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Trump VP’s plane slides off runway at New York airport

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Trump VP’s plane slides off runway at New York airport Trump VP’s plane slides off runway at New York airport By 0 84 US Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence’s plane slides off runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York in heavy rain. The plane carrying Pence ended up on the grass next to the runway in the incident which took place on Thursday night. None of the 37 passengers on board were injured. The airport has been closed until further notice. (To be updated…)

Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’: Unborn Baby a ‘Parasite Growing Inside of You’

Dr. Susan Berry

The April 2 episode of HBO’s Girls finds Hannah Horvath — played by actress Lena Dunham — hearing from her gay friend Elijah that the baby she is carrying is a “parasite” growing inside of her. [The episode, titled “What Will We Do This Time About Adam?” shows Hannah, well along in her pregnancy, reevaluating her decision to be a single mother. “Oh, God. Hannah, this is gonna be a real mindf**k for me if you wanna get an abortion right now,” Elijah tells her. “I mean … I’ll do it. I think there’s about two doctors in America that do it at this stage in your pregnancy, but I’ll find them. ” Writing at Newsbusters, Dawn Slusher observes some of the “fake” information about abortion that Girls serves up in this episode — first and foremost being Elijah’s reference to the difficulty in finding an abortionist to perform one: “There are not just ‘two doctors in America’ who will ‘do it at this stage.’ There are actually 162 abortion clinics that perform abortions after 20 weeks. Secondly, most don’t realize just how easy getting a abortion is legally, given the loose definition of “health” that was buried in Roe v. Wade’s companion case, Doe v. Bolton: ‘ … all factors — physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age — relevant to the wellbeing of the patient. All these factors may relate to health.’ All Hannah needs to say is that she has a headache, is too young, too tired, or is having anxiety about having a baby and she can legally get an abortion at any point in her pregnancy. ” At the federal level, abortion is still legal in the United States up until the time of birth, although more states are enacting laws that restrict the procedure. The abortion industry has fought against any attempts by states to restrict abortion or to mandate health and safety standards in abortion clinics. Its allies in the liberal media portray abortion as a safe procedure that is welcomed by women. In its recent report titled “Unsafe: The Public Health Crisis in America’s Abortion Clinics Endangers Women,” Americans United for Life (AUL) demonstrates in its analysis the many state officials who look the other way when it comes to inspections of abortion clinics. The organization asserts: “Importantly, even limiting the scope of our investigation to the last eight years, efforts to discern the true state of abortion practices was stymied by a dearth of protective laws in a number of states, a lack of reporting in others, and limited public availability of information on abortion providers in still more states. ” “We can easily deduce, therefore, that the epidemic of substandard abortion practice is worse than even these pages show,” AUL states.

Fall and Rise of the Forgotten ‘Deplorables’

Consortiumnews.com

Fall and Rise of the Forgotten ‘Deplorables’ November 22, 2016 The political gamble that will be the Trump presidency traces back to the desperation of Americans who lost out in the social experiment of neoliberalism — and the Democrats’ candidate who personified those economic inequities, says Greg Maybury. By Greg Maybury In horseracing parlance, when a particular horse wins unexpectedly the bookmakers’ call this a “turn-up for the books.” In more general usage, the phrase came to mean an unexpected piece of good fortune, a pleasant surprise, or something generally welcomed especially if not deemed likely. While conceding those who didn’t want nor expect it might think otherwise (not least the “defeated favorite”), if we confine its meaning to this usage, Donald Trump’s Oval Office win by any definition is a “turn-up for the books,” the best example — this side of Harry Truman in 1948 at least — the Grand American Narrative has to offer. President-elect Donald Trump As might be anticipated, in the wake of Trump’s historic victory — a win that for all sorts of reasons has shaken the Beltway establishment and beyond to its core, and one that political junkies will be fixating on for years — there’s been much handwringing about how so many folks got the outcome so wrong. All of this has been accompanied by the obligatory hyperventilating and existential angst about what Trump’s election portends for the future. His campaign both revealed — and “reanimate” — the tectonic forces that hold sway in the political equivalent of the San Andreas Fault , a long-neglected fault-line in American politics that has been waiting to let rip for decades. At the risk of overcooking the geological metaphors, we might imagine that if folks were presented two highly improbable scenarios before this election and had to bet their house on only one as the more likely outcome — the choice here being either a Trump win or California sliding into the Pacific Ocean after the actual San Andreas finally lets the “big one” rip — many might have picked the latter. Now, expect political aftershocks until further notice. The reality — to say little of the irony — of a political neophyte and ostensible outsider winning a U.S. presidential election (to say nothing of claiming the actual nomination whilst summarily seeing off 16 of his own party’s rivals in the primaries) without the support of said party, Wall Street or the mainstream media and with half the money of his opponents by breaking every rule in the electioneering field book then defeating the other party’s nominee, a seasoned campaigner and professional career politician whose own party (and the usual “suspects,” the MSM, Wall Street, Israel Lobby et. al.) all had earlier anointed as the presumptive nominee from the start and whom they all collectively backed to the hilt — from the still relatively popular incumbent on down — with the most effective, ruthless, formidable, sophisticated, cashed-up political machine ever assembled, must indeed be unprecedented. With Clinton herself winning the popular vote convincingly ( some suggest it could nudge 2 million), this of course is not a “landslide” in any conventional sense, and is not quite the conservative “revolution” some pundits are breathlessly celebrating. But as noted few if any election outcomes were as unexpected. To the extent it represented a “landslide” of sorts, in this case it was a “landslide” of the contemporary political imagination in; the substrata has shifted underneath people’s feet and moved to spaces that were hitherto unthinkable, and possibly about which few might lay claim to having much idea of what to expect. And this is happening at both ends of the political spectrum and just about every key point in between, with the Bernie Sanders factor testament to that. Even if on the face of it with the Republicans winning, both parties will now have to reinvent themselves not just as a matter of course, but of survival, at least as major political forces. Such is the extraordinary nature and character of this election and its outcome! Win or lose though, Trump’s impact was always going to necessitate a whole rethink about the way politics is conducted in Washington, a “rethink” both parties will avoid at their peril. That “rethink” should entail everything from how they function as political parties and how they manage themselves and how they position themselves with voters, to how they interact with each other at the Congressional cum legislative level so they begin managing national affairs more in the interests of their constituents than those of themselves and their families, their political cronies and/or corporate benefactors. More than that, they will need to be seen to be doing so. Let there be no mistaking it. The Republicans are no less on the take than are the Democrats — albeit with in some cases different constituencies and for possibly different reasons. And they are no less so because of their windfall victory now than they were before the campaign even started. The GOP did win by default in some respects, with no shortage of people not unreasonably seeing the Democrats as losing more than the Republicans winning . That neither party comes up smelling like roses in the scheme of things then is a longstanding reality brought into much sharper relief by this election. There are still for example many unanswered questions about the degree to which both parties played fast and loose with fundamental democratic principles and electoral legalities , about which there was relativity little reporting in the MSM. In the aftermath, many will rightly question not only Hillary Clinton’s suitability as the party’s nominee; courtesy of the revelations about the manner in which the Democratic National Committee’s primary campaign was conducted, they will also be able to question her political legitimacy as the nominee and, especially, the integrity and credibility of the party machine mindset that plotted her ascension. Indeed, that should be a prerequisite going forward for party reform. Yet if the Republicans think Trump’s win — while retaining control of both the House and Senate — redeems them and their party in the eyes of voters or the citizenry in general, one expects they will be sorely disappointed as we move forward. And this is only partly attributable to the fact Trump was not their preferred choice of candidate; indeed, he was rejected by many, a point we should never forget. The seeds of discontent ushering in Trump then may have been planted some time back, but the current GOP fraternity and their forbears cleared the ground. Whether in opposition or in the White House, the GOP also has tended the neoliberal and globalization garden. Trump’s campaign rhetoric aside, it remains to be seen how much of an enthusiast he will be for more of the same. Skin in the Game There can be little doubt the election outcome reflected considerable dissatisfaction with President Obama. Because he had so much skin in the game (his legacy for one thing), the President personally has to cop much of the rap for the rise of Trump (or even someone like him). The corollary to this is the President also accepting responsibility for the defeat of his own party when there was an obvious alternative in Bernie Sanders, someone who clearly tapped into much of the prevailing sentiment in working- and middle-class America that Trump did. President Barack Obama walks through the Rose Garden to the Oval Office following an all-appointees summer event on the South Lawn, June 13, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) After noting that Clinton’s and the Democrats’ loss wasn’t a defeat by default, Walden Bello says in an article titled “How Obama’s Legacy Lost the Elections for Hillary” that instead of jobs and relief, Obama offered only half-measures to folks we call here in Australia “ battlers, ” in this case especially struggling people in the Rust Belt and beyond, the broad demographic that delivered victory for Trump. Bello says, “On the economic issues that motivate these voters, Trump had a message: The economic recovery was a mirage, people were hurt by the Democrats’ policies, and they had more pain to look forward to should the Democrats retain control of the White House.’ There was a telling report emanating from Obama’s European visit that gave us an insight into the incumbent President’s preoccupation with Trump and what — in his mind at least — to make of his victory. Quite apart from hinting at something of a personal struggle coming to terms with it, the President seemed also at pains defending his legacy from an all-out Trump onslaught next year. “ Americans chose Donald Trump … because of a vague ‘change’ desire,” the President said, while insisting that voters “don’t always know what they’re looking for.” Obama added, they may opt for change, “even if they’re not entirely confident what that change will bring.” The President reportedly went further, saying he “could have precluded Trump’s populist uprising if only [the Republicans] hadn’t blocked so many of my economic proposals.” Although it appeared to escape him when he made these remarks, the irony of the first part of Obama’s comments should not be lost on anyone else, given the considerable gap between the amount of vague change he promised and actual change he delivered (or for many, failed or declined to deliver). In short, this can and does apply to Obama himself. To the extent voters “don’t always know what they’re looking for,” we might now at least argue they are less equivocal about what sort of change they don’t want and aren’t looking for! And the subtext here might have been: Did they know exactly what they were looking for when they voted him into office, twice ? As for Obama’s not unreasonable comments about GOP obstructionism throughout his time in office (a reprehensible tactic on their part that notwithstanding their recent electoral success and now dominance of the Beltway, has come at great and possibly permanent cost to the party’s brand), we might ponder an alternative question for the incumbent: Could Obama have “precluded” Trump’s rise or impact by ponying up on a few more of his core promises, spending his political capital more wisely and fairly, more dutifully avoiding the errors of judgment, arrogance and political shenanigans of his much-reviled predecessor, and showing Main Street America in general and America’s “battlers” in particular he was the real McCoy after all, a president truly in their corner and not just another Wall Street political front-man cum errand boy? We can’t answer that question of course with absolute confidence, suffice to say the “answer” is destined to become an enticing, enduring counterfactual. But there can be little doubt Trump’s appeal and subsequent success was driven by the lost promise — actual or perceived — of the Obama years, and the President must be acutely aware of this. In truth Number 44 has no one else to blame but himself if Trump dismantles all or even part of his legacy. With a backward nod then to the earlier horse-racing motif, the President backed the wrong “horse” — even betting the farm — when in Bernie Sanders he, the DNC and the party faithful had an eminently electable alternative to the “Queen of Chaos.” Given the way the DNC campaign was conducted – the Democratic leaders’ own appalling shenanigans showcased in all their “ugly glory” courtesy of the Podesta email “reveals” — that , we can now safely say, was never going to happen. In the Paradise of Opportunity Above and beyond Obama (or for that matter any previous president since Reagan at least), Trump’s win then has also been driven by a widespread, deep-seated lack of faith and trust — accumulated over the past few decades — in the integrity of the democratic system of government and contempt for those who purport to represent the people’s interests. The run-down PIX Theatre sign reads “Vote Trump” on Main Street in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. July 15, 2016. (Photo by Tony Webster Flickr) In what must serve as the quintessential master class of prolonged, consistent, truly bi-partisan cooperation American politics has on offer, both parties have contributed enormously over the past three-plus decades to the dismantling if not effective destruction of the American Dream in its hitherto real and imagined dimensions. Whether on broad economic, social, national security, or foreign policy issues, both parties have demonstrated a recidivistic, palpable indifference to the concerns and needs of average working- and middle-class Americans, with both repeatedly showing themselves prone to elitism, corruption, cronyism, manipulation, greed, deception, bribery, hypocrisy, opportunism, self-interest, contempt, cynicism and arrogance. In the process democracy’s once “proprietary” domains — equal justice, freedom, human rights, equality of opportunity, civil rights, liberty, and most everything from habeas corpus to the pursuit of happiness — have effectively been declared “no-fly-zones” for ordinary people, accessible only to those increasingly privileged, mostly unelected, and thoroughly unaccountable few. Most significantly, both parties have undermined, possibly irreparably, the sense of pride and place folks had in their once beloved — but now maybe not so — United States of America. Along with that, they have all but conspired to “deep-six” that once famously enduring, optimistic mindset that by some accounts enabled the country to thrive and prosper as a “paradise of opportunity” (or even a reasonable facsimile thereof). Let’s term that period The Era of Future Promise, or that time in history — from 1945 to say 1975 — where a whole generation or more of the majority of folks could not only envision a progressively better future for their kids and grandchildren, but anticipated it, and all things equal, if one was willing to strive for such, rightfully expected it. That is no longer the case for an increasing number of people, and it is this sentiment — one whose seismic impact we have just witnessed — that’s been neglected by both party majors. That this envisioned future is no longer realistic for many comes as a direct result of neoliberalism — the roll-out of which was overseen by both parties — and with it the globalization of economic and financial activity itself culminating from there via “casino capitalism” in the inexorable transfer and consolidation of historically unprecedented wealth, power, and income into the hands of fewer and fewer people — is inarguable. Now the end of this earlier era might have been heralded by Reagan’s ascension in 1981 and the advent of neoliberalism. But its sustained demise was enthusiastically presided over by Bill Clinton, in cahoots of course with this year’s DNC candidate for president, his wife Hillary, and the then Party establishment. Some folks clearly haven’t forgotten that. In short, there was no clear sign from Clinton that things would be substantially different under her regime than under that of her husband’s administration. The Democrats will seek elsewhere to attribute blame for their loss — it was the FBI’s James Comey and his on-again/off-again investigation of Clinton’s email servers; it was voter suppression and racism; it was Bernie Sanders campaign and misogyny; it was third parties and independent candidates; it was the corporate media for giving Trump the platform, social media for being a bullhorn, and WikiLeaks and/or the Russians for airing the DNC dirty laundry. Naomi Klein had this to say about the result: ‘But this leaves out the force most responsible for creating the nightmare in which we now find ourselves wide-awake: neoliberalism. That worldview — fully embodied by Hillary Clinton and her machine — is no match for Trump-style extremism. The decision to run one against the other is what sealed our fate. If we learn nothing else, can we please learn from that mistake? Here’s what we need to understand: a hell of a lot of people are in pain. Under neoliberal policies of deregulation, privatization, austerity and corporate trade, their living standards have declined precipitously. … They have lost jobs. They have lost pensions. They have lost much of the safety net that used to make these losses less frightening. They see a future for their kids even worse than their precarious present.” There can be little doubt that fundamental to Trump’s win — and it should be emphasized, no less so than with Sanders’s popularity and success — was a feeling the trickle-down of the Reagan years did not work for most. This can be seen as the first genuine, appreciable expression of that frustration. In his entreaties to voters to bring the jobs back for example, Trump promised them something that almost certainly he will struggle to deliver even if he is serious about making it a policy priority, but in doing so he clearly tapped into a rich vein of discontent. Cleaning the Stables This election has exposed a major chink in the armor of the hitherto impregnable, indomitable two-party-system, seen now by more as corrupt, decrepit, and bankrupt. The rise and impact of political outliers such as Trump and Bernie Sanders on largely opposite ends of the standard political spectrum is pro-forma evidence grassroots Americans — especially those not welded to that system and have legitimate grievances about the direction in which the established elite are taking them — are onto something. The Wall Street bull statue by Arturo Di Modica That the additional reality this situation is deteriorating even further across almost all strata of the “Main Street” political economy and permeating all aspects of life once synonymous with — and essential to claiming a stake in — the American Dream (even in its more modest imaginings), should be obvious to all but the most politically myopic or deluded. But while the ties that bind Uncle Sam and all he stands for to his long-suffering subjects are strong, it remains to be seen if Trump can do much more than just “drain the swamp.” Indeed, the bigger challenge will be to restore faith in the American Dream. With the former prerequisite task on its own akin to Hercules cleaning out the Augean Stables with a teaspoon and a toothbrush while its occupants are still in residence (given this is Washington we’re talking about, this metaphor may work on more than one level), it’s enough to say Trump will have his work cut out on both counts. With the record firmly in mind, we might define at this point three monumental errors of judgment made by the DNC hierarchy, all of which contributed to the Trump victory: their preferred choice of candidate when they had a highly credible, electorally appealing, and eminently electable alternative in Bernie Sanders; the manner in which it was revealed the Clinton primary campaign was conducted and the revulsion it engendered and damage it caused; and the fact that over the past 30 odd years the Democrats’ brand among its most historically important constituencies had lost much of its political allure. In sum, the Clinton campaign might have been better served by resuscitating that immortal mantra from Bill Clinton’s first White House tilt in 1992 — and here I am not talking about “two for the price of one’! I’m thinking here about legendary Clinton strategist James Carville ‘s “It’s the economy, stupid!” Underpinning the Trump debacle was sustained “group think” within the DNC camp, the key state of mind of which can be summed up in one word. Hubris. This “hubris” was in part fueled because it was “Hillary’s turn,” and partly fueled by a conviction someone like Trump could not possibly win. To be fair, this predisposition toward “hubris” is not proprietary to the Democrats; the GOP — many of whom also felt “someone like Trump could not possibly win”— can invariably be relied upon to provide stiff competition with their own unique manifestations when the need arises. Trump’s win is unlikely to temper that. Where to From Here? With both political parties increasingly and so obviously beholden to Wall Street and the global corporate oligarchy, the ever-widening disparities in income and wealth, and ”core principle” democracy now relegated to “poor cousin” status in the political economy then, it is also just as clear many Main Street Americans were pondering an altogether pessimistic outlook for their own and the next generation if the socio-economic scales continue to weigh in favor of the above power elites and against the interests of the middle- and working-class, and broader citizenry. President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea parade down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 1997. (White House photo) Although there was relatively little discussion in the MSM at least throughout the campaign of specific issues like economic inequality and income and wealth disparities, there can be little doubt Trump tapped into the sentiment that attends these matters. As Joe Lauria noted about Trump’s win, a “new political force” in America has been unleashed. Lauria added, “Millions of discontented Americans who have lost out to the computerization and the globalization of the economy — and who have been disproportionately called on to fight America’s ‘regime change’ wars — have made clear that they aren’t going to take it anymore.” The way Lauria sees it then, any party or politician going forward “better listen or they will be tossed out, too,” including Donald Trump if he doesn’t deliver the goods. Jordan Chariton, a political reporter for “The Young Turks” news show, said despite being a historically weak candidate, Hillary Clinton’s defeat wasn’t just about Hillary Clinton. The Rise of the Forgotten Deplorables has been a work in progress for some time. For him, “Clinton was the final lifeline to a neoliberal bubble built by the Clintons and many others — that finally popped on November 8th, 2016.” He cites some of the factors that might have had contributed to the disenfranchisement and disillusion: Bill Clinton, not Ronald Reagan, “pulled” down Glass-Steagall , the cornerstone of banking regulation for 60 years. Clinton, not Reagan, deregulated credit-default swaps (CDS), the “financial WMDs” that blew up the world’s economy in 2008. And it was Clinton, not Reagan, who signed NAFTA , the largest nail in the American middle class’ coffin. The additional reality is that the socio-economic “fabric of the republic” is fraying even further across all strata of the “Main Street” political economy and permeating all aspects of life once synonymous with — and essential to claiming a stake in — the American Dream (even in its more modest imaginings), should be obvious to all but the most politically myopic or deluded. And for those who understood there being such a thing as a “class war” and viewed globalization and neoliberalism through such a prism — if we recognize that the upper class won that war a long time ago — we might posit the following: Why when after the vanquished have long since surrendered to distraction, disillusion or outright despondency are the victors still fighting the war? Before this election, the short answer we might have suggested is that it’s because they can! In a piece earlier this year in The Guardian ( “ Neoliberalism — the Ideology at the Root of all our Problems”) , Georges Monbiot places the blame for most of the parlous state of the global political economy on the blowback from neoliberalism, a social engineering experiment of sorts anchored by what became an inviolable economic ideology and which arose as a conscious attempt to “reshape human life and shift the locus of power,” a goal few objective observers would argue has long ago been achieved. It became in effect a Weapon of Mass Disenfranchisement, sold on the utterly — and knowingly — fraudulent notion that “every child player wins a prize,” with enticements of “trickle-down effects” and “rising tides.” Monbiot also dutifully reminds us that neoliberalism’s central tenet proclaims competition as the “defining characteristic” of human relations, while redefining citizens as consumers or customers, whose “democratic” choices are best exercised by “buying and selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency.” Moreover, he warns: “Perhaps the most dangerous impact of neoliberalism is not the economic crises it has caused, but the political crisis. As the domain of the state is reduced, our ability to change the course of our lives through voting also contracts.” If the arrival then of Donald Trump doesn’t qualify as a “political crisis” of sorts for America, it will do until the real one gets here. For those who supported him, as to whether he will change the course of their lives (presumably for the better), that remains a big unknown. Expecting that a billionaire businessman — a man who symbolizes everything that is the very antithesis of their own lives — to change said lives appreciably is probably a big ask. Well might we say, “good luck with that!” Throughout the campaign Trump demonstrated his mastery at keeping folks guessing as to what his next move would be, and continues do so in transition mode. It will be of great interest going forward then to see to what extent he continues to do this once he enters the White House, and especially to see what the ramifications might be for ordinary Americans in those areas that really matter for them. All of which is to say, we’re in for a few surprises, for better or worse. The Trump ego is legendary. of course, and the best we might hope for is that it doesn’t all go to the new President’s head! Now that would indeed be another “turn-up for the books.” Greg Maybury is a freelance writer based in Perth, Western Australia.

Global Temperatures Are on Course for Another Record This Year - The New York Times

Henry Fountain

The world is on pace to set another high temperature benchmark, with 2016 becoming the third year in a row of record heat. NASA scientists announced on Tuesday that global temperatures so far this year were much higher than in the first half of 2015. Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, said that while the first six months of 2015 made it the hottest ever recorded, “2016 really has blown that out of the water. ” He said calculations showed there was a 99 percent probability that the full year would be hotter than 2015. Dr. Schmidt said the world was now “dancing” with the temperature targets set last year in the Paris climate treaty for nations to limit climate change. He attributed part of the rise in temperatures this year to El Niño, in which warming waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean pump a lot of heat into the atmosphere. El Niño is now ending, and water temperatures in the Pacific are dropping, which should lead in 2017 to lower but still historically high temperatures. Average temperatures for the first six months of this year were about 1. 3 degrees Celsius, or 2. 3 degrees Fahrenheit, above the average in 1880, when global began, and “quite close” to 1. 5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, Dr. Schmidt said in a conference call with other NASA scientists. The warming in the first half of this year extended across all parts of the planet except for most of Antarctica, Dr. Schmidt said. Warming was especially strong in the Arctic, where it had an effect on sea ice coverage. Walt Meier, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the geographical extent of the Arctic ice so far this year was the lowest for any since satellite began in 1979, largely because warm temperatures caused melting to begin as much as two months earlier than usual. “It’s been an extreme beginning to the year for sea ice,” he said. It is not yet clear if this year will exceed the record for the lowest extent, set in 2012, because most of the melting takes place later in the summer. Warming of 1. 5 degrees Celsius has special significance because at the Paris climate treaty in December, the world agreed to aim to limit the increase in average global temperatures to that amount above preindustrial levels. Dr. Schmidt said that the Paris target referred to sustained temperatures over the long term. “I certainly would not say that we have now gotten to that initial Paris number and are going to stay there,” he said. “But I think it’s fair to say that we are dancing with that lower target. ” Dr. Schmidt said that although NASA did not usually offer midyear updates to its global surface temperature analysis, it had decided to do so now “because average temperatures for the first half of this year are so in excess of any first part of a year we’ve seen. ” January 2016 was the hottest January since 1880, and that distinction continued for each month through June, NASA said. Dr. Schmidt said that although El Niño contributed to some of the increase in temperatures from last year, almost all of the increase since the 1960s was because of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Forecasters now expect that later this year, temperatures in the Pacific will become lower than normal, a condition called La Niña. That should result in somewhat lower global temperatures next year, he said. The NASA announcement reflects trends in a climate affected by rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That is distinct from weather trends like the heat waves that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued warnings about this week for much of the eastern half of the United States. NOAA’s National Weather Service has issued heat warnings and advisories for much of the Plains, the Mississippi Valley and Midwestern and Southern states, saying temperatures could be well above 100 degrees through the weekend.

