, there will be at least nine former members of the New York State Legislature in the federal prison system. Nine more were released over the last few years. One, facing terminal cancer, is under house arrest. Another died in prison. “I laugh at all those who turned up their nose at me,” said Shirley L. Huntley, a former state senator from Queens who spent 10 months in federal prison in Danbury, Conn. — the institution on which the women’s prison in “Orange Is the New Black” is based — after pleading guilty in 2013 to stealing more than $87, 000 in taxpayer money through a nonprofit she ran. “Now look where they’re at. They’re in worse shape. ” Puffing on an in her living room in Queens, the same room where she once secretly recorded seven of her colleagues for the authorities, she went down the list. Friends. Enemies. Allies. Idiots. Then came the bile tempered with a laugh. “You can tell all the other crooks I say hey!” Mr. Espada prefers a new honorific: prison abolitionist. Some facts before going further: Before all this happened, he had run for office about a dozen times, losing more often than he won. He had shaken a swarm of investigations and one indictment before succumbing to a second. He had risen from poverty to become the Latino in New York State government — and, briefly and under bizarre circumstances, the powerful man in the state — but only after bringing the Senate to a standstill and making Albany a national laughingstock in the process. He once tried to hide from a television reporter by putting on an orange ski cap and using a baby to shield his face. On a recent morning at the Metropolitan Detention Center, sitting in a plastic chair in an airless, booth in what resembled a large hospital waiting room — minus the televisions, the pastel watercolor paintings, the magazines and the windows — Mr. Espada seemed shorn of the grandiloquence that those in Albany had come to know so well over the two decades of his singularly unruly political career. No more ego, he promised — or not as much, anyway. No more referring to himself, without irony, as Hurricane Espada. He said he was devoting his life to reforming America’s prisons. He had seen, he said, how prison devastates lives and families instead of rehabilitating inmates. He had seen prisoners released, only to return within months, unable to cope in a society that no longer wanted much to do with them. He had been studying the literature: Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” Harvey A. Silverglate’s “Three Felonies a Day” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Prison,” by Jeff Smith, a former Missouri state legislator. Mr. Espada said that only violent offenders, people like murderers and rapists, should be in prison, and that others should be forced to serve their communities. Of Mr. Skelos and Mr. Silver, Mr. Espada said, “Anybody that would want to put them in jail for 10 or 15 years should spend a weekend in here and think whether that’s necessary. It wouldn’t pay back the people they harmed. ” He avoided addressing the victims of his own crimes. Mr. Espada, a Democrat, was convicted in 2012 of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the nonprofit health care clinics he ran in his Bronx district when he was a state senator. He spent the spoils on sushi, parties, spa treatments and a Bentley. Then he got caught. In the years since, there have been 16 months of no daylight and no fresh air, and before that nearly a year of not seeing his family. And before that, a stint in solitary confinement after he stepped over the property line at the Federal Correctional Institution in Schuylkill, Pa. one of three prisons where he has spent the past three years. All in all, a thorough humiliation. “I know that I was too consumed with the search for personal power,” he said. “I know that I was too consumed with materialistic things. ” He gestured at his khaki jumpsuit, his shiny white sneakers. “Now, I don’t miss any of that,” he said. “I’m used to living on $300 a month. ” His time at Schuylkill overlapped briefly with that of Larry B. Seabrook, a former city councilman from the Bronx who is serving five years for corruption. But neither felt much like talking shop. “This is our new existence,” Mr. Espada said. “We’re thinking about how to fit in. ” At Fort Dix, his third stop, he said he learned how the other inmates made prison hooch out of sugar and candy distilled in the bathroom, each bottle going for $40, and where they bought cellphones and drugs. Once back at the detention center in Brooklyn, he learned to get his protein from canned tuna, eggs and peanut butter bought at the commissary, and to relish microwave meals of commissary mackerel, chicken, pork sausage and rice. Once a professional brawler, he learned to avoid confrontation. (There have been a few close calls, even so.) He learned to sleep through the noise of 100 other men snoring and going to the bathroom and working out and watching television, so he can wake up at 4:30 a. m. to lift weights. To survive solitary confinement by running in place until he was exhausted. To love God, about whom he had not thought all that much for many years. To keep busy with Bible study and a biweekly book club. To cherish every visit with his wife, who has visited him each weekend, even though touching is restricted and they have had to sit side by side, knees facing forward, rationing their two kisses and hugs. He learned about small satisfactions, like when eight of the students in the G. E. D. class he teaches every afternoon recently passed their test. They call him “Professor. ” Professor Espada takes pride in teaching nearly illiterate men to read, in counseling younger inmates, and in helping others work through their cases in the library. Senator Espada sits here unchastened, boasting of the “political revolution” he once led — same as Bernie Sanders, he said. Senator Espada is the one planning to tear down a bad system from the inside out. The one insisting he was framed. If they have one thing in common, these Albany alumni, it is this: They refuse to be expunged from the rolls of the innocent. “It doesn’t weigh on me that there’s this opinion of me, because it’s not true,” said William F. Boyland Jr. a Democrat who represented Brownsville in the Assembly. He is serving a sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Loretto, Pa. a drive out to the western part of the state, after being convicted of bribery in 2014. It is a recurring theme. “I don’t have that thing where I’m a criminal, so I’m smiling,” said Mr. González, who spent much of a interview at his Bronx apartment outlining, in baroque detail, all the ways he said he had been railroaded by prosecutors, the judge and even his own lawyer. (Before he left prison, he said, his fellow inmates told him, “You’re safer here with the homies. The billionaires will put out a contract on you. They don’t like you, ’cause you tell it like it is. ”) “I did not steal money from Soundview or from anybody,” said Mr. Espada, referring to the health care network he ran. He had not received a fair trial, he said he would have continued to contest the charges had he not run out of resources and the will to subject his family to what he described as further pain. “Maybe I didn’t spend the money right, but I didn’t steal the money,” said Ms. Huntley, who suggested that she had been the victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by old enemies in Albany. Besides, she added, as if this would mitigate things, the actions in question had occurred before she entered the Senate. In a more reflective moment, Ms. Huntley said she could not bring herself to move on. “Some people say, let it go,” she said. “I don’t know how to let stuff go. I don’t want to die being known as, what’s the word all the newspapers used? ‘Disgraced senator. ’” She said she wanted to be treated “just as a person. Just use my name. I’m not saying you’ve got to make me sound like I’m great. You all call me disgraced, but in my mind, I’m not disgraced. ” In this season of corruption cases, few phrases have dominated discourse in the State Capitol like ethics reform. Yet Mr. Boyland, Mr. Espada, Mr. González and Ms. Huntley had little to say on the subject. If anything, they suggested, they and their colleagues had been punished simply for doing things the Albany way. “I wouldn’t say they were crooks. Everybody does all that,” Mr. González said of Mr. Skelos and Mr. Silver. “It’s, ‘I help you, you help me.’ So what is that? Politics. ” Mr. Boyland was asked if he would endorse any of the reforms his former colleagues have discussed this session, including closing a loophole and banning outside income for legislators. He smiled. “I can’t endorse anything now,” he said. A day begins at Federal Correctional Institution in Loretto. A former monastery on a hilltop, it would resemble a high school campus were it not for the rings of concertina wire that surround it. Mr. Boyland is awake at 6:30 to meditate before going to work on the facilities team. (Mr. González, too, was initially assigned a job assisting a plumber, but, by his own account, was deemed more of a burden than a help.) Mr. Boyland runs around the track. He lifts weights. Without the constant nag of his cellphone, without the late, indulgent Albany dinners, he is, he said, the healthiest and most focused he has ever been. To other inmates, he introduces himself as Will. But he lives with men from New York, even some familiar with his old district. There is a Boyland Street in Brownsville, named for his uncle, who once held the same Assembly seat. “You the same guy?” the inmates ask. Amid the chaos of this year’s presidential campaign, Mr. Boyland said, he is in demand as a political analyst. “All. The. Time,” he said, flashing a smile. Some of the queries have a more local bent: “What’s going on with Cuomo and de Blasio?” he has been asked, referring to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, combatants in a intrastate quarrel. “They’re both Democrats, so what’s the beef about?” He passes the rest of the day with religious services, Bible study, work on his legal appeal and reading. He is taking classes in Spanish (because of the constituents in his old district) skills (just in case) and crocheting (hats, mostly). He has almost finished James Redfield’s “The Celestine Prophecy,” which he described as a novel about the spiritual journey of a wrongly imprisoned man. He said he could relate. From afar, he tries to raise his son, who is back in Brooklyn. He was the hardest thing to leave behind. Albany, he does not miss. It was serving his constituents, he said, that he loved. “I wasn’t used to being on this side of the table,” he said, indicating the round visitors’ room table where he sat across from a reporter. “I was the one visiting to bring help. I’m usually on that side of the table. ” They watch the evening news and read the New York City papers, eavesdropping on a world that has tried to delete them from its memory. Even so, what lies beyond the prison walls has begun to seem abstract — fuzzy around the edges. When Mr. Espada was in solitary confinement at Schuylkill, he was allowed one hour a day to go outside, shackled and cuffed. He always went, no matter the weather. “An opportunity to experience daylight, sunlight, rain hitting your head — it’s as basic as that,” he said, his voice softening. “I said to myself, I would never complain about the elements again, because I loved it when the rain hit my head, when it was cold. ” Then the man who was once the powerful in New York State gathered himself, pivoting back to the pitch. He was the better for surviving this, he said. Not that it was about him it was about those far less fortunate than him, who would carry this scarlet letter the rest of their lives. He had promised them he would fight for them, for reform, and he would. He would never give up. There was a reason they still called him the Senator.

The Rise of the Robots

John T. Larabell

The Rise of the Robots Written by John T. Larabell Email San Francisco: the home of Haight-Ashbury, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Pier 39; an icon of neoliberalism and left-wing policies, homosexual activism, and countercultural movements. It’s also an incredibly expensive place to live that is becoming increasingly gentrified by young urban tech-sector workers. Now, a new revolution is coming to the City by the Bay: a fully automated “gourmet” fast-food restaurant opening at 680 Folsom Street in the SoMa neighborhood. Yes, you read that right. Imagine walking into a “fast-food” restaurant and ordering a burger using a tablet at the counter. Your burger can have practically any combination of fresh toppings you want, a variety of seasonings, a nice toasted gourmet bun, and — get this — a custom blend of gourmet meat. Want beef and pork? No problem. How about beef and bison? Coming right up. You can even pick how lean or fatty you want the meat blend. No, this is not a fantasy: Momentum Machines of San Francisco has produced a burger-making machine that can crank out nearly 400 burgers per hour. It can do everything from grilling the patties, toasting the buns, loading on the toppings, and bagging the finished product all without human interaction. According to a Craigslist ad posted by the company, “This location will feature the world-premiere of our proprietary and remarkable new advances in technology that enable the automatic creation of impossibly delicious burgers at prices everyone can afford.” The ad states that burgers “will be fresh-ground and grilled to order, served on toasted brioche, and accented by an infinitely personalizable variety of fresh produce, seasonings, and sauces.” According to a 2014 Huffington Post article, Momentum Machines “plans to sell its invention to restaurants and, eventually, open its own chain to sell gourmet burgers at fast-food prices by eliminating the cost of paying line cooks. This, the company’s website claims, will ‘democratize access to high quality food, making it available to the masses.’” “Our device isn’t meant to make employees more efficient,” Momentum co-founder Alexandros Vardakostas told the website Xconomy in 2012, “It’s meant to completely obviate them.” We are now at a crossroads in the relationship between technology and human labor. Machines are now so advanced that, according to some experts, they are likely to replace a substantial portion of human workers in the next 20 or 30 years. Consider this from a March 18 LA Times op-ed by Bryan Dean Wright: A viral video released in February showed Boston Dynamics’ new bipedal robot, Atlas, performing human-like tasks: opening doors, tromping about in the snow, lifting and stacking boxes. Tech geeks cheered and Silicon Valley investors salivated at the potential end to human manual labor. Shortly thereafter, White House economists released a forecast that calculated more precisely whom Atlas and other forms of automation are going to put out of work. Most occupations that pay less than $20 an hour are likely to be, in the words of the report, “automated into obsolescence.” In other words, the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution has found its first victims: blue-collar workers and the poor. The general response in working America is disbelief or outright denial. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 80% of Americans think their job will still exist in 50 years, and only 11% of today’s workers were worried about losing their job to automation. Some — like my former colleagues at the CIA — insist that their specialized skills and knowledge can’t be replaced by artificial intelligence. That is, until they see plans for autonomous drones that don’t require a human hand and automated imagery analysis that outperforms human eyes. Human workers of all stripes pound the table claiming desperately that they’re irreplaceable. Bus drivers. Bartenders. Financial advisors. Speechwriters. Firefighters. Umpires. Even doctors and surgeons. Meanwhile, corporations and investors are spending billions — at least $8.5 billion last year on AI, and $1.8 billion on robots — toward making all those jobs replaceable. Why? Simply put, robots and computers don’t need healthcare, pensions, vacation days or even salaries. Sound scary? If what Wright writes is true, this could understandably be terrifying to many people. To get a deeper understanding of this issue, we’ll take a look at the history of technology and human labor, the situation as it stands today, and what can be expected in the future. Man vs. Machine The relationship between technology and human workers has always been a mixed bag. Technology has nearly always brought advancements in standards of living for the majority of people, but in doing so, some human labor has always been replaced by that technology. This displacement of labor has not always been a bad thing, as new technologies have often led to jobs being created elsewhere. Let’s take a trip back through history and find out how increased mechanization has led to shifts in human employment, and what’s different with our situation today. The invention of the printing press in 1440 was an early technological game-changer for human labor. While scribes were made obsolete, new jobs sprang up almost overnight as people were needed to run print shops, and all the ancillary industries supporting book production. Furthermore, books, while still expensive by today’s standards, were within reach of the common man, whereas before, the hand-copied manuscripts were prohibitively expensive for all but the wealthy. The next great technological advancement that led to massive shifts in human employment was in the realm of agriculture. Strictly speaking, the very first technological advancements in agriculture involved the use of animal labor, such as horses or teams of oxen used for plowing fields or turning mills, and this freed humans from backbreaking, unpleasant work. But as agriculture became more mechanized in the 19th and 20th centuries, animal labor was displaced, and increased efficiency meant fewer people were needed on farms. In the 1800s, for instance, over 80 percent of Americans worked on farms in some capacity. Today, less than two percent of Americans work on farms. This massive shift in human capital, of course, was absorbed by the growing industrial and service economy. Along with the shift in agriculture came a technological revolution in the textile industry. The industrial revolution saw the rise of power looms and other equipment that obviated much of the human labor involved in textile manufacture. In England, this led to an uprising of displaced textile workers known as Luddites, hence the pejorative “Luddite” for someone in modern times who resists technological or other forms of societal advancement. The Luddites went so far as to destroy those very machines that took their jobs. Of course, industrialization opened up many new jobs for people, and the Luddites’ fears were largely unfounded. As an aside, there are almost no textile mills in Western countries anymore; they’ve all moved to poorer nations, mainly in Central America or Southeast Asia. By and large, industrialization and its attendant advances in technology have always provided more employment and raised people’s standards of living, not the other way around. But is this about to change? Many fear that we are entering an era when technology has advanced to the point where machines are capable of doing so many tasks that are currently done by humans that there won’t be any “other jobs” for people to do. And what about building and servicing these machines? Again, most of that could soon be done by other machines , or a small number of very specialized human workers. Amy Webb, a digital media futurist and founder of Webbmedia Group, predicts at least eight career fields are “ripe for disruption” very soon — most likely in the next 10 to 20 years. She points to toll booth operators and cashiers, marketers, phone-based customer service, factory workers, financial middlemen, journalists, non-litigation lawyers, and telephone installation/maintenance workers as jobs that could be phased out soon. University of Oxford researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne estimated in 2013 that 47 percent of total U.S. jobs could be automated and taken over by computers by 2035. Said a March 24, 2015 article for Tech Times regarding this prediction: If you want to stay employed by then, you better think about a career shift into software development, higher level management or the information sector. Those professions are only at a 10 percent risk of replacement by robots, according to Osborne. By contrast, lower-skilled jobs in the accommodation and food service industries are at a 87 percent risk, transportation and warehousing are at a 75 percent risk and real estate at 67 percent. The researcher warns that driverless cars, burger-flipping robots and other automatons taking over low-skilled jobs is the way of the future. There’s potentially a real problem on the horizon. Let’s take a more detailed look at what economists and tech experts say about the types of jobs that will be replaced, or are already being replaced, by machines. Blue-collar Blues Blue-collar, manual-labor jobs are obvious candidates for being replaced by machines in the near future. In fact, this has already happened to some extent, as robots have been used in assembly lines (think automotive manufacturing) for a few decades. But as the capability of such industrial robots increases, so will their ability to replace more and more human laborers. As we noted above, fast-food workers will most definitely be some of those whose jobs are on the chopping block. As noted in the U.K. Mirror on May 25: A former McDonald’s CEO warned that robots will take over staff jobs at the fast food empire — because it’s cheaper than employing humans. Ed Rensi has said that buying highly skilled robotics is a cheaper alternative than employing people on minimum wage to work in the company’s worldwide restaurants. He warned that huge job losses are imminent, and commented that it would be “common sense” to replace humans in the workplace.... Rensi said: “I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday [and looked] at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry. It’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 (£24,000) robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 (£10.20) an hour bagging French fries. [A $15 minimum wage is] nonsense and it’s very destructive and it’s inflationary and it’s going to cause a job loss across in this country like you’re not going to believe.” He told FOX: “It’s not just going to be in the fast food business. Franchising is the best business model in the United States. It’s dependent on people that have low job skills that have to grow. Well if you can’t get people [at] a reasonable wage, you’re going to get machines to do the work. It’s just common sense. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. And the more you push this it’s going to happen faster.” Along with service-sector jobs, manufacturing jobs will be among the hardest hit by the coming robot revolution. Again, these are mostly repetitive, low-skill labor jobs that lend themselves well to mechanization. In Chinese factories, robots are currently being brought in to replace human workers who are seeking higher wages. At a production line based in Guangdong province for German optical system manufacturer Carl Zeiss AG, robots are being used for applying protective films, cutting, polishing, and packaging — jobs that used to be performed by humans. What’s happening at the Carl Zeiss factory is illustrative of a larger trend in China. As MIT Technology Review observed April 26: Countless manufacturers in China are planning to transform their production processes using robotics and automation at an unprecedented scale. In some ways, they don’t really have a choice. Human labor in China is no longer as cheap as it once was, especially compared with labor in rival manufacturing hubs growing quickly in Asia. In Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, factory wages can be less than a third of what they are in the urban centers of China. One solution, many manufacturers — and government officials — believe, is to replace human workers with machines.... The goal is to overtake Germany, Japan, and the United States in terms of manufacturing sophistication by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. To make that happen, the government needs Chinese manufacturers to adopt robots by the millions. It also wants Chinese companies to start producing more of these robots. To ship all those robot-made Chinese products to the United States requires cargo ships and dockworkers at both ends. What about those jobs? Well, they’re being replaced by machines, too. For instance, at TraPac LLC’s shipping terminal in Los Angeles, dozens of robots move shipping containers about, setting them in precise spots with little need for human interaction. Despite strong opposition from longshoremen’s unions, other U.S. ports may soon follow TracPac’s example and become more automated, as many overseas ports have already done. Robots are already being used to provide greater efficiency in warehouses. Amazon uses its Kiva Systems robots (to which the Internet retail giant has exclusive rights), and Locus Robotics has created a warehouse order-picking robot that it says is superior to Kiva’s. In a warehouse in Devens, Massachusetts, owned by Quiet Logistics, Locus robots silently zip around a warehouse bigger than six football fields, transporting orders 24 hours a day with no need for lunch breaks, vacations, or a paycheck. “We developed a system where the robots do all the walking,” Locus Robotics CEO Bruce Welty told Tech Insider in February. “As retailers continue to exceed expectation around next-day shipping, they’re going to look to technology to help them provide an even faster turn-around,” Welty said. In some warehouse applications, Quiet Logistics being one of them, robots won’t replace any human jobs — yet . But one could imagine that as fewer humans are needed, fewer will be hired. Some say that within a decade or two we could see fleets of driverless trucks on the road, guided by GPS navigation and onboard radar. Big companies are eager to streamline their shipping operations by cutting down on hours lost owing to human drivers, and are spending big money on R&D in the hope to ship their products using self-driving trucks. Take Walmart, for example. The retail giant is already developing “semi-autonomous” trucks that are mostly self-driving, only requiring a human driver to take the reins in heavy traffic or inclement weather. Semi-autonomous or even fully autonomous trucks are also being sought to mitigate a shortage of human truck drivers on the horizon. In addition to driverless trucks, a future with electric-powered, self-driving cars functioning as “taxis” for people is not far from reality. In fact, the “big three” Detroit automakers (GM, Chrysler, and Ford) are already rolling out self-driving cars, or “autonomous vehicles” (AVs) in limited markets for testing. All plan to have fully autonomous cars by 2020 or 2021. And the Europeans aren’t being left in the dust: Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes are all developing AV lines of their own. Assuming any bugs and safety issues can be worked out, will there even be a market for such vehicles in the near future? There already is. Ride-hailing service Uber is currently offering self-driving cars in certain markets as part of a pilot program, with the goal to eventually axe all of its drivers in favor of AVs. Young entrepreneurial Uber drivers will probably not be too excited about that, but such is life. And Uber’s main competitor in the United States, San Francisco-based Lyft, plans to use self-driving cars for the majority of its rides within five years. To start with, such self-driving taxis will only operate at speeds up to 25 miles per hour in limited areas, and won’t operate in bad weather. That is, until the technology improves enough to allow them to operate in all conditions at higher speeds. Lyft co-founder John Zimmer believes that personal car ownership, at least for city dwellers, will come to an end as using AV “taxis” quickly becomes a less-costly alternative to owning a vehicle. White-collar Woes It’s not just blue-collar jobs that are being threatened. As Business Insider noted in May of 2015, “Artificial intelligence and robots are not just challenging blue-collar jobs; they are starting to take over white-collar professions as well. Financial and sports reporters, online marketers, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and financial analysts are already in danger of being replaced by robots.” And as a March 16 article for Christian Science Monitor noted: If you think being a “professional” makes your job safe, think again. The two sectors of the economy harboring the most professionals — healthcare and education — are under increasing pressure to cut costs. And expert machines are poised to take over. We’re on the verge of a wave of mobile apps for measuring everything from your cholesterol to your blood pressure, along with diagnostic software that tells you what it means and what to do about it. In coming years, software apps will be doing many of the things physicians, nurses, and technicians now do (think ultrasound, CT scans, and electrocardiograms). Meanwhile, the jobs of many teachers and university professors will disappear, replaced by online courses and interactive online textbooks. Leigh Watson Healy, chief analyst at market research firm Outsell, has this to say about the capability of machines to make market predictions as financial advisors: “Now with machine algorithms and big data disrupting, stock and equity analysts will have to figure out what their value ad is going to be.” The fact of the matter is, machines are able to process so much data so quickly that they could theoretically make market predictions much better than human advisors. Particularly for many younger clients or others with simple investment needs, robo-advisors could very well be the wave of the future. Regarding legal jobs, as noted in a 2015 Fortune article, new software systems “use syntactic analysis and keyword recognition to comb through emails, texts, databases, and scanned documents to find those that one party in a lawsuit would be obliged to turn over to the other through the legal discovery process.” This, conceivably, could replace associates and paralegals in law firms. With such legal jobs being threatened, it should come as no surprise that writing and research jobs are also in danger of being automated. The Internet wiped out countless newspapers, and new technology could kill even more journalism positions. The next innovation will be algorithms that allow news outlets to automatically create stories and place them on websites without human interaction. Robot journalists are already writing thousands of articles a quarter at the Associated Press. And it should come as no surprise that machines have the potential to be better researchers than humans, provided they are given the correct search parameters. The speed at which they are able to access data and the fact that they don’t get tired make them ideal researchers. But what about the medical field? Surely this requires a great deal of hands-on, human-controlled interactions. Not so fast: Robots are already used in surgeries, and are able to perform operations with greater precision than human surgeons. A human surgeon controls the robot remotely, and in this way can “amplify” his or her surgical ability. According to the above-mentioned article in Fortune : Johnson & Johnson’s Sedasys system, already FDA approved, can automate delivery of low-level anesthesia in applications like colonoscopies at [a] fraction of the cost of a dedicated anesthesiologist. A doctor can supervise multiple machines at the same time to keep the human element. IBM’s Watson, well known for its stellar performance in the TV game show Jeopardy! , has already demonstrated a far more accurate diagnosis rate for lung cancers than humans — 90 percent versus 50 percent in some tests. The reason is data. Keeping pace with the release of medical data could take doctors 160 hours a week, so doctors can’t possibly review the amount of new insights or even bodies of clinical evidence that can give an edge in making a diagnosis. Pharmacists aren’t safe either. As Business Insider noted in 2012, The [University of California, San Francisco] Medical Center recently launched an automated, robotics-controlled pharmacy at two UCSF hospitals. Once computers at the new pharmacy electronically receive medication orders from UCSF physicians and pharmacists, the robotics pick, package, and dispense individual doses of pills. Machines assemble doses onto a thin plastic ring that contains all the medications for a patient for a 12-hour period, which is bar-coded. The pharmacy system, which was phased in over the past year, so far has prepared 350,000 doses of medication without error. This is not to suggest robots will take all jobs. There will still be a number of things that robots will not be able to do as well as humans. For instance, jobs requiring creativity, “people skills,” or human interaction will likely stay with human employees. Nurses, managers, salespeople, entrepreneurs, and artists come to mind. Unfortunately, politicians won’t be done away with. In truth, jobs will likely align themselves around several loci. There will be demand for hands-on, “caregiver” type jobs such as nurses, nursing home caregivers, physical therapists, massage therapists, etc. There will be opportunities for “creative” jobs such as artists, musicians, entertainers, athletes, fiction writers, public speakers, and the like. “Managerial” jobs such as C-level corporate jobs and politicians will exist. Finally, “tech” jobs such as programmers, web developers, and software engineers will obviously be in demand. What Does It All Mean? So what will this Brave New World look like when machines do most of our work for us, and humans are needed for very few jobs? How will people even be able to buy all of the goods and services produced by these robot workers if they don’t have jobs to begin with? Naturally, many economists and futurists are suggesting that government will be the solution. There have been talks of having government give every adult person a “basic income” regardless of their employment status or current income level. Some have suggested giving people a paycheck of more than $2,000 per month, just for being human. And where would this money come from? Why, the rich folks who own the companies that either produce or “employ” the machines that took the people’s jobs, of course. Since, as the argument goes, money will be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands if companies no longer have to employ people, those who benefit from this arrangement should support those who have been displaced. Some European countries have actually toyed with the idea over the last few decades, with Switzerland actually having a referendum on the issue in June. Under the proposed scheme of a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG), all Swiss adults would have received a monthly check of 2,500 Swiss francs, or slightly over $2,500. Children would have received 625 francs per month. The fiscally conservative Swiss roundly rejected the idea, with nearly 80 percent voting against a BIG. As Charles Wyplosz, an economics professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, remarked, “If you pay people to do nothing, they will do nothing.” Member of Parliament Luzi Stamm of the Swiss People’s Party voiced another concern: “Theoretically, if Switzerland were an island, the answer is yes. But with open borders, it’s a total impossibility, especially for Switzerland, with a high living standard.... If you would offer every individual a Swiss amount of money, you would have billions of people who would try to move into Switzerland.” But proponents of the idea aren’t giving up: They’ve vowed to keep pressing the issue, and keep having referendums, until it becomes a reality. The Dutch city of Utrecht, on the other hand, is experimenting with a basic income among its current welfare recipients. One-third of the recipients will receive welfare as currently administered, one-third will receive the welfare albeit with different rules, and the remaining third will simply receive a $1,000 check every month whether or not they even attempt to find a job. And Finland will conduct its own experiment in 2017, with 180,000 Finns set to receive a basic income of 500 to 700 euros a month. The idea of a guaranteed basic income is nothing new. In fact, it has been proposed by progressives for more than a century. Martin Luther King, Jr. even suggested that some form of basic income would eliminate poverty. Bill Gross of Janus Capital Group wrote for the Wall Street Journal in May, “Millions of jobs will be lost over the next 10-15 years,” and that the usual solutions to this problem won’t work anymore. “Four years of college for everyone might better prepare them to be a contestant on Jeopardy , but I doubt it’ll create more growth,” Gross contends. The former bond king recommends a “Universal Basic Income.” Gross points out that welfare already exists in other forms, such as food stamps and the earned-income tax credit. “If more and more workers are going to be displaced by robots, then they will need money to live on, will they not? And if that strikes you as a form of socialism, I would suggest we get used to it,” he said. Gross says it’s not a matter of “if,” but “when,” and the way to pay for it is, in his words, “helicopter money.” Yep, that’s right: Have central banks crank up the printing presses and start creating money to give to people, no strings attached. Let’s move into the realm of the hypothetical here and imagine an entire world where, say, 95 percent of the population is supported by a government income. Even if more than five percent of the populace could find employment, there would be little incentive to do so. People would demand that government provide for their very existence. Government-provided food, entertainment, housing, income, etc. would be akin to the Roman policy of “bread and circuses” for the poor. The glaring problem with this is the fact that government will effectively be a parent who controls everyone’s life. The old adage, “He who pays the piper calls the tune” comes to mind. A society where a wealthy, property-owning, technocratic elite supports and cares for the masses would necessitate those elites “managing” society and the masses. After all, the masses would effectively become the “property” of the elite. Bearing that in mind, such “management” would undoubtedly include management of the world’s human population. Government-supplied “free” contraceptives and abortions (heavily promoted by media and public schools, of course), adding sterilants to the municipal water supply or infertility-causing substances to food and/or vaccines, and even controlling the birth rate by fiat as in Communist China, have all been suggested as ways to limit, and reduce, world population. Far-fetched? Perhaps, but one must admit that much of this is not outside the realm of possibility. But what might happen if government did not get involved (as difficult as that might be to imagine)? A truly free market would find ways to keep people employed. More precisely, people themselves, acting out of their own rational self-interest, would find ways to get by, whether this means working as an employee at a “job” or something else entirely. Realistically, many people could revert back to being entrepreneurs producing small quantities of artisan, hand-made items such as crafts, tools, artwork, food, beer, clothing, etc. People could either pay or barter for such items. Such “niche” businesses already exist, to be sure, but more could flourish under an economy where machines do most of the mundane jobs for large employers that people currently perform now. Indeed, people could return to the days of being more self-reliant, growing their own food in either private or communal gardens and raising small livestock, and bartering for items they don’t produce themselves. If, for the sake of argument, half of all jobs in America were taken by machines, many people might choose to return to single-income households, with one parent (typically the mother) staying home to raise the kids. In this scenario, becoming more self-reliant and producing artisan goods for sale or barter would certainly help to make ends meet, especially since inflation has made it very difficult for most American families to live comfortably on one income. Plus, having a parent stay at home would offer many families the opportunity to homeschool their children and give children experience in producing homemade crafts and goods. Education is becoming increasingly Internet-based anyway, so keeping kids at home would not prevent them from having excellent educational opportunities. Of course, owing to the breakup of the “nuclear family” in America, many households are already single-income because they are single-parent. Such situations would be difficult in a world of reduced human employment. But again, if people are allowed the freedom to act in their own rational self-interest, they will find ways to make it work. Human creativity knows no bounds, and when government planners step out of the way and let people follow their desires and creativity, who can foresee what amazing new products, inventions, and jobs might emerge? And truly, this was the desire of the Founding Fathers of our Republic: to have a nation where a self-reliant people were free to use their creativity to pursue their own interests and desires. Such an attitude is illustrated in a letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, written May 12, 1780: I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine. So what will the future bring after the rise of the robots? The answer, really, depends upon whether or not government interferes. If people are allowed to use their own ingenuity and creativity, society and humanity in general could flourish, and indeed enter a true “golden age” of civilization. Or we could see the masses reduced to absolute servitude beneath a technocratic elite who control every aspect of human life. Sadly, if our current trajectory is not changed, the latter scenario seems most likely. This underscores the need to restore and preserve our American system of constitutional limited government; humanity’s future literally hangs in the balance. This article is an example of the exclusive content that's available by subscribing to our print magazine. Twice a month get in-depth features covering the political gamut: education, candidate profiles, immigration, healthcare, foreign policy, guns, etc. Digital as well as print options are available! Please review our Comment Policy before posting a comment Thank you for joining the discussion at The New American. We value our readers and encourage their participation, but in order to ensure a positive experience for our readership, we have a few guidelines for commenting on articles. If your post does not follow our policy, it will be deleted. No profanity, racial slurs, direct threats, or threatening language. No product advertisements. Please post comments in English. Please keep your comments on topic with the article. If you wish to comment on another subject, you may search for a relevant article and join or start a discussion there.

