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Bundy Brothers Acquitted For Takeover Of Oregon Wildlife Refuge (DETAILS)

Kay Smythe

Bundy Brothers Acquitted For Takeover Of Oregon Wildlife Refuge (DETAILS) By Kay Smythe A group of anti-government protesters, led by brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy have been acquitted of federal conspiracy and weapons charges. This comes after almost a year since the group staged an armed takeover of a federal wildlife sanctuary in Oregon last winter. All seven defendants were acquitted by a Federal District Court. Swayed Jury The decision came as a surprise to government prosecutors, who had argued that the group used force and threats of violence to occupy the reserve. Despite this, the jury was taken by the group’s protest of government overreach. They also believed the group posed no threat to the public. Ryan Bundy’s wife, Angela Bundy , said this following the court’s decision: “I knew that what my husband was doing was right, but I was nervous because the judge was controlling the narrative. But they saw the truth. I am just so grateful they saw it.” What Happened? The original crime of the group consisted of occupying a remote wildlife reserve in the south-east of Oregon. The group held the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters for nearly six weeks in 2015. As a group, the defendants never denied their occupation. However, their lawyers argued that the prosecutors had failed to prove that they had committed any crimes. Their lawyers also stated that the Bundy brothers and five friends did not engage in an illegal conspiracy to keep federal workers from doing their jobs. Despite this, all members of the group were charged with conspiracy to impede federal employees from discharging their duties. They also faced federal weapons charges. Cleared Of All Crimes Except For One Though the acquittals were unanimous, Ryan Bundy has still been charged with theft. He removed cameras around the refuge, which are government property. Oregon’s governor, Kate Brown , has said she is disappointed in the court’s decision. Said said: “The occupation of the Malheur Reserve did not reflect the Oregon way of respectfully working together to resolve differences.” Religious Beliefs Ammon Bundy testified in his defense for three days. He claimed the takeover was spontaneous and informed by religious beliefs. Many of the protesters that joined the brothers and their group also had a distrust of government. Most of those involved have reportedly been very outspoken on their apprehensions of federal government. Many of them left their jobs and homes to join the protest. Despite the verdict, the Judge moved to keep the brothers in federal custody as a result of pending charges in Nevada. About Kay Smythe Kay Smythe is a freelance writer, social geographer, and senior writer at Anthony Gilardi's HIPPO LIFE. She was first published by Guardian Travel in the mid-2000s, which earned her the editorship at her college newspaper in 2010. From there, Smythe was opinion and news editor with The Tab, whilst maintaining a blog with Huffington Post. Her works featured interviews with Oscar and Emmy nominated actors. In early 2016, Smythe was awarded an O1 VISA. She lives and works in Venice, California, and loves it. Connect

F.D.A. Nominee, Paid Millions by Industry, Says He’ll Recuse Himself if Needed - The New York Times

Katie Thomas

President Trump has repeatedly slammed pharmaceutical companies for “getting away with murder” on soaring drug prices, but he and his nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration have pledged to ease industry regulations and speed approvals for medicines and other consumer products. The nominee, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, has spent the bulk of his career working in the drug and health care industry, which experts say raises the potential for myriad conflicts of interest. If confirmed to head the F. D. A. he would wield considerable power over companies and investment firms that have paid him millions of dollars over the years. From 2013 to 2015, for example, Dr. Gottlieb received more than $150, 000 to advise Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a company whose two approved drugs are seen as breakthrough treatments for cystic fibrosis but carry list prices of more than $250, 000 a year. He’s the acting chief executive of Cell Biotherapy, an cancer biotech firm that he helped found. He has served for years as a consultant to pharmaceutical giants like GlaxoSmithKline and Squibb and is paid by other companies for his expertise. Dr. Gottlieb plans to recuse himself for one year from any agency decisions involving about 20 health care companies he worked with, according to an ethics agreement made public Wednesday. But that is unlikely to mollify critics who argue that someone with such close industry relationships should not be in charge of an agency whose mission is to protect consumers and uphold safety standards for products from lipstick to lifesaving cancer therapies. “If you have a commissioner who is that conflicted, recusal is a tricky business,” said Susan F. Wood, who resigned as the director of the F. D. A. ’s Office of Women’s Health in 2005 in protest over the agency’s decision to delay approval of the pill. Dr. Gottlieb’s nomination comes at a momentous time for the agency, which Mr. Trump has promised to significantly remake. The next commissioner will be charged with putting into practice a law, passed in December, aimed at bringing drugs to market more quickly. Congress also must reauthorize a set of bills this year that determine how much the drug and medical device industry will pay in user fees, which fund more than half of the agency’s budget to review new drugs. The president’s other appointments for health roles, such as Dr. Tom Price, the health and human services secretary, and Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, have also come under fire for being too close to the businesses they regulate or for their investments in health care companies. Dr. Gottlieb’s newly disclosed financial forms are likely to draw similar criticism at his Senate confirmation hearing on April 5. One line of inquiry could include a thorny issue that arose on Wednesday: The generic drugmaker Mylan announced that the F. D. A. had rejected its application to make a generic copy of the inhaler Advair Diskus, a product for GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Gottlieb has called for making it easier to market generic versions of complex drugs like Advair to reduce prices, but he also received close to $90, 000 in fees in 2016 and the first two months of this year as a Glaxo consultant, according to financial disclosures. Some say a yearlong recusal would not suffice. “The question is going to be, are you going to have to recuse yourself from all the decisions that are going to have an impact on that company?” said Dr. Wood, who is now an associate professor at George Washington University. Leslie B. Kiernan, a lawyer for Dr. Gottlieb, said that his recusal plan was approved by federal ethics officials and that F. D. A. commissioners do not typically get involved in matters involving individual companies. “Every individual who goes into government from the private sector with experience in the industry is going to have some recusals,” she said. “The key role of the commissioner is to set broad policies for the agency. ” Others who know Dr. Gottlieb, including Democrats, praise his intellect and independent thinking, even as they acknowledge that he is likely to bring a more worldview to a sprawling agency of more than 16, 000 employees. Dr. Gottlieb, 44, served as an F. D. A. deputy in the George W. Bush administration before leaving to do private consulting. With his medical training and government experience, he was considered the conventional choice over more radical candidates that Mr. Trump was said to be weighing. “I think he is not so easily put into a box,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, who was the agency’s deputy commissioner in the Obama administration. Dr. Sharfstein said he had sought Dr. Gottlieb’s advice when he took his job at the F. D. A. and the two have stayed in touch. “I think he has the capability to really grow into the role. ” In writings and speeches, Dr. Gottlieb has criticized the F. D. A. calling for more flexibility to permit access to drugs that provide strong clues — but not conclusive evidence — that they work. He has proposed ways to shake up the agency’s bureaucratic structure, suggesting that drug approvals be made by more seasoned senior staff members, and that a special team oversee drugs intended for rare diseases. In a departure from the agency position that it has little control over drug costs, Dr. Gottlieb has also shown a willingness to take on high prices by making it easier for certain generic drugs to be approved. Some said Dr. Gottlieb’s background is what qualifies him for the job. “The alternative is to have a leader who may have no conflicts because they’ve never been involved in the drug development process,” said Tim Coetzee, the chief advocacy, services and research officer at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which receives some funding from the drug industry and invests in drug development research. “We don’t think that is a sound approach. ” Dr. Gottlieb had little government experience beyond stints at the F. D. A. and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services when he became an F. D. A. deputy at age 33 in 2005. He had been a financial analyst and consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, and wrote the Gilder Biotech Report and the Forbes Gottlieb Medical Technology Report. Those industry associations soon became a headache. In late 2005, he was forced to recuse himself from proposals on the avian flu, The Boston Globe reported, because he had consulted for major vaccine players, including Roche and Sanofi. Around the same time, emails leaked to Time magazine showed him questioning career F. D. A. employees over a decision to stop a multiple sclerosis drug trial, and expressing surprise at the rejection of an osteoporosis drug. Back then, Dr. Gottlieb defended his actions, saying he had to understand the agency’s process. “The agency was being highly politicized by the Bush administration, and he certainly was part and parcel of that politicization,” Dr. Wood said. “I think for that subset of F. D. A. career staff, the physicians who worked there, I think there was suspicion of everyone in leadership at the time. ” While he was at the F. D. A. Dr. Gottlieb practiced medicine at a Connecticut hospital in his spare time, said John Taylor, a former F. D. A. lawyer who had worked with him. “Scott would work two shifts at a hospital and see patients on the weekends,” he said. “I thought he was Superman. ” In 2006, while he was a deputy commissioner, Dr. Gottlieb received a diagnosis of Hodgkins lymphoma, but he is now cancer free. In 2007, Dr. Gottlieb returned to the private sector, becoming a partner at New Enterprise Associates, where he advised the firm’s health care team, and began consulting for a range of companies. Dr. Gottlieb also held seats on a number of corporate boards, including Tolero Pharmaceuticals, a Utah company working on cancer treatments, and MedAvante, which assists pharmaceutical companies with clinical trials. According to the federal ethics filings, Dr. Gottlieb said he would resign from all outside boards. The yearlong recusal, he said, would remove him from decisions on all the companies he received payments from, including six that he held a financial interest in while at New Enterprise Associates, all health care providers or lab testing companies that are overseen by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He also listed several biotech that he invested in through T. R. Winston Co. a merchant bank. Financial disclosure documents show Dr. Gottlieb made more than $3 million during 2016 and through March 1 of this year, including $1. 85 million from T. R. Winston and $280, 000 for consulting for New Enterprise, according to the disclosures, which were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. But the investments in T. R. Winston were not all in health care companies and included energy companies, as well as other firms. Dr. Gottlieb, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has also been a prolific writer and public speaker, criticizing the agency’s approach. “In so heavily prioritizing one of its obligations — the protection of consumers — the F. D. A. has sometimes subordinated and neglected its other key obligation, which is to guide new medical innovations to market,” Dr. Gottlieb wrote in 2012 in National Affairs, a political journal. Some of Dr. Gottlieb’s views have alarmed researchers who argue that rigorous study of drugs and medical devices is the best way to ensure they work. In 2014, Dr. Gottlieb criticized a medical device study that used “sham,” or dummy, procedures as a kind of placebo. The sham procedure, he argued, was invasive and unnecessary, especially since the product, called renal denervation, was already approved in Europe to lower patients’ blood pressure. But at the time Dr. Gottlieb wrote the article, Medtronic, the device’s manufacturer, had already announced that the study had failed, and an article a month later in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that patients who underwent renal denervation did no better than those who received a fake procedure. “Had we not done a sham control, the erroneous belief that this procedure worked would have persisted,” said Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt, one of the study’s principal investigators. He said Dr. Gottlieb’s argument that the trial was unethical baffled him. “I would think after seeing the results, any scientist or physician who understands clinical trials would come to the same conclusion, not the opposite conclusion. ” These days, the F. D. A. has shown a willingness to approve products that have shown promise based on intermediate measures, like a shrinking tumor, rather than outcomes like survival rates — especially in cancer research. One recent study showed that the agency decides on drugs faster than its counterparts in Europe and Canada. In December, President Obama signed into law the 21st Century Cures Act, which further directs the F. D. A. to remove barriers to approval, requiring that the agency consider the “least burdensome” means of showing the safety of medical devices, and consider feedback from patients. One of the biggest jobs of the F. D. A. ’s next leader, said Dr. Jerry Avorn, a professor at Harvard Medical School who studies the drug industry, will be translating that law into reality. “Whoever is the new commissioner,” he said, “is going is have both marching orders, and a blank slate. ”

Palestinian Jihadist: Ban Christmas Celebrations in Islamic States

Ali Waked

Abu Omar Almaqdesi, a senior Islamic State jihadist, said the soldiers and supporters of the Caliphate must not permit the celebration of Christmas in Islamic countries. He went on to describe the festivities as depraved, lewd and based on the “blasphemous idea” that Allah had an equal in Jesus.[ “Isa (Jesus) may he rest in peace, is a prophet like all the others,” Almeqdesi told Breitbart Jerusalem “and in Islam we don’t discriminate between prophets for they are all the messengers of Allah, but the claim that Jesus is a deity represents a heresy that ought to be stamped out in Islamic states. ” “Those Christians who pay the jizya — the poll tax — and refrain from practicing these blasphemous celebrations should be given the security they deserve. But if somewhere there are Christians who insist on celebrating Christmas with the support of the heretic authorities, one must unleash upon them all one’s might and deploy all the available means. ” Asked what he means by that, Almeqdesi said that “all methods are admissible when it comes to preventing blasphemy against Allah and his commandments. Yes, including killing and blowing up. But, like I said, we believe that at first you should act politely and explain that living in Islamic countries is conditioned on accepting the Sharia and refrain from openly practicing rituals other than Islam. ” Asked whether Christians should be allowed to enjoy alcoholic drinks in the privacy of their homes during the holiday, Almeqdesi replied in the negative, “as the alcohol was bought somewhere, whereas selling it and consuming it is forbidden, so you can’t drink it. Whoever’s caught breaking this law will be whipped and jailed. ” Almeqdesi said the recent terror attacks in Jordan, Turkey and Germany “are part of the price these states must pay for positioning themselves as part of the Crusader Coalition of the infidel countries fighting against Islam. ” Almeqdesi added that the Islamic State’s claiming responsibility for the recent terrorist attacks in Jordan and Berlin “was only to be expected seeing as the organization’s leadership pledged to punish all the states that form the coalition against it. While the attacks on Islamic states are ongoing, so will be the (terror) activity of our mujahideen brothers. ”

Arnold Palmer, the Magnetic Face of Golf in the ’60s, Dies at 87 - The New York Times

Dave Anderson

Arnold Palmer, the champion golfer whose style of play, thrilling tournament victories and magnetic personality inspired an American golf boom, attracted a following known as Arnie’s Army and made him one of the most popular athletes in the world, died on Sunday evening in Pittsburgh. He was 87. Doc Giffin, a spokesman for Palmer’s business interests, said the cause was complications of heart problems. Paul Wood, a spokesman for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said Palmer died at UPMC Shadyside Hospital, about 40 miles from Palmer’s home in Latrobe, Pa. From 1958 through 1964, Palmer was the charismatic face of professional golf and one of its dominant players. In those seven seasons, he won seven major titles: four Masters, one United States Open and two British Opens. With 62 victories on the PGA Tour, he ranks fifth, behind Sam Snead, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan. He won 93 tournaments worldwide, including the 1954 United States Amateur. But it was more than his scoring and shotmaking that captivated the sports world. It was how he played. He did not so much navigate a course as attack it. If his swing was not classic, it was ferocious: He seemed to throw all 185 pounds of his muscular body at the ball. If he did not win, he at least lost with flair. Handsome and charming, his sandy hair falling across his forehead, his shirttail flapping, a cigarette sometimes dangling from his lips, Palmer would stride down a fairway acknowledging his army of fans with a sunny smile and a raised club, “like Sir Lancelot amid the multitude in Camelot,” Ira Berkow wrote in The New York Times. And the television cameras followed along. As Woods would do more than 30 years later, Palmer, a son of a golf pro at his hometown Latrobe Country Club, almost stimulated TV coverage of golf, widening the game’s popularity among a postwar generation of World War II veterans enjoying economic boom times and a sprawling green suburbia. His celebrated rivalry with Nicklaus and another champion, the South African Gary Player — they became known as the Big Three — only added to Palmer’s appeal, and more often than not, he, not the others, had the galleries on his side. “Arnold popularized the game,” Nicklaus said. “He gave it a shot in the arm when the game needed it. ” Hitching up his pants as he marched down the fairways or before lining up a crucial putt, Palmer put the word “charge” into golf’s vocabulary in 1960. In the final round of that year’s Masters, he birdied the 17th and 18th holes to win by one stroke. Two months later, in the United States Open at Cherry Hills, near Denver, he shot a 65 to win by two over Nicklaus. “I seem to play my best in a big tournament,” Palmer said. “For one thing, my game is better adapted to the tougher courses. For another, I can get myself more keyed up when an important title is at stake. I like competition — the more rugged, the better. ” And if he lost, his army did not desert him. In the 1961 Los Angeles Open at Rancho Park, he recorded a 12 on the ninth hole when he hit four balls out of bounds. Palmer’s fans were deflated, like him, but somehow his flubs enhanced his appeal. He was human he could blow a lead or a shot like any duffer. And they liked that he went down swinging, with his lunging, play. If he hit a wayward tee shot to an awkward spot, he usually went for the green, rather than chip the ball safely back to the fairway, as other golfers would have done. “You can make mistakes when you’re being conservative, so why not go for the hole?” he said. “I always feel like I’m going to win. So I don’t feel I’m gambling on a lot of shots that make other people feel I am. ” His nickname among tour pros was the King, although he never basked in the title. But it fit. He was the first athlete to receive three of the United States’ civilian honors: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and the National Sports Award. And he became a conglomerate. As the president of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, he supervised the design and development of more than 300 new or remodeled golf courses worldwide, as well as golf clubs and clothing. He popularized a drink known as the Arnold Palmer, a mixture of iced tea and lemonade now sold under his name on supermarket shelves. He was a major for the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando, Fla. and for Latrobe Hospital. He was the original chairman of cable television’s Golf Channel and a longtime corporate spokesman, notably in a Pennzoil commercial featuring a tractor he had driven growing up on the Latrobe golf course. After buying his first plane, a used Aero Commander, for $27, 000 in 1962, he became one of the first golf pros to pilot his own plane from tournament to tournament. He graduated to jets in 1966. The Latrobe airport is named for him. With two and an observer, he circumnavigated the globe in 1976 in 57 hours 25 minutes 42 seconds, a world record for jets in the category. He spent more than 20, 000 hours in the cockpit. “Flying has been one of the great things in my life,” he said. “It’s taken me to the far corners of the world. I met thousands of people I otherwise wouldn’t have met. And I even got to play a little golf along the way. ” He was a part owner of the Pebble Beach Resort in California and principal owner of the Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando, the site of the annual Arnold Palmer Invitational tournament on the PGA Tour. True to his roots, he made his primary home in Latrobe, spending winters at Bay Hill. His handshake agreement with Mark McCormack, a Cleveland lawyer he met while playing golf against him in college, led to McCormack’s forming the International Management Group, now the world’s foremost sports agency. Palmer was its premier client. One of Palmer’s disappointments was that he never won the P. G. A. Championship to complete a career Grand Slam — titles at the four major tournaments. That failure especially hurt because his father, the Latrobe Country Club pro, was a P. G. A. member who had taught him the game. “I should have won it a couple times,” Palmer said. “I wanted it too bad. Everyone was calling it to my attention. ” Palmer competed in the top ranks of a demanding, exacting game against some of history’s greatest players, so heartbreakers were probably inevitable. At the 1961 Masters, Palmer needed only a par 4 on the 18th hole to become the first golfer to win at Augusta National in consecutive years. But after a good drive, he skidded his approach into a bunker, blasted out over the green, chipped 15 feet past the cup and for a 6 to lose by a stroke to Player. Palmer also lost three United States Open playoffs — in 1962 to Nicklaus at Oakmont, near Pittsburgh (it was Nicklaus’s first major victory) in 1963 to Julius Boros at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass. and, in a particularly crushing defeat, in 1966 to Billy Casper at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, after he had led Casper by a seemingly insurmountable seven strokes with nine holes to go in the final round. Palmer was nonetheless the PGA Tour’s leading money winner in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1963 and its player of the year in 1960 and 1962. In 1968, he became the first golfer to earn more than $1 million in career prize money on the PGA Tour. The award for the leading money winner each year is now named for him. He was voted The Associated Press’s athlete of the decade for the 1960s. Palmer was 77 when he played his final competitive round, on Oct. 30, 2006, at the Administaff Small Business Classic in Spring, Tex. on the Champions Tour. After hitting two balls into the water on the fourth hole, he withdrew with a sore lower back, although he finished his round — without keeping score — because he owed it to his fans, he said. “The people, they all want to see a good shot,” he said, “and you know it, and you can’t give them that good shot. That’s when it’s time. ” Arnold Daniel Palmer was born in Latrobe, a steel town southeast of Pittsburgh, on Sept. 10, 1929, the first child of Milfred and Doris Palmer. (A sister, Lois Jean, who was known as Cheech, was born when Arnold was 2.) His father, who was known as Deacon, then Deke, worked in the steel mills and as a laborer and greenskeeper at the Latrobe club, which was a course then. The family lived in a modest house on the edge of the course. Deke Palmer was named the club pro in 1932 or ’33, and Arnold’s mother kept the books. Arnold was about 3 when he began to swing a with a shaft. His father told him, “Hit it hard,” and he did. At age 9, he shot a 45 for nine holes. He went on to win the Western Pennsylvania Junior three times and the Western Pennsylvania Amateur five times before he entered Wake Forest after graduating from Latrobe High School. In college, he played on two Atlantic Coast Conference championship teams. “I don’t think I have any stronger nerves than the next man,” he once said. “I suppose it’s just the patience I got from my mother, Doris, and the ornery bullheadedness I got from Pap. ” His relationship with his father ran deep, and Palmer would grow emotional in recalling him. Deke Palmer had polio as a child and walked with a limp, and in 2014 the P. G. A. of America made him the first recipient of an award established in his honor, citing a P. G. A. member who had overcome personal adversity to contribute to the game. He died of a heart attack at 71 in 1976 after playing 27 holes at Bay Hill. As a Wake Forest student, Palmer was shattered by the death of his classmate and close friend Bud Worsham, the brother of the 1947 United States Open champion, Lew Worsham, in an auto accident. Palmer soon withdrew from college during his senior year and served three years in the Coast Guard. After his discharge, he was working as a salesman in Cleveland (where he met McCormack) when he won the 1954 United States Amateur at the Country Club of Detroit. At an eastern Pennsylvania tournament a few weeks later, Palmer met Winifred Walzer, a who was studying interior design at Pembroke College, an arm of Brown University, in Providence, R. I. Her father was an institutional food distributor in Bethlehem, Pa. She and Palmer hit it off at dinner the next evening, and he proposed to her three days later. After eloping, they were married in Falls Church, Va. before a small group of Palmer family members and friends on Dec. 20, 1954. (The Walzers stayed away, convinced that their daughter had made a mistake.) The couple traveled the 1955 pro tour in a secondhand trailer. “For years,” McCormack said, “Winnie handled the family finances and handled them well while heeding certain rules set down by Arnold, whose ideas about money do not follow common practice. She balanced the books, paid the bills, made the travel arrangements, mailed the entry blanks and, in short, devoted her entire attention to one goal: making sure that her husband’s mind was free to concentrate on golf. ” On her husband’s 37th birthday, in 1966, Winnie Palmer arranged for one of Arnold’s special friends to attend the family party in Latrobe as a surprise guest — former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Arnold and the president had occasionally played golf together at Augusta National, where the president, an avid golfer, was a member. Winnie Palmer died of a malignant tumor in her abdomen in 1999 at 65. Arnold Palmer married Kathleen Gawthorp, a Californian known as Kit, in 2005 in Oahu, Hawaii. It was her second marriage as well. She survives him, along with two daughters, Peggy Wears and Amy Saunders two sisters, Lois Jean Tilley and Sandra Sarni, both of Latrobe a brother, Jerry, a former general manager at Latrobe Country Club six grandchildren, including Sam Saunders, a pro who has played in several tour events and several . As a tour rookie, Palmer won the 1955 Canadian Open. He won twice in 1956 and four times in 1957 before earning the green jacket at the 1958 Masters after a controversial ruling. He was leading by one stroke when his tee shot on the 12th hole plugged behind the green. His request for a free drop was refused. Waiting for a ruling on his appeal, he played a provisional ball (for a par 3) and the original ball (for a 5). Two holes later, his appeal was allowed his provisional ball for a 3 counted. He won by one stroke over Ken Venturi. “My first Masters win was the toughest and also the most significant,” Palmer said. “The business with the ruling made winning the tournament as hard as anything I’ve ever done, because I wanted to win so badly and because of my feelings for the Masters. ” It was during the 1960 Masters that the name Arnie’s Army was born. Palmer was on his way to victory with a birdie putt at the 17th and a birdie putt at the 18th when an “Arnie’s Army” sign appeared on the scoreboard. “Some soldiers at Fort Gordon were acting as gallery marshals,” Palmer said later, alluding to the sign, “and a sportswriter picked up on their excitement. ” Two months later, at the United States Open at Cherry Hills, Palmer trailed the leader, Mike Souchak, by seven shots as he ate a hamburger in the locker room before the final round. In those years, the Open had a finish on Saturday, and when Palmer saw Bob Drum, the golf writer for The Pittsburgh Press, he had a question. “What would a 65 this afternoon do?” he asked. “For you, nothing,” Drum said. “You’re too far behind. ” “But a 65 gives me 280, and 280 wins the Open. ” Palmer was so angry at Drum, he never finished that hamburger. He went out and drove the first green on what was then a downhill hole, then for a birdie. He also birdied the next three holes, then the sixth and the seventh. He bogeyed the eighth but parred the ninth for a 30 going out, then played the back nine in 35 for a 65 that won that Open by two strokes over Nicklaus, a amateur at the time. Having won both the Masters and the United States Open, Palmer entered the British Open at St. Andrews, Scotland, hoping to extend his bid for an unprecedented Grand Slam of the four majors in the same year. Despite a 68 in the last round, Palmer lost that British Open by one stroke to Kel Nagle, an Australian. But he won the British Open in each of the next two years, at Royal Birkdale in England in 1961 and at Royal Troon in Scotland in 1962. In the 1962 Masters, Palmer trailed by two strokes with three holes remaining, but birdies at the 16th and 17th forced an playoff with Player and Dow Finsterwald. After a 38 on the front nine of the playoff, Palmer birdied the 10th, 12th, 13th and 14th holes for a 68 as Player shot 71 and Finsterwald 77. In 1964, Palmer won the Masters by six strokes as Nicklaus and Dave Marr tied for second. “This was my most satisfying Masters,” Palmer said. “I held the Masters in awe when I was young, and I hold it in awe now. ” That Masters title was his last victory in a major, but he won on the PGA Tour as late as 1973, at the Bob Hope Desert Classic. After he turned 50 in 1979, his mere presence on the Senior PGA Tour, then just formed, helped popularize it while lifting his total prize money on both tours to more than $3. 5 million. Even when he struggled on the Senior PGA Tour after surgery for prostate cancer in 1998, his galleries were often the largest, just as they had been four decades earlier. “I feel the strength of the gallery, especially on a critical shot,” he said in his prime. “Silence is louder than any noise on a golf course — the deathly silence that I sometimes feel and hear when I’m out there. That will tell you how powerful the galleries really are. They have an appreciation of what you’re going through, of what’s happening, and they understand. ” He had a shelf full of honors, and then some. He won the Vardon Trophy for lowest average score on the PGA Tour in 1961, 1962, 1964 and 1967. He was a member of six United States Ryder Cup teams he was twice the captain, in 1963 and 1975. He was the Presidents Cup team captain in 1996. He was on six victorious World Cup teams, four with Nicklaus as his partner and two with Snead. Palmer is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla. the P. G. A. of America Hall of Fame and the American Golf Hall of Fame. He also won 10 Senior PGA Tour events, including the 1981 United States Senior Open and two Senior P. G. A. Championships. President George W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony in 2004. But perhaps no pro golfer enjoyed the simple pleasure of playing the game as much as Palmer did. Including friendly matches and tournaments, he estimated at age 70 that he had played 260 rounds a year. And even though he was hardly the Arnold Palmer who won those seven majors over seven seasons, he still identified with the galleries. “I did that naturally,” he once said, “because my father told me, ‘Those people in the gallery are all the same as you. ’”

Report: Laura Ingraham Considering Senate Run in Virginia - Breitbart

Katherine Rodriguez

Conservative talk radio personality Laura Ingraham is eyeing a Senate run in Virginia to challenge Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the Washington Examiner reports. [Sources say that several party insiders have approached her with the subject and she is considering it. Peter Anthony, Ingraham’s business partner, has already snatched up several website domains in preparation for her Senate run, such as ingrahamsenate. net, ingrahamsenate. com, ingrahamforvirginia. com and ingraham2018. com. Ingraham did not comment on the rumored run. Ingraham is in Virginia and inside the Washington, D. C. beltway, brings a wealth of media experience to the table. In addition to her radio show, she heads up news site Lifezette. com, is a Fox News contributor, and is a New York Times bestselling author, the Blaze reports. Ingraham, if she chooses to mount a bid, will face a crowded primary field. So far, Rep. Barbara Comstock ( ) Rep. Dave Brat ( ) and Carly Fiorina are all reportedly exploring runs for the Senate seat.

Top US General Pleads With Troops Not To Revolt Over 2016

wmw_admin

Behind the headlines - conspiracies, cover-ups, ancient mysteries and more. Real news and perspectives that you won't find in the mainstream media. Browse: Home / Top US General Pleads With Troops Not To Revolt Over 2016 Essential Reading General Ivashov: “International terrorism does not exist” By wmw_admin on February 24, 2007 Gen. Leonid Ivashov was Chief of Staff of Russian armed forces when the 9/11 attacks took place, but he says, they weren’t carried out by Osama or al-Qaeeda. The most likely culprits, says the General, were transnational mafias and international oligarchs Waco: The Untold Story. By wmw_admin on May 6, 2006 The real story behind Waco. A shocking revelation that ultimately led to the death of the man who sought to expose it, attorney Paul Wilcher. Bilderberg Meeting – Media Should Be Ashamed By wmw_admin on July 12, 2003 Why do the Bilderberg meetings receive so little coverage. Victor Thorn examines why, and how, real news is suppressed by the mainstream media BBC Report (Subsequently Deleted): Ukrainian Fighter Shot Down MH17 By wmw_admin on July 31, 2014 On the anniversary of its downing: BBC reporter interviews eyewitnesses (with English subtitles) who saw jet fighters fire on MH17. The BBC has since deleted the report They Live By wmw_admin on August 19, 2012 Considered by some as prophetic, many will find eerie echoes of present day concerns in John Carpenters 24-year-old ‘They Live’. View the cult classic here Juri Lina – In the Shadow of Hermes By wmw_admin on July 15, 2011 Fixed and a “must see” for all serious students of REAL history. This outstanding video from the author of “Under the Sign of Scorpio” challenges many modern myths. With English subtitles The Mastermind Behind 911? By wmw_admin on February 11, 2005 He recieved hardly any media attention while chief financial officer at the Pentagon, but he might just be THE KEY FIGURE behind the events of 911 The Anglo-Saxon Mission Part II By wmw_admin on March 1, 2010 Former City of London insider reveals that the depopulation program would begin with a planned war between Israel and Iran. More importantly, he goes onto to describe how we can derail their plans for global dominance America Before Columbus By Rixon Stewart on September 1, 2006 Could it be that certain powers have a vested interest in keeping our real history under wraps? Because a great deal has been unearthed which is completely at odds with conventional notions regarding the origins of what we know today as America The Essene Gospel of Peace II By wmw_admin on April 26, 2007 Translated by Purcell Weaver and Edmond Szekely from its original Aramiac, a language that today few know but 2000 years ago was the language that Christ spoke and taught with

Not Even Plácido Domingo Can Say No to ‘Mozart in the Jungle’ - The New York Times

Michael Cooper

VENICE — It was after midnight on the Grand Canal here, and Plácido Domingo was standing on a floating stage slowly motoring toward the Accademia Bridge, singing the opening lines of a duet from “Don Giovanni. ” A soprano’s voice answered from a second float heading to meet his, on which the actress Monica Bellucci, made up like Maria Callas in a teal gown and glittering diamonds, seductively. The stages came together, and so did the voices. With this operatically spectacle last week — which drew squeals and flurries of smartphone photos as people passed on a vaporetto, or water bus — Mr. Domingo became the latest classical star to shoot a cameo for “Mozart in the Jungle,” the Amazon comedy about a fictional New York orchestra. The series has managed to attract several galas’ worth of classical headliners — past episodes have featured the pianist Lang Lang playing with the violinist Joshua Bell, the pianist Emanuel Ax shuffling his feet through an interactive dance video game, and the conductor Gustavo Dudamel. The show’s ability to draw so many is both a testament to its growing success, and a reflection of the fact that there are now far fewer opportunities for classical artists to appear on television, which is still an important medium for reaching, and appealing to, new audiences. “I became a lot more famous,” Mr. Domingo recalled as he waited in a nearby palazzo for the shoot to begin, “when I sang a duet with Miss Piggy. ” Over the years, Mr. Domingo, 75, has reached broader audiences with appearances like that one, singing with Miss Piggy on a “Night of 100 Stars” program in 1982, as well as in cameos on popular shows, including “The Simpsons” and “The Cosby Show,” and with his own television specials. But such opportunities have become rarer for musicians in recent years, drying up just as a rapidly changing media environment — which is disrupting how politicians communicate, how people consume entertainment and news and how advertisers sell products — is posing particular challenges for the classical field. For devoted fans, a strong case can be made that it is the best of times: Streaming services allow people at home to watch concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic and performances from the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and more. But it is harder than ever for classical stars to appear on TV, leading to concerns that the field, always something of a niche when it comes to mass media, is becoming a more distant one at a time when music education is also on the wane. It was not always thus. In 1956, Elvis Presley was not the only superstar to make his debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” — Callas did as well, with a lengthy excerpt from Puccini’s “Tosca. ” NBC used to commission and televise new operas, including Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors. ” The soprano Beverly Sills was not just a guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” but also a guest host. The Marilyn Horne appeared on the “The Odd Couple. ” David Gockley, the veteran American impresario, said that those television appearances drove a wider interest in the art form — and sold tickets. “Our audience knew a lot of these names because they were on television,” he recalled. “We don’t see the mainstream media paying much attention to opera these days, and it makes a difference. ” Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said that dwindling television opportunities had forced the company to reach audiences in new ways — both by starting its Live in HD cinema simulcasts and through social media. Last season, he said, the Met’s videos were viewed about 7. 5 million times on Facebook and YouTube. “We have to create our own communications systems,” he said in a telephone interview. There are exceptions. “Sesame Street” still features classical musicians from time to time the quiz show “Jeopardy!” has had dancers and musicians present clues and Stephen Colbert has invited ballet dancers and classical artists on both “The Colbert Report” and “The Late Show. ” But those kinds of appearances are fewer and farther between. So “Mozart in the Jungle,” which some musicians and critics initially rolled their eyes at, has taken on an importance to classical music that grew after the show won two Golden Globes this year. The show, of course, has Mozart in its title, and is loosely based on the 2005 memoir of the same name by Blair Tindall, an oboist who set out to explore, in the words of her subtitle, “Sex, Drugs and Classical Music. ” So a good portion of the viewers who stream it may already be music fans. But with a cast that includes stars like Gael García Bernal, Bernadette Peters, Malcolm McDowell, Lola Kirke and, in a small role, Jason Schwartzman, the series also draws viewers who may not (yet) have subscriptions to their local orchestras. Paul Weitz, who was directing the episode with Mr. Domingo and is an executive producer of the show with Roman Coppola and Mr. Schwartzman, said that the possibility of reaching those viewers was especially enticing to the musicians who have appeared. “Obviously, it’s a huge issue, and it’s something that is dealt with in the show a lot, about whether classical music is going to be passed on to a new generation,” Mr. Weitz said between shots in his director’s chair. “And all these artists, the reasons that they’re doing this show is because they feel like it’s good for that aspect of the art — that it can bring the music to different people. And anecdotally, I think that’s actually the case. ” Mr. Domingo, who moved to Mexico as a child and maintains strong ties there, said that he was drawn partly by the chance to appear with Mr. García Bernal, a Mexican actor whose career he has followed since the film “Y Tu Mamá También” more than a decade ago, and partly because he was intrigued by a new series that shines a light on the field. So Mr. Domingo, who remains one of the hardest workers in opera, recorded his vocals for the duet, “Là ci darem la mano,” this month at a midnight session at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, right after finishing a performance there in the title role of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra. ” (The soprano part, which Ms. Bellucci, who is playing a fiery diva known as La Fiamma, to, was recorded in San Francisco by the rising star Ana María Martínez.) And last week he flew here for a shoot, the day after singing in Verdi’s “I Due Foscari” at Teatro Real in Madrid, where he sang the role of the Doge of Venice. “When I finished,” he said, “I said, ‘Tomorrow I’ll go to my city to see how my people are behaving. ’” The coming “Mozart” season will also shine a spotlight on contemporary music, with a cameo by Nico Muhly, the young American composer whose opera “Two Boys” was staged at the Met in 2013. He wrote a piece for the show — an aria from an imaginary opera based on the story of Amy Fisher, who at the age of 17 became known as the Long Island Lolita after shooting and severely wounding the wife of her lover. Mr. Weitz said that the aria struck the tone he strove for in the show — mixing ridiculous and comic elements with sublime moments, through music. “Nico’s fake Amy Fisher opera actually achieves that,” he said. “It’s completely preposterous and silly and at the same time — and this was very important, it’s what I was hoping for — it’s actually moving. ”

Trump Wins Presidency, Duke falls short in absolutely heroic effort

Dr. Patrick Slattery

Trump Wins Presidency, Duke falls short in absolutely heroic effort November 9, 2016 at 1:46 am Trump Wins Presidency, Duke falls short in absolutely heroic effort CNN has reported that Hillary will call Donald Trump to concede. CNN and some other networks still have not called all the states, but it is clear that Pennsylvania will go for Trump and put him over the top. Life is good!

Mall of America to Close for First Time Ever on Thanksgiving

Christina Sarich

Mall of America to Close for First Time Ever on Thanksgiving Nov 11, 2016 0 0 For the first time ever the Mall of America will close on Thanksgiving Day. This represents a sea change. Instead of fighting crowds on Black Friday to buy the latest gadgets, hundreds of thousands of Americans will instead be home spending time with their families and friends, and 15,000 employees will enjoy the same opportunity which many consumer-focused shoppers have often taken for granted. Mall of America officials just announced that they were veering from their tradition of staying open from the morning of Thanksgiving day into Black Friday. The super mall, home to 520 stores in Bloomington, Minnesota, will stay closed on November 24th except for certain operations like the Walk to End Hunger fundraiser. The mall will reopen the following morning at 5am with a ribbon cutting ceremony for anxious customers. Americans are Drowning in Their Stuff The Average American Household Contains 300,000 Items You don’t have to be an extreme minimalist to appreciate the fact that Americans, more than in almost any other country, have too much stuff. The LA Times reports that there are more than 300,000 items in the average American home. Even the size of the average home has tripled over the last ten years. You’ve got to have the space to put all that stuff! And yet, one in five Americans rents an off-site storage space to put their overflow. This is the fastest growing sector of commercial real estate in the past four years, according to the NY Times, even though America is home to 50,000 storage facilities – more than five times the number of Starbucks. It could do us good if malls closed their doors more often. Americans spend trillions on goods and services that they don’t really need. This includes booze, jewelry, and sports paraphernalia. We spend more on shoes, jewelry and watches than we do on education. While this fact alone doesn’t necessarily point to a habit of overt consumerism, in many cases it does point to an ethos of unsustainability. Much of Our Stuff is Toxic As the Story of Stuff details, many of the products we purchase contribute to the degradation of our environment – from the petro-chemicals used in our cars, and in our hand lotions, to a seemingly benign glass of water which comes from a plastic bottle. From non-stick cookware, to hand-sanitizer, shower-curtains, to furniture , we are living with a multitude of consumer purchases that are not good for us. Our children’s toys are toxic, and even our carpets and the paint we put on our walls is health-destroying , yet we’ve come to expect that ‘more’ is better, without demanding quality. Moving Toward a Shared Economy What is more, many of the things we use can be shared. Why do we need to ‘own’ something that we only use sporadically? This goes for garden tools, and sports equipment as well as human resources, even. House swapping and Uber were based on people’s growing realization that sharing works. Ask yourself – how many times are you actually going to watch that DVD? Are you children really going to play with that plastic toy for more than ten minutes before its tossed aside? Then there’s the clothes we wear for special occasions. Often a dress or suit is worn once, and then never again. Companies are now capitalizing on the trend to re-use and share resources, and the trend couldn’t have come at a better time. Services and space are also growing into the shared-economy. If you have a garden only you and a handful of people enjoy, why not open it up to the community? Are you taking your dog for a walk? Why not offer to take the neighbor’s too? Or share the fees of a dog-walker with dog-loving friends. Looking for the Root Cause Through repetitive advertising, we have been subconsciously programmed to believe that our lives are empty without more things in them. We unknowingly seek quantity over quality in everything we purchase because we are trying to fill an emotional void. By playing on our innate emotional responses, and our base urges, the advertising industry overarchingly promotes the products and services of companies which pollute the planet, divide communities, rape the earth of its resources, and promote slave and child labor. If a ruling elite can create docile, easily controlled subjects, they don’t question the goods and services they are being sold, let alone its geo-political agendas. This is the undercurrent of an ogilopolistic , mechanized system designed to make consumers – not dreamers, thinkers, and doers. When we start to pull out this programming at the roots, and see it for what it is, we can start making more informed choices. Does this mean we can never buy a new pair of shoes again, or travel to a foreign country? Absolutely not, but it means you can make wiser (hopefully fewer) purchases, and share resources where applicable. Instead of staying in a hotel you can make a new friend overseas, and trade houses. You can purchase goods from companies that give back to their communities and uphold fair trade practices. The sustainable company is indeed peeking out from our consumer-based programming, and if the Mall of America is closing, even for one day, it portends a brighter future for Americans who have been obsessed with spending money they don’t have for things they don’t need. Image credit: StartatSixty.com , Featured image: source Vote Up Christina Sarich Christina Sarich is a musician, yogi, humanitarian and freelance writer who channels many hours of studying Lao Tzu, Paramahansa Yogananda, Rob Brezny, Miles Davis, and Tom Robbins into interesting tidbits to help you Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and *See the Big Picture*. Her blog is Yoga for the New World . Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing The Body And Mind Through The Art Of Yoga .

South China Sea: Australia considers joint naval patrols with Indonesia

Kaitlyn Stegall

November 1, 2016 South China Sea: Australia considers joint naval patrols with Indonesia Australia is considering joint naval patrols with Indonesia in the contested South China Sea, the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop confirmed on Tuesday. Bishop said Indonesia’s request for joint patrols at a bilateral meeting in Bali last week was “consistent with our policies of exercising our right of freedom of navigation”. “That’s in accordance with international law and our support for peace and stability in the region,” Bishop told ABC radio. Australia has previously drawn criticism from China for running surveillance flights over disputed islands in the South China Sea and supporting US freedom of navigation exercises there. China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, last month urged Australia to “speak and act cautiously” on the issue.

Serena Williams Beats Venus Williams to Win Her 7th Australian Open Title - The New York Times

Christopher Clarey

MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams was utterly unaware that a victory on Saturday night would put her back at No. 1. Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, did all he could to keep her in the dark. But there was no hiding the other statistical stakes as Williams walked back into Rod Laver Arena, headphones around her neck and in place, to play her older sister Venus Williams in the Australian Open final. The tennis circuit can be an echo chamber where the same questions and themes reverberate from week to week as the locations change, but the protagonists do not. So even if Serena Williams refused to entertain questions during the tournament about the possibility of winning her 23rd Grand Slam singles title and breaking her tie for the record with Steffi Graf, there was no dodging that number in her own head. Now, after her victory over her sister, she can celebrate No. 23 instead of fret over it. “I’ve been chasing it for a really long time,” Williams said. “When it got on my radar, I knew I had an opportunity to get there, and I’m here. It’s a great feeling. No better place to do it than Melbourne. ” She and her sister made their first visit to Melbourne in 1998. They were teenagers with braces on their teeth and braids in their hair and a clear sense that they were special, but no idea of just how far their talents and confidence would carry them. Much has changed in 19 years. Rod Laver Arena now has a wraparound digital screen at court level and electronic line calling. The court, once green, is now a deep blue. The beads and the braces are long gone, but the sisters’ power tennis remains. And though their father, Richard Williams, in one of the great sports predictions, saw the future clearly when he said the younger, fiercer Serena would turn out to be the better player, perhaps not even he realized how wide the gap would eventually grow. Serena Williams now has 23 major singles titles to her sister’s seven, and has won seven of their nine Grand Slam finals and eight of their last nine matches. Those figures brook no argument. Williams 2. 0 has the better operating system when it comes to locating the lines and creating the angles under the greatest pressure. She also has the purer service motion. But Williams 1. 0 certainly gave it her all Saturday night, throwing herself into the groundstrokes and displaying more emotion when a return struck the net or a rally failed than she has perhaps ever shown in a major final. “It was palpable how much Venus wanted it,” said Isha Price, the Williamses’ half sister. An final is always an emotionally complex affair, which is all the more reason to admire how the older sister has so often handled the disappointments. “That’s my little sister, guys,” Venus Williams said, pointing at Serena during the ceremony. She then spoke to her sister directly. It was quite a riff. “Congratulations, Serena, on No. 23,” Williams said. “I have been there right with you. Some of them I lost right there against you. I guess that’s weird, but it’s been an awesome thing. Your win has always been my win. I think you know that. And all the time I couldn’t be there, wouldn’t be there, didn’t get there, you were there. I’m enormously proud of you. You mean the world to me. ” Serena Williams is now within one victory of Margaret Court’s career record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. “Good on her if she’s good enough to do it,” Court said during the week in Melbourne. Williams has closed in on Court with an unprecedented run of success at an age when most great women’s tennis players of the past had already retired. Graf, for example, was done by 30. But Williams has now won 10 major singles title since turning 30. On Saturday, she became the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam singles title in the Open era, breaking her own record set at Wimbledon last year. Venus, 36, was the oldest Australian Open finalist in the Open era. “There’s no way I would be at 23 without her there’s no way I would be at 1 without her,” Serena Williams said of her sister in the ceremony. “There’s no way I would have anything without her. She’s my inspiration. She’s the only reason I’m standing here today, and the only reason that the Williams sisters exist. So thank you, Venus, for inspiring me to be the best player I could be and inspiring me to work hard. Every time you won this week, I felt like I’ve got to win, too. ” This final was edgy from the start, beginning with four straight breaks of serve and with Serena Williams angrily breaking a racket in just the third game after she lost her footing trying to change direction when one of her sister’s shots struck the net cord. The quality of play fluctuated considerably, but the match ultimately was determined by Serena Williams’s returns. Venus Williams had won over 50 percent of the points on her second serve in her surprise run to the final. She won just 29 percent Saturday. “Serena always expects a tough match against her sister, but I don’t think she expected it to be quite that tough from the start,” Mouratoglou said. At 35, Williams is back on top after playing little in 2016 except for the Grand Slam events and losing the No. 1 ranking to Angelique Kerber, who defeated her in last year’s Australian Open final. Williams looked shocked when it was announced after her victory that she would return to No. 1. Mouratoglou later explained, a tad sheepishly, that he had not answered truthfully when Serena had inquired about it. He said he wanted to avoid putting extra pressure on her at an already fraught moment. “Actually, I think she’s happy I did it now,” he said. The Open could easily have gone awry for Serena Williams. In her return to the circuit earlier this month at a tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, she was upset in her second match by Madison Brengle, making 88 unforced errors on a blustery day. But Williams has often proved that she can click into a higher gear without much match play, and she did not drop a set in seven matches as she won her seventh Australian Open singles title. Venus Williams, seeded 13th here, remains one of the great players of this era, but she has not won a major singles title since she beat Serena to win Wimbledon in 2008. In the intervening years, she received a diagnosis of Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disorder, that limited her training and contributed to her falling from the top 100 in 2011. But she has learned to manage her health problems and is having a renaissance that might be a much bigger talking point if it were not for her younger sister’s surge. Venus Williams will be at No. 11 in Monday’s WTA rankings. The sisters have become, through experience, adept at compartmentalizing, even if facing each other across the net is still not entirely natural. Their family members struggle with it, too. Their parents, Richard Williams and Oracene Price, did not make the long journey to Melbourne this year, but Isha Price did. And she decided that she preferred to watch the match at her hotel until it was nearly over instead of putting herself through the crucible of watching in person. “Long story short, I don’t think people actually understand the significance of what they see, these two players, who literally for generations have been able to transcend what they do,” Price said. “And it’s very difficult to watch, listen, hear commentary, all of that. We watch tennis on mute. It’s hard. To keep your body in optimal shape to be able to perform at this level consistently over 20 years is an incredible feat. But you still have the conversation where it’s not enough. ” It is becoming increasingly difficult to quibble with the record books, however. Serena keeps moving the bar higher, but the poignant part on Saturday night, was that despite all of Venus’s talent and staying power and eloquence, only one Williams sister has managed to win the singles championship at Melbourne Park.