Updated Brain Map Identifies Nearly 100 New Regions - The New York Times

Carl Zimmer

The brain looks like a featureless expanse of folds and bulges, but it’s actually carved up into invisible territories. Each is specialized: Some groups of neurons become active when we recognize faces, others when we read, others when we raise our hands. On Wednesday, in what many experts are calling a milestone in neuroscience, researchers published a spectacular new map of the brain, detailing nearly 100 previously unknown regions — an unprecedented glimpse into the machinery of the human mind. Scientists will rely on this guide as they attempt to understand virtually every aspect of the brain, from how it develops in children and ages over decades, to how it can be corrupted by diseases like Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia. “It’s a step towards understanding why we’re we,” said David Kleinfeld, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the research. Scientists created the map with advanced scanners and computers running artificial intelligence programs that “learned” to identify the brain’s hidden regions from vast amounts of data collected from hundreds of test subjects, a far more sophisticated and broader effort than had been previously attempted. While an important advance, the new atlas is hardly the final word on the brain’s workings. It may take decades for scientists to figure out what each region is doing, and more will be discovered in coming decades. “This map you should think of as version 1. 0,” said Matthew F. Glasser, a neuroscientist at Washington University School of Medicine and lead author of the new research. “There may be a version 2. 0 as the data get better and more eyes look at the data. We hope the map can evolve as the science progresses. ” The first hints of the brain’s hidden geography emerged more than 150 years ago. In the 1860s, the physician Pierre Paul Broca was intrigued by two of his patients who were unable to speak. After they died, Broca examined their brains. On the outer layer, called the cortex, he found that both had suffered damage to the same patch of tissue. That region came to be known as Broca’s area. In recent decades, scientists have found that it becomes active when people speak and when they try to understand the speech of other people. In the late 1800s, a group of German researchers identified other regions of the cortex, each having distinct types of cells packed together in unique ways. In 1907, Korbinian Brodmann published a catalog of 52 brain regions. Neuroscientists have relied on his map ever since, adding a modest number of new regions with their own research. “This is the standard for where you are in the brain,” said Dr. Glasser. Three years ago, Dr. Glasser and his colleagues set out to create a new standard. They drew on data collected by the Human Connectome Project, in which 1, 200 volunteers were studied with powerful new scanners. The project team recorded images of each participant’s brain, and then recorded its activity during hours of tests on memory, language and other kinds of thought. In previous attempts to map the cortex, scientists typically had looked only at one kind of evidence at a time — say, the arrangements of cells. The Human Connectome Project has made it possible to study the brain in much greater detail. In addition to looking at the activity of the brain, the scientists also looked at its anatomy. They measured the amount of myelin, for example, a fatty substance that insulated neurons. They found sharp contrasts in myelin levels from one region of the cortex to the next. “We have 112 different types of information we can tap into,” said David C. Van Essen, a principal investigator with the Human Connectome Project at Washington University Medical School. Using these variables, the scientists trained a computer with data from 210 brains to recognize discrete regions of the cortex. Once the computer profiled the distinctive combinations of myelin, activity and other characteristics, they tested it on 210 other brains. The computer pinpointed the regions in the new brains 96. 6 percent of the time. The scientists found that only a small number of features were required to map the brain. That means that researchers will be able to use their method to map an individual’s brain in a little over an hour of scanning. The map produced by the computer includes 83 familiar regions, such as Broca’s area, but includes 97 that were unknown — or just forgotten. In the 1950s, for example, German researchers noticed a patch on the side of the brain in which neurons had little myelin, compared with neighboring regions. But the finding was soon neglected. “People tended to ignore it, and it was lost in the literature,” said Dr. Van Essen. The computer rediscovered the odd territory, and Dr. Van Essen and his colleagues found that it becomes unusually active when people listen to stories. That finding suggests the region, which they call 55b, is part of a language network in the brain, along with Broca’s area. In other parts of the cortex, the scientists were able to partition previously identified regions into smaller ones. For example, they discovered that a large region near the front of the brain, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, actually is made up of a dozen smaller zones. The region becomes active during many different kinds of thought, ranging from to deception. It’s possible that each of the newly identified smaller parts is important for one of those tasks. The computer program developed by the scientists became so adept at mapping the cortex that it could identify hidden regions even when they took on unusual shapes. Twelve of the research subjects, for example, have a 55b region that’s split into two isolated patches. (The researchers don’t know whether this affects how the subjects use language.) Other neuroscientists hope that the new map will sharpen their experiments, allowing them to discover how the brain’s cogs mesh. “The next big step is seeing what this can do for us in terms of buying more power,” said Emily S. Finn, a graduate student at Yale University who has used Human Connectome Project data to find links between brain activity and intelligence. Dr. Kleinfeld predicted that other researchers will find ways to verify the new map’s accuracy. Genetic testing, for example: If 180 regions of the cortex really are distinct, then the neurons in each should share a distinct combination of active genes. “You can imagine going to these 180 regions, taking a punch of tissue, and seeing if you can really genetically differentiate them,” said Dr. Kleinfeld. Many experts believe that the brain, on closer inspection, will turn out to be an even greater collective of regions that somehow cooperate for the common good. “It’s very clear that many of those regions are likely to be composed of smaller pieces,” said Danielle S. Bassett, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Van Essen said that he and other scientists will be using the map to track the development of young brains and to look for changes caused by disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. “We shouldn’t expect miracles and easy answers,” he said, “but we’re positioned to accelerate progress. ”

A very accurate pisstake of craft beer culture

Poke Staff

Next Prev Swipe left/right A very accurate pisstake of craft beer culture If you want a nice pint of Bishops Bellend, or something to eat served out of a vintage ambulance in the vaping section in the back, this craft beer knob knows just the place.

Egyptian Christians Cancel Easter Festivities in Mourning Over Palm Sunday Massacre

Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

The main Christian diocese in Egypt has announced that it will not hold Easter celebrations this year, in mourning for the 46 Coptic Christians killed in the Palm Sunday massacre brought about by twin jihadist bombings. [The Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Minya, located in southern Egypt, said Tuesday that commemorations of the Resurrection of Jesus will be limited to the liturgical prayers “without any festive manifestations” out of respect for the faithful who were slain by suicide bombers of the Islamic State. The Minya province has the highest Coptic Christian population in the country and Christians there traditionally hold Easter Vigil services on Saturday evening and then spend Easter Sunday on large meals and family visits. Christians in Minya have lived in constant fear of attacks from the area’s large Salafi Muslim population. In certain local villages, the faithful celebrate Mass before a cross drawn on a wall, making it easy to erase quickly in order to avoid attacks. Police sources said that 28 people have been arrested for their possible ties to the planning and financing of Sunday’s attacks. Using DNA testing, authorities have also identified the two perpetrators of the slaughter as Egyptians who had traveled to Syria yet managed to return to Egypt, bypassing border controls. The two jihadis carried out separate suicide bombings in the churches of Saint George in Tanta and Saint Mark in Alexandria while Palm Sunday services were being conducted. The attacks took the lives of 46 people, and left more than a hundred wounded. One of the terrorists was identified with the nom de guerre of Abu Ishaaq al Masri, and was reportedly born in 1990 in the province of Sharqiya, located in the Nile delta north of Cairo. He is thought to have entered Syria in January of 2017 before authorities lost track of his whereabouts. The bombing in Alexandria was reportedly the work of Abu who blew himself up near the doors of the church just as he passed through the metal detector. According to the man’s relatives, he had made several trips to neighboring Libya, where he would stay for three months at a time. On Tuesday, the Egyptian Parliament unanimously ratified the state of emergency that had been declared the prior evening by the cabinet of ministers of President Abdel Fattah . The state of alert will be in force for the next three months, at which time it may be renewed if need be. The state of emergency gives the president wide and exceptional powers to establish special courts, intercept communications, impose censorship, or even decree a curfew. Human rights activists have expressed fears that the state of emergency will add even more repression to a country where public freedoms have been crushed in the last four years under the pretext of fighting increasingly widespread terrorism. The Pew Research Center reported Tuesday that Egypt is now the country with the highest level of government restrictions of religion in the entire world. Meanwhile, the Islamic State has become more and more active in Egypt, especially in the region of North Sinai, and recently vowed to step up its attacks against Egypt’s Christians. Along with the Palm Sunday attack, ISIS had claimed responsibility for the December 2016 bombing of a church next to St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, an important religious site for Egyptian Copts. That explosion killed 30 Christians and injured dozens more. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome

Disgraced Hedge Fund Manager Focuses on Aiding Veterans

Arnaldo Rodgers

Disgraced Hedge Fund Manager Focuses on Aiding BY PAUL SULLIVAN Sitting at the circular table in his office, near an elliptical machine, treadmill and massage table, Steven A. Cohen struggled to find words to describe what motivates his new philanthropic effort. “You know what I think it is, I was looking for something unique, special, something that I could own,” said Mr. Cohen, the billionaire investor, in an interview at his family office, Point72 Asset Management. It is in the same building as his former hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, which in 2013 paid $1.8 billion in fines to federal prosecutors and securities regulators. “I wanted to do something big,” he added. “I wanted to do something that was all mine.” That something is a two-pronged initiative to help veterans who return from combat with post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injuries and a separate nonprofit organization to do research into diagnostic tools and treatments for those conditions. www.nytimes.com

LEAKED AUDIO: HILLARY CLINTON PROPOSED RIGGING PALESTINIAN ELECTION

Aaron Kesel

We Are Change Leaked audio from 2006, shows Hillary Clinton suggesting that the U.S. should have rigged a foreign countries electoral process. Eyebrows should be raised high to your forehead when hearing Clinton suggest the U.S. should have “made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win” rigging the Palestinian election. The leak comes less then a week away from when voters take to the polls. “I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake. And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.” ~Hillary Clinton, 2006, said. The audio was leaked to the Observer , by Eli Chomsky who was an editor and staff writer for the Jewish Press at the time. Chomsky recorded Hillary speaking to the Jewish Press January, 25, 2006 about the second Palestinian Legislative Council on an old cassette tape. Speaking to the Jewish Press about the January 25, 2006, election for the second Palestinian Legislative Council (the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority), Clinton weighed in about the result, which was a resounding victory for Hamas (74 seats) over the U.S.-preferred Fatah (45 seats). ~ Ken Kurson , writes. Chomsky held onto the tape all these years and was told by his bosses at the time in 2006, that they didn’t think it was “newsworthy” at the time. Chomsky also expressed that the Jewish Press had a mindset that they would not want to say anything offensive about anybody in a position of influence. “I went to my bosses at the time, the Jewish Press had this mindset that they would not want to say anything offensive about anybody even a direct quote from anyone in a position of influence because they might need them down the road. My bosses didn’t think it was newsworthy at the time. I was convinced that it was and I held onto it all these years.” Given the absurd amount of primary fraud in favor of Hillary Clinton this should open another Pandora’s box. The potential that she may knowingly have setup the election fraud so she could win against Senator Bernie Sanders. The collusion with the DNC, the media and the dirty tactics used by her campaign and the Democrats in general that Project Veritas exposed . With a statement like that in 2006, Hillary may have known about all the illegal practices taking part now in the U.S. 2016 election cycle making her a direct participant in the conspiracy. Whether it’s violating FEC regulations, criminal laws, morals or ethics. Hillary doesn’t care that’s what this tape shows it shows the further moral depravity of a presidential candidate less then 2 weeks away from the election. It shows that Hillary doesn’t give a damn about democracy even in a foreign country where the U.S. has no business meddling in other countries internal election affairs. And here she is suggesting that the U.S. should have “made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.” Hillary has proven time and time again that she has absolutely no conscience what so ever. Whether it’s lying about Bosnia snipers or lying about her email investigation, lying about Benghazi, or having a public and private opinion on issues directly deceiving voters Hillary has shown what difference does it make? Here’s Hillary lying for 14 minutes straight and that’s not even counting the lies she told to the American people while making deals with Goldman Sachs, Wall St and foreign donors. 2006 audio emerges of Clinton proposing election rigging in Palestine; censored by Israeli press for past 10 years https://t.co/LsMYcUzJR4 — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 28, 2016 The post LEAKED AUDIO: HILLARY CLINTON PROPOSED RIGGING PALESTINIAN ELECTION appeared first on We Are Change .

In Wake of Orlando Shootings, Mexican Soccer Chant Offends Many - The New York Times

Randal C. Archibold

The Mexican soccer star Javier Hernández, known as Chicharito, has condemned it in a public service announcement. Hashtags have spread to raise awareness of its offensiveness and to try to put an end to it. And after the massacre in an Orlando nightclub popular with gay Latinos, commentators have urged fans to abandon it once and for all. But still, as is customary when the Mexican national team is playing in an international tournament, it could be heard: the roar of “Eeeh … puto!” by Mexican fans trying to distract the opposing goalkeeper punting the ball upfield. “Puto,” roughly translated as “male prostitute,” is a slur often hurled at gay men in Mexico, but fans who chant it say they use it out of the more generalized meaning of “coward” (or, in the adjective form, simply an unpleasant thing). On Monday, two days after a gunman killed 49 people in Orlando, Fla. including at least four Mexican nationals, the chant could be heard during Mexico’s match against Venezuela in Houston during the Copa América regional tournament, being held in the United States for the first time. Some people even believe they heard it chanted with a little more gusto, as if in defiance over the criticism of the term. Mexico’s national team was fined $20, 700 in January by FIFA, the world soccer body, over fans’ use of the chant in a World Cup qualifying game against El Salvador in November. In theory, FIFA could move to take away points in the World Cup standings, which could derail the team’s advancement to the 2018 finals. On Thursday, without mentioning Mexico, Concacaf, the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, issued a statement denouncing “chants or actions that are derogatory or offensive” and said that “they must be stopped. ” It did not mention what action, if any, it would take. Mexico next plays on Saturday night in a Copa América quarterfinal match against Chile at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. In Mexico, the chant is largely seen as much ado about nothing, and penalizing the team over it a sign of political correctness. Luis Fernando Lara, the editor of the Diccionario del español de Mexico (Dictionary of Mexican Spanish) said in an interview that the word derives from a Latin root that means “child. ” In its feminine form, it came to mean “prostitute,” and its male form took that meaning as well, particularly in the gay community. It evolved to mean “coward” or “ . ” In soccer matches, he said, it is intended simply to insult the goalkeeper, not to call him gay. “It seems to me that FIFA is wrong in judging the shout as an insult to homosexuals,” he said. “It is indeed an insult, but it is not aimed at the gay community. I think unfortunately they are making a cause out of the shout all through a politically incorrect mistake. ” Many gay advocates consider such reasoning nonsense. “The whole point is that the choice of this word is absolutely linked to a negative, homophobic meaning,” said Enrique Torre Molina, a Mexican who is campaign manager at All Out, an international gay rights organization. “‘Puto’ is the word many gay men have been called in school or even by family members to mock us or put us down. ‘Puto’ is the word many gay men hear as they’re being beaten, sometimes to death, in the daily homophobic crimes committed in Latin America. ”’ ”He added: “What is kind of infuriating, especially after tragedies like the Orlando shooting and any other homophobic crime that happens, is to read and hear people refusing to let it go after having so many gay men literally asking for them to drop it. If you have a group of people saying, ’Hey, when you use this word, it hurts,’ why not drop it? ”” ’Some fans are trying to do just that. Sergio Tristan, a and the founder of Pancho Villa’s Army, an Austin, Tex. fan club for the Mexican team, said the group had tried to persuade the “vocal minority” backing the chant to drop it. Tristan said that he had once chanted it too but that he had eventually acknowledged that it was offensive and not worth the penalties that have been or could be imposed on the team. He said the vitriol directed by American fans offended by the chat could actually backfire. “They actually are making it worse,” he said, pointing to the perceived louder volume of the chant at recent matches. “It’s a Mexican problem that should be solved by Mexican fans. ” He added: “Whether or not it is offensive, it really is a matter of perspective. We want to stop it because we are at the juncture where our team could suffer fines or lose points in our World Cup spot. ”

Alien Visitors? No Explanation for Mysterious Lights in Night Sky Over Arizona

Kaboom! Meteor Turns Night Into Day in Arizona (VIDEO) The National Weather Service did not report any calls regarding the matter, but based on videos provided to them by ABC15 they stated that the lights appeared to be “very far away and flying at a high altitude.” Nearby Luke Air Force Base stated that they did not have any aircraft flying after 5:30 PM, and that they were not the source. Witnesses tweeted videos at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who stated that "it is not known what may have caused them to occur." In June, a massive asteroid zoomed over Arizona skies, and entered the Earth’s atmosphere east of the Arizona town of Payson. "There are no reports of any damage or injuries — just a lot of light and few sonic booms," Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center said in a statement at the time. "If Doppler radar is any indication, there are almost certainly meteorites scattered on the ground north of Tucson." That meteor was estimated to be approximately 10 feet in diameter and travelling at roughly 42,000 mph. ...

Video Shows Texas Dem Encouraging ’Sanctuary’ Protesters from House Floor

Bob Price

A new video captures a Texas Democrat encouraging protest disruptions from the floor of the State House of Representatives last week. The video was taken moments before the confrontation between Republican Rep. Matt Rinaldi ( ) and Hispanic Democrat legislators. [The cell phone video taken from the floor of the Texas House by State Representative Mark Keough ( Woodlands) shows Democrat State Representative Ramon Ramero ( Worth) chanting “Hey, Hey. Ho, Ho. SB4 has got to go!” House rules and order prohibit such behavior by representatives. “This is such an embarrassment for the legislature,” Rep. Keough told Breitbart Texas in an exclusive interview. “The people in the gallery were holding up signs saying they are in the country illegally, and Democrat state reps are cheering them on. ” “We all took the same oath to uphold and defend the Constitutions of Texas and the United States at the beginning of the session,” the Republican representative continued. “And here they were, encouraging lawless behavior. ” Keough told Breitbart Texas that House rules expressly prohibit this type of conduct. “Unfortunately, the House and other security personnel were upstairs in the gallery dealing with the disruptive crowd,” he explained. “When the Speaker calls for order, you are supposed to settle down, but they just continued encouraging the crowd. I couldn’t believe it. ” The chants from protesters came after the House Speaker had ordered Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers to clear the House Gallery of protesters who were attempting to disrupt the final day of the legislative session. Romero and other Democrat state representatives were seen by their Republican colleagues as egging on the protesters while law enforcement officers tried to maintain peace and order. State Representative Jonathan Stickland ( ) told Breitbart Texas that at this point when the video by Keough was filmed, several DPS troopers had been assaulted and pushed down the steps in the gallery by the crowd. “These troopers were trying to restore order, and Democrats were egging them on from the floor,” Stickland said. “I have never seen anything like this in the House. ” Rinaldi would later accuse Romero of physically assaulting him after he told Democrat reps he had called ICE on the protesters claiming to be illegal aliens. “When I told the Democrats I called ICE, Representative Ramon Romero physically assaulted me, and other Democrats were held back by colleagues,” Rinaldi posted on Facebook. This session has seen the passage of historic, but emotional legislation relating to prohibiting sanctuary cities in Texas. Senate Bill 4, authored by Senator Charles Perry ( ) is now the law of the state. The law which prohibits sheriff’s and police chiefs from ignoring immigration detainers and having policies forbidding officers from asking about immigration status becomes effective on September 1, 2017. The bill provides civil fines and even criminal penalties to law enforcement officials choosing to ignore immigration authorities. This new law was the focus of protesters on the final day of the session. The emotional debate over the bill left emotional scars on relationships between representatives with opposing viewpoints. In a few weeks, the legislature will reconvene in a special session called by Governor Greg Abbott on July 18. 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.

De e-mails van Hillary Clinton en de Moslimbroederschap, door Thierry Meyssan

Bart Ero

De e-mails van Hillary Clinton en de Moslimbroederschap door Thierry Meyssan De FBI enquête betreffende de privé e-mails van Hillary Clinton gaat niet over een nalatigheid ten opzichte van de veiligheidsregels, maar over een complot met het doel elk spoor af te leiden van haar correspondenties die gearchiveerd hadden moeten zijn op de servers van de Federale Staat. Deze kunnen de uitwisselingen omvatten over illegale financieringen of corruptie, andere over de banden tussen de eega’s Clinton en de Moslimbroederschap en de jihadisten. Voltaire Netwerk | Damascus (Syrië) | 6 november 2016 ελληνικά English Español français Türkçe русский Deutsch Português italiano norsk عربي Hillary Clinton en haar kabinetschef Huma Abedin. De heractivering van de FBI enquête in de privé e-mails van Hillary Clinton betreffen niet meer de veiligheidsregels, maar de manipulaties die kunnen gaan tot hoogverraad. Technisch, in plaats de beveiligde server van de Federale Staat te gebruiken, had de Staatssecretaresse in haar woning een privé server laten installeren, om op die manier het internet te kunnen gebruiken zonder sporen op een machine van de Federale Staat achter te laten. De privé technicus van Mevr Clinton had haar server uitgewist vòòr de aankomst van de FBI, zodat het onmogelijk was te weten waarom zij dit dispositief had ingericht. In het begin heeft de FBI geobserveerd dat de server niet de beveiliging van het State Department had. Mevr Clinton had dus slechts een veiligheidsfout begaan. Later heeft de FBI de computer van het vroegere congreslid Anthony Weiner in beslag genomen. Deze is de vroegere echtgenoot van Huma Abedin, kabinetschef van Hillary. Daarin zijn E-mails afkomstig van de Staatssecretaresse teruggevonden. Anthony Weiner is een Joods politicus, heel intiem bevriend met de Clintons, die ambieerde burgemeester van New York te worden. Hij moest ontslag nemen als gevolg van een zeer puriteinse schandaal: hij had per SMS erotische berichten naar een andere jonge vrouw dan zijn echtgenote gestuurd. Huma Abedin scheidde officieel van hem tijdens deze agitatie, maar verliet hem in werkelijkheid niet. Huma Abedin is een Amerikaanse opgevoed in Saoedi-Arabië. Haar vader dirigeert een academische revue —waar ze gedurende jaren redactiesecretaresse van was— die regelmatig de mening van de Moslimbroederschap reproduceert. Haar moeder presideert de Saoedische vereniging van de vrouwelijke leden van de Moslimbroederschap en werkte samen met de vrouw van de Egyptische president Mohamed Morsi. Haar broer Hassan werkt voor de sjeik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, prediker van de Broederschap en geestelijke adviseur van Al-Jazeera. Ter gelegenheid van een officiële reis naar Saoedi-Arabië bezoekt de Staatssecretaresse het college Dar al-Hekma in het bijzijn van Salehan Abedin (moeder van haar kabinetschef), presidente van de vereniging van de Zusters leden van de Broederschap. Huma Abedin is heden een centraal personage van Clinton’s verkiezingscampagne, naast John Podesta, vroegere secretaris-generaal van het Witte-Huis tijdens het presidentschap van Bill Clinton. Daarnaast is Podesta de vaste lobbyist van het Saoedische koninkrijk in het Amerikaanse Congres voor de bescheiden som van 200.000 dollar maandelijks. Op 12 juni 2016 had Petra, het officiële persbureau van Jordanië, een interview gepubliceerd van de Arabische prins Ben Salmane, die pochte over de moderniteit van zijn familie die illegaal 20% van de presidentscampagne van Hillary Clinton had gefinancierd, hoewel dat een vrouw is. De dag na de publicatie annuleerde het agentschap dit bericht, verzekerend dat zijn site gepirateerd was. Volgens het officiële Jordaanse persbureau Petra van 12 juni 2016 heeft de Saoedische koninklijke familie illegaal 20% van de verkiezingscampagne van Hillary Clinton gefinancierd. Mevr Abedin is niet het enige lid van de Obama administratie die aan de Broederschap verbonden is. De half-broer van de president, Abon’go Malik Obama, is de schatmeester van het Missiewerk van de Broeders in Soedan en president van de Stichting Barack H. Obama. Hij staat rechtstreeks onder bevel van de Soedanese president Omar el-Béchir. Een Moslimbroeder is lid van de Nationale Veiligheidsraad —de hoogste uitvoerende instantie van de Verenigde Staten—. Van 2009 tot 2012 was dit het geval van Mehdi K. Alhassani. Men weet niet wie hem heeft opgevolgd maar het Witte-Huis ontkende dat een Broeder lid was van de Raad tot er een bewijs van opdook. Het is ook een Broeder die ambassadeur van de Verenigde Staten is bij de Islamitische conferentie, Rashad Hussain. De andere geïdentificeerde Broeders bezetten minder belangrijke posten. HLouay M. Safi moet echter worden genoemd, huidig lid van de Nationale Syrische Coalitie en vorig adviseur van het Pentagon. President Obama en zijn half-broer Abon’go Malik Obama in het Ovaal Bureau. Abon’go Malik is de schatmeester van het Missiewerk van de Moslimbroeders in Soedan. In April 2009, twee maanden voor zijn redevoering in Caïro, had president Obama in het geheim een delegatie van de Broederschap ontvangen in het Ovaal Bureau. Hij had, voor zijn inhuldiging Ingrid Mattson, presidente van de vereniging van de Moslim Broeders en Zusters in de Verenigde Staten, al uitgenodigd. Van zijn kant heeft de Stichting Clinton voor zijn project « klimaat » als verantwoordelijke Gehad el-Haddadin in dienst genomen, één van de wereldleiders van de Broederschap, die tot dan toe verantwoordelijke was van een televisie uitzending over de Koran. Zijn vader was één van de mede-oprichters van de Broederschap, in 1951; tijdens de her-oprichting door de CIA en de MI6 heeft Gehad de Stichting in 2012 verlaten, op welke datum hij in Caïro de woordvoerder van kandidaat Mohammed Morsi is geworden, en vervolgens die van de Moslimbroeders, op mondiaal niveau. Er van uitgaande dat de totaliteit van de jihadisten-leiders in de wereld voortkomen uit hetzij de Broederschap, hetzij uit de orde van de Soefi’s van de Naqshbandîs —de twee componenten van de Islamitische liga, de Arabisch-Saoedische anti-nationalistische organisatie— zou men wel meer willen weten over de relaties tussen Mevr Clinton en Saoedi-Arabië en de Broeders. Het is trouwens zo dat in het team van haar tegenstander Donald Trump zich generaal T. Flynn bevindt, die poogde zich tegen de creatie van het Kalifaat door het Witte-Huis te verzetten en ontslag nam van de directie van de Defense Intelligence Agency (Militaire Inlichtingendienst) om zijn afwijzing te markeren. Hij gaat hier om met Frank Gaffney, een vroegere « Koude oorlog strijder »,voortaan bestempeld als een « complottist » voor de aanwezigheid van Broeders in de Verenigde Staten te hebben aangeklaagd. Het spreekt vanzelf dat, vanuit het standpunt van de FBI steun aan jihadistische organisaties een misdaad is, wat ook de politiek van de CIA mag zijn. In 1991 had de politie —en senator Kelly— het failliet van de Pakistaanse (hoewel in de Caymaneilanden geregistreerde) bank BCCI geprovoceerd, welke de CIA voor allerlei geheime operaties met zowel de Moslimbroeders als met de latino-amerikaanse drugskartels gebruikte. Thierry Meyssan Vertaling Bart Ero

SAID IN SPANISH: A Mexican Governor Meddles In California; Mexican Music Stars Slam Trump (Who Asked Them?); NEW YORK TIMES Votes For Hispanics Above Anglos

Allan Wall

Quebec Mosque Shooting Kills at Least 6, and 2 Suspects Are Arrested - The New York Times

Ian Austen and Craig S. Smith

OTTAWA — Gunmen opened fire in a mosque in the city of Quebec on Sunday night, killing six people and wounding eight others in what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a “terrorist attack on Muslims. ” Étienne Doyon, a spokesman for the Quebec police, told reporters at the scene that the attack on the mosque, the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, had occurred around 8 p. m. At a news conference early Monday the police confirmed the six fatalities and said that two suspects had been arrested. The attack shook Canada, a country where mass shootings are uncommon, and came as the country has become known as a beacon for refugees fleeing warfare and terrorism in nations. Mr. Trudeau assailed what he called “this terrorist attack on Muslims in a center of worship and refuge. ” “It is to see such senseless violence,” he said in a statement early Monday. “Diversity is our strength, and religious tolerance is a value that we, as Canadians, hold dear. ” Christine Colombe, a spokeswoman for the Quebec Provincial Police, said the victims ranged in age from 35 to 70 and said that 39 people who were in the mosque were not hurt. The police had not yet identified a motive in the shootings, saying the investigation was just beginning. Ms. Colombe said that one of the two suspects was arrested at the scene of the shooting, while another was apprehended nearby on Île d’Orleans. The police said that some of those wounded in the shooting were seriously hurt. On Twitter, Martin Coiteux, the provincial minister of public safety, said that “the police systems for dealing with terrorist acts have been activated” in the wake of the shooting. “Ensuring the safety of the population is our priority,” he wrote. the service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, said the area surrounding the mosque had been sealed off by the police after the attack. Last June, a pig’s head was left at the door of the mosque in the middle of Ramadan. Practicing Muslims regard pork as unclean and do not eat it. The president of the mosque, Mohamed Yangui, was interviewed on Ici RDI, a French Canadian broadcaster. He was not at the mosque during the shooting but said that people who were present had told him that one gunman was able to reload his weapon several times. He said he had been told by witnesses that the gunmen had entered on the ground floor and had gone to the second floor where women pray, but he did not know whether any women were in the mosque at the time. The attack came after Mr. Trudeau said that Canada stood ready to continue welcoming refugees from terrorism and war and as President Trump’s executive order on immigration stranded people around the world and provoked condemnation that it was directed at Muslims. In the wake of the Quebec shooting, the New York City police stepped up protection of mosques, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter. About 765, 000 people live in the city of Quebec, and 6, 760 of them identified themselves as Muslims during the last national census. Mr. Trudeau posted a message on Twitter on Saturday welcoming refugees to Canada and included a photograph of himself with a child under the hashtag #WelcomeToCanada. Since Mr. Trudeau took office in late 2015 the country has admitted nearly 40, 000 refugees, many of them fleeing the war in Syria. Canada’s warm embrace of Syrian refugees has won the country accolades at home and abroad, but is not without its domestic opponents. A survey in Ontario last summer found that while there was widespread support for accepting the refugees, only a third of respondents had a positive impression of Islam, and more than half felt its mainstream doctrines promoted violence. incidents have been on the rise in Canada, with several minor incidents reported in Quebec during the past year. A Montreal mosque and a Muslim community center were slightly damaged in separate arson attempts in December, and the head of the Association of Muslims and Arabs for a Secular Quebec received online death threats the month before. The increasing tension led a member of Parliament, Iqra Khalid, to put forward a motion in the national House of Commons in December calling on the government to condemn Islamophobia and request a study on how the government could combat the trend. The motion will probably be voted on when the House returns to session this week. In the wake of Sunday night’s attack, the premier of the province of Quebec, Philippe Couillard, said that solidarity rallies were planned on Monday for people to express their concern about the shootings. “We are with you. You are at home,” he said, in words directed at the province’s Muslim residents.