Monsieur Malbrough est Mort | Новое восточное обозрение

Регион: Европа В своей новой статье французский обозреватель Жан Перье напоминает недавно опубликованный им сюжет « Marlbrough s ’ en va - t - en Guerre » на фоне последних политических событий и растерянности европейского политического истеблишмента от выборов в США нового 45-го президента. В числе политиков, продемонстрировавших замешательство от победы Трампа, оказался и Ф.Олланд . Тем не менее он призвал «извлечь уроки» из результатов американских выборов, значение которых «выходит далеко за пределы Соединенных Штатов». Эти слова французского президента, по мнению автора, оказались пророческими и за ними последовало предложение от 152 депутатов из 199 от правоцентристской республиканской партии за импичмент президенту Франсуа Олланду . Правые парламентарии обвиняют Олланда за разглашение государственной тайны, которое, по их мнению, он допустил в своей книге « Президент не должен был этого говорить ». По их мнению, президенту Франции не следовало говорить о многих опубликованных в книге сведениях и оценках, особенно об операциях французских спецслужб по физическому устранению в других странах особо опасных исламских радикалов. Указанные шаги парламентариев, не зависимо от дальнейшего решения вопроса по объявлению импичмента Ф.Олланду, фактически ставят крест на его дальнейшей политической карьере. То есть можно сказать словами все той же народной французской песни: «… Monsieur Malbrough est mort » (т.е. «Мальбрук теперь мертв»). Однако это предложение французских парламентариев об импичменте Ф.Олланда вряд ли можно считать неожиданностью. Достаточно вспомнить недавнее подведение итогов пятилетнего пребывания Ф.Олланда в Елисейском дворце журналом Le Figaro . Уровень доверия президенту достиг исторического минимума в 11% респондентов. Никогда Президент Республики не падал так низко! Автор отмечает, что участь Олланда в ближайшие месяцы может разделить и ряд других политических лидеров Европы, чьей основной задачей последнего времени была активная поддержка агрессивных планов администрации Обамы в ущерб европейским ценностям и международному праву. С полным содержанием статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи

Rise of the Alt-Right

Henry Wolff

Scott McConnell, The American Conservative, October 31, 2016 [Editor’s Note: This article is worth reading in its entirety. A redacted version is below.] Twenty-one years ago I was assigned by Commentary to write about Jared Taylor–today known as one of the eminences of the “alt-right.” Taylor had written a grim book on American race relations, Paved With Good Intentions , which had been published by a mainstream house and was widely, if critically, reviewed. Though unusually skeptical about the prospect of blacks and whites living together harmoniously in the United States, it stopped well short of any systematically racist argument. The book had several fans among New Yorkers I knew prominent in journalism and city politics. When I referred to it in passing in a New York Post column, we quickly received a fax from Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League stating that Taylor was far more extremist than I had let on. Curious to explore further, I queried Commentary –where I then did most of my non-newspaper writing–and they were interested. I interviewed Taylor, read back issues of his monthly newsletter, American Renaissance ( AR ), and drafted a piece. AR was devoted primarily to demonstrating that in American history racism was as accepted as apple pie and that this was by no means a bad thing. It contained large doses of the evolutionary and biological racial thought fairly commonplace amongst American elites in the ’20s and ’30s. A central contention was that the United States could not thrive as an increasingly multiracial and multicultural country and that American whites were facing a kind of cultural dispossession. I summarized this, quoting liberally, and concluded that the endgame vision of the AR crowd was potentially horrific, leading to national dissolution or civil war, while adding that continued mass immigration really would put the common culture of America under grave stress. If immigration rates went down, Taylor and AR would remain fringe players. If they rose, white racial anxieties would bubble to the surface, and Taylor might one day have his moment. The piece was never published: Neal Kozodoy, Commentary ’s editor, told me I had indulged Taylor too much and asked for a shorter, tighter rewrite. By then my brief summer vacation had ended, other tasks intervened, and I eventually lost interest. Jared Taylor’s moment has not arrived, but clearly he has edged into the national conversation. He has been pictured and quoted in an anti-Trump attack ad produced by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, he has been a guest on Diane Rehm’s show on NPR, and his core ideas have been broadcast–and excoriated–in magazines and websites great and small. He is now touted as one of the intellectual leaders of the alt-right, a diffuse movement of uncertain significance, but one deemed sufficiently important by the Clinton campaign for Hillary to devote a large portion of an August campaign speech to it. Donald Trump–who has almost surely never read a single article by an alt-right figure–is claimed by Clinton and other liberals to be under its influence and propagating its doctrines. The truth is quite different: parts of the alt-right have raised their own visibility by attaching themselves to Trump. At the same time, Trump and his unanticipated success in winning the Republican nomination are symptoms of the same political and civilizational crisis that makes alt-rightish themes–at least in a more or less bowdlerized and soft-core form–compelling to a growing number of people. ♦♦♦ Taylor, 65, is old by alt-right standards, and is an atypical representative, though just how much so is difficult to discern, for much of the alt-right is anonymous. The movement fields no candidates, publishes few books or pamphlets. It is a creature of the web, strongest on Twitter. Pepe, an internet cartoon frog, is an alt-right character–and has actually been formally denounced by the Clinton campaign. Alt-right internet trolling, sometimes ugly, blatantly racist and anti-Semitic, is also part of the movement. There is some debate whether it should be taken as an offensive and unfunny joke–merry keyboard pranksters who enjoy pretending to be internet neo-Nazis, rather like punk rock bands of the late ’70s deploying Nazi imagery for shock effect–or is something more sinister, a genuine resurgence of hardcore racism and anti-Semitism. Likely it’s more the former, but it’s also likely that the alt-right banner has given the minute number of genuine neo-Nazis in the country a kind of protective shield. Richard Spencer may serve as a bridge between older white nationalists such as Taylor and a younger alt-right internet crowd. It’s mistaken to call him or anyone else a leader–the movement has no procedure for choosing leaders–but he is clearly a pole of influence. He’s an intellectual entrepreneur who arrived in DC roughly ten years ago from a Duke graduate program. He worked at TAC for seven or eight months, where he was kind of a square peg in a round hole. Sometime thereafter his ideology began to crystallize. He started a website called AlternativeRight.com and later revitalized a white-nationalist think tank, the National Policy Institute, and launched a journal, Radix . Spencer can be engaging and amusing, but his core doctrine is likely to remain, barring some sort of Mad Max-type Armageddon, well outside what most Americans would consider plausible or desirable. What is the doctrine? At a recent press conference in DC, Spencer explained that the core of alt-right thought is race. Race is real, race matters, race is foundational to human identity. You cannot understand who you are without race. Many people would agree–at least privately or partially–with the first two assertions, but the third is the critical one, and has never been true historically or sociologically. (Not that there haven’t been groups of self-proclaimed pan-Asian or pan-African intellectuals who sought to make it true. Spencer fits into their tradition.) In any case, Spencer hopes somehow to spur whites into a kind of pan-white racial consciousness and galvanize them to become “aware of who we are,” and to prepare themselves, one day somehow, to form a white ethnostate. He refers to Theodore Herzl’s propagation of Zionism as a model for how such an ethnostate, seemingly a distant dream, could be eventually achieved. He fails to add that it took a Holocaust to make a Jewish State a reality. {snip} Prior to last fall, and before Hillary introduced the alt-right to a national audience, Spencer and Taylor held periodic conferences that could gather perhaps 200 people. (These were often held under shameful harassment by the leftist anti-First Amendment crowd, but that’s a different issue.) Spencer says he sees the alt-right as a vehicle that will influence politicians and intellectuals, taking as its model neoconservatism. {snip} {snip} What spurred this sudden emergence? It was not white-nationalist conferences or doctrine, which had been around forever, but events. Last year the West received a nasty high-voltage shock of political reality. The first jolt was the Charlie Hebdo attack in January. France had experienced jihadist murders before, but this time, the strike came in the center of Paris, and France was alarmed to find no small amount of support for the killing among its five million Muslim residents, many of them second- and third-generation citizens. That spring and summer, European newspapers began to fill with reports of intensifying migrant and refugee flows, driven partially by the Syrian civil war and partially by the expansion and streamlining of people-smuggling routes from Africa. {snip} By 2016 the welcome had grown cold. Hundreds of migrants sexually assaulted German women in and around the central train station of Cologne on New Year’s Eve, a mass assault that German authorities initially tried to cover up. {snip} If the sexual assaults could be seen as the cultural edge of the migrant surge, it was more difficult for even liberal “anti-racist” European leaders to ignore or explain away the terrorism aspect. The Charlie Hebdo attack was followed by the mass slaughters at the Bataclan theater in Paris, at the Brussels Airport, then on a seaside promenade in Nice, culminating in the execution by knife of an aging French priest by two “assimilated” Muslim migrants in his church outside of Rouen. {snip} {snip} Richard Spencer may be incorrect about America, but one remark from his press conference in DC last month was arresting: The refugee crisis in Europe is something like a world war. It is in many ways a race war. In terms of direct violence it does not resemble World War I or II. It is a demographic struggle, a struggle for identity, a struggle of who is going to define the continent, period. It is a new kind of war, a postmodern war, a war through immigration. There are no trenches, no guns. But it is a world war. Of course, it is not primarily a race war. Religion, or religious culture, plays a major and perhaps decisive role in the conflict, and conflict between Christendom and Islam is not new by any means. Still, there is something in the bluntness of Spencer’s depiction that rings more true than 90 percent of what appears in the American media, which invariably depicts the refugee crisis in humanitarian terms and terrorism as a barely related law-enforcement issue. It is surely not a coincidence that the alt-right began making strides into American consciousness precisely at the moment Muslims were surging into Europe as refugees, while others were blowing up Parisian rock concerts or mounting mass sexual assaults on European women. {snip} Whatever one might say about the alt-right, it is not perplexed. Few other political factions in America had a vocabulary ready for–or even made an effort to interpret seriously–what was going on in Europe, at a time when many people were seeking one. {snip} American developments in the fall of last year, while less critical than those in Europe, also spurred the alt-right. The rise of Black Lives Matter put into question one of the outstanding domestic-policy advances of the past generation, the dramatic reduction in urban crime rates, which has made possible the revitalization of many cities. The lie which held that America’s police forces were chock full of marauding racist murderers suddenly became mainstream, repeated endlessly on television and pushed in only slightly more subtle fashion by Obama’s own attorney general. Meanwhile, some urban neighborhoods were looted by rioters, and others saw dramatic spikes in their murder rates. {snip} It was predictable that such developments, touching on visceral areas of personal security, national sovereignty, and freedom of expression, would stir desire for a muscular response. Donald Trump filled the bill, if not always eloquently. So too, occasionally, did segments of the more established conservative media. But there was a market for a pushback as scathing and polemically unafraid as the left’s own polemicists, which might not have been the case four years earlier. This, as much as anything, accounts for the emergence of the alt-right, at least in its less ideologically extreme iterations. {snip} And though [Samuel] Huntington was a famous and deeply respected Harvard political scientist and a life-long Democrat, the concerns of Clash are those raised implicitly by Trump and explicitly by what I call the soft-core elements of the alt-right. There is, of course, much racism in American history, and there are enormous crimes for which Europe continues to strive to atone. But neither anti-racism nor respect for other cultures should be turned into a national or civilizational suicide pact. Here what Irving Kristol famously wrote about Sen. Joseph McCarthy comes to mind: “There is one thing that the American people know about Senator McCarthy: he like them is unequivocally anti-Communist. About the spokesmen for American liberalism, they feel they know no such thing.” In the now global faceoff between Western civilization versus mass immigration fused with multiculturalism, Kristol’s words describe with uncanny accuracy the dichotomy between Donald Trump and his supporters on one hand and those most feverishly denouncing him on the other. Among the former, for all their faults, are those who want, unequivocally, Western civilization to survive. About the latter, no such thing is certain.

BREAKING! — Why Comey let Hillary off the hook (Video, 7.48 mins)

Admin

November 7, 2016 at 2:08 pm Thanks, Lasha We’ll know for sure if, by some miracle, Trump becomes President. It’s just a plausible theory at the moment. I’d love to see Hellary fry for what she and her crime syndicate have done to the US. Remember the Rosenberg’s got the electric chair for their treason, giving atomic secrets to the Soviets.

It’s Right in the Name: Safes Are Safe. Except for Two on New Year’s Eve. - The New York Times

Michael Wilson

They read like descriptions of props from the script of a Hollywood heist caper, with promises to ward off “attacks” on all six sides from the usual suspects: hammer, crowbar, drill, blowtorch, nitroglycerin. That is the language of the brochures and websites of the city’s safe dealers, a small but longstanding industry that manages fears in and around the diamond district not only of disasters like fires or explosions, but also of hypothetical supervillains. When a safe is breached, word travels quickly. What happened? Whose safe was it? How did they get in? Those were the sorts of questions raised last week after a team of burglars broke into a jeweler’s office on West 36th Street on New Year’s Eve. The crime was widely reported for its scope — the thieves made off with $6 million in diamonds and other gems — and its brazen timing, occurring as the ball dropped six blocks away in a neighborhood teeming with police officers. Surveillance video showing two people hitting a door with hammers was taken immediately after midnight, the police said, when the sound of cheers would have most likely drowned out any banging. But what happened next is, to many in the safe industry, more important than the forced entry. The two safes that held the valuables, the police said, showed no sign of forced entry. The police have not provided further details on the safes. News reports have suggested investigators are looking into whether someone working for the dealer who provided the safes gave the thieves the combinations. A man answering the telephone at the office of the dealer, Lacka Safe in New Jersey, said on Friday that the owners declined to comment. As that investigation unfolds, the burglary — or “attack,” in security parlance — draws attention to the last line of defense for the city’s many jewelers, an object that, for all the advances in technology over the years, remains a box with three sides, a top, a bottom and a door. safes evoke exciting scenes from the movies, with steely safecrackers listening for clicks or drilling into dense steel with lasers. In reality, though, making safes is a hushed trade built on discretion and trust. “I get calls all the time, ‘Are your people O. K.?’” said Richard Krasilovsky of Empire Safe in Midtown. “How safe is it — all puns intended — for your people to do the work? The people know where the safe is going. I say it’s a legitimate question to ask. ” Dealers carry an array of safes and locks, including digital locks with keypads and time locks that prevent anyone from opening the door, with or without the combination, while they’re activated. The jewelers of Manhattan historically prefer more traditional designs for their safes, dealers said last week, with mechanical combination locks. “It’s an older industry,” said Dov Israeli of Precision Lock and Safe in Floral Park, N. Y. “They’re focused on price and less on what’s new. ” A jeweler typically requires a certain level of protection to satisfy its insurance company. These levels shown in ratings by Underwriters Laboratories, such as or indicate that safecrackers at the lab, using tools and torches, were unable to breach any of the six sides of the safe in 60 or 30 minutes. That is probably a greater margin of safety than the standard jeweler needs. “ point nine nine nine percent of burglars out there can’t penetrate a properly made ” Mr. Krasilovsky said. A brochure for a line of safes at Empire states that they are made of “ and armor” for “greater protection against attack,” and that they protect against everything from “hammers and simple drills, to thermal and electrical equipment, such as oxyacetylene torches and disk cutters. ” Mr. Krasilovsky said he met potential clients to offer a risk assessment based on what they were protecting and other factors, looking for what he called “an Achilles’ heel. ” “It’s very easy to sell somebody protection, which is a safe,” he said. “I try to sell prevention. Protection is a science. I don’t want the schmucks coming onto the premises. ” A cheaper safe may meet the requirements of an insurance company, while appearing to a burglar to be vulnerable. A technician sets the combination for a safe’s lock for the first time. “We have you write it on a piece of paper,” and hand it to the technician, Mr. Israeli said. Some dealers may keep a copy for a period of time, in case the safe’s owner should need it. “We tear it up — we won’t keep a combination for you,” he said. “It’s not even a service we will provide. ”

Opinion: Hillary is the Whore of Babylon and is not Human

Alex Ansary

Opinion: Hillary is the Whore of Babylon and is not Human 11/06/2016 TRACY TWYMAN I put some of this information in an article I published yesterday morning about a larger subject. Today I have decided to isolate these segments and add more for a comprehensive piece on the subject because other relevant information has emerged. People in the FBI think Hillary Clinton is the Anti-Christ . They are close. She is the Whore of Babylon. Hillary was born in 1948, supposedly. I looked for this information on a hunch, after noticing several clues. And sure enough, back in 2008, someone on David Icke’s forum speculated that Hillary may have been the “Moonchild” that, according to artist Marjorie Cameron , was implanted into her own womb by rocket scientist, occultist, and Crowley associate Jack Parsons during a ritual called the “ Babalon Working .” The purpose was to birth a child to be an incarnation of what Crowley called “ Babalon ,” the Scarlet Whore with the cup of blood foretold in St. John’s Revelation that rides the Beast. Cameron actually claimed that this fetus, after being taken from her womb, was delivered to people involved in the military’s nuclear weapons progranm, who were apparently in cahoots with Parsons, and placed inside of a nuclear bomb that was tested. But the fetus “survived,” she said, because it had been placed inside of a special canister made exactly for this purpose. For the 1945 “Trinity” bomb test they made a special canister called “Jumbo” that was supposed to to preserve the plutonium if the bomb did failed to go off. They reportedly didn’t end up using it for that, but it has been suggested that this is what preserved the fetus of the Moonchild. Presumably, it grew up to be somebody. Crowley named one of his female consorts (who he always called his “Scarlet Women”) “Hilarion.” Her name was Jeanne Foster. Crowley’s attempt to conceive an heir as a “magical child” with Hilarion resulted, supposedly, in the child’s spirit being attached to his protege Charles Stanfield Jones back in 1909. The “attachment” allegedly occurred when Jones went through the ritual for “Crossing the Abyss” in the 11th degree of the O.T.O., which involves being ritually sodomized by everyone in the group. Jack Parsons, another person who had willingly subjected himself to this ritual, channeled The Book of the Antichrist in 1949, where he foretold: And within seven years of this time, BABALON, THE SCARLET WOMAN HILARION will manifest among ye, and bring this my work to its fruition. I also believe that Hillary, with her notorious cracking voice, and possibly her rival Trump, were foretold in another document channeled by Parsons, the Book of Babalon : Her voice is sure as the judgement trump to crack the house of wrong, Though walls are high and stone is hard and the rule of hell was long The gates shall fall and the irons break in the Birth of BABALON. In Rome the Hilaria was a festival to the goddess Cybele (worshipped in the form of a black meteorite stone) to celebrate the “resurrection” of her son, who, as the legend states, she had been having sex with. She then became jealous of his love of others, castrated him, and let him die of bleeding (the reason why all of her priests, the Galli, were castrated, and actually considered women). She later regretted this and caused him to be brought back to life, then forced everyone under her rule to celebrate by laughing and partying joyously, as commemorated in this festival. Consider this next time you notice Hillary Clinton laughing “inappropriately.” Also note that Hillary Clinton has made several self-depricating jokes about herself being “ not even human ” and “short-circuiting” when she gets herself twisted up in her own lies. Specifically, in October 2015, when her interviewer at Buzzfeed noted that she seemed to not be sweating, even though it was a hot day (odd, because Hillary has notoriously bad B.O.), she asked Hillary what kind of deodorant she used. Clinton’s reply was astounding. You guys are the first to realize that I’m really not even a human being. I was constructed in a garage in Palo Alto a very long time ago… I mean, a man whose name shall remain nameless created me in his garage. Palo Alto is the location of Stanford University, Jack Parsons’ Alma Mater.

Alec Baldwin Denies ’SNL’ Impression Helped Trump Win

Daniel Nussbaum

Alec Baldwin’s mocking parody of President Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live has helped propel the show to its strongest ratings in years — but the actor denies that the impression helped Trump win the White House in November. [In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph to promote his latest animated film, The Boss Baby, the actor said that people had approached him after the election to tell him that his impression helped smooth out Trump’s edges and had helped “humanize” him. “There were people who came to me after the election and said, ‘Well, how do you feel that you are, to some degree, responsible for Trump winning the election? ’” he told the outlet. “I thought they were kidding, but they said, ‘You humanised him. You took the edges off and made him more personable. ’” “I don’t agree with that,” he added. Baldwin debuted as Trump during the 42nd season premiere of SNL in October last year. The show’s skits initially mocked the debates between Trump and former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and after Trump won, they took aim at the president’s penchant for tweeting and for his confrontation with the 9th Circuit Court over his executive orders on immigration. Baldwin has previously said that playing Trump is “not always fun,” and recently said he planned to retire the impression in the near future. “As an actor who studies other people, I was completely convinced that when Trump won, he would completely transform himself,” the actor told the Telegraph. “Like in sports, when you beat the hell out of somebody and you win, you shake hands, maybe have a beer together, and you’re a more polite, obliging person. But with Trump, there was none of that. ” “He was as bitter and miserable after he won as he was before. That is a complete mystery to me,” he added. Offscreen, Baldwin has been a fierce critic of the president. On the eve of Trump’s inauguration, the actor appeared at a rally outside Trump Tower in Manhattan alongside other celebrities including Michael Moore, Robert De Niro and Mark Ruffalo. Baldwin has also teased Trump on Twitter. But the actor says that despite his skewering of the president, he does not see his impression as being part of a larger “resistance” against Trump. “People thank me for ‘the resistance’ that I’m participating in, but I don’t see it that way,” he told the Telegraph. “I don’t mind if people do, but I don’t do it for that reason. I do it to entertain people. It’s purely about entertainment. ” Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

Syria conflict: Food rations run out in rebel-held Aleppo

Kaitlyn Stegall

November 11, 2016 Syria conflict: Food rations run out in rebel-held Aleppo The last remaining food rations are being distributed in besieged rebel-held eastern districts of the Syrian city of Aleppo, the UN has said. Humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland warned that without a resupply there would be no food left to hand out next week to the 275,000 people living there. Mr Egeland ruled out airdrops of food, explaining that they were not possible in densely-populated urban areas. Government forces launched a major assault on eastern Aleppo in September. Since then, troops have pushed into several outlying areas with the help of Iranian-backed Shia militias and Russian air strikes. Rebels launched a counter-attack in an attempt to break the siege in late October. But their progress slowed after early gains.

Trump’s 1st Win: Germany Hints at Compromises on Trade, Military

Chriss W. Street

As President Trump finished his first 24 hours in office by attending an interfaith prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral, German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to seek compromises with the new President on trade and military spending issues. [Speaking at a news conference in Germany, Merkel sought to be a peacemaker after the German Vice Chancellor and leader of the Social Democrats, Sigmar Gabriel, lashed out against Donald Trump’s election the day before as the result of “a bad radicalization. ” Gabriel scoffed at the new president’s inaugural speech as nationalist and protectionist. He boasted that although Trump may be a rough ride, “We should neither be submissive nor have fear. ” He threatened that if President Trump wants a trade war, “Europe and Germany need a strategy geared toward Asia and China and we have new opportunities. ” But with $111 billion in exports to the U. S. and only $49 billion of U. S. imports, Chancellor Angela Merkel fully understands that the German economy would risk great damage in a trade war with the America. In trying to chart a conciliatory posture toward Trump, Merkel acknowledged: “He made his convictions clear in his inauguration speech. ” She expressed a new willingness to compromise on trade and NATO military spending by stating: “I say two things with regards to this (speech): first, I believe firmly that it is best for all of us if we work together based on rules, common values and joint action in the international economic system, in the international trade system, and make our contributions to the military alliances. ” The political follows a joint by President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel confronting Donald Trump that “there will be no return to a world. ” The two world leaders emphasized, “We have a responsibility to our companies and citizens — actually, the entire global community — to enhance and deepen our cooperation. ” Germany has long considered a strong alliance with the United States to be a cornerstone of its foreign policy, and it will do everything it can to protect that partnership, according to Stratfor Global Intelligence. From a balance of payments deficit 15 years ago, Germany’s trade surplus with the United States has grown to almost 9 percent of Germany’s Gross Domestic Product. Despite a $62 billion surplus with the U. S. in 2016, America still funds and operates the 174 “base sites” in Germany, according to the Pentagon Budget. President Trump is not the first U. S. president to demand greater defense spending from NATO’s European members, but he is the first openly to label the alliance as obsolete and hint America might refuse to protect members that fail to contribute 2 percent of GDP. In a sign of arrogance just two days before the Trump inaugural, Germany’s defense minister announced that Berlin would increase 2017 military spending by $2. 1 billion to $39 billion in 2017, only 1. 2 percent of its GDP. With Germany enjoying the world’s largest current account surplus at $281 billion, President Trump, under existing U. S. law, can introduce “temporary safeguards” such as tariffs, to protect domestic industries threatened by certain imports. Although Trump cannot designate a country without new congressional legislation, he can luxury cars and basically shut down German exports of Mercedes and BMW to the U. S. The Trump team has not announced if they will attend the Munich Security Conference from Feb. . But Germany will try to leverage its current presidency to secure more face time with U. S. leaders during a conference of foreign affairs ministers in Bonn from Feb. and a larger summit with President Trump and top heads of state in Hamburg on July . Chancellor Merkel has promised to visit the United States this spring to meet President Trump for the first time, as preparation for the Hamburg summit.

Radio Derb Is On The Air: Rewriting The Past, Etc

John Derbyshire

Fencer Is First American Olympian to Compete in a Head Scarf - The New York Times

Victor Mather

RIO DE JANEIRO — Drawn to fencing as a teenager because the athletes compete while fully covered, Ibtihaj Muhammad on Monday became the first United States Olympian in any sport to compete at a Games while wearing a hijab. Muhammad, a Olympian at age 30, came from behind to edge a Ukranian fencer, Olena Kravatska, in the round of 32 of the women’s saber competition, but she lost later Monday, to Cécilia Berder of France, in the round of 16. Saber is the quickest and most aggressive of the fencing disciplines. Fencers score quickly, slashing for points, without a lot of the fancy parrying of foil fencing. Milliseconds can separate a winning touch from one that is too slow. Wearing a mask emblazoned with the American flag, Muhammad punctuated her scores with roars of delight and showed visible frustration when calls did not go her way. “I always say that in a sport like fencing, you’re your own biggest opponent,” she said afterward. “If you can control yourself and your nerves and your emotions, and execute the actions that you want, you’ll always be successful, and I failed to do that today. “This has been a beautiful experience for me. I know that this was written for me, the chips fell where they did, and I feel proud to represent Team U. S. A. even in defeat. ” Muhammad, of Maplewood, N. J. first tried fencing at age 13. When she competed in softball, tennis, track and volleyball, her mother, Denise, adjusted her uniforms in accordance with the family’s Muslim faith, adding stretch pants for track and sweatpants for volleyball. “My parents were on a mission to find a sport without alteration,” Muhammad said in an interview in February. Muhammad said of her hijab: “People ask Muslim women about it — not just athletes — all the time. Like, aren’t you hot? On a hot day, you’d still wear a shirt and pants. I would not leave the house without it. ” Muhammad’s accomplishments led to an invitation to join President Obama when he made his first visit as president to an American mosque in Baltimore in February. Muhammad was among the prominent American Muslims invited to a discussion with Mr. Obama before his speech. After losing on Monday, she said that many people in America, both Muslims and did not believe Muslim women participated in sports. “I want to break cultural norms and show girls that it’s important to be active it’s important to be involved in sport,” she said. The other American in the saber competition, Mariel Zagunis, the gold medalist in 2004 and 2008, also lost in the round of 16. The third American, Dagmara Wozniak, was eliminated in the round of 32.

Obama Admits to Rigged Elections back in 2008

Alex Ansary

Obama Admits to Rigged Elections back in 2008 10/27/2016 TRUTH REVOLT There’s a lot of accusations going around that the 2016 election is rigged. From Democrats suggesting Russia is tampering with the presidential election to a plethora of documents and undercover video that proves Democrats are trying their darnedest to sway the outcome. President Obama has laughed off the notion that Bernie Sanders was forced out by the DNC and believes Donald Trump is out of his mind for suggesting elections are rigged. And of course, Obama would never admit that Hillary Clinton could do something wrong. But candidate Obama, in 2008, sure was concerned that the election might be rigged against him. Video of him answering a campaign question has surfaced to put to rest the notion that he doesn’t believe in the possibility: “Well, I tell you what: it helps in Ohio that we’ve got Democrats in charge of the machines. [Cheering] But look, I come from Chicago, so I want to be honest, it’s not as if it’s just Republicans who have monkeyed around with elections in the past, sometimes Democrats have too. You know, whenever people are in power, they’re — you know, they have this tendency to try to, you know, tilt things in their direction.” Watch above. The Freedom Center is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Therefore we do not endorse political candidates either in primary or general elections. However, as defenders of America’s social contract, we insist that the rules laid down by both parties at the outset of campaigns be respected, and that the results be decided by free elections. We will oppose any attempt to rig the system and deny voters of either party their constitutional right to elect candidates of their choice.

Israel’s ’Flying Car’ Passenger Drone Moves Closer to Delivery

Breitbart Jerusalem

(REUTERS) — After 15 years of development, an Israeli tech firm is optimistic it will finally get its 1, 500 kg (1. 5 tonne) passenger carrying drone off the ground and into the market by 2020. [The Cormorant, billed as a flying car, is capable of transporting 500kg (around half a tonne) of weight and traveling at 185 km (115 miles) per hour. It completed its first automated solo flight over terrain in November. Its total price is estimated at $14 million. Developers Urban Aeronautics believe the dark green drone, which uses internal rotors rather than helicopter propellers, could evacuate people from hostile environments allow military forces safe access. Read more here.

November 9: Daily Contrarian Reads

David Stockman

November 9: Daily Contrarian Reads Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 My daily contrarian reads for Wednesday, November 9th, 2016. You need to login to view this content. David Stockman’s Contra Corner isn’t your typical financial tipsheet. Instead it’s an ongoing dialogue about what’s really happening in the markets… the economy… and governments… so you can understand the world around you and make better decisions for yourself. David believes the world -- certainly the United States -- is at a great inflection point in human history. The massive credit inflation of the last three decades has reached its apogee and is now going to splatter spectacularly. This will have lasting ramifications on how governments tax and regulate you… the type of work you and your family members will have available and what you get paid… the value of your nest egg… and all other areas comprising your quality of life. Login

Russian Antarctic expedition to resume drilling works at subglacial Lake Vostok - Russia News Now

This post was originally published on this site ST. PETERSBURG, November 8. /TASS/. Russian researchers plan to resume drilling works at the world’s deepest well of about four kilometers which leads to Lake Vostok, the biggest subglacial lake in Antarctica, chief of the Russian Antarctic expedition Valery Lukin told TASS on Monday. “We plan to resume drilling works at Lake Vostok, despite the fact that funding of the entire program of the expedition has remained at the last year’s level, or slightly more than one billion rubles ($15.67 million),” he said, adding that last year saw a break in the works at Lake Vostok as the most money consuming in the entire expedition’s program. According to Lukin, the plan for this Antarctic summer season is to expand the well’s lower section to prevent water rise in the well during the next, third, drilling attempt to reach the lake’s water, like it happened during the first two attempts. It is not yet decided whether the third attempt to reach the lake’s water will be made this year. “Most likely, we will not have enough time for that during this season but still there is a chance for that,” he said. Researchers plan to arrive at the Vostok station located near the subglacial lake on December 6 and finish their mission in early February. This year, the Russian Antarctic expedition will use three ships to get to the destination. Thus, the Akademik Fedorov is scheduled to sail off on November 12, the Akademik Tereshnikov — on November 19, and the Akademik Karpinsky — in late November. The seasonal expedition, according to Lukin, will include 120 specialists. As many as 110 polar explorers will spend the next winter at five round-the-year Antarctic stations. Lake Vostok, measuring 250 by 50 kilometers, was discovered by the 33rd Russian Antarctic Expedition in 1987. It lies beneath some four kilometers of ice. Drilling was launched in 1989. In February 2012, researchers reached the watershed and took the first samples of water, which were found to contain traces of living organisms, hitherto unknown cold-resistant bacteria. However there was no 100% guarantee that these bacteria had originated from the subglacial lake, since water samples were polluted with priming water from the well. Months later, however, the water in the lake rose and froze at the level of 363 meters. The explorers had to drill a new well parallel to the old one from the depth of 3,406 meters. {{item.group_date}}

WATCH BEFORE DELETED: Hillary Just Had Another Medical Emergency CAUGHT ON CAMERA

Comments EMERGENCY!! Hillary came out of hiding today to make a rare appearance and it was IMMEDIATELY showed why she has been off the campaign trail and hiding from cameras. It hasn’t even been 2 months since she dropped like a rock on 9/11 and had to be hurled into the back of the van by Secret Service, and she clearly isn’t any better… The video shows Hillary confronted with ONE ’12 INCH STEP that she would have to step up onto in order to speak, AND SHE WASN’T ABLE TO DO IT! Her campaign staffer RUSHED to her aid to grasp her hand and arm to push her up onto the riser to keep her from falling again! (Scroll down for video) Okay, it wasn’t technically a “medical emergency” but it would’ve been if her staffer wasn’t there to grab her! Watch how he rushed to grab her so he could help her CONQUER this 12 inch step she had to take. CAN REALLY ELECT SOMEONE AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WHO CANNOT CLIMB UP ONE 12 INCH STEP???? IS THAT ‘SEXIST’ TO WANT A PRESIDENT WHO WILL BE ABLE TO WALK AROUND THE WHITE HOUSE WITHOUT A WALKER?? WATCH for yourself: Hillary heads over to the overflow area to say hello to the crowd in Lake Worth, Florida. But ya know, no enthusiasm there. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/3cUDK245XK — (⌐■_■)ノHillBro (@HillBroYo) October 26, 2016 THIS WOULDN’T BE THAT TROUBLING ON IT’S OWN, BUT CONSIDER WHAT WE ALREADY KONW ABOUT HILLARY’S HEALTH! She passed out cold on a sidewalk and was drug and then flung into a van like a slab of meat (then blamed pneumonia) She’s been coughing non-stop since 2008: She reportedly now has an ambulance in her motorcade. A “stroke score” finger-squeeze test was administered the day she collapsed on 9/11. Oh yea, like we learned today she can’t walk up stairs… SHARE on Facebook because we know the mainstream media won’t cover it!