Melania and Ivanka Trump Forego Headscarves in Saudi Arabia - Breitbart

Kristina Wong

First lady Melania Trump and first daughter Ivanka Trump made headlines when they arrived Saturday morning in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia sans headscarves. [The first lady wore a long black, flowing jumpsuit with a gold collar, along with a matching gold belt, with her long, brown hair uncovered. The first daughter wore a long dress with a and purple pattern, and her blonde hair also was uncovered. The decision followed the recent tradition of visiting western dignitaries. There was media buzz over whether they would wear headscarves, due to a tweet by the president two years ago that was critical of lady Michelle Obama’s decision to forego the headscarf. Many people are saying it was wonderful that Mrs. Obama refused to wear a scarf in Saudi Arabia, but they were insulted. We have enuf enemies, — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2015, When asked why neither wore a headscarf, the White House responded they were not required to wear them, according to CNN. It is the president’s first foreign trip while in office, and he and his delegation are being closely scrutinized for any missteps. The Trumps were greeted by a lavish welcome ceremony, and received by King Salman himself and other top Saudi officials. A military brass band played, and a fighter jet flew overhead, highlighting the importance of the visit. Shortly after his arrival, Salman presented Trump with a gilded necklace and medal, the country’s highest honor.

4 Things You Need to Know About Corrupt DNC Head Donna Brazile

EdJenner

Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile has made headlines for her blatant favoritism towards Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, even abusing her former position as a CNN contributor to help out her preferred candidate.

Investment Strategist Forecasts Collapse Timeline: ‘The Last Gasp Of This Economic Cycle Will Come In 2018’

Mac Slavo

(Image courtesy ddees.com ) It is no longer a question of whether or not financial markets and the U.S. economy will collapse. That, according to a host of experts, both mainstream and alternative, is a given. The only question now is “when” that moment will come. According to Christine Hughes, chief investment strategist at Otterwood Capital , it will be very soon. Basing her assessment on historically dead-on yield curve analysis, Hughes says in her latest update to clients that we’re looking at a maximum breaking point of 2020, but that some time in the next 12 – 15 months is the more likely scenario, which pegs the next crisis right at the beginning of 2018 . First, the chart, which has been near perfect in its accuracy thus far and shows just how rapidly the yield curve has collapsed in the last 12 months: Hughes explains what it means for you and why you can expect 2018 to be the year of reckoning: As the bond market sees a recession slower growth means lower interest rates and it [the yield curve] collapses. So let’s assume we’re like every other time in history and that happens. Then it moves forward to 2018… So, 2018, according to the yield curve, is pretty much the last gasp we have for this economic cycle. We’re closing in on 2016 now… we basically have a year… maybe a year to 15 months before we have the next crisis on our hands. So if you are levered personally or corporately… if a lot of your assets are in illiquid stuff… the Canadian housing market comes to mind… You might want to think about existing and liquefying yourself. Watch the video report: Wolf Richter of Wolf Street explains why the Treasury Yield Curve is so important: Since early July, the 30-year US Treasury Bond Price Index has plunged 8.3%. It’s now called “the rout” in longer-dated government bonds. One of the specters is rising inflation at a time of ultra-low yields. What has become the number one predictor of a bear market in stocks over the past many decades? The US Treasury yield curve. It drives bank lending – which can strangle the economy. But this time, the risks are much higher, and the potential economic consequences steeper. We know it is only a matter of time at this point. Greg Mannarino of Traders Choice has made similar warnings, noting that the bond markets are signaling a massive crash ahead. And when that crash finally takes place the fall out after the debt bubble bursts, according to Mannarino, could lead to extremely serious consequences: So, when the debt bubble bursts we’re going to get a correction in population. It’s a mathematical certainty. Millions upon millions of people are going to die on a world-wide scale when the debt bubble bursts. And I’m saying when not if… … When resources become more and more scarce we’re going to see countries at war with each other. People will be scrambling… in a worst case scenario… doing everything that they can to survive… to provide for their family and for themselves. There’s no way out of it. Source: Analyst: “Millions Upon Millions of People Are Going to Die on a World-Wide Scale When the Debt Bubble Bursts” If Mannarino and Hughes are right, you have about a year to get ready for the next leg of the collapse . Also See: The Prepper’s Blueprint: A Step-By-Step Guide To Prepare For Any Disaster Bank of America Warns of Imminent Recession: “Market So Fragile… It’s Downright Scary” Video: Conspiracy Confirmed In FBI Files: There Really Is A “Shadow Government” 5 Urgent Warnings From Big Banks That the “Economy Has Gone Suicidal” Russia’s Most Potent Weapon: Rapidly “Hoarding Gold” As Global Currency War Is Upon Us

What’s that strange lump embedded in Hillary Clinton’s face?

Dr. Eowyn

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Dr. Eowyn Hillary Clinton is like a chameleon . Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams , who’s a trained hypnotist and observer of facial nuances, calls it an “unusual level of variability” in her physical appearance. In his words, Hillary “looks like an entirely different person every few days. See “ Chameleon Hillary Clinton is back to looking like sh*t — and the return of her medical handler ” and “ Hillary Clinton’s teeth, tongue-hole & now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t wrinkles ” On Monday, October 24, 2016, Hillary Clinton was in St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire for a rally , accompanied by “Fauxcahontas” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Close-up images of her face show that she’s morphed again, back to yellow teeth and a face crisscrossed with wrinkles. What happened to the porcelain-doll Hillary with dazzling-white teeth of the July 2016 Democratic National Convention? But this time, at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, there’s something even stranger. Tuesday, Matt Drudge tweeted two close-up images of Hillary at the NH rally, which show something embedded under the skin of her right cheek . Here’s the tweet: Here are the two images again, enlarged. I painted yellow arrows pointing to the lumps: According to plastic surgeons , Botox injections don’t cause lumps under the skin. Dr. Richard Baxter explains that “Botox relaxes muscles that are hyperactive and so wrinkles caused by those muscles are smoothed,” but don’t lead to lumps. Dr. Janet Turkle says that although “Botox injections can result in temporary bumps due to the injection,” the bumps last “only a few minutes”. According to the American Academy of Facial Esthetics , however, “some of the risks of facial injections are lumps (granulomas/nodules) which are a potential risks [sic] associated with Radiesse, Sculptra, Juvederm, and ArteColl.” Facial injections are injections of facial fillers such as collagen, hyaluronic acid and calcium hydroxyl apatite that rejuvenate facial skin by reducing or eliminating wrinkles, raising scar depressions, enhancing lips and replacing soft-tissue volume loss. H/t FOTM ‘s TPR Dr. Eowyn’s post first appeared at Fellowship of the Minds Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this:

Here is Elon Musk’s True Mars On Earth Plan

Alex Ansary

Here is Elon Musk’s True Mars On Earth Plan 11/01/2016 GAME N GUIDE Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX recently held a Reddit Ask Me Anything session at 6:00 p.m. ET on Oct. 23. The session was said to be a follow-up to the executive’s speech in Mexico last month. Musk unveiled his plans for a refueling site and eventually habitation in the methane-rich planet. SpaceX is said to have raised more questions lately than it has revealed. The inventor and conglomerate went to Twitter to announce the session, Engadget reported. For instance, the company’s plan on colonizing Mars is yet to be discussed as well as the reliability of its space rockets and how it can be improved. In addition, the company also previously revealed that it would be reusing their rockets but have kept mum on how. Previously, Musk had a speech at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico in September. In the said Congress, Musk revealed his plans of sending humans to Mars apparently costing a whooping $10 billion each. Moreover he stated that humans will be turned into a multi-planetary species within the span of 40 years to a century. Musk revealed his vision with massive reusable rockets launching into a parking orbit stating that the rockets may be refueled by propellant tankers. Additionally, Musk plans to launch a thousand spaceships with a hundred people each en masse for Mars. He further revealed that a refueling station would be placed on the red planet to harvest methane fuel so settlers may come back to Earth. Hence, the first rocket to be sent is the Dragon spacecraft to search for a site to plant the refueling station followed by a spaceship with equipment to build the refueling station, LA Times reported. Musk went on to describe his ideal vision for human habitation on Mars. Musk revealed that glass panels with carbon fiber frames would be brought to the red planet to build geodesic domes on the planet’s surface. Furthermore, several miner and tunneling droids would also be sent to Mars. The droids are expected to be used to build large quantities of pressurized space for industrial operations along with glass domes for green living. Watch Elon Musk’s Mars colonization event in 5 minutes.

Germany ’Employing Nazi Measures Against My Turkish Brother Citizens’, Claims Erdogan

Jack Montgomery

Turkey’s Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has stepped up his war of words against Europe, accusing Germany of “employing Nazi measures” against Turks in Germany. [The Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader levelled the accusation at Chancellor Angela Merkel personally, according to EU Observer, while addressing a rally in Istanbul. “You are right now employing Nazi measures,” he declared. “Against who? My Turkish brother citizens in Germany and brother ministers. ” The “Moderate Islamist” was referring to the Merkel administration refusing to allow the AKP to organise political rallies in Germany ahead of a Turkish referendum on 16 April. Germany is home to around three million Turks, and Erdoğan has been keen to court them, as well as other European diaspora communities, in support of his bid to increase executive powers. Chancellor Merkel said the slurs broke “every taboo” and disrespected genuine victims of the Nazis. She said she would consider revoking permissions for AKP campaign events which have already been granted if the insults continued. Erdoğan has shown no signs of deescalating his rhetoric, accusing the Germans of “harbouring terrorists” from Turkey’s embattled Kurdish minority. Turkey’s Erdogan accuses Germany of ’harbouring terrorists’ https: . pic. twitter. — FRANCE 24 (@FRANCE24) November 3, 2016, The Kurds have faced brutal oppression at the hands of the Erdoğan regime, with the United Nations criticising the Turkish authorities for using summary execution, rape, and torture as tools of suppression, and liquidating Kurdish population centres in the country’s . SOURCE: via Associated Press, In recent days, Turkish authorities have also attacked Kurds celebrating Newroz, a traditional New Year celebration which predates Islam. This is how #Turkey’s dictator Erdogan treats Kurds who want to celebrate their old tradition #Newroz in Kurdistan pic. twitter. — NieuwsBlog (@nieuwsblog) March 18, 2017, Germany has not been alone in opposing political activities by the AKP in Europe, with Turkish migrants and dual nationals sympathetic to Erdoğan rioting in the streets after the Dutch government refused to allow Turkish ministers to attend a rally in Rotterdam. Dutch police used water canons to break up a crowd of more than 1, 000 #Erdogan protesters outside the Turkish consulate in #Rotterdam. pic. twitter. — dwnews (@dwnews) March 12, 2017, Not every European country is holding the line, however. Sweden and France have both succumbed to Turkish pressure and allowed the AKP to hold rallies in their territories. ”Why should we tolerate speeches on our soil that other democracies refuse? No #Turkish electoral campaign in #France !” #AKP #METZ #Marine https: . — Marine in English (@Marine2017_EN) March 12, 2017, Erdoğan has responded to the unexpected resistance by urging Turks in Europe to colonise the continent. “Have not just three but five children,” he told supporters, echoing the former Algerian leader Houari Boumediene’s infamous speech to the United Nations in 1974. “One day, millions of men will leave the Southern Hemisphere to go to the Northern Hemisphere,” Boumediene said. “And they will not go there as friends. Because they will go there to conquer it. And they will conquer it with their sons. The wombs of our women will give us victory. ” Erdoğan was less explicit, saying: “The place in which you are living and working is now your homeland and new motherland. Stake a claim to it. ” Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has also threatened to terminate its migrant deal with the European Union, open its borders, and “send the 15, 000 refugees to [Europe] that we don’t send each month and blow your mind”. The President of the European Commission, Juncker, attempted to downplay the threat, saying “it is not in Turkey’s interests to have smuggling rings and bandits in charge along its coast”. He added that many Turks in Europe are not interested in undermining their host nations, asserting: “Not all Turks are little Erdoğans. ” Germany’s population, infuriated by the Islamist president, organised a rally opposing any increase in his powers on 18 March. #Turkey furious as 30, 000 Kurds rally in Frankfurt with PKK insignia, urging ”no” to referendum on Erdogan’s powers https: . — AFP news agency (@AFP) March 18, 2017,

Conflicting Policy From Trump: To Keep, and Remove, Tax Cut - The New York Times

Binyamin Appelbaum

WASHINGTON — A few hours after Donald J. Trump publicly backed away from a $1 trillion tax cut for small businesses, campaign aides on Thursday privately assured a leading group that Mr. Trump in fact remained committed to the proposal — winning the group’s endorsement. The campaign then told the Tax Foundation, a Washington think tank it asked to price the plan, that Mr. Trump had indeed decided to eliminate the tax cut. Call it the lie: Both assertions cannot be true. At issue is whether Mr. Trump’s plan would tax small businesses, partnerships and other “passthrough” entities at the same 15 percent rate as large corporations, as he proposed last year, or whether they would continue to pay individual income taxes, at rates as high as 33 percent. The campaign’s conflicting accounts of its own proposal are particularly remarkable because Mr. Trump and his advisers have taken months to refine the details, which Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, unveiled in an economic policy speech on Thursday in New York. In this case, however, telling two versions of the same story benefited the Trump campaign. Dropping the tax cut was central to Mr. Trump’s optimistic claim that his plan would not increase the federal debt. But by simultaneously promising to keep the tax cut, the campaign won the support of the National Federation of Independent Business, an influential lobbying group. “We’re comfortable” that Mr. Trump is committed to preserving the tax break, Jack Mozloom, a spokesman for the group, said Friday morning. “We have it directly from his campaign. ” The Tax Foundation was not so comfortable. “There is a disconnect between the plan as understood by us and the plan as understood by the N. F. I. B.,” said Alan Cole, an economist at the foundation who worked on the cost estimate that Mr. Trump cited in his speech. “And I think your inquiry into this is probably a productive one. ” Steven Mnuchin, Mr. Trump’s finance chairman, said Friday that the campaign’s tax plan had not changed at any point on Thursday. He said Mr. Trump was proposing to let any business pay the same low tax rate, 15 percent, on all income retained for business purposes. In effect, that would apply corporate tax rates to some passthrough income. “The intent of the plan is that big and small businesses have tax relief,” he said. He declined to comment on the conflicting accounts provided by the two groups. There is much at stake in the details, both in tax dollars and in the politics of a overhaul. Passthrough businesses, which range from shops to law firms and large real estate partnerships, have become increasingly common in recent decades and now produce more than half of all business income. Under current law, that income is passed through to the tax returns of the business owners, where it is taxed at the same rates as a worker’s wages. Corporations generally pay a lower tax rate, but shareholders must also pay a second round of taxes on any corporate profits distributed as dividends. Both Democrats and Republicans want to overhaul the corporate tax system, which combines a high headline rate with endless loopholes. But the question of what to do about passthroughs has bedeviled those efforts. Democrats have resisted changes to taxes because they have not wanted to lower the top income tax rates for individuals — the rates small businesses pay. Republicans have stood firmly against a tax overhaul for corporations only, worrying that leaving taxes unchanged would look elitist. That standoff has left intact a corporate tax code that both sides believe has put American companies at a global disadvantage. Mr. Trump proposed last year to sharply reduce the corporate rate to 15 percent, from 35 percent, and to apply the same rate to passthrough income. Democrats sharply criticized that proposal as a giveaway to the owners of passthrough businesses, a group that includes many real estate developers like Mr. Trump, because they would not need to pay a second round of taxes on dividends. The Tax Foundation says it would cost the government about $1 trillion over 10 years. On Thursday, Mr. Trump’s campaign initially indicated that it had decided to abandon that plan. Mr. Trump took the stage at the Waldorf Astoria, before the members of the Economic Club of New York, and declared that his new tax plan would cost just $2. 6 trillion, far less than the estimated $10 trillion price tag for the previous version of his plan. That estimated cost came from the Tax Foundation, which performed an analysis based on the specific changes detailed by the Trump campaign, including the elimination of the tax cut, the Tax Foundation’s Mr. Cole said. The Trump campaign also issued a summary of the proposal that said Mr. Trump intended to reduce the corporate income tax rate to 15 percent, but made no mention of passthroughs. Mr. Mozloom said his group, which strongly advocates a cut, was surprised and reached out to the campaign. A few hours later, convinced by campaign aides that Mr. Trump intended to keep the tax break, the N. F. I. B. renewed its endorsement. “We strongly support Mr. Trump’s proposal to create a single business tax rate that would create parity between small businesses and their larger competitors,” Juanita Duggan, the group’s president, said in the statement. The Trump campaign also changed the language of its proposal to refer to the “business” tax rate rather than “corporate” tax rate. But after learning about the endorsement Thursday afternoon, Mr. Cole of the Tax Foundation said that he spoke again to the campaign and that he was assured Mr. Trump still intended to eliminate the tax cut. The campaign told him it was making a more modest change in the plan that would reduce taxation for some small businesses. The details of the Trump campaign’s plan remain unclear, as does the cost. “There is a proposal and it’s in the process of being priced out and some details are being filled in,” said Larry Kudlow, an economic commentator and adviser to Mr. Trump. “If Mr. Trump becomes president and submits this legislation, it will all have to get worked through,” he said. Kyle Pomerleau, the Tax Foundation’s director of federal projects, said he had hoped to publish an analysis of Mr. Trump’s plan on Friday, but it remained incomplete. “As time goes on,” he said, “unfortunately things are becoming less clear. ”

#muschniwogdowis of the day: business as usual.

Iris Vander Pluym

Photo by fsgm The ‘defense’ budget is three quarters of a trillion dollars. Profits went up last year well over 25%. I guarantee you: when war becomes that profitable, we’re going to see more of it. – Chalmers Johnson Until it is no longer the case that M ost US C itizens H ave N o I dea W hat O ur G overnment D oes O r W ho I t S erves , I am just going to continue to insist that #muchniwogdowis is simply the GREATEST ACRONYM EVAR ™!!!11!!! Today’s demonstration of its awesomeness is an Op-Ed in The Nation by former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) entitled Why Is the Foreign Policy Establishment Spoiling for More War? Look at Their Donors . He is “fed up with the DC policy elite who cash in on war while presenting themselves as experts, at the cost of other people’s lives, our national fortune, and the sacred honor of our country.” It’s kind of adorable that Kucinich thinks our country has some sort of “sacred honor” going for it. Nevertheless, I have always liked this d00d. Kucinich brought Articles of Impeachment against Dick Cheney and George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors in connection with the Iraq war. His efforts went precisely nowhere (“impeachment is not on our agenda.” -Nancy Pelosi). When he ran for president in 2008, Kucinich’s platform included : single-payer universal health care; bans on offshore drilling, toxic pesticides and privatizing Social Security; legalizing pot and ending the War on Drugs; and—my personal favorite—creating a cabinet-level “ Department of Peace ” to foster international cooperation. That last one naturally made him the laughingstock of the beltway press, punditocracy and Congress. There’s no money in peace FFS! Well, not for the right people anyway. NO ONE WANTS THAT. When Kucinich ran for a newly redistricted House seat in 2012, he was defeated in the Democratic primary by Marcy Kaptur (D- Forced Birth Brigades ). In the Op-ed Kucinich goes after DC’s so-called “think tanks,” and the Brookings Institute in particular. He notes that Brookings, “ in a report to Congress , admitted it received $250,000 from the US Central Command, Centcom…Pentagon money to think tanks that endorse war?” And the Generals’ preferred war policies isn’t the only thing Brookings is shilling for: as Kucinich notes, the Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of transportation and the US Department of Health and Human Services all give money—taxpayer money—to Brookings, which in turn promotes these agencies’ preferred policies to Congress and the press with the sheen of academic gravitas and objectivity. Kuchinich says: “It is our patriotic duty to expose why the DC foreign-policy establishment and its sponsors have not learned from their failures and instead are repeating them, with the acquiescence of the political class and sleepwalkers with press passes.” Why? Because from their perspective these are not failures—not at all. See, what informed, rational citizens who value the security and wellbeing of humanity here and around the globe might call “fucking epic foreign policy disasters,” are instead for the bipartisan DC establishment wicked smart, wildly successful, solid business decisions. Dennis Kucinich knows this of course; the point of his article is to shed some light on the real winners of our wars, and some of the dynamics at work that virtually ensure their continued victory. He’s just connecting the dots into a picture that anyone can see if we cared to look. Generally speaking, we don’t. It’s an ugly picture. I think I’ll just close with the hallowed words of preeminent 20th century philosopher Boy George : War is stupid, and people are stupid And love means nothing in some strange quarters. Have a nice day. This is box title Iris Vander Pluym is a writer, artist and activist based in New York City. A self-described “unapologetic, godless, feminist lefty,” she blogs at Perry Street Palace , is a regular columnist at TPJ Magazine , a contributor at Secular Woman , Worldwide Hippies / Citizen Journalists Exchange and Pharyngula , and has written professionally for Keyboard and Electronic Musician magazines (print editions). Indoctrinated with the notion that Nice Girls™ never talk about politics, sex or religion, it turns out these are pretty much the only subjects she ever has any interest in discussing. Follow Iris not being nice on Twitter @irisvanderpluym =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. [email-subscribers namefield=”YES” desc=”” group=”Public”]

Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claim - The New York Times

Michael S. Schmidt and Michael D. Shear

WASHINGTON — The F. B. I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement. Mr. Comey, who made the request on Saturday after Mr. Trump leveled his allegation on Twitter, has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down the claim because it falsely insinuates that the F. B. I. broke the law, the officials said. A spokesman for the F. B. I. declined to comment. Sarah Isgur Flores, the spokeswoman for the Justice Department, also declined to comment. Mr. Comey’s request is a remarkable rebuke of a sitting president, putting the nation’s top law enforcement official in the position of questioning Mr. Trump’s truthfulness. The confrontation between the two is the most serious consequence of Mr. Trump’s weekend Twitter outburst, and it underscores the dangers of what the president and his aides have unleashed by accusing the former president of a conspiracy to undermine Mr. Trump’s young administration. The White House showed no indication that it would back down from Mr. Trump’s claims. On Sunday, the president demanded a congressional inquiry into whether Mr. Obama had abused the power of federal law enforcement agencies before the 2016 presidential election. In a statement from his spokesman, Mr. Trump called “reports” about the wiretapping “very troubling” and said Congress should examine them as part of its investigations into Russia’s meddling in the election. In addition to being concerned about potential attacks on the bureau’s credibility, senior F. B. I. officials are said to be worried that the notion of a wiretap will raise the public’s expectations that the federal authorities have significant evidence implicating the Trump campaign in colluding with Russia’s efforts to disrupt the presidential election. Mr. Comey has not been dealing directly with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the matter, as Mr. Sessions announced on Thursday that he would recuse himself from any investigation of Russia’s efforts to influence the election. It had been revealed on Wednesday that Mr. Sessions had misled Congress about his meetings with the Russian ambassador during the campaign. Mr. Comey’s maneuvering is certain to invite contrasts to his actions last year, when he spoke publicly about the Hillary Clinton email case and disregarded Justice Department entreaties not to. It is not clear why Mr. Comey did not issue a statement himself. He is the most senior law enforcement official who was kept on the job as the Obama administration gave way to the Trump administration. And while the Justice Department applies for warrants, the F. B. I. keeps its own records and is in a position to know whether Mr. Trump’s claims are true. While intelligence officials do not normally discuss the existence or nonexistence of surveillance warrants, no law prevents Mr. Comey from issuing the statement. In his demand for a congressional inquiry, the president, through his press secretary, Sean Spicer, issued a statement on Sunday that said, “President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016. ” Mr. Spicer, who repeated the entire statement in a series of Twitter posts, added that “neither the White House nor the president will comment further until such oversight is conducted. ” A spokesman for Mr. Obama and his former aides have called the accusation by Mr. Trump completely false, saying that Mr. Obama never ordered any wiretapping of a United States citizen. “A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” Kevin Lewis, Mr. Obama’s spokesman, said in a statement on Saturday. Mr. Trump’s demand for a congressional investigation appears to be based, at least in part, on unproven claims by Breitbart News and conservative talk radio hosts that secret warrants were issued authorizing the tapping of the phones of Mr. Trump and his aides at Trump Tower in New York. In a series of Twitter posts on Saturday, the president seemed to be convinced that those claims were true. In one post, Mr. Trump said, “I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!” On Sunday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary, said the president was determined to find out what had really happened, calling it potentially the “greatest abuse of power” that the country had seen. “Look, I think he’s going off of information that he’s seen that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential,” Ms. Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week. ” “And if it is, this is the greatest overreach and the greatest abuse of power that I think we have ever seen and a huge attack on democracy itself. And the American people have a right to know if this took place. ” The claims about wiretapping appear similar in some ways to the unfounded voter fraud charges that Mr. Trump made during his first days in the Oval Office. Just after Inauguration Day, he reiterated in a series of Twitter posts his belief that millions of voters had cast ballots illegally — claims that also appeared to be based on conspiracy theories from websites. As with his demand for a wiretapping inquiry, Mr. Trump called for a “major investigation” into voter fraud, saying on Twitter that “depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!” No investigation has been started. Senior law enforcement and intelligence officials who worked in the Obama administration have said that there were no secret intelligence warrants regarding Mr. Trump. Asked whether such a warrant existed, James R. Clapper Jr. a former director of national intelligence, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “Not to my knowledge, no. ” “There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign,” Mr. Clapper added. Mr. Trump’s demands for a congressional investigation were initially met with skepticism by lawmakers, including Republicans. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said he was “not sure what it is that he is talking about. ” “I’m not sure what the genesis of that statement was,” Mr. Rubio said. Pressed to elaborate on “Meet the Press,” Mr. Rubio said, “I’m not going to be a part of a witch hunt, but I’m also not going to be a part of a . ”

Delay Pregnancy in Areas With Zika, W.H.O. Suggests - The New York Times

Donald G. McNeil Jr.

People living in areas where the Zika virus is circulating should consider delaying pregnancy to avoid having babies with birth defects, the World Health Organization has concluded. The advice affects millions of couples in 46 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean where Zika transmission is occurring or expected. According to a recent study, more than five million babies are born each year in parts of the Western Hemisphere where the mosquitoes known to spread the virus are found. At the moment, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa are the only parts of the United States with local transmission of the virus. But clusters of cases are expected to appear in Florida and along the Gulf Coast this summer. The governments of five countries have issued similar advice, as has the health secretary of Puerto Rico, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has decided against this approach on the grounds that government doctors should not intrude on personal decisions best made by women and their partners. The virus, carried by the yellow fever mosquito, has been linked to abnormally small heads and brain damage in infants, a condition called microcephaly. In rare cases, the infection has caused paralysis and sometimes fatal complications in adults. The W. H. O. ’s new guidelines essentially acknowledge that, with no vaccine available and mosquito eradication efforts failing to stem the spread of the infection, delaying pregnancy may be the best way that women in affected areas can avoid having children with severe brain damage. More than 1, 500 babies have been born with microcephaly in Brazil. Six other countries and Puerto Rico have reported cases of microcephaly resulting from locally acquired Zika infections. The W. H. O. says men and women of reproductive age “should be correctly informed and oriented to consider delaying pregnancy. ” The guidance was originally issued last week but did not garner wide notice among experts until Thursday, when the W. H. O. issued a clarification, distinguishing between people who visit countries and those who live in them. People living in those countries are not advised to delay for any specific amount of time, but that guidance “means delaying until we have more answers, more evidence, more science,” said Nyka Alexander, a W. H. O. spokeswoman. “But it’s important to understand that this is not the W. H. O. saying, ‘Hey everybody, don’t get pregnant.’ It’s that they should be advised about this, so they themselves can make the final decision. ” Dr. Peter J. Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, said of the W. H. O. recommendation, “It’s about time. ” His medical school is in Houston, and he has urged that women in areas where the virus is circulating or may circulate this summer avoid pregnancy if they can. “What happens when Zika hits Texas and the Gulf Coast this summer?” he asked. Dr. William Schaffner, head of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, called the W. H. O. ’s advice “excellent. ” “Now we just have to provide both the education and the means so that couples can implement,” he added. Brazil has noted the W. H. O. ’s new guidance in a statement for its citizens, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said. But the ministry itself has now taken a softer stance, saying, “Pregnancy is a personal decision that should be evaluated and considered by a woman together with her family. ” Some Brazilian virologists have pushed for emphatic advice to delay. The W. H. O. guidelines “understand the gravity of the situation,” said Dr. Artur Timerman, president of the Brazilian Society of Dengue and Arbovirus. His society recommends that women living in areas of active transmission postpone getting pregnant and that men who return from such areas use condoms for six months. Brazilian health officials did not provide enough leadership on the issue, he said. Dr. Celso Granato, a virologist at the Federal University of São Paulo, called the new W. H. O. guidelines “an important recommendation. ” “At this moment, what we know for sure is that the infection of the fetus may be catastrophic,” he said, “so I think that all the possible ways to avoid these situations have to be taken. ” In Atlanta, a C. D. C. spokeswoman said officials thought the W. H. O. guidelines were largely in line with the C. D. C. ’s. On the issue of how long a man should wear a condom after visiting a country, they are now identical, which they were not before. For people living in areas with Zika transmission, C. D. C. guidelines say doctors or nurses “should discuss the risks of Zika, emphasize ways to prevent Zika virus infection, and provide information about safe and effective contraceptive methods. ” Some women and their partners, they note, “may decide to delay pregnancy. ” When the epidemic began, health officials in Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Jamaica and El Salvador asked women in their countries to delay pregnancy if they could. In some cases, they suggested waiting a few months officials in Jamaica suggested a year, and those in El Salvador suggested waiting until 2018. The advice was sharply criticized by reproductive rights’ groups, which said it was hypocritical coming from governments that often outlawed abortion and made it difficult for women to get birth control. Some Roman Catholic archbishops also objected. Some infectious disease experts, however, said delaying pregnancy is the only sure way to prevent birth defects. Mosquito control had not previously stopped viruses such as dengue or chikungunya, they pointed out, and a Zika vaccine is years away. If women were able to delay pregnancy for just one season in which Zika was widely transmitted, it is likely that so many people would gain immunity from having been bitten that the virus would either completely disappear — as happened in previous Pacific island outbreaks — or would circulate at only very low levels the following year. From the outset, the W. H. O. did endorse making birth control more available. Until recently, however, it had stopped short of advising women to consider delaying pregnancy. “Theoretically, many have thought it may work,” Dr. Bruce Aylward, the organization’s chief of emergency responses, said in February. But, he said, at that time experts thought the best approach was to fight mosquitoes while scientists worked on a vaccine. The revised guidelines are a result of meetings of global experts in “and further input from experts in the editing process,” said Ms. Alexander of the W. H. O. They were issued May 30, and the recommendation that some couples be “oriented” to consider delaying pregnancy was included in Section 4, Paragraph 1. c. But the agency drew no attention to it, and the new section was confusingly worded. On Thursday, the W. H. O. issued a clarification saying: “Men and women of reproductive age living in affected areas should be informed and orientated to consider delaying pregnancy. This was the original intention of the guidance. The correction makes this more clear. ” Later Ms. Alexander said, “We should have done a better job of highlighting it. ”

Olympics chief says everyone involved in doping dcandals in Russia dismissed - Russia News Now

This post was originally published on this site DOHA (Qatar), November 16. /TASS/. Real steps should be taken to restore Russia’s anti-doping system, President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Alexander Zhukov said at a session of the General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) on Wednesday. “Our NOC shares the concern over the situation in the anti-doping system,” Zhukov said. “Let us take practical measures to change the situation for the better and restore the atmosphere of trust and openness.” Russia’s Investigative Committee has questioned over 50 persons in the anti-doping probe, Zhukov said. “Speaking about measures taken in Russia to fight doping, I would like to stress that our steps for restoring the anti-doping system in Russia are consistent and being implemented at all the levels with the full support of the Russian government,” Zhukov told the ANOC General Assembly. “Recently, a federal law was adopted to stipulate punishment for encouraging doping. All the people who were involved in doping scandals were disqualified and dismissed. During the investigation of criminal cases related to the breach of anti-doping rules, prosecutors questioned over 50 athletes, representatives of federations and employees of the Sports Ministry,” he said. “Already now, a whole number of employees have been dismissed from the Sports Ministry and those organizations that are controlled by it,” Zhukov said. Russia’s Olympic chief thanked the international sports community for the decision to admit the Russian national team to the 2016 Rio Olympics. “The Olympiad in Rio was a great success and we overcame all the obstacles and traversed a difficult road,” Zhukov said. “It was not easy for us, especially considering the situation with the possible ban on Russians. I want to express gratitude to the IOC, colleagues and international sports federations for the decision to allow our clean athletes to participate in the Rio Olympics,” Zhukov said. The ANOC General Assembly is holding its session in Doha on November 15-16. {{item.group_date}}

The Trump Election: Life Have Mercy On Us | New Eastern Outlook

Author

Region: USA in the World The world economies are in a crisis. They cannot provide for the needs and well being of the people, guarantee them peace, nor act in effective concert to stop and reverse the rapid global warming that these have economies created and which will utterly destroy civilisation in our lifetime. The crisis in capitalism has been evident for a century and resulted in two world wars and threatens a third. The remaining socialist countries that provide another model of economic development and another view of humanity cannot reach their potential as they are surrounded by an international system of capital that cannot tolerate any interference in its search for profit and aggressively undermines and attacks peoples who have chosen the socialist path. We have seen what the socialist republics in the USSR had to suffer when they succeeded. Only a return to a mixed economy, a revival of some state industries, and the defeat of the gangsters that first appeared as the representatives of capital have improved conditions for the people of those republics, in particular Russia. The new Russian state still holds onto some of the principles, the hopes for international law and sovereignty of nations and peoples, that were a defining characteristic of the Soviet Union. It still believes that the world’s peoples are all one and should live in cooperation with each other. The Communist Party and other left parties are still strong and have an influence among the people and the government. The lingering legacy of the socialist epoch has produced a leadership that seems, at least in comparison to those in other capitalist countries, rational and even, in some ways, enlightened. But still, Russia is also now part of the capitalist international and subject to its laws. So are the people of the United States and the other NATO countries. Those laws are cruel and criminal. They stipulate that to make more profit working people have to be paid less, for profit does not come out of thin air as western economists would have it; it comes from the value added to products by labour power that is forced from workers without compensation. In other words, the profit is ours but they take it. This fact dictates that the only way in which President-elect Trump can “bring back jobs to America” is to lower wages to the level that we now see in China, or worse Africa where workers are paid about a dollar a day. American companies moved their production out of the US and Canada with “free” trade to cheap labour markets to increase their profit. They are not going to return to the USA just because Donald Trump promised the people that they will. To return and pay higher wages, even those which are relatively low by the standards of the 50’s and 60’s, is to return and lose money. If Trump is serious about “creating jobs” then the only way he can succeed is to force the cost of labour down, that is reduce wages. We can expect more attacks on unions and union organising, a freeze or a lowering of the minimum wage, an influx of more cheap labour from Mexico and other countries. His promise to “build a wall” along the Mexican border is a lot of hot air, for to build it will raise the cost of business. Too many small industries and services in the US depend on this cheap labour and its presence depresses wages for the rest. We have seen this happen across the western world since the capitalists seized power in the USSR. As soon as that occurred every western country began the roll back of all the gains that working people had achieved after the Second World War. This roll-back, this rapid lowering of the standard of living of the mass of the people, in every country, followed by recessions, overproduction and more war as they fight for resources, using our money and bodies, is accelerating. The rise of the far right parties in Europe and the United States reflects this decline in the lives of the majority. Since the mass media has effectively convinced too many that the socialist path has failed, or as in the United States, cannot even be considered, people seek a remedy with the right-wing populist demagogues who promise them a chicken in every pot and peace in our time. We have seen where this leads; to nationalism and to war and these are always accompanied by xenophobia, racism, and other scapegoating techniques to divert attention from the root causes of the situation and create the atmosphere for war. Those who hope for better relations between Russia and the United States have the right to hope, but the international situation has not changed overnight. The United States still seeks to dominate the world, and Trump’s promise to “make America great again” in contrast to Clinton’s “America is great” bragging, reflects the struggle inside the United States between those who think it can still succeed in dominating the world with its current structure and resources and those who have decided that a transformation has to take place for the United States to stay top dog in the world. The internal struggle in the United States has been a bitter one and it still is not settled which faction of the ruling elite will assume the power needed to make such a transformation possible. But the only people to benefit from that struggle, a struggle in which the people are and will be used as pawns to support one faction or the other, will be the already powerful and the already wealthy. The mass of the people will be the playthings of people in dark shadows and will turn on each other before they expose those shadows to the light. The American election was not about left or right, for there is no effective, organised left in that country. There are only degrees of the right. It was not about making lives better for its people. A large section of the voting population did not vote for there was nothing for them to vote for. The remainder took part in the theatre, played their part, few understanding the role they played and are still playing. The world stands on edge, wondering if we have been saved from the corrupt, venal war-monger that is Clinton or shackled with another corrupt nationalist reactionary in Trump, who will send us all down the same violent path. But, of course, both are true. For the world crisis continues and can only continue when leaders use “terrorism” to play upon the peoples’ weaknesses and fears, when the peoples doubts are used against them, when a man like Trump wears a mask of peace for one sucker and then is just a businessman for another, a straight talker, misunderstood; who knows how to get to this man with his wallet, this woman with her hatred for her boss, this one through ignorance and that one through the bribe, while offering everything because the offering’s cheap, but who works for those satisfied with nothing less than making the world their personal domain. In reality the world stands on edge because the dominant ideology in the west offers no solutions to the crisis because it is itself the crisis. Capital cannot rule for the benefit of the people. It does not matter what brand of capitalism they are selling. It produces for profit not for need. The only way out of this crisis is for working people to start to once again sit down with each other and discuss what the cause of their problems is, and what needs to be done to change that. In Europe, and Latin America, Asia, and Africa, the left has a rich and proud history that most have not forgotten and so, perhaps, we can hope they will push back against the forces of the right that are being drawn out of the mud to fool and oppress the people. But in the United States where the left is weak and in disarray and the far right is rising without effective opposition, the situation is very bleak, for the American election did not resolve the crisis but only increased it; and in reaction I can only repeat what the great American poet, Stephen Vincent Benet, once wrote, “Life have mercy on us.” Christopher Black is an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto, he is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and he is known for a number of high-profile cases involving human rights and war crimes, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.” Popular Articles

Why Success Comes in Waves · Guardian Liberty Voice

Cherese Jackson

If you ask me, God has a humongous sense of humor. I mean think about it, all of the situations that we find ourselves in that seem to spark introspection and give us a favorable outlook on life. We all find ourselves looking back on things thinking, “I am surely better by experiencing the thing I did not like at the time.” Such was the case this morning when a random song on the music app Pandora left me pondering life, success, and even my connection to a local church. Let me set the scene, one day a week I am away from the office where I spend the morning preparing my schedule, returning phone calls and just overall strategy sessions. I usually have music in the background as it creates an atmosphere conducive to productivity. As I flipped through, I landed on a Hip Hop station that had Kanye West as its first artist. Random, right? However, earlier this week my wife and I spent a day driving and talking about inspirational people. Kanye, while egotistical and arrogant, cannot be denied as a music genius and major contributor to current culture. In the realm of fashion, music, and pop artistry, he is a constant mainstream focus. Therefore, we cited how his place in modern history was vital. So here I am listening to his song off the “Life of Pablo” project titled “Waves.” Stay with me, this is where it gets interesting. Five years ago, after relocating to the Hampton Roads area, my wife and I were privileged to find a new church to worship with and share our passion for service to the community. We found a home at Wave Church in Virginia Beach. Since day one, we have been plugged into a vision to touch the world with the compassion of Christ that mirrored our own values. From the senior pastor down, we have created lasting relationships and been challenged to be better people. For that, we are grateful tremendously. So we go to a church named Wave, I’m sitting here jamming to a song called “Waves” with a lyric that says: Waves don’t die Let me crash here for the moment I don’t need to own it No lie. That kept swimming around in my head all morning. Later I had a flashback from a seventh-grade science class – earth science to be exact. If you recall, earth science was all about nature, cool projects, and movies about how the world has evolved. Oceanography was a section I enjoyed. Once a teacher brought in a wave machine that showed how they form and flow until we meet them at the beach’s edge. In fact, out of curiosity, I Googled waves to see what I had forgotten. What I found left me with a beautiful allegory of how success flows into our lives and what we can do to position ourselves to reap its benefits to the fullest. Waves mean there is positive motion present in your life: the ocean’s entire surface is in motion. The waves are just the disturbance of the water surface; waves themselves represent a restoring force to calm the surface. The standard example is the rock-in-the-pond scenario. Many get frustrated or confused in times of motion. Nevertheless, remember motion also represents momentum. In addition, once you get momentum behind you, you can easily be swept into the success you are seeking. Waves do not run from conflict or confrontations: Check this out, as waves approach landmasses, the wave’s base begins to contact the sea floor, and the wave’s profile begins to change. This friction slows the circular orbital motion of the wave’s base, but the top continues at its original speed. In effect, the wave begins leaning forward as it approaches the shore. In other words, waves are willing to crash against anything standing in its way. We cannot allow obstacles to define our level of success. We are built to collide with our destiny! Waves are formed by strong winds. Therefore, waves are comfortable with being uncomfortable: In my opinion, being okay with the process is the number one key to success. What I have learned from years of this journey and many mentors, which includes Pastor Steve Kelly of Wave Church, is that success will be anything but an easy road. Coming from Australia over 17 years ago to a country he had not seen since a child, and to take over a church filled with people he barely knew had to be uncomfortable. Additionally, to grow that church with strong leadership to become an international influence with eight different campuses has left him with wisdom on just what success really costs. What I have learned from him is when you carry a vision, you also have to carry a certain level of restraint in order to fulfill it. Many possess the passion for success but lack the discipline to last the trip to success. Waves exist from the source of chaos. Wind disturbances striking the ocean’s surface forms waves that can have motion for miles. What we get at the beach is the result of what happened out at sea. In the context of success, there will be people who feel the effects of you for miles and miles. Why? Because you made the decision to out-live the struggle and become a wave of success. I think this poem best sums up what we should strive to be. Fate whispers to the warrior, “You cannot withstand the storm.” The Warrior whispers back, “I am the storm.” Opinion By Early Jackson (Edited by Cherese Jackson) Source: AZ Lyrics: Kanye West Lyrics – Wave Photo Credits: Top Image Courtesy of New Direction Coaching Associates Inline Image Courtesy of Theophilos Papadopoulos – Flickr License Featured Image Courtesy of Andy Tolsma – Flickr License waves

Donald Trump Trashes Media in Epic-Long Press Conference - Breitbart

Charlie Spiering

President Donald Trump went with the media in a lengthy press conference, accusing them of covering the first weeks of his administration unfairly. [“The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about [it] we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people,” Trump said during his press conference in the East Room. “We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control. ” Trump said he wanted to take his message “straight to the people,” as the cable news programs ran his entire hour and seventeen minute press conference live. The president went back and forth with network and cable news reporters representing news companies that have spent the majority of their energies disparaging the president and his performance during the first weeks of his presidency. Trump specifically cited CNN for their negative coverage of his administration. “I watch CNN, it’s so much anger and hatred, and — just the hatred,” he said, calling the negative coverage “fake news. ” “I turn on the T. V. open the newspapers, and I see stories of chaos. Chaos,” he said. “Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a machine, despite the fact that I can’t get my cabinet approved. ” Trump lashed out at Democrats, asserting that he had inherited a mess from former President Obama, and criticized them for trying to stall his presidency. “The only thing they can do is delay, because they screwed things up royally,” he said.