Learning to Speak for the Dead - The New York Times

Winnie Hu

The dead man waited on a gurney. His corpulent frame, after days of decomposing, had turned the mottled green of a ripe watermelon. He had been found alone in bed in his Manhattan apartment, surrounded by an avalanche of discarded bottles and trash. Now Dr. Jacqueline Nunez was by his side. As a medical examiner training in New York City, she had the job of finding out what had happened to him. It would not be quick or easy, not like television crime shows in which deaths are neatly wrapped up in under an hour. The job requires examiners to break apart bodies: hard physical work. too. Dr. Nunez would be on her feet for hours, splattered by blood and other body fluids, at times breathing an unimaginable stench. She could spend weeks, or even months, piecing together clues that might never add up. Standing on top of a metal stool, Dr. Nunez cut into the torso. A thick greenish fluid oozed out. She grabbed an ladle to scoop out more of it. Then she stuck both hands into the body to feel around for the liver. She came up empty, her gloves dripping. “Oh, what a mess,” she said. “I’m not sure what’s going on. This is the worst I’ve ever seen. ” It got messier. Dr. Nunez cracked open the chest with clippers to remove the heart and the lungs. She cut out the intestines. Then, as a whirring electric saw was used to open the skull, Dr. Nunez reached in to lift out the brain. When she was finished, she cleaned up. Then she started on her next patient. DR. NUNEZ is part of a New York City fellowship program that has become one of the country’s most renowned training grounds for medical examiners. The Forensic Pathology Fellows Program has helped resurrect a agency, the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, which as recently as the 1980s was widely accused of incompetent management and bias toward the police. The estimated 500 forensic pathologists working nationwide are roughly half the number needed, according to the National Association of Medical Examiners. “Everyone who passes the medical examiner’s boards is sought after,” said Dr. David Fowler, the association’s president, who attributed the shortage to limited training opportunities and relatively low compensation compared with the pay that pathologists receive at hospitals or in private practice. Since 1990, the New York fellowship program has trained 100 medical examiners. The program has bolstered the agency’s status as a national model for medical examiner’s offices and has been the source of a new generation of forensic experts, producing the current or former chief medical examiners in more than 20 jurisdictions, including Washington, San Francisco, Honolulu and the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont. Since the program is based in New York, the city is somewhat insulated from the shortage elsewhere in the country. Dr. Nunez, 34, is one of five doctors who have spent the past year preparing to become medical examiners. A cheerful woman who favors large gold hoop earrings, she is often mistaken for a schoolteacher. She grew up in Amityville, on Long Island, the older of two children of a landscape worker and a homemaker, and she went to medical school in the Dominican Republic. Instead of a black doctor’s bag, she carries a Craftsman toolbox packed with knives, scalpels, forceps and scissors. She does not mind working on bodies, not even one that is decomposing, known as a “decomp,” which is often the least favorite case for medical examiners. “A lot of people — especially other physicians and other pathologists — used to tell me, ‘I would have loved to have done forensics, but I can’t deal with the decomp,’” she said. “I actually have no problem doing them, and one of the reasons is because I feel like I’m the last person that is going to be providing some kind of care, bridging their death and their life. I’m the last person. ” NEW YORK CITY’S Office of Chief Medical Examiner is based in a squat, building, at 520 First Avenue, with letters missing from its name. Inside, a Latin inscription behind the reception desk translates to: “This is the place where the dead help the living. ” The medical examiners are the conduit for the two, providing answers, consoling grieving relatives and, if needed, informing police detectives. They fill a crucial but often overlooked role in a city where 5, 000 autopsies a year are performed for deaths that are deemed sudden or suspicious or are a result of crimes, accidents or suicides. It was medical examiners who sifted through the remains of more than 2, 700 victims after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. When there were no intact bodies, the pathologists had to improvise. They measured fingers to help identify people, using metal ring sizers that were donated in Tiffany’s little blue bags. That was also the year when Flight 587 crashed in Queens with 260 people aboard, and the year when envelopes laced with anthrax became a new terror threat. “When things get bad here, they get very bad,” said Dr. Barbara Sampson, who was appointed the city’s chief medical examiner in 2014. The agency’s staff of 600 includes 24 senior medical examiners, 20 of whom graduated from the fellowship program. The agency runs offices in every borough, three mortuaries and the country’s largest public DNA lab, along with other labs for toxicology, molecular genetics and histology, the microscopic examination of tissue. The agency’s $75 million annual budget is the equivalent of $8. 82 per city resident for the laboratories, investigations and other activities, far more than the national average of $3. 36 per resident, according to the National Association of Medical Examiners. Dr. Sampson, herself a 1998 fellow, says she looks for future medical examiners who can communicate and work well with others. The fellows, who have already graduated from medical school and completed a residency program in pathology, are selected after a unpaid tryout. They receive a salary of $131, 566 for the academic year, which runs from July 1 through June. At the end, the fellows sit for a nationally administered board exam nearly everyone passes. Some will be offered permanent positions as senior medical examiners with annual salaries starting at $159, 741, or invited to continue as fellows for a second year to specialize in the pathology of the brain and the heart. In contrast, general pathologists at hospitals and in private practice typically earn $200, 000 or more. In total, there have been 58 women and 42 men in the program. About are black, Hispanic or Asian. Many have foreign backgrounds. This year’s fellows include doctors who grew up in Croatia, Russia and Mexico. For some it is a calling. Dr. Stephen Melito, 32, went to medical school just so he could become a medical examiner. As a teenager in Farmingdale, on Long Island, he used to volunteer as an underage buyer of cigarettes in undercover police operations. For a high school class, he researched how to tell the time of death at a crime scene. Dr. Kanayo Tatsumi relocated to New York from Vermont less than a year after she was married. Her husband, a surgical resident, stayed behind to finish his training. Dr. Tatsumi, 33, was still in college when she interned at an Illinois coroner’s office. The first autopsy she observed was of a young woman killed in a car accident. She could not stop thinking about her. Had she been wearing a seatbelt? Had her airbag deployed? “It could have been me it could have been any of my friends,” Dr. Tatsumi recalled. “I started realizing that we could do a lot to prevent injuries, even though we’re getting that data, if you will, from death. ” THE MEDICAL EXAMINERS in training have desks side by side in Room 335 — known as the fellows’ room — where a bulletin board is crammed with photos of fellows in hazmat suits, at parties and holding babies. They alternate between “A” days for autopsies and “P” days for paperwork, while squeezing in lectures on topics like firearm injuries, trauma and pediatric deaths. They go to crime scenes, rotate through the labs and learn to handle infectious diseases like Ebola and respond to terror threats. The A days begin with an 8 a. m. triage meeting. Dr. Nunez stood behind a lectern, presenting case histories to senior medical examiners, forensic anthropologists, police detectives and medical students. There were 11 cases that day, not unusual in number or scope: An older man died after falling at home a younger man with a cocaine habit was found dead by his brother. Afterward, Dr. Nunez headed down to the mortuary. She checked the body bags in the hallway. “This is one of mine,” she called out to a technician. “This is another one. I’ve got one more. ” Her next stop was the autopsy room, which has eight stations, each equipped with a metal table and a scale. By 9:30 a. m. Dr. Nunez was at one of the stations, engrossed in her first case. A thin black man lay on the table. She removed his pancreas. It had dark spots where blood had pooled, a possible sign that he had spent a lot of time out in the cold before he died. Just before 11 a. m. she was ready for her next case. Dr. Nunez does not take breaks or stop for lunch. “Once I get going, I just keep up the pace,” she said. “You build endurance, you pick up stamina and you get used to it. That’s what this year is for. ” Her scrubs were stained with blood and fluids. “I’m not squeamish about it at all anymore,” she said. At 3 p. m. Dr. Nunez was still working on her third autopsy when the other medical examiners reconvened to review their findings. She did not have much to report yet. “It happens,” she said. “I’d rather we look at everything and not rush through anything. ’’ Afterward, Dr. Nunez retreated to the fellows’ room to draft a report for each autopsy. She would order lab tests, interview relatives and consider other evidence before closing each case. Dr. Sampson reads every report. The fellowship program is the legacy of Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, the city’s chief medical examiner from 1989 to 2013, who was known to focus not only on technical skills but also on scientific integrity, common sense and compassion. “I still quote Dr. Hirsch two or three times a day,” said Dr. Susan Ely, a 1997 fellow who is now the program’s director. “His presence is still very much felt here. ” Dr. Hirsch, a former chief medical examiner for Suffolk County, was appointed in 1989 by Mayor Edward I. Koch, to lead an agency battered by conflict and mistrust. The mayor had fired the previous chief medical examiner, Dr. Elliot M. Gross, citing poor leadership and management. In 1985, Dr. Gross was accused by defense lawyers and forensic specialists of producing misleading or inaccurate autopsy findings in cases of people who died in police custody. A mayoral commission cleared him of wrongdoing but faulted a longstanding agency practice in which deaths in police custody were routinely left as undetermined. Though the medical examiner’s office is now considered professionally run and independent, it has not entirely escaped controversy. The agency has been challenged for using a highly sensitive technique to analyze trace samples of DNA — known as low copy number DNA testing — that has been criticized as unreliable. In February, a former toxicology lab director sued the city, claiming that she was forced out in part for raising questions about its use of the technique. EACH FELLOW is expected to complete about 250 autopsies, a goal based on national standards for training medical examiners. The sheer diversity of cases in a big city ensures that they see just about every kind of injury imaginable. Dr. Judy Melinek, who chronicled her fellowship experience in a 2014 memoir, “Working Stiff,” recalled that she was told to go to New York by a former fellow who noted, “All kinds of great ways to die there, and the teaching is brilliant. ” Dr. Rafael Garcia, 36, had barely started the fellowship program in July when he was assigned not only his first homicide but a double homicide. He spent seven hours working on just one of the victims, a man who had been stabbed 20 times. As it happened, he had attended a lecture on stab wounds the day before. Almost a year later, Dr. Garcia has completed 250 autopsies, of which about have not been resolved. “It’s funny to see a TV show and how they do everything in the same day,” he said. “That’s not reality. ” Dr. Garcia, a father of two who grew up in Mexico and trained to be an ophthalmologist, said he had no regrets about switching to forensic pathology. “Money is important,” he said, “but I’d rather feel happy with what I’m doing than just being frustrated by an entire life doing something that I don’t enjoy as much. ” The fellows keep track of their autopsies in Excel spreadsheets that list the names of the dead, brief histories and findings. The most common deaths are accidental or natural the least common are undetermined in cause or manner of death, or both. At one point in February, when Dr. Nunez surpassed 150 autopsies, her fiancé, an accountant, figured that she needed to complete about 25 autopsies per month in the time left. In May, she surpassed 215 autopsies. By Tuesday, she was at 242. Though she tries to stay positive, Dr. Nunez said the cases can take an emotional toll. She tries to decompress by going out to dinner with her fiancé and spending time with their extended families. Still, she loses sleep. “I feel like I want to give them more than I can, and I know I can’t,” she said of the victims’ families. “Something the senior medical examiners tell me all the time is, ‘You’ve done a full, competent exam.’ There are limitations. You have to learn to become comfortable with limitations. ” The other fellows have ways of coping, too. Dr. Melito said he did not check the news at home in New Jersey, where he lives with his wife, Mary, a teacher, and their two young children. On hard days, he gets extra hugs. Dr. Tatsumi said she found herself crying a lot. In an autopsy, she will discover that someone did not die right away and probably felt pain or fear in the final moments. “That just destroys me,” she said. “I’m not very good at hiding things, and so I wear it on my sleeve I wear it on my face. ” The five medical examiners in training have been invited to stay on. All have accepted except for Dr. Melito, who is taking a job closer to home. In Dr. Sampson’s office, there are framed photos of every class of fellows on graduation day — the counterpart of the informal collage upstairs in the fellows’ room. Nearly all of these smiling group shots are arranged in neat columns running down one wall. “This side is all Dr. Hirsch,” Dr. Sampson said. She pointed across the room, where there are just two photos of the last two fellows’ classes. “And that’s my wall,” she said. “Hopefully, it will be long someday. ” A photo of Dr. Nunez’s class will soon be added. Even in medical school, Dr. Nunez said, she was interested in the cause of a disease more than the treatment. A doctor would be poring over a patient’s lab work while “all I’m thinking is, I really wish I could take a piece of this woman’s lung to see what’s happening. ” Dr. Nunez said that she still wanted those answers, but that now her desire was to serve the families left behind. “I think that’s definitely what drew me the most,” she said. “It’s being able to be useful, and bring closure to families, and give them answers that they otherwise weren’t going to have. ”

‘What if You Weren’t Afraid?’ and 4 More Money Questions From Readers - The New York Times

Ron Lieber

mothers. fathers. Disapproving elders. Parents who warn about regrets. Others whose financial limits were a statement of their values. A week ago, I asked you to send me the best questions you’ve ever asked, or answered, about money, and published seven queries to start the conversation. Of the five best new ones that arrived in the last week, every one came with a story about a parent like the ones described above. This shouldn’t come as an enormous surprise. After all, what we spend, save and give says a lot about who we are. Value and values are just a letter apart, and given how much influence our parents often have on the latter, it makes perfect sense that we think of them when we ponder our financial situations as well. So consider the following five questions, or adapt them to your own financial forks in the road as needed. And if your parents are alive, ask them, too, though you may already know what they will say. Where are we staying in Florida? When Jan Even was in second grade in River Forest, Ill. many of her classmates discussed their pending spring break plans. Some were going to Fort Lauderdale. Others were headed to Sarasota. “I just kind of thought that we were going, too, and that my parents hadn’t told me yet,” she recalled. But they weren’t going, and when she asked about the family’s destination, here’s how her mother replied: It’s more important for you to be able to go to college at age 18 than it is for us to go to Florida now. Ms. Even’s family had enough money that this wasn’t a so much as a conscious choice. Both her parents grew up during the Depression, and her mother told stories of people coming to the back door of their farmhouse looking for food and Ms. Even’s grandmother feeding them dinner. Children make many assumptions about their lives and the lives of others based on where we choose to raise them. So you can’t fault Ms. Even, who is now 66 and lives in Redmond, Ore. for wondering aloud when she was young. Nor can you fault her parents for enforcing a bit of artificial deprivation. “Maybe they really were concerned about the money, but I think it was more an expression of their values,” she said. They did eventually take her to Florida — but not until senior year in high school, when the college fund was safe and she was six months away from starting at Northwestern University. Can you accept the fact that we can’t live the same life that you do? Plenty of parents hope that their children will climb at least one rung up the social class ladder once they are adults, and many more will fight hard to keep their children from slipping even a bit. So it can be jarring for parents when their adult children don’t strive for the same things they do. A reader in Baton Rouge, La. who did not want to use her name because she didn’t think her relatives would appreciate her sharing the story publicly, wrote in to describe the pressure she and her husband once felt to buy and spend and own and live the way that other, more established family members did. They ran up credit card debt before realizing they couldn’t keep up and didn’t really want to, either. Then, they had to gently explain to their family how they felt. “Sometimes, I think it’s easier to talk about sex with your parents than money,” she told me via email. “We choose a simple life. Experiences over possessions. ” Her note reminded me of one of the most haunting things I’ve ever read about families and money. In her book “A Wealth of Possibilities,” Ellen Miley Perry described the “centrifugal force” of abundance that swirls around financially successful families. And she described an acquaintance who summed up her relationship with her father this way: “He can’t accept the smallness of my dreams. ” What would you do if you weren’t afraid? In 2001, Daniel L. Anderson and his family were living in Reno, Nev. and loving the easy access to the outdoors, the low cost of living and the good schools. But he was slowly growing bored with his real estate job. He posted his résumé online and soon had a promising job offer in Houston. He also sought advice from his old mentor, who eventually offered him a different job in San Francisco, and then put that pointed question to Mr. Anderson when he wavered. The Houston company had a reputation as a terrific place to work. The word on the San Francisco employer was much more mixed. “His question caused me to my situation to make sure I wasn’t doing what was easy and comfortable,” Mr. Anderson recalled, adding that he had to get over a bit of macho denial about his own fear before he could really think it through. There were also the stories his mother told him about all of her retired friends who talked about their regrets over the roads not taken. “I did not want to be that person,” he said. Which is how he ended up moving to Walnut Creek, Calif. where his family thrived. And how he turned down the attractive offer from a company called Enron. What good is having a lot in the bank if you’ve never let yourself live? Lisa and Janice Woolery both grew up in families that didn’t have much money, and in their life together as a couple, they have been fairly careful. There is no mortgage on their home in Des Moines, and they’ve saved money for retirement. “But when you do some of those rather extensive retirement planning programs online, you just feel defeated,” Lisa said. “You start saying, ‘I’m going to die someday, and I want to live in a way that lets me do things that I have been putting off. ’” For the two of them, both 55, that means travel of the sort that might have felt fiscally irresponsible in previous years. New Zealand is high on their list. In an interview this week, I asked Lisa whether they’d been able to answer their big question in a way that had allowed them to put a trip like that on the calendar. “Not in the next year or two, yet,” she said. “But. ” Then a long pause. “It’s a … ” Then a deep sigh. “The safe answer is the answer I know to use,” she said finally. “Low to no risk. But at what point do you say that low to no risk isn’t living?” As I was writing this column, she followed up with an email. They’d booked a couples getaway to San Francisco, a place that holds fond memories for them from travel earlier in their relationship. It’s a good start. What is the most satisfying thing you’ve spent money on? By the time she’d scraped her way through college and graduate school, Trudelle Thomas recognized that she had inherited some heavy generational baggage from the Great Depression. So Ms. Thomas, an English professor at Xavier University, went to work on herself to see if she could derive more joy from the money that she chose to spend. When she finally persuaded herself to buy a new car, she didn’t draw much additional satisfaction from it. Nice meals out were often unhealthy and expensive. What she enjoyed much more, however, was the money she spent on and with others. She tithes and has contributed to the National Alliance on Mental Illness for a long enough period to feel as if she has been part of important policy changes. Another regular habit: taking her students, many of whom could not afford it, out for lunch in the campus cafeteria. And a few years ago, she took a niece, who otherwise might not have been able to travel, on a trip to California. She liked to dote on people, as she put it, and she reminded me that “thrive” is the root word of thrift. “My niece could think of me as her rich aunt,” she said. “But I want her to think of me as her thrifty aunt who splurges on her. ”