Obama, Saying Goodbye, Warns of Threats to National Unity - The New York Times

Mark Landler and Julie Bosman

CHICAGO — President Obama, delivering a farewell address in the city that launched his political career, declared on Tuesday his continued confidence in the American experiment. But he warned, in the wake of a toxic presidential election, that economic inequity, racism and threatened to shred the nation’s democratic fabric. “We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others,” Mr. Obama said, “when we write off the whole system as inevitably corrupt, and when we sit back and blame the leaders we elect without examining our own role in electing them. ” Speaking to a rapturous crowd that recalled the excitement of his campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama said he believed even the deepest ideological divides could be bridged. His words were nevertheless etched with frustration — a blunt coda to a remarkable day that laid bare many of the racial crosscurrents in the country. On Capitol Hill, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama presented himself as a moderate in his confirmation hearing for attorney general, while his critics denounced him as a racist. In Charleston, S. C. Dylann S. Roof, the white supremacist who shot nine black churchgoers, was sentenced to death. And here, in the cavernous convention hall where Mr. Obama celebrated his in 2012, the nation’s first black president — still popular, still optimistic — bade America goodbye 10 days before turning over his office to Donald J. Trump, who ran what his critics labeled a racist campaign. Mr. Obama pledged again to support his successor. But his speech was a thinly veiled rebuke of several of the positions Mr. Trump staked out during the campaign, from climate change and barring Muslims from entering the country to repealing his landmark health care law. “If every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and undeserving minorities,” Mr. Obama said, “then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclave. ” “If we decline to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don’t look like us, we diminish the prospects of our own children — because those brown kids will represent a larger share of America’s work force,” he added. In giving a farewell address, Mr. Obama invoked a privilege of presidents going back to George Washington. He staked his claim as the leader who steered the nation through the storms of the Great Recession to a growing economy and job market. He claimed credit for reducing the rate of uninsured Americans to record lows, while keeping a cap on health care costs. In a pointed reference to Republicans determined to repeal the health care bill that was one of the signature accomplishments of his presidency, Mr. Obama said, “If anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our health care system — that covers as many people at less cost — I will publicly support it. ” There were also nostalgic moments, as well. He recalled the 2008 campaign that started him on his improbable journey to the White House. He thanked the army of volunteers and staff members who swept him into the Oval Office, ending with the iconic chant, “Yes, we can. ” And reflecting on all they had accomplished, he added, “Yes, we did. ” “It has been the honor of my life to serve you,” Mr. Obama said. “I won’t stop in fact, I will be right there with you, as a citizen, for all my remaining days. ” He drew some of the most thunderous applause of the night when he paid tribute to his wife, Michelle — “my best friend” — and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. — “a brother. ” As the crowd of 18, 000 clapped and stamped their feet, Mr. Obama dabbed his eyes. Afterward, Mrs. Obama and her elder daughter, Malia, appeared onstage with the president, along with Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill. The Obamas’ younger daughter, Sasha, stayed in Washington because she has an exam in school on Wednesday morning, the White House said. But Mr. Obama clearly wanted to use his last major turn on the national stage to send a message. Americans, he said, should not take their democracy for granted. Lamenting the perennially low voter turnout rates, Mr. Obama urged people to become involved. “If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet,” he said, “try to talk with one in real life. ” “America is not a fragile thing,” the president said. “But the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured. ” The White House had meticulously planned this event, from the location to the tone and cadence of the speech, which clearly reached for the oratorical heights of his addresses. The president was still rewriting his remarks on Tuesday afternoon, one of his aides said, after being up very late Monday night scrawling edits on what was then already the fourth draft. Mr. Obama’s chief speechwriter, Cody Keenan, pored over previous farewell addresses for inspiration. George Washington used the occasion to disclose he would not run for a third term and warned Americans to steer clear of foreign entanglements in Europe, while Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the influence of the “ complex. ” Mr. Obama’s message recalled his final State of the Union address last year, as well as speeches he gave in Springfield, Ill. at the commencement ceremonies at Howard University and Rutgers University and during the Democratic National Convention. Dozens of alumni from the White House and Mr. Obama’s political operation converged on Chicago to cheer their boss. With parties all over town, the atmosphere felt like a wistful version of 2012, or even more so, of 2008, when Mr. Obama’s election drew a people to a jubilant victory celebration in nearby Grant Park. There was, however, an undeniable tinge of sadness to Mr. Obama’s — the dread among many in this crowd that his legacy will be undone by Mr. Trump, and the disappointment that, for all his political gifts, he was unable to hand over his office to his chosen successor, Hillary Clinton. “Beers and tears,” said Ben LaBolt, who served as the national press secretary for Mr. Obama’s campaign. Many said they had waited hours in the cold to get tickets, like McGee, an elementary school teacher from the Chicago suburb Country Club Hills. Those hours had a purpose. She wanted to demonstrate to her students that seeing Mr. Obama was worth the wait. “Better than waiting to shop on Black Friday. Better than waiting in line for gym shoes,” she said. But Ms. McGee was troubled by Mr. Trump’s inauguration, and the damage it could do to Mr. Obama’s legacy. “There’s so much to say about him,” she said. “He maintained class, he maintained dignity. Honestly, I don’t want him to leave, but I’m sure it will be a load off his shoulders. ” Alvin Love, a Baptist minister, walked through the crowd holding the hand of his granddaughter, Bayleigh Love, who wore a red sequined party dress. He and Mr. Obama go back 30 years, when the president was a young community organizer on the South Side. “It’s mixed emotions for me,” he said. “I’m sad to see it come to an end, but proud and happy to see the work that he’s done. ” Mr. Love said he believed Mr. Obama’s work could be sustained, even with the advent of a Trump presidency. “Any time right is done, it will sooner or later stand up again. ”

Amid ‘Trump Effect’ Fear, 40% of Colleges See Dip in Foreign Applicants - The New York Times

Stephanie Saul

The president of Portland State University, Wim Wiewel, met last week with 10 prospective students in Hyderabad, India. But what started as a visit quickly turned into more of a counseling session, as the students expressed fears about coming to the United States this fall. One student, who is Muslim, said his father was worried that America had an attitude, Mr. Wiewel recounted. “Several others said they were concerned about the ‘Trump effect,’” he said in an email. “I’d say the rhetoric and actual executive orders are definitely having a chilling effect,” Mr. Wiewel wrote, referring to the Trump administration’s travel ban. Like many universities across the country, the Oregon university is getting fewer international applications. Nearly 40 percent of colleges are reporting overall declines in applications from international students, according to a survey of 250 college and universities, released this week by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The biggest decline is in applications from the Middle East. Many officials cited worries among prospective students about Trump administration immigration policies. “International student recruitment professionals report a great deal of concern from students all over the globe,” the study said. On Wednesday, the federal judge in Hawaii who blocked the latest version of the administration’s travel ban cited the financial harm the executive order posed to the state’s university system, which recruits students and hires faculty members from the six target countries. (Washington State officials raised similar concerns in successfully challenging the first travel ban.) Graduate schools appear to be feeling the worst pinch, with nearly half reporting drops. “Our deans describe it as a chilling effect,” said Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools. The numbers — while not yet final — are provoking anxiety in some programs that rely on international students, who bring more than $32 billion a year into the United States economy. International enrollment at American colleges has been on the rise over the past decade, and for the first time exceeded one million students last year. Still, despite the steady increase, the movement of students from one country to another is sensitive to fluctuations tied to political and economic forces. So some officials cautioned that a “Trump effect’ is just one possible explanation for this year’s application figures. Beyond that, many schools, including New York University, the University of Southern California and Northeastern University, reported that their international numbers are up. Purdue University reported a 1. 2 percent decline in graduate school applications. Mr. Wiewel made his trip to Hyderabad not long after residents of the city held funeral services for a young Indian man who was killed in a bar in Olathe, Kan. where he worked as an engineer. The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime. Mr. Wiewel reassured the students — all admitted to Portland State’s graduate engineering program — that his university’s environment was safe and welcoming. He was a bit surprised by their concerns, he said, because students he visited earlier in New Delhi and Bangalore had been more anxious about financing their graduate studies, apparently a reaction to India’s recent currency shortage. Other economic factors may also be involved in the application declines, Ms. Ortega said, including crude oil prices in Saudi Arabia. Also at play: uncertainty about the future of a visa program called that international graduates frequently rely on to remain in the United States to work. For several graduate schools, the Trump administration’s travel ban, which initially affected seven predominantly Muslim countries, could not have been more poorly timed. It was announced in late January as deadlines loomed for applications to some graduate programs, and it came on the heels of Mr. Trump’s virulently rhetoric during the campaign. Slumping graduate school applications can now be seen at universities ranging from giant Big Ten public universities like Ohio State and Indiana University to regional programs such as Portland State, with just over 27, 000 students, including more than 1, 900 international students. At Indiana University, international applications for undergraduate programs increased 6 percent, but graduate applications for some programs are posting big drops, said David Zaret, vice president for international affairs. Mr. Zaret said international applications to the masters program in business were down 20 percent, and down 30 percent in both the master of law program and at the School of Informatics and Computing. The university will not have problems filling the programs, but the drop might affect the overall quality of the applicant pool, he said. Ohio State has also seen an increase in international undergraduate applications but a significant overall drop — 8. 4 percent — in international applicants to its graduate programs, a university spokesman, Chris Davey, said. The biggest decline was among students from China — a fact Mr. Davey said did not support the “Trump effect” theory. In 2016, he said, there were 2, 412 graduate applications from China this year the number was down to 1, 952. “We’re inclined to say that the overarching factors that might be influencing this are probably global economic factors and it would be premature to conclude that it’s the travel ban,” Mr. Davey said. “But it certainly could be. ” Because application deadlines at several larger colleges had passed before Mr. Trump’s travel ban was announced, some universities are more worried about the “yield” — the number of students offered admission who end up enrolling, said Frances Leslie, vice provost for the graduate division at the University of California, Irvine. Applications at Irvine are not down, but students have expressed concerned about coming to the United States, Ms. Leslie said. “We’re hearing from students, even beyond the seven countries, expressing concern,” Ms. Leslie said, referring to Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, which were singled out in the first travel ban. “This year, even when students are admitted, they may not be willing to accept the offers. ” The university will not have those numbers until April 15, a national deadline for students to make a decision. At Portland State, where undergraduate international applications are up 4 percent but international graduate applications are down 15 percent, the vice provost for international affairs, Margaret Everett, said she had heard recently from a Chinese student who canceled his application, citing the political climate. “Obviously we’re concerned about the climate and the rhetoric and the administration policies and travel ban,” Ms. Everett said.

Visiting Europe, Obama Warns Against Rise of ‘Crude Sort of Nationalism’ - The New York Times

Gardiner Harris

ATHENS — President Obama, in some of his strongest language since Donald J. Trump’s election last week, on Tuesday warned against the rise of nationalistic tribalism, apparently a reference to Mr. Trump’s decision to appoint Stephen K. Bannon, a nationalist, to a top position. “I do believe, separate and apart from any particular election or movement, that we are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around an ‘us’ and a ‘them,’” Mr. Obama said. Mr. Obama’s remarks came in an hourlong news conference in Athens on his final trip overseas as president. He had come to Greece partly to bolster Greek hopes of further debt relief from its European partners, which will meet on Dec. 5 to consider giving this ailing nation another pass on its mountain of debt. But Mr. Trump’s election last week subverted Mr. Obama’s top foreign policy priorities, and he seemed to have arrived in Athens in a reflective mood. On Monday, just hours before he flew across the Atlantic, Mr. Obama offered conciliatory remarks on Mr. Trump and his coming administration during a White House news conference. He declined on Monday to comment on Mr. Trump’s selection of Mr. Bannon — a media executive whose website, Breitbart. com, has promoted white nationalist, racist and views — as chief White House strategist and senior counselor. By Tuesday, however, Mr. Obama seemed to reverse himself, making pointed remarks about the dangers of overturning his administration’s track record on race relations or returning to forms of bigotry. “In the United States, we know what happens when we start dividing ourselves along lines of race or religion or ethnicity. It’s dangerous,” he said. “Not just for the minority groups that are subjected to that kind of discrimination or, in some cases in the past violence, but because we don’t then realize our potential as a country when we’re preventing blacks or Latinos or Asians or gays or women from fully participating in the project of building American life. ” Mr. Obama was unapologetic and unequivocal on his record of inclusiveness. “So my vision’s right on that issue,” he said. “And it may not always win the day in the short term in any particular political circumstance, but I’m confident it will win the day over the long term. ” Mr. Obama said that the desire for change was a huge factor in Mr. Trump’s victory. “Sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something to see if we can shake things up, and that I suspect was a significant phenomenon,” he said. He said that while Mr. Trump’s victory and Britain’s surprising vote in June to leave the European Union differed in important respects, the two electoral earthquakes both grew out of dislocations that have resulted from of a rapidly changing and globalizing world. “Globalization combined with technology combined with social media and constant information have disrupted people’s lives, sometimes in very concrete ways,” Mr. Obama said while standing next to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece. “A manufacturing plant closes, and suddenly an entire town no longer has what was the primary source of employment. ” He said the effects can be psychological as well, making people “less certain of their national identities or their place in the world. ” “When you see a Donald Trump and a Bernie Sanders, very unconventional candidates, having considerable success, then obviously there is something there that is being tapped into,” Mr. Obama said. “A suspicion of globalization. A desire to rein in its excesses. ” The increasing pain felt by working people had led to a growing suspicion of elites and governing institutions, he said. “And that sometimes gets wrapped up in issues of ethnic identity or religious identity or cultural identity and that can be a volatile mix,” Mr. Obama said. Mr. Obama complimented Mr. Tsipras on the political and structural reforms he had pushed through — reforms that severely damaged Mr. Tsipras’s popularity in Greece. And he said he planned to urge others in Europe to forgive more of Greece’s debt. Mr. Obama will fly on Wednesday to Berlin, where he will spend at least two days in meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and then in a meeting with the leaders of France, Britain and Spain. Mr. Trump has questioned the value of NATO, the bedrock Western military alliance between Europe and the United States. But Mr. Obama said that Mr. Trump had assured him during their Oval Office meeting last week that he remained committed to NATO. Also on Tuesday, Mr. Obama said he believed that “there is a window in the next few weeks” to resolve the standoff between Greece and Turkey on the island of Cyprus. Turkish troops have occupied the northern third of the island since an invasion in 1974. For his part, Mr. Tsipras again denounced Europe’s decision in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to embark on a program of “disastrous austerity, which made the problems more acute instead of resolving them. ” He noted that Greece’s economy at its worst had contracted by 25 percent and that its unemployment rate had peaked at 27 percent.

Cyrus Mistry renames himself Rohit Sharma-Mistry, gets job back

Citizen Satirist

Cyrus Mistry renames himself Rohit Sharma-Mistry, gets job back Posted on Tweet (Image via intoday.in) Deposed chairman of Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry, has hit upon a great idea to get back his job. At a press conference earlier in the day, Mistry announced that he shall no longer be known as Cyrus Mistry, and instead asked everyone to call him Rohit Sharma-Mistry. Fifteen minutes after Sharma-Mistry’s press conference, Ratan Rata called for a press conference and announced the group’s decision to reinstate Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of Tata Group. “Mr. Sharma-Mistry is a rare talent who will be groomed for the future,” said Tata. “The Trustees and other directors of Tata Sons are convinced about Mr. Sharma-Mistry’s ability and firmly believe that when he gets going, he can turn around any business within one quarter.” Later, our correspondent reached out to the jubilant Sharma-Mistry and asked him what gave him this idea. Sharma-Mistry said that the emotional atyachar at Tata Sons was irking him, but then he met an inspired god man from Chennai, Cheeni Mama, who gave him guidance. Mr Sharma-Mistry is now considering building a temple for Cheeni Mama. “After all, our organization is known for its charitable acts, and in TN it is accepted practice to build a temple for actors, so this is very well in line with our organizational ethos,” Sharma-Mistry was quoted as saying. (Submitted by Citizen Satirist Badri Narayanan )

MILO: ’I’m What the Future of Conservative Politics Has to Look Like’ - Breitbart

Lucas Nolan

Appearing on the Jason and Burns show on KIRO Radio, Breitbart Senior editor MILO described himself as “what the future of conservative politics has to look like. ”[“So when we talk about Milo Yiannopoulos,” began show host Zak Burns, “the brand is often defined as this racist, member who spouts hate speech and should not be allowed on college campuses. When you look back at how you’re targeted, particularly your content, do you see any points that the left is making that may be valid?” “Ah, no, not really!” replied MILO. “They’re determined to smear and lie and misrepresent at every available opportunity anyone who dares to be even slightly right of center. Now they’re particularly upset with me because I happen to be a conservative gay guy and have black boyfriends and God knows what else so they can’t get me on racism, they can’t get me on sexism, they can’t get me on homophobia, they can’t get me with any of their usual strategies. ” MILO continued, “They are left with the horrifying prospect of actually having to argue on the facts, on the merits and reasoned logic and data and they’re not very good at that. Because they haven’t been doing that for about thirty years and they’ve forgotten how. ” MILO further stated, “The name calling strategies and the smear tactics simply don’t work on me, they haven’t worked for some time actually it’s just that nobody really realised. This last election we saw exactly what the results are when the media goes after people they’re and baselessly calls them names, people tend to vote almost out of spite and mischief and defiance of the politically correct establishment. They vote for somebody, even somebody like Donald Trump. ” “I think my success is part of that too, there’s sort of two MILO’s really, there’s the MILO that the Breitbart fans know, my readers know, the people who come to my shows know which is a sort of slightly waspish, trolly, mischievous provocateur who thinks very deeply, reads very widely, and asks people to reconsider things that they thought they knew. And then there’s the version in the media which is some sort of bizarre, white supremacist monster. Nobody recognises that picture in the same way that they didn’t really recognise the picture of Donald Trump painted by CNN and The New York Times. ” “Trust me, nobody at Breitbart cares about having a token gay on staff,” said MILO discussing what it’s like to be a non stereotypical conservative. “They couldn’t give two tosses one way or the other, the fact is they like me because I’m mischievous and fun and interesting and smart and they just want me around to start conversations. You know there’s always this sort of assumption, which comes precisely from the identity politics that I’m attacking, that there must be something wrong with you, there must be some sort of tokenism going on, you’re somebody that was sort of acquired and broken into, you’re a black guy who somehow accidentally ended up Republican or you’re a gay who somehow accidentally ended up Republican and there’s something wrong with you so they’re using you because you’re atypical of the whole, well I’m not atypical of the whole. ” MILO continued, “In the last election in the UK, 50% of gay men said that they were voting for the conservatives, for the party in the UK. There are vast numbers of homosexuals, not just in the Republican party but who love Donald Trump because of course they do! He’s bombastic, he’s fantastic and camp and all the rest of it but he’s also, A) very strong on Islam and B) very strongly against political correctness. Things that are very important to gays. ” “Now nobody covers that,” said MILO. “No one really pays attention to it, you’ll never really see it in the New York Times, but it is a fact, and I’m very much not a token, in fact I’m what politics looks like now and because the media has been covering this so badly for so many decades you just haven’t worked that out yet. This is what young conservatives look like, they’re fun, mischievous, dissident, punk, trolly, good looking, fashionable. The trendy direction to go, if you want to irritate your parents, you want to get tossed out of polite society, all the things that you would have done if you were a punk in the 60’s or 70’s or you were looking at Madonna in the 90’s who was being banned from MTV, well what do you do now? You put on one of Donald Trump’s red MAGA hats. ” “I’m not a token, I’m what the future of conservative politics has to look like,” he stated. Listen to the full interview here.

Samsung Group Leader Is Named a Suspect in South Korean Bribery Inquiry - The New York Times

Choe Sang-Hun

SEOUL, South Korea — A special prosecutor investigating the corruption scandal that led to President Park ’s impeachment summoned the de facto head of Samsung for questioning on Wednesday, calling him a bribery suspect. The de facto leader, Jay Y. Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung, will be questioned on Thursday, according to the special prosecutor’s office, which recommended that he also be investigated on suspicion of perjury. Mr. Lee effectively runs Samsung, South Korea’s largest conglomerate he is the son of its chairman, Lee who has been incapacitated with health problems. He is expected to be asked whether donations that Samsung made to two foundations controlled by Choi a longtime friend of the president, amounted to bribes, and what role, if any, he played in the decision to give the money. Investigators at the special prosecutor’s office have questioned other senior Samsung executives as suspects about the bribery accusations. Neither Samsung nor Mr. Lee responded immediately to the announcement on Wednesday. Allegations that Ms. Park helped Ms. Choi extort millions in bribes from Samsung and other companies are at the heart of the corruption scandal that led to the National Assembly’s vote to impeach her last month. Since then, Ms. Park’s powers have been suspended, and she is on trial at the Constitutional Court, which will ultimately decide whether to end her presidency. Last month, Mr. Lee testified at a National Assembly hearing that he was not involved in the decision by Samsung to make the donations. He also said that the donations were not voluntary, suggesting that the company was a victim of extortion, not a participant in bribery. The reference on Wednesday to possible perjury charges against Mr. Lee stemmed from that testimony. The special prosecutor’s office said it had evidence that Mr. Lee had “received a request for bribery from the president and ordered Samsung subsidiaries to send bribes to destinations designated by the president. ” It asked the National Assembly to file a perjury complaint against Mr. Lee, which would authorize the special prosecutor to open an investigation of that charge. Asked whether investigators would seek to arrest Mr. Lee on bribery charges, a spokesman for the special prosecutor’s office, Lee said, “All possibilities are open. ” In November, state prosecutors indicted Ms. Choi on charges of coercing 53 big businesses, including Samsung, to contribute $69 million to her two foundations. They identified Ms. Park as an accomplice but stopped short of filing any charges against the businesses, all of which insisted that they were under government pressure to donate. In its impeachment bill, the National Assembly asserted that the donations were bribes, made with the expectation of political favors from the president. The special prosecutor, which took over the investigations from the state prosecutors last month, has been looking into possible bribery charges against not only Ms. Park but the businesses, particularly Samsung. Ms. Park cannot be indicted while in office. Samsung gave the largest donations to Ms. Choi’s foundations, totaling $17 million. Unlike the other corporate contributors, it went beyond support for the foundations, signing an $18 million contract with a sports management company that Ms. Choi ran in Germany, to fund a program for training Korean equestrians, which mainly benefited Ms. Choi’s daughter. Samsung also contributed $1. 3 million to a winter sports program for young athletes that Ms. Choi and her nephew ran. Also on Wednesday, the special prosecutor’s office said it had acquired a tablet computer used by Ms. Choi that contained emails she exchanged with a Samsung executive. The emails contained information about the financial support provided by Samsung, the prosecutor’s office said. The special prosecutor has been investigating whether Samsung gave its support to Ms. Choi in exchange for a decision by the National Pension Service to support a contentious merger of two Samsung affiliates in 2015. Moon chairman of the pension fund, was arrested last month on charges that he illegally pressured the fund to back that merger when he was South Korea’s health and welfare minister. The national pension fund’s support was crucial for the merger, which analysts said helped Mr. Lee inherit control of Samsung from his father.

Tom Van Flein: House Ethics Reform Necessary to Stop Left’s Alinsky Tactics

John Hayward

On Friday, Tom Van Flein, chief of staff to Rep. Paul Gosar ( ) and legal counsel to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, discussed with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam the recent effort to overhaul the House ethics system. [Flein said the problem with the reform package presented, and then withdrawn, this week was that “it lacked transparency, so it was sort of dropped on the American public without any hearings, without any discussion, and that ultimately led to its failure. ” “It was a failure of process and the lack of transparency,” he emphasized. “It wasn’t because it did not have merit, however. And it was not, as the New York Times falsely stated in their Fake News, that it was ‘gutting’ the OCE [Office of Congressional Ethics] at all. It was modifying that agency to install some basic due process rights. ” “As it’s been going now, members of Congress have been subjected to secretive proceedings, abusive proceedings,” he explained. “There is a presumption of guilt. There’s a failure to disclose charges so people are not even aware of what the details are of the charges against them. They’ve been punished for simply hiring an attorney to represent them. And it’s being used for partisan purposes to get bad headlines and make people look bad. So the reforms were needed. ” “I’m very familiar with that, by the way, having represented Governor Palin,” he added. “I think I handled 23 or 24 ethics complaints, of which we got all of them dismissed, but they all caused headlines, negative headlines. And then when the matter gets dismissed, after tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and six months of proceedings, you don’t get any news update on that. It’s certainly not on the front page, which is where the complaint goes. ” Van Flein estimated that the ethics reform plan would resurface in Congress in “six months to a year. ” “When Trump sent out his tweet that said, ‘Hey, we need to focus on some other issues first,’ I think the members of Congress heard that loud and clear and said, ‘You know what? He’s right. Before we clean up our own house here, let’s get our economic package going. Let’s get our tax reform going. Let’s get the things that matter to the new President and to the new Congress. Let’s get the important issues going in the next six months. And then we can clean up messes like this at some point later,” he said. Kassam asked if it was wrong for Congress to have different priorities than the White House. “Not at all,” Van Flein replied. “It’s a separate branch of government, and they have their own priorities and their own problems to deal with. But I do think it’s been a great sign of respect to the what they did. ” He said it was hard to tell if concern about bad press, a conflict with the White House, or conflict with “vindictive” Democrats were motivating factors in withdrawing the ethics reform proposals, as Kassam suggested. “I think what was motivating is, now that there is a clear majority in the House and Senate, and a President that might sign it, that they took the opportunity to say this is long overdue. And by the way, it was bipartisan, prior to earlier this week. You would think that only the Republicans wanted to reform this. There were many Democrats previously calling for the same reforms that were presented in this package. It did not gut this agency, by the way. It just made it more transparent,” Van Flein argued. “They’re going to pursue it. It’s going to come up again,” he predicted. “Because it affects every member of Congress, and it’s extremely unfair, and they at least have the power in their lives to change the law — unlike, you know, the rest of us, when an administrative agency or a bureaucracy is unfair to the average person it takes a lot sometimes to get these changes made. ” Kassam asked if Van Flein thought the existing ethics system was abused more frequently to damage Republicans than Democrats. “In general, that appears to be the case,” he said. “Why don’t the Republicans do it back?” asked Kassam. “I would like to believe that the conservatives, at least, believe that there has to be merit before signing your name on a complaint, saying that somebody did something wrong, that there’s some factual basis for this,” Van Flein suggested. “And I would like to believe that at least the conservatives are dealing with the world of facts, rather than a world of delusion. That may not be the case, but I think it is, or at least I think the majority is that way. ” He said using spurious ethics complaints and lawsuits to preoccupy opponents and drain their financial resources implements “at least two of Alinsky’s tactics,” referring to Rules for Radicals author Saul Alinsky. “You can isolate the person and personalize it, even though what we’re really talking about are policy issues that they disagree with. They want to isolate a target and make it personal,” he explained. “And then they want to use the state’s own rules — in part that have been written by members of Congress — against themselves — hold other people accountable to the very rules that they later destroy or abandon or don’t comply with, with impunity, it seems. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN:

News We Don't Have Time To Write About (archive)

Margaret

Channel list Following hurricane Matthew's failure to devastate Florida, activists flock to the Sunshine State and destroy Trump signs manually Tim Kaine takes credit for interrupting hurricane Matthew while debating weather in Florida Study: Many non-voters still undecided on how they're not going to vote The Evolution of Dissent: on November 8th the nation is to decide whether dissent will stop being racist and become sexist - or it will once again be patriotic as it was for 8 years under George W. Bush Venezuela solves starvation problem by making it mandatory to buy food Breaking: the Clinton Foundation set to investigate the FBI Obama ​​captures rare Pokémon ​​while visiting Hiroshima Movie news: 'The Big Friendly Giant Government' flops at box office; audiences say "It's creepy" Barack Obama: "If I had a son, he'd look like Micah Johnson" White House edits Orlando 911 transcript to say shooter pledged allegiance to NRA and Republican Party President George Washington: 'Redcoats do not represent British Empire; King George promotes a distorted version of British colonialism' Following Obama's 'Okie-Doke' speech , stock of Okie-Doke soars; NASDAQ: 'Obama best Okie-Doke salesman' Weaponized baby formula threatens Planned Parenthood office; ACLU demands federal investigation of Gerber Experts: melting Antarctic glacier could cause sale levels to rise up to 80% off select items by this weekend Travel advisory: airlines now offering flights to front of TSA line As Obama instructs his administration to get ready for presidential transition, Trump preemptively purchases 'T' keys for White House keyboards John Kasich self-identifies as GOP primary winner, demands access to White House bathroom Upcoming Trump/Kelly interview on FoxNews sponsored by 'Let's Make a Deal' and 'The Price is Right' News from 2017: once the evacuation of Lena Dunham and 90% of other Hollywood celebrities to Canada is confirmed, Trump resigns from presidency: "My work here is done" Non-presidential candidate Paul Ryan pledges not to run for president in new non-presidential non-ad campaign Trump suggests creating 'Muslim database'; Obama symbolically protests by shredding White House guest logs beginning 2009 National Enquirer: John Kasich's real dad was the milkman, not mailman National Enquirer: Bound delegates from Colorado, Wyoming found in Ted Cruz’s basement Iran breaks its pinky-swear promise not to support terrorism; US State Department vows rock-paper-scissors strategic response Women across the country cheer as racist Democrat president on $20 bill is replaced by black pro-gun Republican Federal Reserve solves budget crisis by writing itself a 20-trillion-dollar check Widows, orphans claim responsibility for Brussels airport bombing Che Guevara's son hopes Cuba's communism will rub off on US, proposes a long list of people the government should execute first Susan Sarandon: "I don't vote with my vagina." Voters in line behind her still suspicious, use hand sanitizer Campaign memo typo causes Hillary to court 'New Black Panties' vote New Hampshire votes for socialist Sanders, changes state motto to "Live FOR Free or Die" Martin O'Malley drops out of race after Iowa Caucus; nation shocked with revelation he has been running for president Statisticians: one out of three Bernie Sanders supporters is just as dumb as the other two Hillary campaign denies accusations of smoking-gun evidence in her emails, claims they contain only smoking-circumstantial-gun evidence Obama stops short of firing US Congress upon realizing the difficulty of assembling another group of such tractable yes-men In effort to contol wild passions for violent jihad, White House urges gun owners to keep their firearms covered in gun burkas TV horror live: A Charlie Brown Christmas gets shot up on air by Mohammed cartoons Democrats vow to burn the country down over Ted Cruz statement, 'The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats' Russia's trend to sign bombs dropped on ISIS with "This is for Paris" found response in Obama administration's trend to sign American bombs with "Return to sender" University researchers of cultural appropriation quit upon discovery that their research is appropriation from a culture that created universities Archeologists discover remains of what Barack Obama has described as unprecedented, un-American, and not-who-we-are immigration screening process in Ellis Island Mizzou protests lead to declaring entire state a "safe space," changing Missouri motto to "The don't show me state" Green energy fact: if we put all green energy subsidies together in one-dollar bills and burn them, we could generate more electricity than has been produced by subsidized green energy State officials improve chances of healthcare payouts by replacing ObamaCare with state lottery NASA's new mission to search for racism, sexism, and economic inequality in deep space suffers from race, gender, and class power struggles over multibillion-dollar budget College progress enforcement squads issue schematic humor charts so students know if a joke may be spontaneously laughed at or if regulations require other action ISIS opens suicide hotline for US teens depressed by climate change and other progressive doomsday scenarios Virginia county to close schools after teacher asks students to write 'death to America' in Arabic 'Wear hijab to school day' ends with spontaneous female circumcision and stoning of a classmate during lunch break ISIS releases new, even more barbaric video in an effort to regain mantle from Planned Parenthood Impressed by Fox News stellar rating during GOP debates, CNN to use same formula on Democrat candidates asking tough, pointed questions about Republicans Shocking new book explores pros and cons of socialism, discovers they are same people Pope outraged by Planned Parenthood's "unfettered capitalism," demands equal redistribution of baby parts to each according to his need John Kerry accepts Iran's "Golden Taquiyya" award, requests jalapenos on the side Citizens of Pluto protest US government's surveillance of their planetoid and its moons with New Horizons space drone John Kerry proposes 3-day waiting period for all terrorist nations trying to acquire nuclear weapons Chicago Police trying to identify flag that caused nine murders and 53 injuries in the city this past weekend Cuba opens to affordable medical tourism for Americans who can't afford Obamacare deductibles State-funded research proves existence of Quantum Aggression Particles (Heterons) in Large Hadron Collider Student job opportunities: make big bucks this summer as Hillary’s Ordinary-American; all expenses paid, travel, free acting lessons Experts debate whether Iranian negotiators broke John Kerry's leg or he did it himself to get out of negotiations Junior Varsity takes Ramadi, advances to quarterfinals US media to GOP pool of candidates: 'Knowing what we know now, would you have had anything to do with the founding of the United States?' NY Mayor to hold peace talks with rats, apologize for previous Mayor's cowboy diplomacy China launches cube-shaped space object with a message to aliens: "The inhabitants of Earth will steal your intellectual property, copy it, manufacture it in sweatshops with slave labor, and sell it back to you at ridiculously low prices" Progressive scientists: Truth is a variable deduced by subtracting 'what is' from 'what ought to be' Experts agree: Hillary Clinton best candidate to lessen percentage of Americans in top 1% America's attempts at peace talks with the White House continue to be met with lies, stalling tactics, and bad faith Starbucks new policy to talk race with customers prompts new hashtag #DontHoldUpTheLine Hillary: DELETE is the new RESET Charlie Hebdo receives Islamophobe 2015 award ; the cartoonists could not be reached for comment due to their inexplicable, illogical deaths Russia sends 'reset' button back to Hillary: 'You need it now more than we do' Barack Obama finds out from CNN that Hillary Clinton spent four years being his Secretary of State President Obama honors Leonard Nimoy by taking selfie in front of Starship Enterprise Police: If Obama had a convenience store, it would look like Obama Express Food Market Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males NASA: We're 80% sure about being 20% sure about being 17% sure about being 38% sure about 2014 being the hottest year on record People holding '$15 an Hour Now' posters sue Democratic party demanding raise to $15 an hour for rendered professional protesting services Cuba-US normalization: US tourists flock to see Cuba before it looks like the US and Cubans flock to see the US before it looks like Cuba White House describes attacks on Sony Pictures as 'spontaneous hacking in response to offensive video mocking Juche and its prophet' CIA responds to Democrat calls for transparency by releasing the director's cut of The Making Of Obama's Birth Certificate Obama: 'If I had a city, it would look like Ferguson' Biden: 'If I had a Ferguson (hic), it would look like a city' Obama signs executive order renaming 'looters' to 'undocumented shoppers' Ethicists agree: two wrongs do make a right so long as Bush did it first The aftermath of the 'War on Women 2014' finds a new 'Lost Generation' of disillusioned Democrat politicians, unable to cope with life out of office White House: Republican takeover of the Senate is a clear mandate from the American people for President Obama to rule by executive orders Nurse Kaci Hickox angrily tells reporters that she won't change her clocks for daylight savings time Democratic Party leaders in panic after recent poll shows most Democratic voters think 'midterm' is when to end pregnancy Desperate Democratic candidates plead with Obama to stop backing them and instead support their GOP opponents Ebola Czar issues five-year plan with mandatory quotas of Ebola infections per each state based on voting preferences Study: crony capitalism is to the free market what the Westboro Baptist Church is to Christianity Fun facts about world languages: the Left has more words for statism than the Eskimos have for snow African countries to ban all flights from the United States because "Obama is incompetent, it scares us" Nobel Peace Prize controversy: Hillary not nominated despite having done even less than Obama to deserve it Obama: 'Ebola is the JV of viruses' BREAKING: Secret Service foils Secret Service plot to protect Obama Revised 1st Amendment: buy one speech, get the second free Sharpton calls on white NFL players to beat their women in the interests of racial fairness President Obama appoints his weekly approval poll as new national security adviser Obama wags pen and phone at Putin; Europe offers support with powerful pens and phones from NATO members White House pledges to embarrass ISIS back to the Stone Age with a barrage of fearsome Twitter messages and fatally ironic Instagram photos Obama to fight ISIS with new federal Terrorist Regulatory Agency Obama vows ISIS will never raise their flag over the eighteenth hole Harry Reid: "Sometimes I say the wong thing" Elian Gonzalez wishes he had come to the U.S. on a bus from Central America like all the other kids Obama visits US-Mexican border, calls for a two-state solution Obama draws "blue line" in Iraq after Putin took away his red crayon "Hard Choices," a porno flick loosely based on Hillary Clinton's memoir and starring Hillary Hellfire as a drinking, whoring Secretary of State, wildly outsells the flabby, sagging original Accusations of siding with the enemy leave Sgt. Bergdahl with only two options: pursue a doctorate at Berkley or become a Senator from Massachusetts Jay Carney stuck in line behind Eric Shinseki to leave the White House; estimated wait time from 15 min to 6 weeks 100% of scientists agree that if man-made global warming were real, "the last people we'd want to help us is the Obama administration" Jay Carney says he found out that Obama found out that he found out that Obama found out that he found out about the latest Obama administration scandal on the news "Anarchy Now!" meeting turns into riot over points of order, bylaws, and whether or not 'kicking the #^@&*! ass' of the person trying to speak is or is not violence Obama retaliates against Putin by prohibiting unionized federal employees from dating hot Russian girls online during work hours Russian separatists in Ukraine riot over an offensive YouTube video showing the toppling of Lenin statues "Free Speech Zones" confuse Obamaphone owners who roam streets in search of additional air minutes Obamacare bolsters employment for professionals with skills to convert meth back into sudafed Gloves finally off: Obama uses pen and phone to cancel Putin's Netflix account Joe Biden to Russia: "We will bury you by turning more of Eastern Europe over to your control!" In last-ditch effort to help Ukraine, Obama deploys Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson's Rainbow Coalition to Crimea Al Sharpton: "Not even Putin can withstand our signature chanting, 'racist, sexist, anti-gay, Russian army go away'!" Mardi Gras in North Korea: " Throw me some food! " Obama's foreign policy works: "War, invasion, and conquest are signs of weakness; we've got Putin right where we want him" US offers military solution to Ukraine crisis: "We will only fight countries that have LGBT military" Putin annexes Brighton Beach to protect ethnic Russians in Brooklyn, Obama appeals to UN and EU for help The 1980s: "Mr. Obama, we're just calling to ask if you want our foreign policy back . The 1970s are right here with us, and they're wondering, too." In a stunning act of defiance, Obama courageously unfriends Putin on Facebook MSNBC: Obama secures alliance with Austro-Hungarian Empire against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine Study: springbreak is to STDs what April 15th is to accountants Efforts to achieve moisture justice for California thwarted by unfair redistribution of snow in America North Korean voters unanimous: "We are the 100%" Leader of authoritarian gulag-site, The People's Cube, unanimously 're-elected' with 100% voter turnout Super Bowl: Obama blames Fox News for Broncos' loss Feminist author slams gay marriage: "a man needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" Beverly Hills campaign heats up between Henry Waxman and Marianne Williamson over the widening income gap between millionaires and billionaires in their district Biden to lower $10,000-a-plate Dinner For The Homeless to $5,000 so more homeless can attend Kim becomes world leader, feeds uncle to dogs; Obama eats dogs, becomes world leader, America cries uncle North Korean leader executes own uncle for talking about Obamacare at family Christmas party White House hires part-time schizophrenic Mandela sign interpreter to help sell Obamacare Kim Jong Un executes own " crazy uncle " to keep him from ruining another family Christmas OFA admits its advice for area activists to give Obamacare Talk at shooting ranges was a bad idea President resolves Obamacare debacle with executive order declaring all Americans equally healthy Obama to Iran: "If you like your nuclear program, you can keep your nuclear program" Bovine community outraged by flatulence coming from Washington DC Obama: "I'm not particularly ideological; I believe in a good pragmatic five-year plan" Shocker: Obama had no knowledge he'd been reelected until he read about it in the local newspaper last week Server problems at HealthCare.gov so bad, it now flashes 'Error 808' message NSA marks National Best Friend Day with official announcement: "Government is your best friend; we know you like no one else, we're always there, we're always willing to listen" Al Qaeda cancels attack on USA citing launch of Obamacare as devastating enough The President's latest talking point on Obamacare: "I didn't build that" Dizzy with success, Obama renames his wildly popular healthcare mandate to HillaryCare Carney: huge ObamaCare deductibles won't look as bad come hyperinflation Washington Redskins drop 'Washington' from their name as offensive to most Americans Poll: 83% of Americans favor cowboy diplomacy over rodeo clown diplomacy GOVERNMENT WARNING: If you were able to complete ObamaCare form online, it wasn't a legitimate gov't website; you should report online fraud and change all your passwords Obama administration gets serious, threatens Syria with ObamaCare Obama authorizes the use of Vice President Joe Biden's double-barrel shotgun to fire a couple of blasts at Syria Sharpton: "British royals should have named baby 'Trayvon.' By choosing 'George' they sided with white Hispanic racist Zimmerman" DNC launches 'Carlos Danger' action figure; proceeds to fund a charity helping survivors of the Republican War on Women Nancy Pelosi extends abortion rights to the birds and the bees Hubble discovers planetary drift to the left Obama: 'If I had a daughter-in-law, she would look like Rachael Jeantel' FISA court rubberstamps statement denying its portrayal as government's rubber stamp Every time ObamaCare gets delayed, a Julia somewhere dies GOP to Schumer: 'Force full implementation of ObamaCare before 2014 or Dems will never win another election' Obama: 'If I had a son... no, wait, my daughter can now marry a woman!' Janet Napolitano: TSA findings reveal that since none of the hijackers were babies, elderly, or Tea Partiers, 9/11 was not an act of terrorism News Flash: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) can see Canada from South Dakota Susan Rice: IRS actions against tea parties caused by anti-tax YouTube video that was insulting to their faith Drudge Report reduces font to fit all White House scandals onto one page Obama: the IRS is a constitutional right, just like the Second Amendment White House: top Obama officials using secret email accounts a result of bad IT advice to avoid spam mail from Nigeria Jay Carney to critics: 'Pinocchio never said anything inconsistent' Obama: If I had a gay son, he'd look like Jason Collins Gosnell's office in Benghazi raided by the IRS: mainstream media's worst cover-up challenge to date IRS targeting pro-gay-marriage LGBT groups leads to gayest tax revolt in U.S. history After Arlington Cemetery rejects offer to bury Boston bomber, Westboro Babtist Church steps up with premium front lawn plot Boston: Obama Administration to reclassify marathon bombing as 'sportsplace violence' Study: Success has many fathers but failure becomes a government program US Media: Can Pope Francis possibly clear up Vatican bureaucracy and banking without blaming the previous administration? Michelle Obama praises weekend rampage by Chicago teens as good way to burn calories and stay healthy This Passover, Obama urges his subjects to paint lamb's blood above doors in order to avoid the Sequester White House to American children: Sequester causes layoffs among hens that lay Easter eggs; union-wage Easter Bunnies to be replaced by Mexican Chupacabras Time Mag names Hugo Chavez world's sexiest corpse Boy, 8, pretends banana is gun, makes daring escape from school Study: Free lunches overpriced, lack nutrition Oscars 2013: Michelle Obama announces long-awaited merger of Hollywood and the State Joe Salazar defends the right of women to be raped in gun-free environment: 'rapists and rapees should work together to prevent gun violence for the common good' Dept. of Health and Human Services eliminates rape by reclassifying assailants as 'undocumented sex partners' Kremlin puts out warning not to photoshop Putin riding meteor unless bare-chested Deeming football too violent, Obama moves to introduce Super Drone Sundays instead Japan offers to extend nuclear umbrella to cover U.S. should America suffer devastating attack on its own defense spending Feminists organize one billion women to protest male oppression with one billion lap dances Urban community protests Mayor Bloomberg's ban on extra-large pop singers owning assault weapons Concerned with mounting death toll, Taliban offers to send peacekeeping advisers to Chicago Karl Rove puts an end to Tea Party with new 'Republicans For Democrats' strategy aimed at losing elections Answering public skepticism, President Obama authorizes unlimited drone attacks on all skeet targets throughout the country Skeet Ulrich denies claims he had been shot by President but considers changing his name to 'Traps' White House releases new exciting photos of Obama standing, sitting, looking thoughtful, and even breathing in and out New York Times hacked by Chinese government, Paul Krugman's economic policies stolen White House: when President shoots skeet, he donates the meat to food banks that feed the middle class To prove he is serious, Obama eliminates armed guard protection for President, Vice-President, and their families; establishes Gun-Free Zones around them instead State Dept to send 100,000 American college students to China as security for US debt obligations Jay Carney: Al Qaeda is on the run, they're just running forward President issues executive orders banning cliffs, ceilings, obstructions, statistics, and other notions that prevent us from moving forwards and upward Fearing the worst, Obama Administration outlaws the fan to prevent it from being hit by certain objects World ends; S&P soars Riddle of universe solved; answer not understood Meek inherit Earth, can't afford estate taxes Greece abandons Euro; accountants find Greece has no Euros anyway Wheel finally reinvented; axles to be gradually reinvented in 3rd quarter of 2013 Bigfoot found in Ohio, mysteriously not voting for Obama As Santa's workshop files for bankruptcy, Fed offers bailout in exchange for control of 'naughty and nice' list Freak flying pig accident causes bacon to fly off shelves Obama: green economy likely to transform America into a leading third world country of the new millennium Report: President Obama to visit the United States in the near future Obama promises to create thousands more economically neutral jobs Modernizing Islam: New York imam proposes to canonize Saul Alinsky as religion's latter day prophet Imam Rauf's peaceful solution: 'Move Ground Zero a few blocks away from the mosque and no one gets hurt' Study: Obama's threat to burn tax money in Washington 'recruitment bonanza' for Tea Parties Study: no Social Security reform will be needed if gov't raises retirement age to at least 814 years Obama attends church service, worships self Obama proposes national 'Win The Future' lottery; proceeds of new WTF Powerball to finance more gov't spending Historical revisionists: "Hey, you never know" Vice President Biden: criticizing Egypt is un-pharaoh Israelis to Egyptian rioters: "don't damage the pyramids, we will not rebuild" Lake Superior renamed Lake Inferior in spirit of tolerance and inclusiveness Al Gore: It's a shame that a family can be torn apart by something as simple as a pack of polar bears Michael Moore: As long as there is anyone with money to shake down, this country is not broke Obama's teleprompters unionize, demand collective bargaining rights Obama calls new taxes 'spending reductions in tax code.' Elsewhere rapists tout 'consent reductions in sexual intercourse' Obama's teleprompter unhappy with White House Twitter: "Too few words" Obama's Regulation Reduction committee finds US Constitution to be expensive outdated framework inefficiently regulating federal gov't Taking a page from the Reagan years, Obama announces new era of Perestroika and Glasnost Responding to Oslo shootings, Obama declares Christianity "Religion of Peace," praises "moderate Christians," promises to send one into space Republicans block Obama's $420 billion program to give American families free charms that ward off economic bad luck White House to impose Chimney tax on Santa Claus Obama decrees the economy is not soaring as much as previously decreeed Conservative think tank introduces children to capitalism with pop-up picture book "The Road to Smurfdom" Al Gore proposes to combat Global Warming by extracting silver linings from clouds in Earth's atmosphere Obama refutes charges of him being unresponsive to people's suffering: "When you pray to God, do you always hear a response?" Obama regrets the US government didn't provide his mother with free contraceptives when she was in college Fluke to Congress: drill, baby, drill! Planned Parenthood introduces Frequent Flucker reward card: 'Come again soon!' Obama to tornado victims: 'We inherited this weather from the previous administration' Obama congratulates Putin on Chicago-style election outcome People's Cube gives itself Hero of Socialist Labor medal in recognition of continued expert advice provided to the Obama Administration helping to shape its foreign and domestic policies Hamas: Israeli air defense unfair to 99% of our missiles, "only 1% allowed to reach Israel" Democrat strategist: without government supervision, women would have never evolved into humans Voters Without Borders oppose Texas new voter ID law Enraged by accusation that they are doing Obama's bidding, media leaders demand instructions from White House on how to respond Obama blames previous Olympics for failure to win at this Olympics Official: China plans to land on Moon or at least on cheap knockoff thereof Koran-Contra: Obama secretly arms Syrian rebels Poll: Progressive slogan 'We should be more like Europe' most popular with members of American Nazi Party Obama to Evangelicals: Jesus saves, I just spend May Day: Anarchists plan, schedule, synchronize, and execute a coordinated campaign against all of the above Midwestern farmers hooked on new erotic novel "50 Shades of Hay" Study: 99% of Liberals give the rest a bad name Obama meets with Jewish leaders, proposes deeper circumcisions for the rich Historians: Before HOPE & CHANGE there was HEMP & CHOOM at ten bucks a bag Cancer once again fails to cure Venezuela of its "President for Life" Tragic spelling error causes Muslim protesters to burn local boob-tube factory Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: due to energy conservation, the light at the end of the tunnel will be switched off Obama Administration running food stamps across the border with Mexico in an operation code-named "Fat And Furious" Pakistan explodes in protest over new Adobe Acrobat update; 17 local acrobats killed White House: "Let them eat statistics" Special Ops: if Benedict Arnold had a son, he would look like Barack Obama