The Hostility and Hypocrisy of Left-Wing Israeli NGOs

Noah Beck

The Hostility and Hypocrisy of Left-Wing Israeli NGOs Where are the condemnations of the PA’s efforts to prevent “normalization” with Israel? November 2, 2016 Originally written for the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Israeli human rights group B’Tselem recently appeared before a special session of the United Nations Security Council, excoriating Israel and pleading with the body to act against Israel’s settlements. In 1975, the UN famously declared that “Zionism is racism” and, four decades later, the organization continues to hound Israel. In each of the last four years, as the Syrian bloodbath claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, there were at least five times as many resolutions condemning Israel as those rebuking the rest of the world. The UN’s cultural body, UNESCO, recently passed a motion ignoring any Jewish (or Christian) historical ties to East Jerusalem holy sites, referring to the Temple Mount and Western Wall only by their Muslim names and condemning Israel as “the occupying power.” It turns out that some of Israel’s left-wing NGOs worked to help produce the UNESCO motion. Given the UN’s chronic hostility, efforts by Israeli NGOs to persuade the UN to act against Israel are arguably treasonous. Indeed, one attorney and activist for Israel’s left-leaning Labor party filed a police complaint alleging treason against B’Tselem, arguing that the NGO has harmed state sovereignty, tried to give land away to a foreign entity, and taken steps that could cause a war. Israeli democracy is extremely tolerant, to the point of allowing its members of parliament to openly support terrorism and terrorist groups. Last March, several Israeli Arab Knesset members condemned Arab states for labeling Hizballah a terrorist organization, even though it has been at war with Israel for decades and regularly threatens new hostilities. Last February, members from the Joint (Arab) List paid a solidarity visit to relatives of Palestinian terrorists whom Israeli security forces had killed to stop them from murdering Israelis. In 2014, MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) drew praise from Hamas after she asserted that the kidnappers of three missing Israeli youths were “not terrorists.” Hamas’s connection to the young men’s abduction and murder helped to spark the third war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Thus, Israel already has plenty of dissenting voices and activists without foreign intervention. Nevertheless, foreign interests have identified Israeli NGOs as the soft underbelly of Israeli democracy and have leveraged them to promote their own agendas. The problem became so acute that a watchdog, NGO Monitor, was formed in 2002 to track the self-hostility being funded largely by European and other foreign sources. As the organization notes: “NGOs lack a system of checks and balances, and…provide accountability to their funders and activist members, and not to the citizens or societies whose lives are directly impacted by their activities.” NGO Monitor also notes that, even though most of the foreign government funding for these Israeli NGOs is “formally designated for ‘educating the Israeli public’ and ‘changing public opinion’ (both in violation of the norms on non-interference in other democracies), these Israeli NGOs are very active externally, in the delegitmization and political warfare against Israel.” These left-wing Israeli NGO’s receive money from about two dozen foreign governments , and some private organizations . That includes millions of dollars from billionaire George Soros. In Catch the Jew , author Tuvia Tenenbom exposed how foreign-funded “human rights” and “cultural” organizations in Israel tend to serve as vehicles for attacking Israel. By presenting himself to interview subjects as “Tobi the German,” Tenenbom elicits some surprising confessions. For example, the New Fund for Cinema and TV, a foreign-funded Israeli cultural NGO, told him that that about 80 percent of political documentaries made in Israel are co-produced by Europeans. That includes a documentary called “10%—What Makes a Hero,” which equates Israel’s military with the Nazis. Such films would be too scandalous to be produced in Germany, but German-sponsored NGOs can safely pay left-wing Israelis to make such movies. Some foreign funders of Israeli NGOs have even unwittingly enriched Hamas. Last August, Hamas allegedly siphoned off “tens of millions of dollars” from World Vision, a U.S.-based charity, and used the funds for weapons purchases, tunnel construction, and other military activities. The Knesset passed a law in July requiring disclosure of foreign funding sources for NGOs that get more than half of their money from overseas. The law is “clearly aligned with the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),” wrote legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich, who defended the legislation in response to critics. “Israel is unique in the sheer scale of the foreign government sponsorship of domestic political groups,” he wrote. “For example, the European Union alone has in recent years given roughly 1.2 million Euro a year for political NGOs in the US and roughly an order of magnitude more in Israel—a vastly larger per capita amount.” The Obama administration opposes foreign influence only when that influence promotes a dissenting view. Obama opposed Netanyahu’s speech to the U.S. Congress against the Iranian nuclear deal, but was happy to give a speech to the UK parliament against Brexit. The Obama administration critiqued Israel’s NGO-funding-disclosure law , perhaps because it had sent U.S. taxpayer money to an Israeli NGO working to oust Israel’s prime minister. The same hypocrisy seems to prevail among Israel’s foreign-funded NGOs. They ostensibly exist to promote democracy and peaceful co-existence, but are conspicuously silent when Palestinian institutions violate those ideals. Such silence enables abuse by Palestinians and promotes a distorted and incomplete picture of the complex reality in which Israelis operate. Foreign-funded Israeli NGOs remained silent after the Palestinian Authority arrested Palestinians who visited a Sukkah in a symbolic peace event promoting coexistence. “These organizations are silent when the Palestinian leadership pays salaries to the families of terrorists, glorifies murderers and calls streets and city centers after them,” Netanyahu said. “These organizations prove again and again that they are not actually interested in human rights, but only in shaming Israel and libeling it around the world.” If Israel’s left-wing NGOs truly are committed to democracy and peace, why haven’t they condemned the PA’s efforts to prevent “normalization” with Israel? In 2014, Jibril Rajoub, the deputy secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and the head of the Palestinian Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs, condemned a coexistence-promoting soccer match between Israeli and Palestinian youths on a southern kibbutz, as “a crime against humanity.” Last week, a Palestinian newspaper came under intense criticism for publishing an interview with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman. The Jerusalem-based newspaper Al-Quds was denounced by Hamas , the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, and the supposedly “moderate” PA. The “chilling effects” and anti-peace message implicit in the harsh reactions to the interview have yet to catch the attention of any left-wing NGOs supposedly working for peace and democracy.

The Yale Record Just Published The BEST Non-Endorsement Of A Candidate EVER!

Marty Townsend

The Yale Record Just Published The BEST Non-Endorsement Of A Candidate EVER! By Marty Townsend on October 27, 2016 Subscribe The Yale Record , America’s Oldest College Humor Magazine, has NOT endorsed Hillary Clinton – in a most spectacular way. The Yale Record is based in the college town of New Haven, Connecticut and was founded by Edward Anthony Bradford , James Heartt VanBuren , Samuel J. Elder , E.H. Lemis , and Henry Ward Beecher Howard in 1872, publishing their first weekly issue on September 11, 1872. They gleefully point readers to their lengthy Wikipedia page to prove their validity, claim the invention of the word “hot dog,” and ponder whether the face of the New Yorker would look different if they hadn’t been doing what they’re doing. The Record adopted “Old Owl” as their mascot over a century ago, but the actual date of acquisition wasn’t recorded anywhere. The mascot , described as a connoisseur of Cutty Sark , is: “… a congenial, largely nocturnal, 360-degree-head-turning, cigar-smoking bird who tries to steer the staff towards a light-hearted appreciation of life and the finer things in it.” From Wikimedia Commons available under a CC Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. With such an illustrious past, how could anything they produce not be spectacular? Let’s see what Old Owl had to say. The non-endorsement begins with a simple explanation of why they aren’t endorsing any candidate: “In its 144-year history, The Yale Record has never endorsed a Democratic candidate for president. In fact, we have never endorsed any candidate for president. This is, in part, due to our strong commitment to being a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization, which mandates that we are ‘absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.'” And: “The Yale Record believes both candidates to be equally un-endorsable, due to our faithful compliance with the tax code.” With that explained, one would ordinarily assume they were done. But no, they had a bit more to say : “In particular, we do not endorse Hillary Clinton’s exemplary leadership during her 30 years in the public eye. We do not support her impressive commitment to serving and improving this country—a commitment to which she has dedicated her entire professional career. Because of unambiguous tax law, we do not encourage you to support the most qualified presidential candidate in modern American history, nor do we encourage all citizens to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all by electing Secretary Clinton on November 8. “The Yale Record has no opinion whatsoever on Dr. Jill Stein.” So there it is… absolutely the best non-endorsement EVER. Featured image courtesy of Heat Street . About Marty Townsend Active in Michigan with several groups and organizations, including the National Action Network (NAN), Occupy Detroit, Save Michigan Public Schools, Dearborn PTA Council, Michigan Petitioners, and several other small groups working together to make Michigan a better place. Concentrates on educational issues, but also covers human interest, liberal politics, Michigan, environmental issues and Detroit, including the fight against Emergency Managers, the Education Achievement Authority, and fighting the corporate take-over of Michigan and the United States. Buy me a <a href=" cup of coffee Connect

Art Deco Los Angeles - The New York Times

John L. Dorman

California’s broad landscape suggests endless possibility, a chance to realize your dreams. You can backpack in the Klamath National Forest within Siskiyou County. You can find a slice of Denmark in the Santa Ynez Valley. Or you can immerse yourself in the glittery landscape of the Hollywood hills, the place that has applied a practicality to its dreams by making an industry of them. You tend to forget about reveries, though, when the 101 freeway slows to a crawl, as it did when I began to navigate the road in Hollywood this spring. Time on my hands, I looked up and caught a glimpse of the U. S. Bank Tower, referred to as Library Tower by many locals for the actual library and architectural gem across the street that it dwarfs. Completed in the late 1980s, the iconic Bank Tower is one of those structures that sneak up in vistas to remind you that yes, you’re in Los Angeles, in case you were wondering. It was the tallest building west of the Mississippi for 27 years, until the Wilshire Grand Center’s spire was added this year. Designed by the architect Henry N. Cobb, the building is topped with a distinctive crown that hints at downtown’s Art Deco past. Despite its size, it is not exactly the first building that comes to mind when people think of Los Angeles. Some cities have a single architectural identity but Los Angeles is known for many. It was an incubator of the American Craftsman style, and it embraced as well as Spanish Colonial Revival and Mayan Revival, which found a powerful advocate in Frank Lloyd Wright. But then Art Deco arrived and proliferated during the decades when movie studios became the cornerstone of an economy that had previously relied primarily on oil. It left a stunning cache of public buildings in its wake. Several of them have been razed, and a few of the surviving ones are underused or vacant. Tourists gravitate toward the Bank Tower, which has an observation deck, or Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. But before being literally overshadowed, these Art Deco treasures were once icons of downtown Los Angeles. And they still should be. Most of the Art Deco buildings are smaller than the modern skyscrapers rising in the area, but they still soar. To explore them is to witness a grandeur that inspires you, unlike many skyscrapers, which merely surprise you. Because they arrived at a moment of economic expansion, they suggest the sense of endless possibility that permeated the city. I set off to get a glimpse of what those architectural dreamers were able to accomplish. On an otherwise mild morning, I found myself holding an umbrella in Pershing Square, a public park. The rain quickly tapered off, sparing me the embarrassment of having chosen to visit California on a weekend when the weather was worse than it was in New York. Pershing Square, originally known as La Plaza Abaja and dedicated in 1866, is one of the oldest parks in the city. Taking up an entire city block and almost centrally located downtown, the park is a perfect starting point for exploring Art Deco in Los Angeles. In the early 1920s, Los Angeles was in an enviable position. There was a burgeoning retail market downtown, with stores including A. Hamburger Sons, Bullock’s and the J. W. Robinson Company strengthening their economic footholds. Automobiles brought so many people here that multiple parking garages were constructed to alleviate the constant traffic backups. The robust Pacific Electric Railway system connected downtown to nearby cities like Pasadena and Whittier, as well as more places such as Colton and Redlands in San Bernardino County. These developments made the area all the more attractive for architectural innovation. The Paris Exhibition of 1925, officially L’Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, was held from April to October of that year and was instrumental in promoting Art Deco as a design style that stressed modernity and progress. The industrial arts exhibit influenced a wave of architects to deviate from the formal style popular at the time to a style that was punctuated by features like colorful terra cotta, stucco, decorative crowns, zigzags and flat roofs with parapets. For years, this style was loosely called Art Moderne. However, it would become known as Art Deco, a term fashioned by the British art critic Bevis Hillier in 1968. From the late 1920s until the early 1940s, Art Deco was at the height of its popularity in the city. The design style included Zigzag Moderne — characterized by classic zigzag patterns and setbacks, where buildings featured a wide base, becoming narrower as they rose in height. It also included Streamline Moderne, a subdued style that emphasized horizontal design elements and often had flat roofs and curves. As I walked to the northeast edge of Pershing Square, one the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the city came into view. The Title Guarantee and Trust Company Building, at Hill and West Fifth Streets, a beautiful glazed terra cotta structure with a granite base, has a way of drawing your attention. Built in 1930, the building still radiates an architectural regalness. At 12 stories, it has a tower that recedes from the larger structure and features stylized buttresses. The recessed tower design is a flourish that allowed the building to exceed the established height limit, dramatically rising to 240 feet. It soared, just not excessively. Citywide height ordinances, in place from 1905 until 1957, were enacted to prevent Los Angeles from becoming a carbon copy of cities like New York and Chicago. “People in early Los Angeles were interested in the design of the city,” said Paul Gleye, author of “The Architecture of Los Angeles” and a professor of architecture at North Dakota State University. “San Francisco was still the city in California, but there was a great civic pride in Los Angeles. ” As I looked up from the base of the Title Guarantee Building, I took in the sculptures depicting two kneeling men and a central figure that adorned the exterior. John B. Parkinson and Donald Parkinson, the influential team of architects who designed this building and several others, commissioned the artist Eugene to design the sculptures. Hugo Ballin, a noted American muralist, designed six panels in the lobby that chronicle the history of the city. I admired the zigzag motif that formed part of the design above the main entrance on West Fifth Street. Because the building is now private, only residents and their guests can enjoy its full glory. Still, the facade alone was engrossing, so it was hard to leave. The Bunker Hill neighborhood, which offers some of the most commanding views of the surrounding area, is just a few paces from the Title Guarantee Building. There, the extent of Art Deco craftsmanship in downtown Los Angeles was on full display. One Bunker Hill, built as the headquarters for Southern California Edison, the electric supply behemoth, rests on a steep slope. When completed in 1931, it was one of the first buildings with an heat and cooling system in the Western United States. An illuminated “Edison” sign at the top of the building solidified the region as an emerging economic power. One Bunker Hill is now almost surrounded by the U. S. Bank Tower and the 400 South Hope building, two skyscrapers. It now looks diminutive by comparison, many say. But I was drawn to it, rather than to its tall bookends. The granite and limestone building was designed in a setback style, with architectural offsets on two lower floors, along with two of the upper floors. The central tower at the top of the building is fronted with terra cotta. The corner entrance, featuring a stately octagonal rotunda, has three figures on the exterior. The figures, created by the sculptor Robert Merrell Gage, depict power, light and hydroelectricity. One Bunker Hill was envisioned as a monument to energy. The lobby only reaffirmed the intent of architectural grandeur. Natural light poured into the multicolored room, highlighting its indelible features: over a dozen types of marble ornamentation on the ceiling and murals by the artists Barse Miller, Conrad Buff and, once again, Hugo Ballin. Mr. Ballin’s mural, “The Apotheosis of Power,” features the English physicist William Gilbert, a pioneer in the research of magnetism and electrical attraction, and Benjamin Franklin. The building gives you a sense of what Los Angeles wanted to be, and what it has become, part of a huge megalopolis that still shows no signs of slowing down. When I saw the Los Angeles Central Library building from a distance, I first thought it was a temple. It had Byzantine, Egyptian, Spanish Colonial and Roman architectural influences and, at 90 years old, it truly exemplifies the grandeur of early Art Deco. Bertram Goodhue, designer of the Nebraska State Capitol, and Carleton Winslow Sr. were the architects of the Central Library. The building is topped with a mosaic tower. Limestone figures, including a bust of Leonardo da Vinci, are featured on the exterior. The interior of the main rotunda has prominently arched ceilings. The Central Library incorporated so many architectural styles, in addition to Art Deco, that it was almost an early precursor to what the city has become: one of the most culturally diverse places in the world. Beginning in the 1960s, the threat of demolition loomed over the Central Library. In 1978, the Los Angeles Conservancy, a nonprofit organization committed to the preservation of historic buildings in the city, was established largely because of opposition to the proposal. The bulldozers never came. This was an almost civic victory in an era when downtowns were rapidly depopulating. As I walked into the rotunda, I noticed that people were enthralled with murals designed by the illustrator Dean Cornwell. Each mural depicts an aspect of the history of California, including the 1781 founding of El Pueblo de los Ángeles, the Spanish settlement that eventually grew to be modern Los Angeles. The murals prompted conversation, even among strangers. I overheard a man recall being taken to the library as a child, influencing him to do the same for his children. Not all of the buildings survived long enough to inspire memories of family legacies. The Richfield Oil Company Building, which was demolished between late 1968 and 1969, according to Mr. Gleye, “was one of the most magnificent Art Deco structures anywhere. ” Richfield Tower was clad in glazed black architectural terra cotta and gold trimming, with the top of the building resembling an oil derrick. It was the epitome of Zigzag Moderne. But it wasn’t so appealing at the time of its demolition. “In 1968, people looked back at Art Deco and thought it was ugly and too decorative,” Mr. Gleye said. “A generation has to pass before things are appreciated. After modernism became the leading style, there were very few defenders of Art Deco. ” In place of Richfield Tower sprouted twin skyscrapers now known as City National Plaza. You can still get a hint of Richfield Tower from two tall zigzag elevator doors that were salvaged in the demolition and have been incorporated near a lobby entrance at the Plaza. The one Art Deco building allowed to exceed height restrictions was City Hall. The architectural team of John C. Austin, Albert C. Martin and John Parkinson created a tall central tower, built with concrete mixed with sand from each of California’s 58 counties. It rises majestically. The building’s upper floors feature symmetrical setbacks, with an eccentric ziggurat top. An observatory on the 27th floor is free and accessible to the general public. From this perch, the city is devilishly inviting. If the visibility is good, you can see Santa Catalina Island. I was not as lucky. However, I did see Los Angeles Union Station, my next stop. Union Station, the largest passenger train station in the Western United States, was completed in 1939. Approached from North Alameda Street, the station’s Art Deco, Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival architectural influences are immediately apparent. Marlyn Musicant, author of “Los Angeles Union Station,” said that the building’s Art Deco elements “come across so clearly, yet are subtle. ” The white entrance signs have an aesthetically pleasing Streamline Moderne look. In the main waiting area, the vaulted ceiling, which gives the appearance of simple wooden beams, radiates a collegiate feel. The roof, interior courtyard spaces, arched windows and white stucco create a distinct Mission Revival look. “The architects wanted to go with a more modern influence,” Ms. Musicant added, “so instead of utilizing chandeliers, the designers went with bronze chandeliers. ” Union Station was designed to serve as a combined rail terminus for the Santa Fe, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railways. With automobiles becoming the dominant form of transportation in Southern California, along with the advent of commercial air travel, rail ridership began to decline sharply in the . The station was becoming a place that, while still remarkable, was seemingly lost in another place and time. “By the 1960s, Union Station was neglected and had fallen into a sad state,” Ms. Musicant said. “At one point, there were only 15 trains going out of the station each day. ” Beginning in the 1970s, increased Amtrak service gave Union Station some energy. The building was restored in 1992, the same year that Metrolink, a regional rail service, began to operate in the station. Metro Rail, the rail system that serves Los Angeles County, has three lines with stops at the station. At some train stations, a cold bench would be a prize, but not in Union Station, which reveals the romanticism of rail travel. Its waiting room has upholstered wooden chairs on the main floor. The travertine walls, doors with Moorish accents, and colorful glazed floor tiles have alluring patterns. The long exterior walkways and outside tower evoke Spanish Missions, while the courtyard areas maintain an aura of tranquillity. As I headed back closer to Pershing Square, the Oviatt Building on South Olive Street came into view. The Art Deco building, named for the entrepreneur James Oviatt, incorporates Italian Romanesque elements, with tiled roofs, cornices, marble and a clock. With his business partner Frank Alexander, Mr. Oviatt opened the upscale Alexander Oviatt haberdashery in 1912. Inspired by a 1925 visit to the Art Deco Exhibition in Paris, Mr. Oviatt commissioned his namesake 1928 building, which housed his store on the lower floors, along with an ornate penthouse apartment where he lived. The penthouse, which also played host to many luminaries during Hollywood’s golden age, is now a popular venue for private events. When the building opened, it featured work from the French designer René Lalique and the glassmaker Gaëtan Jeannin. Much of their original work is gone but the entrance arcade still radiates an Art Deco feel. The arcade, with unique panels, immediately caught my eye. Intricate mailbox and elevator doors made from maillechort, an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc, were designed by Lalique. The footprints of the retail past of downtown Los Angeles are one of the more interesting characteristics of the neighborhood. The area around South Hill Street and South Broadway near Pershing Square boasted some of the busiest and most fashionable stores in the entire region in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1960s, urban decline and rapid population growth in the western edges of the city lured many customers away from downtown, but the buildings remained. The area’s Art Deco legacy gave me a true sense of the walkable nature of downtown. In addition to residential and retail developments, there are various markets and restaurants that have sold ethnic food in the neighborhood for many years. Robert D. Herman, a retired professor of sociology at Pomona College, stressed the importance of the work of the urban studies activist Jane Jacobs and her belief that “ ” developments maintain the vitality and viability of cities. “Uniformity and isolation will kill a neighborhood,” Mr. Herman said. “People in urban areas expect streets to be part of the urban environment. ” The buildings, though, are what draw your eye. On South Hill Street, the Sun Realty, William Fox, and Harris Frank buildings are all part of the city’s jewelry district. The buildings opened between 1925 and 1932, and while many of the upper floors featured office space for various businesses, the lower floors all had jewelry stores. And just as I expected, the Art Deco elements were still there. Private lofts now occupy the Eastern Columbia Building, the 1930 classic designed by Claud Beelman. Formerly the headquarters of the Eastern Outfitting and Columbia Outfitting companies, which sold appliances and clothing, respectively, the building sets the tone for decorative architecture in the city. The entrance extended inward, with a terra cotta sunburst detail that evoked optimism. Topped by a clock tower that loomed over the immediate area, the building staked its position as a center of commerce. There are many other hidden treasures downtown like the Roxie Theater, the only theater built in downtown Los Angeles solely in Art Deco style the Title Insurance and Trust Building, now being converted into modern offices and the beige terra cotta Ninth Broadway Building, an anchor of the revitalized retail core. The Foreman Clark Building, formerly the flagship location of the Foreman Clark department store and recently acquired by a developer, and the Garfield Building, now vacant, await new futures. As I walked on South Broadway, I noticed an Art Deco building that at one time housed a F W Stores retail location and a Hartfield’s Department Store. Now being renovated, the handsome midblock building in many ways represents the resurgence of downtown. Art Deco defined the heights that downtown Los Angeles sought to reach in its infancy as a major city. Generations later, those heights are being unveiled once again. Perch (448 South Hill Street perchla. com) is a rooftop restaurant and bar serving French fare with stunning views of the upper floors of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company Building, as well as the surrounding downtown landscape. Recent main courses included gnocchi with pesto, crème fraîche and squash ($19) and salmon, with smoked eggplant purée, vegetables Provençal and artichoke chips ($27). For a unique drink, try the Hemingway on the Beach, a mix of gin, Luxardo, lemon juice and Angostura bitters ($12). Cicada Restaurant (617 South Olive Street cicadarestaurant. com) is a refined Art Deco space inside the Oviatt Building, with dark wood paneling and zigzag motifs. Entree options recently included chicken breast with Marsala mustard sauce ($32) and wild black bass with roasted potatoes and a lemon virgin olive oil sauce ($40). Inside Union Station, Traxx (800 North Alameda Street traxx. la) is an ornate restaurant and bar. Have a glass of Clos du Val Carneros pinot noir and take a break from all the bustle. The Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles (929 South Broadway acehotel. ) is in a 1927 Spanish Gothic structure that evokes classic Los Angeles. From about $199. The Los Angeles Conservancy (laconservancy. org) offers several walking tours on weekends, including separate Art Deco and Union Station tours each Saturday ($15).

Nike Reveals the ‘Pro Hijab’ for Muslim Athletes - The New York Times

Valeriya Safronova

Nike, a company whose brand is estimated to be worth $27 billion, understands the difference apparel can make to an athlete. And like any viable business, it knows the world is full of potential customers. And so in its latest market expansion, the brand has turned to the Middle East, where female athletes have begun to come into their own over the last few years. This week, Nike announced that it would release a Pro Hijab for female Muslim athletes in spring 2018. The hijab, which is expected to cost $35, is made of a lightweight, stretchy mesh polyester and will come in gray, black and obsidian. Throughout several stages of development, the product was tested by a group that included Zahra Lari, the first figure skater from the United Arab Emirates to compete internationally Manal Rostom, a runner and triathlete currently living in Dubai and Amna Al Haddad, an Olympic weight lifter from the United Arab Emirates. The move followed Nike’s release of an Arabic version of its Nike Training Club app early last year and the beginning of a campaign featuring five female athletes from the Arab region with the tagline “What will they say about you?” last month. “There weren’t any hijabi athletes to look up to when I was growing up, and I had to be my own pioneer, and now girls today have women like Amna Al Haddad and Zahra Lari to look to as role models, which is so inspiring,” Ms. Rostom wrote over WhatsApp. “For young girls to see these women and to see this revolutionary shift will change the face of sport for Muslim Arab girls, whether they wear hijab or not. ” Female athletes in the Middle East are a young but growing group. In the 2012 Summer Games, Brunei, Qatar and Saudi Arabia became the last three countries competing at the Olympics to send women. That same year, Egypt’s contingent included 37 women, the highest number of female athletes representing the country since it entered the games in 1912. The presence of athletes like the boxer Arifa Bseiso, the fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad (who became the first hijabi American to compete at the Olympics for the United States last year) and the triathlete Najla Al Jeraiwi has become increasingly common at international competitions. But it was only in 2014 that FIFA, the international soccer organization, lifted its ban on religious headgear. The basketball organization FIBA maintains its ban and has postponed a vote on the matter until May. Beyond bans, there is the issue of comfort. Female Muslim athletes have struggled with finding headgear that will not slow them down or distract them from arduous physical exercise. It was Ms. Haddad’s difficulty in acquiring a hijab that met her requirements for competition — namely, that it would not shift when she moved and that it would be more breathable — that inspired the Pro Hijab project. “The one obstacle that’s always there if you’re a hijabi is, what is she going to wear on her head?” Ms. Rostom wrote. She explained that she usually buys a special hijab in Kuwait that is made with polyester and cotton. “Cotton is extremely uncomfortable, especially if you are training outdoors or if you are running long distances, and especially when we live in one the hottest countries in the world,” she said. There are companies that manufacture hijab, like Capsters in the Netherlands and Friniggi in Botswana, but none of them have as global and as visible a reach as Nike. “For us, we come up with ideas, and ways to be comfortable in what we wear, but to have the No. 1 sport and fitness brand in the world facilitate this process for us?” Ms. Rostom wrote. “To provide something we can grab and wear in 10 seconds? It’s going to change everything. ”

Boycott targets Trump family on retail front

-NO AUTHOR-

Boycott targets Trump family on retail front Participants shun GOP nominee's products, retailers who carry them Published: 18 mins ago (CBC) An eye-catching shoe piques your interest and draws you in. Upon closer inspection, the label leaps out at you — Ivanka Trump, in simple gold lettering — and you recoil as if stung. That’s the kind of reaction behind a growing boycott of the products emblazoned with the brand of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as well as the popular, working women-targeted fashion line from his eldest daughter — who has arguably been his most influential and effective family member during the current election campaign.

Great Pyramid Key Ride at Ancient Amusement Park

Monday, 31 October 2016 What other rides were on offer? The Giza pyramid complex outside of Cairo, Egypt commands the respect and admiration of most people on the planet. The most imposing structure by far is the great pyramid, Khufu's king pyramid, 455 feet tall and 756 feet wide. Conventional wisdom has long understood that the purpose of the pyramid was to honor Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and house his tomb. Recently it was discovered that the complex did ultimately become a tomb, but this was not the original purpose of its construction. "Well, we really missed the mark on this one," said Dr. Alfred Jacob Beasly, British-Canadian archeologist. "When we went digging in another corner of the compound, we found all the discarded mechanics." Apparently the Great Pyramid was first built as the world's biggest water ride. The ride wrapped around the outside of the pyramid and the inside housed the water pumps. "Yeah, somehow the whole complex got converted into a tomb sometime later," admitted Beasly. "All the boat pits we found make more sense now." Scholars have now looked back at related hieroglyphics and see references to what loosely translates to "Ride the Nile" ride references. "I never really got what these images were about," said Susan Biswell, Swiss Egyptologist. She shared with us drawings showing people riding boats in a channel winding up around the pyramid that then splashed down a "log chute" run, straight down the side back to the base. "Ancient Egypt was a very advanced civilization. We should have guessed something like this sooner." Make pinkwalrus's

Breitbart News Daily: Not Calm, Not Carrying On - Breitbart

Breitbart News

On the Thursday edition of Breitbart News Daily, broadcast live on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 from 6AM to 9AM Eastern, Breitbart London Raheem Kassam will continue our discussion of the Islamic terror attack in Manchester, England. [Fred Fleitz, the Senior Vice President for Policy and Programs at the Center for Security Policy and former CIA analyst, will discuss the Manchester terror attack, as well as former CIA Director John Brennan’s testimony before Congress. Former UN Ambassador John Bolton will also discuss the Manchester attack and his latest Wall Street Journal on President Trump’s first foreign visit and the need for a tougher policy on North Korea and Iran. Michael Steele, former RNC Chairman and of “Steele and Ungar” on SiriusXM POTUS Channel 124, will weigh in on Trump’s foreign trip and the new Congressional Budget Office score of the American Health Care Act. Live from London, Rome, and Jerusalem, Breitbart correspondents will provide updates on the latest international news. Breitbart News Daily is the first live, conservative radio enterprise to air seven days a week. SiriusXM Vice President for news and talk Dave Gorab called the show “the conservative news show of record. ” Follow Breitbart News on Twitter for live updates during the show. Listeners may call into the show at: .

'There are many instances’ of voter fraud: GOP VP candidate Pence

Politics US Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence speaks at a rally on October 25, 2016 in Marietta, Ohio. (Photo by AFP) US Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence says the mainstream media is biased against Donald Trump, and there are “many instances” of voter fraud in the run up to the November 8 election. Republican presidential nominee Trump has recently intensified his criticism of the American electoral system. He calls the election process rigged, and says the media is colluding with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in order to win the White House. He has questioned the legitimacy of the US elections, saying that he believed the vote was already being "rigged" at many polling places. During his final presidential debate with Clinton last week, Trump declared that he might not accept the results of the November 8 presidential election if there is evidence it was rigged. In an interview with CBS News on Friday, Trump’s running mate, Pence, said, “Make no mistake about it, there are many instances in our lifetimes of voter fraud in individual polling places and in certain jurisdictions.” “Donald Trump and I are just calling on people to respectfully participate in the electoral process. We want a victory on Election Day, but we also want it to be a victory for American democracy,” he stated. Donald Trump speaks at an event on October 15, 2016 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (Photo by AFP) The governor of Indiana rejected claims of critics that Trump’s “rigging” rhetoric may encourage violence by his supporters if he loses the presidential election. “We certainly would denounce any calls for anything other people being vigorously involved in the electoral process,” he said. “I have to tell you, I really don’t see it. The people that rallying around our team, rallying around our cause, love this country, are passionate about this country and are anxious to see change,” the GOP vice presidential nominee stated. He went on to accuse the media of unfairly backing Clinton. “The level of negative coverage about my running mate in many quarters in the national media has just been overwhelming compared to any negative coverage or frankly the avalanche of scandals coming out of Hillary Clinton’s years as secretary of State,” Pence said. Attendees stand during the National Anthem at a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Cross Insurance Center on October 15, 2016 in Bangor, Maine. (Photo by AFP) According to a recent poll released, 41 percent of American voters are saying the 2016 election could be "stolen" from Trump due to widespread voter fraud. And 73 percent of Republican voters think the election could be stolen from the billionaire businessman, while 17 percent of Democrats agree with the prospect of rigging. American writer and political commentator Stephen Lendman told Press TV on October 17 Washington has been rigging elections for nearly 200 years in order to keep anti-establishment candidates away from the White House. Loading ...

CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA LESS THAN 500,000

Iron Sheik

Home › WORLD NEWS › CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA LESS THAN 500,000 CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA LESS THAN 500,000 0 SHARES [10/31/16] As the Islamic State, insurgents, and government forces battle in Syria, the population of Christians there continues to decline, from 1,250,000 in 2011 to less than 500,000 this year, according to ADF International , which advocates for religious freedom worldwide. In a sub-report submitted with the report Genocide Against Christians in the Middle East to Secretary of State John Kerry in March, the ADF International details the ongoing genocide of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. It notes that “Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world” and that in at least 104 countries Christians are harassed and persecuted by governments and organizations. The harassment includes “physical assaults, arrests and detentions, the desecration of holy sites and discrimination against religious groups in employment, education or housing,” reads the report. Harassment of Christians “was the highest in the Middle East and North Africa (90% of countries),” reported ADF International. In Syria and Iraq, the persecution of Christians is carried out largely by radical Muslims, such as the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, said the ADF. Post navigation

N.B.A. to Move All-Star Game From North Carolina - The New York Times

Scott Cacciola and Alan Blinder

The National Basketball Association on Thursday dealt a blow to the economy and prestige of North Carolina by pulling next February’s Game from Charlotte to protest a state law that eliminated protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The move was among the most prominent consequences since the law, which also bars transgender people from using bathrooms in public buildings that do not correspond with their birth gender, was passed in March. The league, which has become increasingly involved in social issues, said that both it and the Hornets, the N. B. A. team based in Charlotte, had been talking to state officials about changing the law but that time had run out because of the long lead time needed to stage the game. The N. B. A. said it hoped the game could be played in Charlotte in 2019, with the clear implication that the law would have to be changed before then. “While we recognize that the N. B. A. cannot choose the law in every city, state and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by the current law,” a statement by the league said. Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina issued a blistering statement soon after the announcement by the N. B. A. He said “the sports and entertainment elite,” among others, had “misrepresented our laws and maligned the people of North Carolina simply because most people believe boys and girls should be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the opposite sex present. ” Mr. McCrory did not specifically refer to the N. B. A. in his statement, but he said that “American families should be on notice that the selective corporate elite are imposing their political will on communities in which they do business, thus bypassing the democratic and legal process. ” Others weighed in in support of the N. B. A. ’s move, including two of its broadcast partners — Turner Sports and ESPN. In taking the action it did, the N. B. A. is following the path already taken by others. A number of musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Itzhak Perlman, canceled concerts in North Carolina to protest the law, and there have been calls for repeal of the legislation by a number of businesses, some of which have canceled plans to create new jobs in the state. weekend is one of the flashiest and most lucrative events on the league’s annual schedule. In addition to the game, the league arranges three days full of activities for fans. There is a separate game for the league’s rising stars, a dunk contest and a contest. Now all of that will be held elsewhere next February, with the N. B. A. to announce a new site for the game in the next few weeks. The decision by the N. B. A. comes after its commissioner, Adam Silver, had strongly hinted that such a move might be coming and again thrusts the league into the middle of social issues now gripping the nation, setting the league apart, at least for now, from Major League Baseball, the National Football League and other sports entities. In recent weeks, a number of the N. B. A. ’s top players have spoken out in dismay as they reacted to shootings around the country that have left police officers dead in two cities and the police accused of deadly recklessness in several other cases. And last December, the N. B. A. participated in a series of television advertisements denouncing gun violence that aired during its long Christmas Day schedule of games. Players in the N. B. A. ’s sister league — the W. N. B. A. — have also become vocal. In recent weeks, players on several W. N. B. A. teams wore during before games that addressed the recent shootings. On Thursday, just hours before the N. B. A. announced it was pulling the Game out of Charlotte, the W. N. B. A. fined the players on three teams $500 apiece, and the clubs $5, 000, saying it had no problem with the players’ public “engagement’’ with difficult social issues but drew the line at violating the guidelines on team uniforms. A number of W. N. B. A. players stated their unhappiness with the fines and they drew support from the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony, who has been one of the most outspoken N. B. A. players this past month. He said Thursday that he saw no reason for “anybody to get fined. ” The action by the N. B. A. is also certain to inject new fervor into the debate about North Carolina’s law, which many people still refer to as House Bill 2. Before its adjournment this month, and in defiance of pleas from public officials and corporate executives in Charlotte, the General Assembly resisted demands that it back away from some of the most contentious elements of the law, which supporters have argued is about public safety, not discrimination. The fate of the law, which the United States Justice Department has challenged as a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, will most likely be settled in court. A federal judge in N. C. will hear arguments next month about whether to block the law while the litigation is pending. Even before the N. B. A. ’s action on Thursday, Republicans in North Carolina had signaled repeatedly that the league’s misgivings about the law were unlikely to persuade its supporters. “Our values are not shaped by the N. B. A. or Bruce Springsteen or some opinion poll,” state Representative Phil Shepard, a Republican and a Baptist minister, declared at a rally in April. “We’re standing strong. ” But it was also in April that Mr. Silver was spelling out how problematic the N. B. A. thought the law was. He noted at the time that the league had a “long record of speaking out where we see discrimination. ’’ Last week, Mr. Silver weighed in again, saying of North Carolina’s legislators: “We were frankly hoping that they would make some steps toward modifying the legislation and frankly I was disappointed that they didn’t. ” It remains to be seen whether any other major sports organization may take action in connection with the North Carolina law. Notably, the N. C. A. A.’s Division I men’s basketball tournament has and games scheduled for North Carolina in 2017 and 2018, but has given no indication that it might move them elsewhere. However, Mike Krzyzewski, the coach at Duke, which is in Durham, N. C. and has long been one of the N. C. A. A.’s most prominent basketball teams, has been sharply critical of the North Carolina law. He has been in Las Vegas this week coaching the men’s national basketball team as it trains for next month’s Summer Olympics, and Thursday he said North Carolina had “lost a lot” because of the legislation. He had previously described the law as “embarrassing. ” Chris Sgro, the executive director of Equality North Carolina and the only openly gay member of the state’s General Assembly, said in a telephone interview Thursday that the N. B. A. was making a strong statement by removing one of its marquee events from Charlotte. “The state of North Carolina grossly overreached by passing the worst . G. B. T. bill in the nation, and they have cost us the N. B. A. Game,” Mr. Sgro said. “The blame for $100 million in economic loss and the impact that it has on the city of Charlotte and the entire state is squarely at the feet of the McCrory machine. ” State legislators are not scheduled to reconvene until January. “I could very well see a special session to deal with this issue,” Mr. Sgro said. “We’re going to continue to sustain incredible economic harm if we don’t repeal House Bill 2. ”

DELINGPOLE: Talking the Trump Revolution with Ted Malloch

James Delingpole

Donald Trump is going to win a second term in 2020: you read it here, first. [I, in turn, heard it straight from the lips of an administration insider — Dr Ted Malloch, the business economics professor and prospective US ambassador to the European Union, who advised Trump from the early stages of his presidential campaign, and whom I’ve interviewed for this week’s Delingpole podcast. Malloch is an ardent conservative of impeccable pedigree. I asked him what message he had for all those NeverTrump conservative types who still maintain that Hillary would have made the better President. Malloch: Get over it and move on. It’s what we’ve got. And guess what? It’s not for four years — it’s gonna be for eight years. He has already instigated his campaign and I think I’ll break to you what the motto’s going to be. Can you guess? Delingpole: Um — Make America Great Again Again? Malloch: Keep America Great. Which has a certain assumption built into it: that during the next four years we’re going to achieve a great deal. And that then we just have to maintain that kind of trajectory. So this argument about what kind of conservative Trump is — is he a purist? — first of all he’s not a political philosopher and doesn’t purport to be an intellectual … This is not your father’s Oldsmobile. This is not your father’s Republican party. This is Donald Trump’s Republican party and it’s going to be a party that is more pragmatic, that is less ideological, that is more oriented towards national identity, towards international relations and towards a degree of populism. So I would say ‘Like it or leave it.’ Forthright, supremely and articulate, Malloch talks a good game. He would, no question, be a very entertaining US ambassador to the EU. But his appointment is being aggressively resisted by the EU establishment, which hasn’t taken kindly to his subtle hint in a BBC interview that, like the Soviet Union, it’s an empire ripe for collapse. I asked him why he thinks the war against Trump and his supporters has become so vicious. Malloch, a keen student of political history — he’s currently Professor of Strategic Leadership and Governance at Henley Business School in the believes that we are in the throes of a revolution and that the losers (who until recently were the political establishment) just aren’t enjoying losing. The Brexit and Trump shocks of 2016, he believes, are the to the global takeover by the in 1968. Malloch: In leftist circles and in academia both in Europe and the United States, the question has often been ‘Where were you in May of 1968?’ And the question was, of course: ‘Were you in Paris on the barricades? Were you part of the left? Were you taking that revolution to the streets?’ So we can ask this question, in a few years: ‘Where were you in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president?’ Now we didn’t have any barricades on the street — although there were protests. We used mostly election booths to bring about our democratic means. But I think there is a significant change — both a watershed in world history and a change in the direction of American politics, that people will be writing about, frankly, hundreds of years from now. I’ve jokingly said that there are four faces carved into the mountain in South Dakota called Mount Rushmore. And they might have to find some more rock if this all goes as planned. ” Yup, you’re going to enjoy this podcast. Listen to it here. Or, if you do iTunes, here.

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ex-President of Iran, Dies at 82 - The New York Times

Alan Cowell

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran and a founder of the Islamic republic, who navigated the opaque shoals of his country’s theocracy as one of its most enduring, wiliest and wealthiest leaders, died on Sunday in Tehran. He was 82. His death was announced by Iranian state television. As his career seesawed through periods of revolutionary zeal and confrontation with powerful conservative rivals, he was portrayed as a Machiavellian and often ruthless player in the power struggles among Iran’s elite factions, protected by his close association with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolutionary leader who overthrew the shah in 1979. Known as a pragmatist and centrist inclined toward economic liberalism and political authoritarianism, Mr. Rafsanjani was accused by critics of corruption in amassing his fortune and of a readiness for harsh tactics to deal with dissent at home and abroad. Argentina has accused Mr. Rafsanjani and other senior Iranian figures of complicity in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people died. In 1997, a German court concluded that the highest levels of Iran’s political leadership had ordered the killing five years earlier of four exiled Iranian Kurdish dissidents in Berlin. The events added weight to American assertions that Iran was a sponsor of terrorism. Mr. Rafsanjani was president from 1989 to 1997. Yet many Western analysts believed that he sought a less confrontational relationship with the United States than other powerful figures in the Iranian hierarchy, for whom hostility toward Washington was a touchstone of ideological purity. Mr. Rafsanjani, for instance, was credited with suggesting that “Death to America” be dropped from the litany of slogans at Tehran’s Friday prayers, a weekly moment of fervor in Iran’s political and religious calendar. In the closing stages of the war, which lasted from 1980 to 1988, Mr. Rafsanjani was appointed acting commander in chief of Iranian forces and was widely credited with persuading the leadership in Tehran to accept a United Nations resolution that ended the fighting. For much of his career, he maintained roles in Parliament and on influential clerical panels, under the tutelage of Ayatollah Khomeini and then, less durably, of his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mr. Rafsanjani’s clout declined sharply during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from 2005 to 2013. A populist conservative, Mr. Ahmadinejad had a strong following among poor Iranians, many of whom resented the affluence that endeared Mr. Rafsanjani to his wealthier compatriots. In 2013, Mr. Rafsanjani was disqualified from standing in presidential elections and swung his political weight behind a moderate, longtime associate, Hassan Rouhani, who won the vote and went on to bring many of Mr. Rafsanjani’s supporters into his cabinet and to negotiate the nuclear agreement with the United States in 2015. But Mr. Rafsanjani, himself an ayatollah, clashed with Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader, over the extent to which Iran should modify its bellicose stance toward outsiders. In March, Mr. Rafsanjani wrote on Twitter that the “world of tomorrow is one of negotiations, not the world of missiles. ” Ayatollah Khamenei responded: “Enemies continue strengthening their military and missile sectors. How can anyone say the era of missiles has passed?” Without identifying Mr. Rafsanjani by name, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “People say that tomorrow’s world is a world of negotiations and not a world of missiles. If they say this thoughtlessly, it shows they are thoughtless. However, if this is intentional, then this is treachery. ” For all that, analysts in Tehran sensed that the pendulum was swinging toward the moderate camp, in which Mr. Rafsanjani played a defining role. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was born on Aug. 23, 1934, in the village of Bahraman near the town of Rafsanjan in Iran’s southeastern Kerman Province. He was one of five sons and four daughters born to Mirza Ali Hashemi Bahramani, a prosperous pistachio farmer, and Mahbibi Safarian Hashemi. At 14, he left his home village to study theology in the Muslim holy city of Qum, Iran, where he became a disciple of Ayatollah Khomeini. By some accounts, at the time of his death, Mr. Rafsanjani was the last surviving member of an inner circle of Islamic revolutionaries active during Ayatollah Khomeini’s exile from 1964 to 1979, fighting an often bloody contest with the notorious Savak secret police loyal to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. From 1963 to 1978, Mr. Rafsanjani was jailed five times for his opposition to the shah, but he remained in close contact with exiled clerics, including Ayatollah Khomeini, who was living in Najaf, Iraq. During that period, in 1962, he married Effat Marashi, whose family included several respected Shiite clerics. They had five children — two daughters, Fatemeh and Faezeh, and three sons, Mohsen, Mehdi and Yaser. Information on survivors was not immediately available. In the turbulence after Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran, Mr. Rafsanjani was elected to Parliament, known as the Majlis, and became its speaker, serving in that position until 1989. In many accounts of the maneuvering after Ayatollah Khomeini’s death in 1989, Mr. Rafsanjani was credited with promoting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader, possibly in the mistaken belief that he would prove a pliant figure. Instead, Ayatollah Khamenei built his own power base. But Mr. Rafsanjani’s dealings — often trading on his close relationship with Ayatollah Khomeini — earned him the nickname “kingmaker. ” During his presidency, Mr. Rafsanjani faced the challenge of reconstruction after the war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. While his economic liberalism and privatization policies were popular among Iran’s entrepreneurial classes, many poor Iranians perceived no improvement in their plight. As president, Mr. Rafsanjani showed little tolerance of dissent. While he sought improved ties with the West, he insisted on Iran’s right to develop its nuclear program and did not lift a fatwa declared by Ayatollah Khomeini that enjoined Muslims to kill the writer Salman Rushdie. Moreover, critics asserted that the Rafsanjani presidency coincided with the spread of corruption and the infiltration by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of important economic enterprises. By 2013, Mr. Rafsanjani was said to have built a family business empire that owned Iran’s second biggest airline, exercised a near monopoly on the lucrative pistachio trade and controlled the largest private university, Azad. The family’s business interests also included real estate, construction and oil deals. In 2003, Forbes magazine said Mr. Rafsanjani’s personal wealth exceeded $1 billion. His time as president left a bitter legacy for many Iranians who struggled to get by. In parliamentary elections, he fared badly and was awarded a seat only after the intervention of a clerical panel, prompting him to withdraw from the legislature. In 2005, Mr. Rafsanjani sought to run for the presidency again but lost in a runoff to Mr. Ahmadinejad, whose tenure until 2013 was marked by nuclear policies, increasingly strained ties with the West and a mounting catalog of economic sanctions over Tehran’s efforts to expand its nuclear capability. In presidential elections in June 2009, Mr. Rafsanjani supported the moderate Mir Hussein Moussavi, who lost to Mr. Ahmadinejad. The outcome was widely disputed, and many Iranian protesters died or were detained challenging the authorities in the streets. The protesters included Mr. Rafsanjani’s youngest daughter, Faezeh, who had campaigned for women’s rights and was arrested in large demonstrations against Mr. Ahmadinejad’s victory. In September 2009, Mr. Rafsanjani seemed to be sidelined when the authorities barred him from addressing Friday prayers in Tehran on Quds Day, an annual display of solidarity with Palestinians. Mr. Rafsanjani had delivered the Quds Day sermon for almost 25 years, but the authorities in 2009 feared his address would provoke antigovernment protests. Mr. Ahmadinejad’s second term was marked by mounting disputes with the United States and Israel over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and its advances in missile technology. In 2011, Iran sided with President Bashar of Syria during the Arab Spring, along with the Hezbollah Shiite militia in Lebanon, setting Tehran against Mr. Assad’s Western adversaries, including the United States. In May 2013, Mr. Rafsanjani announced plans for a comeback, entering his name for presidential elections that June, calculating that, after the years of decline under Mr. Ahmadinejad, Iranians would think that Mr. Rafsanjani’s reputation as a pragmatist and modernizer would offset some of the opprobrium attached to his staggering wealth. At the time, he argued that Iran was in an economic “danger zone” because of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s “amateurism. ” But he was disqualified by the Guardian Council, an electoral vetting body controlled by . Mr. Rafsanjani had long served on another critical panel, the Assembly of Experts, which is charged with choosing a successor to the supreme leader. In 2016, Mr. Rafsanjani polled first in Tehran’s voting for the Assembly of Experts, whose role had assumed greater importance since Ayatollah Khamenei was treated for prostate cancer in 2014. In the manner of Iran’s competing power centers, however, a Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who was already the head of the Guardian Council, was elected by the Assembly of Experts as its chairman. The vote signaled new obstacles for the modest changes sought by Mr. Rouhani in running the Islamic republic. In another controversy, in May 2016, Mr. Rafsanjani was drawn into a ferocious debate over a meeting between his activist daughter, Faezeh, and Fariba Kamalabadi, a leader of the Baha’is, a minority religious group regarded by the clerical hierarchy as impure pagans. Mr. Rafsanjani showed little sympathy for his daughter, calling the Baha’is “heretics” and saying publicly that his daughter had “committed a wrong deed” and should be ashamed of herself.