Club Soda for Stomach Pain and Constipation

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

Club Soda for Stomach Pain and Constipation VN:F [1.9.22_1171] Close Transcript Transcript: Club Soda for Stomach Pain and Constipation Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. “Natural bubbling or sparkling mineral waters have been popular for thousands of years.” Manufactured sparkling water has been around ever since a clergyman “suspended water over a vat of fermenting beer.”“For centuries, carbonated water has been considered capable of relieving gastrointestinal symptoms,” including tummy aches, but we didn’t have good data until this study was published. “Twenty-one folks with dyspepsia [an upset stomach] and constipation were randomized into two groups in a double-blind fashion” to drink one-and-a-half quarts of carbonated water versus tap water, every day for two weeks. Dyspepsia was defined as “pain or discomfort located in the upper abdomen,” including “bloating and nausea.” And, carbonated water improved dyspepsia, compared to still water (tap water), and improved constipation. “Drink more water” is a common recommendation for constipation, but they didn’t observe a clear benefit of the added tap water. Seems you need to increase fiber and water, rather than just water alone. But, sparkling water seemed to help. Now they were using sparkling mineral water. And so, whether these effects are due to the bubbles or minerals, we can’t tell from this study. There’s been a concern that carbonated beverages may increase heartburn, GERD (acid reflux disease). But that was based on studies like this, that compared water to Pepsi. Soda can put the Pepsi in dyspepsia, and contribute to heartburn. But, so may tea and coffee, in people that suffer from heartburn. That may be partly from the cream and sugar, though, since milk is a common contributor to heartburn, as well. Carbonated water alone, though, shouldn’t be a problem. Similarly, while flavored sparkling drinks can erode our enamel, it’s not the carbonation, but the added juices and acids. Sparkling water alone appears a hundred times less erosive than citrus or soda. So, a sparkling mineral water may successfully treat stomachache and constipation without adverse effects—unless you’re a teenage boy opening a bottle of sparkling wine with your teeth, especially on a hot day after you shake it up, placing one at risk for a “pneumatic rupture of the esophagus.” Please consider volunteering to help out on the site. Close Sources Video Sources water Doctor's Note Whoa, what was that?! My little cameo was me playing around with a green screen. I’m trying to find ways for the videos to be more engaging than just showing study after study, but there may be a fine line between engaging and dorky :-). The goal is to widen the appeal to reach more people, without distracting from the scientific rigor. What do you think? Should I do more little bits like this with me on screen, or do you think that detracts from the professionalism? Please let me know in the comments section below. For more on combating acid reflux, see Diet and GERD Acid Reflux Heartburn and Diet and Hiatal Hernia . Other videos on healthy beverages include: How Many Glasses of Water Should We Drink a Day? If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here . To post comments or questions into our discussion board, first log into Disqus with your NutritionFacts.org account or with one of the accepted social media logins. Click on Login to choose a login method. Click here for help. Comment Etiquette stephaniehope Are the “rock” minerals in these mineral waters absorbable by humans? It is my understanding that the minerals in water are, basically, little pieces of rock, and our body can not utilize them. Maybe they even cause harm? A lot of debate on this one, but proponents of water low in TDS (total dissolved solids) often claim that the minerals in food are of absorbable nature, yet with the mineral it water it is just picking up pieces of rock and residue from the streams, lakes, etc. Makes me wonder about possible bogus benefits of consuming minerals through pure sea salts. Wegan Apparently they are absorbed.“On its website, the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) states that there is no connection between the carbonation in soft drinks and bone loss and that certain carbonated mineral waters (the ones rich in calcium and those that are more alkaline) have actually been shown to improve bone health.”Feb 18, 2013 stephaniehope It would be weird because we are an heterotroph specy like animals… Lisa I like to see your face, and I think it personalises the whole thing. I like any info – articles are good, too, and they give you time to digest the content. (No pun intended.) Yes, changing things up from time to time is good, as long as the content is easy to understand and the links are visible – or placed under the video. And thank you a thousand times for your service to people. Julie I’d like to see him at the end–maybe sending us off with a witty joke. Ellie Lee-wasson I have been consuming at least a tablespoon of flax a day and following Dr. Gregor’s daily dozen recommendations, yet am still constipated and am having difficulty losing weight, which is a secondary goal of mine. Can anyone offer additional suggestions? EquaYona So you are on a plant based diet and constipated? How long have you been plant based? Do you still consume dairy? Ellie Lee-wasson I have been vegan for 4 years, have been eating whole food plant based for about 3 months, previously consuming larger amounts of processed vegan foods. I only “go” at most every couple days. EquaYona Can you increase your water consumption? Exercise is also an important factor for regularity. Are you following the exercise recommendations in the daily dozen? If you are getting plenty of fluids and exercise, you might try adding a little more fat(nuts, avocado) and try a bran cereal for breakfast or snack. It is startling that you have such a problem on a vegan, whole food diet. I generally have two BMs a day. Ellie Lee-wasson I try to drink about 64 ounces of water or tea a day, but, I also work in aviation. I walk about 10000 steps a day, and try to get additional cardiovascular as my job allows. But, yes, I agree it is startling, unfortunately, my current situation is a vast improvement from when I was not eating vegan. susan hi Ellie, I can’t add much to the excellent suggestions of EquaYona, other than to mention two things that helped me. I use 1 tbsp ground flax in my oatmeal in the mornings, but, if having issues, 1 tbsp in 1/4 cup water last thing at night before bed works wonders. The other thing is to avoid gluten free bread products if you use them at all.. I find one slice of this ‘bread’ at lunch with salad very effective. Best of luck http://www.mannaorganicbakery.com/item/organic-sprouted-bread-banana-walnut-hemp.html maggie Hi Ellie, I can suggest brown rice, beans and steamed broccoli or kale. These are hi fiber foods, sweet potatoes especially the Japanese purple potato are great has well. Bean soups are great as well. I suspect you are not getting hi fiber foods during the day. I’m pretty regular with 2 BM a day Cheryl esben andersen I would disagree with you . I do not think it is a lack of fiber since the person is already on a whole foods diet . It is a lack of peristalsis of the digestive tract , the contraction and relaxation of the digestive tract which moves the food or more correctly the waste products along . 2 or 3 glasses of water at body temperature first thing in the morning has helped a lot of people according to our naturepathic doctor we go too. For still sluggish movement sauerkraut juice or sauerkraut has helped the most stubborn cases . Darla Eaves Black coffee esben andersen Took me a while to go from creamer in my coffee to black , oh yeah a lot of people I know swear by their coffee. Ellie Lee-wasson I only drink black coffee :) susan yes esben I agree with the peristalsis idea.. I was given buscopan for gall bladder pain, nausea etc, but then later with continuing issues I was given Domperidone to speed up the digestive process. I then felt a lot better. The coffee is definitly necessary though. I will give the sauerkraut a try too. thank you! Jean I have a sluggish digestive tract caused in part by injuries to nerves and muscles; also migraine can slow down and sometimes even stop gut activity. When it doesn’t want to work properly nothing makes a difference. WFPB has made it less of a problem but there still are spells. Rebecca Cody Your problem is much more extreme than mine, but this works for me: I put 1 tablespoon of chia seeds in about a cup of water every morning, stir and then leave it sitting on the counter for about 10 minutes. Then, not before, add a rounded teaspoon of magnesium citrate powder. I use one called Natural Calm, which is available in health food stores. Stir it up well, add a bit of stevia if you wish, and drink it down. I used to do the same thing an hour or so after dinner at night, but it was definitely overkill, so I dropped the evening dose. Andrea Reiman Consider having your thyroid tested. Also, try Whole Husk Psyllium: http://www.healthline.com/health/psyllium-health-benefits#Overview1 Foroogh – NF Moderator Hi, Ellie Lee-Wesson, I noticed there are lots of helpful advice regarding your issue with constipation even though you are on PBWF. You mentioned you are in aviation, does your job entails traveling on plane and being on high altitude? Because that could be the issue since going on high altitute causes dehydration a lot. Hydrating 20 minutes before meal and one hour after meal.The suggestions of chia seeds, flax seed, psyllum and magnisum and dissolving in warm water are very good. Also pineapple juice, prune juice also 1 table spoon good extra virgin olive oil and coffee tend to help with the bowel movement. Also having fruit one hour before meal or two hours after meal can be helpful. Ellie Lee-wasson Yes, I am on planes 12-14 hours a day most days. I do drink a lot of water, both still and sparkling (as mentioned in the video). I do also drink a lot of black coffee. Do you have any suggestions for fruit that packs well for travel that I could bring with me on the plane? Or other good fibre rich foods that I could pack and can be eaten raw or in a microwave? Foroogh – NF Moderator I would suggest dried organic figs and prunes and raisins in a little bag. Also what I usually do when I travel make my own bag of raw whole nut mixtures. I would also try organic herbal tea cleanse before flights and after your flights to cleanse your colon. I hope these suggestion are useful and wish you safe flights. esben andersen Why would you think its startling. Everybody I know who has tried whole foods diet has had problems with constipation . I now have known 4 people who went whole foods. 2 tablespoons whole flax in a cup of water in the morning, plus 2 cups warm water , will normally get some movement .Also half a cup sauerkraut twice a day has solved the problem for people even ones that have had a life long problem with constipation. EquaYona It is startling because whole PLANT foods(I assume that is what you meant) usually means a great increase in both fiber and fluids. Although I have rarely ever had constipation in my life, my vegan diet has increased my bowel movements to 2-3 times a day. I have never heard of anyone on a plant based diet having persistent problems with constipation. Until now. ;) Blair Rollin I agree. I can hardly believe it would be possible. Jack Hall Insufficient fat on my very low-fat whole foods plant based diet nearly killed my guts. Also, I did not adjust my fluid intake to accomodate for all of the additional fibre I began consuming, which added to the problem. I was hurting so bad that I couldn’t sit without severe pain and I looked as if I had swallowed a beach-ball for days at a time regardless of how many veggies or fibrous foods I ate. Anyway, I hope it was the fat. My only overt fat was coming from oats and two tablespoons of flax a day. I was coming in at under 30grams fat per day. Now I have added about 1 ounce of nuts which seems to have helped. EquaYona Glad to hear you are feeling better. I have always consumed a lot of fluids and peanut butter and whole peanuts have been important in my diet since I was in my teens. Lucky preferences, I reckon. Darla Eaves Ah yes. Sauerkraut! lisa c Magnesium is magic. And calming. I’ve taken it in tablet and powder form, adjusting dose as needed. Rex Ashbaugh Ellie, I would suggest getting more ‘resistant starch’ foods in your diet. To feed the microbiome. The bulk of the stool is mostly composed of bacteria. That bacteria needs to be fed. http://nutritionfacts.org/video/gut-dysbiosis-starving-microbial-self/ v Are you being consistent in your efforts to follow Dr. Gregor’s Daily Dozen? I ask because he recommends 1.5 cups of beans per day, plus a serving of cruciferous vegetables (kale or broccoli or cabbage), plus a cup of cooked greens (more kale, or collards, romaine, etc.). Add to that some fruit and a serving of berries, plus more vegetables. When I manage to eat that way (I try to do it every day, but fall short of complying 100% most days) it makes a big difference. It’s a ton of fresh food, water, and fiber. Ellie Lee-wasson I try, but, as I previously mentioned, I work in aviation so hitting all of the checkmarks in the app is difficult, but I consistently hit 20 of the 24 v I find whole wheat pasta + cannellini beans + greens (broccoli raab or swiss chard or kale) in a garlicky vegetable broth to work very well in this department. I think it’s because it has the fiber + liquid all together. Maybe give it a try? It’s delicious. Hope this helps! Ellie Lee-wasson How do you prepare the broth? bradf I work in aviation as well, I travel with a thermal bag and several days of vegan food, rice/quinoa based grain salads travel well, you can call hotels ahead and check for a fridge, use happy cow to find vegan food on layovers. I use freezer packs, but this bag lets you throw in loose ice and doesn’t leak Ellie Lee-wasson Do you work for a mainline or a regional? I also bring my food, but, don’t often have time to eat until the evening. During the day, I try to eat fruit, beans and greens etc. At night. bradf mainline, typical flight is 2 hours or more so there is time to eat enroute. If you’re at a regional I could see that eating during your workday could be a problem. Ellie Lee-wasson Yeah, I work for a regional Gatherer This comment has little scientific evidence behind it. It is just a suggestion. With your current diet you probably eat at least the minimum recommended amount of fiber, but even that is about a third of our ancestral fiber consumption. Thus additional fiber in your diet isn’t going to hurt you. Further, if you drink some fiber before eating food you should feel full earlier during your meal. Accordingly, I suggest that before lunch and dinner you disperse a tablespoon (15 ml) of psyllium husks into 10 oz (300 ml) of water and drink it. The fiber should help with the constipation by providing bulk, and may slightly reduce the amount of food you eat which will, over time, help with weight loss. For weight loss without counting calories or feeling hungry, try the Dr McDougall maximum weight loss advice. https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/050100pupushing.htm Panchito Not everybody has the same body. There could be non dietary factors to constipation like genetic (asymmetry and development) or nervous (enteric nervous system) Jenny Barnes Hi Ellie, have you looked at your stress levels? A few years back I was only ‘going’ once a week, despite plenty of veggies, water and exercise. My doctor recommended looking at the stress in my life, and making sure I took time out to relax made a huge difference. Jenny Barnes Also, if you’re struggling to lose weight that can be due to stress – high cortisol levels make your body hold onto fat. I believe the idea is that historically if we were in a high stress situation this would make sense because this would often be accompanied by famine. EquaYona I like the little Dr Greger, it was a cute way to interject your joke. Foroogh – NF Moderator Yes, I like the section that he appeared in the video! I like his sense of humor. OrToltecTal The little mini me popping up was hilarious and refreshing. I loved it! Robin Lewis Kane definitely detracts and distracted me from what you were saying Rachel Yes, it distracted me, too. I prefer the straightforward, scientific Dr. Greger, with the occasional dry joke. Ishay I’m afraid I’ll have to agree. If I were a new visitor on this website, I’d probably think the information presented can’t be very serious. Luckily I know otherwise! Susan Guthrie These videos have changed my life! You do a great job keeping the data moving around so that it is easy to engage and stay focused. And your voice is unique with nice modulation and expression. Kourtnie I enjoyed seeing your smiling face, the only thing I didn’t like was it looked like you were walking. You looked to be bouncing around a lot vs standing still and speaking. Not bad for a first attempt. Plantstrongdoc M.D.

Wikileaks Uncovers “Bill Clinton Inc”: Laundering Millions, From BPA Producing DOW Chemical & More

Heather Callaghan

By Cassius Kamarampi (Era of Wisdom) DOW Chemical is the largest chemical corporation in the US, second behind BASF in the world. They produce toxic Bisphenol A (BPA), several plastics, pesticides,...

Conway: Merits of Executive Order Will Prevail in Court - Breitbart

Pam Key

Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “The First 100 Days,” in reacting to the 9th Circuit Court ruling upholding the blocking of President Donald Trump‘s executive order banning immigrants from seven countries from entering the United States, White House aide Kellyanne Conway said the administration was “fully confident” it will eventually prevail in court. Conway said, “This ruling does not affect the merits at all. It is an interim ruling, and we are fully confident that now that we will get our day in court and have an opportunity to argue this on the merits that we will prevail. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Use Logic

It is interesting that Duterte got something like 3 billion from China, and now he is getting money from Japan. He seems to be getting a lot of money for his country. I just hope he does not sell out the Philippine resources, minerals, water way rights etc. Duterte really should not blame America for all the problems in the Philippines. What caused the Philippines a lot of problems was the corruption and bribery that took hold of his country.

Shadow of Plea Deal for David Petraeus Loomed Over Hillary Clinton Email Case - The New York Times

Eric Lichtblau

WASHINGTON — As F. B. I. lawyers weighed whether to recommend criminal charges over Hillary Clinton’s private email server, one recent controversy loomed large over their decision: the plea deal reached last year by David H. Petraeus, the retired general and C. I. A. director, for giving highly classified information to a woman with whom he had an affair. James B. Comey, the F. B. I. director, said Tuesday that in assessing the Clinton case and looking at past cases on the handling of classified information, “we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. ” He did not mention Mr. Petraeus by name, but Mr. Comey and other F. B. I. officials were known to be deeply upset by the Justice Department’s willingness to let Mr. Petraeus plead to a misdemeanor charge in the case. That decision complicated the Clinton investigation enormously for the F. B. I. because the case against Mrs. Clinton appeared much weaker to them than the case against Mr. Petraeus. In the Petraeus case, the retired general acknowledged in a taped interview that he knew that some of the “black book” journals he gave to his mistress, Paula Broadwell, for a book she was writing were “highly classified,” according to court documents. He then lied to F. B. I. investigators, denying that he gave her any classified information. In contrast, Mr. Comey said in the Clinton case that “we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information. ” Mr. Comey and the F. B. I. had pushed for felony charges against Mr. Petraeus for mishandling classified information and then lying about it. But Eric H. Holder Jr. then the attorney general, overruled Mr. Comey and reduced the charge to a misdemeanor, sparing Mr. Petraeus any jail time. While one case does not serve as binding precedent for the next, prosecutors and F. B. I. agents said that Mr. Petraeus’s sentence made it harder to argue that Ms. Clinton should face charges, barring some new revelation.

With Gold Hitting $1,300, Look At Who Is Bullish

King World News

45 Views November 02, 2016 GOLD , KWN , KWN II King World News Ahead of today’s FOMC announcement and with gold hitting $1,300, look at who is bullish. Here is what Peter Boockvar wrote today as the world awaits the next round of monetary madness: Robert Heller, the former Federal Reserve Governor, had it right yesterday on the Santelli Exchange. He said what’s the point of scheduling an FOMC meeting one week before the election if the election gives them reason to do nothing… IMPORTANT: To hear which legend just spoke with KWN about $8,000 gold and the coming mania in the gold, silver, and mining shares markets CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW. It was more than two months ago when Janet Yellen in Jackson Hole said that “the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened in recent months.” This was repeated by her in the month after and three members wanted to hike in September. As the data hasn’t changed much of late, politics is the only reason why they aren’t hiking today. This comment of mine is putting aside the intellectual debate over the data and whether they should or shouldn’t hike based on it. I’m just focusing on what we’ve heard from voting members over the past two months since Jackson Hole. Odds of a December hike are at about 65%. Either way, the market has already tightened for the Fed. 3 month LIBOR hasn’t fallen one iota since the mutual fund rule deadline passed 2 ½ weeks ago. Worries over interest rates, both market based and with the Fed, the election and the drop in markets saw a sharp change in stock market sentiment this week . Investors Intelligence said Bulls fell to 41.7 from 47.1 last week. Rather than getting bearish, most went into the Correction camp which rose to a 4 month high at 34 vs 29.8 last week. Bears did rise to a 6 week high but only to 24.3 from 23.1. The 2nd longest bull market in history where any pain has been anesthetized by central banks has flattened the bears and the most bearish many get is ‘we’ll have a normal correction and let’s buy it.’ With Gold Hitting $1,300, I Remain Bullish US dollar weakness for a 2nd day has gold approaching $1300 again. We can likely chalk up the weakness to the shift in the election polls. I repeat my belief that the US dollar is not on the cusp of breaking out above the 100 level even if the Fed hikes rates next month (and even if Hillary wins). One hike a year is not reason enough for me to get all bulled up on the dollar. As for gold and in addition to its contra move to the dollar, it is trading opposite to the world’s faith in central banks and that faith is clearly waning. I thus remain bullish. BEARS BEWARE: This Just Hit One Of The Highest Levels In The Past 6 Years!

White

Dissidentvoice

0 44 To be white and from money is to live a life of largely unrecognized privilege, bequeathed as it is from one’s first wet, howling breath. In the affluent socio-economically partitioned town of Saratoga Springs, NY where I’m from there was actually a railroad track serving as the demarcation line between affluent whites residing on one side and the other side of which nothing was known because you just didn’t go there, ever. It was literally the “wrong side of the tracks”. Raised in that remarkable state of incurious joy and suffering within narrow undiluted lines of stratified suburban sameness, I could not know or question the things kept from sight. Thus racial determinism was assumed passively, an acquired naivete fueled with the aspirational angst of middle class parenting that served as an omniscient narcotic fog, like carbon monoxide – not enough to be lethal, but just enough to render the critical faculties permanently dull until finally the things kept from sight could no longer be seen even upon close observation. To be white is to watch but not see while being seen but never watched. It is to know that for whatever law enforcement is or is not, they are something that will never have anything to do with me. It is to know that on those rare occasions I am pulled over, it really is about a busted tail light. To be white is to know that when a retail clerk approaches me, it’s about customer service and not the smothering sea of smiles…

FREE Summit from Health Experts Teaches About Healthy Fats to Reverse Disease and Lose Weight

Admin

by Brian Shilhavy Editor, Health Impact News 15 years ago, I was the first one to import a high quality saturated fat called “Virgin Coconut Oil” from the Philippines and market it in the U.S. market. Coconut oil is a traditional fat that has been consumed for thousand of years in tropical climates, where historically western diseases like heart disease, diabetes, obesity and others were not common, in spite of their high saturated fat diet. During World War II when the Japanese cut of the supply of the high saturated fat edible oils like coconut oil and palm oil with their occupation of the Philippines and other Southeastern nations, industry in the U.S. developed the “expeller-pressed” method of extracting oil from seeds that had not previously been a source of dietary oil, mainly the U.S. cash crops of soybeans and corn. These polyunsaturated oils were not shelf-stable edible oils, so the industrial process of “homogenization” was developed to make them more shelf stable, and behave more like shelf-stable saturated fats. Politics, not science, influenced government agencies like the USDA to promote these new polyunsaturated oils as more healthy than saturated fats. A new dietary dogma of “low-fat” was developed, and history now shows that America’s health greatly suffered as a result. Until even today, we have seen very high numbers of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease plaguing Americans. So it was with much opposition 15 years ago that I presented the real science behind coconut oil and saturated fats, but many now are waking up to the terrible consequences of following the government-sponsored low-fat diet dogma for so many years. One can truly turn their health around by simply making a dietary choice as to the types of fats one consumes, and increase the consumption of healthy fats, particularly when those fats in the diet replace harmful processed carbohydrates. The Science of Fats: Information that Could Change Your Life From November 7 – 14 Dr. Mark Hyman , Dr. Carrie Diulus, and over 30 of the world’s top experts on fats will participate in an online FREE summit dispeling the biggest MYTHS about fat, and revealing the latest research about how to eat, move and supplement your diet for improved health and longevity. Join these world-renowned experts, such as Aseem Malhotra, MD (one of Britain’s top cardiologists), Amy Myers, MD , Gary Taubes (famous science author that challenged mainstream media’s dogma on fats), Sayer Ji (Founder of GreenMedInfo.com), best-selling author Nina Teicholz , Peter Attia, MD , and dozens of others! There’s so much confusion and misinformation out there about FAT…both the fat on our bodies, and the fats we eat. You’ve been told that eating fat makes you fat — and increases your risk for heart disease and other chronic illnesses — but fat is NOT the enemy. The truth is: eating MORE FAT can help shut down cravings, accelerate weight loss and potentially prevent or reverse disease. Register today for FREE to watch this online summit! Published on November 2, 2016

Brexiters set up demented ‘people’s courts’

Brexiters set up demented ‘people’s courts’ 07-11-16 BREXIT supporters have set up a network of ‘people’s courts’ where justice is based on popular opinion. Anti-EU Britons’ dissatisfaction with the legal system has led to the creation of makeshift courts dealing with everything from witchcraft to disputes over borrowed garden tools. Accountant and people’s judge Roy Hobbs said: “The court convenes in my living room, with the legal cases argued by our ‘barristers’ Sandra the local florist and Degsy, an unemployed decorator who’s seen A Few Good Men five times. “Our biggest case so far has been the legality of Brexit. The court came to the unanimous decision that it is totally brilliant and anyone who disagrees deserves a toe up their arse. “You can accuse anyone of anything. Last week we dealt with 48 cases of people being shortchanged at the local Sainsbury’s, a French spy and an old lady who put a curse on a horse than made it go lame. “Punishments range from the stocks for not wearing a poppy to hanging for more serious crimes, such as men having long hair. “Tomorrow I’ve got the case of a man who’s guilty of liking Nicola Sturgeon. He won’t be spouting his lies when he’s being hit in the forehead by turnips.” Share:

FMs of Iran, Syria, Russia meet in Moscow

FMs of Iran, Syria, Russia meet in Moscow Fri Oct 28, 2016 9:48AM Politics Foreign Ministers from Iran, Russia, and Syria, from left, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Sergey Lavrov, and Walid al-Moallem attend their meeting in Moscow, Russia, on October 28, 2016. (Photo by AP) Foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Syria have started trilateral talks on a political solution to the Syria crisis besides a serious fight against the Takfiri terror groups operating in the Arab country. On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian and Syrian counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Walid Muallem, gathered in Moscow for a three-way meeting. Ahead of the meeting, Lavrov said the three nations are acting as a united front against terrorism, saying their talks are mainly focused on ways of seriously tackling terrorism, particularly in Syria. The three sides, Lavrov added, will exchange views on humanitarian operations as well as efforts to stop the flow of weapons and military equipment to the foreign-backed militants operating against the Damascus government. Prior to the three-way discussions, Zarif held a bilateral meeting with Lavrov to discuss regional issues and the further enhancement of bilateral Tehran-Moscow ties. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif during a meeting in Moscow on October 28, 2016. (Photo by AFP) Upon his arrival at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow on Friday morning, Zarif said a political solution besides a serious fight against terrorism is the only way out of the crisis gripping Syria. “Unfortunately, some countries have always pursued war and a military solution in Syria. This is while the solution to this crisis is of a political nature and also [entails] battles against Takfiri groups,” said Zarif. He added, “We have always emphasized the need for the establishment of an all-out ceasefire, humanitarian operations and efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian issue.” Following the trilateral talks, the three ministers attended a joint press conference. During the presser, Muallem slammed the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh, saying the alliance has never been fighting terrorism despite its claims. He said the Washington-led campaign was in fact encouraging Daesh terrorists to move from Iraq’s Mosul to Syria’s Raqqah. Mosul and Raqqah have served as the main Daesh bases in the Middle East over the past years. Iraqi and Syrian armed forces are engaged in large-scale military offensive to drive the terror group from the two cities. The Syrian foreign minister further said his country would continue cooperation with Iran and Russia in efforts to eradicate terrorism. Muallem described the atmosphere of the talks in Russia as “positive” and “very comfortable.” “We in Syria have become convinced of the sincerity of the Russian and Iranian efforts in helping us rout terrorism,” he added. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (C), Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem (R) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attend a news conference in Moscow, Russia, October 28, 2016. (Photo by Reuters) Zarif, in turn, described the talks in Moscow as “very productive,” saying Iran and Russia have developed “very close” relations in different areas. Commenting on the situation in Syria, the top Iranian diplomat said Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be protected, adding that it is up to the Syrian nation to determine its own destiny and that the voice of the Syrians must be recognized. He further highlighted the need for a political settlement of the crisis, adding that Tehran backs the resumption of peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition. The Iranian minister called for a ceasefire in Syria, joint battles against terror groups as well as efforts to facilitate aid delivery to Syrian civilians in besieged areas. He said the global community must unite in the battle against terrorism, which poses a threat not only to Syria, but the entire world. Zarif added that supporting terrorism would serve the interest of no one, warning that the terror groups would eventually “bite the hands that feed them.” For his part, the Russian foreign minister also touched on the Mosul battle in Iraq, saying that Iraqi city’s liberation from Daesh would have a significant impact on the balance of power in neighboring Syria. Lavrov said the political settlement in Syria should be achieved through dialogue according to the Security Council resolutions, welcoming Syria’s readiness to resume the stalled talks with the opposition. Referring to the situation in Aleppo, Lavrov said terrorists blocked the exit routes opened as part of a Syrian humanitarian pause and prevented the civilians from leaving the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo City. The senior Russian official also criticized the international organizations for failing to fulfill their duties towards the locals of eastern Aleppo. Lavrov emphasized that the fight against terrorism in Syria will continue, adding that “future common steps” in this regard during the Moscow talks. Loading ...

How Apple Empowers, and Employs, the American Working Class - The New York Times

Vindu Goel

AUSTIN, Tex. — During the presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump complained that America had lost too many manufacturing jobs and promised to force big companies like Apple to bring that work home. “I’m going to get Apple to start making their computers and their iPhones on our land, not in China,” he said. For a host of reasons, Apple is unlikely to produce iPhones in the United States. But opening a smartphone factory in this country is not the only way to provide solid employment for Americans who lack college degrees. Apple’s overall contribution to the American economy is significant. Beyond the 80, 000 people it directly employs in the United States, it says 69 supplier facilities in 33 states manufacture parts that go into its products. Hundreds of thousands of software developers also write apps for iPhones and iPads. Apple’s rapid growth here in central Texas, where it now employs about 6, 000 people, up from 2, 100 seven years ago, provides a window into the vast constellation of jobs at the world’s largest technology company and their economic impact. At Apple’s sparkling new complex in northwest Austin, workers who are spread throughout seven buildings field about 8, 000 customer calls a day, manage the company’s vast network of suppliers and figure out how to move around millions of iPhones a week to ensure they get into the hands of customers when they want them. Employees here help run Apple’s iTunes music and app stores, handle the billions of dollars going in and out of the company’s American operations and continuously update the Maps software that is integral to iPhones and iPads. At another Austin location, about 500 engineers work on the chips that will run the next round of Apple’s products. The Austin campus — the company’s largest outside its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. — offers plenty of perks, too. When employees are not working, they can lounge on chairs shaded from the Texas sun, dine at a cafeteria that serves an abundance of food options, including barbecued ribs and gelato, and visit a medical clinic, which includes dentists, acupuncturists and a pharmacy. Although contractors at the Austin technical support call center earn as little as $14. 50 an hour, equivalent to about $30, 000 a year, many of them become permanent staff members, which means better pay, after the typical contract is up. Experienced call center employees earn around $45, 000 a year, plus generous benefits and small annual stock grants. Pay is even higher for more senior advisers and managers. Apple says that, excluding benefits and stock compensation, the average salary of its Austin employees, including management, is $77, 000 a year. Apple declined to discuss its future expansion plans in Austin and in the United States. “Apple has created over two million jobs in the United States since the introduction of the iPhone nine years ago, including explosive growth in iOS developers, thousands of new supplier and manufacturing partners, and a 400 percent increase in our employee teams,” the company said in a statement. “We made the unique decision to keep and expand our contact centers for customers in the Americas in the United States, and Austin is home to many of those employees. We plan to continue to invest and grow across the U. S. ” Last week, a reporter and photographer visited the Austin campus and interviewed more than a dozen workers, from managers to a prep cook on the kitchen staff. Apple’s public relations staff monitored some of the conversations, but others were unsupervised. Genny Lopez, who went to college for two years and used to work as a bartender, joined Apple as a contractor handling tech support calls. She is now on staff, troubleshooting difficult customer problems. “You don’t need a crazy technical background to do this job,” Ms. Lopez said. “A lot of the training is getting really good at talking to people. ” Apple prides itself on providing phone service in 26 languages — 12 are spoken at the Texas call center alone — and the people who handle the calls are expected to follow up on any problem that cannot be quickly resolved. During the recent visit, Stephanie Dumareille, a senior adviser on iOS issues who is fluent in English and Spanish, patiently answered questions from a customer who was worried about saving her résumé online and did not know whether she was using a Windows or a Mac computer. Employees say that Apple encourages them to move within and across teams, and the company is instituting a formal program to allow workers to try a completely different role for six months to see it if suits them and the company. Brisa Carillo, who started out in the call center fresh out of college five years ago, now handles international payroll matters and is studying for her M. B. A. so she can move up the ranks of the finance department within Apple. The region’s economy has deep roots in technology and is home to a number of big tech employers, most notably Dell. Apple’s influence in the area extends beyond the people on its direct payroll. It has 350 suppliers in Texas alone. And about 3, 400 construction workers helped build the Austin campus. Apple ensured that they all got paid at least $12 an hour. It also provided workers’ compensation insurance and safety training, and it allowed the monitoring of conditions by an outside labor group, the Workers Defense Project, which has been trying to improve safety and pay in Texas construction. “There is a high road, and Apple followed that path,” said Bo Delp, director of the Better Builder program at the Workers Defense Project. “It sent a pretty strong message to others in Austin. ” A mile from its Austin campus, Apple is involved in manufacturing, through Flex, a global contract manufacturer. Flex assembles Apple’s Mac Pro desktop computers to meet the exact requirements of customers, who can choose among more than 4, 000 combinations of features and hardware. Flex added about 2, 000 jobs for the Apple project. Although Apple and Flex declined to discuss details of their arrangement, the assembly jobs start at $11 an hour and pay an average of about $30, 000 a year, according to testimony by Flex officials in 2014, when they sought government aid for the expansion. Apple could in theory build more products in the United States through contractors like Flex. But the company and industrial experts say that would be very difficult and could easily add $100 to the final cost of an iPhone. China has built a whole ecosystem of suppliers for nearly every electronic part imaginable. Vast pools of trained labor make it easy to quickly scale production up or down to meet demand. Larger products, or ones that require more customizing, such as PCs, make more sense to build close to the final customer. “It’s easy to ship a phone, and it’s harder to ship a computer,” said Andy Tsay, a professor at Santa Clara University who has studied global manufacturing patterns. “And it’s harder still for cars and refrigerators. ” Over time, the value of Apple’s business is shifting away from hardware like the iPhone and into software such as apps and services like Apple Music, Mr. Tsay said. And those jobs can be much better for workers. “There are fewer industrial accidents working in a call center,” he said. “There is probably more gender equity. And it’s probably better for customers, too. ” Alan Marquis, a former Army officer who spent a couple of years streamlining processes on a manufacturer’s assembly line before joining Apple, now manages part of the complex software that integrates Apple’s suppliers into the company’s production systems. “Here, there’s a lot more openness and creativity,” he said. “In manufacturing, it’s a lot more widgets dropping off the line. ” Mayor Steve Adler of Austin, a Democrat, does not sweat the details of the jobs companies create in his city. He is more concerned that the work pays enough — at least $20 an hour — to support the city’s middle class, which is being squeezed by rising home prices. Some of the new jobs, like those at the Austin chip factory owned by Samsung, Apple’s biggest rival in the smartphone business, will be in manufacturing. Others, like the ones Apple brings, will be in services. “The best kind of jobs are those that allow someone to continue to grow and climb the ladder,” Mr. Adler said. Asked about Apple’s lack of manufacturing in the United States, Ms. Lopez said: “The product that Apple builds here is us. ”

Let Women Abort Babies for Being the Wrong Sex, Says Top Medical Ethicist

Nick Hallett

Women should be able to abort their babies simply because they are the “wrong” sex, a leading ethicist at Britain’s doctors’ union has said. [Professor Wendy Savage, a member of the ethics committee of the British Medical Association, said women should be able to have an abortion at any stage of pregnancy for whatever reason, even when the child would be able to survive outside of the womb. She also said that abortion pills should be available online without the need to see a doctor or nurse. There has been growing concern in Britain that an increasing number of women are seeking abortions simply because they do not want girls, leading to some hospitals refusing to tell parents the sex of their babies. However, Professor Savage told the Mail on Sunday: “Because of this sort of anxiety some places won’t tell the woman the sex of the foetus, which is outrageous. “It’s her body and her foetus, so she should have that information … If a woman does not want to have a foetus who is one sex or the other, forcing her [to go through with the pregnancy] is not going to be good for the eventual child, and it’s not going to be good for [the mother’s] mental health. ” She previously caused outrage after signing a letter claiming abortion is not “gender discrimination” because that only applies to “living people”. She then doubled down on those views, claiming the unborn child is not really a person. “The foetus is a potential human life at that stage [in the womb] it is not an actual human life … I think you’ve got to concentrate on the [rights of the] woman. ” campaigners have branded her comments “utterly abhorrent” with Conservative MP Mark Field saying: “To have someone like Wendy Savage with her extreme views at the heart of the BMA is a very worrying sign. The majority of people in this country, even those who support abortion, think abortion is a step too far. ” “Effectively we have abortion on demand nowadays, and all the safeguards we are supposed to have are being ridden roughshod over,” he added.