WILL BARACK OBAMA DELAY OR SUSPEND THE ELECTION IF HILLARY IS FORCED OUT BY THE NEW FBI EMAIL INVESTIGATION?

Iron Sheik

EMAIL US: CONTACT@GOVTSLAVES.INFO Home › POLITICS › WILL BARACK OBAMA DELAY OR SUSPEND THE ELECTION IF HILLARY IS FORCED OUT BY THE NEW FBI EMAIL INVESTIGATION? WILL BARACK OBAMA DELAY OR SUSPEND THE ELECTION IF HILLARY IS FORCED OUT BY THE NEW FBI EMAIL INVESTIGATION? 0 SHARES [10/31/16] MICHAEL SNYDER -Just when it looked like Hillary Clinton was poised to win the 2016 election , the FBI has thrown a game changer into the mix. On Friday, FBI Director James Comey announced that his agency has discovered new emails related to Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information that they had not previously seen. According to the Associated Press , the newly discovered emails “did not come from her private server”, but instead were found when the FBI started going through electronic devices that belonged to top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner. The FBI has been looking into messages of a sexual nature that Weiner had exchanged with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, and that is why they originally seized those electronic devices. According to the Washington Post , the “emails were found on a computer used jointly by both Weiner and his wife, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, according to a person with knowledge of the inquiry”, and according to some reports there may be “potentially thousands” of emails on the computer that the FBI did not have access to previously. Even though there are less than two weeks to go until election day, this scandal has the potential to possibly force Clinton out of the race, and if that happens could Barack Obama delay or suspend the election until a replacement candidate can be found? Let’s take this one step at a time. On Friday, financial markets tanked when reports of these new Clinton emails hit the wires. The following comes from CNN … After recommending earlier this year that the Department of Justice not press charges against the former secretary of state, Comey said in a letter to eight congressional committee chairmen that investigators are examining newly discovered emails that “appear to be pertinent” to the email probe. “In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote the chairmen. “I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.” At this point, we do not know what is contained in these emails. But without a doubt Huma Abedin is Hillary Clinton’s closest confidant, and I have always felt that she was Clinton’s Achilles heel. Journalist Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) is fully convinced that the FBI would have never made this move unless something significant had already been discovered … We don’t know what this means yet except that it’s a real bombshell. And it is unthinkable that the Director of the FBI would take this action lightly, that he would put this letter forth to the Congress of the United States saying there is more information out there about classified e-mails and call it to the attention of congress unless it was something requiring serious investigation. So that’s where we are… Is it a certainty that we won’t learn before the election? I’m not sure it’s a certainty we won’t learn before the election. One thing is, it’s possible that Hillary Clinton might want to on her own initiative talk to the FBI and find out what she can, and if she chooses to let the American people know what she thinks or knows is going on. People need to hear from her… If the FBI has indeed found something explosive, would they actually charge her with a crime right before the election? It is possible, but we also have to remember that government agencies (including the FBI) tend to move very, very slowly. If there are thousands of emails, it is going to take quite a while to sift through them all. And of course Barack Obama has lots of ways that he could influence, delay or even shut down the investigation. So those that are counting on this to be the miracle that Donald Trump needs should not count their chickens before they hatch. But if Hillary Clinton were to be forced out of the race by this FBI investigation, the Democrats would have to decide on a new candidate, and that would take time. The following is from a U.S. News & World Report article that examined what would happen if one of the candidates was forced out of the race for some reason… If Clinton were to fall off the ticket, Democratic National Committee members would gather to vote on a replacement. DNC members acted as superdelegates during this year’s primary and overwhelmingly backed Clinton over boat-rocking socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. DNC spokesman Mark Paustenbach says there currently are 445 committee members – a number that changes over time and is guided by the group’s bylaws, which give membership to specific officeholders and party leaders and hold 200 spots for selection by states, along with an optional 75 slots DNC members can choose to fill. But the party rules for replacing a presidential nominee merely specify that a majority of members must be present at a special meeting called by the committee chairman. The meeting would follow procedures set by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee and proxy voting would not be allowed. It would be extremely challenging to get a majority of the members of the Democratic National Committee together on such short notice. If Clinton were to drop out next week, it would be almost impossible for this to happen before election day. In such a scenario, Barack Obama may attempt to invoke his emergency powers . Since the election would not be “fair” until the Democrats have a new candidate, he could try to delay or suspend the election. There would be a lot of controversy as to whether this is legal or not, but Barack Obama has not let the U.S. Constitution stop him in the past. Meanwhile, new poll numbers show that the Trump campaign was already gaining momentum even before this story about the new emails broke. According to a brand new ABC News/Washington Post survey, Donald Trump is now only trailing Hillary Clinton by 4 points after trailing her by as much as 12 points last weekend. And CNBC is reporting on a highly advanced artificial intelligence system that accurately predicted the outcomes of the presidential primaries and which is now indicating that Trump will be the winner in November… An artificial intelligence system that correctly predicted the last three U.S. presidential elections puts Republican nominee Donald Trump ahead of Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House. MogIA was developed by Sanjiv Rai, founder of Indian start-up Genic.ai. It takes in 20 million data points from public platforms including Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the U.S. and then analyzes the information to create predictions. The AI system was created in 2004, so it has been getting smarter all the time. It had already correctly predicted the results of the Democratic and Republican Primaries. Without Hillary at the top of the ticket, the odds of a Trump victory would go way, way up. So if Hillary is forced out of the race by this investigation, Barack Obama and the Democrats will want to delay or suspend the election for as long as possible if they can. At this point there is probably not a high probability that such a scenario will play out, but in this crazy election year we have already seen that just about anything can happen. Post navigation

#NotMyPresident? Take the #ClintonPledge!

Corbett

11/15/2016 at 6:06 am Even after the election the Clinton side continues with lawless agitation, intimidation and violence in the streets, demonstrating to reasonable people everywhere that Americans did make the right choice. Thank you MSM and Mr. Soros for showing everyone just how free, democratic, big hearted and open the globalist new world order would really be if Hillary had won. If the US election rules had been that the candidates had to win the popular vote in order to be elected, then Trump would have campaigned more vigorously in the large cities and likely also would have won that contest in a landslide. But how much more of a landslide that would have been can be seen by considering what really happened. The people who supported Trump mainly voted for jobs and to save core values and constitutional rights from a misguided globalism being imposed upon them. They were essentially voting to save their nation from an establishment which has been systematically outsourcing just about everything which matters to them. However, despite the stakes they were and remain essentially principled people adhering to the electoral rules of fair play for lawful democratic change. The Clinton side on the other hand appeared devoid of any real principles other than their own interests. During the election the Clinton side used intimidation tactics of paid agitators. They cheated by swelling voters lists by opening the border and signing up droves of illegal immigrants. Even voter fraud and rigged voting machines were acceptable to them. But most of all they were supported by an absolutely biased, corrupt and lying mainstream media. The effect of the media was so pervasive that Trump supporters were generally so ridiculed and shunned that few made their views known. Without such dishonest, illegal and oppressive tactics by the Clinton side, the Trump vote would most certainly have been much much greater. In the circumstances the Clinton loss could not be more embarrassing for her, her party and the MSM. Paul Formby

Trump Compares Himself To Veterans, Says He’s Brave; Military Explodes.

Share on Facebook Over the course of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump has found himself on the wrong side of issues relating to U.S. military veterans. Trump, unlike even other Republicans, has insulted veterans and used them as props to boost his campaign. With less than a week to go until the presidential election, Trump is back to his old dirty tricks with veterans. With Medal of Honor recipients seated behind him, Donald Trump tells supporters: "I'm brave — financially brave." https://t.co/uWUUhCtQso pic.twitter.com/EDd7F0PLHT — ABC News (@ABC) November 4, 2016 The Republican presidential candidate was listing the Medal of Honor recipients at the rally, when he stopped and said, “Oh, they’re so much more brave than me. I wouldn’t have done what they did.” But, that self-deprecation didn’t last long. “I’m brave in other ways,” he said at the rally in Selma, a town 45 miles southeast of Raleigh. “I’m brave — I’m financially brave. Big deal, right? These are real brave.” Medal of Honor honorees are given their medals for demonstrating extraordinary valor in combat, under fire. By comparison Trump has always led a life of privilege, including the way he avoided being drafted to serve in Vietnam, by citing mysterious “bone spurs” that disqualified him from going into the armed forces. Coincidentally, those debilitating “bone spurs” never showed up on Trump’s official medical records. Other instances of Trump insulting the military include his attack on Khizr Khan, the father of a U.S. Army captain who was killed in Iraq. Trump claimed that he had suffered “sacrifices” like the Khans as well, while building luxury apartments and hosting a reality TV show. Trump insulted Senator John McCain, who spent years in a Vietnamese POW camp. When he disagreed with McCain, Trump said he liked soldiers “who don’t get captured,” spitting in the face of the hundreds of prisoners of war. The nominee also used veterans as human shields while he was feuding with Fox News. Trump claimed he was holding a fundraiser for veterans when he decided to boycott a primary debate co-moderated by Megyn Kelly. But it turned out he never bothered to donate the money he had promised veterans until he was publicly shamed on being a cheapskate by the Washington Post . Featured image via screen capture

Trump, Obama, Gwen Ifill: Your Monday Evening Briefing - The New York Times

Karen Zraick and Sandra Stevenson

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Donald Trump is under fire for his choice of Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist. Civil rights groups, Democrats and some Republicans warn that Mr. Bannon, above at Trump Tower, represents racist and nationalist views. Kellyanne Conway, another adviser, defended Mr. Bannon as a “brilliant tactician. ” Mr. Bannon’s former home, Breitbart News, meanwhile, is reveling in Mr. Trump’s victory and eyeing expansion. Critics say it could play an unprecedented role in a modern presidency. ____ 2. In Washington, President Obama stressed the importance of a peaceful transition. He described Mr. Trump as a “pragmatist” rather than an ideologue. He said he would encourage Mr. Trump to allow immigrants who came as children to stay. Then he set off on his last major foreign trip as president. The journey will include stops in Greece, Germany and Peru, and meetings with European leaders, China’s president and Australia’s prime minister. White House officials have said he is prepared to spend the trip talking about Mr. Trump. ____ 3. Since Election Day, there has been a wave of reports of bias attacks, harassment and vandalism. And the F. B. I. reported that hate crimes surged last year, led by attacks on Muslims. Many attacks have also been countered by acts of public support and solidarity, as in the case of the Iraqi family living in Maryland, above, after they found a threat taped to their door. Mr. Trump said he was surprised to hear that some of his supporters were making racial threats and told them to stop it. ___ 4. The International Criminal Court is considering a investigation in Afghanistan, after a prosecutor said she had a “reasonable basis to believe” that American soldiers there committed war crimes, including torture. The U. S. is not a party to the court, but Afghanistan is. So allegations of crimes committed in its territory are considered fair game. ___ 5. Interviews with more than two dozen medical personnel who served or consulted at the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, reveal how secrecy, mistrust and the shadow of interrogation limited doctors’ ability to treat detainees who became mentally ill, some after being subjected to torture or other harsh coercive practices. ___ 6. Gwen Ifill, the PBS journalist and debate moderator, died of cancer in Washington. She was 61. “She not only informed today’s citizens, but she also inspired tomorrow’s journalists,” Mr. Obama said. Ms. Ifill had a long career, reporting for NBC and The New York Times, and moderated the Democratic presidential primary debate between Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders in February. ____ 7. Since Cuba and the United States began to normalize relations two years ago, Cuba has become a destination for cancer patients seeking an immunotherapy vaccine developed there. Dozens of Americans suffering from lung cancer have slipped into Havana and smuggled vials of the drug Cimavax back home. And judging from online patients’ forums, more are making plans to do so. ____ 8. Apple’s new MacBook Pro is the latest generation of a laptop beloved by creative professionals and coders. It’s light and fast, but is not for everyone, our critic writes, given its sole type of connection port, an unhelpful Touch Bar and a big price tag. ____ 9. There will be no female president come January. But in the days leading up to the election, there was a distinct possibility that this gender barrier would be breached. So we asked women to tell us about their own vividly recalled barriers. Almost 1, 200 responded. Here are some of their stories. ____ 10. Michael Stipe is ready to return to music. Since R. E. M. broke up five years ago, he has spent most of his time working on sculpture. But then he performed in tributes to David Bowie this year. He also got involved in the reissue of R. E. M. ’s hit album “Out of Time,” coming Friday, which includes demos, an acoustic live recording and the record’s eight ambitious music videos. ____ 11. Finally, when it comes to heart disease, terrible habits erase about half of the benefits of good genes, a new study found. Thankfully, the phenomenon works the other way, too. For people with a genetic risk of heart disease, healthy habits like abstaining from smoking, moderate exercise and a diet heavy in fruits, vegetables and grains are potent weapons to defy your DNA. ____ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s Friday’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com.

vallehombre

This is what the future looks like. This is beyond our control. The inexorable logic of consolidation now operates beyond what used to be reciognizable industry boundaries. It is only a matter of time, possibly very little time, before consolidated corporate entities employ national militaries to openly operate against each other.

WATCH - NY Assemblyman to Linda Sarsour: Explain Your ’Support for Terrorism’

Adelle Nazarian

WASHINGTON, D. C. — New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind ( ) has penned an open letter and accompanied it with a video titled, “Questions for Linda Sarsour from Assemblyman Hikind,” asking the leftist Sharia advocate why she allegedly supports terrorism.[ “Your support for terrorism on many different occasions,” Hikind says in the video. “That’s the question that all of us have that we don’t understand. And, maybe, Linda you can respond to everyone so that we understand better. ” Sarsour, who was selected to deliver the keynote speech at CUNY’s School of Public Health on June 1, has held controversial positions and associations in the past. “I invite Linda Sarsour to publicly address these vital points about her past and her agenda,” Hikind says. WATCH RETWEET! Social justice activist or terrorist advocate? @lsarsour has some questions to answer. #ExposeSarsour pic. twitter. — Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) May 1, 2017, Hikind noted that Sarsour stood on a stage with convicted Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh last month and said she was “honored and privileged” to do so. Odeh, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was convicted by an Israeli court for her role in the murder of Israeli students Leon Kanner and Eddie Joffe. Odeh is scheduled for deportation from the United States after she pled guilty to falsifying information on her U. S. immigration papers. “The actions of Rasmea Odeh who you praise, Linda Sarsour. You need to explain it,” Hikind said. He then asked Sarsour to explain her reported glorification of rock throwing by Arab children at Israelis, calling it “the definition of courage. ” The definition of courage. #Palestine pic. twitter. — Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) October 12, 2015, “You think this is a courageous act to pick up rocks and throw them at cars?” Hikind posited. He noted that those rocks have seriously injured people and killed people in cars. In 2013, a girl died after the car she was in was attacked by rocks. Adele Biton was in a coma for two years before succumbing to her injuries and developing pneumonia. In a press release, Hikind noted, “I hope everyone who admires Sarsour’s association with the Women’s movement — which I also support — will watch this brief but important video. ” Follow Adelle Nazarian on Facebook and Twitter.

Republicans Rush to File Legislation to Make Improper E-Mail Server Handling a Capital Crime

Trump Launches Twitter Attack on Brazilian Beauty Pageant Terrorist Big Chimney, WV From the campaign trail, Trump took aim at terrorism Saturday morning at 3 a.m. Apparently, 1996 Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who Trump likes to refer to as "Miss Piggy," needed taking down so as to prevent her from committing terror... Trump Adds NDA to Pledge of Allegiance Always thinking ahead, presidential candidate Donald Trump added a non-disparagement clause to the American Pledge of Allegiance for when he is president. Reciting the new pledge will legally restrict citizens from criticizing Trump, his family or... Trump Campaign Reacts To Trump Sex Tape , "Not Everything Longer Than It Is Thick Out of Which White Fluid Comes Jetting in Successive, Pumping Streams Represents A Spasmodic Penis In The Undulating Throes Of A Massive Ejaculation" New York, NY - The Trump campaign today shot back at the Clinton camp over Clinton's characterizations of a year 2000 Playboy video in which Trump appears opening a bottle of champagne, surrounded by topless and scantily clad "broads" who bounce up a... Farage Schools Trump in the Art of the Ferret Nigel Farage, key political Brexit salesman, has been called in as debate coach to Donald Trump for the upcoming town hall style presidential debate on October 9. Farage is free to take on free-lance work since resigning in early July as leader...

Russia Warns US In Total Breakdown After FBI Notifies Obama All Hillary Emails Found

The European Union Times

A chilling Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( MoFA ) “urgent action” report issued to all Federation ministries within the past hour is warning that the United States is now suffering a complete breakdown in its normal governmental functions after the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) notified President Obama that all of Hillary Clinton’s believed to be deleted and/or destroyed secret emails have now been completely recovered . [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 a Foreign Intelligence Service ( SVR ) addendum to this MoFA “urgent action” report, the FBI was able to recover all of Hillary Clinton’s once secret emails from the computer shared by her campaign vice chairman Huma Abedin and sexual deviant husband Anthony Weiner— both of whom are now under the protection of the FBI as “cooperating witnesses” against Hillary Clinton. To exactly how all of Hillary Clinton’s secret emails and documents ended up on the Abedin-Weiner laptop computer, the SVR explains, was due to its use of the Outlook and IMAP email protocols that will sync any folder, on any device, they are told to monitor and can be told to make local copies of emails —which simply means that Abedin used the laptop computer she shared with her disgraced husband to back up every communication Hillary Clinton ever made—and that numbered 650,000 copies of emails, documents and other communications . Unbeknownst, however, to both Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin, and everyone else aiding their criminality, this report continues, is that when the US Congress ordered all of these secret emails turned over to them, Clinton, in turn, ordered them all destroyed —but with her, and those aiding her, failing to realize that when these emails were “bleached” (a computer program used to destroy hard drives) from her secret private server they did so with it offline, meaning that it wasn’t able to “backtrack” to the Abedin-Weiner laptop to destroy all of the backups emails, documents and communications discovered by the FBI . Though the exact contents of these now discovered Hillary Clinton secret emails it is not fully “known/understood” by the SVR, this report notes, the FBI agents who have been documenting their contents have become so horrified by what they’re discovering they are now reporting to the American press that Hillary Clinton is the “antichrist personified” . Even worse, this report continues, with new Wikileaks showing that not only is Hillary Clinton and her criminal money laundering organization, known as the Clinton Foundation, being investigated by the FBI, nearly every other US intelligence and tax agency have, likewise, begun investigations too . Thus leading, this report gravely explains, to a complete breakdown in the rule of law in the United States as the main investigators into Hillary Clinton’s crimes are all now known to be her supporters who have received tens-of-millions of dollars in “gifts/bribes” to protect her —and that led former CIA agent and American diplomat Dr. Steve Pieczenik to personally notify President Putin this past week that the US intelligence community has now launched a counter-coup against Hillary Clinton . This report concludes by noting that not only did Dr. Pieczenik take the extraordinary “measure/step” of informing President Putin of this US intelligence community counter-coup, he also posted his warning to YouTube for all of the American people to see too—but that in spite of its extraordinarily being viewed by over 2.5 million of these peoples in less than 24 hours , the Hillary Clinton supporting global tech giant Google has suppressed this fact from its main trends— giving the top place, instead, to a video mocking Americans that has only 1.6 million views , and that stunningly doesn’t include Dr. Pieczenik’s warning video at all . Source

Lookout Below! The Dream Is Ending

David Stockman

Lookout Below! The Dream Is Ending By David Stockman. Our Tuesday discussion about the cracking sounds emanating from the global bond bubble turned out to be timely. In fact, yesterday's action in the casino provided further hints about the great unwind ahead. That's because the stock market sell-off did not confirm to the phony risk on/risk off dynamic that has prevailed since the financial crisis. That is, there was no robo-trader rotation into the bond market, even as the stock market was on "offer" most of the day.

Watch: Notre Dame Students Walk Out on VP Mike Pence Graduation Speech - Breitbart

Pam Key

Sunday at the University of Notre Dame graduation ceremony in South Bend, IN, dozens of students marched out of the stadium moments after Vice President Mike Pence took the stage. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

How Jared Kushner’s Call to Canada Saved NAFTA

John Carney

President Donald Trump’s and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, played a key role in the Trump administration’s decision to back down from its threat to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). [Exactly what that role involved, however, is a matter of dispute. Kushner was a conduit between Canadian officials and the Trump administration but accounts differ about the details. Last month, various news reports said that Trump was preparing to invoke Article 2205 of NAFTA, the first step in withdrawing from the trade agreement that the U. S. president had attacked so fiercely on the campaign trail. Several hours later, however, the administration appeared to reverse course, saying Trump had been persuaded by the leaders of Mexico and Canada to stay in the deal. “Two people that I like very much, the president of Mexico, prime minister of Canada, they called up, they said, can we negotiate? I said yes, we can renegotiate,” Trump explained at a rally in Pennsylvania a few days later. The events of April 26 set off a torrent of speculation about what really happened inside the White House. Some said that the administration had been bluffing all along, using the talk about the withdrawal to get Canada and Mexico to take seriously its plans to renegotiate the trade agreement. Others said the turnaround reflected a struggle within the White House between economic nationalists like chief strategist Steve Bannon and National Trade Council chief Peter Navarro and globalist hardliners such as National Economic Council head Gary Cohn. Bannon and Navarro had reportedly drafted an executive order that would have initiated the withdrawal process. The globalists in the business community had sprung into action following reports on the imminent order from from the New York Times, CNN and others. Now reports have emerged that put Kushner at the center of the globalist effort to save NAFTA. According to the news service The Canadian Press, Kushner called the chief of staff of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to suggest that the prime minister immediately call Trump. The staffer, Katie Telford, called the prime minister who then called Trump, according to the Canadian Press. White House officials tell a slightly different story. They say that Kushner was contacted by Trudeau or his aides earlier in the day, and that Kushner agreed to set up a time for a phone call later in the day. The two stories differ about who reached out to whom first. They agree, however, that Kushner’s call to the Canadians is what prompted the call between Trump and Trudeau that the U. S. president says convinced him to back away from exiting NAFTA.

PATRIOT Act At 15: Do You Feel Safer?

Daniel McAdams

Written by Daniel McAdams Thursday October 27, 2016 Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of President George W. Bush signing the PATRIOT Act into law. It was supposed to be only a temporary measure to address the emergency situation caused by the attacks of 9/11. Fifteen years later it has been re-authorized many times and last year some of its worst parts were codified into law in the USA FREEDOM Act. From the War Powers Resolution, to the FISA Court, to the "reform" USA FREEDOM Act, bills that were designed to rein in government abuses end up just giving government more power. Is there anything we can do about it? RPI Senior Fellow Adam Dick joins today's Liberty Report to discuss: Copyright © 2016 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

On a Day for King, a Rare Victory in the Sport of Kings - The New York Times

Teresa Genaro

The winner of the feature race on Monday at Aqueduct, it was noted, ran starting in front and ending that way as the race’s second wagering choice. And yet, despite the bettors’ confidence, the outcome was extraordinarily unusual, and all but unnoticed. The winning owners are brothers who were born in Jamaica: Gaston and Anthony Grant. Gaston Grant served as the horse’s trainer — a labor of love that he juggles with his job as a driver for UPS. The rider, Kendrick Carmouche, was a jockey from Louisiana. All are black. On a rare Monday of live horse racing at Aqueduct, in South Ozone Park, Queens, the sight in the winner’s circle was rarer still, in a sport with few black participants and on a holiday card that coincided with Martin Luther King’s Birthday. The winner’s trophy for the race, the Toboggan Stakes, was even presented by Sentell Taylor Jr. a placing judge who has worked at New York tracks for more than 50 years Mr. Taylor is also black. “After the race, I said, ‘Would you look at this?’ ” Mr. Taylor remarked. “It all fell into place. I was surprised. ” Still, the significance and rarity of the moment seemed lost. It went unmentioned in various accounts of the race the New York Racing Association, which runs Aqueduct, did not note it on its social media accounts or in its news release. It even mostly escaped Gaston Grant, the owner and trainer of the winner, Green Gratto, a thoroughbred. For Mr. Grant, who currently trains six horses, the import of the day was more in the victory than the holiday. “I didn’t even really think about it until just now,” Mr. Grant said. Mr. Grant keeps his horses on the backstretch at Aqueduct, tending to them in the morning before heading off to his other day job delivering packages. He was introduced to the track by his father, but his involvement in the sport was confined to gambling until about 20 years ago, when he picked up work as a groom and a a person who cools down a horse after a race. He finally obtained his trainer’s license two years ago. From 2005 to 2014, the feature race on this January holiday was the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes, named for the black jockey who won the Kentucky Derby in 1901 and 1902. Winkfield would go on to be an international star after racism in his native country forced him to pursue his career overseas. More than a century later, there are still few black jockeys at most American racetracks, and the Winkfield Stakes, which will take place next month, was never won by a black rider when it was held on the day honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Anytime something like this happens, and I’m involved, and my people are involved, it’s significant and I’m happy,” Mr. Taylor said of the victory for Green Gratto’s connections. Indeed, the outcome of the Toboggan Stakes — first run in New York in 1893, and the replacement for the Winkfield Stakes — created an unexpected commemoration of the holiday. “It seems like it was bound for us to win that race,” Mr. Carmouche said. “My birthday is Wednesday and it always falls near Martin Luther King Day, and it seems like everything I do this week is for him. ” The son and grandson of jockeys, Mr. Carmouche remembers being placed onto a horse for the first time when he was 7 or 8 years old. By the time he was 16, he had gotten his jockey’s license. His first win came in 2000 for Shelton Zenon, a black trainer, on a horse called Earl N Erin at Evangeline Downs in Louisiana. But since he left that state, where black jockeys and trainers are more common than they are at Northern tracks, his mounts for black trainers have been less frequent. “There are very few,” Mr. Carmouche said. “To be honest, I think that black families don’t bring their kids around the racetrack as much. You have to really love horses and to be around them for a long time, to not feel afraid of them to ride them. ” After leaving Louisiana, Mr. Carmouche rode at tracks in Texas and the before making the move to New York to try to make an impact in one of the toughest jockey colonies in the country. He will be 33 on Wednesday, and is in second place in the jockey standings for the current Aqueduct meeting. “I have a dream, to become a top rider,” he said, deliberately invoking Dr. King. “From the day I was born until now, and I’m living my dream. ”

Report: Most Top Grocery Chains Fail on Pollinator Protection

Michael

WASHINGTON – A new report and scorecard grades 20 of the largest food retailers in the U.S on their policies and practices regarding pollinator protection, organic offerings and pesticide...