Hungry Venezuelans Flee in Boats to Escape Economic Collapse - The New York Times

Nicholas Casey

WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao — The dark outlines of land had just come into view when the smuggler forced everyone into the sea. Roymar Bello screamed. She was one of 17 passengers who had climbed onto the overloaded fishing boat with aging motors in July, hoping to escape Venezuela’s economic disaster for a new life on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. Afraid of the authorities, the smuggler refused to land. Ms. Bello said he gruffly ordered her and the others into the water, pointing toward the distant shore. In the panic, she was tossed overboard, tumbling into the predawn blackness. But Ms. Bello could not swim. As she began to sink under the waves, a fellow migrant grabbed her by the hair and towed her toward the island. They washed up on a rocky cliff battered by waves. Bruised and bleeding, they climbed, praying for a lifeline: jobs, money, something to eat. “It was worth the risk,” said Ms. Bello, 30, adding that Venezuelans like her “are going after one thing: food. ” Venezuela was once one of Latin America’s richest countries, flush with oil wealth that attracted immigrants from places as varied as Europe and the Middle East. But after President Hugo Chávez vowed to break the country’s economic elite and redistribute wealth to the poor, the rich and middle class fled to more welcoming countries in droves, creating what demographers describe as Venezuela’s first diaspora. Now a second diaspora is underway — much less wealthy and not nearly as welcome. Well over 150, 000 Venezuelans have fled the country in the last year alone, the highest in more than a decade, according to scholars studying the exodus. And as Mr. Chávez’s revolution collapses into economic ruin, as food and medicine slip further out of reach, the new migrants include the same impoverished people that Venezuela’s policies were supposed to help. “We have seen a great acceleration,” said Tomás Páez, a professor who studies immigration at the Central University of Venezuela. He says that as many as 200, 000 Venezuelans have left in the past 18 months, driven by how much harder it is to get food, work and medicine — not to mention the crime that such scarcities have fueled. “Parents will say, ‘I would rather say goodbye to my son in the airport than in the cemetery,’ ” he said. Desperate Venezuelans are streaming across the Amazon Basin by the tens of thousands to reach Brazil. They are concocting elaborate scams to sneak through airports in Caribbean nations that once accepted them freely. When Venezuela opened its border with Colombia for just two days in July, 120, 000 people poured across, simply to buy food, officials said. An untold number stayed. But perhaps most startling are the Venezuelans now fleeing by sea, an image so symbolic of the perilous journeys to escape Cuba or Haiti — but not Venezuela. “It has all totally changed,” said Iván de la Vega, a sociologist at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas. About 60 percent more Venezuelans fled the country this year than during the year before, he added. “The earnings of these people are low,” Mr. de la Vega said of the recent migrants. “The only option left to them is the nearby countries, ones they can get to on foot, or by rafts, or go on boats with tiny motors. ” Inflation will hit nearly 500 percent this year and a 1, 600 percent next year, the International Monetary Fund estimates, shriveling salaries and creating a new class of poor Venezuelans who have abandoned professional careers for precarious lives abroad. “Venezuelans like myself are coming to Brazil for a simple reason: It’s easier to survive here,” said Reinier Salazar, 30, an industrial engineer who moved to Brazil last year. Now he cooks at a restaurant for about $400 a month — much more than he made back home in Venezuela, he said. The exodus is unfolding so quickly that since 2015 about 30, 000 Venezuelans have moved to the border region that includes the Brazilian state of Roraima, officials say. Now the Brazilian Army is bolstering patrols along highways and rivers, bracing for even more arrivals. “We’re at the start of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in this part of the Amazon,” said Col. Edvaldo Amaral, the state’s civil defense chief. “We’re already seeing Venezuelan lawyers working as supermarket cashiers, Venezuelan women resorting to prostitution, indigenous Venezuelans begging at traffic intersections. ” Some are paying smugglers more than $1, 000 a person to reach cities like Manaus and São Paulo, officials say, while others just manage to cross the border into Brazil. In Pacaraima, a small Brazilian border town, hundreds of Venezuelan children are now enrolled in local schools and entire families are sleeping on the streets of town. “It’s hard to see a solution to this problem because hunger is involved,” said the mayor, Altemir Campos. “Venezuela doesn’t have enough food for its people, so some are coming here. ” The small Caribbean islands neighboring Venezuela are far less hospitable, saying they simply cannot absorb the onslaught. The closest to Venezuela’s coast, Aruba and Curaçao, have effectively sealed their borders to poor Venezuelans since last year by making them show $1, 000 in cash before entering — the equivalent of more than five years of earnings in a job. Both countries have increased patrols and deportations, and Aruba has even set aside a stadium to hold as many as 500 Venezuelan migrants after they are caught, according to the authorities. It’s a dramatic reversal of fortune for Venezuelans, who once went to Curaçao to spend money as tourists, not to plead for work. “They all say, ‘You are from Venezuela. You are from a rich country that has everything,’ ” Ms. Bello said of her encounters on the island. “And I say, ‘No longer.’ ” Empty homes now dot the streets of the fishing town of La Vela, Ms. Bello’s hometown in Venezuela, their owners having set off by sea. They have mortgaged property, sold kitchen appliances and even borrowed money from the same smuggling rings that pack them on the floorboards alongside drugs and other contraband. The journey to Curaçao takes them on a crossing filled with backbreaking swells, gangs of armed boatmen and coast guard vessels looking to capture migrants and send them home. Then, after being tossed overboard and left to swim ashore, they hide in the bush to meet contacts who spirit them anew into the tourist economy of this Caribbean island. They clean the floors of restaurants, sell trinkets on the street, or even solicit Dutch tourists for sex, forced by the smugglers to pay for their passage by working in a brothel, the authorities in Curaçao say. Countless families in Venezuela are like the Bellos now. Unable to scrounge together more than a meal a day, they are scattered across seas and borders. Ms. Bello’s brother Rolando works construction in Curaçao and his wife recently joined him, leaving their daughter with relatives back home. An uncle of Ms. Bello’s was not so lucky: He sits in a Curaçao prison, accused of smuggling migrants like his relatives. Then there is Wilfredo Hidalgo, Ms. Bello’s cousin, who studied business administration in Venezuela but never found a job. Two years ago, he was deported from Curaçao after coming by plane. Now he is trying to return by boat, having saved half of the $350 he needs to pay the smugglers. “What can I do?” he said. There is also Ms. Bello’s brother Roger, whose girlfriend, Yaisbel, is six months pregnant. He, too, said he would go to Curaçao to support his child. Yaisbel said she would stay behind but take a loan from smugglers to pay for her boyfriend’s journey, using her mother’s house as collateral. Hopefully, she said, her mother would never find out. “I am just watching her stomach,” Roger Bello said. “Before the child is here, I will be in Curaçao. ” And finally there is Ms. Bello’s mother, Maria Piñero, who gave her a life vest just before she left, knowing that she could not swim. But the smuggler ripped it off Ms. Bello just before she was thrown into the sea, saying that the swells were so high she was better off swimming under the waves. Now, despite Ms. Bello’s ordeal, her mother vowed to make the journey by boat, too. “I’m nervous,” she began. “I’m leaving with nothing. But I have to do this. Otherwise, we will just die here hungry. ” One evening at the end of September, Ms. Piñero, 47, climbed aboard a boat in a small town on the country’s northern coast. She dropped to her knees, praying to God that she would survive the journey and find a better life in Curaçao. The other passengers, tears in their eyes, began to pray too, some joining hands in a circle on the beach. They muttered hopes that the coast guard would not catch them, that they were good people, that they were mothers and fathers. They waded into the water, hoisting their few possessions overhead, and climbed into the boat. Its motor started and it steered toward the horizon. Even the smuggler seemed distraught at the misfortune bringing him profits. “I would prefer that the crisis ended and my business was over,” the smuggler said after they had left. “I would prefer a thousand times that there was no crisis and we could live in the Venezuela from yesterday. ” Jesús Ramos knew he would have to swim ashore from the smuggler’s boat. So he spent his last weeks in Venezuela doing laps in the sea in front of his home in La Vela, his mother recalls. His friend William Cordero, 29, went too. He spent that month applying for a business license for the salon he planned to open with all the money he expected to make in Curaçao. He had already bought a sign. “My Faith In God Barbershop” it said. But the boat carrying the men never made it. The two friends, along with three other migrants and a captain, vanished somewhere off the coast of Venezuela last year. No wreckage was found. The only evidence that their journey even occurred is a few selfies sent from their smartphones just before they departed. The men posed on the side of the skiff with big smiles. “I try not to cry I tell myself, ‘He’s well, that’s it,’ ” said Florangel Amaya de Ramos, Mr. Ramos’s mother. The plan had been a simple one: A journey in a speedboat. If they were stopped by Curaçao’s coast guard, they would pose as tourists. And with their documents in plastic bags, they were ready to swim ashore, knowing that the smuggler wanted to make a quick getaway. Then they could find their contacts using cellphones tucked in empty rice porridge jars. Mr. Cordero already had a Curaçao chip. Two years before, he had boarded a plane to Curaçao and worked illegally as a barber there, earning several thousand dollars that he sent to his wife and two children in La Vela. But in 2015, Mr. Cordero was deported. He returned to a new, grimmer Venezuela. Long lines for food were becoming startlingly common in La Vela and inflation hit triple digits. Even in big cities like Caracas and Maracaibo, staples like corn flour, the cornerstone of the Venezuelan diet, have become increasingly hard to find, while a growing black market for other goods has driven prices beyond the reach of many. In rural towns like La Vela, residents are even more squeezed, with fewer goods than large cities and a poorer population with less money to pay for them. Mr. Cordero tried to make the best of things by opening a barbershop on his sister’s patio, wearing a white uniform like the one he wore in Curaçao. But he earned only about 40 cents per haircut, compared with $35 or more per day in Curaçao. The lure of the island grew more intense than ever. But the country had put the new visa restrictions on Venezuelans, and the door was shut behind him. The only way back was with a smuggler by boat. Mr. Ramos, Mr. Cordero’s friend, knew a man who was collecting 200, 000 bolivars each, or about $200 at the time, to run a smuggling boat. Mr. Ramos, a lanky had also been deported recently after working as a gardener in Curaçao, but had not managed to find work back in Venezuela. Once the money ran out from his first trip, his wife and three children were spending many days hungry. The smuggler found two other men from the area, and a fifth migrant named Jessica Márquez who had come from Mérida, a city nearly 400 miles away. The five waited anxiously in La Vela for several days as the smuggler got reports from other fishermen in Curaçao about coast guard patrols, trying to decide which night would be safest to leave. Mr. Cordero’s sister, Saribeth Cordero, recalled the group sitting in her brother’s barber shop on her porch one afternoon as a movie played on the television about a shipwreck. “What if there are sharks?” asked Ms. Márquez, Ms. Cordero recalled. “You can’t be negative like that,” Mr. Cordero said, his sister recalled. But she said her brother was scared too. “He was nervous about the ocean,” Ms. Cordero said. The group finally headed off in good spirits. Mr. Ramos had sold his motorcycle to pay the smuggler, telling his mother he would not need it anymore. She packed him a waterproof bag with some meager belongings: soap, toothpaste, antibiotics and a few clothes. A van arrived and they left. That afternoon, they arrived at the rendezvous point with the smuggler, a town called Tucacas. They stayed the night in a hostel there. The motor of one of the boats had failed recently, something that worried Mr. Ramos when he wrote to a friend who had agreed to meet him in the jungle once he landed in Curaçao. “It’s O. K. man … just relax, you’ll be here soon,” the friend wrote in Facebook message that Mr. Cordero forwarded to his mother. “Yes bro, tomorrow, God willing,” Mr. Ramos wrote back. Mr. Cordero climbed aboard the boat and sent a selfie to his sister. He wore yellow board shorts and no shirt, making a peace sign with his hands. It was the last anyone heard from anyone in the group. The first to know something had gone wrong was Ms. Ramos. The friend in Curaçao wrote over Facebook that he had waited all night but her son never arrived. “I cried all night,” she said. Questions haunt the families of the lost migrants each time they look out toward the sea. Could the men still be alive somehow? Will Venezuela ever return to the country that it was, one where it was not necessary to swim to the shore in Curaçao after being tossed from a fishing boat? Ms. Ramos is still waiting for her son and speaks of him in the present tense. Each Sunday, she goes to Mass to pray for his return. “I always speak to God,” said Ms. Ramos. “I am always looking up at that picture of the Virgin. I am scared one day she will yell back at me, ‘Enough, already. That’s enough. ’” Rolando Bello sat on a pier in Curaçao, worrying about his mother. It was September, a week before she stepped aboard a boat to join him in Curaçao. He knew the dangers well, having made the journey twice himself. Last year, he says, Mr. Cordero and Mr. Ramos had approached him to join their doomed trip before they set off. “I was this close to going,” he said. “You see what would have happened to me. ” Now his family was being subjected to the dangerous whims of the passage once more. His mother’s boat was getting ready to set off. His sister, who had been dragged ashore by her hair, had been caught by the Curaçao authorities and deported back to Venezuela over the summer. Desperate to work, she had sneaked into Aruba instead, taking a loan from a smuggling ring to get there. But at least his wife was with him. She came to Curaçao that month under a new scheme. Because she did not have the $1, 000 needed to pose as a Venezuelan tourist at customs, smugglers rented her the money to satisfy the new cash requirement, which is imposed only on Venezuelans. The smuggler’s agents in Curaçao then quickly approached her at the airport to take back the money — and to collect the $100 rental fee. Mr. Bello’s wife, Lennymar Chávez, sat next to her husband and the two ate a large lunch. A boat sailed past a row of colonial facades, and Venezuela felt a world away. “I haven’t eaten an arepa for three months,” she said, referring to the Venezuelan staple of corn flour, which has become increasingly hard to find at home. “I ate one here in Curaçao for the first time. ” They had left their daughter in La Vela with relatives. Mr. Bello had trained to be an engineer in Venezuela’s oil industry. Now he was a construction day laborer, happily earning about $65 a day. Ms. Chávez trained to be a nurse, but held few hopes of working in her profession in Curaçao. “I don’t mind cleaning now,” she said. “The important thing is that I’m working here. ” But the authorities in Curaçao, like many tiny islands, fear the immigrants will undercut the local labor force or bring violent crime. “My preoccupation is what kind of people are entering Curaçao,” said Nelson Navarro, the island’s justice minister who argued that the increase in Venezuelans coincided with a 15 percent rise in crime, particularly armed robberies. “In Venezuela, they don’t hesitate to shoot a police officer, but here, this is news. ” Alex Rosaria, a legislator on the island, worries that the migrants will further strain Curaçao, where unemployment is at 11 percent. “We have only a limited capacity to deal with refugees,” Mr. Rosaria said. For now, the task has been left to the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard. Rob Jurriansen, a Dutch naval officer who heads operations in Curaçao, says his small fleet intercepted only a tiny fraction of the migrants, perhaps just 5 percent to 10 percent of the illegal immigrants arriving in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, the islands the fleet patrols. Now, he says, officials in the Netherlands, the former colonial power that is still formally tied to Curaçao within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, fear they will also get stuck with the bill of caring for a migrant tide. “They want to prevent a situation like Libya,” he said, referring to the much larger flow of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe. His station is close to Caracas Bay, now the landing point of many who flee Venezuela. Dense, thorny brush covers the island for miles in each direction, forming a maze through which the migrants wander as they enter Curaçao. Far across the passage, the seas had calmed and Mr. Bello’s mother was preparing for her second attempt. After nearly reaching the island in September, her boat turned back, fearing it was being pursued by the Coast Guard. It set out again on a clear October night at 9 p. m. Mr. Bello’s mother, Ms. Piñero, sent a message to relatives just before taking off. It had been a choppy ride on the first voyage, but this time the 13 passengers glided smoothly over the waves. But the flat ocean also meant they were visible when they arrived early the next morning, before dawn. Somewhere on shore, Coast Guard officials say they saw what they called a “strange blip” on the water. Ms. Bello was the first in the family to learn what happened next, when a friend called at 6 a. m. “Girl, they got your mother,” the friend said. “They caught the boat with drugs. ” Ms. Bello didn’t want to believe the news, but opened her computer to see what she could find online. Already, images were circulating of the passengers being apprehended by the authorities. Ms. Bello recognized her mother. “Yes, it was her with the red hair, the one covering her face so she could not be seen,” she said of her mother. Ms. Bello’s mother landed with a dozen other passengers in detention, she said in a brief telephone interview, watched over by guards. She sounded desperate and tired, her voice cracking. “I thought that trying would be worth it, but in the end it wasn’t, because I’m headed back,” she said, before the line clicked and she was gone. Her son Rolando Bello remains in Curaçao with his wife, but his mother’s capture casts a heavy shadow in the small home they share with another Venezuelan migrant family. The couple was trying to gather the money for Ms. Piñero’s plane ticket back to Venezuela, which deportees are required to pay. They would send it through a third party to avoid being discovered themselves. One evening last month, Mr. Bello was alone, wondering if the promise of Curaçao had been worth the damage to his family. “Only God knows the sacrifice one makes,” he said. “But fine. This is life. ” Her daughter, Ms. Bello, was angry. “It’s so sad because we hope we will arrive in one piece,” she said. “And then suddenly, after a journey so long, they catch you. And just send you back to Venezuela. ” “Just imagine the despair my mother is in,” she added. “She has no money. Now she may have to sell her house. What a crazy thing. ”

DONALD TRUMP & DEUTSCHE BANK: DID CLINTONS LEAN ON US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT?

alexmark

Clinton perversion of electoral procedures, manipulation of media and the Justice system should make every American voter think twice about Hillary Before we get into the meat of this thing, let me make two things very clear: The evidence presented here is not the usual half-checked/chosen at random/doctored stuff we’re used to in madcap conspiracy rumours. Everything shown here is a matter of undisputed public record – a rare thing in this Presidential campaign I’m not trying to prove a theory here, as I lack the resources to do so. I am merely using informed logic to establish those four things required to build any credible case: behavioural track record, means, motive and opportunity. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that in terms of capability of performing dirty tricks, the Clinton campaign ticks all four boxes. The Clintons’ track record on dirty tricks Negative advertising, smear rumour, making rally halls look more full/empty on TV and innate media bias have all been obvious for many years in Western election campaigns. Not surprisingly, during Presidential campaigns this is heightened by the physically more personal nature of the contest. Huffington Post banned The Slog from commenting in 2012 after I alleged the use of troll swarms by Obama to mess up Republican sites. Three months later, his White House CoS casually confirmed the story. This is truth bending, and isn’t illegal. But the Clinton track record against Bernie Sanders is of a quite different order. I was given first-hand evidence, for example, of blatant threats to Democratic National Convention (DNC) workers that anyone helping organise Sanders rallies would have no future or place in a Clinton White House. But there is also disturbing evidence of electoral irregularity as well. October 2015 – over 120,000 voting registrations lost in Brooklyn – & rock solid Sanders neighbourhood, plus nearly a third of Sanders supporters complaining that, on pitching up to vote, their Party registrations had been changed Over nine straight 2015 primaries, Sanders won seven: in the other two, “massive voter irregularities” were reported. Hillary won them. The supposedly neutral DNC is stuffed with overt Clinton activists. The private company collecting sensitive poll/registration information NPG van has close ties to Bill Clinton and worked for him in 1992. Leaks from NPG are, to say the least, recurrent. On the eve of the Democratic party’s convention in Philadelphia, a whopping 20,000 emails were made public by Wikileaks showing supposedly ‘neutral’ senior party officials tried to undermine Mr Sanders’s insurgent left-wing campaign by publicly portraying him as an atheist. Solidly Sanders locations in Arizona’s Maciopa County found their polling booths available reduced from 200 to 60. Odd behaviour during a Primary campaign. Undercover videos just four days ago showed two senior DNC operatives openly admitting to paid interference with Trump rallies and voter registration manipulation. These days, one talks to Washington pundits who – sadly – shrug and say “both sides are at it – they cancel each other out”. But what I’ve shown above is just a fraction of highlights compared to the total media exposure of Clinton criminality. Doing a quick count from 78 sites, press titles and broadcasters last night, allegations against the Clinton campaign outnumber all others by 5/2. However, it’s at this point that we go beyond even electoral irregularity and into suggestions of Hillary Clinton perverting the course of events at the Department of Justice (DoJ). Here, we segue neatly into ‘means’. The means to destroy Trump Without any shadow of doubt, the biggest bubbling-under scandal of the campaign (until complaints about Trump’s locker-room and sex abuse behaviour ‘surfaced’) was that involving emails sent by Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State. The headline here is this: while heading up State, she only used her own personal and heavily abuse-protected server to send official emails – rather than official State Department email accounts maintained on federal servers. On leaving that job, the State Department hurriedly classified all the emails retrospectively. This suggestive of the fact that Ms Clinton has something to hide. Her behaviour was also highly irregular, and cannot solely be explained by national security concerns: if there are fears about how secure State is, then we may as well all pack up and go home. (There are as it happens; but their security is a hundred times more sophisticated than hers). Hillary maintains that her behaviour did not break federal rules, and there are precedents to show that. The hole in her defence is that there are no precedents for all the emails to have produced on her private server. Having seen the content of some 150 emails, the FBI began by being quite bullish on the subject of an investigation. But then suddenly it wasn’t. An anodyne report was eventually issued in July 2016, criticising her “extreme carelessness”. Her behaviour does not support that finding. Over at the DoJ, Dan Metcalfe, head of the Justice Department’s Office of Information and Privacy (FOIA), said this gave her even tighter control over her emails by not involving a third party such as Google, and helped prevent their disclosure by Congressional subpoena. He added: “She managed successfully to insulate her official emails, categorically, from the FOIA, both during her tenure at State and long after her departure from it—perhaps forever”, making it “a blatant circumvention of the FOIA by someone who unquestionably knows better” . But neither State nor the DoJ did anything. The former issued a report making it clear that Secretary Clinton had lied to employees about the ‘permission’ she had, and confirmed that permission had never been sought. She also lied to the media about never sending classified material via her own server: a review of the 55,000-page email eventually released found “hundreds of potentially classified emails”. There is a clear – very clear – scenario that scopes out here: that of an ambitious wannabe US President conspiring to hide her guilt about stuff in perpetuity. Among the forty emails held back by US security agencies are those assumed to refer to the Benghazi Compound disaster, during which the Ambassador lost his life in the most bestial manner. However, the FBI having been quietly told to pipe down, the job facing the Clintons now was to get the DoJ onside. Bill went right to the very top. In late June 2016, it was reported that Bill Clinton met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her private plane on the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Three days later, a Justice Department official categorically told the media that Attorney General Lynch will accept “whatever recommendation career prosecutors and the F.B.I. director make about whether to bring charges related to Hillary Clinton’s personal email server”. Washington sources confirm that Lynch “already pretty much knew what the FBI would say”. Did the Clintons have a strong motive? Nothing is ever conclusive in these areas. But the overwhelming suggestion from these events is that the Clintons most certainly do have the means to influence the activities and output of the Justice Department. However, it’s easy to argue that Candidate Clinton had little to fear from Trump; the media almost universally dismissed him as a no-hoper. So why take the risk of, potentially, using the DoJ to put her adversary in a spot? It’s easy to argue that, but the US media have been wrong about Donald Trump since Day One. And the facts don’t support the argument. Last night, the BBC released this trend map of the poll support for each candidate throughout the campaign: On this diagram, I have indicated in green ink the two points at which Clinton and Trump are neck and neck. In early to mid July – following embarrassing email revelations – Clinton’s support dips, and Trump briefly overtakes her. From the word go, the Clinton campaign saw Trump’s financial background, practices and exposure as an obvious weakness. Having pressed hard for his tax returns, once his official election as the GOP presidential nominee was confirmed – June 19th 2016 – they began demanding to see his financials. In fact, they already knew of one unfortunate link: on March 20th, the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal had featured a piece showing Donald Trump’s massive dependence on Deutsche Bank as a credit supplier. The Murdoch press is campaigning solidly for Hillary, and Rupert himself has given substantial donations to her presidential bid. His motives towards her and Deutsche have been detailed by The Slog elsewhere . The dates here are key – particularly the dates from which Deutsche Bank ceases to be ‘troubled’ in the background, and increasingly becomes a foreground, front-page crisis . In early to mid June, Trump racks up his support and closes the gap with Clinton.Other financial papers pick up on the WSJ story….despite the fact that Trump’s cash flow and personal salary alone would be enough to pay off all the Deutsche loans. At this point, the International Monetary Fund releases a report saying that Deutsche Bank “appears to be the most important net contributor to systemic risks in the global banking system.” The IMF – and its boss Christine Lagarde – are prime movers in aiding Clintonian foreign policy relating to the EU and North Africa. But still Trump’s support leaps from 34-40%. Then early July, S&P Global Ratings lowers its outlook on Deutsche Bank to negative. At the same time, Deutsche Bank’s U.S. unit fails the U.S. Federal Reserve’s stress test. The story filters down into non-specialist media. Clinton consolidates her lead. But by this time, DB is starting to look like a basket case – which it has been for years – and the ‘ailing’ bank gets kicked out of the STOXX blue-chip Europe 50 index. And yet, the Donald starts to recover momentum. By mid September, he’s back to almost neck and neck. It’s now that the DoJ Establishment goes for the throat.The Justice Department chooses this precise moment – September 16th – to splash with the news that Deutsche Bank faces a whopping $14.5 billion malpractice fine. Within hours, its shares go into freefall. Between September 20th and 28th, a broader media blitz and online campaign openly calls Trump “massively dependent on Deutsche loans”. Counterspin from the Deutsche camp claims negotiations to reduce the DoJ fine are well in hand. Two days later Justice splashes again: no, it alleges, they haven’t even started yet. But still, general awareness of the Trump-Deutsche link remains low….and Trump himself steadies his poll ratings. Locker rooms, pussy grabbing abuse allegations suddenly sprout via close Clinton ally David Farenthold. Donald’s poll ratings dive. Donald Trump is just beginning to recover his position. Already pro-Democrat sites are switching tack to say that Trump “is a puppet candidate of foreign banks” – a silly allegation, given that he only works with one, and it’s more dependent on his business than vice versa. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has Deutsche CEO John Cryan by the balls; as far as the Clintons are concerned, it holds all the cards. Opportunity For myself, I doubt very much that Hillary & Co will go any further down the ‘dodgy credit’ road. With only two weeks to go to Election day, an imminent Deutsche collapse would play into Trump’s allegedly wandering hands: it is, after all, the US unit that faces the fine, and Trump’s populism is anti Wall Street. I think an equal (if not bigger) force behind pushing Deutsche Bank into the limelight is that of forcing it into a Middle East role where it can be a Rottweiller controlled by State, its old boss Hillary Clinton, and massive regional investor Rupert Murdoch. But while the opportunity was there, it’s obvious that Bill Clinton had all the influence his wife needs to help her get elected. Indeed, by being so unpopular in his own Party, Donald Trump has made this a much easier task: nobody but nobody in the US élite wants Trump in the White House. As I endeavoured to stress at the outset, the object in this post is not to prove a conspiracy, but rather to present an avalanche of evidence to support one simple – and widespread – observation about the Hillarybillies: as their power has increased, so too has their megalomania inflated to a frightening degree. Where once there were only crooked land deals and cigars to go on, today it is easy to argue that this creepy couple are operating at the kind of level where the American systems of Law, foreign policy, power separation and democracy itself are being perverted. This much has been obvious for some time; but American voters need to make their minds up by November 8th which they want least – Donald Trump in the White House, or Mr and Mrs Clinton doing the bidding of corporate globalism…while dragging the US further and further towards geopolitical confrontation. Looked at in that way, while this has probably been the most superficial and childish Presidential contest in American history, it will probably also turn out to have been the most important.

Video Shows Swerving Truck Moments Before Deadly Church Bus Crash

Bob Price

A concerned citizen videotaped a swerving pickup truck in the moments before a horrific crash with a church bus that left 13 people dead. The driver allegedly admitted to texting as the cause of his reckless driving. Twelve seniors on the bus, including the church bus driver, died at the scene. The thirteenth victim succumbed to their injuries at the hospital.[ Jody Kuchler, 55, recorded the revealing video as he called police to report the hazardous driving of Jack Dillon Young, the pickup truck’s driver. The San Antonio released the video showing the white Dodge pickup truck repeatedly crossing the center line and right shoulder marker. Kuchler recorded for approximately 20 minutes while attempting to get police to respond, the Daily Mail reported. A total of fourteen members of the First Baptist Church of New Braunfels, Texas, traveled to the Garner State Park area in Uvalde County, west of San Antonio, Breitbart Texas reported. The church bus collided with a white pickup truck at about 12:30 p. m. on Wednesday. DPS Spokesman Sergeant Conrad Hein told the Associated Press two passengers in the bus and the driver of the pickup truck sustained injuries in the crash. An ambulance transported the survivors to a hospital where they underwent treatment for their injuries. KSAT ABC12 in San Antonio obtained audio of Kuchler’s calls to police. “‘He’s going to hit somebody head on or he’s going to kill his own damn self. Somebody needs to get this guy off the road,” he told Real County sheriff’s office dispatchers. “He’s going like 80 miles an hour right now. ” The dispatcher told the caller they were unable to respond as the driver was still in Uvalde County, the Daily Mail reported. Real County dispatchers contacted neighboring Uvalde County. The Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office dispatched officers to the scene but the crash occurred before they could arrive, CBSDFW reported. Kuchler told reporters he recorded up to the moment of the collision with the church bus. He said they driver, Young, told him, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was texting. ” Kuchler said he responded, “Son, do you know what you just did?” to which Young responded, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. ” The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

«Χαστούκι» ΟΗΕ στην Τουρκία: Δεν έχει «λευκή επιταγή στην καταπάτηση ελευθεριών | Katehon think tank. Geopolitics & Tradition

Главная » News » «Χαστούκι» ΟΗΕ στην Τουρκία: Δεν έχει «λευκή επιταγή στην καταπάτηση ελευθεριών «Χαστούκι» ΟΗΕ στην Τουρκία: Δεν έχει «λευκή επιταγή στην καταπάτηση ελευθεριών Friday, 18 November, 2016 - 15:30

Bond Super Nova: Boston Econ Professor Admits US in Worse Shape Financially Than Russia, Greece, or Italy

The Doc

Home » Headlines » Finance News » Bond Super Nova: Boston Econ Professor Admits US in Worse Shape Financially Than Russia, Greece, or Italy Occasionally, a bit of truth escapes… From Greg Hunter, USAWatchdog : Boston University Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff says, “ So, if you put everything on the books, we’re broke, and we’ve been printing money out the wazoo since 2007 to pay Congress’s bills. That’s the truth about quantitative easing. We need to have somebody who knows what’s going on in the big picture here and has a game plan to get rid of this fiscal gap, and do it without total chaos. If we leave things the way they are, people will view the country as leaderless fundamentally and printing money to pay its bills. Then, the expectation will occur, and that’s going to raise rates, and that’s going to drop bond prices, and that will sink the banks, and, yes, you can have another great recession like Bill Gross is referencing (bond super nova). I’ve been saying this for decades. The time for the last straw to drop on the camel’s back, and when it’s going to drop that camel is hard to say. If you look at the fundamentals, and the fundamentals look like that of an emerging country, we are the most indebted developed country relative to GDP of any country around. We are in worse shape, I believe, than Russia or Greece, and far worse shape than Italy . ” On Sale At SD Bullion… This Week Only…

Ракка – последний шанс Вашингтона затянуть сирийский конфликт | Новое восточное обозрение

Страна: Сирия Как отмечает в своей новой статье пакистанский исследователь Салман Рафи, Вашингтон объявил о начале операции «Сирийских демократических сил» (СДС) по взятию сирийского города Эр-Ракка, которая считается «столицей» ДАИШ. По признанию представителей Вашингтона, СДС состоят из местных боевиков, которых Вашингтон готовил собственноручно. Автор отмечает, что можно с уверенностью сказать, что Запад пытается одержать пропагандистскую победу, раньше, чем сирийские войска при поддержке российских ВКС возьмут город Алеппо. В то же время из Ирака поступают сообщения, что боевики ДАИШ в массовом порядке покидают Моссул, который Вашингтон «штурмует», и движутся в направлении Эр-Ракки. Автор отмечает, что когда подчиняющиеся Вашингтону «Сирийские демократических силы» начнут штурм Эр-Ракки, едва ли что-то помешает боевикам ДАИШ, которые также подчиняются Вашингтону, влиться в их ряды. Нужна столь сложная схема для того, чтобы оттянуть как возвращение Алеппо под правительственный контроль, так и самой Ракки. Ведь в случае, если эти два города будут освобождены, ничто не сможет помешать правительственным войскам одержать решающую победу в Сирии, и Вашингтон об этом знает. С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи

Wolf Richter: Done in by Overcapacity, Stagnant World Trade, and China, Korean Shipbuilders Collapse on Top of Taxpayers

Jerri-Lynn Scofield

by Jerri-Lynn Scofield Jerri-Lynn here: I first became aware of the consequences of Hanjin’s collapse via Lambert’s coverage in Water Cooler. The South Korean government’s bailout strategy– a version of kick the can down the road– looks worrying and unsustainable, given the ongoing slowdown in world trade , with little cause for optimism that trend will reverse anytime soon. As Richter indicates, much more pain is sure to follow. By Wolf Richter, a San Francisco based executive, entrepreneur, start up specialist, and author, with extensive international work experience. Originally published at Wolf Street, The ravaged shipbuilding industry in South Korea, deemed too big to fail, is getting its largest taxpayer bailout yet, totaling $9.6 billion, on top of the bailout funds already handed out last year, and on top of another $9.6 billion this year to bail out state-owned banks that were getting slammed by defaulting loans extended to the shipping industry. Their problem: according to trade ministry, cited by the Wall Street Journal , orders for new ships to be built in South Korea have collapsed by 87% over the past nine months from the already terrible 9-month period last year, to almost nothing. South Korean container carrier Hanjin was allowed to collapse in August. It “shattered the complacency” that TBTF carriers “are immune to failure.” It is now getting chopped into pieces to be sold off under bankruptcy court orders. Its rival, Hyundai Merchant Marine, was bailed out and restructured earlier this year. Other carriers around the globe have been sunk by two years of excruciating low shipping rates, triggered by rampant overcapacity and stagnating world trade. Larger carriers are consolidating to survive. Just on Monday, Japan’s Big Three – Nippon Yusen, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha – announced that they would merge to form the world’s sixth largest container carrier. These carriers have stopped ordering ships, and many have canceled orders, and Chinese shipbuilders have muscled into the market years ago to grab share by slashing prices, and they too are going bankrupt . But the shipbuilding industry is special to South Korea, a country whose economy depends on exports. The world’s three largest shipbuilders by erstwhile order volume are Korean: Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and Samsung Heavy Industries. In 2015, the industry accounted for 7.1% of South Korea’s manufacturing jobs and 7.6% of exports. The beleaguered Big Three have already sold noncore assets and sloughed off employees as part of prior bank-led restructuring plans. They’re dealing with terrible economic dynamics. Global orders for ships peaked in 2007 at over 90 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT), of which about one-third went to Korean shipbuilders. Orders crashed during the Financial Crisis to a low of 18 million CGT in 2009, then recovered. In 2013, orders maxed out at 60 million CGT, still down 33% from the prior peak. Those were the good times. In 2016 so far, orders have collapsed to only 9 million CGT, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s about half of the orders during the worst part of the Financial Crisis. And South Korea’s share of this pittance in orders has fallen from one-third to just a tiny sliver. So on Monday, South Korean Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho announced another big bailout program: to help the shipbuilding industry deal with the “order cliff,” the government would directly order vessels and also provide financing for shipping companies to order vessels. In total, this would generate orders for 250 vessels through 2020, valued at 11 trillion won ($9.6 billion) funded by the government. But these ships won’t be the big traditional money makers, such as large containerships and dry-bulk carriers, of which the world is already vastly oversupplied. Instead, these will be vessels for the fishing industry and for small shipping companies, along with ferries, patrol boats, warships, and coastguard vessels. The hope is this will carry shipyards into the next glory period, when world trade and shipbuilding would resurge. For now, the government is hoping to keep the Big Three shipbuilders alive. They will have to shed 32% of their workforce by 2018, cut their operations by 23%, sell more noncore businesses, and take other measures. This bailout comes on top of prior bailouts, including the one of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in October 2015, when the state-owned Export-Import Bank of Korea and the Korea Development Bank (which already owned a controlling 31.5% stake) handed it a $3.7 billion bailout package of new loans, a rights offering, and debt-to-equity swaps. The South Korean shipbuilders weren’t just sunk by the collapse of the global shipping industry, but also by their expedition into new territories: Seeing over the years that orders for big vessels would be heading south, and that prices were under pressure from competition in China, they decided in 2010 to get into the nirvana of profits: building offshore oil rigs. But that turned into a nightmare, and heavy losses, even before the price of oil crashed. In June, the government and the Bank of Korea set up a special fund of 11 trillion won ($9.6 billion) to recapitalize state-run banks which were getting hit by defaulting loans from carriers and shipbuilders. In addition, the finance ministry said the government would offer 6.5 trillion won ($5.6 billion) for South Korean carriers to order new bigger vessels to improve their profit margins and survive a little longer. And then there are plans to create a state-backed ship-financing company with initial capital of 1 trillion won ($880 million). No one knows for sure how long the misery in the shipbuilding and shipping industries will continue. Overcapacity is a terrible condition. Creating it benefits many on the way up. It enriches them and makes the economy look good. But when it comes home to roost, the price is stiff. People lose their jobs. And many of the costs will be socialized. It’s only then that you see just how much capital has already gone down the drain, and how much more will follow. The pain will continue, with many more false-hope-ups and brutal smack-downs, and more carriers will crack under their debt. Read… Why Hanjin’s Zombie Collapse Won’t Be the Last One . 0 0 0 0 0 0 This entry was posted in Guest Post on

Syria As Metaphor

Rowan Wolf

[Photo: Syria is a hornet’s nest not a pinata. Credit: Daryl Cagle .] =By= John Feffer Editor's Note Was there an end game in mind when the U.S. decided to fuel a rural conflict rooted in almost five years of drought into a “civil war” and then an outright attempt at regime change? Was there a plan for the (effectively) mercenary force the U.S. created who after training found that ISIS paid much better, so the U.S. rebooked al Nusra and al Qaeda from terrorist groups to “moderate”“rebels. Of course there is the off shore oil and Israel’s interest in the territory and region. But who gave a thought for the people of Syria? They were all mostly “civilians,” just like in almost any country – until they were forced to pick a side or be shot. Where is the peace to be found if the goal is still to remove the recognized government (for better or worse) of Syria? Yet another blood red “color” revolution. T he war in Syria is a nightmare. It’s a nightmare for all the civilians who suffer from constant aerial bombardment, who are trapped without food and medical assistance inside crumbling cities, who experience the retribution of either the Islamic State or the regime in Damascus. It’s a nightmare for those who try to escape and face the prospect of death in transit or limbo in refugee camps. Syria is a nightmare for individuals, millions of them. But it’s not just that. If states could dream, then Syria would be their nightmare as well. Syria was once a sovereign state like any other. It had a central government and fixed boundaries. The Syrian state enjoyed a monopoly on violence and, on several occasions, deployed that violence against its citizenry to devastating effect. The economy functioned, more or less, with considerable revenue coming from the oil sector. In 2009, tourism accounted for 12 percent of the economy. Not that long ago and despite its many problems, Syria attracted a large number of eager travelers. In perhaps the most ironic twist, the Syrian state once had delusions of grandeur. It wanted to abolish the old colonial boundaries and unify the entire Arab world. Under Hafez al-Assad, its authoritarian ruler from 1970 until 2000, Syria attempted to absorb Lebanon, unite with Egypt and Libya in a short-lived Federation of Arab Republics, displace Iraq as the undisputed ideological leader in the region, and even take charge of the Palestinian cause. How quickly dreams can segue into nightmares. Syria has fallen in upon itself, fracturing into four distinct pieces. The government in Damascus controls a gerrymandered slice of territory around the capital and the coast. The Kurds have carved out an autonomous region along the Turkish border in the northeast. The Islamic State still claims a large expanse in the heart of the country. And various rebel factions have secured a patchwork of land in all four corners of what had once been a unified Syria. The government in Damascus, needless to say, no longer enjoys its monopoly on violence. It can’t control the borders of the country. The economy shrank by 19 percent in 2015 and will probably contract another 8 percent this year. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have died in the current conflict. Out of a pre-war population of 23 million, nearly half have fled their homes—4.8 million leaving the country and 6.6 million displaced internally. The war, according to one estimate, has cost over $250 billion. Much like the Balkans before it, Syria is emerging as a metaphor for the fragmentation and chaos that the modern world barely contains. Many states are held together by little more than surface tension, like the meniscus of liquid that rises above the sides of a glass. Nationalism has reached a boiling point in many places, as has religious extremism. Armaments are everywhere, militias are proliferating, and violence has become pervasive. After scoring a number of impressive victories—in Northern Ireland, in East Timor, most recently in Colombia—international diplomats are stymied by the breakdown of order in places like Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Somalia. The countries jockeying for influence in Syria today face many of the same divisive forces that have torn apart that benighted country. The dream of these intervening powers: to turn the current war to their advantage. Their nightmare: that whatever is tearing apart Syria is contagious. The Illusion of Totalitarianism There is no such thing as a totalitarian state. Some dictators, of course, imagine that they can create just such a state, in which the government is a mere extension of the leader’s will and no significant opposition challenges this central authority. Such a society is a pyramid with one person at the top, every block serving to support that uppermost platform. Mere authoritarian societies tolerate potential rival sources of power, such as an intelligentsia or a business sector. In the ideal totalitarian system, all is for one and one is for all. Even North Korea under the Kim dynasty—Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Eun—fails to achieve this kind of totalitarian control. True, the government has managed to suppress virtually every sign of political dissent, indigenous NGOs are practically non-existent, and all culture is subordinate to the state. However, private markets have sprung up beyond the state’s compete control (though, as a sign of grudging acceptance, the state taxes the sellers). Citizens watch contraband movies and listen to taboo music thanks to flash drives smuggled in from China. There have even been signs of disagreement at the highest levels of governance (or so the execution of Kim Jong Eun’s uncle Jang Song Thaek suggests). Once upon a time, the leader of Syria also hoped to create a totalitarian dynasty in the heart of the Middle East. Hafez al-Assad embraced a version of Baathism, the anti-colonial, nationalist, pan-Arabist, and nominally socialist hybrid that emerged from the ideological tumult of the 1940s. As in North Korea, Assad created a one-party state with an extensive secret police, the Mukhabarat. He ruthlessly eliminated opposition, as in 1982 when the state brutally suppressed an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood. After a brief excursion into reform, the designated successor, Assad’s son Bashar, followed in his father’s footsteps. He attempted to extinguish the Arab Spring uprising just as his father had dealt with the Islamists. The current war is the result of Bashar al-Assad’s failure to perceive the declining power of his unitary state. As much as the younger Assad would have liked to maintain a firm grip on power, Syria 2012 was a much different place from Syria 1982. During those 30 years, the bonds that had kept the country together had weakened. Popular organizations had begun to demand democracy. Groups defined by their ethnicity saw the potential for greater autonomy. Religious organizations sensed an opportunity to dislodge what had once been a distinctly secular regime. Other centers of power had appeared in Syrian society, and the Baathist regime was ill equipped to deal with this kind of pluralism. This scenario might seem unique. It isn’t. Disharmonious pluralism has become the new global standard. Other countries—Turkey, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the EU, even the United States—gaze upon the Syrian example and tremble. It Can Happen Here Stripped of its magic sovereignty, Syria has been turned into a piñata whose hidden treasures are now available for all to see and seize. Even as they continue to wield their bats, the intervening powers can’t help but perceive how quickly sovereignty can disappear and how little prevents them from becoming piñatas in turn. Turkish leaders, for instance, must be quite aware of the structural features their country shares with Syria. The glue that has traditionally held together modern Turkey—Kemalism, named for the father of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk—has a somewhat Baathist flavor. It, too, is anti-colonial, nationalist, and secular. Kemalism, like Baathism, has unified an extraordinarily diverse country. Where ideology has proven insufficient, the central government, as in Syria, has used considerable firepower to suppress any movement—but particularly the Kurds in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—that challenges the territorial integrity of the country. Turkey’s current leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants to consolidate power internally and project Turkish influence throughout the Middle East (and beyond). Syria has long been integral to this dual project. The two countries mended fences in the early 2000s when Syria figured prominently in Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy. Once Assad’s position became tenuous during the Arab Spring, however, Erdogan saw an opportunity to switch horses. As the conflict deepened, and no horse emerged as a clear winner, Erdogan decided to use the cover of war to bomb the PKK and their supporters over the border. He hoped to identify a “responsible” Kurdish faction with which to do business—as Ankara has done with Kurdistan in Iraq. More recently, by creating a “safe zone” in northern Syria, Turkey plans to resettle Syrian refugees now in Turkish camps and use that as a base of operations for promoting Turkish business in post-war reconstruction. The Nightmare That’s the dream, anyway. The nightmare is not far away. The failed coup in July was a rather inept demonstration of the latent anxiety in certain sectors about Erdogan’s consolidation of domestic power. The rekindled war with the Kurds in the southeast reveals the continued ethnic divide in the country. So far, Erdogan has cleverly combined the secularist Kemalism and the soft-pedaled Islamism of his Justice and Development Party into a Turkey-first nationalism. But blowback from Syria—from Kurds, from Islamic State supporters, from a disgruntled Turkish army—could open up a rift in Erdogan’s coalition, and Turkey would then be on the verge of turning into a Syria. Even though it follows a very different operating system, Iran, too, looks on Syria as a cautionary example. The government in Tehran is currently split between reformers under President Hassan Rouhani and the religious hardliners who constantly fret over theological deviations. The Green Movement that emerged around the 2009 elections revealed strong opposition to the theocrats within the urban middle class. If Rouhani and his cohort are not able to take full advantage of the nuclear deal and Iran’s reentry into the global economy, Iran could slide backward economically—and then, after the next elections, politically—to the days of Mahmoud Ahmadine- jad. Disenchanted with formal politics, the next iteration of the Green Movement might give up on peaceful demonstrations and plunge Iran into its own civil war. Saudi Arabia seems like a solid enough entity at the moment. But it too faces a religious challenge from its Wahhabist fringes and a potential territorial challenge from minority Shia in the Eastern Province. The House of Saud rules with an iron fist, and its Committee for the Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice intrudes into the private lives of the citizens. The collapse of oil prices has put a squeeze on the kingdom’s finances, which will inevitably open up cleavages within Saudi society. In the absence of a strong national identity, Saudi Arabia could fracture along tribal lines, much like Somalia. These challenges are not limited to the Middle East. The European Union faces multiple centrifugal forces —Brexit, defaulting economies, a restive Russia. Euroskeptics decry the undemocratic power wielded by political institutions in Brussels. The crisis in Syria is by no means abstract for European countries. The influx of Syrian refugees has driven a huge wedge between countries that want nothing to do with them (particularly Eastern Europe) and countries that want to share the burden equally. The disintegration of Syria is now integrally linked to the disintegration of Europe, which might seem fitting to those who believe in the vengeful ghosts of colonialism. The United States is far away from the Syrian conflict, and so far the Obama administration has limited the number of incoming refugees to 10,000 (compared to more than a million that Europe has accepted). The issue of immigrants has certainly divided the two major presidential candidates, and there is no consensus at the top on Syria policy—the recent ceasefire agreement exposed a serious fault line between the State Department (let’s work with the Russians) and the Pentagon (really, the Russians?). But Syria won’t set Americans against Americans as it has pitted Europeans against themselves. Moreover, despite considerable disagreement in the highest reaches of American power on a range of other issues—between Congress and the president, within the Supreme Court, between states and the federal authority—these conflicts have been paralyzing rather than fissiparous. The more serious concern is the sheer number of guns in the United States—over 300 million—and their greater public visibility. You can now carry around your gun openly in 45 states, and more than 14 million people have permits to do so. The number of anti-government militia groups has been rising steadily since the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Trust in the federal government has fallen to record lows. Approximately one in four Americans want their states to secede from the union. Divisions between rich and poor, white and black, native born and immigrants have widened. Ordinarily, all this roiling discontent could be contained by a well-functioning economy or by a set of foreign enemies to focus American enmity. But the election of a much-disliked president next year—take your pick—may well prove to be a tipping point. It doesn’t take much to turn a well-armed population into a mob. And that, of course, is the ultimate nightmare for Turkey and Iran and Saudi Arabia and the United States—when Syria ceases to be a gloomy metaphor for what is happening outside its borders and becomes instead a grim reality.