Why American Surrogates Are in Demand for Chinese Families

Henry Wolff

Why American Surrogates Are in Demand for Chinese Families Kalee Thompson, Hollywood Reporter, November 4, 2016 The first time Dianna Barindelli carried a baby that wasn’t her own was in 2012. “We were done having kids, but I still wanted to be pregnant,” says the Modesto, Calif., stay-at-home mom, whose own daughters are 6 and 9. Barindelli signed up with the Center for Surrogate Parenting in Encino, one of the most exclusive surrogacy agencies in the world. In 2014, she matched with a Chinese couple. Unlike many agencies, CSP first shows parent applications to the surrogates, rather than the other way around. “It’s little things that you’ll connect with people over,” says Barindelli, who was attracted to pictures of the couple’s extended travels and their traditional wedding photos. The embryo transfer took place in late 2014. Barindelli emailed the mom weekly, sending updates and ultrasound pictures with WeChat, an app that offers instantaneous translation. The intended parents (IPs) planned to be there for the birth, but the baby boy arrived two weeks early, 24 hours before they arrived. Says Barindelli: “I texted and made sure [the mom] was OK with him staying in my room. I cleared everything with her. I didn’t want her to feel bad that she wasn’t there.” Barindelli, who used her surrogacy fees to set up a college fund for her girls, is pregnant again, this time with the baby, due Feb. 1, of a Taiwanese couple. She may not be done: Her first Chinese couple emailed her recently, soon after their son’s first birthday. They still have frozen embryos and hope that Barindelli, now 40, will carry their second child. Commercial surrogacy is banned in most parts of the world, as well as in many U.S. states. Until recently, infertile couples, singles and gay would-be dads had a handful of options to turn to when it came to finding a surrogate, among them India, Thailand, Nepal and Mexico, where surrogacy services have cost a quarter of the $100,000 to $200,000 bill typical in the U.S. But in the past few years, those countries have started enforcing laws banning international surrogacy. Meanwhile, China–the world’s most populous country, with a growing wealthy elite and where some doctors believe infertility is more common than in the U.S.–lifted its decades-long one-child policy. The result is a soaring Chinese demand for U.S. surrogacy services, one that is flourishing particularly in California, with its culturally friendly enclaves, excellent physicians and favorable state laws that regard IPs as a baby’s legal parents even before birth, if proper court documents are filed. {snip} {snip} Despite CSP’s Southern California location, 51 percent of its clients now are foreigners, up from 15 percent a decade ago. Rival agency Growing Generations (clients have included Sarah Jessica Parker and 30 Rock director Todd Holland) also sees half of its clients coming from overseas, as does Gifted Journeys, a boutique agency in Pasadena. At San Diego’s Expect Miracles Surrogacy, international clients account for 80 percent of IPs. And of foreigners participating in this permutation of California’s birth tourism, the number of Chinese IPs is growing the fastest, making up the most common single foreign nationality for many agencies right now. {snip} Most local agencies have a mix of Caucasian, Latina and African-American surrogates. “I can’t think of a time when we’ve had an Asian surrogate,” says Growing Generations’ Bergman. Multiple agency heads say Chinese IPs tend to strongly prefer a Caucasian surrogate. “People really have this fantasy because of a lot of the marketing that was done in China,” says Gifted Journey’s Wilson-Miller. “They have this picture of blond surrogates who look like movie stars carrying the baby with their traditional families.” {snip} The concept of cross-race surrogacy can confound friends, family and associates of surrogates and IPs alike. In August, comedian GloZell Green, who is African-American, and her husband, also African-American, had a baby girl via a surrogate. “Our surrogate is a blue-eyed blonde,” the YouTube star told potential IPs gathered in a Culver City hotel in early October. People in her life “kept asking if the baby was going to be white.” Surrogate selection aside, California has the added allure of numerous enclaves where families can be surrounded by Chinese speakers and businesses. “People from China can stay in Irvine, for example, and they have Chinese TV on their cable packages. Throughout California there are places they can go and shop and find stuff in Chinese. If they go to Kansas or Oklahoma? It’s total culture shock,” says Expect Miracles’ Anderson. {snip} Of course, any baby born via surrogate in the U.S. has birthright citizenship. “The Chinese couples really like that because a lot of them want to come back and forth,” says Molly O’Brien, a fertility lawyer with offices in Torrance who frequently travels to China to participate in information sessions for would-be parents, often sponsored by doctors offices or assisted-reproduction agencies. “Maybe they eventually want that child to be able to go to college here.” Unlike the U.S., China forbids dual citizenship, and most American-born Chinese babies remain U.S. citizens. “Most Chinese couples just keep that American passport. It’s only if you want to use the government services that you’ve got to be Chinese,” says CSP’s Synesiou. {snip}

WATCH How Fast MSNBC Cuts Black Woman’s Interview When She Says THIS About Trump

The Conservative Millennial

0 comments Sometimes racial profiling doesn’t work in your favor. That’s what an MSNBC reporter found out when he tried to interview a group of three black citizens in line for early voting in South Carolina. The reporter deliberately tried to bait the black voters into saying something negative about Trump, and was shocked to find out that they were actually supporters of the Republican nominee. “We’ve heard a lot of criticism of Trump’s inner city policy, but what do you make of that criticism? I’m sure you’ve heard it…” questioned the reporter. “Well, I think that Trump’s reaching out to all citizens, including African-Americans. I think he’s trying to address a problem,” responded one of the women. “It shouldn’t be a problem if you address that there’s something’s wrong and that you’ve got a plan to want to help people. That what a president should do for us, he should reach out and try to help people and address problems that are going on in our country.” Not yet deterred, the reporter tried to bait them again, asking, “Some of the criticism has been because he’ll often say, ‘What do you have to lose?’ Being specifically African-American, what do you think about that criticism?” “My word to all black Americans, one thing I would like to say,” answered another woman. “Let’s not be deceived. Look at the record. Look at the promises that have been made over the past from the Democratic Party. We’re not voting for a party, we’re voting for a man who has been standing by…” “He loves America! That’s what I love about him – he loves America. We need somebody that loves America. And he also loves all people. All people! And there’s that deception out there that he has no black supporters. WRONG! He does!” Well, all that was just way too much Republican support for MSNBC to handle and the reporter immediately ended the interview. See it for yourself:

David Brooks: Whites are “voting their gene pool” after being “ruined” by globalization, immigration, and feminism

Dr. Patrick Slattery

David Brooks: Whites are “voting their gene pool” after being “ruined” by globalization, immigration, and feminism November 7, 2016 at 1:09 am By Dr. Patrick Slattery On the PBS News Hour on Friday, David Brooks said white people are “voting their gene pool.” Wow. Just wow. This is the same David Brooks who wrote in his New York Times column about a Jewish woman who came up to him after a speech, and knowing that he was Jewish too told him that his speech was a description of how Jews had taken over America, which he acknowledged in the column was indeed the case.One of my Jewish professors once boasted that “Jews earn like Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans.” In other words, they voted their gene pool. Of course, they eventually bought out the Republican party as well, which gave their gene pool’s vote a choice. Blacks famously vote their gene pool. Hispanics are expected to vote their gene pool. But when whites and whites alone consider their ethnic interests in voting, it is something that Brooks and the rest of the Zio elite and their Goyish lackey find “deplorable.” Basically, less educated or high school-educated whites are going to Trump. It doesn’t matter what the guy does. And college-educated going to Clinton. Sometimes, you get the sense that the campaign barely matters. People are just going with their gene pool and whatever it is. And that is one of the more depressing aspects of this race for me. But what Brooks said about the reasons for whites (besides the college-indoctrinated whites) voting their gene pool was even more interesting. We had a lot of good things over the years that were really good for America. I think globalization has been really good for America. I think the influx of immigrants has been really good for America. Feminism has been really good for America.” But there are a lot of people who used to be up in society, because of those three good things, are now down, a lot of high school-educated white guys. And they have been displaced. When David Brooks was growing up, whites make up close to 90% of the American population. So it doesn’t really make sense to say that the displacement of the bulk of the American population is good for America. Of course, he did specify “high school-educated white guys.” Well, were blacks helped by globalization, immigration, and feminism? What did that do for their employment rates, crime rates, illegitimacy rates, etc.? And white women? Well, maybe all they ever wanted in the first place was to have blue hair, nose rings, tattoos, and raise cats instead of babies. I guess we never asked them. And college educated white guys? Well, they used to go to Harvard and Yale. Now, with affirmative action for blacks and Hispanics, competition from Asians, and massive Jewish nepotism, a white guy is lucky to get into a second-tier state school. Brooks conclusion was even more breath taking: And shame on us for not paying attention to that and helping them out. And, therefore, as a result, what happened was, they were alienated, they got super cynical, because they really were being shafted. And so they react in an angry way. Well, that’s not a shock, given the last 30 or 50 years of American history. And so, for us going forward, it’s to not reverse the dynamism of American society and the diversity. It’s to pay attention to the people who are being ruined by it, and so this doesn’t happen again. Here he admits that whites got shafted. That we are being ruined by diversity. But the weird thing is that line about “so this doesn’t happen again.” What? Is he concerned that Hispanics might be Jewed out of the America they inherit from whites? The rest of his appearance was just a poetic rant against Donald Trump. With any luck, on Tuesday Trump will be elected president, and we can make begin the process of making America America again.

Man at dinner party may be leader of the Liberal Democrats

Man at dinner party may be leader of the Liberal Democrats 28-10-16 A SMARTLY-DRESSED man at a posh dinner party may well be Tim Farron, fellow guests have realised. Suspicions began to grow that the man, who is in his mid-40s and of average height and weight, was the leader of a minority political party between the main and pudding courses. Julian Cook of Devizes said: “He’s a Tim, but that doesn’t mean anything by itself. There are lots of Tims. “But when I asked what he did for a living, he replied ‘Aside from the obvious?’ and told me actually it’s a very demanding position despite what happened last year, which left me no nearer. “He does know Nick Clegg. Still, I suppose so do lots of people.” Susan Traherne, who hosted the party, admitted she has known Tim since university but has never really been sure of his occupation. She said: “He was planning to go into politics but I never heard anything else about it so assumed he’d given up on the idea. But the orange tie, the general hopelessness, I should’ve figured it out. “I’ve a dreadful feeling I was slagging off the Lib Dems in the kitchen earlier in the evening. I hope he didn’t hear.” Tim Farron said: “Oh for God’s sake. This is like the ninth time I’ve told them.” Share:

Nick Cannon: Planned Parenthood Founded To Exterminate Black Race

Jerome Hudson

Singer and TV personality Nick Cannon doubled down on his criticism of Planned Parenthood, saying the abortion provider was designed to “exterminate” black people. [“When you talked about Margaret Sanger, all the people who follow eugenics. It was all about cleansing,” the America’s Got Talent host said of Planned Parenthood’s founder in a recent interview with DJ Vlad. “Margaret Sanger said that she wanted to exterminate the negro race, and that she was going to use her organization as she founded to do so,” Cannon continued. “It was more about the sterilization and where it comes to actual ethnic cleansing — where they actually said we want to get rid of a class of people a group of people. “ percent of them are all in the hood. ” “They like to label ‘ ’ or ‘’ that’s what they used in public. In private, they were talking about the black community,” Cannon said. The says the issue of abortion is more personal than political. “I’m because my mother did go to an abortion clinic to abort me,” he said. “I don’t feel like the government should have the right. I don’t feel like any organization that makes money should have the right to tell a woman what she can or cannot do with her body. ” Cannon says while Planned Parenthood — like the government — does some good things, it should be held accountable for “all the negative things. ” Last month, Cannon accused Planned Parenthood of committing “real genocide” on black Americans. “Hillary was sneaking and cheating,” Cannon said in an interview with “The Breakfast Club” radio show. “Think about all the stuff they did with Planned Parenthood and all that type of stuff. That type of stuff is to take our community — and forget gentrification, it’s real genocide, and it’s been like that for years. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson

Marvel Artist Fired for Hiding Anti-Semitic Messages in X-Men Comic - Breitbart

Lucas Nolan

Comic book artist Ardian Syaf’s contract with Marvel has been terminated after he hid and references within the first issue of Gold. [Breitbart previously reported on Syaf and the Koran verses referenced within the first issue of Marvel’s new series Gold. Syaf, an Indonesian artist, inserted political and religious references relating to the recent Indonesian election into the comic. The issue reportedly featured a reference to a verse in the Koran which urges Muslims not to take Christians and Jews as allies. The verse roughly translates, “O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are, in fact, allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you — then indeed, he is one of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people. ” The issue also contained a reference to a protest movement against the Christian governor of Jakarta over allegations of blasphemy against Islam. Marvel initially stated in response: “These implied references do not reflect the views of the writer, editors or anyone else at Marvel and are in direct opposition of the inclusiveness of Marvel Comics and what the have stood for since their creation. This artwork will be removed from subsequent printings, digital versions, and trade paperbacks and disciplinary action is being taken. ” That disciplinary action has now been confirmed as Syaf being fired from the comic series by Marvel. In a statement to CBR Marvel stated that the artist would no longer be working on the series and announced the replacement artists for later issues: Marvel has terminated Ardian Syaf’s contract effective immediately. ‘ Gold’ #2 and #3 featuring his work have already been sent to the printer and will continue to ship . Issues #4, #5, and #6 will be drawn by R. B. Silva and issues #7, #8, and #9 will be drawn by Ken Lashley. A permanent replacement artist will be assigned to ‘ Gold’ in the coming weeks. In response to this, Syaf took to his Facebook page where he wrote a lengthy post: My career is over now. It’s the consequence what I did, and I take it. Please no more mockery, debat, no more hate. I hope all in peace. In this last chance, I want to tell you the true meaning of the numbers, 212 and QS 5:51. It is number of JUSTICE. It is number of LOVE. My love to Holy Qur’an … my love to the last prophet, the Messenger … my love to ALLAH, The One God. My apologize for all the noise. Good bye, May God bless you all. I love all of you. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com

President Trump Quietly Rolling Back Obama-Era Gun Controls

AWR Hawkins

While rolling back onerous environmental and business regulations, President Donald Trump has also been quietly dropping gun controls which were either put in place or at least prolonged by the Obama administration. [On February 28 Breitbart News reported that Trump signed the repeal of Obama’s Social Security gun ban a ban which empowered the Social Security administration to strip away the Second Amendment rights of Social Security beneficiaries without due process. Days later, Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke squashed Obama’s lead ammunition ban for federal lands and waters. According to McClatchy, Trump’s administration has been quietly working to do away with other firearm regulations as well. For example, “agencies narrowed the definition of ‘fugitive’” which, in turn, limits the number of people barred from gun possession because they are included in a fugitive database. Additionally, Trump “officials have also signaled that they may no longer defend the Army Corps of Engineers’ ban on carrying loaded firearms and ammunition on federal lands. ”

Crooked Hillary Risks Having ‘Blue Dress Moment’ By Aggressively Attacking FBI And James Comey

Geoffrey Grider

Crooked Hillary Risks Having ‘Blue Dress Moment’ By Aggressively Attacking FBI And James Comey Since Crooked Hillary has no idea what the FBI actually found, her gambit is every bit as bold, and reckless, as was her husband's decades earlier. She has now painted herself into the proverbial corner, and any evidence that the FBI produces will be amplified in light of her vigorous denials. 30, 2016 Interestingly, in 2016 at the height of the race for president, Hillary decides to adopt Bill’s bold denial strategy Way back when in 1998 , as the Bill Clinton sex scandal with intern Monica Lewinsky was coming to light, Slick Willy decided on a very risky strategy. Knowing full well that he was 100% guilty as charged, he decided to look right into the unblinking eye of the camera and issue a full-throated denial of any involvement of any kind. Watch and see it for yourself: Bill Clinton denies having an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky: Now what Bill Clinton did not know was that Monica had saved a semen-stained blue dress with Bill Clinton’s semen on it, which she promptly presented as evidence to prove that she was not lying. By this time she was being trashed by Clinton operatives desperate to save Bill’s presidency, chief of whom was Crooked Hillary who had lots of nasty things to say about her husband’s victims. That led to this moment as seen here: Bill Clinton admits to having an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky: Interestingly, in 2016 at the height of the race for president, Hillary decides to adopt Bill’s bold denial strategy Hillary Clinton’s campaign hopes, as reported by Bloomberg today , its unusually swift response to revelations about a fresh FBI investigation into messages in connection with a past probe of her private e-mail server will blunt the political damage amid concern about close Senate races as well as the presidential election. With nine days to go until the election , Clinton and her aides went on the attack, intensifying criticism of James Comey as word emerged that the FBI director defied U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch by informing lawmakers of newly discovered e-mails that may relate to its investigation of the Democratic presidential nominee. Hillary Clinton addresses FBI email investigation: Clinton’s aggressive strategy contrasts with her bunker mentality in previous episodes of the controversy over her e-mail practices at the State Department. Her campaign is taking a calculated risk in publicly criticizing Comey and pressing him to quickly release more detail. Should new information contradict past statements or call into question the judgment of Clinton or any of her advisers who migrated from the Obama administration to her campaign, it could be damaging. Her rival Donald Trump told an audience in Phoenix the “only reason” Comey must have felt the need to tell lawmakers of the newly discovered e-mails is that “very, very serious things must be happening and must have been found. Very, very serious. Very, very serious.” Since Crooked Hillary has no idea what the FBI actually found, her gambit is every bit as bold, and reckless, as was her husband’s decades earlier. She has now painted herself into the proverbial corner, and any evidence that the FBI produces will be amplified in light of her vigorous denials. The WikiLeaks emails showed us that even John Podesta said she “lacks judgment” and discernment , and this is certain proof of that. But such is life when you’re a Clinton. Look right into the camera and commence lying. This is how they roll.

The Met Opera Is Struggling. How Can It Fill Those Empty Seats? - The New York Times

Zachary Woolfe, Anthony Tommasini, Michael Cooper, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim and David Allen

While there was plenty to celebrate artistically this season at the Metropolitan Opera — with several acclaimed new productions and memorable star turns — the company’s worrying slump continued. The Met was on track to take in only 66 percent of its potential revenue through the end of the season on Saturday, company officials said, down slightly from the previous season. (Since some seats are discounted, attendance is projected to be 72 percent.) Some weakness stemmed from factors beyond the Met’s control: Jonas Kaufmann, one of the last bankable stars in opera, withdrew from all his appearances this season, citing illness, and other opera companies are facing struggles of their own. But it is becoming a pattern. It is a daunting house to fill. With 3, 800 seats and 200 places, the Met is far bigger than most European houses, and it gave 225 opera performances this season, more than almost all of its peers. It sold an average of 2, 869 seats per performance — more than enough to fill the 2, 256 seats of the Royal Opera House in London or the Vienna State Opera, which can hold 2, 284. What to do? Channeling their inner impresarios, critics and reporters for The New York Times engaged in a little operatic spitballing, throwing out ideas — including some that the Met is experimenting with and others it might find off the wall — that could help fill the house again. MICHAEL COOPER Court the young, even more. Give operagoers in their teens and twenties not just the best seats at cheap prices but also steep discounts at the intermission bar. Create a club that offers exclusive access to rehearsals, meetings with directors and singers, and trips to performances elsewhere. Give them perks you don’t give your biggest donors. CORINNA da Granted, this Met season has been unusually narrow: In 71 percent of performances have been of operas by Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti or Rossini. Heavier doses of Gounod, Massenet, Wagner and Strauss make appear somewhat better balanced, but not enough. While unusual repertory can be a tough sell, offerings are essential to a sustainable future. The Met should start by edging more often into Eastern Europe: Janacek should appear every year, and Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich deserve more than occasional outings. Then there’s the matter of time. The cavernous theater is a hindrance, admittedly, but Gluck and Handel ought to be mainstays, not rarities. And occasional forays into John Adams, alongside some Muhly and Adès commissions, aren’t nearly enough contemporary work. DAVID ALLEN A few years ago, the president of an opera club at Columbia Law School asked if I would join members for one of their regular lunchtime meetings. When I showed up, to my amazement, there were some 150 students in attendance and an enormous stack of pizzas. The Met should actively assist and encourage clubs for opera lovers with shared interests. The Met could arrange discounted tickets for designated performances and even host receptions for the clubs with special guests, like singers from the young artists program who might perform a couple of arias. ANTHONY TOMMASINI One seemingly simple way to draw bigger crowds: perform when it’s convenient for audiences. While other major opera houses, ballet companies and Broadway shows find that Sunday performances are among their most popular, the Met retains a longstanding schedule that dates back to the days of strict blue laws. Many operagoers find weeknight performances difficult, especially for operas that last three hours or longer. An 8 p. m. start can be too late for older patrons and suburbanites who face long commutes after the final curtain. But earlier starts are tough for the many people who typically work much later than 5 p. m. — especially if they want to be able to eat dinner. Sunday matinees would be simpler for people in both groups and could appeal to operagoers from further afield. Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, has suggested adding some Sunday performances, but he will need to win the agreement of the Met’s unions, whose workers often have punishing schedules and who agreed to concessions in their last contracts. And going dark on a weekday would cut into the Met’s rehearsal schedules. MICHAEL COOPER Every orchestra, it seems, has an artist in residence: In fact, the New York Philharmonic’s this season has been the Eric Owens. Why not the Met? Planning is tough, of course, but with enough lead time, why couldn’t a singer participate in three (or four, or five) productions over a season, as well as concerts, recitals, lectures? The more audiences know (and love) a performer, the more eager they’ll be to buy tickets to see her. ZACHARY WOOLFE There’s much to be said for the stagione system in use in many European opera houses, in which only one production runs at a time. This makes it easier to instill a sense of urgency in the public: Your chance to see a show is now or never. As a magnet for cultural tourists, some of whom travel to New York to see multiple operas over a few days, the Met is understandably reluctant to do this, and the house is set up to run several productions at once. But it would still make sense to link thematically related works into that encourage like a “Lulu” “Lucia” showdown of madwomen. CORINNA da One “festival” is already offered by the Met, although it’s a summer of HD screenings on Lincoln Center Plaza. And, admittedly, festivals can be used as tools for both progress and reaction: The New York Philharmonic has its biennial, but also its Dvorak and Rachmaninoff celebrations. Even so, a festival during the main season — done properly — would let the Met draw attention to new productions while trotting out old ones, help it build excitement for unusual repertoire and give it an opportunity for collaboration with other, institutions. Imagine a series looking at the Orpheus myth over time, from Monteverdi to Birtwistle. Or treatments of Shakespeare, balancing Verdi with Barber, Reimann and Adès. Think what could be done for the forgotten Romantics, like Korngold and Schreker. One could even contemplate a pageant of American operas. DAVID ALLEN The holiday presentations of operas — shorter, and in English — should be expanded across the season. Consider marketing the occasional matinee of a opera to families, too, with rules and affordable snacks at intermission. While you’re at it, take a hint from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, which has players hang out at the front of the stage during intermission to take questions from audience members. Send choristers in costume out to the lobbies to pose for selfies. CORINNA da New Yorkers like to dress up: Get in on the game. The Met should mark the dates of Fashion Week and throw open its doors with gala performances that enforce a strict dress code. Invite a runway star to dress the entire cast of one production, with apologies to the regular costume designer, then auction off the clothes. Don’t let the other Met and its Costume Institute steal all the paparazzi attention. CORINNA da Why is it that audiences linger after performances at, say, the Park Avenue Armory, while they rush out of the Met? It’s because there’s no comfortable, exciting space at the opera house to sit down, chat, have unexpected . My idea? Throw out the overpriced, mediocre Grand Tier Restaurant and replace it with something like the Smith, across Broadway: Moderately priced, a little rambunctious and open (including after the opera) for food (that includes both filet mignon and burgers) drinks (that includes both Champagne and beer) and good coffee. ZACHARY WOOLFE The company might select a couple of offerings each season and turn them into citywide cultural collaborations. It’s moving a bit in this direction next season for the company premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s “L’Amour de Loin. ” The Philharmonic will tie performances of Saariaho works at the Park Avenue Armory to the Met run. But couldn’t the two Mets (opera and museum) have worked on an exhibition on Christian troubadours from Aquitaine and religious art from Tripoli, the two locales this story shifts between? How about asking early music ensembles to perform troubadour songs? How about Verdi’s “Otello,” which returned this spring in time for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death? Imagine high school English teachers in the city, with the support of the Met, using this run as a chance to compare Shakespeare’s tragedy with Verdi’s opera and then taking students to the free dress rehearsal. ANTHONY TOMMASINI Even in the higher altitudes of the opera house, tickets are still quite expensive — especially when it comes to enticing new generations who may be iffy on the whole idea of giving opera a try. On many nights this season, the house seemed to sell out from the top down, with the least expensive tickets disappearing first. Prices currently range from $25 to $480, but the average is $158. 50. The company does have more discounted options than ever — there are $25 rush tickets, student ticket offers, “Fridays Under 40” discounts — but many of them place the onus on operagoers to figure them out, and some, like rush tickets, require a degree of flexibility that is hard for people who need to, say, engage babysitters or plan ahead. And costly tickets make it harder for opera fanatics — people who not only want to see many different operas each year but also often want to see the same opera more than once, to revel in a favorite singer or compare alternate casts. What to do? Ticket revenues account for an increasingly small percentage of the cost of actually mounting operas. In a perfect world, perhaps a very donor could be enticed to make a transformational gift that would allow the Met to cut its prices across the board. That would allow fanatics to go more often. More realistically, the Met could use the information available in most ticket purchases — perhaps the credit card numbers and email addresses people use when they buy tickets online — to offer operagoers the chance to purchase, say, tickets anywhere in the house. That could help groom future fanatics. MICHAEL COOPER Create a loyalty app that allows users to check in every time they visit. Add in a quiz element that rewards close attention — to a detail of a character’s costume, a witty translation in the Met titles or a line in the program notes. Award bonus points for arcane trivia, frequent visits and thorny or new works. Make participation the entry requirement for lotteries that offer lavish prizes, like a parterre box for a night, a private dress fitting in the costume department or a chance to shadow a director for a day. CORINNA da One option that would offend many opera fans but might entice more newcomers: a little judicious cutting of operas, to make things flow a bit faster onstage and make it easier for audiences with too few hours in the day to find time for opera. Shakespeare’s plays are rarely performed uncut. But in opera, the trend in recent decades has been toward fewer cuts and treating scores as sacrosanct. To get people out at a reasonable hour, many opera companies, including the Met, now have fewer intermissions. Another option would be to cut the operas. The Met sometimes does this for its shortened, holiday presentations aimed at families, which whittle down works like Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” to two hours or less. While some gorgeous music gets left on the floor, the shortened operas are often among the most popular offerings of the year — and draw quite a few adults who are unaccompanied by children. MICHAEL COOPER After years of illness and cancellations, James Levine, the Met’s longtime music director, has finally retired. Now, the company has a chance to nab a vibrant replacement who has technical chops, intriguing ideas about repertory, a taste for the new and a connection to the city and its cultural life. I’m thinking of the kind of leader you might see on a night off at National Sawdust or even Terminal 5. ZACHARY WOOLFE

The Truth About America’s Survival – Demographics and the 2016 Election

Andrew Anglin

The Truth About America’s Survival – Demographics and the 2016 Election Daily Stormer October 29, 2016 While many are unaware of the coming demographic winter in the United States, the future of freedom in the country will be decided in the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Immigration, voting patterns and demographics are the only true issues that matter in this upcoming election, as Hillary Clinton’s amnesty to the 11-30+ million illegal immigrants in America will prevent small government ideas from being politically viable for centuries. Stefan Molyneux breaks down the raw data on the foreign-born population in the United States, immigration pattern changes since the 1965 Immigration Act, cultural differences in economic freedom and corruption, national IQ, attitudes on larger vs. smaller government, political party preferences, immigrant voting patterns, the truth about libertarianism, welfare consumption rates among different demographics and the shocking truth about crime and diversity.