HHS Report: Average Health Insurance Premiums Doubled Under Obamacare - Breitbart

Sean Moran

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a new report that reveals that individual health insurance premiums doubled under Obamacare. [Health insurance premiums doubled since 2013, the year before many Obamacare regulations and mandates took effect. The Obama administration compiled the data for the report, which was produced by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). HHS spokesperson Alleigh Marré stated, “With data that shows average premiums doubling nationwide and Americans paying nearly $3, 000 more for health insurance per year, this report is a sobering reminder of why reforming our healthcare system remains a top priority of the Trump Administration. The status quo is unsustainable. ” According to the report: See the rest of the HHS’s report here:

Women In Iceland Leave Work 14% Early To Protest The Country’s 14% Wage Gap

Amanda Froelich

Even in Iceland – a country considered to be one of the world’s leaders in gender equality, a pay gap exists. For every dollar a man makes, women make approximately 76 cents (similar to the...

Pejovich: When America Applied ‘Extreme Vetting’ to White Christian Refugees - Breitbart

Svetozar Pejovich

President Trump’s decision to impose travel restrictions on countries has triggered a wave of protests claiming Trump’s restrictions are or or racist, or or or all of above. [advertisement

FBI Sources believe Clinton Foundation case is “likely moving toward an indictment”

BareNakedIslam

FBI Sources believe Clinton Foundation case is “likely moving toward an indictment” Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier reports the latest news about the Clinton Foundation investigation from two sources inside the FBI. He reveals five important new pieces of information: 1. The Clinton Foundation investigation is far more expansive than anybody has reported so far and has been going on for more than a year. 2. The laptops of Clinton aides Cherryl Mills and Heather Samuelson have not been destroyed, and agents are currently combing through them. The investigation has interviewed several people twice, and plans to interview some for a third time. 3. Agents have found emails believed to have originated on Hillary Clinton’s secret server on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. They say the emails are not duplicates and could potentially be classified in nature. 4. Sources within the FBI have told him that an indictment is “likely” in the case of pay-for-play at the Clinton Foundation, “barring some obstruction in some way” from the Justice Department. 5. FBI sources say with 99% accuracy that Hillary Clinton’s server has been hacked by at least five foreign intelligence agencies, and that information had been taken from it.

International Criminal Court rejected by Russia and the multi-polar world

Tom Winter (noreply@blogger.com)

November 21, 2016 - Fort Russ News - - Ronald ZONCA , in Boulevard Voltaire, translated by Tom Winter - It has to be said: the International Criminal Court is just another means of repression and oppression of sovereign peoples. Russia has just signified its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in view of its inefficiency and its partiality in choosing what to investigate. A reading of the "Report on Preliminary Examination Activities in 2016" proves that it's a matter of justice by fiat. The case of Ukraine is particularly revealing. This country is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and therefore does not recognize the ICC. But it intervenes on complaints filed by the current government, even though the current government came out of a coup d'etat. The investigations concern only the snipers of the Maïdan, the Donbass, and the Crimea. There were no investigations into the Odessa fire, where 50 people were burnt alive, nor on the cut-off of water and electricity in the Crimea, which could be described as a crime against humanity. The case of Ukraine's winter power cut deserves our attention. This has done serious injury to the inhabitants of Crimea because it means an end to water distribution, the pumps being inoperative, and to heating, as the boilers can not function. Responsibility for this cut is claimed by Tatar activists. The leaders of these activists are not only not prosecuted but are heard on allegations of abuse of the Crimean Tatars. Let us recall that Crimean Tatars also live in the Crimea and have suffered the consequences of cuts in electricity and water. Among the few convictions, the Milošević case is exemplary. He is a man who suffered eleven years of pre-trial detention, died in suspicious prison conditions, and who has just been cleared this year by the same court that sentenced him. Though the ICC aspires to world jurisdiction, given that major states such as China, India, and Russia are not or are no longer signatories to the Rome Statute that founded the ICC, the legitimacy of this body is therefore only Western. African states such as South Africa, Guinea and Burundi have left the institution, tired of seeing Africa hosting all the ICC field offices. The New York office acts in a liaison role, not to say a directory, nor an investigative role. The ICC, the UN, the IMF and other institutions of coercion fulfill their missions. These institutions were created by the US, for the US, and they support them in their attempt to dominate the world. The peoples are no longer able to turn away from the values of humanism, justice, the right to self-determination, and they see multipolarity as a prerequisite for existence and independence. A free world is first and foremost a multipolar world. The United States is a great nation. Paraphrasing Churchill, we can say that i f other nations are ready to learn from this great and respectable people, they do not intend to be taught every day. After 14 years of operation, it is clear that the ICC is just one more organ for the repression and oppression of sovereign peoples. Follow us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Donate!

Heavy Rains Spawn California Wildflower Super Bloom that Can Be Seen from Space - Breitbart

Warner Todd Huston

Ending the drought environmentalists called “permanent,” the heavy rains that hit California over the last few months have spawned a wildflower super bloom that can actually be seen from space. [California has suffered a drought that threatened the whole state — draining reservoirs, forcing water bans, and threatening farms — but after seeing over ten inches of spring rains, the state is in bloom again, The Washington Post reported. The best proof of the amazing change brought by the rains is the satellite photos taken across the state, photos that show the amazing greening of California. The California Poppy Reserve is a perfect example. A satellite photo of the region taken in 2016 shows a giant brown patch spotted in a few mottled green spaces. Yet, a photo taken this year shows rich greens and large swaths of poppy orange blooms covering vast areas. Photos from the Carrizo Plain show a similar change. In 2016 the whole area was a dismal brown. Now it rebounds with green. The images of the Los Padres National Forest are even more dramatic, going from the very definition of barren to an area covered in lush greens. Even as environmentalists insisted that California was in a permanent drought that would never again be relieved, after the rounds of massive storms that covered the state in water, now only two percent of the state is still experiencing drought. Indeed, in a major turnaround, instead of worrying about a lack of water, many portions of the Golden State are experiencing flood warnings. Some additional photos of the super bloom: Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

Cop Fired After Shooting Own 11-year-old Daughter at a Halloween Party

Matt Agorist

Home / Badge Abuse / Cop Fired After Shooting Own 11-year-old Daughter at a Halloween Party Cop Fired After Shooting Own 11-year-old Daughter at a Halloween Party Matt Agorist November 1, 2016 Leave a comment Lincolnton, NC — Time and again, police prove that the government having a monopoly on the use of weapons is a terrible idea. A glaring example of this incompetence is evidenced through a recent case in North Carolina in which a police officer shot her own daughter. On Monday, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office announced that deputy Misty Michelle Flowers, 38, was terminated after she shot her 11-year-old daughter over the weekend. The shooting happened as Flowers, who is entrusted by the state to act responsibly with a firearm, was showing off her service weapon to friends Saturday night when she squeezed the trigger. The bullet then went through the wall and hit her daughter in another room. “I find gross negligence and the disregard for the safety of others was displayed in the incident Saturday night and therefore Officer Flowers was terminated today,” Sheriff David Carpenter said. “This is totally separate from the SBI investigation into the incident that occurred at her residence.” According to WNCN: Lincoln County deputies said they were called to the home at 11:23 p.m. and started tending to the girl’s injury. The child was taken to CHS-Lincoln and then airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte for surgery. According to deputies, she was in stable condition after treatment. Neighbors say there was a Halloween party going on at the house where this happened. Flowers has been with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office since 2015 and worked for the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office before that. “During this entire situation, my focus has been on the well-being and condition of the child involved and am of the understanding the child is going to be ok after the surgery. This is a very tragic situation for all involved, the officer, her family, her career and everyone that has been touched by this,” Carpenter said. “We continue to pray for healing of the child and the entire family as the investigation continues over the next several days.” According to the SBI, an investigation into the incident is still ongoing. It is unclear whether or not Flowers will face any charges. This is the second such incident in only a week in which a police officer accidentally fired their weapon endangering the lives of children. Last week, the Free Thought Project reported on the Ohio cop who fired his weapon into a daycare center while it was fully occupied. Despite the officer clearly admitting to committing the misdemeanor offense of discharging a firearm within city limits, police have yet to charge him. “Right now our law department has it and they are reviewing it to see if there should be any charges,” Police Chief Jack Davis said last Wednesday morning. “It was a very unfortunate incident for the school, as well as him,” he added. Outside of skating out of the misdemeanor charge so far, this officer also seems to be avoiding the felony offense of discharging a weapon in a gun-free school zone. Imagine for a moment that you were showing off your pistol to friends at a Halloween party and all of the sudden, you accidentally squeeze off a round and shoot your own daughter. There are two possible scenarios that would take place; the first one being that a SWAT team responds and you are killed. The second, less lethal result would be your inevitable arrest and charges of public endangerment, unlawful discharge, illegal use of a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, terrorism, or a myriad of other charges associated with sending a deadly projectile hurling through a wall and into a child. You would immediately be facing fines, jail time, probation, and firearms restrictions. However, if you are a government agent who’s trusted with carrying a deadly weapon into places others cannot, you needn’t worry about any of those repercussions. Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter and now on Steemit Share

Can Netflix Survive in the New World It Created? - The New York Times

Joe Nocera

One night in early January, a little after 9 o’clock, a dozen Netflix employees gathered in the cavernous Palazzo ballroom of the Venetian in Las Vegas. They had come to rehearse an announcement the company would be making the next morning at the Consumer Electronics Show, the tech industry’s gigantic annual conference. For the previous year, Netflix had been plotting secretly to expand the availability of its streaming entertainment service, then accessible in about 60 countries, to most of the rest of the world. Up to this point, Netflix had been entering one or two countries at a time, to lots of fanfare. Now it was going to move into 130 new countries all at once, including major markets like Russia, India and South Korea. (The only significant holdout, for now, was China, where the company says it is still “exploring potential partnerships. ”) Netflix executives saw this as a significant step toward the future they have long imagined for the company, a supremacy in home entertainment akin to what Facebook enjoys in social media, Uber in urban transportation or Amazon in online retailing. Ted Sarandos, who runs Netflix’s Hollywood operation and makes the company’s deals with networks and studios, was up first to rehearse his lines. “Pilots, the fall season, summer repeats, live ratings” — all hallmarks of traditional television — were falling away because of Netflix, he boasted. Unlike a network, which needs shows that are ratings “home runs” to maximize viewers and hence ad dollars, he continued, Netflix also values “singles” and “doubles” that appeal to narrower segments of subscribers. Its ability to analyze vast amounts of data about its customers’ viewing preferences helped it decide what content to buy and how much to pay for it. Sarandos can be an outspoken, even gleeful, critic of network practices in his zeal to promote what Netflix views as its superior model — and streaming, on any device. That glee was on full display in these remarks. For years, he said, “consumers have been at the mercy of others when it comes to television. The shows and movies they want to watch are subject to business models they do not understand and do not care about. All they know is frustration. ” That, he added, “is the insight Netflix is built on. ” When Sarandos was done, Reed Hastings, Netflix’s chairman and chief executive, took the stage. A man, he seemed swallowed up by the empty ballroom. He squinted uncomfortably under the lights. He and a number of other Netflix executives had spent the morning at a meeting in Laguna, Calif. where a rare torrential rainstorm grounded air traffic, forcing them to make the drive to Las Vegas. They arrived only a few hours earlier. To make matters worse, Hastings was feeling ill. Haggard and tired, he stumbled irritably through his presentation. But as he neared the finale, Hastings broke out into a small, satisfied smile. “While you have been listening to me talk,” he said, reading from a monitor, “the Netflix service has gone live in nearly every country in the world but China, where we also hope to be in the future. ” Even though this was only a practice run — and even though it would be a long time before anyone knew whether global expansion would pay off — the Netflix executives sitting in the ballroom let out a loud, sustained cheer. They had good reason to celebrate. Netflix, since its streaming service debuted in 2007, has had its annual revenue grow sixfold, to $6. 8 billion from $1. 2 billion. More than 81 million subscribers pay Netflix $8 to $12 a month, and slowly but unmistakably these consumers are giving up cable for internet television: Over the last five years, cable has lost 6. 7 million subscribers more than a quarter of millennials (70 percent of whom use streaming services) report having never subscribed to cable in their lives. Those still paying for cable television were watching less of it. In 2015, for instance, television viewing time was down 3 percent and 50 percent of that drop was directly attributable to Netflix, according to a study by MoffettNathanson, an investment firm that tracks the media business. All of this has made Netflix a Wall Street favorite, with a stock price that rose 134 percent last year. Easy access to capital has allowed the company to bid aggressively on content for its service. This year Netflix will spend $5 billion, nearly three times what HBO spends, on content, which includes what it licenses, shows like AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” and original series like “House of Cards. ” Its dozens of original shows (more than 600 hours of original programming are planned for this year) often receive as much critical acclaim and popular buzz as anything available on cable. Having invented the phenomenon when it became the first company to put a show’s entire season online at once, it then secured a place in the popular culture: “Netflix and chill. ” But the assembled executives also had reason to worry. Just because Netflix had essentially created this new world of internet TV was no guarantee that it could continue to dominate it. Hulu, a streaming service jointly owned by 21st Century Fox, Disney and NBC Universal, had become more assertive in licensing and developing shows, vying with Netflix for deals. And there was other competition as well: small companies like Vimeo and giants like Amazon, an aggressive buyer of original series. Even the networks, which long considered Netflix an ally, had begun to fight back by developing their own streaming apps. Last fall, Time Warner hinted that it was considering withholding its shows from Netflix and other streaming services for a longer period. John Landgraf, the chief executive of the FX networks — and one of the company’s fiercest critics — told a reporter a few months ago, “I look at Netflix as a company that’s trying to take over the world. ” At the moment, Netflix has a negative cash flow of almost $1 billion it regularly needs to go to the debt market to replenish its coffers. Its $6. 8 billion in revenue last year pales in comparison to the $28 billion or so at media giants like Time Warner and 21st Century Fox. And for all the original shows Netflix has underwritten, it remains dependent on the very networks that fear its potential to destroy their longtime business model in the way that internet competitors undermined the newspaper and music industries. Now that so many entertainment companies see it as an existential threat, the question is whether Netflix can continue to thrive in the new TV universe that it has brought into being. To hear Reed Hastings explain it, there was never any doubt in his mind that, as he told me during one interview, “all TV will move to the internet, and linear TV will cease to be relevant over the next 20 years, like telephones. ” Viewers, in other words, will no longer sit and watch a show when a network dictates. According to Hastings, Netflix may have begun as a DVD rental company — remember those red envelopes? — but he always assumed that it would one day deliver TV shows and movies through the internet, allowing customers to watch them whenever they wanted. Now that future has begun to take shape. The television industry last went through this sort of turbulence in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when cable television was maturing. Previously, of course, television had been mostly transmitted via the public airwaves, and the major networks made the bulk of their money from advertising. But cable provided an indisputably better picture, and the proliferation of cable networks came to offer a much greater variety of programming. In time, consumers concluded that it was worth paying for something — TV — that had previously been free. This meant that in addition to advertising dollars, each cable channel received revenue from all cable customers, even those who didn’t watch that channel. By 2000, 68. 5 million Americans had subscriptions, giving them access to the several hundred channels the industry took to calling “the cable bundle. ” Hastings knew the internet would eventually compete with that bundle, but he wasn’t entirely sure how. And so he had to be flexible. Sarandos says that in 1999, Hastings thought shows would be downloaded rather than streamed. At another point, Netflix created a dedicated device through which to access its content, only to decide that adapting its service to everything from mobile phones to TV sets made more sense. (The Netflix device was spun out into its own company, Roku.) In 2007, even as Netflix’s business remained lucrative, and long before the internet was ready to deliver a streaming movie without fits and starts, Hastings directed Netflix to build a streaming service. Netflix’s approach to what it streams has been similarly flexible. At first, the company focused on movies, logically enough: 80 percent of its DVD rentals were films. But despite deals with two premium movie channels, Starz and Epix, Netflix found the distribution system to be largely inhospitable. Netflix usually didn’t get access to a new movie until a year or so after it ran in theaters. It then held the distribution rights for only 12 to 18 months eventually, the movie went to free TV for the next seven or eight years. This frustrated customers who couldn’t understand why something was there one month and gone the next or why, for that matter, so many titles were missing entirely from Netflix’s catalog. So the company shifted to television. Cable networks like FX and AMC were developing expensive, dramas, the kind HBO pioneered with “The Sopranos” and “The Wire. ” But these series, with their complex, story arcs and hourlong format, seemed to be poor candidates for syndication, unlike sitcoms like “Seinfeld,” which can be watched out of order. Hastings and Sarandos realized that Netflix could become, in effect, the syndicator for these hourlong dramas: “We found an inefficiency,” is how Hastings describes this insight. One of the first such series to appear on Netflix was AMC’s “Mad Men,” which became available on the site in 2011, between its fourth and fifth seasons. Knowing from its DVD experience that customers often rented a full season of “The Sopranos” in one go, Netflix put the entire first four seasons of “Mad Men” online at once. Bingeing took off. Television networks lined up to license their shows to Netflix, failing to see the threat it posed to the established order. “It’s a bit like ‘Is the Albanian Army going to take over the world? ’’u2009” Jeff Bewkes, the chief executive of Time Warner, famously joked back in 2010. The occasional voice warned that Netflix would become too big for the industry to control, but mostly the legacy media companies viewed the fees from Netflix as found money. “Streaming video ” rights, as they were called, hadn’t even existed before Netflix asked to pay for them. And because the networks didn’t understand how valuable those rights would become, Netflix got them for very little money. Everyone seemed to be a winner, including the shows themselves. In 2012, for instance, Netflix began streaming the first three seasons of “Breaking Bad,” the dark drama produced by Sony that ran on AMC. Though praised by critics, “Breaking Bad” had not yet found its audience. “When the folks at Sony said we were going to be on Netflix, I didn’t really know what that meant,” Vince Gilligan, the creator of “Breaking Bad,” told me. “I knew Netflix was a company that sent you DVDs in the mail. I didn’t even know what streaming was. ” Gilligan quickly found out. “It really kicked our viewership into high gear,” he says. As Michael Nathanson, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, put it to me: “’u2009‘Breaking Bad’ was 10 times more popular once it started streaming on Netflix. ” This was around the time that network executives started to recognize the threat that Netflix could eventually constitute to them. “Five years ago,” says Richard Greenfield, a media and technology analyst at BTIG who happens to be Netflix’s most vocal proponent on Wall Street, “we wrote a piece saying that the networks shouldn’t license to Netflix because they were going to unleash a monster that would undermine their business. ” That’s exactly what seemed to be happening. Worse, they realized that Netflix didn’t have to play by the same rules they did. It didn’t care when people watched the shows it licensed. It had no vested interest in preserving the cable bundle. On the contrary, the more consumers who “cut the cord,” the better for Netflix. It didn’t have billions of legacy profits to protect. Yet the networks couldn’t walk away from the company either. Many of them needed licensing fees from Netflix to make up for the revenue they were losing as traditional viewership shrank. Negotiations between a network or a studio and Netflix became fraught, as the networks, understanding the value of their streaming rights, sought much higher fees. In some cases, those negotiations broke down. The Starz deal, for example, was not renewed after it ended in 2012. (Chris Albrecht, the chief executive of Starz, would later describe the original deal as “terrible. ”) This was also the moment that Netflix started to plot its move into original programming. In 2012, Sarandos began to argue internally that to stand apart from the crowd, and to avoid being at the networks’ mercy, Netflix needed exclusive content that it fully controlled. “If we were going to start having to fend for ourselves in content,” Sarandos says, “we had better start exercising that muscle now. ” In short, Netflix needed to begin buying its own shows. “We could see that eventually AMC was going to be able to do its own streaming,” Hastings says. “Or FX. We knew there was no business in being a rerun company, just as we knew there was no business in being a company. ” Still, Hastings was cautious. Producing original material is a very different business from licensing someone else’s shows. New content requires hefty upfront costs — one show alone would most likely cost more than the $30 million a year Netflix reportedly once paid Starz for its entire library of movies. Developing its own series would thrust it into the unfamiliar business of engaging with producers, directors and stars. Back in 2006, the company set up a way to distribute independent films, called Red Envelope Entertainment, but it failed, and Hastings shut it down. (“We would have been better off spending the money on DVDs,” he told me.) Now it was going to give original content another try — with much higher stakes. Sarandos had a show he was itching to buy: “House of Cards,” a political drama that was being pitched by David Fincher, the director, and would star Kevin Spacey. Sarandos knew that, according to Netflix’s vast database, many of the company’s subscribers liked the kind of drama that Fincher and Spacey wanted to make. But algorithms alone weren’t the deciding factor. He and Hastings figured that Fincher, who directed films like “Fight Club” and “The Social Network,” would create a critical and popular sensation. In any case, Sarandos said, the potential reward vastly outweighed whatever financial and reputational risk “House of Cards” represented. “If it is a flop, we will have overpaid for one series,” he told Hastings. “But if it succeeds, we will have changed the brand. ” In winning over Fincher, Sarandos faced two other obstacles: a competing offer from HBO, which also wanted “House of Cards,” and the fact that no one had ever made a show for a streaming service before. For decades, when movies went straight to video without a theater run, they were ipso facto failures in Hollywood’s view for a seasoned director like Fincher, picking Netflix presented the same risk of marginalization. Sarandos overcame both by offering freedom and money. “There are a thousand reasons for you not to do this with Netflix,” he told Fincher. “But if you go with us, we’ll commit to two seasons with no pilot and no interference. ” Sarandos also offered Fincher a reported $100 million for 26 episodes, at the high end for an hourlong drama. The first season of “House of Cards” became available in February 2013. It was an immediate hit with viewers and critics. Five months later, Netflix posted the first season of “Orange Is the New Black,” which Sarandos had ordered before “House of Cards” went into production. Critics lavished praise on the new show as well. Having begun its life as a Silicon Valley tech company, Netflix had somewhat improbably become a television network. Reed Hastings doesn’t have an office. “My office is my phone,” he says. “I found I was rarely using my cubicle, and I just had no need for it. It is better for me to be meeting people all around the building. ” On the several occasions I interviewed him at the company’s headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif. we met in the cafeteria. Although Netflix employees describe him as an intense, blunt boss, Hastings comes across in public as relaxed and undefensive. He spent our interviews leaning back in his chair, his arms folded and legs crossed, tossing off answers to my questions as if it were a day at the beach. Born and raised in the Boston suburbs — his was the wealthy investor Alfred Lee Loomis, who played a critical role in the invention of radar — Hastings, now 55, is one of those tech executives who came to California to attend Stanford (grad school for computer science in his case) and never left. The tech company he ran before Netflix was called Pure Software, which made debugging tools for software engineers. Before Netflix, Hastings had no experience in the entertainment industry. Although news coverage now tends to focus on its shows, Netflix remains every bit as much an engineering company as it is a content company. There is a reason that its shows rarely suffer from streaming glitches, even though, at peak times, they can sometimes account for 37 percent of internet traffic: in 2011 Netflix engineers set up their own network, with servers in more than 1, 000 locations. Its user interface is relentlessly tested and tweaked to make it more appealing to users. Netflix has the ability to track what people watch, at what time of day, whether they watch all the way through or stop after 10 minutes. Netflix uses “personalization” algorithms to put shows in front of its subscribers that are likely to appeal to them. Nathanson, the analyst, says: “They are a tech company. Their strength is that they have a really good product. ” It is no surprise that Hastings, given his engineering background, believes that data, above all else, yields answers — and the bigger the data set, the better. “The worst thing you can do at Netflix is say that you showed it to 12 people in a focus room and they loved it,” says Todd Yellin, the company’s vice president of product innovation. He likes to note that customers will at most consider only 40 to 50 shows or movies before deciding what to watch, which makes it crucial that the company puts just the right 50 titles on each subscriber’s screen. (All the data Netflix collects and dissects can yield surprising correlations: For example, viewers who like “House of Cards” also often like the FX comedy “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. ”) There is another underappreciated aspect of Netflix that Hastings views as a competitive advantage: what he calls its “high performance” culture. The company seeks out and rewards star performers while unapologetically pushing out the rest. One person who helped Hastings create that culture is a woman named Patty McCord. The former head of human resources at Pure Software, she was also Hastings’s neighbor in Santa Cruz. She to work with him and socialized with his family on weekends. “I thought the idea for Netflix was kind of stupid,” she told me. But she trusted Hastings’s instincts and wanted to keep working with him. Her title was chief talent officer. The origins of the Netflix culture date to October 2001. The internet bubble burst the year before, and Netflix, once flush with venture capital, was running out of money. Netflix had to lay off roughly 50 employees, shrinking the staff by a third. “It was Reed’s first layoffs,” McCord says. “It was painful. ” The remaining 100 or so employees, despite working harder than before, enjoyed their jobs more. McCord and Hastings concluded that the reason was that they had held onto the employees who assumed responsibility naturally. Office politics virtually disappeared nobody had the time or the patience. “There was unusual clarity,” McCord says. “It was our survival. It was either make this work or we’re dead. ” McCord says Hastings told her, “This is what a great company feels like. ” As luck would have it, the DVD business took off right around the time of the layoffs. By May 2002, Netflix was doing well enough to go public, selling 5. 5 million shares at $15 a share. With the $82. 5 million Netflix reaped from the offering, Hastings started hiring aggressively again. This time, he and McCord focused on hiring “fully formed adults,” in their words, who put the company’s interests ahead of their own egos, showed initiative without being asked and embraced accountability. Dissent and argument were encouraged, even demanded. For those who fit in, Netflix was a great place to work — empowering and rational. There are no performance reviews, no limits on vacation time or maternity leave in the first year and a expense policy: Do what is in the company’s best interest. But those who could not adapt found that their tenure at Netflix was stressful and . There was pressure on newcomers to show that they had what it took to make it at Netflix those who didn’t were let go. “Reed would say, ‘Why are we coming up with performance plans for people who are not going to work out? ’’u2009” McCord says. Instead, Netflix simply wrote them a check and parted ways. McCord also convinced Hastings that he should ask himself a few times a year whether he would hire the same person in the same job if it opened up that day. If the answer was no, Netflix would write a larger check and let the employee go. “If you are going to insist on high performance,” McCord says, “then you have to get rid of the notion of retention. You’ll have to fire some really nice, people. But you have to do it with dignity. “I held the hands of people weeping, saying, ‘I want to be here forever,’’u2009” McCord says. “I would tell them, ‘Nothing lasts forever.’ I would say to Reed, ‘I love them, too, but it is our job to be sure that we always have the right people. ’’u2009” In 2004, the culture was codified enough for Netflix to put it on a sequence of slides, which it posted on its corporate website five years later. It is an extraordinary document, 124 slides in all, covering everything from its salaries (it pays employees what it believes a competitor trying to poach them would) to why it rejects “brilliant jerks” (“cost to effective teamwork is too high”). The key concept is summed up in the 23rd slide. “We’re a team, not a family,” it reads. “Netflix leaders hire, develop and cut smartly, so we have stars in every position. ” After Hastings, the executive I spent the most time with at Netflix was Yellin, a former independent filmmaker who joined the company in early 2006, when he was in his early 40s. Yellin quickly distinguished himself by pushing back hard whenever he thought Hastings was wrong about something. “There was a culture of questioning, but I pushed the envelope,” he says. He also helped develop a style of meeting that I’d never seen before. At the one I sat in on, there were maybe 50 people in a small circular room with three tiers of seats, like a tiny coliseum, allowing everyone to easily see everyone else. The issue at hand seemed pretty small to me: They were discussing whether montages on the opening screen of the user interface would be more effective in keeping subscribers than still images or trailers. But the intensity of the discussion made it clear that the group took the matter very seriously. Various hypotheses had been tested by sending out montages to 100, 000 or so subscribers and comparing the results with another 100, 000 who got, say, still images. (This is classic testing, as it’s known.) Every person present had something to say, but while there were strong disagreements, no one’s feathers seemed ruffled. One of my last interviews at Netflix was with Tawni Cranz, the company’s current chief talent officer, who started under Patty McCord in 2007. Five years later, McCord, her mentor, left. When I asked her why, she visibly flinched. She wouldn’t explain, but I learned later that Hastings had let her go. It happened in 2011, after he made his biggest mistake as chief executive. He split Netflix into two companies — one to manage the DVD business and the other to focus on streaming. Customers were outraged for many, the move meant a 60 percent price increase if they kept both the DVD and the streaming service. With complaints mounting and subscribers canceling, Hastings quickly reversed course and apologized. In the three weeks following this episode, the price of Netflix shares dropped 45 percent, and Wall Street questioned the company’s acumen. Hastings decided to everyone in the executive ranks, using the litmus test McCord taught him: Would he hire them again today? One of the people this led him to push out was McCord. “It made me sad,” she said when I called to ask her about it. “I had been working with Reed for 20 years. ” Netflix had just given the to “House of Cards,” and McCord said she “didn’t want to walk away in the middle of the next thing. ” But she also felt a sense of pride. She was gratified that Hastings had taken her advice so thoroughly to heart. Bill Murray, wearing a tuxedo with no tie, stepped out of a black car and meandered through a throng of people toward Ted Sarandos. It was a crisp night in December, and Murray had just arrived at the New York premiere of “A Very Murray Christmas,” a loosely structured, thinly plotted special directed by Sofia Coppola and including guest appearances by George Clooney, Chris Rock, Michael Cera and others. In the fall of 2014, when Coppola and Murray first cooked up the idea, they went straight to Sarandos. By then, a year and a half after “House of Cards” became available, Netflix had a reputation for deep pockets, marketing savvy and a policy with the “talent. ” The idea of doing away with a pilot, born of desperation when Sarandos was wooing Fincher, had now become Netflix’s standard practice, much to the delight of producers and directors. “Ted,” Murray said, as they shook hands warmly, “you should get a promotion. ” He grabbed Sarandos by the lapels, pulled him close and added loudly, “You are the future!” The two men laughed uproariously. From the time he arrived at Netflix in 2000, Sarandos has had the final say on both Netflix’s licensing deals and its original programming. An Arizona native, Sarandos was working for a large chain when Hastings hired him to negotiate DVD deals directly with the studios. Sarandos had been in love with movies all his life: He worked his way through college by managing an independent video store. If he had chosen a different path, it’s easy to imagine him having become a traditional Hollywood executive instead of an industry antagonist. When the networks complain about Netflix, Sarandos is the one who usually shoots back. Netflix doesn’t publish ratings! Ratings, he says, are irrelevant to Netflix because the only number that matters is subscriber growth Netflix doesn’t need to aggregate viewers for advertisers, and it doesn’t care when consumers watch their shows, whether it’s the day they are released or two years later. Netflix spends too much money for its shows! “Big Data helps us gauge potential audience size better than others,” Sarandos told me. At an investment conference late last year, David Zaslav, the chief executive of Discovery Communications, which operates the Discovery Channel, articulated the case for having networks rethink their relationship with Netflix. Streaming platforms “only exist because of our content,” Zaslav said, in an obvious reference to Netflix. “To the extent that our content doesn’t exist on their platforms — not to be too pejorative — they are dumb pipes. We as an industry are supporting economic models that don’t make sense. ” Sarandos, who had spoken earlier in the day, had clearly anticipated the criticism: “Zaslav says that we built a great business on their content,” he said. “That’s just not true. We did not renew their deal when they wanted a premium. So we replaced it with other programming that got us just as many viewers for less money. ” Those who think Netflix will come to dominate television have a simple rationale: Netflix has exposed, and taken advantage of, the limitations of conventional TV. The more time people spend on Netflix — it’s now up to nearly two hours a day — the less they watch network television. “Our thesis is that bingeing drives more bingeing,” says Greenfield, the Wall Street analyst. “Once people start watching shows that don’t have commercials, they never want to go back. Waiting week after week for the next episode of a favorite show,” he says, “is not a good experience for consumers anymore. ” Still, despite the rise in Netflix’s share price over the past few years, the company has no shortage of doubters on Wall Street. Some distrust Netflix’s numbers, arguing that millions of people no longer watch the service anymore but keep their subscriptions because they are so inexpensive. Netflix has announced that it will raise prices this year, and the Netflix skeptics believe the price increase will cause subscribers to cancel in droves. Other critics note the slowdown in the growth of domestic subscribers, by far the company’s most profitable segment. In addition, Netflix, between its content costs and the cost of adding subscribers, is spending more than it collects in revenue. How long can that continue? Finally, the pessimists point out that Netflix makes very little profit: In the first quarter of this year, for instance, Netflix had nearly $2 billion in revenue but only $28 million in profit. Despite the significant moves by Netflix into original programming, Wall Street still values Netflix more like a platform company — a business that uses the internet to match buyers and sellers, like Uber — than a content company, like a studio or a network. Its valuation is currently $5 billion more than Sony, for example. Hastings, who has been very blunt about the company’s strategy of plowing money back into the business, has promised bigger profits sometime in 2017. Whether he can deliver on that promise will be a significant test of investors’ faith in him. One of the most prominent Netflix skeptics is Michael Pachter, a research analyst at Wedbush Securities, a Los investment bank. In his view, Netflix’s true advantage in the beginning was that it had the entire game to itself, and the networks, not realizing how valuable streaming rights would be, practically gave them away. He had a “buy” on the stock from 2007 to 2010, he told me. But, he added, referring to those years when Netflix had streaming all to itself, “If it’s too good to be true, then it will attract competition. ” Now, he said, the networks and studios are charging higher fees for their shows, forcing up Netflix’s costs. Netflix doesn’t own most of the shows that it buys or commissions, like “House of Cards,” so it has to pay more when it renews a popular show. In addition to the money it now spends on content, it also has more than $12 billion in future obligations for shows it has ordered. The only way it can pay for all of that is to continue adding subscribers and raise subscription rates. And even then, Pachter says, the networks will extract a piece of any extra revenue Netflix generates. “It is naïve to think that Netflix can raise its price by $2 a month and keep all the upside,” he said. “I defy you to look at any form of content where the distributor raises prices and the supplier doesn’t get more. That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard. “Netflix,” Pachter concluded, “is caught in an arms race they invented. ” He compared Netflix to a rat racing on a wheel, staying ahead only by going faster and faster and spending more and more: As its costs continue to go up, it needs to constantly generate more subscribers to stay ahead of others. And if that doesn’t happen? If subscriber growth were to stall, for instance, then Wall Street would stop treating it as a growth stock, and its price would start falling. Slower growth would also increase the cost of taking on more debt to pay for its shows. The company would be forced to either raise subscription prices even higher or cut back on those content costs or do both, which could slow subscriber growth even further. Netflix’s virtuous circle — subscriber growth and content expenditures driving each other — would become a vicious circle instead. Five years from now, will the networks have taken the steps they need to prevent Netflix from dominating television? Will they have improved their technology, withdrawn most of their shows from Netflix or embraced streaming without sacrificing too much of their current profits? Or is Netflix in the process of “disintermediating” them, offering consumers such an improved viewing experience that the networks will instead be pushed to the sidelines? Matthew Ball, a strategist for Otter Media, who writes often about the future of television, thinks the latter is more likely. He says that today, when you have a cable subscription, you have access to hundreds of channels — in effect, they all share you as a customer. The cable bundle puts you in a television ecosystem, and you flip from one show to the other depending on what you want to watch. In the emerging world, television won’t work that way: All the networks will have their own streaming service and customers will have to pay a fee for every one. The days when networks could make money from people who never watch their shows will end. One consequence is that networks will have to have relationships with their viewers — something they have little experience with, and which Netflix, with its ability to “personalize” its interactions with its 81 million customers, has mastered. Another consequence is that as streaming becomes the primary way people watch television, they are highly unlikely to pay for more than a small handful of networks. What they will want, Ball believes, is a different setup: companies that offer far more programming than any one network can provide. Netflix, clearly, has already created that kind of ecosystem. “Netflix is ABC, it is Discovery, it is AMC, it is USA and all the other networks,” Ball said. “Its subscribers don’t say, ‘I love Netflix for Westerns, but I’ll go somewhere else for .’ The old model just doesn’t work in an world. ” In this vision of the future, Netflix’s most potent competitor is likely to be Amazon, which is also developing an extensive array of content, including many of its own original shows. Early on, it, too, produced a highly praised series, “Transparent. ” It, too, has no allegiance to the cable bundle. And it has the kind of revenue — exceeding $100 billion — that neither the networks nor Netflix can approach. Compared to the networks, Netflix may have an imposing war chest, but in a fight with Amazon, it would be outgunned. According to Ball, what Netflix is counting on to maintain its primacy and to start making big profits is “unprecedented scale. ” That’s where the effort to create a global network, the one that was announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, comes in. In April, when the company announced its results, it said it had added 4. 5 million international subscribers. Yet success, and profits, are still some way off, as Hastings is the first to acknowledge. YouTube, he notes, is available in more than 50 languages Netflix can be seen in only 20 languages. Netflix was primarily attracting people in its new countries who speak English as it races to “localize” its service in each country. Netflix is ordering shows with an international flavor, like “Narcos,” but so far it has only a handful up and running. Netflix wants to make “the best Bollywood movie that’s ever been produced,” Hastings told an Indian publication it wants to make Japanese anime it wants to make local films for every market it wants global rights when it licenses shows — something that, once again, contravenes Hollywood’s conventional business model, in which rights are sold on a basis. The company still has much to learn about each country’s quirks and tastes and customs, and it will be a while before it can hope to earn a profit from its global customers. To my surprise, Hastings spoke to me about the current moment as a “period of stability. ” It took me a while to understand what he meant, given how unstable the television industry seems to be right now. But Netflix has spent much of its existence zigging and zagging, responding to the pressures of the marketplace. “When we were in the DVD business,” Hastings said, “it was hard to see how we would get to streaming. ” Then it was hard to see how to go from a domestic company to a global one. And how to go from a company that licensed shows to one that had its own original shows. Now it knew exactly where it was going. “Our challenges are execution challenges,” he told me. Asked what the competitive landscape would look like five years in the future, he returned to the analogy he used earlier with the evolution of the telephone. Landlines had been losing out to mobile phones for the past 15 years, he said, but it had been a gradual process. The same, he believed, would be true of television. “There won’t be a dramatic tipping point,” he said. “What you will see is that the bundle gets used less and less. ” For now, even as Hulu and Amazon were emerging as rivals, he claimed that the true competition was still for users’ time: not just the time they spent watching cable but the time they spent reading books, attending concerts. And Hastings was aware that even after the bundle is vanquished, the disruption of his industry will be far from complete. “Prospective threats?” he mused when I asked him about all the competition. “Movies and television could become like opera and novels, because there are so many other forms of entertainment. Someday, movies and TV shows will be historic relics. But that might not be for another 100 years. ”