New York Times Co. Reports a Loss, and a Fall in Digital Ad Revenue - The New York Times

Sydney Ember

The New York Times Company posted a net loss for the second consecutive quarter, in part because of severance costs related to the closing of the company’s editing and prepress operations in Paris. The company had strong growth in digital subscriptions, it said on Thursday, but digital advertising revenue, which has been a bright spot in the past, declined. In its earnings release, the company said that it had added 51, 000 net subscriptions in the quarter for its news products and 16, 000 net crossword product subscriptions. The Times now has about 1. 2 million subscriptions for its news products and more than 1. 4 million total subscriptions, an increase of more than 25 percent compared with the same time a year ago. During an earnings call with investors, Mark Thompson, the company’s chief executive, struck an optimistic tone. “It was an excellent quarter for audience growth, engagement and our digital subscription business,” he said, adding that The Times drew 126 million unique users in June, and that engagement for nonsubscribers increased 20 percent . In the next quarter, The Times expects to add 55, 000 to 60, 000 net subscriptions for its news products and roughly 15, 000 net subscriptions to its crossword product. The company reported a slight net loss of about $500, 000 for the quarter, compared with net income of $16 million in the second quarter of 2015. The company took a charge of roughly $12 million, largely in severance costs related to the Paris closings. Total revenue fell 3 percent, to $373 million from $383 million, in the same quarter a year earlier, as The Times continued to struggle with declining advertising revenue. Total advertising revenue fell about 12 percent, to $131 million. Print advertising revenue slid 14 percent in the quarter, and digital advertising revenue dropped 7 percent, to $45 million. Digital advertising revenue now accounts for more than a third of the company’s total ad revenue. “Digital advertising was somewhat lower than we expected for the quarter,” Mr. Thompson said. Increases in mobile, branded content and programmatic advertising, he added, were “not enough to offset declines in web home page and other traditional display advertising. ” The company expects total advertising revenue to continue to decrease in the digits next quarter, though it anticipates growth in digital advertising. Circulation revenue increased about 3 percent, to $219 million, as growth from the company’s digital subscription revenue and an increase in prices offset a decline in print copies sold. Total daily print circulation declined 6 percent in the quarter, and Sunday circulation fell 4 percent. Circulation revenue from subscriptions increased 15 percent, to $56 million. Adjusted operating profit, the company’s preferred method of assessing performance, decreased to $55 million in the quarter, from $64 million in the period. Like many newspapers faced with declining print circulation and falling advertising revenue, The Times has looked for new revenue opportunities. It has focused on virtual reality, video and branded content, for example, and pushed aggressively into Facebook Live. The company produced more than 400 Facebook Live videos in the quarter, Mr. Thompson said. In February, The Times announced a sweeping strategy review of the newsroom that will include reshaping the newsroom for the digital age and identifying areas for . The company also aims to double its total digital revenue to $800 million by 2020. “We’re taking a good, hard strategic look at costs,” Mr. Thompson said. “You can expect to hear more about that on future earnings calls. ” Charges related to the company’s recent buyout offerings were not reflected in this quarter’s earnings. About 80 Times employees took buyouts. The Times expects to take a severance charge next quarter of about $11 million resulting from the buyouts.

Россия докажет в ООН, что договор по Сирии не выполняют США

0 комментариев 13 поделились Фотоархив Правды.Ру Об этом сегодня на брифинге в Москве заявила официальный представитель МИД РФ Мария Захарова, отметив, что постоянно звучат заявления о том, что РФ не выполняет свои обязательства в контексте мирного плана по Сирии. "Чтобы прекратить всяческие инсинуации на это тему Российская Федерация приняла решение распространить документ, в котором собраны и приводятся все факты по исполнению российской стороны своих обязательств и невыполнения обязательств американской стороной своих - представлены все факты и цифры", - рассказала Захарова. По ее словам, этот документ будет представлен на площадке ООН не только в Нью-Йорке, но и в Женеве. «Приведены факты, даты, цифры. Этот объемный документ уже распространён в Женеве нашим постпредством и будет распространён сегодня российским постпредством при ООН в Нью-Йорке», - подытожила она. В ходе брифинга Захарова также обратила внимание на то, что Вашингтон на словах рассуждает о вариантах мирного урегулирования, но не подкрепляет это делом. "На деле не исключается вариант пособничества боевика, мы видели, что в 2013 году рассматривались варианты прямой агрессии, а сейчас мы видим, что реально обсуждаются варианты поставки вооружения боевикам", - заявила официальный представитель МИД РФ. Вместе с тем Захарова выразила надежду, что США не станут поставлять тяжелое вооружение умеренной оппозиции в Сирии: "Мы надеемся, что в американском руководстве разумный и трезвый расчет действительно возобладает над авантюрными подходами, которые могут привести к непредсказуемым военным и политическим последствиям. Будем продолжать следить за реальными действиями Вашингтона". Чем ближе взятие Алеппо, тем яростнее будут обвинения в адрес России , считает сотрудник Центра анализа стратегий и технологий Максим Шеповаленко. Информационные вбросы, подобные истории об российском ударе по школе в провинции Идлиб , будут продолжаться до конца войны. "Все пошло враздрай: никаких мирных переговоров, вступил в силу План Б - по вооружению боевиков. Значит, информационная война в самом разгаре" - сказал аналитик в беседе с Pravda.Ru Всем очевидно, что чем ближе мы будем к взятию Алеппо, тем истеричнее и фантасмагоричнее будут все эти придумки и рассказы, уверен он. Читайте последние новости Pravda. Ru на сегодня

So-Called Wall Street “Experts” are Baffled by What’s Happening to the Stock Market Since Trump Won – TruthFeed

Amy Moreno

So-Called Wall Street “Experts” are Baffled by What’s Happening to the Stock Market Since Trump Won So-Called Wall Street “Experts” are Baffled by What’s Happening to the Stock Market Since Trump Won Politics By Amy Moreno November 10, 2016 So-called “experts” claimed that Trump’s election would literally DESTROY the entire American financial institution, turning the stock market into DUST. Yeah, that never happened. Shocker. From CNN.money.com The stock market rally continues for a second day after Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton, a reaction few expected. The Dow open at a new all-time high and the S&P 500 was inches away from a new record. And why not? It’s fitting that following the most unusual presidential election campaign in recent history, the stock market is also reacting in a-typical fashion. Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Presidency and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter.

Secret Service Knew About, Managed Clinton Private Server

Secret Service Knew About, Managed Clinton Private Server November 03, 2016 Secret Service Knew About, Managed Clinton Private Server Federal law enforcement officials not only knew about, but may also have played a role in managing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server located in her New York mansion in as early as 2011, new documents show. A Secret Service agent told the FBI that the Clintons also enlisted Secret Service resources to do work for the Clinton Foundation. A spokesman for the foundation denied using government resources They suggested that a Secret Service agent who recounted investigating a hack on the foundation’s server must have confused it with Clinton’s home-brew server. If the foundation spokesman’s assertion is correct, it suggests information may have been stolen when the home-brew server was attacked, which Clinton has denied. As the FBI summarized the testimony of a Secret Service agent whose name was redacted, the agent “was assigned to the protective detail of William Clinton from [redacted] to [redacted]. Because of [his] information technology (IT) skills, he was asked to do network assessments and troubleshoot IT issues at the Clinton Foundation… [he] assisted the Clinton Foundation in a case related to theft of information on the Clinton Foundation information systems.” The testimony was included among documents from the FBI’s email investigation that were made public Wednesday by the law enforcement agency. In addition to protecting high-level officials, the Secret Service has a secondary mission that allows it to investigate cyber-crimes, as The Weekly Standard, which first reported the testimony, noted. But the Secret Service’s cyber-crimes division hadn’t decided to take the case, the former president had used the taxpayer-funded guard to do other tasks, including “troubleshooting IT issues,” which doesn’t indicate cyber-crimes. The agent was not a cyber-crimes specialist, but rather someone who happened to have some IT skills. He conducted “open source research relating to the security of email servers,” likely a euphemism for reading online forums and tutorials. The agent’s testimony said the assistance started for the foundation, then was expanded to include another server located in the Clintons’ home. The agent “was contacted by Justin Cooper in January 2011 to assist with the security of an email server at the Clinton residence in Chappaqua, New York.” Cooper is an aide to Douglas Band, Clinton’s long-time personal assistant and business associate. The agent “contacted Bryan Pagliano to recommend adding outbound IP filtering to the server.” Pagliano, a Clinton campaign staffer turned State Department aide, has since pleaded the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer questions from congressional investigators. The Clinton Foundation told the Weekly Standard that “it appears the agent is conflating the Clinton Foundation with the president’s personal office,” suggesting that the foundation was never hacked and that both instances must have referred to Bill Clinton’s personal office email. Clinton’s email and the former president’s personal office both ran off the same email server, Clinton has said, adding “The use of that server, which started with my husband, certainly proved to be effective and secure.” The FBI summary of the agent’s testimony said the agent “was aware of no other information pertaining to the email server located in Chappaqua.” Secret Service sources interviewed by the Weekly Standard said the agency “absolutely” worked on the “theft of information” case for the Clinton Foundation and that records show it. If an intrusion did not occur on the foundation’s server and the agent was confusing the home and foundation servers, then it suggests that Clinton’s private server had a “theft of information” situation. Clinton has combated criticism of the private server by saying it was safe because the Secret Service guarded the property —“It was on property guarded by the Secret Service, and there were no security breaches.” The testimony, however, weakens that argument, as the testimony indicates that the Secret Service was providing traditional physical security, and one guard happened to have some IT familiarity. Federal security had already been informed of the server’s existence at least as early as November 2010. That month, IT aide Pagliano reported to the Secret Service 10 unsuccessful hack attempts on the server that Clinton used to conduct State Department business. The hackers had used the login “Huma,” the first name of Clinton’s closest personal aide at the Department of State, according to emails obtained under a lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch. The “theft of information” situation does not seem to refer to that failed attempt, since the Secret Service was contacted about it in November 2010, but the testimony refers to being contacted about the personal server in January 2011. President Barack Obama said in March 2015 he only learned of the server from the news media, even though as State Department aides frantically worried about after the denial, Clinton and Obama had emailed using the private address. Article by Doc Burkhart , Vice-President, General Manager and co-host of TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles Got a news tip? Email us at Help support the ministry of TRUNEWS with your one-time or monthly gift of financial support. DONATE NOW ! DOWNLOAD THE TRUNEWS MOBILE APP! CLICK HERE! Donate Today! Support TRUNEWS to help build a global news network that provides a credible source for world news We believe Christians need and deserve their own global news network to keep the worldwide Church informed, and to offer Christians a positive alternative to the anti-Christian bigotry of the mainstream news media Top Stories

ElHombreDeLosCielos

Some say that Abrams tanks sold as export have less armor than those Abrams tanks used by US troops. If true, and if this was such a lesser-armed version, a horrible surprise for its crew here.

Don’t Let CounterPunch Go Up in Smoke

Jeffrey St. Clair

Email The sun will rise on Wednesday November 9 on a new American landscape, the same way it rose on a new American landscape almost exactly 8 years ago. That was the dawn of Obama-time. Millions of Americans had dined delightedly on Obama’s rhetoric of dreams and preened at his homilies about the inherent moral greatness of the American people. Obama and the Democrats triumphed at the polls. The pundits hailed a “tectonic shift” in our national politics, perhaps even a registration of the possibility that we had entered a “post-racial” era of progressive politics and economics. But the realities of American politics don’t change much from year to year. After years of Obama, the nation remains bogged down in at least 8 different wars and the national divisions of wealth and resources have grown wider today than they have been at any time since the late 1920s. For many of us, the post-electoral dawn will shine its light on an eerily familiar assemblage of characters: Hillary and Bill, John Podesta and Robert Rubin, Ken Salazar and Cheryl Mills. The same people who engineered the deregulation of the American economy will be back in the control room, ready for another round of looting. Few journalistic enterprises have followed the Clintons as closely as CounterPunch. CounterPunch was literally born with the rise of the Clintons in 1993. My first encounter with Alexander Cockburn came in a telephone call in 1992, when Alex rang me up to question me about a story I’d written on Bill’s grim environmental record in Arkansas. Over the next 8 and half years, Alex and I wrote about the Clintons almost every week and we never held back. Twenty-four years later, we still aren’t holding our fire. We’ve told it straight about the Clintons and Trump and we won’t stop. Now that the biennial democratic pretense here in the U.S.A. has almost run its course, can we talk about something serious? Like the future of CounterPunch. We can? Good. Every year we run a fundraiser. We’ve been running these end-of-the-year appeals since we went online in 1999, at the ragged end of the first Clinton era. As you know, we’re doing one right now. But in all of those years, we’ve never been as close to the edge as we are right now. Never before have we been 5 weeks into a fund drive and still $25,000 short of where we need to be. I won’t reiterate grim details. Becky Grant, our business manager all these years, has laid them out for you in stark detail. If you’ve been reading the CounterPunch website or magazine for a while you’ve no doubt noticed that every year we’ve continued to offer you the full menu and that the thickness and diversity of the menu continues to grow. Maybe you think we shout “wolf” only to scare the money out of your pockets. Here are the realities of 2016. We shout “wolf” because the wolves are real. We operate on a razor thin margin. That means that money can get tight for us, very quickly. We’re not sitting on big reserves, we literally live check to check, PayPal to PayPal. We know that money is tight for many of you, too. These are tough times. For most of the Great Recession never ended. Our readership is higher than it’s ever been. We have more donors to CounterPunch than we’ve ever had, though in smaller and smaller amounts. But if you’re passing up your usual check to us at fundraising time, or writing a much smaller check than usual, or postponing your subscription renewal to our CounterPunch magazine, forgive me if I give you an urgent nudge. Many websites on the progressive side of the spectrum are cut-and-paste affairs, a mix of columns culled from mainstream newspapers, weeklies, blogs and so forth. Every day our CounterPunch site offers you up to a dozen original articles, and often twenty across our three-day weekend site. Just glancing back across recent months, we’ve run marvelous pieces from Alan Nasser on Hillary Clinton’s policy toward the first-strike use of a new generation of nuclear weapons; from Christopher Ketcham on corrupt prosecutors from Coast-to-Coast; from Mark Schuller about Haiti after Hurricane Matthew, from Andrew Cockburn about drone warfare in Obama’s Af-Pak wars; from John Pilger on Wikileaks and Julian Assange; Diana Johnstone on Hillary Clinton’s bloody foreign policy. There’s no need to go anywhere else for coverage of the neoliberal/Wall Street onslaughts. Here, week by week, you read Michael Hudson, Paul Craig Roberts, Mike Whitney, Mark Weisbrot, Dean Baker, Ellen Brown, Pete Dolack and Jack Rasmus. CounterPunch writers file regularly from Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Venezuela, South Africa, India… On the Middle East, indeed, no site offers more resolute, consistent coverage of the monstrous war waged by Israel, the U.S. and Europe on Palestinians’ just demands. On our site and in our magazine we give you truly original voices: Chris Floyd, Ishmael Reed, JoAnn Wypijewski, Yvette Carnell, Kathy Kelly, Kevin Alexander Gray, Lee Ballinger, Peter Linebaugh, Jennifer Lowenstein, Ruth Fowler, Nancy Schemer-Hughes, Daniel Raventos, Pepe Escobar, Eric Draitser and Margaret Kimberly. I don’t have to go on. You’re probably familiar with the names. CounterPunch is where the global left comes to air its grievances. We’re not part of the Twitter Left, spraying tweets into the blathersphere. We still think issues, like oil pipelines, the economy, the climate and the war, are worth more than 140 characters. With the participation of hundreds of CounterPunchers as writers, and hundreds of thousands of CounterPunchers as engaged readers, we’ve built up CounterPunch as a vital, thoughtful, vivid and above all, radical presence in the U.S. and – about a third of our audience – across the world. We can only do this with your financial support. There’s no safety net. No waste to prune. Enough said. Your money is our lifeblood. Every dollar you can manage really is vital. Thank you, Jeffrey St. Clair Please, use CP’s secure shopping cart to make a tax-deductible donation to CounterPunch or purchase a subscription to our magazine and a gift sub for someone or one of our explosive books . Show a little affection for subversion: consider an automated monthly donation . (We accept checks, credit cards, PayPal and cash…) Call us at 1-(800) 840-3683, or mail a check to: CounterPunch

A Moment of Truth for Presidential Debate Moderators - The New York Times

Jim Rutenberg

If this hasn’t been the worst year ever for truth in politics, I can’t think of what was. Nor can anyone tell me. The Republican presidential nominee has produced more falsehoods than the major sites have identified from a major presidential candidate since they came into existence. The Democratic nominee hasn’t come anywhere close to that. But she’s not exactly dwelling in Honest Abe territory, either. It’s almost at the point where “truthiness” — Stephen Colbert’s old word for the canards that helped to lead to the Iraq war — would be preferable to what we have now: unsubstantiated nonsense and outright lies. In too many cases, they have taken hold as the basis for people’s voting decisions. Traditional journalism has struggled to keep up with it all. It has been overwhelmed by the legion of assertions that scream out for undercut, at times, by journalists’ human failings and the economic imperatives of ratings and page views and under siege from partisan attacks intended to bully it out of doing its job. The good news is that the debates are finally upon us, providing the fourth estate with a great chance to set the record straight and to nudge the presidential discussion onto the level ground of established facts. In other words, a chance to live up to its calling. And, yes, that is going to require the debate moderators to interject with the truth when either candidate makes an obviously false statement. Inexplicably, the debate has been dominated by the question of whether it is within the debate moderators’ purview to do that. Donald J. Trump has said, as he did on Thursday on “Fox Friends,” that the NBC anchor moderating Monday’s debate, Lester Holt, should stay out of the way and leave it to him and Hillary Clinton to “take each other on” over the facts. Not surprising. But at least one of this year’s moderators, Chris Wallace of Fox News, said the same thing, as have some graybeards like the former PBS anchor Jim Lehrer, once a regular debate moderator himself. That treats falsehood like a hockey puck being moved up and down the ice, and forces each candidate into goalie pads. What this political season really needs is a confident and credible referee, or a few thousand. Sites like FactCheck. org and PolitiFact, and news organizations like The New York Times and The Washington Post, will be there to separate truth from lies after the fact. But let’s face it, their combined readerships won’t come anywhere close to the size of the debate audience, which television executives and political strategists say could be as big as 100 million people. For many viewers, a lie will stick to the candidate on the receiving end of it — who, if past is prologue, is more likely to be Mrs. Clinton than Mr. Trump. And the Commission on Presidential Debates will be failing in its own mission “to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners. ” The commission has put its thumb on the noninterventionist side of the scale. When I spoke recently with the Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. he said that the moderator’s job was “to be a facilitator — to raise the issues and draw out the candidates and hopefully get them to interact themselves. ” That, he said, is different from a news program on which “you’ve got your notes of what said: ‘Governor, you said this three weeks ago and now you’re changing the story.’ That’s an interview, not what’s supposed to happen in a debate. ” In 1987, Mr. Fahrenkopf, then the chairman of the Republican National Committee, the debate commission with Paul G. Kirk, who was chairman of the Democratic National Committee. And it is no small thing that they chose to put journalists at the center of the action. It was before interparty civility skipped town, and before news sites and partisan press critics undermined the prominence and credibility of the mainstream news media. It was a time when a news outlet’s success was dependent upon its track record of getting stories right, not on how far it was willing to go to make its coverage hew to the worldview of its readers. The gatekeeper role the news media used to play has been rightly criticized for stanching those views that fell outside its decidedly mainstream perspective. But it also meant that campaigns generally sparred within the confines of the same set of established and true facts. Take the second presidential debate between President Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter in 1976. Max Frankel of The New York Times pressed Mr. Ford on the Soviet Union’s dominance of Eastern Europe, and responded with incredulity as he invited Mr. Ford to clarify his remark that the Soviets were not dominant there. The focus the next day was on Mr. Ford’s politically catastrophic geopolitical misstatement, not on his inquisitor, Mr. Frankel. Had that exchange happened today, political operatives and Twitter provocateurs surely would have found a way to make it about Mr. Frankel — whose was actually an attempt to offer Mr. Ford a lifeline, he told me. And some American media voices would have sought to dispute the facts on the ground in Eastern Europe (perhaps even on a American network like RT). In our current environment, half of Mr. Trump’s voters can believe the false notion that Mrs. Clinton knew the 2012 Benghazi attacks were set to occur before they happened and chose not to act, as a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll found in the spring. In a more recent New York poll, roughly half of Trump supporters said they believed that undocumented immigrants were more likely to commit crimes than American citizens were. (The preponderance of research has found that the opposite is true.) Such findings should bring a new appreciation for journalists to those who care about having government policies that are based on the truth. As the historian Michael Beschloss put it during a phone conversation last week, “We are now in an age where there are so many fewer gatekeepers that you need what few are possible. ” Can the moderators this fall turn their debate stages into zones? What does that look like in this election? Debate organizers say they want to avoid a situation in which the debate becomes one big or hectoring exercise and never gets to important policy differences. They also don’t want the stage to be a hill for the moderator — and thus the whole debate process — to die on, amid charges of partisanship and a “rigged” system. The most common example that people point to is Candy Crowley’s performance at a 2012 debate between Mitt Romney and President Obama, in which she disputed Mr. Romney’s assertion that Mr. Obama waited 14 days to call the Benghazi attack an act of terror. Mr. Obama had more or less done so the next day, though, as Ms. Crowley sought to point out, his administration spent several days thereafter connecting it to protests against an incendiary, video. PolitiFact called Mr. Romney’s statement “” which gave more ammunition to Republicans who accused Ms. Crowley of singling out their candidate unfairly. But one clumsy attempt at and the partisan attacks it drew, should not be used to muzzle this year’s moderators. Yes, the candidates can challenge each other, but some things should not be left to a “he said, she said” stalemate and will require a moderator to weigh in — like Mr. Trump’s offensive attempts to claim he did not aggressively promote a campaign that questioned Mr. Obama’s citizenship or Mrs. Clinton’s mischaracterization of the F. B. I. ’s assessment of her handling of email. Nobody wants a repeat of Matt Lauer’s performance a couple of weeks ago when he let Mr. Trump’s claim that he always opposed the Iraq war go unchallenged. Actually, scratch that. One person does — Mr. Trump, who portrayed critics of Mr. Lauer as liberals seeking to push debate moderators to be tougher on him than on Mrs. Clinton. There’s one way both he and Mrs. Clinton can avoid lopsided treatment: Tell the truth.

Jared Kushner Visits Iraq on Invitation From Joint Chiefs Chairman - The New York Times

Maggie Haberman

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s landed in Iraq on Monday, military officials said, visiting the country as the American military is aiding Iraqi forces in their brutal fight to retake Mosul from the Islamic State. It was unclear what Mr. Kushner, who has been expanding his reach in his ’s administration, planned to gain from the trip. Mr. Kushner, 36, who serves as a senior adviser to Mr. Trump, was invited by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Navy Capt. Greg Hicks, a spokesman for the chairman, said early Monday that the general had arrived in Iraq for meetings, including with coalition officials, accompanied by Mr. Kushner and Thomas P. Bossert, the president’s homeland security adviser. The general invited Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bossert to accompany him “to receive an update on the status of the campaign in Iraq and Syria,” Captain Hicks said. Mr. Kushner is “traveling on behalf of the president to express the president’s support and commitment to the government of Iraq and U. S. personnel currently engaged in the campaign” against the Islamic State, Captain Hicks added. Mr. Trump has repeatedly turned to Mr. Kushner as an envoy to foreign leaders, at times creating a parallel structure to the one led by Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson. Mr. Kushner has had a role in discussions with Mexico, whose government officials have expressed concern over Mr. Trump’s incendiary remarks on trade policy and his vow to build a wall at the border. The president has also charged Mr. Kushner, who has no previous government or diplomatic experience, with a vague edict to establish peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr. Kushner is also taking the lead in preparing the West Wing for Mr. Trump’s meeting this week with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, at the president’s club in Palm Beach, Fla. In addition, Mr. Kushner has created an Office of American Innovation, which is intended to use ideas from the business world to improve the government.

Iran to resume gas exports to Turkey soon

Iran to resume gas exports to Turkey soon Fri Oct 28, 2016 12:10PM Energy Iran says it will resume exports of natural gas to Turkey by Monday after an explosion in the Turkish territory halted the supplies on Thursday night. Iran says its exports of natural gas to Turkey that have been halted reportedly as a result of an explosion inside the Turkish territory will resume within the next few days. Sadeq Akbarpour, the head of Gas Exports Measurement Facilities at Iran-Turkey Border, told the domestic media that the required coordination is being carried out with the Turkish Botas company to resume Iran’s exports by next Monday. Akbarpour emphasized that Iran is ready to supply Turkey with its required gas whenever it voices its readiness. Majid Bojarzadeh, the spokesman of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), also told Iran’s Shana news agency that Ankara had informed Tehran of a problem in the pipeline that carried Iranian gas into Turkey on Thursday night. Furthermore, Majid Aqababaei, the director general for border affairs of Iran’s Interior Ministry, acknowledged, as reported by Shana, that an explosion near Iran’s border had caused the problem. Iran is Turkey’s second supplier of gas after Russia, providing one-fifth of the country’s consumption. The current volume of natural gas that Iran is piping to its northwestern neighbor is 30 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d). Officials in Tehran had already emphasized that the Islamic Republic is ready to increase its gas exports to Turkey by 6 mcm/d. Iran has also for long been working on a plan to export its natural gas to Europe through Turkey. The plan – that was to be carried out though the Nabucco scheme – was eventually put on hold due to a series of technicalities. Nevertheless, officials in Tehran announced last month that the possibility that gas exports to Europe would return to the agenda exist “if the requited agreements with Europeans countries over the plan are reached”. Loading ...

Vanity Fair: No, Gal Gadot Isn’t Making 46 Times Less Than Henry Cavill

Charlie Nash

Vanity Fair has the recent viral outrage over Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot supposedly being paid 46 times less than Man of Steel star Henry Cavill for their work on similar films. [From Vanity Fair: “It was a stat that swiftly went viral Tuesday morning: Gal Gadot, the magnetic star of the summer hit Wonder Woman, was paid just $300, 000 for a film that had already made $573 million worldwide. Meanwhile, Henry’s Cavill had been paid $14 million — 46 times as much! — for his own first outing as Superman in Man of Steel. It would be perfectly indicative of the gender pay gap that lingers in Hollywood. . . if it were at all true. As the Elle article that sent the stat viral said itself, Cavill’s $14 million earning include bonuses for box office performance, while Gadot’s $300, 000, per a 2014 Variety report, is just the base salary for each film she’s made thus far in the DC Universe,” they continued. “Though the details of Cavill’s reported $14 million could not be verified, a source with knowledge of studio negotiations on franchise films told Vanity Fair, ‘It certainly isn’t for one picture. That’s insane.’ For superhero franchises just getting started, though, the process is usually simple: find a star on the rise, pay them relatively little, and then offer more if the franchise takes off. Marvel pioneered the effort with Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth, all of whom were reportedly paid less than $500, 000 for their first solo superhero outings, but eventually landed much bigger paydays for subsequent entries. (Downey Jr. famously made $50 million for The Avengers, and helped his negotiate higher salaries themselves.) Cavill, like Hemsworth and Evans and Gadot when their franchises started, was more of an unknown, and likely to have signed the same lowball salary contract with a promise of future returns. Despite Vanity Fair’s explanation, the exaggerated facts, which were pushed by Elle Magazine, have since gone viral, with Teen Vogue‘s Lauren Duca receiving over 10, 000 retweets and 20, 000 likes on an outraged Twitter post, which was also shared by Piers Morgan, who responded, “Now THIS is sexism. ” Gal Gadot made $300, 000 for Wonder Woman as compared to Henry Cavill’s $14M for Man of Steel. The most compelling DC villain is the pay gap. — Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) June 20, 2017, Now THIS is sexism. https: . — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 20, 2017, You can read the full report at Vanity Fair. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.

The Coin? Gold. Its ‘Real Value’? Lady Liberty Is Black. - The New York Times

Erin McCann

The United States Mint will release a commemorative gold coin in April that will feature Lady Liberty as a black woman, marking the first time that she has been depicted as anything other than white on the nation’s currency. The coin, with a $100 face value, will commemorate the 225th anniversary of the Mint’s coin production, the Mint and the Treasury Department announced on Thursday. Going on sale April 6, it will be 24 karats and weigh about an ounce. It is part of a series of commemorative coins that will be released every two years. Future ones will show Lady Liberty as Asian, Hispanic and Indian “to reflect the cultural and ethnic diversity of the United States,” the Mint said in a statement. The announcement comes at a pivotal cultural moment for the United States, a week away from a transfer of power, following a bruising election dominated by debates about immigration, race and political correctness. And Lady Liberty is among the most potent of American symbols. Her depiction, a gift from France in 1886, stands in New York Harbor, a giant statue of a woman with white European features beckoning with a lamp to the refugees of the world. “Part of our intent was to honor our tradition and heritage,” Rhett Jeppson, the principal deputy director of the Mint, said in a phone interview on Friday. “But we also think it’s always worthwhile to have a conversation about liberty, and we certainly have started that conversation. ” Do not expect to see anyone spending the coins at the store. Coins like this do not circulate for everyday use, but are minted for collectors in limited quantities. There will be 100, 000 of them with the black Lady Liberty. They will sell for far more than face value, depending on the value of gold, currently more than $1, 000 an ounce. “As we as a nation continue to evolve, so does Liberty’s representation,” Elisa Basnight, the chief of staff at the Mint, said at a presentation on Thursday in Washington. The coin’s head (what the Mint calls the obverse) was designed by Justin Kunz and engraved by Phebe Hemphill, and it shows a profile of Lady Liberty with a crown of stars that holds back her hair. The tail (the reverse, in Mint lingo) shows an eagle in flight. Mr. Jeppson said that several women had approached him after seeing the coin and told him, “she looks like me when I was younger. ” “I saw real value in that,” he said. “That we see ourselves in the images in our coins. ” The Mint is expecting the coin to sell well, Mr. Jeppson said. Any profit the Mint generates from the sale of its coins is returned to the Treasury. Last year, the Mint sent about $600 million back to the federal government, Mr. Jeppson said. In addition to the 100, 000 gold coins — more than is typical for this sort of commemorative coin — that will be printed at West Point, the Mint will also produce 100, 000 of what it calls medals, silver reproductions of the image that will sell for around $40 to $50. “The silver medals will be done at Philadelphia, because that is the birthplace of the Mint,” Mr. Jeppson said. The Coinage Act of 1792 established the Mint, and it also mandated that any coins produced include an image of “liberty” as well as an inscription of the word. Since then, the idea has appeared in many forms on American currency, both circulated and collectible, most often as the feminine Lady Liberty. “When you look at the very first coins that we produced, they had a Liberty on there,” Mr. Jeppson said. These coins are already in production. The next ones in the series are in the planning stage. Rough guidelines are given to sets of artists and sculptors, some of whom are staff at the mint and others who are part of a pool, as Mr. Kunz was. Their work is then shared with the members of two commissions — one a group of citizen advisers and one a fine arts commission — who make recommendations on the final design for the coin. “It’s difficult for us to say what future coins will look like until we get there,” Mr. Jeppson said. All American coins embody the idea of liberty, in keeping with the Mint’s mandate. But the new coin is what Mr. Jeppson called an “allegorical liberty,” meaning Lady Liberty does not represent a specific figure from history. Women, in generic depictions or historic ones, have been underrepresented on American currency. The suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony appeared on $1 coins from 1979 to 1981, and Helen Keller, the author and activist, appeared on the reverse image of the Alabama state quarter in 2003. Sacagawea, the Shoshone guide who led Lewis and Clark to the West Coast, appeared on a $1 coin that has been minted since 2000. Last year, after a public campaign to put a woman on the $10 bill, the Treasury secretary, Jacob J. Lew, announced a broad remaking of the nation’s paper currency — the bills that, unlike a $100 coin, circulate among many Americans every day. Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist and former slave, will appear on the $20 bill, and women and civil rights leaders will be added to the $5 and $10 bills. Collectors expect the black Lady Liberty coin to be popular. Whenever the Mint does something new, it creates buzz, said Gilles Bransbourg, a curator with the American Numismatic Society and a research associate at New York University. “It’s departing from any of the coins that have been produced so far,” he said. “It sends a strong message that the Mint is departing from the tradition that will be perceived as very white. ” The Mint’s recent commemorative productions have occasionally featured nonwhite characters, he said, pointing to a 2006 gold series that revived the popular “Indian head” nickel of the early 20th century. It shows an American Indian whose face is believed to be a combination of three different men who sat for its designer. Symbolism aside, the new Lady Liberty coin is “really beautiful,” said Jeff Garrett, the president of the American Numismatic Association, who saw the coin several months ago in Washington. “It’s struck in high relief, which means the high points are much higher than circulating coinage. ” “I’ll buy one for sure,” he said. “I’ll probably buy several. ”

The Three Massive Cover Ups By Clinton That Need To be Stopped NOW !

Quest

We Are Change Published on Nov 2, 2016 In this video Luke Rudkowski breaks down the latest election news as we talk about confirmed Hillary Clinton cover ups and disinfo on the internet that is muddying the waters. We go over the serious scandals and how they need to be addressed and how to get away from speculation. Vote with your dollar and support our efforts destroying the msm on https://www.patreon.com/wearechange Sources http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/21803… https://vault.fbi.gov/vincent-foster https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/… https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/c… https://twitter.com/FiveRights/status… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKQ59… https://twitter.com/avanconia/status/… https://twitter.com/FBIRecordsVault/s… https://twitter.com/zachhaller/status… https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/c… https://twitter.com/FBIRecordsVault/s… http://imgur.com/WzYf68D http://truepundit.com/breaking-bombsh… https://twitter.com/johncardillo/stat… http://observer.com/2016/11/breaking-… https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/… https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/c… http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10… http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic… https://twitter.com/jasoninthehouse/s… https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/c… https://twitter.com/Lukewearechange/s… https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/… http://observer.com/2016/11/this-elec… http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic… Support WeAreChange by Subscribing to our channel HERE http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c… Visit our main site for more breaking news http://wearechange.org/ Patreon https://www.patreon.com/WeAreChange?a… SnapChat: LukeWeAreChange Facebook: https://facebook.com/LukeWeAreChange Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lukewearechange Instagram: http://instagram.com/lukewearechange Rep WeAreChange Merch Proudly: http://wearechange.org/store OH YEAH since we are not corporate or government WHORES help us out http://wearechange.org/donate We take BITCOIN too 12HdLgeeuA87t2JU8m4tbRo247Yj5u2TVP The post The Three Massive Cover Ups By Clinton That Need To be Stopped NOW ! appeared first on We Are Change .

The Left-Wing Way To Unite a Divided Country

Christopher Manion

By Christopher Manion November 1, 2016 “Most voters see America as a divided nation and only expect things to get worse over the next year no matter who the next president is,” reports Rasmussen Polls Oh dear. What shall we do”? Start with Hillary’s primal scream: “Those nasty Russians are trying to destroy our democracy, and Donald Trump is helping them!” The perpetration of this ideological fiction so hilariously concocted by the bottom-feeders in Clinton campaign is bad enough; that the hapless Nobel-Peace-Prize-winner-foreign-policy-disaster Narcissist-In-Chief jumps aboard is farce itself. “The Russians Are coming” routine is designed not merely to distract any Americans who might still know where Russia is from the corruption of the Obama-Clinton regime. It has a future purpose, more sinister and more profound than its immediate purpose of merely manipulating the gullible. After the election, should Hillary’s criminals be able to pull off a victory, half the country will be boiling in contempt and resentment, not ignorant fear but informed and righteous anger, at the corruptos who control the Bipartisan National Establishment. These naysayers will be the establishment’s enemy, and a President Hillary will have to bring them to heel. Here’s how. If there is a single bureaucracy in Washington that has not been infected fatally with the disease, we don’t know about it. And so, after the election, there will be no time to waste for the Establishment Mafia – not to allay the defiance of their detested Deplorables, but to manipulate it. The bipartisan establishment hates the military, of course, but it is willing to use wars and the rumors of wars to line its own pockets, expand its commercial interests, and satisfy its insatiable desire for power. At the same time, as we learned from Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush, the establishment doesn’t actually want the military to win wars – because that means peace will be at hand, and that is not good for the establishment. Better to have chaos. “Hey, they need our help!” So they load the military with PC crap, solar panels, pregnant sailors and puny grunts, all guaranteed to have access to a generous dollop of the degenerating sex of any variety. Nothing like having critical personnel take long leaves to have their babies or their sex-change operations while on duty. Well, we go to war with the military we have, but we do need war: after all, as we edge closer to Orwell’s vision of the future and away from Huxley’s, it is a permanent war that will keep the masses at bay – by keeping them occupied and keeping them subjugated. In 1916, Wilson ran on the mantra, “He kept us out of war!” A majority of Americans opposed getting involved in Europe’s mess, but Wilson found a critical ally in the Catholic Primate of America, James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore. America was “divided” then, too, in a sense: Anti-Catholicism was real and widespread among the Protestant elites (few care today that the KKK hates Catholic a lot more than it hates Jews or Blacks). So Gibbons defied his own Pope (Benedict XV) and told Wilson that Catholics would fight for their country. Right or wrong, he feared a backlash against the “Papists” who were “loyal to a foreign power.” Conscripted Catholics could not refuse to serve. “Division” was ended – by war. A quarter-century later, Roosevelt’s administration was a socialist disaster. In running for his own third term, he mouthed the peaceful pleasantries that resonated the firm desire of the American people to stay out another one of Europe’s wars. Of course, he had already sold his soul to the internationalists who insisted otherwise. So he had to lie. Lucky for FDR in 1940, he didn’t have Donald Trump to run against. But Hillary does, and while “Crooked Franklin” confronted strong opposition from the heartland, Bush and Obama have successfully eviscerated everything west of the East Coast. Today the establishment has no formal competition, and the Military-Industrial-Financial-Etcetera Complex has been inoculated with the ideology of the Clinton generation of the 60s – communists, proven terrorists, liars, and their simpering useful idiots gorging at the trough. But now, 100 million Americans know the score. They are patriots in the old sense of the term. They love their patria – their fatherland. That implies that they have a pedigree – an aristocratic anachronism that the Left hates, of course. They have a home, a neighborhood, a church, a family, and the community that they love. That is also hateful to the Left, which has attempted over the years to destroy communities everywhere with all sorts of “civil rights” pretexts drawn from class envy – to the point where today we are commanded to welcome the stranger who has been brought up, south of the border and in the Middle East, to hate America, everything it stands for, because it is the source of their suffering. As Lord Peter Bauer cryptically explained, they all grew up believing that “their poverty is our fault.” And so the Left will demand war. To keep the peace (a.k.a. Martial Law) domestically, they will follow Stalin’s practice of bringing in troops of different ethnic backgrounds to police resistant neighborhoods and communities. Conscripted inner-city black youths will be sent to predominantly white communities to “pacify” them, while conscripted rural whites will be sent to gang-infested Latino enclaves, and so on. Having effectively and intentionally weakened the military itself with gay activists, PC blather, purging of well-meaning patriots, and the rest, they will nonetheless send it into battle to keep the plunderers of the military-industrial complex well oiled with taxpayer cash. What about victory? As Robert Strange McNamara and Clark Clifford had to slowly and clearly explain to LBJ, “victory” is not what we’re about here; in fact, the longer the war the better. We are at war with Al Queda and Syria is our ally. We are at war with Syria and Al Queda is our ally. Both can be true at once – even though both are false. DoubleThink rules. Here’s the dirty little secret of their enterprise: while the Establishment hates the military, there still resides among the Deplorables a nostalgic, patriotic allegiance to the military. These people might hate the establishment, but they love their country more. The corrupters, confident that they now have the major persuasive public organs at their command, will immediately go into high gear identifying that patriotism with the New War of the corruptos . There will be one avenue of resistance that falls outside the mold: millions of millennials hate both the establishment and war. One might believe, therefore, that these draft-eligible millions (both men and women now registered with the Selective Service) would be strong opponents of the war, as were their grandparents during the Vietnam era. But not to worry: the corruptos will encourage those socialists to enter government service at all levels, to stay in school (free college!) as long as they do it to defend socialism, and otherwise to support the war effort without having to take part in it. No, the cannon fodder will be drawn from the ranks of the deplorable trash – the millennials whose families had been impoverished, whose communities have been destroyed, whose futures are so bleak that being drafted will not be so much a disaster as a means of feeding their families. The thought police have it all figured out. Of course, there will be pockets of resistance – but war is the health of the state and a fatal disease to its dissenting and resisting subjects. Those who pose a real danger will easily be identified with the help of the NSA – how laughable that Hillary blamed the Russians! – And they will be dealt with in many ways easy to predict. Some will be isolated, some will be disappeared, and some will be sent to fight for their country – the way David had Joab send Uriah the Hittite to the front lines to be conveniently killed so that David could satisfy this salacious carnal desires with Bathsheba. The Establishment Hot Tub is full of Bathshebas. Hillary’s hordes (America’s legacy media) have created this myth about Russia to deflect attention (as usual) from reality. One might consider this a cute ploy, but this sets the stage for a very dangerous consequence which she if elected, will find it hard to avoid. Namely, war with Russia. Perhaps they don’t teach 1984 anymore in high schools. Pity. Our youth (who will be drafted to fight this endless carnage) have never heard of the daily “Two Minutes Hate” at the Ministry of Truth. Yet Hillary throws this out there, as a self-serving temporary device, ignorant of the long-term consequences. If she wins she will face a bevy of threats – from Congress, a rebellious FBI, more lawsuits, and general chaos. There is only one way a Leftist can imagine “uniting” such a country: War. And when it comes, we will no longer be permitted to explain it rationally. In the tradition of Father Abraham, who jailed thousands during the War Between the States, Hillary will have to act forcefully “to preserve the Republic.” In the spirit of Tom Lehrer, “If we’re going to write any songs about World War Three, we’d better write them now!” The Best of Christopher Manion Tags: Christopher Manion [ ] a Catholic teacher and writer, is president of Manion Music, LLC , which produces copyrighted, royalty-free music collections for telecommunications media and commercial and hospitality sites that use background music or music-on-hold. He writes from the Shenandoah Valley, where he is a volunteer Spanish translator for local law enforcement. Copyright © 2016 Christopher Manion

San Francisco: Lowest Percentage of Kids in America - Breitbart

Adelle Nazarian

A new report indicates that San Francisco has the lowest percentage of children of any major city in America. [The report by the New York Times indicates that only 13 percent of San Francisco’s population is under 18 years old. “Sometimes I’ll be walking through the city and I’ll see a child and think, ‘Hey, wait a second. What are you doing here? ’” Courtney Nam, who works downtown at a tech told the New York Times. “You don’t really see that many kids. ” The combination of and distance of public schools has resulted in what can be regarded as a mass exodus of families with kids to cities that are more affordable. The Times notes that the San Francisco has invested millions in upgrading parks, according to Phil Ginsburg, the general manager of the city’s Recreation and Parks Department. San Francisco Chronicle writer and San Francisco resident Amy Graff — who is also a mother to three kids — relates her own experience in the city: I was elated when one of my dearest friends finally had a baby, but crestfallen when she decided to move to Lafayette before her son started preschool. I’d assumed her son would grow up with my kids. Same thing happened with another best friend who fled for Mill Valley. My heart eventually numbed to the the mass exodus and I now approach new friendships in the way an army brat might at her third high school. I’m eager to meet new people but hesitant to get too close to protect myself from future partings.