Put Some Me-ing in Your Be-ing

Gillian

2 Replies Jennifer Hoffman – Whenever I hear the word selfish, I can hear my mother’s voice saying ‘Don’t be selfish’ when I didn’t want to share something. As the oldest child and the oldest of my cousins, I was always expected to share my things with everyone, whether I wanted to or not. Selfishness was defined as not being willing to let everyone have whatever belonged to me anytime they wanted it, a belief I highly disagreed with. But there is a big difference between being selfish, taking everything so no one else can have any, and being self-ish, as in making your needs a priority, and this needs to be our focus now. Our joy is fully available when we ask ‘What makes me happy’ and ‘What works best for me’ and this happens when we are willing to be self-ish and putting ‘me-ing into our be-ing’. It is not possible for us to be comfortable within the collective if we are not self-ish because without selfishness, or having an awareness of our self and out needs, we can’t have any boundaries. And boundaries are how we manage the energy flows into and out of our realities. They ensure our energetic stability and set the foundation for the joy and other energies we want in our life. Without boundaries we risk scattering our energy and giving our power away. The key is to find the balance that maintains our individual joy-based energies as we share with and participate in the collective energy. Being self-ish is a delicate balance that is both in-clusive and ex-clusive, and the fulcrum or midpoint is the point of our optimal energetic frequency and vibration, which determines who approaches our boundaries and feels the need to be included and who excludes themselves because they can’t feel or do the connection. Anyone is welcome to be with us if they can pay the energetic price of admission, which could be to ‘love, honor, and respect me’. As long as we maintain a strong ‘me’ focus, we can be inclusively self-ish in a way that allows us to be confident in our insistence on the joy or other energies we want to be part of our reality. If we use another word for self-ish, like self-aware, self-focused, self-caring, and self-sourced, we don’t associate it with the negative meaning our mothers used, which also led to us believing that we needed to share our energy and power with everyone who looked like they needed it. Being self-ish simply means that in every choice and interaction, we are aware of our needs and we give them consideration first, without doubting our worthiness. Our spiritual path is both self-ish and unselfish, where we are inclusive in all things but exclusive in the energies we choose to participate in. This perspective also liberates us from the Martyred Healer paradigm, where we feel the need to heal everyone’s wounds, while denying ourselves access to the joy we try so hard to create for others. Putting ‘me-ing in your be-ing’ feeds your soul with the joy it craves, while empowering you to expand your reality to explore the fullness of your potential and possibilities. And when we are at the frequency of joy we become an example of empowered, joyful energy for everyone, as well as creating a portal for that energy to be experienced in the collective. At a time when the energies feel so chaotic and scattered, focusing on our joy, peace of mind and heart, love, and highest frequencies and outcomes allows us to ground those energies firmly into our realities. We can no longer adjust our reality to meet others’ needs, it feels too bad now. Nor can we wait for them to figure out what they want, they will have to do that for themselves. So much of what we are doing now is challenging us to be more self-ish, but that simply means to put ourselves in a state of joy so our light can shine brightly, and in the way that we and the world needs right now. And putting the ‘me-ing in our be-ing’ reminds us that when we give our needs the attention they deserve, we are allowing our heaven on earth to become possible and that is a good thing for everyone. Copyright (c) 2016 by Jennifer Hoffman. All rights reserved. Share this:

Scaling Up a Drug Trade, Straight Through ISIS Turf - The New York Times

Rukmini Callimachi and Lorenzo Tondo

PALERMO, Italy — The investigators for Italy’s antidrug unit were used to measuring the flow of hashish from Moroccan fields to European shores one speedboat or Jet Ski at a time. So when the phone rang with a tip that an enormous freighter loaded with hashish was plying international waters south of Sicily — bound for Libya, hundreds of miles to the east of the usual quick drug route to Spain — Francesco Amico, a senior investigator, immediately knew something odd was going on. Not just odd, but huge: When two Italian Navy warships eventually stopped the freighter, the Adam, off the Libyan coast on April 12, 2013, agents found a terrified Syrian crew and 15 metric tons of hashish — a stash many multiples larger than Italian officials had ever seen. “There was so much of the drug that we didn’t know where to put it,” said Mr. Amico, who waited in the Sicilian port of Trapani for the escorted ship to arrive. “We had to go out and rent a warehouse. ” The Italian officials had stumbled on a lucrative new trafficking route that stretched far to the east along the coast of Northern Africa — and always led to Libya, in an area fought over by competing armed groups that included the Islamic State. The Adam was the first of 20 ships that would be intercepted over the route over the following 32 months, officials say. Their collective cargo amounted to more than 280 tons of hashish valued at 2. 8 billion euros, or about $3. 2 billion — roughly half of what was seized in all of continental Europe last year, according to the European Union’s Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Then the tips dried up, and the busts stopped. The Italian investigation, which had expanded to include other European countries and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, has not seized any ships on the route in 2016, though officials say they believe the traffic continues. Instead, as they have sought to understand what happens to the enormous shipments, they are struggling with a mystery that has prompted intriguing questions but offered few answers. One thing they know is that the drugs were not ending up in Libya. The Moroccan drug producers consistently use individualized branding logos, like a scorpion or a dollar sign. That helped investigators pick up the drug shipments’ trail again after they left Libya, traveling along an overland route through Egypt and then on to Europe through the Balkans. But the investigators are still not sure what happened as the drugs passed through. From interrogations and surveillance, they know the route crossed territory that until a few weeks ago was claimed by the Islamic State — which has taxed shipments of drugs and other goods in Syria and Iraq. That, in particular, led the Italian drug investigators to start asking questions they never expected to confront: Could the Islamic State or some other group be profiting from the drug route by taxing it? Was the chaos in Libya providing an opportunity by drug traffickers to pick a route the authorities wouldn’t suspect, or were the groups more directly involved? The investigation continues. “Once it reaches Libya, we lose track of it,” said Lt. Col. Giuseppe Campobasso, who heads the antidrug unit in Sicily of the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian financial police force that led the search for the ships. For years, the Italian investigators had tracked small shipments of Moroccan hashish, around 100 kilograms at a time, coming to Spain in boats that crossed the Strait of Gibraltar — a narrow passage that ferries cross in under 35 minutes. In 2007, Spain began installing cameras up and down its southern coastline, but at least at first, the hashish traffic continued in the usual way. With Europe’s eyes trained on traffic coming from the south, at first no one noticed the cargo ships that were taking a big dogleg to the east. Giacomo Catania, an inspector with the Guardia di Finanza who was in charge of storing the incoming drugs, explained another oddity: The enormous cargo ships they seized — some as long as a soccer field and designed to carry fleets of automobiles or cargo containers — were empty except for the drugs. “These are ships that have a capacity to carry thousands of tons, and the cargo in most cases was around 20 tons. Only a minuscule portion of it was used,” Mr. Catania said. That the smugglers were willing to operate so inefficiently — Mr. Catania compared it to using an to transport a single pack of cigarettes — is testament to the value of the cargo. Considering that hashish sells for €10, 000, about $11, 200, per kilogram once it reaches Europe’s streets, the Adam’s cargo alone was worth at least €150 million. And shipments seized later were even bigger — including a load of hashish aboard the freighter Aberdeen, boarded in the summer of 2014, that was estimated to be worth €420 million — or about $472 million. After seizing the Adam, investigators in Italy interrogated its crew members, who insisted that they did not know that hashish was in the 591 plastic bags investigators had found on the ship’s deck. The ship’s captain testified that he believed he was transporting humanitarian aid, brought to the ship by the crew of a speedboat that approached them off the coast of Morocco and insisted that they take the bags, according to a transcript of his statement to investigators. To learn more, the investigators — who have decades of experience dealing with the Sicilian Mafia — decided to bug the cells where the six crew members were imprisoned. Over months of surveillance, Mr. Amico began to discern the outlines of the trafficking route, and the mystery of the militant stronghold in coastal Libya it passed through. Since the ouster of the Libyan leader Muammar in 2011, stretches of Libya along the coastline in the eastern region of Cyrenaica had become a battleground for competing militant groups. By 2014, that included the Islamic State’s branch in Libya, which at various times had footholds in the cities of Benghazi, Derna and especially Surt, which has partly fallen to forces. Italian officials believe that those cities were all destinations for some of the drug ships, although the navigation units of other seized vessels indicate that they were headed to the Libyan port of Tobruk, which is controlled by a rebel group fighting the Islamic State. Investigators say they believe that at least in some cases, the terrorist group would have been able to exact a tax in return for the drugs’ passage. That matches the Islamic State’s business practice in its stronghold in Syria and Iraq, where according to one study by IHS Country Risk, 7 percent of the group’s revenue last year was from the production, taxation and trafficking of drugs. But officials concede that they cannot be certain what role, if any, the Islamic State might play in the hashish shipments. “No one has eyes on the ground to say that they know for a fact,” said Masood Karimipour, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s regional representative for the Middle East and North Africa. “What we can offer, or make a reasonable inferences from, is that where the terrorists are holding terrain they are controlling everything that goes through it, including the trafficking of whatever — whether it’s weapons or drugs. ” Poring over the surveillance tapes of the jailed crew of the freighter Adam, Mr. Amico and the rest of his investigative team started to wonder whether the drugs were part of a bigger scheme, perhaps involving weapons. They learned that the Adam had begun its Mediterranean voyage in Cyprus, where it picked up four containers of “furniture,” destined for Benghazi. After dropping off the cargo, the vessel continued to Morocco, picking up 15 tons of hashish and returning to Libya. From other comments by the crew, Mr. Amico and his team came to believe that the “furniture” was a shipment of weapons, he said, an idea supported by two of the prosecutors involved in the case. “Libya is not a land where people consume hashish,” said Deputy Prosecutor Maurizio Agnello. “So that cargo of drugs is definitely a method of payment, a kind of coin. ” In recent months, however, the Italian investigation has stalled. Most of the tips were coming from French officials, who in recent months were scrambling to deal with a wave of terrorist attacks at home, and when the tips ended, so did the busts. No ships have been intercepted along the route in 2016, though investigators say they believe the path is still being used. They expressed unease about the lack of certainty regarding the players controlling the new route. “If this was controlled by the Mafia, we would know how to deal with it, because we know the Mafia well,” said Mr. Agnello, whose office is in a stately building in Palermo, a stronghold of the Sicilian Mafia, which for years controlled the hashish arriving from Morocco via Spain. When it comes to the possible involvement of terrorist groups, he said, “It frightens us because they don’t have limits. They do stuff that would be unthinkable for a Mafioso. ”

Sanders: ’The Way the Democratic Party Has Been Run for Decades Has Not Worked’ - Breitbart

Pam Key

.@SenSanders: ”The way the democratic party has been run for decades has not worked” #CNNSOTU https: . Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Bernie Sanders ( ) said ” the way the Democratic Party has been run for decades has not worked. Partial transcript as follows: TAPPER: So, let’s start with yesterday’s big vote at the DNC. You obviously strongly backed Congressman Ellison. He lost the race to former Labor Secretary Tom Perez. You issued a statement saying — quote — “At a time when Republicans control the White House, the U. S. House, U. S. Senate and of all statehouses, it is imperative that Tom Perez understands that the is not working. ” So, Senator, did the win? SANDERS: Well, look, Keith ran a great campaign. He took on, in essence, Democratic insiders, and yet he came close to winning. That was a very impressive effort, when you realize that he was playing inside the establishment’s house. But, right now, I think, Tom Perez, who was a very, very good secretary of labor, has a real opportunity in his hands. And I hope he seizes it. And that is to understand that, in fact, the way the Democratic Party has been run for decades has not worked. We need a total transformation. We have got to open up the party to working people, to young people, and make it crystal clear that the Democratic Party is going to take on Wall Street, it’s going to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, it’s going to take on corporate America that is shutting down plants in this country and moving our jobs abroad. The idea that Trump thinks that the Republican Party is going to be the party of working people, when he has appointed people to his administration who want to cut Social Security, want to cut Medicare, want to cut Medicaid, or who want to provide a budget which will give huge tax breaks to billionaires like Trump, and then cut back on education and health care for the American people, if that’s a party that stands for working people, God help us all. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

ELSEVAR

Hyperbole is odious. This is not a bad article for the most part, but the title, "Will America Survive the Next 4 Years?" , and the words in the last paragraph, "it seems entirely doubtful that the country will make it through four years of Donald Trump" , are clickbait silly. If America could survive Slick Willie Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama/Hillary (even though millions of foreign people did not survive their regimes), then it will survive Mr. Trump. There is even a fair chance that Trump will not be worse than his predecessors.

New to Airbnb? How to Make It Work for You - The New York Times

Lucas Peterson

I have a confession: before writing this column, I had never used Airbnb. My first experience with this San marketplace, which was founded in 2008 and dropped a proverbial bomb on the hotel industry, came when I visited Milwaukee in April. Before then, I had been hesitant to use the service: What if something went wrong? What if the place was grossly misrepresented? What if the owner tried to unfairly pin a broken dish or a rip in the sofa on me? The possibilities for something going wrong, it seemed, were endless. Eventually, though, I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. Or, at the very least, embrace it from time to time, depending on what I was looking for during my travels. That, I learned, is the key to using Airbnb: By knowing what you want in your lodgings, you can make the service work for you. [Update Sept. 8:] Airbnb has released a lengthy report and made changes to its platform in response to complaints about hosts discriminating against potential renters. Among other things, the company will be making hosts agree to a more detailed policy, increasing the availability of Instant Book listings, and experimenting with “reducing the prominence” of user photos. users who do not want to go through the typical vetting process of a standard Airbnb experience can use the Instant Book feature — hosts can still cancel, however, if they have “concerns about the reservation. ” Simply refusing to include a picture of yourself in your profile is another option. Regardless, if you feel you’ve been the victim of discrimination, don’t stay quiet: Write to Airbnb immediately. Here are a few tips for users. DECIDE THE KIND OF EXPERIENCE YOU WANT Don’t feel like leaving your comfort zone? Want to get in and get out of a city quickly, with minimal hassle? A traditional hotel may be for you. The process is predictable, there are creature comforts like housekeeping, and you can expect a certain minimal level of service. If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, though, you could explore Airbnb. There, you would find opportunities for a more local experience than you could ever hope to have by staying in a traditional hotel. In Moscow, I stayed in the gorgeous artist’s studio of a local sculptor and got to know him and his wife. He shared his likenesses of Lenin and Yuri Gagarin, and she spent an afternoon showing me around the city. It was a unique experience I’ll never forget. BE REALISTIC One aspect that draws travelers to Airbnb is that it is frequently cheaper than hotels. Therefore, it’s important to temper your expectations. The bed may not be perfect, the faucet may leak, and the may be spotty. Oh, and the “breakfast” part of “ ”? Best to take that with a grain of salt it hasn’t existed in any of the Airbnbs that I’ve booked. The greater informality can have its advantages, too. It lends itself to more flexibility as far as what time you can check in, for example, as well as what to do when you check out. In at least two places I’ve booked, “Just leave the keys under the mat” was the only instruction I received. KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GETTING You don’t want to show up at your booking with your significant other and awkwardly encounter another person — or worse, another couple — staying in the same place. The headings in the Airbnb listings search are: “Entire ”: You’re booking an entire apartment or house and should not expect to share the space “Private room”: You are booking a private room within someone else’s home (bathroom privileges may vary) and “Shared room”: You’re in a bunk situation (this is generally the cheapest rental). Pay attention to your search parameters so that there are no rude surprises. Chances are, if you’re getting an insanely good deal on that beachfront villa, you’re probably not going to be there alone. MESSAGE YOUR HOST BEFOREHAND There’s a natural vetting process with Airbnb. You have to message your hosts when you request to stay at their home, and they vet your message, and you, before they approve the stay. This allows the hosts to pick and choose their guests (and unfortunately has also led to cases of racial discrimination). There is also an Instant Book option, denoted by a small lightning bolt, that allows you to make a booking without sending a message or request. Generally, though, the more you communicate ahead of time with your host, the better. You can exchange information, coordinate schedules and figure out the best time to hand off keys. A quick to get to know the person whose home you’re renting (and vice versa) makes for a more comfortable and pleasant experience. REALIZE THAT FILTERS ARE YOUR FRIEND After the initial landing page, when you’ve entered the basic parameters of your stay, you’ll see a map with your lodging options. On the left side, above the first listing, is a button labeled “Filters. ” Click on it, and you can whittle down your options by the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as the neighborhood. Scroll down to “Amenities. ” Initially you’ll see a few choices. But on the right side, you’ll see a small black arrow. Click on it to reveal many more options. Do you absolutely have to bring your dog along? Check off the “Pets Allowed” option. You can be very granular with your parameters if you want the host to provide shampoo, or if you require a lock on the bedroom door, you can search for that, too. KNOW THE CANCELLATION POLICY Before you book, know your host’s cancellation policy. Cancellation policies can vary from “Flexible,” meaning you’re allowed a refund provided you cancel within 24 hours of arrival, to “Strict,” which will afford you only a 50 percent refund — provided you canceled at least a week ahead of time. Either way, say goodbye to Airbnb’s nonrefundable fee, the exact calculus of which is maddeningly unspecific — it is “typically % but can be higher or lower,” according to the website. WHEN IN DOUBT, TAKE PICTURES There are far more horror stories of guests damaging the homes of Airbnb hosts than of nightmare hosts, but it’s always good to be safe. When you arrive, do a quick inspection for any damage to the walls or furniture, and snap a few quick pictures — if you have a smartphone, a couple of panorama shots would do nicely. If you do notice something problematic, mention it right away to your host. Do this by communicating through the Airbnb website — not by sending personal emails back and forth. When you leave, take a couple of quick shots, as well. In the unlikely event of a dispute, photos would help you prove you left your rental in good condition. LEAVE FEEDBACK The Airbnb ecosystem lives and dies by honest feedback. Reading reviews is the best way to learn about the quality of a rental and the best way to weed out the bad eggs who misrepresent their properties, or worse. So it behooves you, after your stay, to leave honest feedback and to rate various aspects of the property on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. But don’t think this goes only one way — hosts can also leave reviews of their guests. STILL UNSURE? RENT FROM A ‘SUPERHOST’ If you are wary about staying in a stranger’s home, you have the option of renting from a Superhost — someone who has consistently received positive reviews, denoted with a small gold medal by the profile. Eighty percent of Superhosts’ reviews have been awarded five stars, and Superhosts are held to high standards of responsiveness and following through with their bookings (i. e. not canceling at the last minute). Using Airbnb for the first time can be both an exciting and slightly anxious experience — I felt that way myself. If you have reservations but want to test the waters, a Superhost’s home may be a good first stay.

NYU Prof Who Spoke Out Against "Safe Spaces" and "Trigger Warnings" Gets Pushed Out

NYU Prof Who Spoke Out Against "Safe Spaces" and "Trigger Warnings" Gets Pushed Out Source: Zero Hedge An NYU professor who launched a twitter war against the growing trend of universities coddling students with "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings" has been pushed out of his own classroom for his " incivility ." According to a report from the New York Post , Liberal Studies professor Michael Rectenwald was forced to go on paid leave for the rest of the semester after his undercover twitter account, "Deplorable NYU Prof", was linked back to him. Liberal studies prof Michael Rectenwald, 57, said he was forced Wednesday to go on paid leave for the rest of the semester . “They are actually pushing me out the door for having a different perspective,” the academic told The Post. Rectenwald launched an undercover Twitter account called Deplorable NYU Prof on Sept. 12 to argue against campus trends like “safe spaces,”“trigger warnings” and other aspects of academia’s growing PC culture. He chose to be anonymous, he explained in one of his first tweets, because he was afraid “the PC Gestapo would ruin me” if he put his name ­behind his conservative ideas on the famously liberal campus. “I remember once on my Facebook I posted a story about a kid who changed his pronoun to ‘His Majesty’ because I thought it was funny,” he told The Post. “Then I got viciously attacked by 400 people. This whole milieu is nauseating. I grew tired of it, so I made the account.” Below is a small sample of Rectenwald's tweets: The identity politics left: they need a safe space that is at once a hall of mirrors and a rubber room. — Deplorable NYU Prof (@antipcnyuprof) October 11, 2016 What if Trump triggers a few hundred thousand liberal totalitarians to jump out of their dorm windows? one can only hope. #TriggerWarning — Deplorable NYU Prof (@antipcnyuprof) September 27, 2016 OK, academia has officially gone completely ape shit. This is merely mental illness posing as "politics": https://t.co/1K1l7wSvom — Deplorable NYU Prof (@antipcnyuprof) September 27, 2016 I'm a NYU prof who's seen academe become a sham bc of identity pol & liberal totalitarianism. I'll tell all soon. https://t.co/7Tyulse0a7 — Deplorable NYU Prof (@antipcnyuprof) September 16, 2016 I'm a real full-time NYU prof who has inside stories that will blow yr mind. When I reach 500 followers the flood gates open. Pls help. Thx. — Deplorable NYU Prof (@antipcnyuprof) September 15, 2016 . @kercard @TrumpetingTrump Yes, there are 1.5 administrators for every professor at NYU -gotta' monitor everyone for possible 'bias' issues! — Deplorable NYU Prof (@antipcnyuprof) September 13, 2016 It wasn't long before Rectenwald's tweet storm drew the attention of NYU's student newspaper, the Washington Square Times, which reached out to him over twitter for an interview. Unfortunately, that interview, which was published last week , proved to be his undoing. Within 2 days of his identity being revealed publicly, NYU's " Liberal Studies Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group " had published a letter in the same newspaper finding Rectenwald "guilty of illogic and incivility." Later in that same day Rectenwald was forced to go on paid leave by administrators who claimed that "a couple people had expressed concern about his mental health." But Rectenwald says he began getting “dirty looks” in his department and on Wednesday figured out why: A 12-person committee calling itself the Liberal Studies Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group , including two deans, published a letter to the editor in the same paper. “As long as he airs his views with so little appeal to evidence and civility, we must find him guilty of illogic and incivility in a community that predicates its work in great part on rational thought and the civil exchange of ideas,” they wrote. “We seek to create a dynamic community that values full participation. Such efforts are not the ‘destruction of academic integrity’ Professor Rectenwald suggests, but rather what make possible our program’s approach to global studies,” they argued. Rectenwald likened the attack to “a Salem witch trial. They took my views personally. I never even mentioned them and I never even said NYU liberal studies program. I was talking about academia at large.” The same day that letter was published, Rectenwald was summoned to a meeting with his department dean and an HR representative, he says. “They claimed they were worried about me and a couple people had expressed concern about my mental health,” Rectenwald told The Post. The leave has “absolutely zero to do with his Twitter account or his opinions on issues of the day,” said NYU spokesman Matt Nagel, refusing to elaborate on the reason. “I’m afraid my academic career is over,” he said. “Academic freedom: It’s great, as long as you don’t use it.” Is it any wonder that the liberal elite continues to run amok at our establishments of higher learning... anyone who dares express a non-conforming opinion is promptly found "guilty of illogic and incivility" and declared mentally incompetent. Share This Article...