Protesters Disrupt Speech by ‘Bell Curve’ Author at Vermont College - The New York Times

Katharine Q. Seelye

BOSTON — Hundreds of students at Middlebury College in Vermont shouted down a controversial speaker on Thursday night, disrupting a program and confronting the speaker in an encounter that turned violent and left a faculty member injured. Laurie L. Patton, the president of the college, issued an apology on Friday to all who attended the event and to the speaker, Charles Murray, 74, whose book “The Bell Curve,” published in 1994, linked lower status with race and intelligence. “Today our community begins the process of addressing the deep and troubling divisions that were on display last night,” Ms. Patton said in her statement, adding that the Middlebury community had “failed to live up to our core values. ” She said that some of the protesters appeared to be from elsewhere but that Middlebury students had also been involved. The chaotic scene at the small liberal arts college in Vermont drew sharp criticism from the right. Conservatives said that the students were intolerant, had engaged in mob mentality and were quashing free speech, while those on the left maintained that the speaker was racist and hateful and had no place on their campus. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Mr. Murray as a “white nationalist” who uses “racist pseudoscience and misleading statistics to argue that social inequality is caused by the genetic inferiority of the black and Latino communities, women and the poor. ” As word spread on Friday about the confrontation, commentators weighed in. Bill Kristol, the conservative analyst and editor at large of The Weekly Standard, said on Twitter: Brit Hume, the Fox News analyst, wrote: But an open letter to the college from more than 450 alumni objecting to Mr. Murray’s presence on campus said it was not a matter of free speech. The letter, written before Thursday’s event, said that his views were offensive and based on shoddy scholarship and that they should not be legitimized. “In this case, there’s not really any ‘other side,’ only deceptive statistics masking unfounded bigotry,” the letter said. Ms. Patton, the Middlebury president, said in her apology that there had been “clear violations of Middlebury College policy” against disrupting events, with penalties up to and including suspension. University officials said they were investigating both the disruptions inside the building and the violence outside. Bill Burger, a spokesman for the college, said in an interview: “There are people who are eager to portray college students or the entire higher education establishment as hopelessly out of touch, a bastion of liberal indoctrination, and I think that’s fundamentally false. However, events like last night’s do feed that false narrative. ” Mr. Murray had been invited to the campus by the American Enterprise Institute Club, a group of about a dozen generally students. Hayden Dublois, 21, a senior and treasurer of the club, said that the students had thought Mr. Murray — whose 2012 book, “Coming Apart,” examines the white working class — would be interesting to hear in light of the presidential election. But when Mr. Murray rose to speak, he was shouted down by most of the more than 400 students packed into the room, several witnesses said. Many turned their backs to him and chanted slogans like “Racist, sexist, Charles Murray go away!” After almost 20 minutes, it was clear that he would not be able to give his speech, said Mr. Burger, the spokesman. Anticipating that such an outcry might happen, Mr. Murray was moved to a separate room equipped with a video camera so that Allison Stanger, a Middlebury professor of international politics and economics, could interview him over a live stream. Mr. Burger said the administration felt strongly that Mr. Murray’s right to free speech should be protected and that “no one should have the heckler’s veto. ” Once the interview began in the second room, protesters swarmed into the hallway, chanting and pulling fire alarms. Still, the interview was completed and officials, including Ms. Stanger, escorted Mr. Murray out the back of the building. There, several masked protesters, who were believed to be outside agitators, began pushing and shoving Mr. Murray and Ms. Stanger, Mr. Burger said. “Someone grabbed Allison’s hair and twisted her neck,” he said. After the two got into a car, Mr. Burger said, protesters pounded on it, rocked it back and forth, and jumped onto the hood. Ms. Stanger later went to a hospital, where she was put in a neck brace. Mr. Dublois, the student, said he was disappointed. “To see protests, which really developed into riots — which is what they were — was incredibly shameful and embarrassing. ” The car drove off to a dinner nearby, but officials say they learned that protesters intended to disrupt it, so they drove to a restaurant out of town.

Joint anti-Hungary media operation. Nice to see the attackers getting embarassed

VagyokAkiVagyok

Joint anti-Hungary media operation. Nice to see the attackers getting embarassed Ooh la la a joint anti-Hungary media operation has just started....October 23rd was the 60th commemoration of the 1956 Hungarian anti-communist revolution, so both Time and The Guardian used the opportunity to release articles comparing the 1956 Hungarian refugees with today's forced migration. They are basically saying: "shame on you, Hungary, back then the whole world welcomed Hungarians as refugees and now you are not welcoming refugees"Comments have been already disabled, but they're a telling read it just shows the stupidity of the editorComparing Hungarian war refugees who were being murdered by Soviets and who fled to a neighbour country , Austria, patiently waiting to be "transfered" wherever they would be accepted with this hoard of migrants who think they can go wherever they want by violating several countries' borders, raping children, raping women aso. is more than disgusting.Hungary is not a neighbour state to Syria, inor Afghanistan, nor Pakistan. These people are NOT refugees, they stopped being refugees as soon as they left the first safe country they got to!This disgusting and highly offensive article should be deleted on the spot!

Lagerfeld: Meryl Streep Wanted Money to Wear Chanel to Oscars

Jerome Hudson

Iconic fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld claims Meryl Streep wanted to be paid to wear one of his Chanel dresses to the 2017 Academy Awards. [Streep was reportedly set to wear Chanel on the red carpet before one of her handlers allegedly informed the fashion house to halt production of the dress. “I made a sketch, and we started to make the dress,” Lagerfeld told WWD. The German designer said someone from Streep’s team called days later and said, “Don’t continue the dress. We found somebody who will pay us. ” “A genius actress, but cheapness also, no?” he said. Streep, who’s nominated for Best Actress for her role in Florence Foster Jenkins, denied that she demanded money to wear a dress at Sunday’s awards ceremony. A representative for the three time said the claim is “absolutely false,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Lagerfeld told WWD that it is Chanel policy not to pay entertainers to wear their couture to awards shows, despite what other fashion houses might do. “After we gift her a dress that’s 100, 000 euros [$105, 000] we found later we had to pay [for her to wear it]. We give them dresses, we make the dresses, but we don’t pay,” Lagerfeld explained. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson

Hillary Clinton to Dems: ’Keep Fighting,’ ’Protesting,’ Speaking Out at Town Halls - Breitbart

Pam Key

A message from @HillaryClinton: ”Let resistance plus persistence equal progress for our Party and our country.” #DNCFuture pic. twitter. Friday, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivered a video message to the Democratic Party ahead of Saturday’s vote to choose the next chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Clinton said, “Ideas we championed are now inspiring leaders and activists across out country. Nearly 66 million votes are fueling grassroots energy and activism. And everywhere, people are marching, protesting, tweeting, speaking out and working for an America that’s hopeful, inclusive and big hearted. From the women’s march to airports where communities are welcoming immigrants, refugees and people of every faith, to town hall meetings where people are speaking up for health care, the environment, good jobs and all the other issues that deserve our passionate support. ” She continued, “The challenges we face as a party and a country are real. So now, more than ever, we need to stay engaged. In the field and online. Reaching out to new voters, young people and everyone who wants a better, stronger, fairer America. We as Democrats must move forward with courage, confidence, and optimism, and stay focused on the elections we must win this year and next. Let resistance plus persistence equal progress for our party and our country. ” She added, “Keep fighting and keep the faith. And I’ll be right there with you every step of the way. ” ( RCP Video) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN,

Flawed Study of Advanced Prostate Cancer Spreads False Alarm - The New York Times

Denise Grady

Bad news for men popped up in news media all over the country this week, based on a study from Northwestern University reporting that cases of advanced, aggressive prostate cancer had risen sharply from 2004 to 2013. Newsweek, NBC, CBS, Fox News and United Press International were among the organizations that covered the study. The reports suggested that recent medical advice against routine screening might be to blame for the apparent increase in advanced cases, by leading to delays in diagnosis until the cancer reached a late stage. Another factor cited was the possibility that prostate cancer had somehow become more aggressive. But the frightening news appears to be a false alarm — the product of a study questioned by other researchers but promoted with an incendiary news release and initially reported by some news media with little or no analysis from outside experts. The claim of an increase in advanced cases does not hold up, according to the American Cancer Society, which posted a statement on its website challenging the findings. The main concern is that the study’s methods do not pass muster with statistics experts, so the increase may not be real. In an interview, the cancer society’s chief medical officer, Dr. Otis W. Brawley, called the study “misguided epidemiology” and said its authors “don’t know that they don’t know. ” The episode began late last week when Northwestern University emailed an news release to reporters. “Metastatic Prostate Cancer Cases Skyrocket,” it said, and described a study published Tuesday in the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases. The study’s authors wrote that routine use of blood tests to screen for prostate cancer had declined, and that they wanted to find out if the decline had led to changes in the incidence of advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. Prostate screening has long been a subject of intense debate, with advocates insisting it saves lives and detractors saying it leads to too much unnecessary treatment of tumors that would never have progressed. The operation can leave men incontinent and impotent. In recent years, expert groups have advised against routine screening, saying the risks outweigh the benefits. But some doctors worry that the drop in screening will leave some men with disease that is found too late to be easily cured. The senior author of the study, Dr. Edward Schaeffer, a prostate cancer oncologist and the chairman of urology at Northwestern, said in an interview that he believed screening saved lives. In the study, the doctors examined the records of 767, 550 men with prostate cancer diagnosed from 2004 to 2013. Using the number of cases of metastatic disease in 2004 (1, 685) and 2013 (2, 890) they reported an alarming increase of 72 percent. But for the United States population, that percentage could be meaningless. On the cancer society website, Dr. Brawley said that to measure whether a disease was becoming more common, researchers could not rely on just the absolute number of cases. They need to calculate rates, meaning the number of cases per a certain number of people. “Epidemiologists learned long ago that you can’t simply look at raw numbers,” he wrote. “A rising number of cases can be due simply to a growing and aging population among other factors. ” Another expert expressed similar doubts. Dr. Christopher Filson, an assistant professor of urology at Emory University School of Medicine, said: “I don’t want to claim their results are wrong. They may be true, but the way they looked at the question brings in too many possible alternative explanations. ” The authors acknowledged in their report that the lack of rates was a “limitation. ” But they said that because the number of patients was large, their findings probably reflected national patterns. Dr. Schaeffer emphasized that the researchers did not claim a link between their findings and the advisories against screening they noted that advanced cases started rising even before those. Most of the initial news articles about the study reported the supposed increase without caveats, and few quoted the cancer society or outside experts. In some cases, online versions of the articles were amended to tone down the message and add comments from Dr. Brawley. Maggie Fox, a reporter for NBC, said she reported on the study because “prostate cancer is a huge issue in this country, and the question of screening has been greatly controversial. ” Dr. Schaeffer, she said, is influential. “What he says will make waves, and we felt it was important to report and include criticism of the study. ” Dr. Brawley said that even if further analysis found an increase in advanced cases, it would probably be from improvements in magnetic resonance imaging scanning. In other words, rather than reflecting more cases of advanced disease, the increase would mean doctors had become better at finding it.

Debate over the Cleveland Indians’ Mascot

Consortiumnews.com

Debate over the Cleveland Indians’ Mascot November 1, 2016 The U.S. government’s genocide against Native Americans has led many to find the use of Indian nicknames and caricatures in sports offensive, such as the grinning Chief Wahoo mascot of the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, reports Dennis J Bernstein. By Dennis J Bernstein With the Cleveland Indians in Major League Baseball’s World Series, attention is drawn again to the team’s smiling mascot, Chief Wahoo, who represents to many Native Americans a racist stereotype. Indeed, a “real” Cleveland Indian — Jacqueline Keeler, a Navajo Yankton Dakota Sioux who was raised in Cleveland and is now a writer based in Portland, Oregon — has been fighting against Chief Wahoo and other sports mascots that are degrading toward Native Americans. She was interviewed regarding the image’s high profile during the series against the Chicago Cubs. Dennis Bernstein: Why don’t you give us a little background on your family and growing up in Cleveland? Jacqueline Keeler: Many people don’t know this, but Cleveland was the site of a relocation program that took places in the 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s. It was part of a two-pronged program launched by the U.S. Congress to terminate tribes, and to relocate the populace, to relocate Native Americans, to urban centers. And it was a way to make us disappear, and also to gain access to our lands, and many tribes were terminated, and then they had their land sold. And, here in Oregon, many tribes were terminated and they got access to their timber stands. […] And so, my parents were relocated, they were on the relocation program into Cleveland and as young people. And within a decade of that program starting in Cleveland by the late 60’s [Cleveland] had a pretty substantial Native population for the first time since Native people were removed from Ohio, in the 1830’s, to Oklahoma. Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians’ mascot. DB: And so your parents met there? JK: Uh-huh. DB: And that was part of a relocation and termination policy? JK: Yes, for tribes. And luckily that was defeated, and turned around. And my tribes were not terminated. DB: What was the policy? Explain that policy. JK: Well, the idea was that they would just finally get rid of tribes. Tribes are actually sovereign nations within the United States. And we’re pesky reminders that the United States is basically occupying our lands. And so they were just hoping to wave a wand and make us all go away. And then taking the relocation program was, for young people, from 18 to 35 years of age, and the idea was to basically de-populate our communities, and make us disappear in large cities. And so these relocation programs were set up in Los Angeles, in Denver, in Cleveland, in Dallas, Texas. Within a short time there were about 20,000 young Native people in Cleveland. And what they did was, they began to organize. And one of the first things they began to organize against was Chief Wahoo. And so the earliest documented large scale protest against Chief Wahoo occurred in 1968. DB: Okay, remind us who Chief Wahoo is, what he stands for, because everybody is not from Cleveland. JK: Yeah. It’s a totally grotesque caricature of a Native person. Supposedly, it’s meant to honor a Cleveland baseball player who was Native American back in the early 20th century. It’s a really grotesque caricature. My organization started the notyourmascot hashtag. We trended nationally. Pretty much the only Native hashtag that’s ever trended nationally. And I remember arguing with the Washington NFL fans, and having them say “Well, why? … [Y]our mascot, the Cleveland mascot, is way worse” in defending their own mascot. Of course, for me the issue is mascotry, which is a word I invented. The problem is all the different sort of stereotypes that having a Native mascot promotes in the populace, and in the fans, and what it teaches people about Native people. That’s the problem. You have the red face, the acting out of “Native traditions and culture” and the entitlement it breeds, over our culture and identities. So I remember growing up hearing stories about my parents talking about protesting against Chief Wahoo. We moved away when I was quite young so I didn’t have to live with Chief Wahoo. Although when I wrote the article for Salon, and went over the history of Native people in Cleveland, Salon titled the article “My Life as a Cleveland Indian.” I went back last year and I participated in the protests during the season opener, at Progressive Field, there in Cleveland. And I got to meet the Native community. DB: And what was that like? Was that empowering? […] JK: It was. I landed in Cleveland, and the airport is really small, and people were really friendly. And when I told them I was born there, everyone, even like Cleveland Indian fans that I was interviewing at the games, even though they were drunk, they were really touched that I came back. They actually asked me to move back. It’s the only place I’ve been, besides the reservation, where people have asked me to move back. And I think that’s part of Cleveland’s story, the Ohio River Valley, was… you know the colonists… one of the reasons they launched the Revolutionary War was to gain access to the Ohio River Valley, which was denied to them by King George III because he/they had set that aside as Indian land. And after the Revolutionary War they throw the tribes out, when it comes down to everyone, the Shawnee. And so, it’s just strange that after taking that land and basically committing genocide against the tribes in Ohio, Cleveland is really fearful that they might be abandoned by the United States. They look at Detroit, they can see Detroit from their backyard. They know that the U.S. abandons cities. And so there are still stories partly tied into this idea of… that they are half what they were when my family lived there. They went from being the seventh largest city in the 1950’s to being the 48th or 49th, now. And it’s really shocking. And I really felt really welcomed when I was there. And so for them, their teams winning like this, the Cavs [Cavaliers] last year and now, the MLB in the baseball team, you want to cheer for them. But […] when it’s attached to this kind of racism it makes it very difficult. DB: I want to ask you a little bit about the actual actions that are taking place [during the World Series]. You have an e-mail campaign. I imagine you couldn’t, it’s probably pretty hard to get tickets to the World Series, but are there any protests, in terms of the context of the World Series? JK: Yeah, there are. There’s a really great local group there in Portland. I got to meet with them. They’re called the Committee for 500 Years, and they, actually, are part of… they grew out of the American Indian community in Cleveland, the real Cleveland American Indian community. They have been connecting protests for decades, of these games. And they are doing protests. They are protesting right now, as we speak. And they have a great presence there. And it is sort of surprising because, you know, Cleveland has a really large black community. But when you go to the games, one of the things I noticed was that all the fans were white. Like, I didn’t see any people of color. The Washington Redskins’ mascot. And when we protest at the Redskins game sometimes like 30% of the fans were African American, which is very difficult, because they would walk right by a whole flank of Native people protesting, and just not look us in the eye, or sometimes jeer at us. And you want solidarity. And it’s hard when people, the mascot, I often say that mascoting masks our identities. It dehumanizes us to our fellow Americans, and it’s not a great thing to teach the next generation. I just saw an article where they are giving away Cleveland Indian onesies to newborns in hospitals around Cleveland. And it’s like they’re teaching them these stereotypes at birth. DB: They’re teaching them the stereotypes at birth. You mean, these are like gifts? So we won the World Series so this is a special thing we’re doing? JK: Well, yeah. They just showed a picture of all the newborns in their incubators and they’re all wearing onesies. DB: Well that gets them early, huh? JK: Yeah, and online we’re doing, my group, eradicating offensive Native mascotry. We’re doing a Twitter storm and we’re doing it all week, throughout the World Series. We’re just making sure that people get educated about the facts and the harm that mascotry does. There have been plenty of studies done that show that the teaching of stereotypes are primarily negative. The University of Buffalo came out with a study last year that found that they are negative and that they actually encourage other stereotypes about other groups, as well. And then Dr. Stephanie Fryberg, she did studies at Stanford, where she found that Native youth that were exposed to mascots, Native mascots, had a loss of self-esteem, a measurable loss. She measured their self-esteem before and after, and Native youth who claimed to be okay with Native mascots actually suffered the steepest decline in self-esteem. And, it really indicates that a lot of coping mechanisms have to be employed, a lot of energy employed to make it okay. And Native youths have the highest rates of suicide in the country, bar none. And they have a rate of about three times that of other peers. And Native young men actually have the highest rate. The rates are nine times that of other young American men. And, so, this is the most vulnerable group in America. And they really don’t need this kind of extra added… DB: Alright, so […] there is an e-mail campaign? JK: We have a Twitter storm that we’re doing […]. We’re actually doing notyourmascot and also dechief which is another hashtag that was started by Cleveland fans, where they would cut Chief Wahoo out of their apparel and gear and then post a picture of that online with the hashtag dechief. DB: So, this is interesting. And are there any Native American players on these teams [the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs] playing [in the World Series]? JK: I don’t know. I don’t think there are. In the early years of baseball there were a lot of pro Native players, in the early 20 th century. My great-grandfather and his twin brother played pro baseball, as well. But I don’t know. I know that the Washington NFL team reportedly recruited a Native, a guy who’s of Native descent onto their team and everything. As a way to try to say that our criticism was unwarranted. But, yeah, I don’t know. DB: And this is now a national struggle because this isn’t the only racist mascot stereotype that’s being perpetuated. This is a part of the professional leagues in the United States. JK: Yeah, it has a huge reach. And, even at the college level and high school level, there are 2,000 high schools in this country that have Native American mascots. And if you were to scale that up for other ethnic groups like for Black Americans which have 10 times the population of Native Americans you would have 20,000 high schools with black mascots and it just gives you the idea of how overwhelming this is for Native people. And to see it on T.V., to have stadiums with 90,000 people in them doing Hopi chants and acting out stereotypes, how isolating that is to Native people, who are really a minority amongst minorities in most communities. And about 80% of all Native people live off the reservation. So they don’t live in communities where they are part of any sort of majority at all, or a significant group. So they have to face this kind of ignorance alone. And, yeah, it has a huge impact. DB: This is amazing. Because if you contrast this with what you also know a lot about, which is what’s going on in North Dakota… what’s happening in North Dakota is what the U.S. government didn’t want to happen and by various acts of genocide like the one we’re talking about tonight, subtle undermining of a culture, by the use of racist stereotypes. This is sort of an interesting parallel structure because you see the oppression here, but there’s a real movement being led by the Native peoples to stop the destruction of the planet. JK: Exactly. I just got back from North Dakota. My dad’s tribe, the Yankton Sioux tribe, some of the sites there are Yankton or Ihanktowan sites, burial sites. That is part of our 1851 Treaty that we signed with the U.S. government and my dad’s tribe has a lawsuit right now with the Army Corps of Engineers, over what’s happening there at Standing Rock and the Dakota Access Pipeline. I think when you look at the parallels, basically what is happening, they try to disappear us, there are no tribe reservations in Ohio, and in North Dakota, most of its land that it’s claiming is private land is actually un-ceded treaty territory, which means that the U.S. government signs treaties with tribes. And these are not special little agreements, these are international legal agreements. And the Senate only ratifies treaties with other sovereign nations. So by ratifying treaties with us they recognize our status internationally as sovereign nations. Protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 13, 2016 (Flickr Fibonacci Blue) And so when the Oceti Sakowin, the great Sioux Nation, exerts its rights, it is actually in its legal rights to do so. And, similarly, there are large tracts of land across the United States that have never been actually legally ceded to the United States, they are held by force. The whole state of Nevada, the Shoshone tribe never ceded that. And, of course, the most famous case is the Black Hills which the great Sioux Nation never ceded that land either. And, actually, the Supreme Court agreed with us, in 1981, I think. And so we actually have legal title to these places, and they’re being held. And you can see what’s happening in North Dakota. They’re being held by force. And that force is revealing itself. The United States is a colonial enterprise, whose goal is to profit off of our land. And their only purpose is to make a profit. And they’re not a real nation in the sense that we have a connection to the land. When I woke up last Saturday at camp, they were playing John Trudeau, the Santee Dakota poet, poetry, having him read and he’s passed on, but they had a recording of him, and he was saying, “We are the people of the Earth. Who are you?” And I think that Native nations, our origin stories, always go back to some sort of meeting with a sacred being. With the Lakota and Dakota people it is with the White Buffalo Calf Woman and they say that she actually appeared to us near the site of where the Dakota Access Pipeline is being laid. Right there, where the White Stone massacre happened. And so this is where we became a people, a nation—Dakota and these are the stories that tie us to the land. And these are the stories they are trying to erase. And by making us American citizens and clouding our identity as citizens of our own nations, I think that’s all part of the story. And assuming our identity is, of course, the full circle of that. In my mom’s culture, in Navajo culture, they have these things called skin walkers, they’re like witches, and they wear the skins of animals, and take on their appearance, and really I often feel like this whole thing of taking on our identity in this way through mascotry is a form of skin walking. And it’s a form of trophyism. You know, that they see us and they have a right to do what they want with our image, and our culture. DB: And, what tribe did you say your dad was from? JK: He is Yankton, it’s a Yankton Sioux tribe. In our language it would be Inhanktowan Dakota. DB: And they’re suing the Army Corps of Engineers? JK: Yes. They are. Their lawsuit hasn’t been heard yet, and then, of course, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe is also suing. But they lost and they’re appealing, now. And the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe has enjoined that lawsuit as well. DB: And this suit goes right against the Army Corps of Engineers which has been halted from action by the President, at this point. JK: Yeah, they have…. DB: They have halted the company from going on public lands. JK: Yeah, the federal… the waterways, the Missouri River is the federal waterway, so the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal government has jurisdiction over it. However, most of the pipeline is on private land. In fact, they purchased the Cannonball Ranch, where they had, over Labor Day weekend, dug up recently identified burial sites and other archeological sites for the… DB: The company bought the ranch? JK: They bought it. Yes. Actually, they may have broke the law because North Dakota has a Depression Era law against corporate ownership of agricultural land, non-family owned corporations owning agricultural land in North Dakota. And they admit they broke the law, but they say they’re going to make it right later. DB: So a private citizen sold to the company which proceeded to drill, and did? JK: Yes. […] JK: My family fought the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Yankton Sioux tribe played a major role in that. And so I talked to the folks, the white farmers that helped us, they band with us. My aunt helped form this alliance called the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, and I talked to them and they said that they’re hearing that… A protestor holds a sign against the Washington football team’s name at a rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 2, 2014 (Flickr Fibonacci Blue) DB: These are the farmers and the Native Americans [who] are working together to restrain the oil…. JK: Yes. We were really lucky to find landowners, white landowners, who were willing to stand with us, cause they take a huge risk. Because they face imminent domain threats. They could pay all these legal fees and still lose their land. And I heard that the Energy Transfer Partners, the Dallas corporation that is behind Dakota Access Pipeline, is even more vicious and even worse than Trans-Canada was. DB: Well, let me ask you, we just got a minute or two left, what are you asking people to do in terms of the stereotypes, in terms of the racist mascots? You talked about an action, I want to remind people what you’re up to and what you folks are trying to do here. JK: We want the mascoting of Native people to stop. And to basically change the emphasis to real representations of Native people in the media, and in sports. And we would like for our real lives to be seen, and to be understood. […] You know, here in Portland, we have this Powell’s Bookstore that has thousands of books. But how many of those books actually feature Native protagonists? That’s the problem, there’s no balance. People often ask me “Well, what about the Vikings?” Well, the difference is that that’s not the only way you see a white man, as a Viking. If you never saw a white man as anything else than a Viking, and you never saw him on T.V., you never saw him save the world in a Hollywood film, you never saw him as President of the United States, then it would be a similar situation. The issue is the prevalence of mascotry and stereotypes, over real knowledge of Native people. DB: I guess tonight you’ll be rooting for the people and the removal of that racist symbol, right? That will be a home run, for the home team, for you, huh? JK: Well, I guess I’m rooting […] that we get a chance to use this time this week [during the World Series] to really educate people, and to really get people to think about it. And to get Americans to understand, because obviously other Americans understand this, because you will notice that no other ethnic group is mascoted to the degree that Native people are. DB: We’re going to have to leave it right there. Dennis J Bernstein is a host of “Flashpoints” on the Pacifica radio network and the author of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom . You can access the audio archives at www.flashpoints.net .

Dr. MacDonald & Dr. Duke Expose the Vicious War on Trump by the Jewish Establishment!

Dr. Patrick Slattery

Dr. MacDonald & Dr. Duke Expose the Vicious War on Trump by the Jewish Establishment! November 10, 2016 at 11:25 am Dr. MacDonald & Dr. Duke Expose the Vicious War on Trump by the Jewish Establishment! Today Dr. Duke had Professor Kevin MacDonald as his guest for the hour. They discussed the importance of the Trump victory as well as what needs to be done. They agreed that regarding immigration, the most important thing in the long term is repealing the 1965 Act. They also pointed out the phenomenon of whites voting their ethnic interests. While we have been hearing that white women were going to vote against Trump, they wound up supporting him by a 10% margin. Even almost half of white women with a college education supported Trump, despite the years of Jewish indoctrination at college. The same can be said for white millennials. This is an important show in terms of showing the path forward. Please share it widely. Our show is aired live at 11 am replayed at ET 4pm Eastern and 4am Eastern. Click on Image to Donate! And please spread this message to others.