How Philippe Dauman Lost the Battle for Viacom - The New York Times

James B. Stewart

Just a few weeks ago, things seemed to be breaking Philippe A. Dauman’s way in his legal bid to maintain his grip on Viacom — which owns, among other things MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures — by having its majority owner and chairman, the media mogul Sumner Redstone, declared mentally incompetent. In Massachusetts, a judge denied motions to dismiss Mr. Dauman’s suit, calling it “plausible” that Mr. Redstone was suffering under the undue influence of his daughter, Shari Redstone. The judge set an October trial date and ordered Mr. Redstone’s lawyers to turn over his medical records. In Delaware, in a parallel lawsuit brought by Frederic V. Salerno, Viacom’s lead independent director, a judge also ruled that the case could proceed and cleared the way for a medical examination of Mr. Redstone “in a dignified way,” while cautioning Viacom’s lawyers to refrain from acting like “attack” dogs. The Redstone forces dreaded the prospect of more examinations of the ailing and enfeebled billionaire, giving Mr. Dauman and his allies considerable leverage. So when word circulated late last week that a settlement had been reached, there was reason to expect that Mr. Dauman had largely prevailed. This week Viacom disclosed the terms of the settlement in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And for all practical purposes, Mr. Dauman “got nothing,” said John C. Coffee, a professor and expert in corporate governance at Columbia Law School. Mr. Dauman is already out as chief executive, and he will lose his board seat and position as chairman in a few weeks. He gets a severance package worth $72 million — but he would have gotten that anyway under his contract had he simply accepted his fate months ago and exited gracefully. Shari Redstone achieved almost total victory, but at the cost of months of expensive litigation and debilitating paralysis at Viacom. (This weekend’s box office dud, “” is the latest in a string of flops from Paramount.) She will soon be free to replace a majority of Viacom’s directors with people of her own choosing and has already named five new directors. For all intents and purposes, she has now gained unfettered control of her father’s vast media empire. And perhaps Mr. Redstone can retain what’s left of his dignity. So why did Mr. Dauman capitulate? Through a Viacom spokesman, Jeremy Zweig, Mr. Dauman declined to comment. His dwindling supporters contend that he simply acted in the best interests of Viacom’s shareholders after he realized that even a victory in the court cases would take years of litigation and appeals. But surely he knew that (and his lawyers would certainly have told him) before he launched his assault. The real reason, my interviews this week with numerous participants suggest, is that Mr. Dauman had little choice after he lost the backing of many of his handpicked directors on Viacom’s board, who concluded that his confrontational tactics were harming the company and threatening to damage their own reputations. The settlement was largely negotiated not by Mr. Dauman and his lawyers, but by Mr. Salerno, the lead independent director, and representatives of Ms. Redstone, and dictated to Mr. Dauman. Before the settlement, Mr. Dauman played the role of attack dog decried by the Delaware judge — an approach he no doubt learned from decades at the side of Mr. Redstone who, in his prime, was notoriously combative and litigious. The two were so close that Mr. Dauman was once considered a surrogate son. “Dauman learned Sumner’s approach, which is he wanted total control at all times,” Mr. Coffee said. Mr. Redstone rewarded Mr. Dauman handsomely: Viacom paid him $491. 7 million over the last 10 years, according to Equilar, which compiles compensation data. But when Mr. Redstone finally stepped down as Viacom’s chairman in February, Ms. Redstone, newly reconciled and installed in the Redstone mansion as her father’s primary caregiver, opposed Mr. Dauman’s succession as Viacom’s executive chairman. In May, Mr. Redstone moved to replace Mr. Dauman and another longtime confidant of Mr. Redstone’s, George Abrams, as directors of the trust that governs National Amusements. National Amusements in turn controls Mr. Redstone’s 80 percent voting stake in Viacom. (Ms. Redstone controls the remaining 20 percent.) Mr. Dauman and Mr. Abrams sued to block their ouster from the trust, since that was obviously just the first step toward Mr. Dauman being replaced at Viacom. This seemed a dubious strategy from the given that Mr. Redstone and his daughter controlled the company and Mr. Redstone, however physically impaired, had clearly turned against Mr. Dauman. To win in court, Mr. Dauman and his allies had to prove that Mr. Redstone “suffers from profound physical and mental illness,” as his complaint alleged — only months after he said in another court case that Mr. Redstone was “engaged and attentive. ” Despite Mr. Dauman’s early court victories, “there was no way he was going to ultimately win,” said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “It all comes down to the fact that the Redstones had the votes. You may not agree philosophically with the dual class of shares that gave them control, but that’s the reality. ” Perhaps Mr. Dauman was simply buying time, hoping that the mercurial Mr. Redstone might again abruptly shift his affections. In any event, Mr. Dauman had the support of the Viacom board, and, by casting their lots with Mr. Dauman over Ms. Redstone, they, too, were likely to lose their positions if the Redstones prevailed. Remarkably, Viacom agreed to pick up all of the costs of Mr. Dauman’s litigation assault against the Redstones, as well as Mr. Salerno’s Delaware lawsuit. Though they publicly maintained a united front, the board members began to waver in their support as the summer wore on, and Viacom under Mr. Dauman’s leadership posted disastrous operating results. The latest film in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, Paramount’s big summer movie, failed at the box office, prompting a profit warning. On Aug. 4, the company reported a 29 percent drop in profit for the latest quarter. Ratings agencies said they might downgrade the company’s debt to junk status. Given the uncertainty, companies didn’t want to make deals with Viacom, and key employees threatened to leave. Viacom shares have been battered, dropping 46 percent over the last two years. Then Mr. Salerno was distressed to learn that Mr. Dauman’s lawyers were pursuing settlement talks with the Redstone camp — without telling Mr. Salerno or other directors — that would provide him with some kind of transition role. While those talks were going on, Mr. Salerno was speaking regularly with Aryeh Bourkoff, founder and chief executive of LionTree, a boutique investment advisory firm. Mr. Bourkoff had no formal role (and wasn’t being paid) but, as investment bankers often do, offered his advice, which was to focus on the interests of the company and not Mr. Dauman’s increasingly bitter and personal feud with the Redstones. Once Mr. Salerno recognized that Mr. Dauman’s position as chief executive was no longer tenable, given Viacom’s deteriorating performance and continued hostility from the Redstones, he realized that his goals for the company weren’t all that different from Ms. Redstone’s. An early resolution of the lawsuits and the removal of Mr. Dauman would end the paralysis at the company, which is losing ground in a media environment. Mr. Bourkoff contacted Ken Lerer, a venture capitalist, a founder of The Huffington Post (recently acquired by Verizon) and chairman of BuzzFeed. Mr. Lerer is close to Ms. Redstone, and she had publicly named him as one of her choices for the Viacom board. Mr. Bourkoff suggested Mr. Lerer meet privately with Mr. Salerno. With Ms. Redstone’s blessing, Mr. Salerno, Mr. Bourkoff and Mr. Lerer met at Mr. Lerer’s weekend home in Quogue, on Long Island, on Aug. 7, just three days after the weak earnings news. According to both Mr. Lerer and Mr. Bourkoff, it didn’t take long to reach the basic terms of an agreement. There wasn’t much in it for Mr. Dauman, although he avoided the prospect of years of mudslinging litigation that might well have damaged his reputation as much as Mr. Redstone’s. Mr. Salerno kept Mr. Dauman informed, but ultimately gave him little choice but to accept the terms. Mr. Salerno and the directors fared a little better. They get to stay on the board until the next annual meeting and board election, which will be moved up to no later than Feb. 3. National Amusements can then choose three of the six independent directors up for election, meaning three current board members will retain their seats. Thought it hasn’t been decided yet who those three will be, Mr. Salerno’s negotiating manages to keep some independent directors. Ms. Redstone’s five nominees (Mr. Lerer among them) will join the board now, and no material decisions can be made without a supermajority vote, effectively giving Ms. Redstone’s representatives immediate veto power over any major decision, such as a sale of Paramount. So what did Mr. Dauman accomplish, other than indulging his anger toward Mr. Redstone and enriching a bevy of lawyers and other advisers, to the detriment of Viacom? About the best that can be said for Mr. Dauman, Mr. Coffee offered, is that “it could have been worse. ” “He didn’t fight to the final bunker,” Mr. Coffee added. If he had, “Viacom would have been paralyzed for years. ”

HILLARY PROMISES END TO VIOLENCE THROUGH CIVILIAN DISARMAMENT

newsguy76

Home › GUNS › HILLARY PROMISES END TO VIOLENCE THROUGH CIVILIAN DISARMAMENT HILLARY PROMISES END TO VIOLENCE THROUGH CIVILIAN DISARMAMENT 3 SHARES [10/31/16] With just days left before Americans will go to the polls to elect a new president, voters committed to continuing to live under the protections of personal liberty in the Constitution must examine positions taken by the candidates on key issues. In this article, we’ll look at Hillary Clinton’s call for civilian disarmament and what Americans could do to prevent this policy from coming to pass, even if Clinton is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. On her campaign website, Clinton makes several unconstitutional promises that would have the effect of disarming millions of Americans and threatening the enjoyment of the right to keep and bear arms of millions more. Here’s a sample from her list of presidential promises: As president, Hillary will: Expand background checks to more gun sales — including by closing the gun show and internet sales loopholes — and strengthen the background check system by getting rid of the so-called “Charleston Loophole.” Take on the gun lobby by removing the industry’s sweeping legal protection for illegal and irresponsible actions (which makes it almost impossible for people to hold them accountable), and revoking licenses from dealers who break the law. Keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, other violent criminals, and the severely mentally ill by supporting laws that stop domestic abusers from buying and owning guns, making it a federal crime for someone to intentionally buy a gun for a person prohibited from owning one, and closing the loopholes that allow people suffering from severe mental illness to purchase and own guns. She will also support work to keep military-style weapons off our streets. There are so many constitutionally repugnant statements in these three paragraphs. First, there is no such thing as a gun show loophole. Here’s the truth as explained by the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute: If the voters learn the facts about gun shows, they will discover that there is no gun show loophole, no gun show crime problem and no reason to adopt federal legislation whose main effect would be to infringe on First and Second Amendment rights. Despite what some media commentators have claimed, existing gun laws apply just as much to gun shows as they do to any other place where guns are sold. Since 1938, persons selling firearms have been required to obtain a federal firearms license. If a dealer sells a gun from a storefront, from a room in his home or from a table at a gun show, the rules are exactly the same: he can get authorization from the FBI for the sale only after the FBI runs its “instant” background check (which often takes days to complete). As a result, firearms are the most severely regulated consumer product in the United States — the only product for which FBI permission is required for every single sale. Surely Clinton and her advisors are aware of this fact and that they are misrepresenting the situation to uninformed voters, thus their insistence on “closing the gun show loophole” becomes nothing less than another attempt to demand the surrender of natural rights in exchange for a “safer world.” Next, with regard to the creation of “universal background checks,” here’s more from Cato: Gun-control advocates often claim that 40 percent of annual firearms sales take place today without background checks. The Washington Post “fact-checker” has debunked that claim, giving it “Three Pinocchios.” The Post noted that the survey data used for the study on which the 40 percent claim is based are more than two decades old, which means they were collected prior to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System becoming operational in 1998. The survey only polled 251 people, and, upon asking whether their gun transfer involved a federally licensed dealer — that is, a federal firearms licensee (FFL) — gave respondents the choice of saying “probably” or “probably not” in addition to “yes” and “no.” Post navigation

Why Republicans Are Probably Stuck With Donald Trump - The New York Times

Alan Rappeport

The recording that emerged on Friday revealing Donald J. Trump speaking in vulgar and demeaning terms about women prompted extraordinary backlash from Democrats and Republicans, raising questions about whether the Republican Party could dump its nominee at the last minute and find someone more viable a month before Election Day. While the idea of replacing Mr. Trump has been a fantasy for some “Never Trump” Republicans for months, the reality is that removing him from the ticket at this point would be exceedingly complicated. Here’s a look at some of the questions that Republicans are mulling. “It’s the equivalent of a triple bank shot, really,” said Benjamin Ginsberg, a lawyer at Jones Day who was national counsel for the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and George W. Bush. Mr. Ginsberg said that the Republican Party did not have a mechanism to replace a nominee just because it wants to. The party’s rules state that “the Republican National Committee is hereby authorized and empowered to fill any and all vacancies which may occur by reason of death, declination, or otherwise of the Republican candidate for president of the United States. ” That essentially means that Mr. Trump would have to die or become incapacitated for the Republican Party to replace him. The use of the word “otherwise” has led some people to suggest that the party has some leeway for ridding itself of Mr. Trump. However, election law experts do not agree. The issue came up before the Republican National Convention when critics of Mr. Trump mused about ways to keep him from winning the nomination. Josh Putnam, a political science lecturer at the University of Georgia, addressed the idea on his blog, FrontloadingHQ, in August and deemed it a nonstarter. “The intention there was to allow the party latitude to replace someone who was incapacitated, neither dead nor dropped out of the race,” Mr. Putnam said. “It’s not about what to do if someone made some controversial comments on a tape 11 years ago and we want to replace them now. ” Mr. Putnam concluded that Mr. Trump’s dropping out of the race was the most probable scenario for getting him off the ticket absent a health calamity. If Mr. Trump dropped out of the race, the Republican National Committee would have to race against the clock to find a replacement that members could agree upon. The rules committee would scramble to determine who would be eligible to be nominated and how such a nomination would proceed. The 168 committee members representing state delegations would have to hold a vote and, as Mr. Trump did at the convention in Cleveland, the new nominee would need to win at least 1, 237 delegates to become the party’s . Mr. Trump and the nominee, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, are already on the ballots across the country, and Mr. Ginsberg said that swapping the nominee would require a dizzying amount of litigation to try to get states to add someone else’s name and reprint their ballots. Adding to the complexity is the fact that early and absentee voting has started in many places and, presumably, many ballots have been cast for Mr. Trump. Mr. Ginsberg says that the laws are murky here, with voters technically picking “electors” who are bound in some states to whoever is the nominee and in other states to the specific candidates. Ideally for the party, votes cast for Mr. Trump would go to the new nominee, but that would probably be subject to litigation. “It is an exercise of lawyers’ fantasies to imagine the litigation that would take place,” Mr. Ginsberg said. “You would have to amass an army of lawyers and send them to each state. ” There is. Richard Winger, the editor of Ballot Access News, points out that in 1912, the Republican incumbent nominee for vice president, James Sherman, died in October. His name remained on the ballots but all of the Republican electors voted for the new nominee, Nicholas Murray Butler, who had been chosen in late October by the national Republican committee. On the Democratic side, the death of Horace Greeley in 1872 came after the election but before the Electoral College cast its votes. In that case, most electors voted for other presidential and candidates. Congress rejected the votes by Democratic electors that went to Mr. Greeley, who had lost to Ulysses S. Grant. “The electors are the deciders,” Mr. Winger said. “I suspect there are a few Republican electors who expect to be elected and who are planning to vote for someone other than Trump. I think both Evan McMullin and Gary Johnson are trying to persuade various likely Republican electors to vote against Trump in the Electoral College in December. ” The Republican National Committee could try to change its rules (or its rules about changing rules) and come up with a new way to find a different nominee. Of course, this would probably bring chaos and cause Mr. Trump and his legions of supporters to declare the process “rigged. ”

Frank Clayton

Don't worry Sheriff Joe we have your back

Bank of Canada Commentary Whipsaws Loonie

IWB

Bank of Canada Commentary Whipsaws Loonie by: otterwood Over the last two weeks we’ve seen more evidence of declining confidence in central banks (see my video on eroding confidence in the establishment here ). The Canadian dollar experienced wild swings on the back of comments from the Bank of Canada and Governor Poloz. Last Wednesday the Canadian dollar rallied after the Bank of Canada referenced downside risks to inflation and then barely an hour later the Loonie plummeted when Governor Poloz said the committee “actively” considered cutting rates. Then on Monday we saw a similar dynamic play out when Poloz said “the best plan right now, we think, is to wait for the next 18 months or so,” in a testimony to the House of Commons. The Loonie strengthened significantly on the comment only to completely reverse when Poloz said the comment referred to the output gap and note monetary policy. The lack of consistency in the Bank of Canada’s communication is creating volatility in asset markets and it can be seen in the USDCAD, see below.

Divers Find Body of Toddler Snatched by Alligator at Disney Resort - The New York Times

Nick Madigan and Christine Hauser

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Lane Graves was doing what any boy would be doing on a hot Florida evening — splashing around in the shallow waters of a lagoon. His parents and sister, Nebraskans all, were nearby on the beach at a Disney resort here, relaxing, carefree. Suddenly, an alligator sprang from the water and clamped its jaws around the boy. Lane’s father, Matt Graves, bounded into the lagoon to wrestle his son from the animal’s grasp, but lost the battle, according to an account by the Orange County sheriff, Jerry L. Demings. The alligator made off with the boy, and an intense search for him yielded nothing in the wide, murky expanse of water until more than 16 hours later, early on Wednesday afternoon, when divers found him about six feet below the surface and only 10 to 15 feet from where he had last been seen. He was placed in a marine patrol boat, covered with a white sheet, and turned over to the medical examiner for an autopsy. During a news conference less than a mile from the lagoon, Sheriff Demings said that he and a Catholic priest had delivered the “tough message” of the boy’s death to Mr. Graves, his wife, Melissa, and their daughter, who live in the Elkhorn section of Omaha, Neb. “The family was distraught but also, I believe, relieved that we were able to find their son,” said the sheriff, who noted that there was no question in his mind that “the child was drowned by the alligator. ” Lane had been splashing about, the sheriff said, despite a sign that said swimming was not permitted in the lagoon. His father also summoned a lifeguard from a nearby pool, but he, too, was unable to rescue the boy. The medical examiner ruled Thursday that the cause of death was drowning and traumatic injuries. In a statement on Thursday, the family expressed their appreciation for everyone involved in the search and asked for privacy. “We are devastated,” the statement said. The recovery ended a search that began shortly after 9 p. m. on Tuesday in the lagoon at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. The artificial lake, which covers about 200 acres, is 14 feet deep in parts and feeds a series of canals that wind through the Disney complex. It lies across from the Magic Kingdom theme park. Alligators are a common sight in Florida ponds, lakes, lagoons and canals. The sheriff said five alligators were taken from the lagoon after the boy went under. They have been euthanized to determine if any of them killed the boy. Sheriff Demings noted that Disney had been in business in the area for 45 years and had never had a similar incident, and that no “nuisance alligators” had been reported in the area recently. “Everyone here at the Walt Disney World Resort is devastated by this tragic accident,” Jacquee Wahler, vice president of the Walt Disney World Resort, said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with the family. We are helping the family and doing everything we can to assist law enforcement. ” Ms. Wahler said on Thursday that the beaches at the resort were closed and would remain to guests. “We are conducting a swift and thorough review of our processes and protocols,” she said. “This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings. ’’ The resort has a wildlife management team that monitors alligators and other animals and regularly removes any that appear to be troublesome, according to Nick Wiley, executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He said that alligator attacks were “not common at all” but that alligators were capable of moving across land and underwater so fencing them off was not a feasible option. But some visitors to the resort on Wednesday said Disney could have done more to protect the child and other visitors beyond simply posting the “No Swimming” signs that dot the periphery of Seven Seas Lagoon and others like it. “Disney should always have these lakes patrolled, with all the money they’re making,” Jerome Powell, a hotel concierge who works for a Disney competitor, said as he waited for a shuttle bus near the Magic Kingdom. “That alligator should never have been in that water. For the alligator to be able to walk right out of the lagoon and grab that child, that’s crazy. ” Kaitlynn Michaud, 16, from Ellington, Conn. who was visiting with her mother, Kim, said a mere “No swimming” sign “isn’t really helpful enough” when alligators were known to be part of the natural population. “You can still be near the water,” she said, “and get into trouble. ” Thomas Scolaro, a partner at the Miami law firm Leesfield Scolaro, which has represented families after alligator attacks elsewhere, said that in this case, “the facts look horrible for Disney. ” “While this is a tragedy, it was entirely preventable had Disney acted reasonably and not left unwitting tourists at the mercy of dangerous and wild animals that roam its resort,” he said. The child’s death was another blow to an area already on edge after the shootings at an Orlando nightclub early on Sunday and the murder two days earlier of a popular singer. A state tourism official did not respond to a request for comment. Wildlife experts estimate that there are 1. 3 million alligators in Florida, and that they can be found in all 67 counties. They prefer freshwater lakes and rivers and their associated wetlands, but they can also be found in brackish water habitats, said Tammy Sapp, a spokeswoman for the state fish and wildlife commission. “Anywhere there is standing water, an alligator might be found,” she said, Last year, the Central Florida area had its first reported fatal alligator attack since 2007. The body of a swimmer, James Okkerse, 61, of DeBary, Fla. was pulled from a lake in Volusia County, north of Orlando, and it was determined that he had been attacked by a gator. Also last year, a man who authorities said was fleeing a burglary was killed by an alligator in Brevard County, east of Orlando. The man, Matthew Riggins, drowned, the sheriff’s office said, and his body showed signs of having been mauled. Ed Frank, visiting from Charlotte, N. C. with his wife and two sons, said Wednesday that he was sure the Graveses had been careful. “But we’re in Florida, and there are alligators in bodies of water,” he said. “Alligators in their natural environment are good at camouflage. It’s what they do. ”

CodeSOD: Coldly Fused

Remy Porter

Remy Porter Remy escaped the enterprise world and now works as a consultant. Editor-in-Chief for TDWTF. In 1989, a pair of physicists claimed to have achieved the fusion of hydrogen at room temperatures. This came as quite a shock to other physicists, since fusion was only known to happen inside of stars. Within a few months, their claims were roundly rejected. Cold fusion became synonymous with junk science. Fast forward to 1995. when a small company wanted to make its own set of generous claims about its web application framework. Allaire, Inc (eventually bought out by Macromedia, which itself was eaten by Adobe), claimed that its Cold Fusion could solve all your web development problems. All of your web development challenges could be solved through the judicious application of CFML. Fast forward to today, where I’m surprised to learn that ColdFusion is still in active development. Brian recently had the pleasure of attempting to install it. First, he was annoyed at just the install size- 1.2GB for a web runtime and its assorted libraries. Then… the install failed. Brian poked around in the installer and found the following shell script: DISTRO_NAME= GUEST_OS_NAME= if [ -f /etc/issue ] ; then DISTRO_NAME=`cat /etc/issue` fi if [ ! -z "$DISTRO_NAME" ] ; then if [ ! -z "$(echo $DISTRO_NAME | awk '/Ubuntu/')" ] ; then jre_success=`exec "$actvm" 2>&1` case "$jre_success" in *No*such*file*or*directory*|*install*bin*|*cannot*execute*binary*file* ) echo "JRE libraries are missing or not compatible...." echo "Exiting...." ;; *) exec "$actvm" $options $lax_nl_java_launcher_main_class "$propfname""$envPropertiesFile" $cmdLineArgs ;; esac elif [ ! -z "$(echo $DISTRO_NAME | awk '/CentOS/')" ] ; then jre_success=`exec "$actvm" 2>&1` case "$jre_success" in *No*such*file*or*directory*|*install*bin*|*cannot*execute*binary*file* ) echo "JRE libraries are missing or not compatible...." echo "Exiting...." ;; *) exec "$actvm" $options $lax_nl_java_launcher_main_class "$propfname""$envPropertiesFile" $cmdLineArgs ;; esac elif [ ! -z "$(echo $DISTRO_NAME | awk '/SUSE/')" ] ; then jre_success=`exec "$actvm" 2>&1` case "$jre_success" in *No*such*file*or*directory*|*install*bin*|*cannot*execute*binary*file* ) echo "JRE libraries are missing or not compatible...." echo "Exiting...." ;; *) exec "$actvm" $options $lax_nl_java_launcher_main_class "$propfname""$envPropertiesFile" $cmdLineArgs ;; esac There are a few issues here. First, while /etc/issue is a file that you can reasonably expect a modern Linux system to have, there is no guarantee that it is there, or that its contents will include the identifier of the system distribution. If there isn’t one, the installer makes no attempt to fail over to a different file (like /etc/system-release , which while also not guaranteed, is probably more accurate), or even uname . But that’s all minor details. Regardless of what it finds in the /etc/issue file, it executes the exact same command anyway, raising the question of why it even checked in the first place. [Advertisement] Incrementally adopt DevOps best practices with BuildMaster , ProGet and Otter , creating a robust, secure, scalable, and reliable DevOps toolchain.

Memo To Trump: Fire Janet Yellen Now Or The Swamp Will Take You Down

David Stockman

Memo To Trump: Fire Janet Yellen Now Or The Swamp Will Take You Down By David Stockman. During her Capitol Hill testimony last week, Janet Yellen insisted that she would serve out her full term (until January 2018) and then rather cheekily lectured Congress about the dangers of political interference with the central bank. Oh, my.

Jeff Sessions Senate Intel Committee Testimony Will Be Public

Ian Mason

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee will be made in an open hearing. [The announcement came last week that Sessions would follow up Director James Comey’s testimony before the same committee with his own appearance, but it was speculated that appearance would be in a closed session. The Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr ( ) announced Monday that the attorney general’s testimony will be before the public as Comey’s was last Thursday. The subject of the hearing, which will take place Tuesday at 2:30 p. m. Eastern Time in the Hart Senate Office Building, will be the ongoing probe into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign and the controversy about Comey’s firing from the FBI and subsequently leaks to the press of potentially privileged memos about his conversations with President Donald Trump. Sessions, who recused himself from all involvement in the Department of Justice’s own Russia investigation, was thrust back into the fracas by Comey’s testimony. The fired FBI head strongly implied that the attorney general refused to protect him from or offer advice on how to deal with an overbearing President Trump. He also posited that he was not made aware of the scope and parameters of Sessions’ recusal. Sessions’ spokesman categorically denied these claims in a statement Friday, offering an email sent to Comey in March laying out the attorney general’s reasons for recusing himself and the extent to which he did so. Among the more striking revelations of Comey’s testimony was his admission that he had himself used friend and Columbia University law professor, Daniel Richman, to leak the now infamous “let this go” memo on an alleged conversation between himself and the president. Comey further admitted that he did so specifically to force the appointment of a special counsel, a purpose fulfilled when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had been heading the investigation, appointed Comey’s predecessor and mentor Robert Mueller to that position last month. Also likely on the docket will be Sessions’ own interactions with members of the Russian government. The attorney general’s political opponents have made much of his failure to disclose, during his confirmation hearings and on his security clearance application, certain meetings he had, primarily with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, during the 2016 campaign. Despite Sessions’ insistence that all these meetings were made in the scope of his official duties as a United States senator, voices from the left, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( ) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi ( ) have gone so far as to demand Sessions resign over the matter. Sessions will likely seek to dispel whatever taint Senate Democrats attempt to create over these meetings and clarify the exact chain of events that led to Comey’s dismissal, an action he publicly endorsed at the time. Sessions and Comey’s testimony in rapid succession before the Senate Intelligence Committee is not the first time the two men will lock political horns. As far back as October, Sessions was expressing his misgivings about Comey. The pair’s latest spar will play out before the American public Tuesday afternoon.

G.O.P. Urges Donald Trump to Broaden Outreach to Black Voters - The New York Times

Jonathan Martin and Yamiche Alcindor

When Donald J. Trump went to Detroit last week to deliver a speech on his economic proposals, he laid the chronic problems of the heavily black city at the feet of his opponents, saying Democrats had a stranglehold on power, “and unless we change policies, we will not change results. ” But Mr. Trump had no firsthand encounter with the very difficulties he described: He flew into the city on his private plane, got into his sport utility vehicle and motorcaded on highways past several black neighborhoods before reaching the downtown convention center where he addressed the heavily white Detroit Economic Club. Then he left without taking questions about the decline and nascent recovery of the country’s automotive capital, a hub of black America. In attempting to fashion a populist message, Mr. Trump has criticized Democrats for doing little to address urban joblessness and despair. But in the more than a year since he began his White House bid, the Republican nominee has not held a single event aimed at black voters in their communities, shunning the traditional stops at churches, historically black colleges and barber shops and salons that have long been staples of the presidential campaign trail. Mr. Trump may not have purposefully snubbed black neighborhoods — he rarely plunges into any community to tour businesses, sample local cuisine or spontaneously engage in the handshake and rituals of everyday campaigning. His preferred style of politicking consists almost entirely of addressing rallies, conducting media interviews and receiving visitors in private at events or at his Manhattan skyscraper. But the white billionaire has not just walled himself off from voters where they live. He has also turned down repeated invitations to address gatherings of black leaders, ignored conservatives in states he needs to win and made numerous inflammatory comments about minorities. Mr. Trump’s mix of provocation and neglect has infuriated black Republicans, who fear that the party’s already dismal standing with may sink so low that it barely registers in swing states. “He’s alienated a number of minority voters, and that’s reflected in his low numbers,” said Tara Wall, a communications consultant who helped with black outreach on both of George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns and Mitt Romney’s 2012 bid. “You have to do the bare minimum, and he’s not even doing that. ” Republican presidential candidates typically perform poorly among black voters, perhaps the most loyal constituency in the Democratic Party. Since President Gerald R. Ford received 16 percent of the vote in 1976, no Republican nominee has attained more than 12 percent. But as demonstrated in the past two White House races — in which John McCain received 4 percent of black votes in 2008 and Mitt Romney received 6 percent in 2012 — when a Republican collapses into single digits among and struggles with other minorities, it reduces the number of white votes a Democrat needs to win the presidency. That is what worries Republicans this year, particularly in states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania with heavily black cities, where an NBC Street poll last week showed Mr. Trump receiving only 1 percent of the black vote. (The poll’s three percentage point margin of error among all voters suggests that his support could be slightly higher.) “As is the case with many other groups, Donald Trump is in a race to the bottom,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who last year wrote a book warning his party to expand its appeal or face doom. “He will likely have to get more than 65 percent of the white vote to win. ” Some of Mr. Trump’s advisers recognize the severity of the challenge and have called on him to broaden his campaign. Conceding that she is “extremely concerned” about Mr. Trump’s standing among blacks, Omarosa Manigault, his director of outreach, said she wanted to bring him before black audiences. “I am now looking at opportunities for Mr. Trump to get in front of key partners in the community, particularly civil rights groups and faith groups, particularly historically black colleges and universities,” said Ms. Manigault, who achieved fame as a contestant on the first season of Mr. Trump’s television show “The Apprentice. ” “We have to make an effort,” she said. “It’s unacceptable to say, ‘Oh, it’s just too late, we are not going to try to do anything. ’” While Mr. Trump once prided himself on how popular “The Apprentice” was among and boasted of his friendships with black celebrities, he has squandered whatever good will he once enjoyed among . Interviews with black Republicans and Democrats reveal one reason he is so toxic: He is perhaps the most prominent “birther” in the country, contending in 2011 that President Obama was not born in the United States and leading a charge calling on Mr. Obama to release his birth certificate. And if that was not troubling enough to blacks, Mr. Trump’s call to restore the country’s greatness can sound to ears as if he is nostalgic for a time before a black family was in the White House. He also initially refused to denounce David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who has expressed support for Mr. Trump, and has never expounded on Mr. Duke’s bigotry beyond dismissively saying that he “disavows” him. Then there are Mr. Trump’s heated rallies, in which the candidate has encouraged rough treatment of minority protesters, his attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement and his recognition in June of a black supporter, in a sea of white faces, as “my . ” “We’ve never seen numbers this bad for someone at the top of the ticket,” said Cornell Belcher, a Democratic strategist. “This is much deeper than simply not agreeing with Donald Trump on the issues. This is a much deeper rejection of him. ” Making matters worse, Mr. Trump has demonstrated little appetite to go outside his comfort zone. The encounters he has had with blacks have largely been confined to meetings at Trump Tower. And when Ms. Manigault and other Trump advisers have tried to have him speak to influential black audiences, their efforts have been rejected. In recent interactions with predominantly black and Hispanic organizations — some of which typically receive presidential candidates of both parties every four years — the Trump campaign has either not responded to requests for him to appear or has waited until shortly before the events to say he would not be attending. It took almost seven months for the N. A. A. C. P. to get a “no” from the Trump campaign in response to an invitation to speak at the group’s annual convention in July. Five days before its start, a campaign official emailed to say that Mr. Trump had a scheduling conflict. In early May, a representative from the National Association of Black Journalists invited Mr. Trump to speak at a convention it was hosting with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. After several phone calls and a round of emails back and forth, the Trump campaign told the groups on the day before the convention began that he could not attend. Even among black groups that may have members open to the candidacy of a business executive, Mr. Trump has shown little interest. The National Urban League said it had invited Mr. Trump to speak three times. The first two times, it received no official answer. Most recently, the group extended an invitation for Mr. Trump to speak at its annual conference this month. Ms. Manigault said she had stressed to Trump advisers that he should accept. He declined. “We didn’t get any reason. We just got an email declaration,” said Marc H. Morial, the National Urban League president. “My view is that candidates who run for public office should work to appeal to every segment of the electorate. ” Yet Mr. Trump is not even reaching out to some black Republicans. Joe Watkins, a Philadelphia pastor who worked in George Bush’s White House, said he saw no sign that the nominee was trying to reach Pennsylvania’s black voters. “Every cycle except for this one, the Republican presidential campaigns have reached out to me to help them,” Mr. Watkins said. He is not the only black conservative confounded by Mr. Trump. Gregory Cheadle, the man Mr. Trump referred to as “my ” said he was inspired by Mr. Trump’s success and wealth but was frustrated that the candidate has not done more to appeal to black voters. “He’s a billionaire and so his life doesn’t have to include black people,” Mr. Cheadle said. “It would be great if he went to a N. A. A. C. P. meeting or just interacted with blacks more — and not necessarily for political gain — but just to understand our struggle and what we go through. ” Blacks in Detroit, feeling spurned by Mr. Trump, felt much the same. Marvin Beatty, who like Mr. Trump is a developer and casino executive, said the Republican could have easily found a black entrepreneur in the city willing to host him and highlight the city’s burgeoning comeback. “Would it have necessarily moved the needle? Probably not,” Mr. Beatty said. “But would it have indicated that he has an interest across racial lines in a business attempting to serve the community and fulfill his agenda? Without question. ”

New Podesta Email Reveals Strategy for Rigging Polls by ‘Oversampling’

Editor

By Alexa Erickson This past Sunday, the latest ABC/ Washington Post poll showed a 12-point national polling in favor of Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. This poll, along with various other recent polls from the Washington Post , Reuters, and ABC, has shown a 9-percentage point sampling bias toward registered Democrats , causing an uproar of speculation. Keep in mind, we are neither Trump supports nor Hillary Supporters. The website Zero Hedge reported : “METHODOLOGY – This ABC News poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone Oct. 20-22, 2016, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 874 likely voters. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 36-27-31 percent, Democrats – Republicans – Independents.” These small sampling details shouldn’t be taken so lightly, as they can change the results of the poll immensely, as well as shift people’s perceptions of their candidate’s likelihood of winning. This in turn can deter people from voting altogether. There may be a few more registered Democrats, but they certainly don’t have a 9-point registration average, which the latest sampling polls have shown. Furthermore, the media organizations involved are pulling a certain demographic sampling to get the results they have. Zero Hedge put it into perspective by noting: As a quick example, the ABC / WaPo poll found that Hillary enjoys a 79-point advantage over Trump with black voters. Therefore, even a small “oversample” of black voters of 5% could swing the overall poll by 3 full points . Moreover, the pollsters don’t provide data on the demographic mix of their polls which makes it impossible to “fact check” the bias…convenient. The many recent WikiLeaks documents have exposed Hillary Clinton’s scandalous behaviour, including the release of the contents from her private e-mail server. One of them in particular revealed the close ties the Clinton campaign has had with polling organizations, creating speculation that the campaign is paying the organizations to push the polls in Clinton’s favor. With media organizations using specific demographic sampling details to rig the results of polling, more dismay, confusion, and anger over the possible, if not absolute, corruption that occurs in the U.S. presidential election can be the only result. And to really expose just how rigged the polls are, the latest Podesta emails, which were just released by WikiLeaks , show in disturbing detail just how to “manufacture” the hoped-for results from a certain poll. The email correspondence exposes the request for recommendations regarding “oversamples for polling” in order to “maximize what we get out of our media polling.” One email said, “I also want to get your Atlas folks to recommend oversamples for our polling before we start in February. By market, regions, etc. I want to get this all compiled into one set of recommendations so we can maximize what we get out of our media polling.” And among some of the most damaging materials was an attachment of a 37-page guide. One instance revealed that, in Arizona, the oversampling of Hispanics’ and Native Americans’ populations was highly recommended: “Research, microtargeting & polling projects – Over-sample Hispanics – Use Spanish language interviewing. (Monolingual Spanish-speaking voters are among the lowest turnout Democratic targets) – Over-sample the Native American population” And in Florida, the report discusses “consistently monitoring” samples for ensuring they’re “not too old” and “has enough African American and Hispanic voters.” The report even acknowledges that national polls over sample “key districts/regions” and “ethnic” groups “as needed.” “– General election benchmark, 800 sample, with potential over samples in key districts/regions – Benchmark polling in targeted races, with ethnic over samples as needed – Targeting tracking polls in key races, with ethnic over samples as needed” Many of the Podesta emails give clear insight into why the mainstream media has refused to report on the most damning allegations against Clinton — with this latest revelation simply affirming the reality that the “consent of the governed” is, in reality, nothing more than manufactured consent by one group that holds total power. Ultimately, these elections are a mere distraction, and as John F. Hylan, among others, told us: The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation … The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both parties … [and]control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country. They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government. It operates under cover of a self-created screen [and]seizes our executive officers, legislative bodies, schools, courts, newspapers and every agency created for the public protection. ( source )( source ) These are the ones we should be focusing our attention on. Source: Collective Evolution

Donald Trump Could Put Climate Change on Course for ‘Danger Zone’ - The New York Times

Coral Davenport

WASHINGTON — For a look at how sharply policy in Washington will change under the administration of Donald J. Trump, look no further than the environment. Mr. Trump has called climate change a “hoax. ” He has vowed to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency “in almost every form. ” And in an early salvo against one of President Obama’s signature issues, Mr. Trump has named Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute to head his E. P. A. transition team. Mr. Ebell has asserted that whatever warming caused by greenhouse gas pollution is modest and could be beneficial. A 2007 Vanity Fair profile of Mr. Ebell called him an “oil industry mouthpiece. ” Global warming may indeed be the sharpest example of how policy in Washington will change under a Trump administration. President Obama has said his efforts to establish the United States as the global leader in climate policy are his proudest legacy. But if Mr. Trump makes good on his campaign promises, experts in climate change policy warn, that legacy would unravel quickly. The world, then, may have no way to avoid the most devastating consequences of global warming, including rising sea levels, extreme droughts and food shortages, and more powerful floods and storms. Mr. Trump has already vowed to “cancel” last year’s Paris climate agreement, which commits more than 190 countries to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide pollution, and to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, Mr. Obama’s domestic climate change regulations. “If Trump steps back from that, it makes it much less likely that the world will ever meet that target, and essentially ensures we will head into the danger zone,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which produces global reports on the state of climate science. Mr. Trump cannot legally block other countries from fulfilling their Paris agreement commitments, nor can he quickly or unilaterally erase Mr. Obama’s climate rules. But he can, as president, choose not to carry out the Paris plan in the United States. And he could so substantially slow or weaken the enforcement of Mr. Obama’s rules that they would have little impact on reducing emissions in the United States, at least during Mr. Trump’s term. That could doom the Paris agreement’s goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions enough to stave off an atmospheric warming of at least 3. 6 degrees Fahrenheit, the point at which, many scientists say, the planet will be locked into an irreversible future of extreme and dangerous warming. Without the full participation of the United States, the world’s greenhouse gas polluter, after China, that goal is probably unattainable, even if every other country follows through on its pledges. And, the experts say, without the participation of the United States, other governments are less likely to carry out their pledged emissions cuts. “That target is already extremely difficult to achieve, but it could be done with very hard, very diligent work by every single country,” Mr. Oppenheimer said. The election of Mr. Trump is likely to cast a pall over Marrakesh, Morocco, where global negotiators have gathered for a conference to hash out the next steps for the Paris accord: how to verify commitments are being met, and how to pay for enforcement by poor countries that cannot afford the technology or energy disruptions. Traveling in New Zealand, Secretary of State John Kerry was asked if he still planned to attend the conference, given the results of the election. “I’m absolutely going to Marrakesh, perhaps even more important,” he said. “And I look forward to being there very, very much. ” Pessimism appears to be warranted. Mr. Oppenheimer and other climate policy experts said all major emitters needed to take action in the near term to stave off the 3. increase. Scientific reports released over the last two years have concluded that the measurable warming of the planet because of human activities has already begun. This year is on track to be the hottest on record, blasting past the previous records set in 2015 and 2014. An analysis by Climate Interactive, a scientific think tank that provides data used by many governments, concluded that the policies by the United States would account for about 20 percent of the expected greenhouse gas reductions under the Paris plan from 2016 to 2030. But absent the expected policy actions in the United States under the Trump administration, scientists at Climate Interactive said, the math of emissions reductions will be much more difficult to maintain. “Pessimists will find abundant support for despair this morning,” John Sterman, a professor of system dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in a Climate Interactive analysis on Wednesday morning. “With Mr. Trump in the Oval Office and Republican majorities in both houses,” Mr. Sterman wrote, “there is little hope that the Clean Power Plan will survive in the Supreme Court or for federal action to meet the U. S. commitment under the Paris accord. Worse, other key emitter nations — especially India — now have little reason to follow through on their Paris pledges: If the U. S. won’t, why should developing nations cut their emissions?” The Clean Power Plan is the ambitious centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s climate change legacy and the key to his commitment under the Paris accord. At its heart is a set of Environmental Protection Agency regulations intended to curb pollution from power plants. If enacted, the rules could transform the American electricity sector, close hundreds of plants and usher in the construction of vast new wind and solar farms. The plan is projected to cut United States power plant emissions 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. But the program is currently under litigation by 28 states and more than 100 companies, and it is expected to go before the Supreme Court as early as next year. Mr. Trump and other Republicans have attacked the Clean Power Plan as a “war on coal. ” As president, Mr. Trump would not have the legal authority to unilaterally undo the regulations, which were put forth by the E. P. A. under a provision of the 1970 Clean Air Act. However, Mr. Trump could target the rules by appointing an justice to the Supreme Court and then refusing to defend the plan when it goes before the court. He could also direct the E. P. A. to reissue the plan to be extremely friendly to industry. Such a move would also be subject to lawsuits by environmental advocates, which would further drag out the process. And in concert with congressional Republicans, he could decimate the E. P. A. ’s budget, crippling its capacity. “They may still have to have a regulation, but they don’t have to do it the way the Obama administration did it,” said Jeff Holmstead, a former E. P. A. official in the George W. Bush administration. “And in the meantime, those suits often go on for years and years. ” Even if Mr. Trump ultimately fails to gut Mr. Obama’s climate change rules, he could ensure that their enforcement is delayed through his term, as lawsuits wind their way through the courts. Mr. Trump would face difficulties in his plans to eliminate the E. P. A. although it is likely he could substantively reduce its size. He would need approval from Congress to completely erase the agency, said Jody Freeman, a professor of environmental law at Harvard University and a former counselor to Mr. Obama. Ms. Freeman noted that several major environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, specifically call for rules to be enacted and overseen by the E. P. A. Changing those rules would also require action from Congress, and Senate Democrats would certainly block such efforts — unless Senate Republican leaders opt to scuttle what is left of filibuster rules already weakened by Democrats. In China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluter, climate change officials said they intended to continue with plans to cut carbon emissions regardless of Mr. Trump’s plans. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has vowed under the Paris agreement that Chinese emissions will drop after 2030, and that China will put in place a national system next year to force companies to pay a fee for their carbon pollution. “China’s attitude toward development, as President Xi Jinping has said when he met with Secretary of State Kerry earlier, is that tackling climate change is not something anybody asks us to do,” Chai Qimin, a Chinese negotiator, said in an emailed response from the Marrakesh talks. “It’s what we want to do. ” But in India, the world’s greenhouse gas polluter, the election of Mr. Trump has raised doubts about a willingness to move forward. Under the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, pledged that rich countries would mobilize $100 billion annually by 2020 to help poor countries make the transition to cleaner forms of energy. Indian officials have made clear that their steps to cut emissions will depend on financial aid from rich countries, but Mr. Trump has also vowed to cut all “global warming payments. ” “I think most certainly it will affect the momentum in negotiations because it throws up a lot of questions,” said Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a New Delhi policy group. “The chances of public funds coming from climate finance are much more dismal now,” he said. “Right now I don’t feel very optimistic. ”

In Los Angeles, Ditching the Car for an Eco-Friendly Trip - The New York Times

Lucas Peterson

Los Angeles may feature an abundance of holistic arts, yoga and macrobiotic diets, but it’s probably not the first city that comes to mind when you hear the term “ . ” You can largely thank the 900 miles of freeways and highways in Los Angeles County for that. Few would dispute that the city’s culture is a one, with an obsessive focus on driving routes, smog alerts and the best times of day to avoid traffic. It’s an obsession that has been mocked on “Saturday Night Live,” captured in pop songs and recorded in academic essays. It’s possible, though, to escape the routines of the typical visitor in the name of environmental friendliness. I set out to marry the city’s organic cuisine and healthy, active lifestyle with something that it isn’t widely associated with — leaving a small carbon footprint — by ditching the car and creature comforts of regular hotels. I discovered that it’s possible to rely on the Metro, Los Angeles’s imperfect but quite functional public transportation system, which includes buses, a light rail system and, yes, even a subway. I was able to find a comfortable yurt — that’s right, the traditional Central Asian round tent — in a quiet, wooded part of the city accessible by light rail and just minutes from downtown. And all while saving some money in the process. My girlfriend, Brette, and I rode the long escalator into the bowels of the subway station at Santa Monica Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. “Wow,” she said, “I can’t believe this exists. ” It does feel strange to ride the subway in Los Angeles because it dispels the one huge stereotype nearly everyone subscribes to: that you need a car to get around. “And it’s so quiet and clean,” she said, touching her Metro Tap card to the turnstile (subtracting the $1. 75 fare) and going through. The platform was mostly empty. The limitations of the subway quickly become apparent in that there are only two lines, purple and red, which basically cover the same route. The red line goes from downtown through Koreatown, into Hollywood, before terminating in North Hollywood. If you happen to live within walking distance of one of the 14 stations on the line, and your destination is also on that line, then the subway is supremely useful. But most of the approximately 500 square miles of the city remain unserved by the lines. Bus and light rail lines are more comprehensive and help pick up the slack. Pershing Square, in the heart of downtown, is, however, one of the subway stops, and it deposits you just a block or so from one of the city’s major culinary destinations: Grand Central Market. It was founded as a large arcade in 1917, and can still feel like a market at businesses like Torres Produce and Chiles Secos. But in recent years it’s morphed into its current incarnation: a big, vibrant food hall peppered with a selection of popular restaurants. Opening a place or holding an event at Grand Central is an immediate notch in the belt of any Los Angeles chef. Food prices have naturally skyrocketed, but some good deals can be found. One of the best is the Fast Burger from Belcampo ($5) built in the style: American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and a Thousand sauce. The quality of the beef is what makes this burger a bargain natural juices run immodestly from the freshly ground patty, perfectly complementing the vegetables. The feel of downtown Los Angeles is unflinchingly urban — mere miles away, though, lies an entirely different world. We made our way to Union Station, the city’s rail hub and the largest railroad terminal in the Western United States. A gorgeous, soaring structure erected in the 1930s, its architecture mixes bits and pieces of Art Deco and Mission Revival styles. We found the Metro Gold Line (also $1. 75 on the same Tap card) one of the city’s four light rail lines. It was uncharacteristically drizzly, and those of us waiting for the line squeezed under the shelter on the outdoor platform. The announcement board said the train would be arriving in four minutes. Four minutes passed, then another four. Then another four. The platform was becoming crowded. Finally, it arrived. About 15 minutes later, we stepped out in the Mount Washington neighborhood and began the walk to our lodgings. I found our yurt on Airbnb for $98 a night. It’s essentially a big, round tent with a front and back door a latticelike structure braces the frame. Wooden ribs support the dome, and at the top is a covered translucent wheel, or crown, that acts like a circular skylight. It’s quite beautiful, and the luxuries — a proper bed, for example, as well as electricity — give the illusion of camping without any of the real stuff. It turns out that while I find saying the word “glamping” to be slightly nauseating, the actual act is very pleasant. The yurt is set on a raised platform in a quiet, hilly section of Mount Washington, a neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles known for its steep and winding streets. The owners left the keys and some lovely touches: tea and coffee, an electric kettle, a French press, even a bottle of inexpensive wine. There were travel books in the night stand, as well as a small portable heater. The back door led to the outdoor bathroom and shower area, with a dry composting toilet (and instructions for how to use it) as well as a sink and shower with a “gray water” system (it runs off and feeds the plants in the garden the hosts provide soap). Using the outdoor shower was one of the highlights of the stay: I was expecting to take a quick, freezing shower and immediately towel off and run back inside. But the water heater worked well, and I was able to take a relaxing, warm shower in the drizzly, weather, right next to an enormous prickly pear cactus on the hillside. While the city’s public transit system proved mostly reliable, I decided to try other transportation options. CicLAvia is an initiative that creates daylong events for biking, skating and walking. The aim is to get people to explore their neighborhoods by means other than cars by creating large, open public spaces out of Los Angeles’s streets. “L. A. is mostly known for destination points — you go from point A to point B,” said Romel Pascual, executive director of CicLAvia. “You do that in a car and you miss everything in between. This makes you slow down and appreciate the moments. ” My brother, Loren, in town for a visit, and I decided we would rent bikes and participate in the San Fernando Valley edition of CicLAvia. We met at Retro Xpress Bicycles on Victory Boulevard and asked for two day rentals. “Well,” the man behind the counter said, pursing his lips, “we don’t have many bikes left. ” He stopped and pointed at two pink girls’ bikes that were way too small. “This is all we got left. ” I couldn’t tell if he was just trolling me or if he was serious. He was serious. We walked out with the two bright pink bikes and two helmets for $19. 95 apiece. The ride up to the corner of Van Nuys and Roscoe, where the event began, was mostly uneventful — we did get a few honks, hoots and hollers from passing cars. Once we were in the confines of the stretch of CicLAvia, no one cared. The entire boulevard was closed to traffic, and tents and food trucks were set up along the sidewalks. It was a giant street fair there were lots of pets, children and residents of all ages. Many were biking, others conversing and getting to know one another. Mr. Pascual was right — it was enlightening to slow down and get an perspective on the neighborhood, all while strengthening a sense of community. I had covered four of the five major alternatives to cars in Los Angeles: foot, bike, subway, light rail. That left the bus. Brette and I embarked on an epic trip (Line 733) from downtown to Venice one afternoon — it was a good 80 to 90 minutes to make the 14. haul and reach the big roundabout near Main Street and Venice Way, just steps from the Venice Boardwalk. Our destination was Seed Kitchen, a restaurant opened in 2008 by Eric Lechasseur and Sanae Suzuki that specializes in vegan, macrobiotic meals. I ordered a saisai doniburi macro bowl ($12. 95) which contained kale, shiitake mushrooms, beans and Japanese pumpkin. I was surprised by how flavorful it was — the balsamic miso dressing certainly helped. But why pay at all for your food when you can snack free on the plants and flowers that grow all around you? That’s the philosophy of Pascal Baudar, a forager and wild food consultant. He leads regular classes and excursions into Los Angeles’s forested areas in search of edible plants, mushrooms and flowers. Brette and I paid $20 each to join him one morning close to the Tujunga Wash, near the Angeles National Forest in the far northern part of the city. Our group of six began a leisurely stroll through the forest, and Mr. Baudar stopped to point out dozens of plants that have culinary uses: bright yellow mustard flowers, elderberry, curling dock and watercress. We spotted a couple of men carrying large bags of watercress they’d picked near the Wash. “Those guys,” Mr. Baudar said, “they make mistakes. ” I asked him what he meant. He explained that we were at a horse crossing, and where plants grow in water, you want to pick plants upstream of any animal activity, to avoid possible bacteria. Mr. Baudar had other useful tips, including how to differentiate poison hemlock from edible hemlock . (Cow parsley and Queen Anne’s lace, for example, have tiny hairs on their stems poison hemlock has smooth stems.) Later, we sipped on a homemade soda he had made from elderflowers and munched on our trove of wild plants. I was learning that Los Angeles’s sprawl and geographical diversity work for it in many ways. They yield an impressive breadth of activities, which, with a little work, can take place without spending one minute in a car.