21 Things We’ve Learned About Hillary

Daisy Luther

October 28, 2016 Let’s talk about Wikileaks. First of all, the organization was founded by Julian Assange back in 2006. Their website explains what they are all about: “WikiLeaks specializes in the analysis and publication of large datasets of censored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying, and corruption. It has so far published more than 10 million documents and associated analyses.” In the 11 years that they’ve been publishing documents, they have not been disproven a single time. Their record for authentication is perfect. (Learn more here and here .) So this means that a person would be pretty silly to disregard anything in the reams of information about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party, the Clinton Foundation, and the political shenanigans that would put the Machiavellis to shame. Here are 21 of the most important things that have come out about Hillary Clinton, that unfortunately, no one is reporting on in the mainstream. In the interest of brevity, each topic has a link to an article that goes deeper into the leak. (In no particular order.) John Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign had a nice cozy dinner with Peter Kadzik, one of the top officials in the Department of Justice…the day after the Benghazi hearing . Kadzik’s son also asked for a job on the Clinton campaign, and, the icing on the corruption cupcake? Kadzik led the effort to nominate Loretta Lynch, who famously met with Bill Clinton on her private plane right before Hillary’s interrogation about Emailgate. ( source ) We all knew that the Clinton Foundation was just a way for the Clinton family to launder money, and now there’s proof. Zero Hedge writes, “…today’s Wikileaks dump included that memo which reveals, for the first time, the precise financial flows between the Clinton Foundation, Band’s firm Teneo Consulting, and the Clinton family’s private business endeavors.” A pundit called this leak “The Rosetta Stone of the Clinton Foundation,” meaning that with this document, all of their shady financial dealings could be unraveled and translated. ( source ) Clinton is unable to speak for very long without a podium to lean on . Numerous leaked emails reference how certain interviews have to be kept short because she’d be without one. And this article references a very interesting reason why this may be the case – surprisingly it isn’t related to her health. ( source ) The leaks also show that Clinton intends to do her best to restrict the Second Amendment. Brian Fallon, the national press secretary for the Clinton campaign, wrote, “ Circling back around on guns as a follow up to the Friday morning discussion: the Today show has indicated they definitely plan to ask bout guns, and so to have the discussion be more of a news event than her previous times discussing guns, we are going to background reporters tonight on a few of the specific proposals she would support as President – universal background checks of course, but also closing the gun show loophole by executive order and imposing manufacturer liability .” According to an analysis on The Daily Sheeple, “Imposing manufacturer liability means that after Sandy Hook, Bushmaster and Remington Arms would have been prosecuted for having a hand in the murder of children and school staff members for firearms that were legally sold.” ( source ) The campaign was concerned that the sexual escapades of Bill Clinton could be likened to those of another disgraced celebrity, Bill Cosby . Political operative Ron Klain sent an urgent email saying that Hillary should anticipate the following questions, ” How is what Bill Clinton did different from what Bill Cosby did? Is his conduct relevant to your campaign? You said every woman should be believed. Why not the women who accused him? Will you apologize to the women who were wrongly smeared by your husband and his allies?” ( source ) Clinton’s campaign deliberately leaked an embarrassing photo of a swimsuit-clad Bernie Sanders to the press, ironically insinuating that it was proof he was bought off by Wall Street. Perez Hilton wrote, “ Bernie Sanders lounges at elite Martha’s Vineyard pool, summer 2015 after helping raise money from Wall Street lobbyists .” ( source ) Clinton admitted she is out of touch with the middle class in a speech to Goldman-Black Rock in 2014. “And I am not taking a position on any policy, but I do think there is a growing sense of anxiety and even anger in the country over the feeling that the game is rigged. And I never had that feeling when I was growing up. Never. I mean, were there really rich people, of course there were. My father loved to complain about big business and big government, but we had a solid middle class upbringing. We had good public schools. We had accessible health care. We had our little, you know, one-family house that, you know, he saved up his money, didn’t believe in mortgages. So I lived that. And now, obviously, I’m kind of far removed because the life I’ve lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy , but I haven’t forgotten it.” ( source ) She made this rather NWO remark at a 2013 paid speech to Brazilian bank Banco Itau: “ My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders , some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.” ( source ) In a leak of yet another paid speech, this time to the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago in 2013, Clinton said that Jordan and Turkey “ can’t possibly vet all those refugees so they don’t know if, you know, jihadists are coming in along with legitimate refugees.” Meanwhile, if Clinton has her way , we will be warmly welcoming 65,000 refugees a year, which makes Obama’s 10,000 a year look like small potatoes. ( source ) Clinton blackmailed the Chinese by telling them that the US would base missiles in the region if they didn’t exert some control over North Korean aggression. “ So China, come on. You either control them or we’re going to have to defend against them ,” she purportedly told the audience at a Goldman Sachs conference in June 2013. ( source ) In May 2015, Clinton was no longer Secretary of State but was ready to announce she was running for President when she was invited to attend a summit in Morrocco. The implication from the leaked emails was that a $12 million “donation” from the king of Morocco was dependent on Clinton attending the summit. Human Abedin, usually loyal to her boss, had concerns . “ If HRC was not part of it, meeting was a non-starter. She created this mess and she knows it. Her presence was a condition for the Moroccans to proceed so there is no going back on this,” Abedin wrote to Robbie Mook in a November 2014 email. Incidentally, Clinton didn’t attend. Bill and Chelsea went instead and the $12 million donation was not forthcoming. (source ) Podesta attacked Clinton’s primary election rival Bernie Sanders for criticizing the Paris climate change agreement. “ Can you believe that doofus Bernie attacked it? ” said Podesta. ( source ) Clinton told a Goldman Sachs conference she would like to intervene secretly in Syria . “ My view was you intervene as covertly as is possible for Americans to intervene,” she told employees of the bank in South Carolina, which had paid her about $225,000 to give a speech. “We used to be much better at this than we are now. Now, you know, everybody can’t help themselves. They have to go out and tell their friendly reporters and somebody else: Look what we’re doing and I want credit for it. ” (source ) There is indeed a definite link between the Clinton campaign and what MSM is allowed to say. The campaign has colluded directly with media spokespersons that read like a Who’s Who in American Media : Dan Merica from CNN, Haim Saban of Univision, John Harwood of CNBC and the NY Times, Rebecca Quick of CNBC, Maggie Haberman of NY Times and Politico, John Harris of Politico, Donna Brazile formerly of CNN, Roland Martin of TV-One, Marjorie Pritchard of The Boston Globe, and Louise Mensch of Heat Street. ( source ) As everyone knows, the DNC deliberately screwed Bernie Sanders out of the nomination ( Bonus: Wikileaks also released some of the DNC’s voicemails on the topic ). There are emails that prove who is actually pulling HRC’s puppet strings and that puppeteer is George Soros . The shadow government is not just a conspiracy theory – it really exists and Hillary’s job is to keep George Soros happy. ( source ) Excerpts from her speeches to Wall Street read like a guide to two-faced treachery. In them, she clearly points out that sometimes you “need” to lie. “If everybody’s watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position.” ( source ) Wikileaks emails show that back when she still worked for CNN and before she became an employee of the Clinton campaign, Donna Brazile gave Hillary the questions in advance for her “impromptu” CNN Town Hall questions. ( source ) The campaign got to “approve” articles in influential publications like NY Times, HuffPo, CNN, NBC, CBS, NYT, MSNBC, and Politico, showing a massive collusion with the mainstream media, who has hounded Trump relentlessly in an effort to distract from HRC’s abysmal candidacy. ( source ) Through the treasure trove of Wikileaks emails, we can gain an accurate picture of how Hillary really feels about us all (spoiler: basket of deplorables, basement dwellers and right wing conspirators) ( source ) President Obama knew the whole time that her emails were not coming from the secure State Department server. Cheryl Mills wrote to John Podesta, “W e need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do not say state.gov .” You see, Obama’s emails all have to be from”whitelisted”addresses. So someone, somewhere, added her nonsecure email to his whitelist. ( source ) And finally, here’s the real reason that treacherous shrew is involved in politics. And let me tell you, it isn’t because she yearns to make things better for anyone but herself. (emphasis mine.) At the Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Summit, Clinton responded to a question from chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, who quipped that you “go to Washington” to “make a small fortune.” Clinton agreed with the comment and complained about ethics rules that require officials to divest from certain assets before entering government. “ There is such a bias against people who have led successful and/or complicated lives, ” Clinton said. ( source ) Together, we cannot be ignored. I am on a mission between now and the Presidential Election on November 8th and I hope that you will join me. I am going to work day and night to provide the coverage that the mainstream media is not. It isn’t until we combine all of our voices that we can make people listen to the scandals, the rigging, and the corruption, not only in this election but in the system in general. Please join your voice with mine by liking, sharing, and spreading the word. Together, we cannot be ignored. Together, we are an army. The Best of Daisy Luther Tags: Daisy Luther [ ] is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper , offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter .

Novak Djokovic Loses to Sam Querrey in Third Round of Wimbledon - The New York Times

Christopher Clarey

WIMBLEDON, England — Having won the first two sets against the Serbian star Novak Djokovic before the rain came, Sam Querrey had a long night at Wimbledon to consider the prospect of one of the biggest upsets in recent tennis history. He now has a lifetime to savor it, while Djokovic can ponder the Grand Slam that got away. Querrey, a Californian with a thunderclap serve and forehand, handled the mounting pressure and a total of four rain delays with surprising aplomb to close out his stunning (6) (5) victory in the third round on Saturday. Above all, he handled the Djokovic, who has been in the deepest of grooves, having won 30 straight Grand Slam singles matches and four straight Grand Slam tournaments, including, last month, the French Open for the first time. “Definitely the biggest win I’ve ever had,” Querrey said. “But there’s another match after this, so hopefully I can keep it going, make a quarterfinal of a Slam, which I’ve never done before. ” And yet this was not the same Djokovic who has deflected power and cruised through many a draw in the past two seasons. “It’s an amazing feeling, obviously, to be able to hold four Grand Slams at the same time,” Djokovic said. “Coming into Wimbledon, obviously, here I knew that mentally it’s not going to be easy to kind of remotivate myself. But the importance of this tournament is so immense that you always find ways to really get inspired and prepare and try to give your best. Obviously, my best wasn’t good enough this year. ” Last year, Djokovic dodged a similar sort of danger in the fourth round at Wimbledon when he rallied from a deficit over two days to win against another tall, and opponent: Kevin Anderson of South Africa. But the Querrey, relaxed enough between big points to keep flipping his racket in the air and catching it by the grip, was able to slam the escape hatch that Anderson had left ajar. Querrey finished with 31 aces against Djokovic, the world’s premier returner, and dominated in the short rallies, winning 124 points out of 220 in exchanges of fewer than five strokes. “I think Sam has got a really, really tricky game for anybody to play against,” said his coach, Craig Boynton. “He serves huge, and when he’s taking his full cuts at the ball, he’s not going to give you any rhythm. ” Boynton’s other pupil, Steve Johnson, also reached the fourth round, earning a shot at a major upset of his own against Roger Federer. Querrey is scheduled to face the unseeded Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. “It seemed to me Novak was a little bit off, a little edgy,” Boynton said. “A lot of people don’t understand how hard it is for these top guys. What they have to do, day in and day out, is incredible, but look: Novak is going to lose at some point. He’s human. ” Djokovic looked particularly mortal in the early and closing stages of this match, which stretched over two days because of the rain that has continued to rewrite the Wimbledon schedule. Djokovic had not lost before the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament since the 2009 French Open, where Philipp Kohlschreiber beat him in the third round. But on Friday, Djokovic appeared listless and tactically adrift in the second set before play was called off. Though he came back stronger on Saturday, jumping out to a lead in the third set before play was again stopped because of rain, he faltered with a fifth set in plain view. Djokovic served for the fourth set at and was unable to close it out. He then lost a lead in the tiebreaker with a series of uncharacteristic errors as Querrey reeled off six of the next eight points, including the one that mattered most when Djokovic made an unforced forehand error on Querrey’s second match point. Querrey, hardly the most demonstrative of men, celebrated with a leaping scissor kick and a fist pump and then hustled to the net to shake the hand of Djokovic, the champion who had beaten him in eight of their nine previous matches and had blown past him, in the third round of the 2014 United States Open. Djokovic classily flashed him a before the handshake. “What makes him so good is he wins those matches where he isn’t playing his best,” Querrey said of Djokovic. “Definitely, yesterday in the second, he lost some momentum. He wasn’t playing like he usually does. Today, I mean, he made me earn it. He’s not a guy that goes away. He made me come out and win those big points. Probably not the best he’s ever played, but not the worst he’s ever played. ” Wimbledon used to be a garden party away from home for the American men. John McEnroe won three titles here in the 1980s, and Pete Sampras won seven in the 1990s and 2000. Andy Roddick reached three finals in the 2000s. But the current generation of American men, led by John Isner and Querrey, has not had nearly that sort of success at Wimbledon — or at any other major tournament. The Querrey, for all his big weapons, was only in Grand Slam singles matches before his match with Djokovic on Court 1 on Saturday and had to rally from a deficit in the first round here before beating Lukas Rosol, in the fifth set. But he has a winning record now, along with a victory for the time capsule. “It’s not career defining, but it’s really exciting,” he said. “It’s something that I’ll always get to have, which is great. ” Djokovic had played no official tournaments on grass this season before arriving at Wimbledon, but then he had played no official tournaments on grass before he won the titles in 2011, 2014 and 2015. But winning a title like the French Open can be draining in an unexpected way, and there is clearly a cumulative effect on any great champion from all the pressure resisted and upset bids thwarted. In this case, there was also the pressure of a potential Grand Slam — winning all four major titles in the same season — which no man has done since Rod Laver in 1969. Djokovic won the first two legs, at the Australian Open and the French Open, but the suspense did not last past the first week at Wimbledon. “I don’t think it played as big of a factor, to be honest,” Djokovic said. “Coming into this match, I knew that it’s going to be very close, not easy to break his serve. If he’s on a roll, as he was, it’s really hard to read his serve. He hits his spots really well. And whenever he had a chance from the rally, he was going for the shots. ” But Djokovic has snuffed out many a huge server in his career. The problem against Querrey was that he was not effective enough on his own serve. His and speeds are down significantly from a year ago. His winning percentage on his second serve — 54. 3 percent for the tournament — was his lowest at Wimbledon since 2008, and he was able to win only 65 percent of the points on his first serves against Querrey. He finished with 34 winners to 31 unforced errors and a drawn face that perhaps reflected deeper concerns. Asked if he was 100 percent healthy, Djokovic answered: “Not really, but you know, it’s not the place and time to talk about it. Again, the opponent was playing on a very high level, and he deserved to win. ” Acknowledging that you are not 100 percent healthy is not quite giving full credit to the man who just ended your Wimbledon hopes. Querrey, a mellow man in a fraught microcosm, did not complain. He has had his own share of injuries and missed opportunities. At age 19, he reached the third round in his first Australian Open in 2007. Bigger Grand Slam success seemed only a matter of time. But the path has been more arduous than he might have suspected, and there have been major roadblocks in the form of Djokovic, Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. “Those guys are just really good,” Boynton said. “It’s not that our guys aren’t good, but you’re talking to me right now because Novak lost, and it doesn’t happen that often. And there’s a reason it doesn’t happen. To get through that bubble has been very difficult, but Sam got through it today. ”

Beyond The Veil: Channeling My Sister’s Message To Humanity : In5D Esoteric, Metaphysical, and Spiritual Database

By In5D on November 14, 2016 in Spiritual Awakening by Missy Marston, The first time I channeled my sister was also the first day I watched “ The Secret “. I had spent most of that day and the night looking at the stars and asking the universe to help me open my third eye and talk to my sister. And it heard me! It was around two in the morning and I went inside to read an article my mother had left up for me. I kept getting the same phrase over and over in my head – Everything you need is inside of you, you just have to ask for it. I took the hint, grabbed a pen and paper, and wrote it down. When I was done writing, my hand wasn’t. It kept writing. I was exhilarated, terrified, and full of love and peace all at the same time. There was no question at first; there was this knowingness of what was happening and whom I was channeling without asking. It was my sister! Thank you, universe! She passed along some messages of love and thanks to the family, told me to get my shit together, and began the process of educating me and keeping my mind open. “Everything is possible with just your mind!” Tina wrote that she could always hear those who speak to her, and that she’s been constantly trying to speak to us . She was very adamant about self-discovery through meditation in order to first visualize her, and second to transcend ! All we have to do is ask the universe, believe it will be, and keep our minds open through journeying into the self . ‘ That’s how strong your brain is!! You can do it if you can will it. You have the universe at your fingertips! ’ “We have so much to do, Missy!” Christina wants to change the world, because Christina can change the world. Besides opening up our minds and asking the universe for help, we need to eliminate needs and focus on the inner-self . She said the inner-self is all there is. We can change the world by gaining power over our knowledge and intuition; Learning what truly matters in both the world and your self and feeding our sixth sense until it reaches its full potentia l. ‘Intuition is your best friend. Talk to it. Listen to it. It’s how you knew to grab a notepad. It’s how you know it’s me.’ “You get it?” I asked Tina if I would always have this connection to her, and she wrote that we are one. So I’m thinking that we’re somehow the same soul, and she corrected me. She said we are ‘soul bound’ to each other. She says I’ve done this a million times before! We’ve known each other outside of Christina – I was always the mouthpiece and she is the mouth. As Christina said: ‘Just let yourself be filled with love; it is the fuel for your mind.’ What peace it brings to know your loved ones are near and listening! And what joy it brings to know it’s possible to hear them! About the author : My name is Missy Marston, webmaster and editor of MetaMissy.com . I am 23 years of age living in sunny Florida. I have two dogs, two cats, and too many fish – I adore animals. I love reading, especially Kurt Vonnegut, and have a steady interest in philosophers. On October 10th, I lost my best friend and little sister, Christina. Out of that tragic experience came a reminder of my deep-rooted love for all things metaphysical and a sign for my future path. Within weeks, I began channeling Christina! I want everyone to know the enlightening truth that there is much more out there than we realize. There is so much more waiting inside of ourselves than we give credit for, and all of it is easily accessible. Come with me on a journey from deep inside your conscious to the outer rims of the multiverse! Follow me on Facebook ! RELATED ARTICLES FROM IN5D:

The #NeverTrump’s Final Plan: ‘Elect And Impeach’

Robert Gehl

We keep calling it their “last, desperate gasp for air” before sinking to the surface, never to rise again. But rise they do –over and over again. I’m speaking about the “NeverTrump” movement that tried desperately to get anyone besides Donald Trump at the top of the GOP ticket and failed. We last heard from them right before the GOP national convention, when they suggested the electors might commit what amounts to mutiny and vote for someone other than Trump as their nominee. Now that the election is just days away, they seem to have come up with one last ditch – and certifiably insane way to keep Donald J. Trump out of the Oval Office: Elect, then impeach. That’s their big plan. Elect Trump as president of the United States, then turn around and have him impeached, tried and booted from office, leaving us with a much more palatable Mike Pence as President. Our friends at The Federalist first floated this idea Tuesday and while they acknowledge it’s a near impossibility, it shows just how desperate they are to keep Mr. Trump from the White House. There is a way out of this mess. It is a desperate plan, but desperate times, desperate measures: Elect-and-Impeach. Elect the ticket. Impeach Trump. The Republican Party does have an attractive candidate on its ticket. Socially conservative. Economically conservative. Conservative on national defense. Morally and religiously impeccable. The trouble is, that man is the Republican candidate for vice president, Mike Pence. But if Trump were impeached immediately after he took office, the Republican candidate for vice president would become president in his place. Further, if Republicans take the lead in removing Trump from office, the party might regain some of its lost credibility in parts of the electorate that it is anxious to attract. Jonathan Asbach , who is a PhD student at the prestigious Hillsdale College, thinks that while this would be a difficult plan, it’s not impossible. The GOP is at odds with its own nominee. If enough of them are willing to cross party lines to vote for impeachment, it could be done. Then there’s the problem of what to charge Trump with. He must be guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” according to the Constitution. Asbach argues that “if Trump is half as corrupt as we have been told, surely some charge could be made to stick—especially if the recent allegations of sexual assault prove to be more than empty propaganda.” Elect-and-Impeach offers conservatives precisely what they want: A solid conservative president far better than either of the two major-party candidates. He’s far better, for that matter, than either of the two leading third-party candidates who have attracted attention as magnets for protest votes. There are two steps for this to actually happen, he writes. First, the GOP would have to grow a spine. “Republican congressmen and senators must pledge to take on the unsavory job of impeaching their own candidate the moment he becomes president,” Asbach writes. “As this is by far the least-bad option that Republican leaders have, they should be willing to step up to the plate. Second, all the GOP voters who have abandoned the party because of Trump would have to return to the flock, actually vote for the candidate knowing that “it is not really him you are voting for, then… lobby your senator and congressman to do their part and remove Trump from the head of it.” There is a potential for dawn after the dark night of the 2016 electoral season. There is a very real possible future in which Pence is the president of the United States, in which the country is in safe, responsible, conservative hands. It would also be one in which the Supreme Court is saved from the lawless ruffians who want to rewrite the Constitution as they see fit. But for that future to be realized, Republicans have to work together, and they have to do so quickly. Inertia is our greatest obstacle. This has never been done before. That makes it seem like it cannot be done. But America cannot afford our complacency. This is our last chance to prevent impending electoral catastrophe. So this is a plea to conservative leaders and conservative voters: Do your part. Make the pledge. Cast the vote. Help make Elect-and-Impeach a reality. Just when I thought the #NeverTrumpers had quieted down, they come up with this plan. I have to hand it to them – it’s certainly different . It will never, ever, work. But it shows the complete desperation that some folks have about the prospect of Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Pakistan: Long arm of ISI needs unsheathing