Exiting a Bad Road Onto a Hopeful Path - The New York Times

John Otis

She watched as her friends were killed in gang wars. She knew others who took lives. Dania Williams, 23, grew up around crime in East New York in Brooklyn, trying to resist the calls to join a gang and trying to survive the violence that waited outside her front door. Without attentive parents, the temptations were everywhere. “They weren’t as involved as they should be as parents,” Ms. Williams said. “So I did what I wanted to do. ” That included truancy and the occasional theft and no concerns about securing money in illicit ways. Retail jobs put cash in her pockets, but the work was always seasonal. Selling drugs offered a steadier source of income. “I always had this thing for having stuff that I couldn’t normally have, materialistic things that I didn’t need,” she said. “I just wanted to keep up with the latest fad. ” She remembered the warnings to correct the path she had chosen or she would wind up dead or in jail. She dismissed them as harsh judgments and hollow words from people she did not trust. Change seemed impossible. She accepted her fate. “You don’t want to get too deep, but you don’t know how to get out of whatever deep you’re in,” Ms. Williams said. But there was one person in her life whom Ms. Williams could not just brush off: her grandmother. “She actually put in my head, ‘You need to change,’” Ms. Williams said. “But where do I start? Where do I go? What do I do? Who do I talk to?” In early 2016, she saw a path out. She attended an informational meeting for Green City Force, an AmeriCorps program that prepares young people living in homes for careers in the renewable energy industry. Green City Force is a partner of the Community Service Society, one of eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Lawrence Harris, a program operation manager at Green City Force, was a team leader when he met Ms. Williams, an encounter he remembers vividly. Mr. Harris immediately set out to convince her a better life was possible and to break down her apparent skepticism about changing. “I told her I’d never lie, even if I’m joking,” Mr. Harris recalled. “Once they find you told them something untrue or not the whole story, they’ll never listen to anything you have to say. ” He urged Ms. Williams to give the program a chance and worked closely with her to help build her confidence, holding her accountable for her choices and helping her be more accepting of others. On one occasion, Ms. Williams arrived to the program late — punctuality has never been easy for her — and was quite hard on herself. Mr. Harris knew then she was changing. “Everything they said, they followed through with,” Ms. Williams said. “They never told me anything and then it didn’t happen. ” After completing the Green City Force training, Ms. Williams began a plumbing training program. She was also offered a porter’s job. Community Service Society used $349. 50 in Neediest Cases funds to buy Ms. Williams three months of MetroCards last spring for traveling to her job. “I was never a dummy,” she said. “I was always book smart and street smart. I didn’t use it in a good way. I used it to get money in the wrong way. Now, I’m using it to get money in the right way. ” She said she had since quit her illegal activities and was fully focused on getting her plumbing certification and excelling at her porter job. She has even tried to recruit friends into Green City Force. “They made me want to turn my life around,” Ms. Williams said. “They said from the jump, we can’t do anything for you, you have to want to do it yourself. You’ll either take it and run with it or you’ll just leave it at the door. So, I ran with it. I’m running far. ”

Morgan Freeman: Trump a Winner, I Hope Will Be ’Good President’

Jerome Hudson

After lending his celebrity to help Hillary Clinton win the White House, Hollywood screen legend Morgan Freeman now says Donald Trump has no choice but to be a “good president. ”[“As for politics today, I supported Hillary in the election, and now it feels like we are jumping off a cliff,” Freeman said in interview with AARP: The Magazine. “We just have to find out how we land. I’m not scared, though. ” But Freeman, who narrated a campaign ads for Clinton during the primary and the general election, says he’s being positive about Trump’s presidency. “I’m holding out hope that Donald Trump has to be a good president,” the actor said. “He can’t not be. What I see is a guy who will not lose. ” Freeman’s comments were made before Trump’s signed an executive order temporarily prohibiting the arrival of Syrian refugees into the United States and halting the entry of most citizens from Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Freeman went from a short career in the United States Air Force to being nominated for three Academy Awards and winning one. He’s played God once, and POTUS a couple of times, along the way. “Some people thought Hollywood wasn’t ready for a black president, but I didn’t consider it,” said Freeman, who played U. S. President in Deep Impact (2008) and Olympus Has Fallen (2013). “I’m not a professional black actor I’m a professional actor. I can remember only once in the movies playing black, and that was Driving Miss Daisy. ” The actor recently kicked off the second season of National Geographic’s The Story of God, which follows Freeman as he explores various religions and cultures around the world. Freeman is being honored with AARP’s “Movies for Grownups Career Achievement Award. ” You can read Freeman’s full cover story in the 2017 AARP: The Magazine. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson

Trump won because of White people

Admin

By M. JAGGERS LD: We discussed yesterday the various reasons why Trump won the election. Mr Jaggers thinks Trump won because he promoted the interests of the vast underclass of disenfranchised Whites who were sick to death of the (((neoconservative liberal elites))), as typified by the loathsome Hillary Clinton. It is in Trump’s own interests, Jaggers believes, not to betray the Whites who voted for him by reneging on his promises. There must be no U-turns, no cuddling up to the Zionist enemy, no wishy-washy compromises or backslidings. Trump is now expected to “make America great again” — or else. A tall order? We’ll see. [LD] : In certain times, there is a surreal feeling of “being a part of history,” which is perhaps to say, we are living in a time period of dynamic change. However unthinkable for the left it may be, Trump has been elected. We can add this to Brexit and other “unthinkable” events to come. To contemplate the details of what this may entail, such as the selection of cabinet members and policy priorities , which do indeed include “building that wall,” has something of a Christmas morning feeling—everyday. To paraphrase an from Die Welt , in Western Democracies, the status quo seems stable, and it is not generally considered possible for “extremes” to transpire. But that is what we have seen, however we may want to quibble about what exactly is “extreme.” Can Donald Trump, or the Alt-Right for that matter, be considered “extreme” after that electoral show of consent? Regardless, when there is an endless back and forth between stultifying, uncourageous Republicans and the frankly anti-White agenda of the Democrats, “extreme” does not carry such a negative connotation, but instead implies a kind of deliverance. We have been locked in a middle-class complaisance, and that is precisely why societies such as ours “are often surprised by the foreseeable and obvious.” And alas, though it may be “unspeakable” to liberals, and though he was the object of such ridicule in our media, Trump is now “the most powerful man in the world,” as Die Welt puts it, perhaps with some apprehension. Just let that sink in. Explanatory Factors Trump’s appeal may have been equally a reaction to Black Lives Matter protests as to immigration. According to exit polls, 74 percent of Trump voters feel that Blacks are treated fairly by the criminal justice system, which by definition means that these voters are not sympathetic to Black Lives Matter. Overall, half of White voters (Democrats and Republicans) opined that Blacks are treated fairly by police. Likely most of us will have anecdotal evidence that our non-Alt-Right family members and acquaintances were not amused by Black Lives Matter. Trump voters were especially unamused. Of Trump supporters, 86 percent favor building the wall on the southern border, compared to less than half of all voters (54 percent oppose, 41 percent favor). So antipathy towards both Black Lives Matter and immigration can be said to have catapulted Trump to the presidency , in part by turning off mainstream middle-class White people, who are normally content with the status-quo. Moderates may not want a wall per se , but they also may not complain too loudly when it’s being built. And again, Trump’s actual voters want it built—unequivocally. While losing some steam amongst college-educated Whites, Trump won the White working class by 39 points , an increase from Romney’s 26 point spread. Ultimately, there is no simple narrative that emerges; Trump increased White support in different key swing states from different rural and suburban demographics in order to dominate the electoral college. I won’t pretend to be Nate Silver, so let’s just say he won because of White people. “Among his supporters,” opines Thomas Friedman on Real Time with Bill Maher , “this was 80 percent about race, and the other 20 percent was about race.” Good then, let’s accept the premise of liberals and draw the necessary conclusions. If Trump triumphed on the basis of race issues, he now has a mandate on immigration, law and order, the wall, etc. For the NYTimes David Brooks holding forth on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Trump voters are “just going with their gene pool ,” a rather bald statement that Trump voters are voting their ethnic interests. After the election, Brooks predicted that the country would be split into two factions, with one faction advocating ethnic separatism, what many on the Alt Right are already advocating. Would that it were so. Nixon became known to history as the “law and order” candidate, which accurately characterized his proclivities vis-à-vis crime. Trump, on the other hand, to leave no doubt, self-identified as the “law and order” candidate. As liberals will complain, and as the alt-right will readily admit, “law and order” is understood to mean that we will not tolerate Black violence and civil unrest. Trump’s support, therefore, was premised on his intolerance for the very violence which his election has provoked (once again) from Blacks and other malcontent minorities, in the protests following his victory, which continue as I write this. It is ironic that Blacks report feeling “scared” at the prospect of the Trump presidency, while they are in fact the progenitors of violence, and so far as I know, Trump never made any negative statements explicitly about Blacks. Their violence and disorder has indeed “scared” the rest of civil society, contributing to Trump’s election. Perhaps Blacks are expressing their fear by attacking innocent Whites, in this inverted reality. How can we assuage these sensitive Blacks’ sense of fear? Shall we become human punching bags? You Can’t Always Get What You Want If there is one thing that minorities have learned over the last eight years, it is that they get what they want, and Whites (perhaps as a natural corollary) do not. Hence the indignation following this surprise victory. Some journalists noted with amusement that Trump often played the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at his campaign rallies. I hypothesized that Trump liked the song for its beautiful choral section, which has a celestial quality that built anticipation for his arrival on stage. Surely he paid little heed to the message of the lyrics, which discordantly seemed to suggest he was voters’ second choice. But now it all makes sense. I suggest that for our “underprivileged” people of color, it’s time you learned: you can’t always get what you want. Not only is the People of Color (POC) attitude of entitlement and aggrievement ridiculous, it is also presumptuous. While the MSM claims that the onus is now on Trump to reach out to those who didn’t vote for him; i.e., Blacks and Hispanics, it would seem that he was given a mandate to serve the interests of those who did vote for him . It follows logically that he would now carry that project through and enact the policies which mobilized his base and put him in the Oval Office. Sourced from the Occidental Observer Like this? Share it now. 2 thoughts on “ Trump won because of White people ” György says: November 18, 2016 at 11:48 am You Can’t Always Get What You Want If there is one thing that minorities have learned over the last eight years, it is that they get what they want, and Whites (perhaps as a natural corollary) do not. Hence the indignation following this surprise victory. Problem has been favouring certain ethnic groups beyond reasonability. People are people. For example, employment should go to the best qualified candidate regardless of race or ethnic creed. An assumption is made on the government’s part, that an employer will unfairly select Anglo Saxon over other races, which is wrong. Therefore, the employer must use race based quota agendas to effect equality. This is a form of dictating morality by an amoral government. This is one area that Mr. Trump ought to behove.

College threatens police response for students wearing 'offensive' costumes

College threatens police response for students wearing 'offensive' costumes Source: Fox News Tufts University has sent out a letter that is sure to spook Greek life students ahead of Halloween weekend. Students involved in fraternities and sororities at the Massachusetts school are being told to not wear anything that could offend others during Halloween celebrations – or risk getting investigated by campus police and being slapped with “serious disciplinary sanctions.” The order came in a note written by the leaders of the four Greek life councils on campus. It contained few specifics. “The costumes that people choose to wear have an effect on everyone around them whether they realize it or not,” the letter says . It goes on to state that “outfits relating to tragedy, controversy, or acts of violence are also inappropriate. We need to set a precedent that people’s customs cannot and will not be our costumes.” Tufts was far from the only university calling out costumes it deemed offensive. The University of Florida offered counseling for students "troubled" by incidents involving Halloween costumes. And the University of Wisconsin-Platteville's Bias Incident Team last year claimed some students' "Three Blind Mice" costumes mocked the disabled .

Steve Quayle On Economic Collapse, World War 3 and U S elections

Pakalert

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Comment on The fix is in: Newsweek already has an issue in print declaring Hillary Clinton the winner by bongiornoc

bongiornoc

| November 5, 2016 at 1:54 pm | Reply This election is one to be studied for years to come. I cannot, with certainty, predict the outcome, although my gut tells me that Hillary will APPEAR to win, via massive vote and electronic machine rigging and hacking, but that Donald Trump CAN successfully litigate to prove this and thus reverse such an outcome. Rest assured there is more than enough skullduggery to go around (on the Democratic side, and limited on the Republican side to the Bush Dynasty and their neo-con front.) I admit my gut feeling may be absolutely wrong: Donald Trump may win by such a landslide that the Soros-Hillary strategy may be “aborted.” This would be good! (I would also relish the humiliation of the Bush Machine! I want to see them gnash their teeth!) I also follow Dr. Steve Piecenzik, who declared on Alex Jones’s radio show on Tue., Nov. 1st, that a “silent coup” is under way in America. He announced that various intelligence sources in the U.S. have been the source of the Wikileaks program. He said that there are certain elements in the intelligence community that have made it clearly known to the Hillary Camp that she will not be allowed to serve. Let us hope that this maintains. In the meantime, we still have our own bubbles to pop out of. I admit I do. There is so much more to study and learn. And it shall be HIGH TIME for the former Goldwater Girl (gone Mad!), Hillary, the Klownish Koughing Kween, to be dumped into the Ashbin of History. Once this happens, the bubble her supporters are living in will finally be popped. For this, History “don’t need no stinking Supreme Court!” IT’S COMING.

DNC Files Lawsuit to Bar Citizen Journalists From the Polls

Cassandra Fairbanks

We Are Change The Democratic National Committee has filed a lawsuit against the Donald Trump campaign, state Republican parties, and Roger Stone’s “Stop the Steal” group — asking the court to bar “citizen journalists” from the polls. A Bernie Sanders delegate at the DNC in July. “The campaign of Donald J. Trump, Trump’s close advisor Roger J. Stone, Jr., Stone’s organization Stop the Steal Inc., the Ohio Republican Party (‘ORP’), and others are conspiring to threaten, intimidate, and thereby prevent minority voters in urban neighborhoods from voting in the 2016 election,” the lawsuit claims. In reality, Stop the Steal is simply planning to have volunteers conduct their own exit polls outside of polling stations. Despite their never having mentioned targeting minorities, or intimidating anyone, multiple outlets picked up the Democrat’s version story after Stop the Steal announced their effort. “The Clintons had to cheat and rig the system to steal the Democratic nomination from Bernie Sanders. Why wouldn’t they try to steal the election from Donald Trump?” Stop the Steal’s website states. They are calling for “targeted EXIT-POLLING in targeted states and targeted localities that we believe the Democrats could manipulate based on their local control, to determine if the results of the vote have been skewed by manipulation.” Democratic outlets such as the Huffington Post and Media Matters have posted breathless articles claiming that exit-polling, which is conducted by every major media outlet, is somehow intimidation if done by an organization that favors the Republican candidate. “Trump and Stone appear to be of like minds when it comes to deploying citizens to the polls on Election Day to watch other citizens vote. Trump regularly encourages his mostly white supporters to stand guard on Election Day at polling stations in areas where the population is largely made up of minorities and ‘watch’ the polls,” the Huffington Post wrote. The article the quoted Trump himself, where he makes absolutely no mention of targeting minority voters. “You’ve got to go out, and you’ve got to get your friends, and you’ve got to get everyone you know,” they quoted Trump saying at a rally in Pennsylvania, “and you’ve got to watch your polling booths. I hear too many bad stories, and we can’t lose an election because of, you know what I’m talking about.” We Are Change spoke to Jack Posobiec of Stop the Steal to learn more about their efforts, and the lawsuit. “Our exit polling plan is very simple, we are going to dress in neutral, non-partisan clothing and request voters take the survey after they are finished voting. We are using the same types of questions that the AP uses regarding how someone voted, their top election issues, and asking their demographic info. The only difference is we are going to focus on one party rule precincts that have been reported to have irregularities in the past, such as in inner city Philadelphia,” Posobiec explained. When asked to clarify whether or not they intend to campaign, or harass, voters before they enter the polls, Posobiec stated that is not their intention. “We are only talking to people after they have completed voting, and will be dressed in neutral clothing. We also requested our volunteers to not wear Red, as there is a large movement of Trump supporters to wear red on election day, and we want to remain neutral,” he explained. Posobiec then referenced the infamous case of the New Black Panther Party actually intimidating voters , with weapons, in 2008. Many believed that the case was mishandled before being dropped. “I was involved in filming the Black Panthers dressed in black military clothing swinging billy clubs at white voters in Philadelphia in 2008, so I am very surprised our neutral exit polling plan would be seen as ‘intimidation’ by the Democrats,” he continued. Justice officials who served in the Bush administration argued that the department had enough evidence to pursue the case, and that it was dropped for political reasons. “Holder’s officials argued that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not apply to white people, only for minorities,” Posobiec stated. “In retrospect, this was the first sign that Obama would politicize the DOJ. Explains why they blocked the FBI from investigating the Clinton Foundation, or sending 100 FBI agents to Ferguson.” When asked if they would be fighting the lawsuit, Posobiec stated that they absolutely will be. “We absolutely are. These tactics were used against Citizens for Trump to shut down our rally in Cleveland in July, and we received the aid of the ACLU and won in court,” he said. In the lawsuit, the DNC asks the court to “declare that defendants’ ‘exit polling’ and ‘citizen journalist’ initiatives are contrary to law,” and bar them from encouraging anyone to do so, or from doing it themselves. “They are fighting scrutiny from independent citizens, but our elections are the fundamental cornerstone of American democracy, and should be held to the highest standard possible,” Posobiec stated. “Given the depth of collusion we have seen between mainstream media and establishment partisan political operatives this election through Wikileaks, we need citizen journalists and independent exit polls more than ever now.” During the primaries, there were unprecedented discrepancies between the exit polling and actual counted votes — always in Clinton’s favor. “They cheated the debates, they cheated Bernie, so its perfectly reasonable to be concerned they would cheat in November,” he concluded. Posobiec also stated that they are in no way coordinating with the Republican National Committee or the Trump campaign. The post DNC Files Lawsuit to Bar Citizen Journalists From the Polls appeared first on We Are Change .

October Merger Mania—-Global Total Tops Peak 2007 Madness

David Stockman

October Merger Mania----Global Total Tops Peak 2007 Madness David

JUST IN: FBI Reopens Hillary Clinton Email Probe

JUST IN: FBI Reopens Hillary Clinton Email Probe Please scroll down for video The Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced its plans to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails just 11 days before the presidential election, reigniting a massive controversy that has haunted the Clinton campaign for months. Three months after the investigation was closed, FBI director James Comey said he found more emails that were "pertinent" to the investigation of Ms Clinton’s personal email server, which Ms Clinton had been accused of misusing during her tenure as secretary of state. “In previous congressional testimony I refer to the fact that the FBI has completed its investigation of former secretary Clinton’s personal email server," Mr Comey said. "Due to recent developments I am writing to supplement my previous testimony. Related Articles FBI Successfully Recovers Hillary Clinton’s Deleted Emails "In connection with an unrelated case the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent, and I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday and I agreed the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation." He said he "cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant", and did not say how long the investigation would take. The new investigation is reportedly not related to WikiLeaks. The email controversy has dogged Ms Clinton's campaign for months. She repeatedly said she handed over 33,000 emails to the FBI and the Justice Department to determine whether she had sent or received top secret or classified information on an unsecured server. The FBI also denied a "quid pro quo" arrangement with the state department to downgrade certain information in the emails from "classified" to "unclassified" . Mr Comey told the Justice Department in July that although Ms Clinton had displayed "extreme carelessness" which could have lead to adversaries hacking her account, he did not recommend any criminal charges. The Justice Department decided to clear the presidential nominee of all charges the same month. It is not yet known where these new emails came from or what they say. The Clinton campaign has not yet commented. As the news broke, Ms Clinton was flying to Iowa to speak alongside women's rights leaders at two rallies. At a rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump told the crowds: "Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let take her criminal scheme into the oval office. "I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to write the horrible mistake that they made." He has previously said Ms Clinton should be behind bars and accused her of "deleting thousands of emails" to hide them from the FBI, which Ms Clinton denied. The news was also jumped on by Republicans including house speaker Paul Ryan, who said Ms Clinton had "nobody but herself to blame but herself". "She was entrusted with our nation's most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information," he said in a statement, renewing his call to exclude Ms Clinton from any classified briefings until the matter was "fully resolved". Along with the investigation over her emails sent and received as secretary of state, the US government recently accused Russia of hacking emails from the Democratic National Convention, which exposed Ms Clinton's team's planned smear of former opponent Bernie Sanders. Related Articles

Huthi-Saleh Allianz erlangt Kontrolle über weitere Ortschaften in Saudi-Arabiens Provinz Jizan

EDITOR'S CHOICE VonDerFront 13.11.2016 - 189 views 0 ( 0 votes) Huthi-Saleh Allianz erlangt Kontrolle über weitere Ortschaften in Saudi-Arabiens Provinz Jizan 0 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 0 user reviews. Huthi-Saleh Allianz erlangt Kontrolle über weitere Ortschaften in Saudi-Arabiens Provinz Jizan Donate Die Huthi-Saleh Allianz hat die Kontrolle über mehrere strategische Dörfer in der Region al-Khobeh übernommen und Dutzende saudische Soldaten getötet und dessen militärische Ausrüstung zerstört. Die Huthi-Saleh Allianz setzte in der im Süden gelegenen Saudi-Arabischen Provinz Jizan ihre Vorstöße fort und übernahmen die Kontrolle über mehrere strategische Ortschaften in der Region al-Khobeh, berichten arabischsprachige Medien am Samstag unter Berufung des ranghohen Kommandanten der Ansarullah, Nasreddin Amer Laut Ameri verlor das saudische Militär Soldaten im zweistelligen Bereich und Dutzende flohen nach den 12 Stunden andauernden Kämpfen mit der Allianz. Er fügte hinzu, dass “sechs Infanterie-Kampffahrzeuge vom Typ Bradley und zwei Kampfpanzer des Typs Abrams der saudischen Armee zerstört wurden, während weitere militärische Ausrüstung der saudischen Streitkräfte durch die jemenitischen Truppen in Brand gesetzt worden”. In der vergangenen Woche wurden Saudi-Arabiens Militärbasen in den Provinzen Assir, Jizan und Najran von der Artillerie der Huthi-Saleh Allianz beschossen, was zu erheblichen Verlusten unter dem saudischen Truppen führte. Laut Berichten attackierten jemenitische Kämpfer und ihre Verbündeten saudische Truppen im nördlichen Teil der Midi-Wüste nahe der Ortschaft al-Mousem in der Provinz Jizan. Die im Süden des Königreiches gelegene saudische Militärbasis Mosan sowie der Grenzübergang Manfaz in der Provinz Assir wurden von der Allianz ebenfalls attackiert. Als Folge der Angriffe wurde eine große Anzahl von saudischen Soldaten getötet. Zwei gepanzerte Fahrzeuge des saudischen Militärs wurden von der Huthi-Saleh Allianz am Grenzübergang al-Khazra zerstört. Alle Mitglieder der Besatzung wurden getötet. Anfang November berichtete die Webseite al-Ahad des 60 % der Bewohner von Siedlungen nahe der Grenze zum Jemen von Grenzsoldaten des Königreichs evakuiert worden waren. Nach Angaben des Oberbefehlshabers der al-Arezeh-Grenzwachen in der Provinz Jizan, Leutnant Ali al-Amri, wurde die Evakuierung auf Anordnung von Hochrangigen saudischen Beamten durchgeführt. Donate

Iraqis in Mosul Find US Missiles at Captured Islamic State Base

Rowan Wolf

[Photo: US missiles found in ISIS stronghold in Mosul, Iraq.] =By= Kurt Nimmo Editor's Note Reports continue of active U.S. support of ISIS while at the same time the U.S. serves a support role with Iraqi forces in their efforts to retake ISIS controlled areas in Iraq. Also reported by the Pentagon is that what is learned in the Iraqi actions will be applied in Syria. When the US has a jockey on every horse in the race, it does mean that U.S. interests are likely to be served no matter who crosses the finish line. T he Iraqis found missiles at an Islamic State base in Mosul stamped with USA and DOD. The discovery did not warrant a headline on CNN or The New York Times. “Several US-made missiles were found in al-Shoura region to the South of Mosul,” reports Iran’s al-Alam News Network , citing a local source. “The ISIL terrorists have sent US-made TOW anti-tank missiles to Tal Afar and it is quite evident that they are preparing for a long-term war,” an Iraqi security official told an Arabic-language media outlet. In early 2015 Qasim al-Araji, the head of the Badr Organization in Iraq, told parliament he had evidence the US armed the Islamic State, according to a report carried by the Arabic language Almasalah . Iranian media and other sources claim US military aircraft dropped weapons in areas held by the Islamic State. “The Iraqi intelligence sources reiterated that the US military planes have airdropped several aid cargoes for ISIL terrorists to help them resist the siege laid by the Iraqi army, security and popular forces,” Iraqi intelligence claimed in December, 2014. “What is important is that the US sends these weapons to only those that cooperate with the Pentagon and this indicates that the US plays a role in arming the ISIL.” In January 2015 Iraqi MP Majid al-Ghraoui said American aircraft delivered weapons and equipment to ISIS southeast of Tikrit, located in Salahuddin province. “The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL,” the leader of the committee Hakem al-Zameli said, according to the Arabic-language information center of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. Last February Iran’s FAR News Agency reported the Iraq Army shot down two British planes delivering weapons to the Islamic State. Both the Islamic State and al-Nusra are in possession of US-made BGM 71E TOW anti-tank missiles. The London-based organization Conflict Armament Research (CAR) previously reported that ISIS fighters are using “significant quantities” of arms including M16 assault rifles marked “property of the US government.” CAR has documented a CIA-Saudi program begun in 2012 that has provided thousands of tons of weaponry to “insurgents” (jihadi mercenaries) in Syria. The weapons are shared with the Islamic State. “Conflict Armament Research was able to trace the serial numbers of weapons recovered by Kurds battling ISIS in Eastern Syria back directly to the CIA-Saudi weapons airlift program,” notes Brad Hoff for Levant Report. If Hillary Clinton is elected next week the restocking of the Islamic State’s arsenal and the war in Syria will continue. “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton waived restrictions at the State Department on selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar, all states that had donated to the Clinton Foundation. Saudi Arabia had chipped in at least $10 million, and Boeing added another $900,000 as Secretary Clinton made it her mission to get Saudi Arabia the planes with which it would attack Yemen,” writes David Swanson . Clinton is well aware the Gulf Emirates arm and provide logistical assistance to the Islamic State. “While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” Clinton wrote in an email to John Podesta . Clinton did not mention Obama’s secret authorization in 2013 that armed jihadis fighting to overthrow Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The deal allowed the Saudis to arm jihadis with US weapons. It also permitted the CIA to train the mercenaries on how to use the weapons, including anti-tank missiles, The New York Times reported. Note to Commenters Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com We apologize for this inconvenience. Nauseated by the Had enough of their lies, escapism, omissions and relentless manipulation?

Tom Hayden, Courageous Warrior for Peace

Consortiumnews.com

Tom Hayden, Courageous Warrior for Peace October 26, 2016 Exclusive: The death of Tom Hayden at age 76 marked the passing of a major progressive leader who championed causes from civil rights to Vietnam War opposition to the environment, as Marjorie Cohn recalls. By Marjorie Cohn When Tom Hayden died on Oct. 23, we lost a courageous warrior for peace and equality. Hayden was on the front lines of nearly every major progressive struggle for more than 50 years. Vilified by the Right and at times criticized from the Left, Hayden remained steadfast in his commitment to social, economic and racial justice. An activist, political theorist, organizer, writer, speaker and teacher, Hayden was a Freedom Rider in the South during the 1960s; a founder of Students for a Democratic Society; a leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement; a community organizer; a negotiator of a gang truce in Venice, California; the author of more than 19 books; and an elected official in California for nearly two decades. Tom Hayden, anti-war activist and progressive leader. “Tom made important contributions as a writer and a political leader, but his greatest strength was as a visionary strategist,” said Bill Zimmerman, who worked with Hayden in the Indochina Peace Campaign and later managed his 1976 U.S. Senate campaign. “Tom was able to see far over the political horizon, and was then able to create and lead political movements that were often ahead of their time. Whether it was radical opposition to war or mainstream support for candidates, progressive ballot initiatives and necessary legislation, he was a true leader, clay feet and all.” The Indochina Peace Campaign (IPC), founded in 1972 by Hayden and Jane Fonda, who became his wife the following year, was a traveling road show that opposed the war in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Daniel Ellsberg, whose leak of the Pentagon Papers helped to end the war, traveled with Fonda, Holly Near and others for two weeks, speaking around the clock against the war. According to Ellsberg, IPC was instrumental in ending the war. While some in the organization took to the road to organize opposition to the war, others lobbied Congress to cut the funding for combat operations. Although the Paris Peace Accord was signed in 1973, many, including Ellsberg, knew the war was not over. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was pressuring President Richard Nixon to restart the bombing. Congress cut the funding in 1975 and the U.S. war in Vietnam finally ended. “IPC was a model of grassroots activism and lobbying,” Ellsberg said. Hayden was steadfast in his opposition to the Vietnam War. He made several trips to North Vietnam, calling attention to the U.S. bombing of civilians. On one trip, at the request of the North Vietnamese government, Hayden returned to the U.S. with American prisoners of war. Since the U.S. government refused to recognize the government in Hanoi, the Vietnamese would only release the prisoners to Americans in the anti-war movement. Advice from Dr. King A transformative event in Hayden’s life occurred in 1960 when he was a college student. He interviewed Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on a picket line outside the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. The picket demanded that the Democratic Party include a strong commitment to civil rights in its platform. King told Hayden, “Ultimately, you have to take a stand with your life.” Martin Luther King Jr. meeting with President Lyndon Johnson at the White House in 1966. Hayden took King’s exhortation to heart, dedicating his life to the struggles for peace, freedom, justice and equality. Hayden will perhaps best be remembered for his lead authorship of the 1962 Port Huron Statement, which provided an ideological manifesto for the New Left. The 22-year-old began writing it while in an Albany, Georgia jail cell, after an arrest for trying to integrate a railroad station waiting room during a Freedom Ride from Atlanta. The iconic document began, “We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.” It focused on organizing students to oppose the Vietnam War, supporting the civil rights movement in the South, promoting campus student activism, and establishing community projects to fight poverty. The idealistic document concluded, “If we appear to seek the unattainable, as it has been said, then let it be known that we do so to avoid the unimaginable.” After Hayden moved to Newark, New Jersey, in 1964 to be a community organizer, he did not escape the notice of local FBI agents, who sought increased surveillance of Hayden. They wrote, “In view of the fact that Hayden is an effective speaker who appeals to intellectual groups and has also worked with and supported the Negro people in their program in Newark, it is recommended that he be placed on the Rabble Rouser Index.” Hayden’s effectiveness was also noticed by J. Edgar Hoover, the notorious director of the FBI. Hoover once wrote in a memo, “One of your prime objectives should be to neutralize [Hayden] in the New Left movement.” Hoover’s objective was never realized. Hayden continued to serve as a bulwark of the Left. In 1968, in what a national commission later called a “police riot,” law enforcement officers in Chicago attacked and injured hundreds of demonstrators outside the Democratic National Convention. Hayden, who helped plan the protests, and seven others were charged with crimes. Although they were acquitted of conspiracy, five, including Hayden, were convicted of crossing state lines to incite a riot and sentenced to five years in prison. Their convictions were reversed on appeal for judicial bias. Hayden’s work for economic justice and democracy was far-reaching. Marc Weiss, Chairman and CEO of Global Urban Development, worked with Hayden in the Campaign for Economic Democracy, which Hayden and Fonda founded in 1976. Weiss said Hayden “cared deeply about making progressive change for a more peaceful, prosperous, equitable, sustainable, innovative, inclusive, and much better world for everyone.” Legislative Initiatives Elected to the California State Assembly in 1982 and the state Senate in 1992, Hayden was dubbed “the conscience of the Senate” by the Sacramento Bee. He sponsored or co-sponsored 100 pieces of legislation, including laws to lower college tuition costs, prevent discrimination in hiring, and attach safety controls to guns. In 1993, he sponsored a bill to require electric-vehicle-charging stations and legislation to require the state to find alternatives to refrigerants that destroy the ozone layer. Image of Planet Earth taken from Apollo 17 “Tom had an amazing capacity and commitment to linking environmental issues to local communities and minority community struggles,” California Senate Majority Leader Bill Monning said. “He pushed a progressive agenda within the Democratic Party and continued to visit us in Sacramento with legislative ideas to address climate change,” Monning added. “We will miss his insight, advocacy, and friendship.” Hayden co-founded Progressives for Obama in 2008. But, Hayden wrote, “No sooner had a social movement elected [Obama] than it was time for a new social movement to bring about a New Deal, lest his domestic initiatives sink in the quagmires of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and a new peace movement must rise as well.” In his contribution to my recent book, Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues , Hayden wrote, “The limitations of the drone war should be clear from any study of history and strategy. Wars cannot be won from secret aerial launches against unknown forces and figures on the ground.” Indeed, Obama’s use of armed drones in seven nations has made those countries more unstable and violent. And the resulting civilian casualties serve as an effective recruitment tool for those who would harm the United States. In 2015, Hayden spoke at a commemoration of the 50 th anniversary of the end of the U.S. war in Vietnam. He said, “We gather here to remember the power that we had at one point, the power of the peace movement, and to challenge the Pentagon now on the battlefield of memory.” Hayden was responding to the Pentagon’s attempt to sanitize the history of what the U.S. did in Vietnam. “President Obama has reminded us to remember, he said, Selma, Seneca Falls and Stonewall,” Hayden noted. “But not Saigon, not Chicago, not Vietnam. We have to ask ourselves collectively why that omission exists, and realize that only we can restore a place in the proper history of those times.” Exhorting the audience to remember, and to “unify,” Hayden bemoaned “our collective refusal to admit that the Vietnam War was wrong and that the peace movement was right.” Humanizing War Victims Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies said, “I remain inordinately grateful to Tom for what I learned from him – most especially that if you’re going to build a powerful movement against a war waged against a nation far away, you have to build into the center of your organizing some understanding of that country, its people, its culture. Photos of victims of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam galvanized public awareness about the barbarity of the war. (Photo taken by U. S. Army photographer Ronald L. Haeberle) “I learned that lesson first about Vietnam, working with Tom and Jane at the Indochina Peace Campaign for a couple of years right out of college.” Bennis added, “I worked with others later to build that same understanding into the work we did on Central America, on Iran, on Palestine and beyond.” Many of the themes of the Port Huron Statement resonate today. In 2012, Hayden wrote in The Nation , “The Port Huron call for a life and politics built on moral values as opposed to expedient politics; its condemnation of the cold war, echoed in today’s questioning of the ‘war on terror’; its grounding in social movements against racism and poverty; its first-ever identification of students as agents of social change; and its call to extend participatory democracy to the economic, community and foreign policy spheres – these themes constitute much of today’s progressive sensibility.” Hayden has been criticized by some on the Left for favoring reform over revolution. Most recently, Hayden switched from supporting Bernie Sanders to Hillary Clinton during the presidential primary. The main reason was his belief that Clinton has a stronger commitment to combatting racism than Sanders, citing the Congressional Black Caucus’ (CBC) support for Clinton. In fact, the CBC did not support Clinton. It was the CBC’s political action committee that favored her. In refusing to wait for the general election to support Clinton, Hayden also overlooked Sanders’s record on civil rights. A leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Sanders served as president of the Congress of Racial Equality at the University of Chicago, organizing pickets and sit-ins, which led to his 1963 arrest for resisting arrest. Before his death, Hayden worked with the Peace and Justice Resource Center, which he founded a decade ago. He published The Peace Exchange Bulletin , “critically following the Pentagon’s Long War in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, as well as the failed US wars on drugs and gangs, and US military responses to nationalism and poverty around the world.” During Ellsberg’s 1973 Pentagon Papers trial (at which Hayden testified), Hayden’s book, The Love of Possession is a Disease With Them , was published. Ellsberg was struck by the parallels Hayden drew in the book between the U.S. anti-Indian campaigns and the U.S. “pacification” campaign in Vietnam. The book title, taken from a Sitting Bull quote, is still relevant today as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their allies protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. Sitting Bull, a Lakota Indian leader who led resistance to U.S. government policies against the Native American populations before being killed by Indian agency police in 1890. “Yet hear me, people, we have now to deal with another race – small and feeble when our fathers first met them but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule.” — Sitting Bull, at the Powder River Council, 1877 Hayden’s many books also include Radical Nomad (1964), Irish Hunger (1968), Rebellion and Repression (1969), Trial (1970), Tom Hayden: An Activist Life (1981), Irish on the Inside (2001), The Zapatista Reader (2002), Street Wars (2004), Ending the War in Iraq (2007), Writings for a Democratic Society (2008), The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama (2009), and Listen Yankee: Why Cuba Matters (2015). His final book, Hell No: The Forgotten Power of the Vietnam Peace Movement, will be published posthumously by Yale University Press in March 2017. As we face the daunting challenges of U.S. militarism abroad, militarization of the police at home, and persistent economic and racial inequality, the absence of Tom Hayden is an incalculable loss. Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild. A veteran of the Stanford anti-Vietnam War movement, she is a member of the national advisory board of Veterans for Peace. Her books include Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent. See http://marjoriecohn.com/ and follow her on Twitter @marjoriecohn.

At Yosemite, a Mystery Bride and Groom Are Identified - The New York Times

Mike McPhate

It was like a moment from a Disney movie. Mike Karas, a tourist from Honolulu, had his camera pointed toward an exquisite view of Yosemite when a bride and her groom stepped onto a rocky ledge high above a valley. She turned to him as the sun burst into an apricot hue on the horizon. “It was like wow, that’s amazing,” Mr. Karas, 31, said. He snapped a photo. But the mystery couple vanished down a trail before he could flag them down. Later, he posted the image to Instagram, where it spread like crazy and inspired reports as far away as New Zealand. It also fueled an effort to identify the couple that stretched for days. Then, late Tuesday, the mystery was solved. The bride was Catherine Mack, an Australian actress, and her groom Rick Donald, also an actor. Mr. Karas said he spoke to Ms. Mack by phone after she spotted the photo on social media and connected with him. “She was laughing and happy about the photo and the whole story and loved it,” he said. “She didn’t know how big exactly the story had become. ” Ms. Mack said in an email that the couple were married in the national park right before the photo was taken.