Damien Hirst Alienated Collectors. Will His New Work Win Them Back? - The New York Times

Robin Pogrebin

Imagine the Rolling Stones coming out with a new acoustic album or Christo preparing to wrap some remote island in parachute fabric. That is the kind of anticipation that surrounds the artist Damien Hirst’s first new body of work in several years, to be unveiled in Venice on April 9, a month before the Biennale there. The show, billed as “10 years in the making,” is also the first time the Pinault Collection’s two locations — the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana — will be dedicated to a single artist. Like previous Hirst extravaganzas, this project is being rolled out with the same hypervigilant level of control and fanfare. And hovering over the project is whether — given the precipitous drop in his prices after his Sotheby’s auction in 2008 — the celebrity artist can have another chapter. Has the darling of the ’90s — who led the Young British Artists, or Y. B. A. s, and was known for his $12 million shark in a tank — jumped the shark? And given that many buyers were left bitterly holding the bag after Mr. Hirst flooded the market with his work at the Sotheby’s sale, doing an end run around his dealers, will collectors give him another chance? “He’s certainly confounded the market before. It depends on how successful the work is,” said Marc Porter, a chairman of Sotheby’s fine art division. “He’s taking on Venice and that’s audacious. ” The project, “Treasures From the Wreck of the Unbelievable,” according to those who have glimpsed it, resembles jeweled buried treasure covered with coral as if just pulled out of the ocean, like relics from the lost city of Atlantis or Captain Nemo. It includes some 250 pieces in various sizes ranging in price from about $400, 000 for small jade objects to $4 million for a malachite head of Medusa. Potential buyers cannot view the work in person, nor can they receive images by email, a courtesy typically afforded top collectors. Instead, a representative from one of Mr. Hirst’s two galleries — Gagosian in New York and White Cube in London — visits with an iPad to flip through photographs of the work. Mr. Hirst declined to comment, as did his dealers, Larry Gagosian and Jay Jopling of White Cube, who said all news media requests had to go through Mr. Hirst’s studio, Science UK Limited. The Pinault Collection’s owner, François Pinault, also refused to be interviewed his museum has posted just a couple of tantalizing photographs of Mr. Hirst’s coming show on its website. The Venice show is the third prong of Mr. Hirst’s apparent stab at a second act. The first was his opening of the Newport Street Gallery in south London in October 2015, which presents exhibitions of work from his collection. Then in April Mr. Hirst, 51, announced that he was returning to the Gagosian gallery, having left it in 2012. Already his market is showing signs of strengthening. One of his large butterfly canvases sold at Christie’s in November for a respectable $1 million, given the estimate of $900, 000 to $1. 2 million. Just about everyone in the art world agrees that Mr. Hirst has some healing to do. While he pulled off the unthinkable by selling $200 million of his work at the Sotheby’s sale on Sept. 15, 2008 — bypassing the usual gallery channels and on the same infamous day that Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy — the result was a surfeit of Hirst pieces on the market, which hurt his prices. “In many ways that auction marked the beginning of the end,” said the dealer Helly Nahmad. Where his pill cabinet “Lullaby Spring” sold at Sotheby’s in 2007 for $19. 2 million, for example, his pill cabinet “Lullaby Winter” sold at Christie’s in 2015 for $4. 6 million. More recently, one of his spot paintings sold in Sotheby’s contemporary art day sale in November for just $396, 500, considerably lower than the $1. 7 million they sometimes fetched in 2013. “People inexplicably bought into that sale, precipitating a downward market death spiral that took us all down with them,” said Adam Lindemann, the collector and dealer, referring to Mr. Hirst’s Sotheby’s auction. “His market collapsed and hasn’t really revived since. “And now he’s back like Arnold,” Mr. Lindemann continued, referring to a line from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Terminator” films. “Remember the old saying, ‘Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. ’” Because Mr. Hirst is so prolific, there is the growing sense that his works are ubiquitous, an impression that would be countered, collectors say, by a catalogue raisonné that offered a full accounting of his work. “As an investor, which I am, before undertaking such an investment you have to really make sure that the production is somewhat under control,” Mr. Nahmad said. “The market doesn’t like chaos and the market doesn’t like confusion. If Damien Hirst came out with an extensive catalogue raisonné, people could see an order to his body of work. How many units exist? How many butterflies? How many spot paintings?” At the same time, art experts say, Mr. Hirst is the real deal — not just a flash in the pan or a relic of the past, but an artist with exceptional talent and staying power. True, he had the temerity to charge $100 million for a diamond encrusted skull in 2007 and to take over all of Gagosian’s galleries in 2012 (11 of them at the time) with a retrospective of his spot paintings. But Mr. Hirst, collectors, dealers and auction executives say, is worthy of attention, as evidenced by the Tate Modern’s decision to devote a retrospective to his work in 2012. “He is still one of the greatest artists of this century,” said the real estate developer Aby Rosen, who described himself as “long on Hirst” in his art collection, calling the new “Treasures” work “stunning. ” “He will produce till he dies because he has so much brain — he’s so deep,” Mr. Rosen added. “And this guy is not going away. ” As to whether collectors unable to sell their Hirsts had a right to be frustrated, Mr. Rosen said: “If you want to be a collector, you have to collect wide and deep, and within your portfolio things will go up and down. If you buy two stocks and one goes down, don’t be angry at IBM or G. M. ” There are those who say that Mr. Hirst’s coming shows in Venice are inextricably linked with Mr. Pinault, who owns Christie’s auction house and has avidly collected Mr. Hirst’s work. Does he want to the Hirst market out of art experts ask, to raise the value of his own holdings? Whatever the case, most agree that Mr. Hirst — with an estimated net worth of $350 million — doesn’t need the money. “I do believe that Damien Hirst — especially early Damien Hirst — will have an important footprint in art history,” Mr. Nahmad said. “The true Damien Hirst collectors, if they love what he’s doing now, they’ll buy into it and disregard that this guy so many times in the past has way overproduced. ” Perhaps more than any other artist, Mr. Hirst has embodied the meteoric rise of the artist as celebrity, the auction market at its height and collectors competing to pay millions for a stuffed shark or flattened butterfly. But as art has increasingly become an asset class, Mr. Hirst has also come to symbolize how a stock can tank. Here, a look back at some of the critical junctures in the volatile yet riveting trajectory of Mr. Hirst. 1991: Formaldehyde Mr. Hirst takes the art world by storm with his tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde, which the billionaire manager Steven A. Cohen buys for a reported $12 million. 1990s: Butterflies Mr. Hirst explores themes like death and science with butterflies pinned under glass. 2000s: Pill Cabinets Mr. Hirst’s colored, handmade pills recall Victorian curiosity cabinets and explore modern notions of medicine. 2007: Luxe Skulls Mr. Hirst announces sale of his skull for $100 million. 2008: Sotheby’s Sale Brings $200 Million Mr. Hirst bypasses dealers to sell all 223 works, breaking the record for a auction, set in 1993 when an Picasso sale brought $20 million. : Tanking at Auction After his Sotheby’s sale, Mr. Hirst’s prices at auction top out at $1. 5 million (for his “Mickey” canvas at Christie’s London in 2014) and eventually fail to sell (his “Beautiful Mickey Mouse Painting,” estimated at $400, 000 to $600, 000 at Christie’s in May 2015). January 2012: Spot Paintings Everywhere Larry Gagosian agrees to show Mr. Hirst’s spot paintings in all of his 11 galleries. December 2012: Hirst Leaves Gagosian Mr. Hirst stuns the art world by announcing that he is leaving the Gagosian gallery, where he has been represented for 17 years. 2016: Hirst and Gagosian Reunite Four years after leaving Larry Gagosian, Mr. Hirst returns to the gallery. “I share a long history with Larry,” the artist says in a statement, “and am pleased we are working together once again. ” Mr. Gagosian says: “Take Damien Hirst out of contemporary art history, and there’s an incredible void. Great artists, like great people, have second acts. ” 2017: Hirst to Unveil a New Work at Pinault Collection in Venice Ten years in the making, Mr. Hirst’s exhibition is to open just before the Venice Biennale, the first time that the two Venetian locations of the Pinault Collection will be dedicated to a single artist.

Non-Stop Gun Battles Spark Fear, Uncertainty in Mexican Border City

Cartel Chronicles

REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — The ongoing hunt for the leader of the Gulf Cartel in this border city has led to more than nine days of continuous gun battles. The clashes resulted in the deaths of at least 14 individuals — including most of the gunmen. Anecdotal accounts by residents place the death toll much higher. As Breitbart Texas reported, Mexican authorities have been targeting the leadership of the Gulf Cartel in this city. Officials focused their efforts on capturing or killing Gulf Cartel leader Julian “Comandante Toro” Loisa Salinas, also known as Juan Manuel Loisa Salinas. Law enforcement officials consulted by Breitbart Texas point to El Toro possibly being forced out of Reynosa and turning control of the plaza to another Gulf Cartel commander. The ongoing violence has sparked rumors about a curfew placed in the city where residents were asked to not be out on the city streets after a certain hour. Those rumors spread through social media as well as messaging applications raising the level of concern among citizens. Breitbart Texas reached out to Tamaulipas law enforcement officials who stated that government agencies at the local, state nor federal level implemented no such measure. Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “A. C. Del Angel” from Reynosa, Tamaulipas and Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Ortiz.

The Russian Far East looks to the American West for inspiration

The Russian Far East looks to the American West for inspiration RD Interview: Yaroslav Lissovolik, the Eurasian Development Bank’s chief economist, discusses the prospects for the development of Russia’s Far East into an important economic and technological hub in the region. RD Interview: Yaroslav Lissovolik, the Eurasian Development Bank’s chief economist, discusses the prospects for the development of Russia’s Far East into an important economic and technological hub in the region. The missile destroyer USS John S. McCain is on visit to Vladivostok on the Russian Pacific coast, taking part in the May 9 Victory Day celebrations. T he American crew praying for the dead. Photo: RIA Novosti Bolstering the Far East region has now become one of the nation’s top priorities, as indicated by The Eastern Economic Forum, which took place last September in Vladivostok. In fact, it highlighted one of the most salient trends in Russia’s domestic and foreign policy: shifting priorities to the Asia-Pacific region and rein-vigorating the idea of neo-Eurasianism, which sees Russia as the center of a big and robust Eurasia, bridging the East and the West. However, will Russia's Far East be able to become the economic hub that will link two dynamic parts of the world — Asia and Europe, taking into account the region's numerous economic challenges. To answer the question, Russia Di-rect sat down with Yaroslav Lissovolik, the Eurasian Development Bank’s chief economist. Russia Direct: The Russian Far East has become a buzzword for those who try to revive the ideas of Russian Eura-sianism and see the Far East as the link between the West and the East. Given Russia’s economic challenges and the fact that the first version of Eurasianism failed, to what extent are their attempts viable? Yaroslav Lissovolik: Geography is destiny. It is inevitable for us if we are located between the two dynamically developing regions of the West and the East . ;If there is economic cooperation between these two centers of the world economy, it is beneficial for us. We could and should bring them together. It is a matter of using the advantages of our geography to yield economic dividends. At any rate, this should be taken into account in conducting our foreign and economic poli-cy. After all, Russia has a century’s worth of experience and the potential of cooperating with Europe, and we should take into account this historical and cultural factor, gain dividends from it and attempt to find new ways of integration [between the West and the East]. Un-til recently, we did have very ambitious projects on a free trade zone with Europe, but today we have to look for more flexible and realistic integration ones. That’s why, we should not be obsessed with this idea in the current situation, when the factor of distance no longer plays the same role that it did previously. The diversification of regional trade alliances is taking place throughout the world. If you look at coun-tries like South Korea or Chile, they have dozens of alliances not only in their re-gions, but also all over the world. So, in our attempts to build alliances in other re-gions, we should look and think globally. In this regard, the prob-lems of the BRICS group [which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] should attract more attention. Yet this integration group is scattered throughout the world and represented, in fact, across every world continent. It is the most representative group from the point of view of world geogra-phy. Also read: " Fulfilling Eastern Economic Forum pledges: Easier said than done " However, we are hardly likely to be able to create such projects like a full-fledged free trade zone with the BRICS countries. Nevertheless, we should not rule out the possibility of economic cooperation with the countries located in the continents, represented by the key BRICS members. Such a global approach hasn’t been actively discussed so far. Hopefully, it will get a boost in the future. ; ; RD: To what extent does the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pose a threat to Russia's in-tegration projects or could Moscow gain from the TPP? If so, how could it do it? Y.L.: At the end of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced key Rus-sian priorities: [establishing closer cooperation with] the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This statement came shortly after the announcement about the conclusion of the TPP agreement on Oct. 5. So, it can be seen as a response to the creation of the TPP. Remarkably, the Russian president mentions both the SCO and ASEAN, because the latter can be a sort of bridge for Russia to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which also includes some of the ASEAN countries. Regarding the SCO, it is a more independent project in-tended to develop Eurasian continental integration. That’s why such a dual ap-proach means that Russia wants to keep its option opens. On the one head, there is a move [from Russia] to establish closer ties and intensify the cooperation with the TPP coun-tries. On the other hand, Russia focuses on the [SCO] continental project as a se-cure alternative. This is the very approach that Moscow will stick to. RD: What are the odds of Russia’s Far East exten-sively cooperating with America’s West Coast? Y.L.: In my view, the most interesting and realistic approach would be the creation of an alliance in the scientific and technological spheres , given the fact that a great deal of the world’s powerful economic think tanks are primari-ly located in the Pacific region, be it California in the U.S. or Japan in Asia. And today we are witnessing the attempts to create such a center, a think tank in the Russian Far East. The integration of these efforts could be synergistic and bring certain results. In fact, this project is a more short-term and realistic project. In the mid- and long-term it would be rea-sonable to focus on investment and more standard tools of integration such as trade cooperation. At the same time, it would be good to be more selective and look for other spheres of potential cooperation. Again, it is a matter of long-term planning, but we need to start thinking about it now. RD: How can Russia gain from the historic experience of the U.S. in developing its Western frontiers to bolster the Far East? Y.L.: Russia could learn from the experience of creating a leading devel-opment region in Silicon Valley — how it worked, why it succeeded and how it be-came a region of accelerated economic development and started playing the lead-ing role in the Asia-Pacific region. It would be useful for Russia to learn the experi-ence of how the U.S. has looked at their [Western] regional development historical-ly: It would give some hints why Russia’s regions on the Pacific Coast failed to do it and are losing human capital. ; RD: Historically, the American West Coast didn’t bring together a significant number of talented people until it became an economic hub and the center of new technologies. Y.L: Certainly, there are a lot of similarities [between the American West and the Russian East] and we need to look at the first steps of American pioneers undertaken to “saturate” this region with human and intellectual resources as well as with investment and trade flows. It was part of one systemic and integral process. All this was coming together. And one of Russia’s problems regarding its policy in the Far East is that we try to modernize it non-systemically, by fits and starts . Or we just focus too much one field — be it education or trade — without paying enough attention to other areas. The systemic approach is key. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; RD: In the late 19th – early 20th centuries, the Far East was seen as the Russian California . Do you think it has enough potential to become the Russian counterpart of Silicon Valley today, given the economic challenges and confrontation with the West ? Y.L.: Definitely, I see the Far East as one of the regions, which should be-come one of the world’s intellectual centers because of its proximity to other intel-lectual centers in Asia-Pacific and the American West Coast. So, the factor of geo-graphical proximity does matter in this situation. Vladivostok is a good candidate given the fact there is one of the leading universities here — the Far Eastern Fed-eral Universities, the venue of the annual Eastern Economic Fo-rum. Also read: " The bold plan to turn Vladivostok into a Russian San Francis-co " After all, the creation of intellectual centers should be located in a place with big companies and a great deal of demand for intellectual resources. The Far East and Russia’s other regions do have such demand. Although it is diffi-cult to create such centers, we have to diversify re-gional development and “saturate” them with human and economic resources. It is a matter of necessity. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; RD: In the 20th century Americans invest-ed in some Russian and Soviet infrastructure projects in the Far East, including the Trans-Siberian Highway, despite political differences and confrontation. Do you think it is possible today? Y.L.: We cannot rule this out and we should work in this direction together with other regional stakeholders such as Ja-pan and South Korea. On the one hand, they can be the self-reliant economic heav-yweights in the region; on the other hand, for Russia, they can be the bridges to the West, because they cooperate economically with both the ASEAN countries [with which Russia is cooperating] and the U.S. So, the can be seen as the linking points between the TPP and other countries within the concept of the Big Eurasia concept. So, we should foster different formats of cooperation in this re-gard. This interview was originally published in Russia Direct's report " Crossing the bridge to the Far East ." ;To get access to the report, ; subscribe ;to Russia Direct.

Prince Knew What He Wanted: Sex, Soul and You - The New York Times

Wesley Morris

At work, propped against a wall, near piles of stuff, stands an Elvis Presley cutout. It’s made of cardboard, pretty beat up, taller than I am and not the greatest photo. (He looks drunk. So does his lamé suit.) But I pass that cutout almost every day, and every day I have the same thought. Elvis was hot. He was a musician, but he didn’t have to be playing music for you to feel this way. Cardboard would do. That’s charisma. And the only star who had more than Elvis was Prince. His hotness differed, of course it came from somewhere else. Cardboard won’t cut it for him. If Elvis was sex, Prince was a sexual orientation. His own. And it was oriented toward you. And you. And you. Name a pop act from the 1980s, and, amazingly, androgyny was somewhere in the mix: Thompson Twins, the Human League, pick a act. For Boy George and Jermaine Stewart, it was the whole mix. Most of these guys were vague on gender and passive on desire: “Hold Me Now” “Don’t You Want Me?” Guys, if you have to ask … Officially, Prince wasn’t gay. But was he straight? Did he blow out his hair, love heels and platforms, and own every look, from flouncy Romantic consumptive to bathhouse matador to Easter Sunday deacon? He did. On “Controversy,” he rhetorically poses the question: “Am I straight or gay?” And yet it never seemed to matter. Even after he changed his name to the symbol of the male gender sign overlaid atop its female counterpart, he was always only ever Prince. And how not vague was he? How not passive? He always knew what he wanted, and most of the time that was you. He could plead, the way he does on “If I Was Your Girlfriend,” from “Sign O’ the Times,” a magnum opus from 1987 where Prince tries seduction by hypothetical . But he keeps hitting a wall, and gets testy. It’s a gorgeous conflation of sexual intensity and sex comedy, Prince as feminist and Pepé Le Pew. He wasn’t a breakup artist (“Purple Rain” is a rare “it’s over” song). He was both a artist and a breakdown master. The includes luscious ballads like “Adore,” “Still Would Stand All Time,” and “Pink Cashmere. ” And a lot of what broke him down was lust. At some black churches, the high point of the service involves somebody catching the holy spirit. The high point of some Prince songs involves him catching the horny spirit. “Kiss” is basically a danceable personal ad (“U don’t have to be beautiful to turn me on”) and when he loses it at the end, screaming, “Ain’t no particular sign I’m more compatible with,” it’s like he’s been out on his 14th different date with a woman who wants to talk astrology. He just wants to go home with the right lady. And where is she? Carnality was to Prince what photosynthesis is to plants. And in this metaphor, as befits a man famous for playing all his own instruments, he’s also the bee, pollinating pleasure. On his records, he could be artistically and sexually promiscuous. But he was curious and studious of whomever he was with, too. And sometimes it could all make him seem ridiculous without equal. Take “The Continental. ” It’s a jam in the middle of 1992’s “Love Symbol” album, the least properly rated of his underrated records (it’s the one with “Sexy MF” and “7,” one of his vaguest but very best songs). On it, he makes an entreaty: “Tell me how you want to be done,” and it conjures images of a man standing at the sex grill in a “[bleep] the cook” apron. This is to say that Prince, in his music, wasn’t shy. (The first song on the “Love Symbol” album announces, “My name is Prince, and I am funky. ”) Some of that was the music: the thump of a kick drum the way his drum programming could sound as if it was knocking on crates, doors, clouds the wizardly keyboard work his alchemical synthesis of James Brown’s precision, ’s shape shifts, the fraying blues of Jimi Hendrix and Betty Davis’s grit. Some of this was the songwriting. He was a terrific poet. And terrific poetry can be thrilling to recite, even if it gets you sent to the principal’s office or slapped in the face. For Sheena Easton, he wrote a song that no could resist. It was called “Sugar Walls. ” Take it from me: “Sugar Walls” will land you in detention. Prince knew. On that one, he used the pseudonym Alexander Nevermind, presumably so that when the song enraged Tipper Gore, the head of the Parents Music Resource Center — and it did — he could restring his guitars in peace. Obviously, Prince saved his best stuff for himself. None of his peers had better randy songs about attraction. No one had a better falsetto ad lib for lust, either: “Owah!” You’d have to go back to the blues or forward to for rivals. Consider “Raspberry Beret,” the first single from 1985’s “Around the World in a Day. ” After the hard edges of the songs on “Purple Rain,” here was something totally new: melting strings, finger cymbals and a melody that sails upward like a balloon. Lyrically, it’s the first cousin of “Little Red Corvette,” a filthy song that should also get you in trouble but whose metaphors — and singing — are too virtuosic for condemnation. The story Prince tells in “Raspberry Beret” is practically a short one. A girl walks into the store where the narrator’s and he rides off to some idyllic place that’s ideal for doing it. This is a song I favor at karaoke. I like the complete sentences, and the confident language makes me feel sexy. But the bridge is the reason I like to sing it. I haven’t found a better one. “Rain sounds so it hits the barn the horses wonder who U drowns out what the lightning feel like a movie star. ” For lots of other artists, that would be enough. But there’s more, because he was clearly on a roll: “They say the first time ain’t the I tell I had the chance to do it all wouldn’t change a ’cause baby I’m the a girl as fine as she was then. ” By the end, he’s caught the horny ghost. The story is so gorgeously worded that I can see what’s happening. Prince was never a big fan of music videos — the ones he does appear in aren’t great. But with lyrics this good, they didn’t have to be. Too many of Prince’s sex songs are too perfect to assert that any one is better than the rest. But if you made me pick the best composed, conceived and executed of that class of songs, I’d choose “Raspberry Beret. ” At least, I would today. Unsurprisingly, the thing about Prince and sex is that you have to be in the mood. He’s great enough to seduce you, but sometimes you want to sweat, sometimes you don’t. And for sweat, I’m partial to the frustration jams like “Tambourine,” a song from “Around the World in a Day” that should have been released as a single. It’s dirty, but it’s no “Sugar Walls. ” “Tambourine” has a tight funk that rattles and thrums. And the screaming is ecstatic. Even better was the slinkier funk of “Hot Thing,” which appears on 1987’s “Sign O’ the Times. ” It’s hard to overstate the importance of screaming to Prince’s hotness. It means something. He, Madonna, and Michael Jackson are the biggest and most important pop stars of the 1980s and early ’90s, and of the three, it’s Prince who could really embed different expressions of lust in his songwriting. Madonna embodied it. Jackson made it sound like a gospel emergency and had more control over that roaring register. But I don’t know that Prince wanted control. Losing it was built into the songs. He never lost it more than on “Darling Nikki,” a song from “Purple Rain” whose notoriety precedes it. All that really happens is that some woman named Nikki — “I guess you could say she was a sex fiend” — sleeps with the narrator and is leaving when he wakes up. I was 9 when the album came out, and the P. M. R. C. campaign against the song must have reached my mother because I was told I couldn’t have a copy. So I didn’t spend much time with that song until I was an adult. It wasn’t until I took a long drive with a friend that I actually heard “Darling Nikki. ” We listened to “Purple Rain” four times. That’s enough to catch new things. We heard the screaming. It wasn’t from an orgasm but from pain. He’s wailing. Then we noticed that pain was tied to the frenzied beating of a kick drum and wondered if the P. M. R. C. heard that, too. Prince eventually expunged the song from his live repertoire. He’d become more conservative and more religious. But speaking practically, who can keep up that level of frustration? There’s something about the way Prince hits bottom that makes me think that he never wanted to go back there, to having sex alone. Raspberry berets for everybody! His interest in partnership and flattery and pleasure were hot — to his partner, but especially to him. In his music, he offers to dance naked ballets and catch the other person’s germs. He would brag about himself. He would also spread the boasting around. His name was Prince, and he was funky. But the hot thing? That’s U.

Inside The New York Times Book Review: The 10 Best Books of 2016 - The New York Times

Subscribe: iTunes | Google Play Music This week, The New York Times Book Review unveils its 10 Best Books of 2016. One of those books is “War and Turpentine,” by Stefan Hertmans. The editors of the Book Review write: On this week’s podcast, Stefan Hertmans talks about “War and Turpentine” editors at the Book Review talk about the year’s best books Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world Ian McGuire discusses “The North Water” and Gregory Cowles and John Williams on what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host. Here are the books mentioned in this week’s “What We’re Reading”: “Scoop” by Evelyn Waugh “The Undoing Project” by Michael Lewis “Today Will Be Different” by Maria Semple We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes. com. From a desktop or laptop you can listen by pressing play on the button above. Or if you’re on a mobile device, the instructions below will help you find and subscribe to the series. 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Podcasts” with a purple icon. 2. Search for the series. Tap on the “search” magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, type in “Inside The New York Times Book Review” and select it from the list of results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, tap on the “subscribe” button to have new episodes sent to your phone free. You may want to adjust your notifications to be alerted when a new episode arrives. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, just tap on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. On your Android phone or tablet: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Play Music” with an icon. 2. Search for the series. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen, search for the name of the series, and select it from the list of results. You might have to scroll down to find the “Podcasts” search results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, click on the word “subscribe” to have new episodes sent to your phone for free. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, just click on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode.

Rosie O’Donnell Texts Trump at GLAAD Media Awards: ’F*ck You, Donald’

Daniel Nussbaum

Comedian Rosie O’Donnell made a surprise appearance at Saturday night’s GLAAD Media Awards in New York City, where she jokingly “texted” President Donald Trump with a defiant, profane message on behalf of the LGBT community. [While honoring Tony actor Billy Porter with the evening’s Vitto Russo Award on behalf of his LGBT advocacy, O’Donnell, who was not previously announced as a presenter at the event, pulled out a cell phone and “texted” Trump, according to Variety. “F*ck you. Donald. From, the gays,” O’Donnell said. “Sent. ” The 28th annual GLAAD Media Awards at the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan honored individuals and media properties that best represented acceptance and inclusivity of the LGBT community over the past year. The night’s big honorees included Porter, Daily Show host Trevor Noah, and actress Debra Messing, who was honored with the organization’s Excellence in Media award. O’Donnell also pledged $100, 000 to fight legislation at the event, according to a GLAAD press release. The actress and comedian has feuded with Trump for years. The award show’s host, television personality Ross Matthews, also took aim at Trump during the event. “We have big stars here tonight. We have more stars than a Trump inauguration,” Mathews said, according to Variety. “To be fair, my Yelp review of the Burger King in Times Square has more stars than Trump’s inauguration. ” Matthews also reportedly noted that the ballroom in which the awards show was being held was the same one used by Trump to deliver his victory speech after winning the presidential election in November. “Since this is the room where Trump won, we’re going to sage the room,” he joked, pulling a stick of incense and a lighter from his pocket. But Matthews and O’Donnell weren’t the only two stars to slam the president during the show. Will and Grace star Messing criticized Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, while accepting the Excellence in Media award. “It’s not enough to simply say that women’s issues are important to you. It’s time to do something. You can change the lives of millions of women and children just by telling your dad stories about real people who are suffering,” Messing addressed Trump’s eldest daughter. “Please stop blindly defending your father and start defending what you say you believe in,” the actress added. Other big winners on the night included MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (Outstanding TV Journalism Segment, “Gay Community in U. S. ‘Forged in Fire’”) Tegan Sara (Outstanding Music Artist) Teen Vogue (Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage) and the Oxygen network program Strut (Outstanding Reality Program). View the full list of winners from GLAAD’s Media Awards here. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

« J’y crois encore ! » par Alain Juppé en train d’effectuer une réservation sur lastminute.com >> Le Gorafi

CNN Fake News Protest Picking up Steam Following Leftist Attack on GOP Lawmakers and Staff

Penny Starr

A protest planned for Saturday at CNN headquarters in Atlanta is gaining steam as protesters rally around President Donald Trump and Republicans following a shooting on Wednesday aimed at GOP lawmakers and staff as they practiced for the annual Congressional baseball game at Nationals Park. [The shooter, an outspoken Bernie Sanders supporter and activist for liberal causes, wounded five people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who remains in critical condition following multiple surgeries. “We encourage everyone to keep Rep. Scalise in your prayers for a speedy recovery and the other victims,” Debbie Dooley of Main Street Patriots, organizer of the rally, told Breitbart News. “We will have a moment of silence at the protest to pray for the victims of the leftist assassin. ” The gunman, James T. Hodgkinson of Illinois, died from his injuries after Capitol Police on security detail for Scalise engaged him in a gun battle. Organizers of Saturday’s event say they want to show support not only for President Donald Trump but now for Republicans — like Scalise, a longtime Trump supporter — and speak out against the “ rhetoric” and fake news from CNN and other media outlets. “I am very encouraged by the interest in the CNN fake news protest,” Dooley told Breitbart News. “ I’ve noticed a big uptick in the intensity level of folks interested in attending the protest after the cowardly assassination attempt of Republican Congressmen by someone on the radical left in Alexandria, Virginia on Wednesday. ” Dooley said she is not concerned about the safety of protesters. “One big reason is that Georgia is an open carry state and violent thugs would be insane to attempt violence at our peaceful protest,” Dooley said. “This hate filled rhetoric against President Trump has permeated many media outlets like CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times,” Dooley said. “Some of CNN’s hosts engage in hysteria in their attempt to bring down the President of the United States. ” “They helped create the toxic atmosphere that Hodgkinson would believe it is ‘open season’ on Republicans,” Dooley said. “It is time for Trump supporters to rise up and say with a loud voice, enough. ” Bikers for Trump 2020 will also take part in the protest. “Bikers for Trump will be at CNN headquarters on Saturday because in our opinion there is no way to measure this level of journalistic malpractice,” Founder Chris Cox told Breitbart News. “CNN exemplifies vigilante journalism. ” Tim Selaty, president of Citizens for Trump, will also bring supporters to Saturday’s rally. “We the American citizenry, who dutifully elected Donald J. Trump as our president, are completely fed up and disgusted with CNN and other liberal media outlets continually launching malicious fabricated propaganda (aka fake news) attacks on our P. O. T. U. S. ,” Selaty told Breitbart News. He went on: We believe this fake news media movement to destroy our president is not only hurting the credibility of mainstream media and undermining our election process but is equally impacting our American society in a very negative way as we’ve seen by the recent attack in Virginia on our elected Republican officials. We demand that CNN and all media outlets have ethics and truth in their reporting or we will continue to mass protest at their headquarters and express our discontent with their sponsors. We ask all of our fellow patriots to stand with us this Saturday at CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia and send a clear message to CNN and all other media outlets guilty of spreading unsubstantiated stories to hurt our president and fellow Americans. “No more fake news,” Selaty said. The protest will take place from 11:00 a. m. to 12:30 p. m. Saturday at CNN, located at 190 Marietta St. NW, Atlanta, Georgia. Cox’s group will also hold a rally on Sunday in Marietta, GA. in support of Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel. “The Bikers for Trump phenomenon will continue to support congressional races across the country for the Republican candidates that pledge support for Trump and we will hold them accountable to that pledge,” Cox said. “We’re encouraging people to come out and support our president,” said Dooley, who is also one of 22 national of the Tea Party. “And to condemn the extreme biased coverage at CNN. ”

Cambodian Opposition Figure’s Killing Recalls Darker Times - The New York Times

Julia Wallace

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A prominent Cambodian political commentator who had recently helped found a new independent political party was gunned down at a gas station in central Phnom Penh on Sunday morning in what analysts called a major setback for democracy and freedom of expression in the country. The commentator, Kem Ley, 46, had stopped in for his morning coffee at the station’s convenience store when he was shot and killed. “The offender was arrested and is being interrogated,” said Gen. Kirth Chantharith, a spokesman for the Cambodian National Police. The general added that the man had identified himself as Chuob Samlab, an unlikely name that translates as “Meet Kill” in the Khmer language. The police said in a statement that the suspect, 38, was from a rural area along Cambodia’s western border and had migrated to Thailand to work on a plantation. A leaked video of his confession to the police that circulated on social media showed him with blood streaked across his face as he explained that he had bought a pistol in Thailand with the intention of killing Mr. Kem Ley because he was owed $3, 000. With its brazenness and target, the killing seemed to hark back to an era of political violence in Cambodia that many had hoped was over. The leading Cambodian opposition figure, Sam Rainsy, called the killing an “assassination” and an “act of state terrorism” on Facebook. Public assassinations of opposition figures and union leaders occurred with chilling regularity throughout the 1990s and but began to taper off about a decade ago as the country’s authoritarian prime minister, Hun Sen, managed to defeat or buy off his rivals and consolidate much of the country’s political power. However, Mr. Hun Sen is now grappling with the most serious challenge to his authority in years. Fueled by the rise of a younger generation of voters who are more educated and better informed than their parents, as well as increasing frustration with widespread corruption and sclerotic government institutions, the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party nearly won the 2013 election. The prime minister and his Cambodian People’s Party have responded with a monthslong crackdown on protesters and dissenting voices, in which many government critics have been jailed or face lawsuits. The National Rescue Party has been paralyzed as its two top leaders have recently faced court cases that could put them in jail for years. Mr. Hun Sen condemned the killing in a statement on Facebook and called for greater security. Mr. Kem Ley was already a commentator in 2014 when he announced that he was fed up with the country’s political scene, which he called stagnant and elitist. He founded a political action network that he hoped would develop new leaders and tackle issues important to farmers that go untouched by both major parties. Last year, his Khmer for Khmer network registered the Grassroots Democracy Party and announced that it would field candidates for local elections in 2017. In the days before his death, Mr. Kem Ley had spoken out about a recent report about the vast wealth accumulated by the family of Mr. Hun Sen, as well as use of the courts as a political tool against the opposition party. “He could simplify complicated ideas into the language of the people,” said Ou Virak, the head of Future Forum, a local think tank. “He was straightforward, often able to narrate stories to make his point interesting and to get the message across to ordinary Cambodians. ’’ Mr. Ou Virak said the killing would have a chilling effect on freedom of expression in Cambodia, making government critics fear for their safety as they had in the past. An angry and grieving crowd of hundreds gathered on Sunday at the gas station where Mr. Kem Ley was shot. Yang Sokhy, a driver, had arrived with a packet of incense, hoping to be allowed to light a stick and pray over Mr. Kem Ley’s body. “I’m just a citizen who liked him, his fan, because he spoke the truth about what is happening in our society,” Mr. Yang Sokhy, 37, said. “In our country, it’s always like this. All people who dare to speak out meet this ending. ”

Angela Merkel Calls for Ban on Full-Face Veils in Germany - The New York Times

Alison Smale

ESSEN, Germany — To loud applause, Chancellor Angela Merkel told her party members on Tuesday that Germany should ban veils “wherever legally possible” and that it would not tolerate any application of Shariah law over German justice. Accepting her party’s nomination as its candidate for another term, the chancellor used the moment to broaden her stance on banning the veil, trying to deflect challenges from forces that have made some of their deepest gains since World War II. In welcoming nearly one million asylum seekers to Germany a year ago, Ms. Merkel emerged as a powerful voice for tolerance across a Europe gripped by anxiety over waves of arriving migrants and fears of terrorism. Now, as parties have advanced at the expense of mainstream parties, including her own, Ms. Merkel tried a tricky balancing act between holding fast to Western values and tilting farther right to avoid being outflanked by populist challengers. In the speech, she repeated the same catalog of beliefs in freedom and equal treatment she had made as an implicit criticism of Donald J. Trump, but also stiffened her position on the veil and suggested that Germany would be more cautious in welcoming migrants in the future. In a clear nod to criticism that the state had appeared to lose control over its borders, the chancellor opened her speech to the annual conference of her Christian Democratic Union with a promise that such a situation “cannot, may not and should not be repeated. ” But the biggest applause lines concerned law and order, including a promise that Shariah law would never replace German justice — a problem that has barely arisen but has been cast as a specter by the party Alternative for Germany. The loudest cheers came for her line on Shariah, followed by her statements on face coverings. “Here we say, ‘Show your face,’” Ms. Merkel told the party. “So full veiling is not appropriate here. It should be prohibited wherever legally possible. ” She did not say what circumstances that included. But the language seemed more expansive than she had previously used. Last summer, when debates broke out across Europe over the burkini swimsuit, Ms. Merkel and other German leaders said they favored a partial ban on full veils. At that time, Ms. Merkel had said that “from my standpoint, a fully veiled woman scarcely has a chance at full integration in Germany. ” But rather than push any new law on face coverings, she and other government officials seemed to prefer the application of common sense. Faces cannot be covered, for instance, when going through a security check at airports. Her statements on Tuesday appeared to expand that definition, though clearly some of her party’s members wanted more. Jenovan Krishnan, 25, the leader of the Ring of Christian Democrat Students, a group with 8, 000 members in several universities, said he and his associates wanted an explicit ban on face veils. Julia Klöckner, one of Ms. Merkel’s deputies as party chairwoman, called last summer for an outright ban on the veils. She was the top in elections for the six deputies at the congress on Tuesday. The atmosphere at the conference was less tense than at last year’s, Mr. Krishnan said. Fewer migrants have arrived since spring, when Balkan states largely closed their borders to migrants. The migrant flow through Turkey has also dropped sharply since Ms. Merkel arranged a European Union agreement to pay the Turks to care for migrants and prevent them from heading west to Central Europe. In the prelude to the party conference, Ms. Merkel had attended a series of regional meetings, occasionally facing a demand to resign, or hostile criticism of her decision to allow migrants free passage in 2015. Little of those critiques surfaced at the briskly managed conference on Tuesday, and Ms. Merkel won a standing ovation. She was reaffirmed in the party leadership she has held since 2000 by a thumping 89. 5 percent of votes from 994 party delegates. The campaign ahead, she suggested, had not been made easier by the result of the United States election — a rare rhetorical distance for a German chancellor, particularly one from the Christian Democratic Union. Washington is easily Germany’s most important ally outside Europe. While not mentioning Mr. Trump by name, Ms. Merkel indicated that his victory could make it harder to define global policy and tackle international security challenges. “A good quarter century after the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the two blocs, many people have the feeling that the world has gone off the rails,” Ms. Merkel said. “We are dealing with a world situation — and that is especially true after the American elections — in which the world must first sort itself out,” she added. “Especially when looking at important things like NATO and the relationship to Russia. ” She also repeated as general principle the catalog of beliefs in freedom and equal treatment for all that she cited as her basis for cooperation with Mr. Trump the day after he was elected. Ms. Merkel was critical of Russia, noting that it was supporting Syria in the bombing of Aleppo. She also said that “something is not right” in Germany, as tens of thousands here have rallied against an pact while “not a single person” has marched against the tragedy unfurling in Aleppo. As a measure of the challenges ahead in politically unpredictable times, Ms. Merkel appealed for support as she enters the election campaign. “People told me I must stand again,” she told her party members. “You must, you must, help me. ”

Hillary Clinton Campaign Manager: We Should Put Out Credible Leaks as Decoys to Detract from the Truth

EdJenner

Go to Article The wickedness of the Hillary Clinton campaign knows no limits. When emails were leaked, Clinton’s campaign manager sent an email to John Podesta suggest not that they admit the truth and repent, but attempt to deceive the American people further by putting out their own leaks as a decoy. The Daily Caller reports: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign manager wanted to leak an announcement — presumably officially announcing her presidential candidacy — as a “decoy” after the New York Times first reported her email scandal in March 2015. “I think we should get a credible leak out that we’re announcing on the 20th. As a decoy,” campaign manager Robby Mook told Clinton adviser John Podesta in a March 12, 2015, email 10 days after the New York Times story broke. The email was made public Monday by Wikileaks. Completing this poll entitles you to Daily Caller news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.Podesta didn’t respond to the email thread and Clinton’s campaign didn’t officially announce her candidacy until April 12, 2015. Clinton’s use of private email addresses and a homebrew server located in her New York mansion to conduct official Department of State business and communicate classified information continues to plague her candidacy, with less than one week before the presidential election. What are some of these decoys? Several have shown up at the Baltimore Gazette . Then there is this from Reuters. Isn’t this just the way Communists operate in putting out their propaganda? I mean we expect it in Communist countries, but this is just outright deception by the Clinton campaign. If you want to know what you would see in a Clinton White House, just recall the lies of Bill Clinton . Then, combine those with the lies of Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Sobarkah and you might get close to the amount of lies you will be told daily from Hillary Clinton and her administration.

EMERGENCY: Congress Considers Historic Action Over Comey’s Re-Opening of EmailGate

Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

1 comment James Comey went from being the darling of the left, to their arch nemesis in an instant. When the four devices, including a laptop, were seized in the Anthony Weiner sexting case, over 10,000 of Huma Abedin’s State Department emails were discovered. First off, Comey had a duty to disclose those emails. Second, as far as redemptive opportunities go, this one is golden. Comey gets a chance to do the right thing and remove some of that tarnish from his name and from the FBI. Now, Congress is considering holding an emergency hearing this next Friday… just four days before the general election. It’s unprecedented and you can bet the Democrats will try to stall. Comey will star at the hearing and the fact that the Department of Justice is either stalling or just refusing to issue a warrant for those emails is telling. That won’t hold up forever… eventually, a federal judge will step in if the DOJ insists on flaunting more corruption. But timing is everything here. Almost assuredly those laptops that the FBI supposedly destroyed, but didn’t, will come up as well. From Western Journalism : Both parties in Congress jockeyed for position Saturday in the wake of the dramatic bombshell delivered by the FBI on Friday regarding new evidence that has led the FBI to breathe new life into its investigation of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Republicans sought to move the issue to the front burner in the week before Election Day, while Democrats castigated the FBI for announcing its probe. One report claimed House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, was considering holding a hearing Friday to grill Comey about the most current evidence and investigation. Congress is currently on its usual pre-election recess. The possibility of a pre-election hearing or briefing was also raised by Sen. Ron Johnson , R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. If the hearing happens (and I pray it does), there will be fireworks all the way into election day and beyond. There’s a really good chance now that Trump may win because of all this. If Clinton wins, this scandal will follow her into the White House as will impeachment proceedings and an indictment. We could wind up with her resigning almost immediately and Tim Kaine becoming president. Shudder. I doubt that House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz is going to let this slide. He’ll be a bull dog on it and he’ll get his hearing this next Friday probably. Both Clinton and Abedin are going to go down over this. I don’t think Congress has ever faced an emergency quite like this one in our lifetime. Related Items Terresa Monroe-Hamilton Terresa Monroe-Hamilton owns and blogs at NoisyRoom.net . She is a Constitutional Conservative and NoisyRoom focuses on political and national issues of interest to the American public. Terresa is the editor at Trevor Loudon's site, New Zeal - trevorloudon.com . She also does research at KeyWiki.org . You can . NoisyRoom can be found on Facebook and on Twitter .