Dakota Access Pipeline CEO Kelcy Warren Should Face the Music

Dakota Access Pipeline CEO Kelcy Warren Should Face the Music Posted on Nov 2, 2016 By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan A Dakota pipeline protester recovers after being pepper sprayed by police near Cannon Ball, N.D. ( John L. Mone / AP ) President Barack Obama foreshadowed more complications for the Dakota Access pipeline this week, as he told an interviewer that “right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline.” With hundreds arrested in recent weeks at the Standoff at Standing Rock, North Dakota, the movement to halt construction of this 1,200-mile, $3.8 billion oil pipeline only builds. Musicians are increasingly joining the fray, striking an unexpected chord: pressuring oil billionaire Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, which owns the pipeline. Warren also owns a small music label and recording company , and is the founder and driving force behind the Cherokee Creek Music Festival in Texas. Many musicians, including folk/rock legend Jackson Browne, are banding together to confront Warren and help stop the pipeline. In a statement published in September by Indian Country Today Media Network, Jackson Browne wrote: “I met Kelcy Warren on one occasion, when I played at the Cherokee Creek Music Festival, held at his ranch. Later his company, Music Road Records, produced an album of my songs. Though I was honored by the ‘tribute’ and think highly of the versions—which were done by some of my favorite singers and songwriters, I had nothing to do with producing the recordings or deciding who would be on it.” Jackson continued: “I do not support the Dakota Access pipeline. I will be donating all of the money I have received from this album to date, and any money received in the future, to the tribes who are opposing the pipeline.” The album Browne referenced is titled, “Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne.” Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, better known as the folk duo the Indigo Girls, have been to the Standing Rock resistance camps, where thousands have been facing off against an increasingly violent, militarized police force that is facing down the Native American water protectors with attack dogs, armored personnel carriers, pepper spray, concussion grenades and deafening acoustic cannons. In addition to raising awareness and funds for the land and water protectors at Standing Rock, the Indigo Girls are organizing musicians to challenge Kelcy Warren directly. “Kelcy Warren also happens to be a passionate music lover and owns a festival, Cherokee Creek music festival,” they wrote in a recent Facebook post. “Indigo Girls have played the festival and had a song on the [Jackson Browne] tribute record. When we participated in those events, we had no idea about Kelcy Warren’s connection to big oil and its imminent threat to the Standing Rock Sioux. Now we know.” They wrote a letter to Warren, which was co-signed by Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin, Joan Osborne, Keb’ Mo’ and others. It read, in part, “We realize the bucolic setting of your festival and the image it projects is in direct conflict with the Dakota Access pipeline ... this pipeline violates the Standing Rock Sioux Nations’ treaty rights, endangers the vital Missouri River, and continues the trajectory of genocide against Native Peoples.” The letter concluded, “We will no longer play your festival or participate in Music Road Records recordings. We implore you to stop construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.” Kelcy Warren is a Texas oil billionaire several times over, and might not be easily deterred by a threatened boycott. In fact, when global oil prices began dropping, “Nobody was happier about the crash than Energy Transfer Chairman and CEO Kelcy Warren,” Bloomberg Markets reported. All his competition, Warren gloated, “vaporized.” He, like many analysts, anticipates that oil prices will rise, fracking in the Bakken shale region will boom again, and his Dakota Access Pipeline will be the only conduit to carry the crude oil to the Texas Gulf Coast for refining and export. “You must grow until you die,” Warren told Bloomberg. Jackson Browne also wrote in his statement: “I intend to support public resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline as much as I can. To quote a song of mine: ‘Which side? “—the corporations attacking the natural world, drilling and fracking, who do it with the backing of the craven and corrupt? “—Or the ones who fight for the earth with all their might, and in the name of all that’s right, “Confront and disrupt?’” In the press release about the Jackson Browne tribute album from Music Road Records, Kelcy Warren wrote, “I don’t know of anybody that admires Jackson more than me.” As Browne and other musicians rally with the land and water protectors at Standing Rock, and as President Obama signals post-election action on the pipeline, it’s time for Kelcy Warren to face the music. Advertisement

Putting His Mark on the World - The New York Times

Steven Kurutz

By his calculation, Jonathan Valena, a tattoo artist who goes by the name JonBoy, has given more than 20, 000 permanent souvenirs. The one that changed his life was inked on June 16, 2015. On that day, Mr. Valena placed a white dot on a woman’s middle finger. It took him about a second. “It was that little white dot that blew things up,” Mr. Valena, 36, said recently. “The phone started ringing off the hook. Talk about God’s grace. ” Mr. Valena once thought he had to choose between his love for tattoos and his love of God. But in this case, his good fortune may have more to do with another force in the universe: the family. The finger that Mr. Valena tattooed belonged to Kendall Jenner, a model and younger sister of Kim Kardashian. One Instagram post later, he found himself hailed as the latest cool tattooer, a Dr. Woo of the East Coast, a Sailor Jerry for the young Hollywood and fashion crowd. In the last year, he’s put a tiny cross near Justin Bieber’s left eye, the letters PR and AY on the hands of the model Hailey Baldwin and “Janette Duke” on the flesh of Chloë Grace Moretz, an actress who wanted to honor her grandmother. His trademark style is tattooing, what his fans simply call tiny tattoos: hearts and flowers and city skylines etched in black ink and shrunken to emoji size the names of loved ones and inspirational mantras rendered in his squiggly, miniature cursive. Many tattoo artists don’t like doing little tattoos because they are difficult to apply and can rub away. But Mr. Valena, sensing an attractive market, has made them his specialty. He is a favorite of models and actresses, who appreciate the delicacy and of his work. “I don’t want anything big on me,” said Sofia Richie, a model. “I’m shooting a lot. It’s important that it’s something I can hide. ” She has five tattoos by JonBoy, including her brother’s initials, the word “clarity” on her neck and the numerals 13:4, a reference to her favorite Bible verse, in First Corinthians. Ms. Richie, who described herself as “not the kind of person to have tattoos,” said that Mr. Valena’s etchings are nevertheless feminine and artistic, and that he’s a gentleman. “The first time I got tattooed by him we hung out for hours,” she said. “He made it an easy process where I felt relaxed. ” Like all newly successful people in Manhattan, Mr. Valena is on everyone’s invitation list. There he was with Coco Rocha and the Misshapes at a party celebrating Jeremy Scott’s collaboration with Google for its Pixel smartphone. And brands like Schott NYC and Coach have hired him to tattoo at store events and for social media campaigns. In recent weeks, he’s taken his needles and ink on work trips to Los Angeles and South Korea. “I feel blessed,” Mr. Valena said. “There’s a lot of people out there that can do the same thing I do, even better. It just so happens that I got to tattoo some famous people. ” Still, for all his accomplishments, Mr. Valena said at times he has struggled with his professional and life choices. Tattoo artist to the stars was not his original calling. He planned to join the ministry. “There’s almost that guilt of, you were going to be a youth pastor,” Mr. Valena said. “I fell away from church, and I really just wrestled with it. Just feeling, like, ‘Man, where am I? ’” On a recent weekday afternoon, Mr. Valena was at his work station at West 4 Tattoo, the Greenwich Village shop that is his base. Loud club music thumped as customers waited in chairs by the front desk. The place resembled a thousand other tattoo parlors, except for the wall of photos of Mr. Valena posing with celebrity clients, a paper collage of his Instagram account. Mr. Valena, who described himself as “a little Filipino guy,” sat on a chair. He wore black shorts and a black that revealed heavily inked arms and legs, and a black trucker hat that made him a few inches taller. His tattooed hands were weighted by two fistfuls of chunky gold rings by Gucci and Versace. A fluffy Pomeranian he named Gucci and is raising with his girlfriend and manager, Lauren Ledford, yipped at his feet. “I’ve always loved fashion,” Mr. Valena said. “And now living in New York City and being part of it is just a dream. ” On a break between appointments, Mr. Valena reflected earnestly on his life’s journey so far. There was a aspect to his storytelling, an emphasis on redemptive moments. The first came when Mr. Valena, who was raised outside Chicago in a divorced family, said he had a drug overdose at 17. He embraced Christianity and enrolled at a Bible college in Rhode Island. Two years later, he found himself working as a youth pastor and church coffeehouse barista in Decorah, Iowa, population 8, 000. “It was a college town, there were a handful of things to do, but it got old,” Mr. Valena said. He had a few tattoos already, and was interested in the art form. He started hanging out at a local parlor, Valhalla Tattoo and Piercing, run by a Irish biker and who taught him the ropes. “Yes, I had to start by doing grapefruits,” Mr. Valena said. “But the feeling you get when you have that vibrating piece of machinery in your hand and you’re creating something permanent on someone’s body — it started there. ” Some church leaders thought he was doing the devil’s work. There was pressure put on him to quit tattooing, he said. Instead, Mr. Valena quit the church and honed his craft at biker rallies throughout the Midwest. In short order, he followed a girl to Wisconsin and then Minneapolis, married, fathered a son, became a successful local tattooer, grew restless, had an affair, got divorced and made an impulsive leap with his young mistress to New York City, where he had trouble acclimating and became “the insecure JonBoy who is rarely tattooing because I had no clientele out here. ” After an altercation in the subway with a romantic rival, he was arrested and jailed, Mr. Valena said, prompting a dark night of the soul. “I felt, man, I failed at everything,” he said. “I failed my marriage. I failed my family. I’m failing this relationship here. I’m failing in New York City. I failed becoming a youth pastor. I felt lost. ” After being released from jail, he remembered being told about Hillsong Church, a global megachurch popular with celebrities like Mr. Bieber. It was through Hillsong that his life turned around, Mr. Valena said. He began inking the church’s hipster leadership, who approved of tattoos. And he met Ms. Baldwin, the daughter of the actor Stephen Baldwin and a Hillsong congregant, who asked Mr. Valena to give her a tattoo and recommended him to Kendall Jenner. A few years ago, Mr. Valena was so desperate for work that he took a job tattooing at a nightclub in the meatpacking district while drunk people cavorted around him. Now he sets his own schedule, sees as many as eight clients a day and charges a minimum of $300 an hour. In the Kardashian kingdom, Mr. Valena is pretty much official court scribe, having tattooed Kendall Jenner again (“meow” on her inner lip) as well as her younger sister, Kylie Jenner, repeatedly (most recently a miniature red “M” on her pinkie) and a family friend, Jonathan Cheban (“Foodgod” on his forearm). He has cemented his relationships with celebrities by asking many of them to tattoo him, which he likened to “getting their autograph, but not in a crazy fan way. ” Mr. Valena held out the crowded canvas of his arms, showing the spot where Kylie Jenner inked a tiny K with a crown and Ireland Baldwin tattooed a “L. A. ” “And Chloë Moretz — she’s, like, ‘I’m really good at doing stick figures with big penises,’” Mr. Valena added. He shrugged. “I give them liberty. When Hailey or Kylie come in here, I want to remember those times. ” Fridays are Mr. Valena’s day off, but an actress and model named Sabina Gadecki was in New York for a movie premiere and wanted a tattoo. So Mr. Valena, dressed in black and carrying Gucci the Pomeranian, rolled into the shop from his East Village apartment around 2 p. m. Soon Ms. Gadecki arrived with hugs, accompanied by her parents and her boyfriend. She wanted a tiny “R,” her father’s first initial, behind her ear, which would be her third JonBoy tattoo (like Happy Meal trinkets, tiny tattoos encourage a collection). Ms. Gadecki, who also belongs to Hillsong, was referred to Mr. Valena by a friend after an unpleasant experience with another tattoo artist. “I felt like they didn’t care,” she said. “It was just, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ JonBoy listened. He realized it’s important to me. ” After the letter design was agreed to, Mr. Valena began placing the stencil onto Ms. Gadecki’s skin. He stopped abruptly because he wasn’t feeling the music. “I need a new song!” he yelled, then ran to the front desk, cued up a track by Mr. Bieber and returned to his work, singing. Ms. Gadecki sat on the tattoo chair while her entourage watched. The actual tattooing took Mr. Valena exactly six minutes. Posing Ms. Gadecki afterward for his Instagram account took longer. “I never thought it would be like this,” Mr. Valena said. “I never thought putting a little white dot on Kendall Jenner would come to this. I’m living the dream. ” And what of his planned career as a youth pastor? Is his soul still divided? He answered, sounding at peace, “You have a path and a journey, and your life is going to take you where it’s supposed to take you. ”

French Police Defy Their Unions to Vote For Le Pen

Chris Tomlinson

Despite being told by their unions not to vote for migration presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, many French police are voting for Le Pen, who they feel will restore law and order to France. [The police union “Alliance” have made it clear that they want officers in their union not to vote for Marine Le Pen on their website saying they want to, “block the candidate who challenges social democracy. ” The National Union of Independent Trade Unions have proclaimed the same message but many police say they will vote for Le Pen because they feel she can restore order to the streets of France plagued by violence and terrorism L’Express reports. One of these officers is Lucas who said that he had initially voted for the candidate Melenchon in the first round. Explaining why he will be voting for Le Pen he said, “I want things to change,” and didn’t believe that Macron’s policies were any different from the mainstream parties. Lucas said that he didn’t fully agree with Le Pen’s stance on migration, but her policies regarding law and order spoke to him as a police officer. At the moment, he said, “the rights of those held in police custody are more taken into account than those of the victims. ” Arnaud, an officer in Savoy, agreed with Lucas saying, “if the policemen vote Le Pen it is mainly for the security policies. I vote FN by default because there are no candidates who match me. ” The also had choice words for Le Pen’s globalist rival Emmanuel Macron saying he was, “haughty and typically corresponds to the Parisian city dweller. ” Arnaud noted that it was not just in Paris where terror attacks have occurred and he is afraid Macron will reduce the number of officers in the future. “When one knows the realities of the ground,” voting for Le Pen is the logical choice said Pierre who has been a Front National supporter for 30 years. “Security has to be a priority, everything stems from that,” he said. The officers are also supported by the majority of the armed police, known as the Gendarmerie, as a poll showed 51 percent supporting Le Pen in the first round and likely more in the second. Police are often on the receiving end of violence from extremists as was the case earlier this week when several officers were injured during an Pen march after extremists threw firebombs at them. Police are also targets for radical Islamic extremists and Islamic state terrorist fighters. Last month a police officer was gunned down on the Champs Elysee by a known Islamic radical and last year another Islamist invaded the home of a senior officer in Paris stabbing him and his wife to death. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com

Venezuela Throws In The Towel On Hyperinflation: Will Print 200x Higher-Denominated Bills

Venezuela Throws In The Towel On Hyperinflation: Will Print 200x Higher-Denominated Bills Zero Hedge While several years ago it was perhaps debatable in polite society that Venezuela’s socialist economy would collapse ultimately unleashing hyperinflation, any doubt was put to rest early this year when the IMF’s own inflationary forecast confirmed as much. However, while the international community had long accepted the inevitable fate of Maduro’s socialist paradise, the local government sternly refused to admit reality and to avoid confirming what the local population already knew, it insisted on keeping the highest denomination bill in circulation at 100 bolivars, whose worth is approximately 8 cents on the black market, turning the most basic transactions into logistical nightmares and saddling banks with crippling money-handling costs. Economists and central bank employees say Mr. Maduro didn’t want to acknowledge the country’s inflation problem by printing bigger notes. This has finally changed, and as the WSJ reports , Venezuela’s government, slammed by hyperinflation has finally thrown in the towel, and is planning to issue new bills in December with larger denominations—up to 200 times higher than the current biggest bill, according to people familiar with the plans. The move marks an implicit acknowledgment by the government that skyrocketing prices have slashed the value of the currency The new coins and notes will go up to 20,000 bolivars, according to people close to the central bank, the finance ministry, the country’s banks and bill suppliers. This would make the biggest note worth $15 on the black market. And since by doing so the government will tacitly admit that it has lost control over prices, It will also create a self-fulfilling prophecy of even higher prices, sending the country’s hyperinflation into overdrive. As the WSJ adds, earlier this year, the government began informally allowing shops in the outer provinces to sell food at free market prices, reducing shortages at the cost of higher inflation, which the International Monetary Fund expects to rise above 1,600% next year. Further liberalization followed after the state oil company gradually rolled out higher-priced gasoline at gas stations in the border regions to reduce the cost of subsidizing the cheapest car fuel in the world, according to the company’s executives. Venezuela’s loss, however, is a big gain for the companies contracted to print the money: In recent weeks, several companies, including U.K.-based De La Rue, the world’s largest commercial printer, won contracts to print the new set of notes, which the government wants in time for the annual December spending spree, according to a person familiar with contract negotiations. “It’s a very big deal. It’s a big package,” the person said. Meanwhile, the central bank remains stuck in denial and hasn’t published price statistics for almost two years. Instead, Mr. Maduro has blamed the skyrocketing prices on the “economic war” waged against his government by shopkeepers and financiers. This has forced people to brave one of the world’s highest crime rates by shopping with backpacks full of cash and spend hours lining up outside ATMs, which give out less than $10 per withdrawal. Many provincial banks have reduced daily withdrawals to 30,000 bolivars, which would buy a Venezuelan couple a lunch at a mid-scale restaurant. Amusingly, as we reported last year, the high demand for nearly worthless currency notes has also presented a financial burden for the cash-strapped government, which also lacks raw materials to print its own money. Since last year, Venezuela has had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to printing companies to feed its economy with bolivar currency. The shipments arrived to Venezuela from private printing presses around the world on several dozen windowless Boeing 747 jets. Given the crime risks, the air shipments arrive at the Caracas airport at night before the notes are loaded onto armored trucks and transported to the central bank vaults in Caracas, protected on the 18-mile route by soldiers. Indicatively, a fully stocked ATM is emptied in just three and a half hours on average now, according to the Venezuelan Banking Association. The good news for the insolvent nation is that all local denominated debts are now just as worthless as the currency, which incidentally is what the BOJ’s Kuroda would call: mission accomplished. Sadly, Venezuela is the canary in the coalmine for what will happen to all currencies in a world where there is now simply too much debt.

Spiking Temperatures in the Arctic Startle Scientists - The New York Times

Henry Fountain and John Schwartz

A spate of extreme warmth in the Arctic over the past two months has startled scientists, who warn that the high temperatures may lead to ice coverage next summer and even more warming in a region that is already among the hardest hit by climate change. In parts of the Arctic were more than 35 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than observed averages, scientists said, and at the pole itself, mean temperatures for the month were 23 degrees above normal. Although conditions later cooled somewhat, the extreme warmth is expected to return, with temperatures forecast to be as much as 27 degrees above normal beginning Thursday. Jeremy Mathis, who directs the Arctic Research Program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the warmth had led to a later than usual “ ” of ice in the Arctic Ocean. That in turn may lead to ice coverage in the spring and summer, which could lead to more warming because there will be less ice to reflect the sun’s rays and more darker, exposed ocean to absorb them. “We’re going to be watching the summer of 2017 very closely,” Dr. Mathis said in an interview. On Wednesday, researchers released a study linking the abnormally high Arctic temperatures to climate change. Using simulations of the climate, both current and before widespread carbon emissions, they found that the likelihood of extreme temperatures like those that occurred this fall had increased to about once every 50 years from about once every 1, 000 years. “A warm episode like the one we are currently observing is still a rare event in today’s climate,” said one of the researchers, Friederike E. L. Otto, a senior scientist at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford in Britain. “But it would have been an extremely unlikely event without anthropogenic climate change. ” What’s more, Dr. Otto said, if climate change continues at its current pace, spates of extreme Arctic warmth may become common, on the order of once every two years. “It’s quite impressive how much the risk of these kinds of events is changing,” she said. “It’s one region where we see the impacts of climate change very strongly. ” Walt Meier, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the current warmth had been brought on by fluctuations in the jet stream, which have allowed frigid air to make its way south into North America and warm air into parts of the Arctic. While such outbreaks of extreme warmth are not new, he said, there are many signs that climate change is making them more frequent. “We’re loading the dice to make this more likely,” he said. While the earth over all has been warming — 2015 set a record for warmth, and 2016 is expected to exceed it — the Arctic has been warming at least twice as fast as the global average. In part, scientists say, that is because of declines in sea ice coverage. Ice typically reflects from about half to 70 percent of the solar energy that hits it, but water reflects only 6 percent, and so the water warms up. That melts more ice, which in turn leads to more exposed ocean and still more melting — what’s known as a positive feedback loop. The recent high temperatures have had a severe impact on Arctic sea ice formation this fall. Ice coverage was the lowest for any November since satellite records began in 1979, NOAA said. Sea ice is also getting thinner on average, as thicker, multiyear ice melts and is replaced by ice that lasts only a year. Temperatures this fall were so far off the charts that NOAA took the unusual step of extending the time frame for its annual “Arctic report card” by a few days into early December. “Because we have seen such amazing trends in the last few months, we did an addendum,” Dr. Mathis said. The report, which includes findings from research projects involving more than 60 scientists, was released last week at a scientific meeting in San Francisco. At a news conference, Dr. Mathis said that in addition to the extreme warm periods, the overall year was the warmest on record. “We’ve seen a year in 2016 in the Arctic like we’ve never seen before,” he said. While some of the warming is attributable to the effects of El Niño, which affected weather patterns worldwide last year, those effects are on top of what is already a clear warming trend. The NOAA review also showed that the Greenland ice sheet continued to lose mass from melting, as it has every year since 2002, when satellites began measurements. Melting began earlier this year than any previous year except 2012. At the news conference, Dr. Mathis noted that warming effects in the Arctic have had a cascading effect through the environment, “including down into Arctic ecosystems. ” He said that communities that rely on hunting and fishing for their food security “should be very concerned. ” “It’s getting harder and harder for them to harvest resources as the ice pulls back further and further away from the coast,” he said. But Dr. Mathis added that changing conditions in the far north should concern everyone. “We need people to know and understand that the Arctic is going to have an impact on their lives no matter where they live. ”

North Carolina Governor Signs Law Limiting Successor’s Power - The New York Times

Richard Fausset

RALEIGH, N. C. — Amid a tense and dramatic backdrop of outrage and frustration, North Carolina’s legislature on Friday approved a sweeping package of restrictions on the power of the governor’s office in advance of the swearing in of the Democratic Roy Cooper. Protesters spent a second day chanting and disrupting debate, as some were arrested and led away from the state legislative building in plastic wrist restraints. Democratic lawmakers repeatedly referred to the move as a “power grab” carried out by a Republican Party upset that their candidate, Gov. Pat McCrory, had lost the governor’s race. Republicans countered by emphasizing that they had suffered similar indignities for many decades when Democrats controlled the legislature here. State Senator Chad Barefoot, a Republican, said that the changes return “power that was grabbed during Democratic administrations in the 1990s, and some in the ’70s. ” But some here said that Republicans’ effort to hobble the incoming governor had few parallels in recent North Carolina history. “Sure, the Democrats don’t have clean hands, but this is beyond anything I’ve seen them do,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of the nonpartisan group Common Cause North Carolina. “I think we’re in unprecedented, uncharted territory with this. ” Two major bills were approved by the legislature Friday. One of them, which was quickly signed by the departing Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, strips future governors of their power to appoint a majority to the State Board of Elections. The number of board members was expanded from five to eight, with the eight members to be evenly divided between the two major parties. It also changes the state court system, making it more difficult for the losers of some superior court cases to appeal directly to the Supreme Court. A second bill, which had not been signed by the governor as of Friday afternoon, strips the governor of his ability to name members of the boards of state universities, and it reduces the number of state employees the governor can appoint from 1, 500 to 425. Republicans, who once expanded the number of employees who serve at the governor’s pleasure in an effort to help Mr. McCrory, originally proposed shrinking the number of such workers to 300 in advance of Mr. Cooper’s inauguration. The number was increased in an amendment filed by Mr. Barefoot. In another change, and one that could have the greatest impact in the near term, the bill makes the governor’s cabinet appointees subject to approval by the State Senate. Republicans currently enjoy majorities in the House and the Senate, and the North Carolina governorship is historically a relatively weak office. Cabinet appointments are one of the major ways Mr. Cooper, a moderate Democrat, might be able to influence the direction of the state. The moves have mobilized North Carolina’s sizable Democratic contingent, who have been galvanized, over the last four years, by the “Moral Mondays” protest movement led by the Rev. William Barber II, the charismatic president of the state N. A. A. C. P. On Friday afternoon, Mr. Barber entered the state legislative building, triggering whoops and cheers from the roughly 200 protesters. With the aid of a cane he made his way into the space outside the legislative chambers, and encouraged the protesters to risk arrest by knocking on the locked doors of the State House viewing gallery. Police had forbidden protesters to knock. “You have to decide if you want to in fact knock on that door,” said Mr. Barber. Some knocked. A number of them were arrested. The building throbbed as the protesters chanted, “Let Us In. ” The raucous protests Friday, and the votes along strict party lines, virtually guarantee that hyperpartisan political turmoil will continue to be the norm in this deeply divided state. Democratic protests began to swell here in 2013, after Mr. McCrory took office, and Republicans, enjoying control of both the executive and legislative branches, began rolling out an aggressive conservative agenda that limited ballot access and, with the passage of the legislation known as House Bill 2, curtailed gay and transgender rights. That law, which set off boycotts and nationwide protests, is seen as a main reason Mr. McCrory lost his bid for a second term, despite the fact that he presided over an improving economy. Mr. McCrory further angered Democrats by refusing to concede the election for nearly a month as his allies filed challenges to the election results. In a news conference Thursday, Mr. Cooper, the state’s veteran attorney general, threatened to sue the legislature over the changes. “Once more, the courts will have to clean up the mess the legislature made, but it won’t stop us from moving North Carolina forward,” he said in a statement on Friday. Richard L. Hasen, a expert and professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, has said that the changes to the elections board could be challenged in state and federal court. In a blog post, Mr. Hasen wrote that a federal case might allege violations of the Voting Rights Act, “in part because the legislature would potentially be diluting minority voting power and making minority voters worse off, just at the time that their candidate of choice (Gov. Cooper) is poised to assume power. ” Friday’s debates at times found Republicans arguing that they could make the changes, and Democrats questioning whether they should. Mr. Barefoot, on the Senate floor, argued forcefully that a number of the changes were well within the Republicans’ legal rights, citing specific passages from the state Constitution. State Senator Joyce Waddell, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County, echoed many other Democrats when she complained that the matters were being decided in a hastily called special session that allowed less opportunity for public input than normal. “Why are we rushing?” she said. “There’s no time to hear from voters. ” Republicans defended some of the moves as reform efforts. Representative David R. Lewis, argued that the provision changing the elections boards will instill greater confidence in the electoral process. In addition to changing the state board, the law will also make the state’s 100 county elections boards bodies evenly split between the two parties. Before, they were set up so that the governor’s party had a majority in each. “We have been told that one of the most important things is for our citizenry to have confidence and faith that the elections process is fair,” Mr. Lewis said, “and that it is overseen in a way that does not reflect the partisan bent, if you will, of those administering the elections. ”

A Guide to Getting Rid of Your Big-Bank Checking Account - The New York Times

Ron Lieber

When John Stumpf, the embattled chief executive of Wells Fargo, appeared before the House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 29 and swore to tell the truth, Representative Brad Sherman, Democrat of California, noted that he and his colleagues were engaged in “an important national ritual. ” As they pummeled him with questions, Mr. Stumpf apologized and insisted that when Wells Fargo employees opened as many as 1. 5 million bank accounts and applied for up to 565, 000 credit cards on behalf of unwitting customers, it did not “represent the true culture and nature of Wells Fargo. ” For everyone who did not believe him for a second, another important national ritual began. It is the one in which consumers, in the aftermath of yet another bank scandal, ask themselves this question: Should I finally remove corporations from my financial life once and for all? Plenty of people seem to be wary of large financial institutions. A survey released this week by the public relations firm the Brunswick Group found that 73 percent of American respondents would vote for a political candidate who promised increased bank regulation and that 65 percent favored smaller banks operating in local communities. If you’re looking for a financial home like that for yourself, the following should help you find one — and also prepare you for the troubles and pitfalls you may endure. CREDIT UNIONS Wells Fargo is a enterprise that serves consumers, but it also serves investors who want its stock to do well. When you have two masters, one sometimes gets short shrift. Credit unions are nonprofit cooperatives that exist to serve their members. Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups, or U. S. PIRG, says he has done business with credit unions on and off since he was 5 years old. Some people who stick with the big banks do so out of fear that they will pay too much in A. T. M. fees if they work with a smaller institution. Mr. Mierzwinski said that because of his credit union’s network of A. T. M. s, he has paid just one fee that he can remember. Others worry that they will not qualify for credit union membership. But the rules tend to be fairly expansive, and the Credit Union National Association offers a search tool to help people find nearby institutions. Even the most principled among us, however, often can’t get past the convenience factor when considering whether to switch a primary checking account. Gary Hirshberg, a founder at Stonyfield, spent years lamenting the fact that he and his colleagues could not find a business bank that aligned with the company’s values. But now, he has a personal account with Citizens Bank, the bank in the United States. There is a branch near his home in a small town in New Hampshire. “I can go see them and get things notarized,” he said. Demos, a liberal public policy organization, has moved its bank accounts to Amalgamated Bank, which bills itself as the largest majority bank in the United States. But Tamara Draut, a Demos vice president and the author of “Sleeping Giant: How the New Working Class Will Transform America,” still banks with Chase. The reason will be familiar to the many millions of people who automate as many payments as possible: Who has time to untangle all of those tentacles and them at a different institution, no matter how upstanding? Alas, there are no shortcuts. Any switch should begin with a set of questions: Will I pay a bunch of A. T. M. fees with any new institution? Can I deposit checks using my mobile phone? Can I still pay my babysitter or my parent’s caregiver via a free wire transfer, or easily transfer money to external accounts? Then, set aside a couple of hours to deal with moving those automated payments — a laborious process that will inevitably cause problems. And remember: The dread that this process gives rise to is precisely what the big banks want you to feel. Some stoicism will be necessary. SMALLER BANKS If there is no credit union near you, or there isn’t one that will have you as a member, you can go shopping for a bank more in line with your values. At that point, you may ask yourself this: Why is there no Whole Foods bank? Shouldn’t there be nationwide availability of the financial equivalent of organic checking accounts? Sure, there should. But starting a bank is hard, given the intense regulatory scrutiny and the expensive technology and security measures required. Then that bank has to get customers excited enough to switch. “It’s a complicated and expensive platform to deliver what many people still think of as a commodity,” said Kat Taylor, one of the founders of Beneficial State Bank, which has 12 branches on the West Coast. She makes a pointed case, however, that her operation is different because of its values. “We think of this as the original form of crowdfunding,” she said. “We agree to pool idle cash so we can borrow it back from time to time and so it can finance the world we actually want to live in. ” A number of banks tell similar stories about themselves, and you can search for one near you via the websites of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values and the Community Development Bankers Association. The website of the Independent Community Bankers of America is worth a look, too. I could not get John Hodges, the managing director for Business for Social Responsibility’s global infrastructure and financial services practices, to tell me where he banks. But he did note that many of his younger colleagues are looking at nontraditional solutions for their financial needs. “It’s not going to be about being better than the bank next door over the next five to 10 years,” he said. “It’s going to be about being better than Apple and PayPal. ” Shiny that focus on everyday finance are everywhere these days, but Zero Financial is one I’ll be watching closely. It opens for business next year, and one of its venture capitalists recently announced an investment in Zero with a post on Twitter that included the hashtag “#bankssuck. ” Zero will offer a Visa card linked to an account that will track transactions and daily balances as if it were a debit card but process them as if they were on a credit card, allowing Zero to command higher merchant fees when people use it. Those higher fees will let Zero offer higher rewards than a debit card could. It says its business model will let some of its customers earn as much as 3 percent cash back on every purchase, far more than leading credit card issuers offer. It is not clear if this would be sustainable, but it certainly is bold. And it represents a second prong of attack on the big banks. Zero promises great value. Other institutions promise better values. Either one is a good reason to defect. But unless enough of us do, we shouldn’t expect the big banks to change their behavior.

They Knew: The End of the Clinton Lies Begins

Daniel Greenfield

They Knew: The End of the Clinton Lies Begins There’s only one lie left. October 27, 2016 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. During Hillary Clinton’s first presidential campaign, Neera Tanden was described as “the wonk behind Hillary.” A close associate of the Clintons, Tanden helped shape policy for both Bill and Hillary. Then she switched to playing that role for Obama. While Hillary’s email scandal broke, Tanden was in charge of the Center for American Progress, a radical left-wing group that had been described as "Obama's Idea Factory." And she was chatting with John Podesta, the top Clintonite who had founded CAP. Podesta had co-chaired the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Neera Tanden would co-chair the Hillary-Kaine Transition Project under Podesta who headed up Hillary’s presidential campaign. Podesta had helped shape the last eight years of national politics through Obama and Tanden looked forward to shaping the next eight under Hillary. And what did they think of Hillary? Did they believe their defenses of her wrongdoing? Podesta and Tanden ridiculed her associates for the cover-up. “Why didn’t they get this stuff out like 18 months ago? So crazy,” she wondered. “Unbelievable,” Podesta wrote. “They wanted to get away with it.” Since the early days of the email scandal, we’ve been treated to the sordid rituals of feigned innocence. The issue was a non-issue, Clinton surrogates were quick to assure us. And even if it was, no one did anything wrong. The flies on the wall knew better though and now we can all be the flies on the wall. Away from the cameras and the briefings, the Clintonites held their bosses in contempt. Neera Tanden, a supposed close associate of Hillary, blasted her instincts as “suboptimal” and described her as suffering from a character problem. And there was never any doubt as to what was going on. Tanden ridiculed Cheryl Mills for the mess. Mills fired off an email to Podesta warning that Obama’s denial wouldn’t hold up. “We need to clean this up -- he has emails from her -- they do not say state.gov,” she warned. Obama had offered his usual denial claiming to have only learned about the scandal from the media. The revelation that Hillary had emailed Obama from her illegal address would show that he had lied. But meanwhile his people struggled to reinvent his lie by claiming that while he knew about her illegal address, he didn’t know that it was illegal. This put his lie in line with Hillary’s lie. There was only one problem. When in doubt, the Clintons take refuge in the final lie that you may be able to prove that they did wrong, but not that they meant to do wrong. That was Hillary’s final email defense to the FBI. Spliced with claims of memory loss due to a concussion was that old Sergeant Schultz favorite, “I know nothing.” But that defense completely falls apart once you prove that they did know. That is what the leaked emails have begun doing. They are establishing that the Sergeant Schultz defense is utterly hollow. Cheryl Mills knew. John Podesta knew. Barack Obama knew. And Hillary Clinton knew. When Obama told a lie that could easily be disproven while trying to distance himself from Hillary, Mills quickly fired off a warning that he had better get his story straight. And his people did. That makes Obama complicit before and after the fact. He knew what Hillary was doing when she was doing it. And his people participated in the effort to cover it up afterward, not just to protect her, but to protect him. Hillary Clinton was not a rogue actor. She was part of an administration that had waged a war on transparency. Even media allies had dubbed it as the least transparent administration in history. Lies, censorship and targeting whistleblowers were the norm for Obama Inc. A New York Times reporter dubbed it, “The greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation.” The Washington Post noted that the, “Obama administration routinely makes a mockery of its long-ago pledge to establish itself as the most transparent administration in U.S. history.” The AP pointed out that it, “more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them.” Bizarre administration email dodges included EPA boss Lisa Jackson using Richard Windsor as her alias. Jackson/Windsor left the EPA and took a seat on the board of the Clinton Foundation. Tanden and Podesta didn’t take issue with Hillary Clinton breaking the law, but with her clumsy political instincts, her inability to fake sincere apologies and spin scandals as smoothly as Obama. Hillary’s biggest flaw in their eyes was her clumsiness at covering up acts that were routine in in Obamaworld. They didn’t despise her because she broke the law, but because she was bad at it. That made her a threat to their political futures. Hillary’s clumsy instincts led her to the point of having to admit what she did while denying having intended to do it. Motive is simultaneously the strongest and weakest defense. You can prove what someone else did, but it is hard to prove what someone else meant to do. Unless you have their emails. This is Hillary’s firewall. It’s what every painful trickle of the scandal was meant to drag out and delay. Every partial revelation is buying time while bringing us closer to the final breach in the motive wall. What the Podesta emails tell us is that they knew. Those around Hillary knew. And those around them knew that the inner circle knew. They knew and they hated Hillary for being a bad liar. And now, as the inside drama of Clintonworld spills across the internet, the red queen moves closer to being in check. By making it all about motive, Hillary Clinton turned personal communications, particularly emails, into the key instrument of culpability. That is why Podesta’s emails are such a hot commodity. It’s why her emails are becoming an even bigger prize. Neera Tanden was right. Hillary Clinton’s political instincts are suboptimal. She is the member of the Obama graduating class voted least likely to be able to lie convincingly on national television. And she has a perverse knack for dragging everyone around her into her scandals while exposing their own. We know that her people knew that she lied. We know that Obama lied. All that’s left is her final lie.