Why are the Russians Exposing their Pre Election Links with the Trump Campaign?

Michael Collins

A national sport in Russia. Habibah Agianda, Creative Common s Why are the Russians Exposing their Pre Election Links with the Trump Campaign? (Washington, DC) A senior Russian diplomat announced that the Russian government had ongoing ties to the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump. A centerpiece of the Clinton presidential campaign was Russian interference with the 2016 United States election. From charges that Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee email server to horror show claims that the Russians would somehow hack election voting machines, Clinton and her cadre were clear about the threat posed by Russia. In addition, there were charges that Trump had ties to Russian oligarchs as a source for business funding. Worst of all, there was the general claim that somehow Donald Trump was under the sway of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rose to power through the Russian intelligence apparatus known as the KGB. The U.S. mainstream media supported the Clinton campaign charges. In late September, ABC investigative reporters ran a detailed article about the “hundreds of millions of dollar” in investments Trump has received from Russian businessmen. The Daily Beast ran a comprehensive four part series on consecutive days starting on November 3. The series outlined Trump’s alleged role as a useful idiot for Putin and business entaglements exposing him to Russian influence (parts one , two , three , and four ). The series culminated with a description of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manefort’s ties to the deposed pro Russian president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich. Trump denied “any relationship with Vladimir Putin” and any influence due to business conducted with Russian business interests. Trump surrogates denied any Russian influence and countered with charges that as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton gave a sweetheart deal to Russian oligarchs in return for donations to the Clinton Foundation. The lines seem clearly drawn. The Clinton storyline argues that Trump endorses policies favored by Russia likely in return for financial and mind control influence by Putin and Russian business interests. Why did the Russian’s give credence to the Clinton campaign charges? The Washington Post headlined a story on November 10 about a statement by senior Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov: “Obviously, we know most of the people from his [Trump’s] entourage,” Ryabkov said. “We have just begun to consider ways of building dialogue with the future Donald Trump administration and channels we will be using for those purposes,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying. Ryabkov provided no further details, and his remarks drew a swift denial from Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks, who said the campaign had “no contact with Russian officials” before Tuesday’s election. Washington Post, November 10 For just a moment, let’s assume the veracity of the Clinton campaign and mainstream media claims of Russian influence on the Trump campaign. Why would the Russians go out of their way to admit this? Why would the Deputy Foreign Minister, of all the possible Russian sources, provide this information? Even a cursory review of Russian diplomacy over the past several years demonstrates a high degree of discipline and caution. Unlike the U.S. government, the Russians speak with one voice. Russian diplomatic efforts are couched in international law. President Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and other Russian diplomats are precise in their language and proposals. They don’t shoot from the hip. This may be difficult to grasp for the politically motivated Clinton campaign and media sources that benefit from demonizing Putin but these are the facts nevertheless. This statement by Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov was no accident. His remarks clearly opened the way for speculation that the Trump campaign was somehow in collusion with Moscow. Ryabkov’s claim that these were routine contacts is an explanation without an audience. Of special interest is the timing of the reported contacts with Trump. The Russians didn’t respond to allegations of contact. They announced the relationship with the Trump campaign. They also announced that a similar offer of contact to the Clinton effort was turned down. Why did the Russian’s initiate this announcement knowing it could hurt Trump at a critical post election juncture? He’s losing the popular vote and demonstrations are emerging all over the country protesting his policies. The New York Times estimates a 1.2% popular vote victory by Clinton when all the votes are tabulated. Trump will be subjected to the battle accusation of imposing extreme changes in policy based on a minority mandate. Why would Russia deliberately release this information? The information is potentially devastating to Trump’s legitimacy as the new president. The Post story is showing up in major national and regional media outlets. Given the calculated, mistake-free style of Russian diplomacy, how do we interpret this outcome in light of the supposed capture of Trump as a tool of the Russian government?

BREAKING: Watch In Awe As Melania Trump Gives Most Elegant Speech Ever Given! * LIBERTY WRITERS NEWS

Danny Gold

0 Okay, So I’m just gonna go on ahead and say that the Trumps are an incredible family. Donald is a strong figurehead, his sons are composed, and Ivanka will be the first woman president. Melania just shook the nation with a new, incredible speech (that Michelle Obama cannot claim!) ***Now a new Trump has risen. Earlier today, Melania shook the nation with a new, incredible speech (that Michelle Obama cannot claim!) She took the stage in Berwyn, PA and began with a simple smile. Then, Melania opened up and told a story. A story of a little girl growing up in the Soviet Union and dreaming of someday being an American. She told how that little girl made it here. She worked hard and got LEGAL citizenship. And now, that same little girl is about to become our next 1st lady. She is that little girl. “When I was 10-years-old we learned that a man named Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States of America. President Reagan’s “morning in America” was not just something in the United States, it began to feel like morning around the world, even in my small country. It was a true inspiration to me.” I think Melania Trump is a true inspiration to American immigrants. She is proof that hard work and dedication can pave the way to success in this country. If you agree and wanna help share this amazing speech out, all you gotta do is send it to all your best Facebook friends who love Trump. We can do this together!

Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles - The New York Times

Katie Benner and Mike Isaac

Lyft, the ride hailing company in the United States, is trying to raise more money just as Uber, its bigger rival, grapples with questions about its culture and leadership. Lyft is talking with investors about new that would put the company’s value around $6 billion, according to three people briefed on the financing who asked to remain anonymous because the proceedings are confidential. One of the people said the valuation could be as high as $7 billion. The company was valued at $5. 5 billion early last year after investors, including General Motors, poured about $1 billion into it. It is unclear how far along Lyft is with the new and whether the round will be completed. Lyft, which is based in San Francisco, declined to comment. The funding effort was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal. The may bolster Lyft competitively, given that Uber has been caught up in an escalating series of internal problems. Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive, has been under scrutiny this year for his participation in an economic advisory council for President Trump amid a social media campaign for people to delete their Uber app. Mr. Kalanick eventually stepped down from the council. Uber has also wrestled with concerns about its workplace culture over the past few weeks, after a former employee published an account of her year at the company, which included allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. In addition, Uber was caught misleading journalists about an accident caused by one of its cars. And Waymo, the car business spun out of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, sued Uber last week, claiming it had used technology stolen by one of its employees. This week, Mr. Kalanick apologized for his behavior toward an Uber driver after a video of him losing his temper with the driver surfaced. Lyft has long been the underdog to Uber. Lyft operates only in the United States while Uber is a global company. The two have previously engaged in pricing wars and have each other. In August, Lyft held discussions with General Motors, Apple, Google, Amazon, Uber and Didi Chuxing about selling itself. The company could not agree with potential buyers on a price. Yet Lyft’s brand has recently looked comparatively attractive. As Uber struggled with its ties to President Trump’s administration in January, Lyft donated $1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union. Lyft’s app subsequently soared to the top of the Apple app store’s download list. Neither Lyft nor Uber has emerged as a financially sound business. Their battle has led them to lower prices and offer deals to lure new customers and maintain their market share. It has been hard for either company to raise prices enough to cover costs. Both Lyft and Uber are still unprofitable and depend on private investment capital to fund their operations.

2 Brussels Police Officers Are Stabbed in ‘Potential Terrorist Attack’ - The New York Times

Milan Schreuer and Alissa J. Rubin

BRUSSELS — A man wounded two police officers with a knife in Brussels around noon on Wednesday in what the authorities called “a potential terrorist attack. ” The two officers were attacked on the Boulevard Lambermont in the Schaerbeek district, just north of the city center. A third police officer, who came to their aid, was also injured. None of the three had injuries. The man suspected of carrying out the assault was shot in the leg. He was identified only as Hicham D. 43, a Belgian citizen. “The provisional results of the investigation indicate that it would be a potential terrorist attack,” Eric Van der Sijpt, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, said in a statement. “The investigating judge specializing in terrorism cases will decide later” about the suspect’s “further detention. ” Mr. Van der Sijpt said that Hicham D. was a former soldier and member of the Belgian Armed Forces, but did not say whether he had been cited before in terrorism investigations. Earlier on Wednesday, bomb scares led to the evacuations of the Gare du Nord, one of the city’s three main train stations, and of the building housing the federal prosecutor’s office, which leads terrorism investigations. The police headquarters for western Brussels was also evacuated, although it was not clear whether this was because of a bomb threat. The threats did not appear to be connected to the knife attack, and no bombs were found, the authorities said. The knife attack occurred as international leaders, including Secretary of State John Kerry, gathered a few miles away for a summit meeting hosted by the European Union on aid for Afghanistan. Security was tight for the meeting, which went on as scheduled. Brussels, the Belgian capital and the headquarters for most of the European Union’s core institutions, has been on high alert since March 22, when suicide bombers killed 32 people and injured hundreds of others in coordinated attacks at the city’s airport and at a subway station. There have been several attacks on police officers in the city’s Molenbeek and Schaerbeek districts in recent months. Schaerbeek had several connections to the attacks in March. Bombs used then, and in the November terrorist attacks in Paris, were assembled at an apartment in Schaerbeek. The neighborhood was also home to Najim Laachraoui, one of the bombers at the Brussels airport, and it was the location of a used by the suicide bombers. The stabbings in Belgium followed several knife attacks in France by French extremists who became radicalized at home and never went to Syria, but who had ties to the Islamic State.

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski: Putting Kellyanne Conway on the Air Is ’Disgusting,’ ’Politics Porn’ - Breitbart

Pam Key

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mika Brzezinski urged CNN to stop giving President Donald Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway airtime because she said was “politics porn. ” Brzezinski said, “Note to CNN, sorry, I love CNN but you have to got to stop putting Kellyanne on the air. It is politics porn. You are just getting your little ratings crack. But it is disgusting. There is nothing she brings to the table is honest. Your hosts know it. Your hosts look pained when they interview her. They know they are just doing politics porn. They are not doing news. We need to stick to the news. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Pope Francis Signs Joint Statement With Lutheran World Federation Church For ‘Full Unity’

Geoffrey Grider

NTEB Ads Privacy Policy Pope Francis Signs Joint Statement With Lutheran World Federation Church For ‘Full Unity’ The Joint Declaration was signed during the ecumenical prayer service held in Lund’s Lutheran Cathedral on the first day of the Pope’s visit to Sweden. by Geoffrey Grider October 31, 2016 Pope Francis and Bishop Mounib Younan, President of the Lutheran World Federation signed a Joint Statement on Monday in which Catholics and Lutherans pledged to pursue their dialogue in order to remove the remaining obstacles that hinder them from reaching full unity. “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4 (KJV) EDITOR’S NOTE: On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany, thus sparking the release of the captive Christian church from the Roman Whore of Babylon, the Catholic Vatican Church system. Exactly 499 years later – today – Pope Francis undid Martin Luther’s work and ensnares an all too willing Lutheran Church with the concordat you can read below. This is exactly what the book of Revelation warns us about, and it is both sad and sickening to see so many Christian denominations so eager and willing to bow before the Roman pope. They also stressed their commitment to common witness on behalf of the poor, the needy and the victims of injustice. The Declaration was signed during the ecumenical prayer service held in Lund’s Lutheran Cathedral on the first day of the Pope’s visit to Sweden. Please find below the full text of the Statement: JOINT STATEMENT on the occasion of the Joint Catholic-Lutheran Commemoration of the Reformation Lund, 31 October 2016 «Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me» (John 15:4). With thankful hearts With this Joint Statement , we express joyful gratitude to God for this moment of common prayer in the Cathedral of Lund, as we begin the year commemorating the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. Fifty years of sustained and fruitful ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Lutherans have helped us to overcome many differences, and have deepened our mutual understanding and trust. At the same time, we have drawn closer to one another through joint service to our neighbours – often in circumstances of suffering and persecution. Through dialogue and shared witness we are no longer strangers. Rather, we have learned that what unites us is greater than what divides us. Moving from conflict to communion While we are profoundly thankful for the spiritual and theological gifts received through the Reformation, we also confess and lament before Christ that Lutherans and Catholics have wounded the visible unity of the Church. Theological differences were accompanied by prejudice and conflicts, and religion was instrumentalized for political ends. Our common faith in Jesus Christ and our baptism demand of us a daily conversion, by which we cast off the historical disagreements and conflicts that impede the ministry of reconciliation. While the past cannot be changed, what is remembered and how it is remembered can be transformed. We pray for the healing of our wounds and of the memories that cloud our view of one another. We emphatically reject all hatred and violence, past and present, especially that expressed in the name of religion. Today, we hear God’s command to set aside all conflict. We recognize that we are freed by grace to move towards the communion to which God continually calls us. Our commitment to common witness As we move beyond those episodes in history that burden us, we pledge to witness together to God’s merciful grace, made visible in the crucified and risen Christ. Aware that the way we relate to one another shapes our witness to the Gospel, we commit ourselves to further growth in communion rooted in Baptism, as we seek to remove the remaining obstacles that hinder us from attaining full unity. Christ desires that we be one, so that the world may believe (cf. John 17:21). Pope Francis has been working on this partnership for a long time: Many members of our communities yearn to receive the Eucharist at one table, as the concrete expression of full unity. We experience the pain of those who share their whole lives, but cannot share God’s redeeming presence at the Eucharistic table. We acknowledge our joint pastoral responsibility to respond to the spiritual thirst and hunger of our people to be one in Christ. We long for this wound in the Body of Christ to be healed. This is the goal of our ecumenical endeavours, which we wish to advance, also by renewing our commitment to theological dialogue. “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Revelation 17:4,5 (KJV) We pray to God that Catholics and Lutherans will be able to witness together to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, inviting humanity to hear and receive the good news of God’s redeeming action. We pray to God for inspiration, encouragement and strength so that we may stand together in service, upholding human dignity and rights, especially for the poor, working for justice, and rejecting all forms of violence. God summons us to be close to all those who yearn for dignity, justice, peace and reconciliation. Today in particular, we raise our voices for an end to the violence and extremism which affect so many countries and communities, and countless sisters and brothers in Christ. We urge Lutherans and Catholics to work together to welcome the stranger, to come to the aid of those forced to flee because of war and persecution, and to defend the rights of refugees and those who seek asylum. Pope Francis wants to absorb all of the Christianity, not just the Lutherans: More than ever before , we realize that our joint service in this world must extend to God’s creation, which suffers exploitation and the effects of insatiable greed. We recognize the right of future generations to enjoy God’s world in all its potential and beauty. We pray for a change of hearts and minds that leads to a loving and responsible way to care for creation. One in Christ On this auspicious occasion , we express our gratitude to our brothers and sisters representing the various Christian World Communions and Fellowships who are present and join us in prayer. As we recommit ourselves to move from conflict to communion, we do so as part of the one Body of Christ, into which we are incorporated through Baptism. We invite our ecumenical partners to remind us of our commitments and to encourage us. We ask them to continue to pray for us, to walk with us, to support us in living out the prayerful commitments we express today. Calling upon Catholics and Lutherans worldwide We call upon all Lutheran and Catholic parishes and communities to be bold and creative, joyful and hopeful in their commitment to continue the great journey ahead of us. Rather than conflicts of the past, God’s gift of unity among us shall guide cooperation and deepen our solidarity. By drawing close in faith to Christ, by praying together, by listening to one another, by living Christ’s love in our relationships, we, Catholics and Lutherans, open ourselves to the power of the Triune God. Rooted in Christ and witnessing to him, we renew our determination to be faithful heralds of God’s boundless love for all humanity. source SHARE THIS ARTICLE Geoffrey Grider NTEB is run by end times author and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Grider. Geoffrey runs a successful web design company, and is a full-time minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to running NOW THE END BEGINS, he has a dynamic street preaching outreach and tract ministry team in Saint Augustine, FL. NTEB #TRENDING

Dr Paul Craig Roberts WE ALL MIGHT BE DEAD SOON

« on: Today at 04:12:15 AM » Dr Paul Craig Roberts WE ALL MIGHT BE DEAD SOON https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ix526AyFgY Oct 20, 2016 celista brook (the economist) Paul Craig Roberts: "Putin's Nukes Could Wipe Out Entire American East Coast" In Minutes 28 October 2016 , by Mac Slavo - SHTF Plan (Zero Hedge) http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-26/paul-craig-roberts-putins-nukes-could-wipe-out-entire-american-east-coast-minutes Aha! “ What’s more, the Russian have hinted strongly at the possibility that they would be able to disable electronics, communications and defense shields in the U.S. via electromagnetic warfare – perhaps an EMP .” So WhyTF is nobody talking about this, not in the MSM or ASM!!! Preparing for Power Grid Collapse, Obama Signs Executive Order On EMP

Gloomy Days in the Oil Patch, but Some See a Glimmer of Light - The New York Times

Clifford Krauss and Stanley Reed

HOUSTON — As recently as two summers ago, Latshaw Drilling was so fully booked it sometimes had to turn away oil companies eager to rent one of its 39 rigs at $22, 000 a day. But that was before the collapse of oil prices, which despite a recent upturn from February lows, are still nowhere near their 2014 levels. Because of slumping world demand and a glut of global supply, oil players of all sorts — whether major producers like Royal Dutch Shell, smaller companies or service providers like Latshaw Drilling — are still struggling to cope with the industry’s doldrums. In the case of Latshaw, based in Tulsa, Okla. only 16 of its rigs are now in use, although it has cut the daily rental price by a third and aggressively phoned, wined and dined prospective customers. Even when Latshaw does make a deal, not all the workers it laid off want to return to a business that is so cyclically volatile. “It’s gone quiet,” said Steve McCoy, Latshaw’s vice president for contracts. “You have to pursue every lead, turn over every rock, to try to get ahead of the game. ” As the big oil companies reported their earnings this week, not even Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two American industry leaders that posted results on Friday, could escape the fallout from a market of deteriorating oil prices and declining profit margins from refining. Exxon’s profit was down nearly 60 percent from a year earlier, to $1. 7 billion. Chevron reported a loss of $1. 47 billion, in contrast to a profit of $571 million in last year’s second quarter. The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, a benchmark, was $41. 38 Friday — compared with just over $100 this time two years ago. Oil companies have slashed their exploration and production budgets, many by as much as half. The cuts total more than $150 billion through next year. An estimated 150, 000 energy workers have lost their jobs in the United States, while more than 150 oil and gas companies in North America have filed for bankruptcy since early 2015. The latest quarter’s results have been even more dismal than industry analysts predicted. Chevron’s loss for the quarter was its largest since 2001. Even though Exxon Mobil slashed its capital budget 38 percent, to $5. 16 billion in the second quarter, those cuts were not enough to compensate for a $4. 7 billion drop in profits from oil and gas production and a $1. 7 billion drop in refinery earnings. The major European producers, which have also cut exploration budgets and hundreds of thousands of jobs, did little better. Royal Dutch Shell, Total and BP all reported sharp declines in profits — Shell’s were down 93 percent — and executives expressed little optimism for a rapid rebound. “You have to continue to reinforce cost reduction, efficiency — rethink almost everything you do,” BP’s chief executive, Bob Dudley, said in an interview this week. In a sign of the mounting pressures in the industry, contract maintenance workers staged a strike Tuesday on seven Royal Dutch Shell platforms in the British North Sea to protest proposed pay cuts. A strike is scheduled for next week. “We are disappointed at this development,” Shell said in a statement on Friday. “It is clear that in order for the North Sea oil and gas industry to remain competitive in the lower oil price environment, structural change is needed. ” But the basic problem all the oil companies face is essentially out of their control: No matter how much they curb production, there is still way too much supply of crude oil in a global market where demand is soft — especially in Europe and in the developing world. A near doubling of United States oil production in recent years, because of a frenzy of new activity in shale fields, produced a glut that persists even as output gradually falls in the United States, China, Brazil and Mexico. Crude and petroleum product inventories remain at record highs around the world, in large part because the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel, which is led by Saudi Arabia and still accounts for a third of global oil output, is unwilling to restrain production. The biggest recent production increases in the OPEC cartel have come from Iran, which is taking advantage of the lifting of international sanctions. And now Canadian output, which was briefly curtailed by recent wild fires, is coming back on the market. United States refiners, meanwhile, bought so much oil at bargain prices in recent months that they now have record stockpiles of gasoline and diesel. That has led to the lowest summer gasoline prices in more than a decade. But it also has obliged refiners to cut fuel production, thus further cutting demand for crude. Scattered signs indicate the oil industry has hit bottom and may be primed for a bounce next year. Many energy analysts are optimistic prices will rise for oil and natural gas over the next few years because the industry has so sharply curtailed exploration and production. Barclays Research, for instance, projects that the global oil price could average $85 a barrel by 2018. That would still be lower than levels reached in 2014, but enough for healthy profits. “We’re at the bottom, but we’re not expecting an immediate and sharp recovery,” said Paal Kibsgaard, chief executive of Schlumberger, the giant oil service company, in a conference call this month. “It’s going to be a slow and steady recovery. ” Latshaw Drilling’s 16 active rigs exceed the 12 it had in service last December. Signed contracts would raise that number to 20 by late fall. “We’re optimistic about our future,” Mr. McCoy said. Not everyone is in a position to ride out the storm, though, as heavy debts continue to sink some companies. Just this week, Halcon Resources, a sizable Houston oil company, filed for bankruptcy. Exxon Mobil is in far better financial condition than most other companies in the industry. And its stock had been soaring this year, although in morning trading on Friday it was down more than 2 percent. But even Exxon has been stretched by debt — much of it an overhang from the company’s purchase seven years ago of XTO Energy, a shale gas driller, for about $41 billion. This year Exxon Mobil lost its AAA credit rating, and was forced to stop buying back shares to conserve cash. “The industry debt level is essentially like a tanker dragging an anchor. You are not going to go anywhere very fast,” said Ed Hirs, managing director of Hillhouse Resources, a small Houston oil company. Mr. Hirs, seeking to raise $50 million to drill a clutch of oil wells in South Texas, is meeting resistance. He took a prominent private equity fund executive out for coffee the other day in downtown Houston and patiently showed him well maps and charts. Mr. Hirs argued that his wells were potentially so rich and easily developed that they could make money at $20 a barrel, less than half the current price. Even if only one of eight wells proved to be a gusher, he promised, big profits were coming. But the banker cut him off. “There’s too much risk,” the banker said, according to Mr. Hirs. And the banker explained that his fund was having trouble raising money from its own investors, who were worried about how long it might take the oil and gas industry to finally recover, Mr. Hirs said. “Things are stuck,” he said.

Trump’s Budget to Increase Spending for School Choice by $1.4 Billion

Dr. Susan Berry

President Donald Trump’s newly released 2018 budget calls for an increase in federal spending on school choice programs by $1. 4 billion, ultimately reaching an annual total of $20 billion. [According to the budget, state and local matching funds for public and private school choice could mean $100 billion total would be spent on such programs. Additional spending in 2018 on school choice would include: A $168 million increase for charter schools, $250 million for a new private school choice program, and a $1 billion increase for Title I, dedicated to encouraging districts to adopt a system of based budgeting and open enrollment that enables Federal, State, and local funding to follow the student to the public school of his or her choice. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): A public charter school is a publicly funded school that is typically governed by a group or organization under a legislative contract (or charter) with the state or jurisdiction. The charter exempts the school from certain state or local rules and regulations. In return for flexibility and autonomy, the charter school must meet the accountability standards outlined in its charter. A school’s charter is reviewed periodically (typically every 3 to 5 years) by the group or jurisdiction that granted it and can be revoked if guidelines on curriculum and management are not followed or if the accountability standards are not met. The plan calls for continuing $13 billion in funding for students with disabilities under the IDEA program and $492 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Institutions. However, Trump’s proposed budget would eliminate $3. 6 billion in support for programs for instruction support, before and and summer programs — all of which the plan observes, “lack evidence” of meeting the goals of improving student achievement. Trump’s budget plan also calls for either eliminating or reducing “over 20 categorical programs that do not address national needs, duplicate other programs, or are more appropriately supported with State, local, or private funds. ” Among those programs mentioned are: Striving Readers, Teacher Quality Partnership, Impact Aid Support Payments for Federal Property, and International Education programs. Overall, Trump’s budget for next year offers $59 billion in discretionary funding for the federal Department of Education, an amount the plan says represents “a $9 billion or 13 percent reduction below the 2017 annualized CR level. ”

8 New Books We Recommend This Week - The New York Times

At a moment when all eyes are glued to the tumult of escalating news headlines, let’s take a few hours, a day, perhaps even a long weekend to take refuge in the stories that transcend the news cycle and the books that more deeply explain the forces behind it. From the new Zadie Smith novel to Wesley Lowery’s penetrating look at lives (and deaths) in America, these books will elucidate, offer escape from and — with luck — outlive the noisy politics of our times. Pamela PaulEditor of The New York Times Book Review THEY CAN’T KILL US ALL: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement, by Wesley Lowery (Little, Brown, $27.) In his review, our critic Dwight Garner wrote that this book by a young Washington Post reporter is “electric, because it is so well reported, so plainly told and so evidently the work of a man who has not grown a callus on his heart. ” SWING TIME, by Zadie Smith. (Penguin Press, $27.) Two multiracial girls in North London dream of becoming dancers (one has talent, the other doesn’t) in Smith’s exuberant new novel about friendship, music, race and global politics. Come on, it’s Zadie. You know you want to read it. TESTIMONY, by Robbie Robertson. (Crown Archetype, $30.) The lead guitarist and principal songwriter for the Band has written a confident and memoir that is packed with incident. At times it has the mythic sweep of an early Terrence Malick movie, according to Dwight Garner. MUSLIM GIRL: A Coming of Age, by Amani . (Simon Schuster, $20.) This memoir of growing up Muslim American in the wake of was published earlier than originally planned because it’s so timely and enlightening. The most haunting line: After the young author’s father tells her, “They’re going to blame us. ” THE by David Constantine. (Biblioasis, paper, $14. 95.) Our reviewer, Stacey D’Erasmo, gave this book an rave and compared it to the recent critically acclaimed film “45 Years. ” In David Constantine’s lyrical novel, a widow immerses herself in the letters her late husband received from an earlier lover. NEWS OF THE WORLD, by Paulette Jiles. ( $22. 99.) In a novel shortlisted for the National Book Award, a septuagenarian widower and a girl who was captured by the Kiowa travel across War Texas. NOBODY’S SON: A Memoir, by Mark Slouka. (Norton, $26. 95.) Mark Slouka, a novelist, offers an intrepid memoir of a chaotic childhood. Here’s one memorable line, something the author’s mother told him when he was only 17 and contemplating suicide: “Life was a death sentence. ” Imagine growing up with that. IZA’S BALLAD, by Magda Szabo. Translated by George Szirtes. (New York Review, paper, $16. 95.) A meditative Hungarian novel about grief and history by the author of “The Door,” one of the Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2015.

Syrian Girl Mysteriously 'Saved' Again and Again (PHOTO, VIDEO)

Citizen journalism with a punch Syrian Girl Mysteriously 'Saved' Again and Again (PHOTO, VIDEO) This girl sure gets herself into a lot of Russian airstrikes. Luckily there are always anti-Assad activists near by to pull her from the rubble Russkaya Vesna This time we offer our readers an opportunity to be film critics and to assess acting talents and make-up artist’s work. Because that’s how one should examine a footage with a girl who presumably suffered from Bashar al-Assad’s army attacks. At first sight the photos which went viral in the Arab and Western media on August 28 2016 excite pity and seemingly righteous indignation: a peaceful Lamb of God aka White Helmets’ volunteer is carrying two injured children. Social media say the photos have been made after attack on Al-Nayrab(Arabic: النيرب ) district of Aleppo. We remind that disputable activity of that «volunteer organization» has been picked to pieces inRussian Spring’s review: Armed "saviours" under "an-Nusra" flags — Russian Spring investigation of White Helmets' strange "peacemaking" in Syria (PHOTOS, VIDEO 18+) , that is why today we are going to focus on the footage only. Pay attention to the injured girl: scared, dishevelled, with blood on her face. devochka_obstrely_informvoyna_1.jpg But she was «saved» more than once: the same girl is carried by the three (!) different «volunteers» each after each. Here is the girl in another man’s hands: still White Helmets’ emblem and car got into the shot:

The Quinceañera, a Rite of Passage in Transition - The New York Times

Marybel Gonzalez

The Cedillo family was already running an hour late, so when the Range Rover stretch limo dropped them off at St. Agatha Church in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Lucero Cedillo and her court of nine chambelanes, the equivalent of groomsmen, dashed out of the car. Lucero led the way, holding the hem of her strapless ball gown in one hand and a matching bouquet of silk garden roses in the other. Her parents, Alberta and Abundio Cedillo, followed. From a distance, the chambelanes could have easily been mistaken for cadets at a police academy graduation, walking in sync wearing black suits with gold aiguillettes around their right shoulders, eyes hidden under peaked hats with gold insignia. The Rev. Silvio A. Ortiz began the quinceañera Roman Catholic Mass by congratulating Lucero, who knelt before him at the altar. He blessed several items, including a porcelain doll, a symbol of Lucero’s childhood. Applause echoed through mostly empty pews. Then Lucero and her court scurried into the limo, heading for the party, a catered affair for 150 guests at a Greek Orthodox church hall in Bay Ridge. Widely celebrated among Latinos, the quinceañera marks an important milestone in a girl’s life. Part birthday party, part rite of passage, it symbolizes a girl’s entrance into womanhood when turning 15, traditionally showcasing her purity and readiness for marriage. But the quinceañera has also been Americanized. And the increasingly elaborate celebrations reflect the changing landscape of Latinos in the United States. In fact, Lucero’s quinceañera was not, strictly speaking, a quinceañera at all. The celebration, held in February, had many of the traditional trappings: a Mass, a catered bash with live music, and a ceremony in which Lucero’s transition to womanhood was marked by trading her flats for heels. But Lucero turned 15 a year ago this was an adapted Sweet 16. “I wanted to switch it up,” Lucero said. “I wanted to keep some of my parents’ traditions but celebrate at a different age. ” “It’s how it’s done in the United States,” she added. “The modern quinceañera has become the manifestation of what it means to be visible in an American system on your own terms,” said Rachel V. a folklorist and professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. At the same time, she added, the celebrations create “a space that recalls your cultural heritage. ” Lucero initially felt reluctant to ask her parents for the party, calling it “a big waste of money on just one day. ” Contemporary quinceañeras do tend to have a hefty price tag. Event planners, bakers and caterers, hair stylists, makeup artists and D. J. s have all become part of what will soon be a industry, said María Bejarano, director of Quinceañera Magazine, a trade publication. “When you put the numbers together, it’s stratospheric,” Ms. Bejarano said. “The quinceañera business is a monster that keeps on growing. ” The celebration has spawned specialized retailers, fashion expos, even a reality show, “Quiero Mis Quinces,” promoting custom parties. Disney’s “Frozen” was among the most popular themes last year, according to quinceañera store owners. Many girls are incorporating decidedly secular and elements. They choreograph their traditional dance routines to mainstream pop music instead of waltzes. Lucero opened the dance floor to a Beyoncé mix. In 2013, Disney introduced a line of quinceañera dresses, retailing for $300 to $900, and its theme parks offer catered events like the Belle of the Ball package, which starts at $20, 000. For an additional $2, 500, quinceañeras can make royal entrances in carriages. In New York, a quinceañera celebration averages around $10, 000, according to Alfonso Caviedes, who owns Fantasy, a dress shop in Jackson Heights, Queens. He offers a layaway system on dresses, which on average cost $600. “Some families cannot afford to pay for the dresses up front,” Mr. Caviedes said. Rosa Jimenez, who owns Bridal by Rosa’s in East Harlem, puts the typical cost even higher. “I would recommend that families set aside at least $15, 000,” she said. “It’s like a wedding. ” The median household income for Latinos in the United States in 2014 was just over $42, 000, according to the Census Bureau, and in New York City the figure is lower. But the high prices don’t dissuade families from celebrating. Villa Russo, an event hall in Queens, charges up to $18, 700 a night for 275 guests. About 30 quinceañeras a year are held there. Families book custom bakers, like Iva Velazquez in Brooklyn. Ms. Velazquez supplies cakes for 15 quinceañeras a year her prices can quickly run into the thousands, depending on sugar flowers, ruffles and other intricate details. Some have come to resent such extravagance. “Nowadays, families are disrespectful to the church,” said Ana Morales, quinceañera coordinator at St. Paul’s Church in East Harlem. “They bring in these loud musicians, like mariachis, to the quinceañera. The parties in the pews are taking pictures they are on their cellphones. They seem to have forgotten why they are in church. ” As a result, St. Paul’s has been less inclined to hold such Masses. “The quinceañera is a symbol of status and recognition,” Ms. Bejarano, the magazine director, said. “Families want to celebrate big. But it’s these strong ties to tradition that distract parents from thinking about how they will pay for their daughters’ future education. ” Professor of the University of Texas, finds such criticism problematic. “People don’t tend to question lavish bat mitzvahs,” she said. “People make the assumptions that Jewish communities are more affluent, whereas Latino communities are stereotyped as impoverished. ” “It’s like talking to someone who is on a diet and saying, ‘You shouldn’t really eat that,’ and assuming that they don’t know what they are putting in their mouth,” she added. Lucero’s parents, cooks by trade, had been saving for this day for two years. Now both 50 years old, they immigrated to the United States from Mexico in their early 20s. “My parents grew up poor,” Lucero said. “They used to work in the fields. My mom, when she first got to the U. S. she used to work in factories. My mom never had a quince, so she told me, ‘I didn’t have a chance, but you do! ’” “Of course this is a sacrifice for us,” Mr. Cedillo acknowledged. “But we don’t see it that way. This is tradition. Lucero is a good daughter, and she deserves a party. ” The quinceañera appeals to both new immigrants and those established for several generations, Professor said, but for different reasons. For newer arrivals, it’s about “creating a display of affluence,” she said. For or Latino Americans, the quinceañera has become a way to reclaim traditions with which they’ve lost touch. Staging these elaborate celebrations requires a system of patronage, particularly in Mexican communities, in both Mexico and the United States. The girl’s parents reach out to relatives and friends to help pay for everything from the limo to the beer. Lucero’s godparents — 12 relatives and friends had been selected — helped cover the celebration’s cost: around $13, 000. At the church hall in Bay Ridge, Lucero walked slowly between two columns of chambelanes as they held their costume swords. When she arrived at a white throne, two of her godparents handed her a long, bedazzled scepter and placed a crystal tiara atop her carefully curled hair. Mr. Cedillo knelt before his daughter with a silk pillow holding sparkling silver shoes. Lucero lifted her ball gown just enough to let her feet emerge from the layers of fabric. He removed her flats, swapping them for the heels. The moment, a traditional part of the quinceañera, is supposed to be the first time a young girl wears high heels and dances with a man. This was not quite the case with Lucero. “I’ve danced since I was 9,” she said after the party. “This is definitely not the first time I’ve put on heels. ” At nearly 1 a. m. the staff was clearing away empty plates. Lucero’s parents called up the godparents and handed each a basket of fruit and blankets as thanks for their sponsorship and attendance. The family huddled to say a prayer. Then the lights dimmed and banda — traditional Mexican music — blasted through the speakers. Lucero’s father and uncle emerged from the kitchen, carrying a roasted pig on their shoulders. The guests had formed a running circle around the dance floor, and Lucero joined them after changing into a cream dress. Soon she was dancing barefoot to her own manic adolescent rhythm, her sparkling high heels clutched tightly at her side.

Energy Update: Stargates Are Active And We Have Quickening Occurring

Editor

By Lisa Brown Good morning beautiful light family! Stargates are active and we have Quickening occurring too. These “shake” the density realms and align all to the light realms. These align Galactic/Heaven and Earth…. synchronizing realities to higher consciousness ones. So many experiencing the physicalness of their own separation/unconsciousness, without realizing what is truly occurring now. All when it’s time…. when the heart opens, as one takes their power back, truly opens up fully….. Those unconscious programs run on a loop cycle, where the human aspect has much to “learn” about SOUL EXISTENCE and living as an ASCENDED BEING here. The entire external reality teaches us…. IT is our teacher, along with our higher self aspect until we integrate this inside. There is a process…. first you realize you have a higher self, then you open up to listening to it, then you let it tell you what to do/Guide you…. in every moment… then you become them (They) and THEY dissappear because you ARE THEM…. No more channeling, no more anyone to ask…. You work together, inside, with/AS the entire Universe…. no more separation…. YOU must achieve UNITY CONSCIOUSNESS within you. You don’t need the Universe to push you to step up, YOU STEP UP….. you observe your own humanness, you dissolve/resolve all within you, back into the PURITY of Love…… YOU observe, you see your own patterns and themes. Where you slack, come from lack, where you are holding back, where you judge, don’t support, share, give back, procrastinate and have fear. You see every time you don’t, when you had/have the capability, you see… what you couldn’t before….. you see the ENERGY that you hold that created/creates that…. and that this is all on you to shift/change/transform/do…… WE don’t need lessons anymore, because we are always observing, realizing, shifting, changing, transforming, tuning our own energy intentionally to SOURCE CONSCIOUSNESS and holding this inside at ALL TIMES…. We don’t allow ourselves to separate off anymore to go human……. You are the one that births NEW EARTH from inside of you and holds all in place. You hold the programming for every reality by what you believe, allow, transmit, do/don’t do… not from your head, but from your fully conscious higher-heart-mind. You don’t get to blame others or be a victim anymore. That scary (fear) for humans. Stepping up and taking responsibility for everything … Your true power is within you. It’s when you STOP allowing/continuing the old programs yourself. You have to see them first. You break the patterns…. You are here to inspire, support, honor, REMEMBER…… Open up fully. Step up fully. Into your SOUL’s roles….. Your human will always shortchange you…… I love you! Lisa Transcendence Brown Awakening to Remember Via: In5D

Delta Malfunction on Land Keeps a Fleet of Planes From the Sky - The New York Times

Annalyn Kurtz

Delta Air Lines is working to reset its operations on Tuesday morning, after a power failure grounded flights and led to cancellations and delays a day earlier. As of 12:30 p. m. Eastern time, Delta had canceled more than 500 flights scheduled for Tuesday. On Monday, around 1, 000 of 6, 000 Delta flights were canceled, the airline said. Delta is offering full refunds — and $200 vouchers — to passengers whose flights were canceled or delayed significantly. The airline also extended a waiver of its change fee for passengers scheduled to fly on Monday, Aug. 8, and Tuesday, Aug. 9. Passengers may rebook flights for any day up to Friday, without being charged a difference in fare. The company said it provided hotel rooms, where available, to some passengers who were stranded in airports overnight. The big computer systems that get airplanes, passengers and baggage to their destinations every day are having a bad summer. Delta Air Lines experienced the latest debacle on Monday, when a failure of a piece of electrical equipment at one of its Atlanta facilities shut down its computer systems worldwide, starting a cascade of hundreds of canceled and delayed flights throughout the day. A similar chain of events played out at Southwest Airlines three weeks earlier, when a single router failed at a data center in Dallas, resulting in about 2, 300 canceled flights over four days. The failure itself lasted only an hour, but it took 13 hours to reboot the carrier’s computer systems. Both episodes left thousands of passengers stranded and airline employees scrambling to get planes back in the air. But for those wondering how this could happen — why backup systems, for example, were not equal to the challenge — a better question might be why it doesn’t happen more often. “These systems are so complex, it’s surprising we haven’t had more major failures,” said Bob Offutt, principal of Travel Technology Consulting and former chief architect at Sabre, the world’s largest computer reservations system. These events are hardly isolated. Last year, malfunctions in United Airlines’ computer systems grounded hundreds of flights, and American Airlines experienced delays after a bug in its iPad software meant that pilots did not have accurate airport maps. In Southwest’s case, a backup system was in place, but the airline said that system was not triggered as it should have been when the router failed. And Delta said on Monday that it was investigating why some of its own critical operations had not switched over to backup systems. “In the case of Delta, whatever occurred was clearly a catastrophic failure, and it is alarming that the backup system didn’t kick in,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. Delta said the problem was touched off by a power failure about 2:30 a. m. Eastern, shutting down computers and grounding flights for about six hours before the airline began to bring its systems back online. (As it happens, the culprit inside Delta — a failed switchgear, an item similar to a box in a house — is a piece of equipment typically installed to guard against breakdowns.) Throughout the day, the consequences were playing out in human terms. In Terminal C of La Guardia Airport, a central hub for Delta in the New York City region, it was standing room only Monday morning, with children splayed out napping on backpacks, business travelers scrambling for outlets, and many passengers leaning against the cylindrical pillars for support. As the morning wore on and the system began to slowly reboot, occasional problems also caused more confusion. “For those of you traveling to Detroit on Flight 831,” a gate agent said over the loudspeaker, “you may have just received a text message saying we are departing at 9 a. m. ” That, she indicated, would be great, but also nearly impossible. The computer system had shut back down before the pilot’s papers, including the flight plan, could even be processed. In Phoenix, Anthony Navarro, 25, was headed to Atlanta, and then to Miami for a cruise to the Bahamas. He and a friend boarded a flight scheduled to leave Phoenix at 12:35 a. m. but then sat in the plane, parked at the gate, for about five hours. When he realized he would miss their connection, Mr. Navarro left the plane and said he would seek a refund from both Delta and Norwegian Cruises. “We had been planning this trip for months, and to find out that based off of one flight, everything is canceled,” he said, “we’re very bummed out. ” Some departures resumed Monday morning, but the company said it expected delays to cascade throughout the day. As of 7 p. m. Eastern, 740 Delta flights had been canceled, the airline said. It did not provide a figure for the number of passengers affected. Delta was scheduled to operate roughly 6, 000 departures on Monday, and by the early evening, about 3, 340 of those flights had departed. “Systems are fully operational and flights resumed hours ago,” the airline said, “but delays and cancellations remain as recovery efforts continue into the evening. ” While it is too early to measure the costs to Delta, Southwest has said its malfunction on July 20 will cost the company tens of millions of dollars. Airlines were early adopters of information technology, building electronic reservation systems in the 1960s. The systems have been rebuilt over the years, but given the high volume of transactions, their data is not backed up continuously, Mr. Offutt said. He said that while airlines did have secondary systems in place — to provide power during a power failure, for example — the data was backed up only a few times each day, rather than in real time. That means that even after a malfunctioning router or power source is fixed, it can take hours to bring the systems back online. “The systems are very complicated, so it may be that they have a backup processor, but not backup data,” he said. Major airlines primarily use processors like Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport to distribute their flight data to travel booking sites like Expedia and Travelocity. They also contract with these services to run their own internal reservation systems, as well as their departure control systems to process boarding, bookings and seat assignments. Delta uses an system to process passenger services and flight operations, but the system infrastructure is run by Travelport in its Atlanta data center. Southwest uses Sabre for its domestic reservations and Amadeus for its international bookings, though it is migrating everything to the Amadeus system. Each passenger on each plane represents multiple transactions: Each seat assignment, meal preference, child requirement and number is a separate log. Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for Sabre, said that each minute its system processed 164, 000 requests and approximately $250, 000 worth of travel spending. Airlines, of course, are only one of many industries with complex systems whose failure can be catastrophic. Many companies, like banks and large financial traders, manage the risk by copying data to service areas powered by different data centers, so they can continue working in the event of a malfunction. Delta did not elaborate on the nature of its own backup systems, beyond saying it was investigating their failure. The airline said it would grant full refunds to passengers whose flights were canceled or significantly delayed. (“Significant” is determined case by case, said Michael Thomas, a Delta spokesman.) In addition, it said it would provide $200 in travel vouchers to customers who were delayed more than three hours or whose flight was canceled. The company is also waiving the change fee for flights scheduled for Monday. Passengers may rebook those flights for any day up to Friday, without being charged a difference in fare. Josh Hall, 31, whose company develops simulation software for military use, said he was steps away from the terminal in Minneapolis when he received the alert that his 1 p. m. flight to London through Orlando had been delayed. The first leg of his trip was delayed at least five hours, with no clear indication when he would actually get to London. “It would have been nice if they’d alerted me,” he said. “I would have done something else with my time. ” So instead of heading overseas to meet clients, Mr. Hall was passing the time watching the Olympics. He had had two whiskeys, but was starting on some water. “I’d just like to get on the plane,” he said.

How to Build a Fold-Down Greenhouse on The Cheap!

The Yardener

How to Build a Fold-Down Greenhouse on The Cheap! If you’re renting your property, don’t have enough space for a full size greenhouse, or just don’t feel like breaking the bank then this is for you! This simple yet phenomenally functional greenhouse quickly and easily folds down to protect your plants during early frosts and cold snaps. When it’s a bit warmer out you can raise it in a brief moment to provide full sun and rain. To get started you need some PVC pipe and plastic, both of which can be found for cheap at most hardware stores. This design is much sturdier than you might think and is perfect for a variety of climates. Make sure to choose a spot that gets at least 6 hours of sun per day, then build it in a single afternoon to protect your plants all season long! If you pick a partially shady spot you will want to check out this article about 40 edible plants that grow in the shade. (An important note about plant placement: When you arrange your plants inside the greenhouse, make sure they do not touch the sides or top of the lowered structure. Plastic will actually conduct cold to anything it’s directly touching.) Thanks to Bonnie Plants for putting these plans together. Click here to download or print the instructions. Share:

Left-Wing American ’Constitution’ Society Urges Deep State to Undermine Trump - Breitbart

Joel B. Pollak

The Washington Examiner has published an account of a meeting of the American Constitution Society — the left’s version of the conservative Federalist Society of lawyers — at which participants discussed how to encourage the “deep state” to undermine President Donald Trump. [Ryan Lovelace of the Examiner reported Saturday: Forlorn liberals took refuge at the American Constitution Society’s national convention in Washington this week, discussing whether to encourage the growth of the “deep state” resistance inside the government or fight President Trump from outside. … UCLA law professor Jon Michaels said he favors filling the Trump administration with liberals opposed to Trump’s agenda. “We hear a lot of language about draining the swamp and this idea about a deep state that somehow was going to thwart the intentions or the political mandate of the president,” Michaels said. “I kind of embrace this notion of the ‘deep state. ’” Michaels listed his ideas for how to ensure the success of the “deep state. ” Act as a group — a department, across agency lines, as a community — rather than as an individual when pushing back against Trump from the inside, he said. Once such a coalition is formed, he suggested “rogue tweeting” or “leaking to the media” as options for fighting the president. Some present also discussed the possibility of using federalism to oppose Trump. For more than a century, liberals have opposed federalism, preferring rule by the federal government over allowing states to govern their own affairs. However, states like California have newfound enthusiasm for federalism — although their version has more to do with ignoring federal law altogether, rather than exercising state powers and prerogatives. Read the full Examiner article here. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.