Brig Asif H. Raja

By Brig Asif H. Raja on November 1, 2016 Asif Haroon Raja The ISI had developed its long arm capability during the tenures of Gen Akhtar Abdur Rehman, Lt Gen Hamid Gul (VT editor) and Lt Gen Javed Nasir as DG ISI. It was owing to this capability of hitting the chosen target outside the frontiers of Pakistan that the ISI earned the reputation of a dreaded outfit and the best in Asia. The long arm began to shrivel when Benazir Bhutto was PM from 1988 to 1990 and Gen Waheed Kakar was COAS and Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi had replaced Gen Javed Nasir. This change in posture was a result of pressure of the US and the West, pressing Pakistan to refrain from meddling in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and in India, or else it will be declared a terrorist state. Pressure was mounted at the behest of India which had become strategic partner of USA and Israel in 1991/1992 and darling of the West. After the occupation of Afghanistan by 1, 50,000 Soviet forces in December 1979, Pakistan under Gen Ziaul Haq had decided to provide refuge to about 5 million Afghan refugees and to support the Afghan Mujahideen in their resistance. The US came forward with a package of $ 3.5 billion in June 1981 after making a measured assessment that Pakistan had the will and capability to fight the proxy war. The offer was accepted only when it was conveyed that the ISI will coordinate and conduct the entire war without the aid of CIA and that the US and others would restrict their support to provision of funds and weapons/equipment only. As a Frontline State, Pakistan suffered a great deal throughout the Afghan war at the hands of KGB-KHAD-RAW-AlZulfiqar nexus and Afghan armed forces, but achieved the miracle by defeating and pushing out Soviet forces in February 1989. After achieving its objective without employing a single soldier, the US abandoned Pakistan as well as the Mujahideen who had sacrificed 1.5 million people and had helped the US in becoming a sole super power. Once Pakistan fell from the grace of USA and it was put under sanctions on account of its covert nuclear program suspected to be geared towards making an Islamic bomb, it came under the shadow of black star. Pakistan’s nuclear program became an eyesore for India, Israel and USA. It faced the whole brunt of fallout effects of ten-year Afghan war that had been fully supported by the US led free world. USSR that had shrunk to Russian Federation was highly bitter, while India was perpetually hostile. Iran was not so friendly owing to its reservations over the developments in Afghanistan. Explosive situation in Afghanistan due to civil war and power tussle among the seven Mujahideen groups impacted the security of Pakistan. Start of armed insurgency in IOK in late 1989 and India pumping in over 700,000 troops into the Valley had its effects on Pakistan’s security dynamics. In 1990/91, both sides had come close to war. Internally, the society had become militarized due to the Afghan war and sectarianism fomented by Iran and Saudi Arabia had created serious law and order situation in Punjab. PPP and PML-N acrimoniously tussled with each other for power because of which no govt could complete its mandatory 5 years tenure. Fragmentation of USSR and demise of communism on account of its military defeat in Afghanistan and increase of influence of Pakistan and India decreasing its influence in Afghanistan had vexed India. It feared that Pakistan may exploit the situation in IOK and liberate it with the help of over 60 Jihadi groups and take its revenge of the humiliation it had suffered in East Pakistan in 1971. It dreaded that Pakistan may replicate its model of supporting the Mukti Bahini. Sensing the gravity of the situation, India started propagating that Pakistan is behind the insurgency in IOK and that the ISI is funding, training and launching terrorists from Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK). It urged the UN and world powers to rein in Pakistan and restrain ISI from conducting cross LoC terrorism. The US, both Republicans and Democrats, had been constantly wooing India to join its camp since early 1950s, but India preferred the Soviet camp, although it professed to be non-aligned. It was elated when India feeling orphaned after the collapse of USSR fell like a ripe apple into the waiting arms of USA and both became bedfellows in 1991. Once its newfound love sought help from her paramour, the latter stood behind her and sternly cautioned Pakistan to lay its hands off IOK. Change in circumstances compelled Pakistan to restrict its support to the Kashmiris in distress to moral, political and diplomatic levels only. The Kashmir oriented Jihadi groups based in AJK and in Southern Punjab however continued to extend support to the Kashmiris seeking right of self-determination as provided for in the UN resolutions. Indian security forces equipped with draconian laws and license to kill without any fear of accountability or censure by the UN and world powers carried out inhuman torture, employed massive force, and used rape as a weapon to break the will of the freedom fighters. The UN and international community turned a deaf ear to the cries of Kashmiris. Despite the fact that IOK had become the most militarized region of the world (one soldier for 17 civilians), and Kashmiris had suffered over 100,000 fatalities, 10,000 rapes, detention of thousands in secret dens and destruction of their property, the freedom fighters kept the torch of liberty aglow. The heroics of Kashmiris against heavy odds had a telling effect on the morale of Indian Army and paramilitary forces in IOK. Soldiers suffered from demoralization and homesickness; cases of suicides, desertions, killing of seniors and comrades by soldiers, and indiscipline jumped up at an alarming rate. Officers and men dreaded posting to Kashmir, while rate of compassionate cases wanting posting out from Kashmir shot up. A stage came when recruitment in Army dropped to rock bottom levels. The then Indian Army chief had to appear on the TV and run an ad campaign to appeal to the youth to join the Army on better pay scale and perks. Kashmir had become a perforated wound for India and economic cost was becoming unbearable. It was becoming difficult for India to hide its massive human rights violations and barbarities of Indian security forces. Here I may add that the Indian Army had suffered humiliation at Dras-Kargil in 1999 at the hands of handful of Mujahideen and irregulars of Northern Light Infantry. It was eventually bailed out by the US led G-8 by exerting immense pressure on Pakistan to immediately vacate the captured territories. The Indian armed forces went through another embarrassment in 2002 when it had to sheepishly withdraw from its western border after a ten-month standoff during which it had constantly huffed and puffed but couldn’t pick up courage to cross the border. Aggressive response of Pak armed forces had taken the steam out of their chauvinism. Unfortunately, all that was gained on the Kashmir front and on the military front was wasted away after Gen Musharraf wilted under the US pressure in 2003 and decided to take steps to please USA and India. Reining in Kashmir focused Jihadi groups, allowing India to fence the LoC and signing peace treaty with India in January 2004 changed the perspective. It helped Indian military to suppress Kashmir freedom movement. Earlier on, Musharraf had submitted to all the 7 demands of Washington in September 2001. Free hand given to CIA and FBI had enabled the two to establish their network in FATA and gain control over airports and seaport in Pakistan. Intelligence acquisition in FATA was taken over by CIA and ISI pushed on the back seat. Indo-Pak peace treaty in 2004 enabled RAW to ignite FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Baluchistan and Karachi. While RAW assisted by CIA, NDS, MI-6 and Mossad made full use of its long arm to bleed Pakistan with the help of proxies, Pak security forces and ISI remained handicapped. The so-called friends pushed Pakistan to fight terrorism but secretly backed the terrorists. The US kept twisting the arm of Pakistan that if ISI meddled into India or Afghanistan it will be declared a rogue outfit. Perforce, the ISI undertook protective measures only, but its defensive actions were more often breached because the so-called allies stabbed Pakistan in the back. As a consequence, RAW and its strategic partners carried out one-sided covert war while the ISI at best tried to ward off the attacks. In spite of defensive policy of the govt and ISI, and Pakistan suffering much more human casualties than any other country in the war on terror, ISI was blamed to be in collusion with Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Haqqani Network, Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). These were termed as strategic assets of military establishment to overcome conventional inferiority against arch enemy India. The lost intelligence space In FATA/KP was gradually recovered when Lt Gen Shuja Pasha took over as DG ISI and Gen Ashfaq Kayani as COAS in 2008. All the terror attacks that took place in India between 2001 and 2008 were pinned on JeM and LeT and their connection was made with ISI. Since Pakistan made no effort to disprove Indian contention even after it was revealed by Indian investigative agencies and Home Ministry officials that Hindu terror groups and Indian military intelligence officers were involved in the attacks, it became easier for India to further strengthen its narrative of portraying Pakistan as a terror abetting state and a nursery of terrorism. India’s narrative was boosted up by its strategic allies. The US dubbed Pakistan as the most dangerous county in the world. Pakistan’s overall defensive policy and apologetic stance emboldened its detractors to keep whipping and bleeding it without fear of tit for tat response from ISI. Other than the salvos fired by the Indo-Afghan-US-Israel nexus on Pak Army and ISI, Pakistan political leadership of major political parties also view the two premier institutions with distrust. Both PPP and PML-N in line with their 2006 Charter of Democracy made efforts to enfeeble ISI and keep Army under their thumb. First attempt was made by Benazir Bhutto when she replaced Lt Gen Hamid Gul with retired Lt Gen Kallue in 1989 and next tasked Air Marshal Zulfiqar to cut ISI to size under the garb of reforms. PM Yusaf Raza Gilani tried to civilianize ISI in August 2008 by placing it under Ministry of Interior. Kerry Lugar Bill in 2009 and Memo scandal in 2011 were other attempts to curtail military’s power. Nawaz Sharif has a history of locking horns with every Army chief and has still not got out of the hangover of Gen Musharraf. Although he didn’t clash with Gen Raheel but at times civil-military relations became tense. It has now been conclusively established that RAW and NDS in unison and backed by other agencies are deeply involved in proxy war in Pakistan since 2003 and have inflicted tens of thousands of cuts on the body of Pakistan and its people. Series of conspiracies have been hatched and launched to destabilize and fragment Pakistan. RAW-NDS nexus backed by CIA is continuing to use Afghanistan as a launching pad for terror attacks in Pakistan. In order to scuttle CPEC, focus of attacks is on Baluchistan and KP. India is keeping the LoC on fire. So far it has violated 2003 ceasefire agreement 178 times and killed 19 civilians and injured 80. The anti-Pakistan foreign agencies are making full use of TTP, Jamaat Ahrar, Lashkar Jhangvi, BLA, BRA, BLF and MQM as proxies. London is a safe haven for MQM leadership and Baloch rebel leaders, while Afghanistan has provided sanctuaries to TTP runaway leaders in Kunar, Nuristan and Nangarhar. Besides these strategic assets, the detractors are also making use of NGOs, human rights activists and segment of media to make Pakistan a compliant state of India. Since HN, JeM, and LeT are not playing the game of foreign agencies, they are dubbed as terrorist groups and strategic assets of Pak Army/ISI. They want Pakistan to take strict action against them or else face isolation and sanctions. It was in the backdrop of this concern of US and India that the Dawn News published a story on October 6. The planted story was allegedly furnished by someone from within the PM House where a national security conference presided by the PM and attended by Foreign Secretary, Punjab Chief Minister, COAS, DG ISI and National Security Adviser was held. The invented story written by Cyril Almeida gave an impression of serious rift between civil and military leadership and that while the govt wanted to proceed against the defunct militant groups, the ISI didn’t. Probable motive of concocted story was to demean the Army/ISI and to reinforce Indo-US stance that Pak Army and ISI were in league with terror groups. The types of Hussain Haqqani, Ayesha Sadiqa, Farzana Bari and several other liberal journalists assembled in London two days ago to play up this story. MQM (Altaf) hosted them. To ascertain the truth, a high powered committee comprising members from three intelligence agencies will carry out inquest. Having collected tons of evidence, yet Pakistan takes the barbs and whips without a whimper and doesn’t pick up courage to strike back. The long arm of ISI remains sheathed for reasons best known to the policy makers. It implies our leaders have decided to give a free hand to our enemies to continue bleeding Pakistan without any fear of retaliation or even protest. Going by the well-established concept that ‘offence is the best defence’, until and unless the ISI pay back the RAW and NDS in the same coin, one sided bleeding of Pakistanis will continue. Long arm must be unsheathed. The writer is retired Brig, war veteran, defence analyst, columnist, author of 5 books, Vice Chairman Thinkers Forum Pakistan, DG Measac Research Centre, and Member Executive Council PESS. Related Posts:

Fresno State Student Transitions to a Male

Steve Byas

Email “I’m trying to make this campus more aware,” said Jessica Adams, coordinator of LGBT services at the Cross Cultural and Gender Center at Fresno State University in California. “I’m asking most people to unlearn this concept of gender that they have been taught for years. And it’s not an easy task.” No doubt. Most people are “stuck” believing boys are boys and girls are girls. Adams argues that those who hold to such beliefs are the ones with the problem. She recently helped “Mr. Love” — a female who is “transitioning” to a male — become one of the first of these “transgender” students at Fresno State to change her name on her student ID card. This is considered “a huge victory” by Adams because, she claimed, “You feel fraudulent as a person, yet no one is allowing you to be who you are. If you can imagine being called the wrong name for the rest of your life, or even for a day.… If you kept telling them and they refused to acknowledge that, that’s painful.” “Mr. Love” is transitioning by taking natural supplements, rather than testosterone injections. But this is not her first “transition.” In the past, she was, at one time, “bisexual,” and has suffered from anxiety and depression. In fact, Mr. Love (shown) reacted to the tragic news that 49 people were murdered by an Islamic terrorist in Orlando by considering suicide. “It was all just too much,” Mr. Love recalled. “I wanted to die.” One survey has found that more than 40 percent of transgender people have attempted suicide. In a study conducted by The New Atlantis , sex “reassigned individuals were about 5 times more likely to attempt suicide and about 19 times more likely to die by suicide.” Whatever the exact figures, it is obvious that these are deeply mentally disturbed individuals. After writing a suicide note to some friends, Mr. Love was forced into an ambulance and transported to a mental health center in Fresno. But what really upset her was when she looked down and saw the name on the plastic medical bracelet. They had use Mr. Love’s birth name, instead of Mr. Love. It was an Aztec female name, meaning “goddess of music and dance.” Mr. Love explained, “You have to realize every time you say it, it’s going to be like knives to the heart.” To those in the “transgender community,” birth names that identify the person as male, when he wants to be known as a female, or identify the person as female (as in the case of Mr. Love) when a transgender individual wishes to be known as a male, are referred to as “dead names.” Sometimes Mr. Love uses the name of Alex, because it is more gender neutral. When Mr. Love was a high-school student at Clovis United, the school board refused to adopt a gender-neutral dress code. Boys and girls who supported the transgender students swapped clothes as a protest against school policy. Although no federal statute exists that requires local school districts to allow transgender males into girl’s locker rooms, and vice-versa, the Obama administration has told schools across the country they will either do so, or face the loss of federal funds. The Charlotte Observer recently editorialized in favor of allowing transgenders to use the bathroom they identify with, and not their biologically appropriate one. The paper dismissed concerns that sexual predators could use trangender-oriented “bathroom laws. Besides, the paper lectured, “The thought of male genitalia in girls’s locker rooms — and vice versa — might be distressing to some. But the battle for equality has always been in part about overcoming discomfort.” So according to the Charlotte Observer , anyone who opposes a naked boy strolling into a shower full of naked girls is no better than a segregationist. After all, it was discomforting to a white bigot to be around black people, and opposition to transgenders using the bathroom of the opposite sex, well, that is a bigoted stance, too. Of course, a similar opposing argument would have just as much, or more, logical validity: Maybe transgenders should get used to the "discomfort" of being naked around their own biological sex and that to do otherwise, and force their nakedness on the unwilling, opposite sex, is akin to sexual assault. Although Mr. Love wants to be recognized as a man, she wants to keep her mezzo-soprano voice (considered one of the highest female singing voices). “I’ve come to terms with my voice. My voice is everything, it’s all I have,” Mr. Love said. Mr. Love insists that she is a man, trapped in a biological woman’s body, and that she cannot help it. “I didn’t ask for this life. I didn’t choose it. I really didn’t.” But a recent study in The New Atlantis journal concluded that trangenderism is not supported by the science. The report was co-authored by Dr. Paul McHugh, who is the former Chief of Pyschiatry at Johns Hopkins University. “Examining research from the biological, psychological, and social sciences, this report shows that some of the most frequently heard claims about sexuality and gender are not supported by scientific evidence. The hypothesis that gender identiy is an innate, fixed property of human beings that is independent of biological sex — that a person might be ‘a man trapped in a woman’s body’ or ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’ — is not supported by scientific evidence,” insisted the researchers. But it is not just that the acceptance of transgenderism (one will note that the mainstream media dutifully calls a transgender person by the pronoun that person prefers) is unscientific. The report argues that such enabling is harmful. “An area of particular concern involves medical interventions for gender-nonconforming youth. They are increasingly receiving therapies that affirm their felt genders, and even hormone treatments or surgical modifications at young ages.” In a statement released in March by the American College of Pediatricians, a similar conclusion was reached. The report was entitled “Gender Ideology Harms Children,” and in it, they assert that taking “gender dysphoria” as anything other than a psychological problem is harmful. One woman, Cari Stella, took to YouTube to describe how this ideologically driven movement harmed her. “I am a real, live 22-year-old woman, with a scarred chest and a broken voice, and five o’clock shadow because I couldn’t face the idea of growing up to be a woman. That’s my reality.… When I was transitioning, I felt a strong desire — what I could have called a ‘need’ at the time — to transition.” But the transition only worsened her mental health. “Testosterone made me even more disassociated than I already was.” Stella’s situation is an example of an observation made in The New Atlantis study: “The potential that patients undergoing medical and surgical sex reassignment may want to return to a gender identity consistent with their biological sex suggests that reassignment carries considerable psychological and physical risk.” The report concluded that the promotion of transgenderism is influenced more by politics and the culture than by science. On the Carol Burnett Show , Vikki Lawrence once performed a skit where she portrayed a mother with an infant child. When someone asked the common question, “Is the baby a boy or a girl?” Lawrence effected offense, answering, “This is 1970! The baby can make that decision at age 21.” Of course, the audience predictably guffawed at the absurdity of it all. But that was 1970. Now, in 2016, such a skit on television would probably lead to boycotts and condemnations from our modern “progressive” society.

Hackers Demand Ransom Payment from Disney over Stolen Copy of ’Pirates of the Caribbean 5’

Daniel Nussbaum

Hackers have stolen Disney’s upcoming film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and have threatened to release it online unless the studio pays the thieves a hefty ransom, according to reports. [Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed Monday at a town hall meeting with ABC employees in New York City that one of the studio’s upcoming films had been stolen, but did not specify which film, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Deadline reported later Monday that the film in question is the studio’s upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean, the fifth film in the swashbuckling pirates franchise starring Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. The studio is working with the FBI to identify the source of the hack. The hackers have reportedly threatened to release portions of the film online until their ransom demand is met. THR reported that the hackers planned to release the first five minutes of the film and then continue on with increments until payment is made. Sources told Deadline that Disney is not currently planning to pay the ransom, though the studio has not yet commented publicly on the situation. The Disney hack comes as studios and production outfits have dealt with increasing security threats presented by hackers. Even if hacking groups cannot access private files on the server of a major studio like Disney, they can attack outfits or other firms that possess copies of private material and that have weaker security measures than major companies. In April, a group of hackers calling themselves The Dark Overlord infiltrated Netflix and released all ten episodes of the streaming giant’s hit series Orange is the New Black, after the company refused to meet the group’s ransom demand. That group also said it possessed stolen copies of other television shows including Celebrity Apprentice and NCIS: Los Angeles. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is due out in theaters May 26. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

REPENT!!! WORLD WAR 3 (WW3) DAY OF YAHAWASHI IS NEAR (Yahawashi4theelectofisrael)

Pakalert

2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

As Anthem-Protesting Colin Kaepernick’s Free Agency Goes Nowhere, Sports Writer Searches for Answers - Breitbart

Warner Todd Huston

After spending half the season perpetrating an protest against the national anthem, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick announced his free agency. But, with teams snapping up players, Kaepernick has thus far gone ignored by the NFL. Now, sports writer Mike Freeman, searching for a reason for the player’s fall, ultimately decided that Kaepernick is being punished for “the crime of speaking his mind. ”[For BleacherReport. com, Mike Freeman seems gobsmacked that no team has come forward to offer the 49ers quarterback a new birth. With his analysis, Freeman seems to blame the country and the NFL for being racist for not allowing Kaepernick to have unlimited success and untold accolades. Freeman also proclaims that Kaepernick is being punished for “the crime of speaking his mind. ” The San Francisco quarterback became the talk of the league this season with his protests by refusing to stand for the playing of the national anthem at the start of each game. But, just as Kaepernick declared his free agency he also announced the abrupt end of his refusal to stand for the anthem. With the league’s free agents signing to teams at a quickening pace, Kaepernick has thus far gone unsigned. Kaepernick, once considered an up and coming player with a bright future, helped lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012 only a year after he went pro, and then led the team to an NFC Championship the following year. Since then his playing has declined. After several seasons of lackluster play, rumors circled that the 49ers would trade him ahead of the season. Freeman even notes that some football analysts feel Kaepernick has lost a step, saying, “some teams genuinely believe that he can’t play. They think he’s shot. I’d put that number around 20 percent. ” But Freeman goes on to claim that Kaepernick has become toxic mostly because of his protests: Second, some teams fear the backlash from fans after getting him. They think there might be protests or [President Donald] Trump will tweet about the team. I’d say that number is around 10 percent. Then there’s another 10 percent that has a mix of those feelings. Third, the rest genuinely hate him and can’t stand what he did [kneeling for the national anthem]. They want nothing to do with him. They won’t move on. They think showing no interest is a form of punishment. I think some teams also want to use Kaepernick as a cautionary tale to stop other players in the future from doing what he did. One executive even reportedly told Freeman that Kaepernick is “an embarrassment to football. ” Freeman does admit that teams may just be waiting for the most advantageous time to bid for Colin’s services. But, he thinks that what is happening to Kaepernick is “highly unusual. ” It all adds up to little interest in the player, “and that’s putting it kindly” Freeman writes. Freeman does add a long list of reasons people have criticized Kaepernick for his play, reasons that have nothing to do with his protests. The writer says that some criticize Kaepernick’s throwing accuracy, others think he isn’t much of a team player because he is a moody loner, and still others say he seems out of his depth when asked to learn new schemes. Despite all the complaints about Kaepernick’s play and prickly personality, Freeman finds his lack of free agency opportunity shocking. Freeman writes: Still, it’s hard to emphasize how unusual Kaepernick’s current situation is. If a Super Bowl quarterback can walk and chew bubble gum simultaneously, he gets opportunities. Those opportunities usually arrive until that player is totally and completely done. That’s not the case with Kaepernick. So, why is Kaepernick being left behind? It’s all because everyone is punishing him for “the crime of speaking his mind,” Freeman thinks. Kaepernick’s new agents appear to have foreseen all of this, which is why it wasn’t surprising when sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Kaepernick would start standing for the anthem. Now, he sits. Waiting and waiting. A player whose political statement may have cost him his NFL career. With this, Freeman proves that, like many, he misunderstands freedom of speech. It is absolutely correct that Kaepernick has the right to say America has never been great, to slam our soldiers, the police, and other first responders, to tout Black Lives Matter and the like. But, it is the fans’ corresponding right to decide they don’t like him when he expresses those ideas. It is also highly logical for teams assessing Kaepernick’s free agency to decide they don’t want to bring his controversial views into their locker rooms and to assault their fans with his protests. Kaepernick has a right to speak out, but he doesn’t have a right to expect no repercussions from that speech. Consider the most perfect example of cause and effect concerning the topic of free speech, when country band the Dixie Chicks went on tirades overseas against the United States in the early 2000s Then, here at home they pretty much lost their fan base because of their outbursts. Sure, the Dixie Chicks had a right to mouth off against the U. S. A. and no one said they didn’t have that right. But, fans also had the corresponding right to stop patronizing their musical product, and it wasn’t long before their musical career went from chart topping hits to invisible on the music scene. The reaction to Kaepernick, who said even worse things about the U. S. than the Dixie Chicks ever did, is entirely similar. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean

Daniel Greenfield

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean October 25, 2016 Daniel Greenfield Brooding and bearded face shadowed by an odd hat, cutlass scars on his arms and a dark patch where his eye ought to be. The pirate is a familiar stereotype. Countless movies have worn him down to a smooth and unremarkable cliche. But what if that cliche has depths that have yet to be mined by the movie industry? That is the question that Israeli-American director Arnon Z. Shorr (Blood and Stone: A Legend of the Golem, A Modest Suggestion, Glimpse) has chosen to tap into with the Pirate Captain Toledano . Beneath the pirate's hat hides another sort of hat. A Jewish one. For the Pirate Captain Toledano is a Jewish pirate. What sort of Jew becomes a pirate and why? Touching on true history, that is one of the questions that Shorr's film proposes to answer. Recent years have seen growing interest in the history of Jewish pirates. And what initially seems absurd quickly becomes a fascinating exploration of how much of history is lost when legend becomes cliche. As a pioneering filmmaker, Arnon Z. Shorr has chosen to tackle this ambitious project with the aid of two vessels at the Ocean Institute, a dedicated cast and support from the public. Though the process of bringing the Pirate Captain Toledano from vision to reality has only begun, the journey has already been marked by fortuitous coincidences, including the discovery that cast member Stephen DeCordova (Captain Toledano) hailed from ancestors who were Jewish pirates and a treasured Kiddush cup in his possession, which likely dates back from those days, will play a key role in the story. Like the ocean, history has unseen depths and strange currents that can only be glimpsed from the right angle. Arnon Z. Shorr is currently laboring to bring up a lost piece of history from the deeps.

Reanimation/ Monsterland

Our definitions of death may have to change in the very near future. Joining Jimmy Church ( ) in the first half, Ira S. Pastor, CEO of BioQuark and Reanima , discussed how neuro-reanimation after death will one day be a possibility. Followed by paranormal expert Ronny LeBlanc , who reported on strange occurrences in Leominster, Massachusetts, which is known as "Monsterland," home to sightings of UFOS, Bigfoot and orange orbs. Website(s):

Game Of Thrones Author Just Ripped Trump, Endorsed Hillary

Grant Stern

Comments Author George R. R. Martin’s books inspired the hit HBO TV series Game of Thrones , and he’s no stranger to political intrigues. Even the legendary fantasy writer Martin never imagined an American demagogue, who could blithely step on every third rail of American politics and survive in the race until the general election. But the man who wrote television’s most hated character – Joffrey Baratheon – just took to his blog to explain definitively why Donald Trump will never be fit to sit on the Iron Throne be president. In my lifetime, there has never been a presidential candidate more unfit to lead this nation. You don’t need to like Hillary. You don’t need to listen to what Hillary says about Trump, or what I say about Trump. You just need to listen to Trump. If you can do that, and still consider voting for him… well… Martin’s book “Song of Fire and Ice” inspired the hit TV series, which is loosely based on the War of The Roses , as the warring clans of Westeros fight for control of the Iron Throne. For much of the series, the throne has been captured by golden haired Joffrey Baratheon, whose endless list of offensive behaviors begins as a callous child, and continues through his disastrous reign. Like the fictional boy-king, Donald Trump loves to sit on fancy, throne-like chairs and using his family’s wealth and influence to play at being king. The author Martin described the highly unusual nature of this year’s presidential election by zeroing in on the striking difference between negative advertisements for the two candidates. He shrewdly pointed out that Donald Trump’s attack ads are standard political ad hominem affairs – lots of selective editing and bluster, no substance – while Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton doesn’t even create traditional attack ads. Martin’s list of the many Clinton attack ads doubles as a fine reason that nobody in their right mind, should choose the Republican nominee for President this upcoming Tuesday, November 8th: Hillary does not need to use the sort of hoary attack ads that Trump is using. She only needs to present him as he is, and let his own words condemn them. And they do. No one has to accuse Trump of anything, he has laid it all out there in public for the world to see. Yes, he mocked a disabled reporter. There he is, doing it. Yes, he told Billy Bush he liked to kiss women without their consent and grab them by their pussies. There he is, boasting about it. When you’re a star, you can do anything. No need to accuse Trump of going into the dressing rooms of Miss Universe and Miss Teen USA pagaents when the contestants were changing so he could see them naked. There’s Trump himself, telling Howard Stern about it. Yes, he said women should be punished for having abortions. There he is, telling Chris Matthews. His own words, his own face. Yes, he said he wants to ban all Muslims from entering the US. Here, see the clip. Yes, he’s in favor of Japan and Saudi Arabia and South Korea having nukes, here’s the clip where he says so. And on and on and on and on. The Gold Star family, the bad hombres, Judge Curiel, the Miss Universe contestant… his own speeches, his own tweets, his own words. Martin even remarked that for a man whose campaign resembles a nastier version of George Wallace, it is eerily starting to look like his braggadocious claim was correct, when in January, Trump said he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue in New York and get away with it. If there’s any one moment in the Republican’s campaign that could be described as Joffrey-esqe, that was the one, where like the fictional, twisted boy king , Donald Trump reveled openly in a threat to kill senselessly, and kill with impunity. The dastardly character Joffrey’s Uncle described him in a way that anyone watching Donald Trump might describe the oddly coiffed Republican candidate, “We’ve had vicious kings, and we’ve had idiot kings, but I don’t think we’ve ever been cursed with a vicious idiot for a king!” The same harsh words equally apply to Republican nominee Donald Trump’s disastrous fall as the standard bearer of his failed party, the GOP. We agree with George R. R. Martin, all any voter needs to do is listen rationally to the irrational Trump speak, and realize that he’s not Presidential material, and has a personality only fit to be an erratic boy-king, and certainly never to sit in the chair behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Watch a hilarious mashup here:

UN: Migrant Deaths in Mediterranean Hit Record in 2016

Henry Wolff

UN: Migrant Deaths in Mediterranean Hit Record in 2016 BBC News, October 26, 2016 At least 3,800 migrants have died or are missing in the Mediterranean Sea in 2016–the deadliest year on record, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said. It said this was despite a significant drop in migrant crossings compared with 2015, when 3,771 deaths were reported. Smugglers were now more often using flimsy boats and putting more people aboard, the UNHCR said. {snip} The agency said the most dangerous route had been between Libya and Italy, with one death in every 47 arrivals recorded. By comparison, another–much shorter–route from Turkey to Greece had a ratio of 1 in 88. {snip} Nearly 330,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea this year, compared with more than one million in 2015. {snip}

Кто любит Стивена Сигала?

Жанна Ивченко

Политика Помните первые видеосалоны 1990-х, с их атмосферой полузапретного плода и незабываемым насморочным голосом переводчика? Именно благодаря видеосалонам жители бывшего СССР впервые познакомились с творчеством Стивена Сигала. Пусть он немного уступал по популярности Шварценеггеру и Ван Дамму, но зато как дрались на экране его герои – мастер айкидо, отважный детектив, лихой корабельный кок и прочие супермены! Как восхищённо бились сердца мальчишек, мысленно ставивших себя на место актёра! Даже то, что в фильме “Мерцающий” главный герой, среди прочего, боролся с вездесущей русской мафией, не охлаждало воображения юных фанатов. А потом девяностые закончились, и с ними закончился и Сигал. То есть он и дальше снимал фильмы, и сам снимался, но кассовые сборы с каждым новым фильмом всё падали и падали. А расходы на них всё росли и росли: не успел актёр стать в первый раз дедом, как родился седьмой, последний его ребёнок. Пока последний. В такой ситуации – когда популярность ушла, а семья и расходы на неё велики – российские угасшие звезды начинают пресловутый “чёс по провинции”, не брезгуя ни домом культуры железнодорожников, ни детским санаторием “Солнышко”. Что же до звёзд зарубежных, то они начинают усиленно окучивать постсоветское пространство. Сигал, до того, как уже говорилось ранее, героически боровшийся с русской мафией на тогда ещё весьма широком экране, вдруг вспомнил о своих русских корнях. Воспоминание пришлось очень кстати: в России Сигала приняли настолько тепло, что его вояжи в страну быстро стали регулярными. Знакомства с известными политиками, вплоть до президента, толпы поклонников, внимание журналистов из серьёзных изданий – на Западе о таком Сигал и мечтать не мог, даже в лучшие годы. Быстро войдя в образ почётного гостя, Сигал попробовал себя и в роли политической фигуры, дав ценный совет президенту США — дружить с Россией. На днях заслуги Сигала в области единоборств, кино и политики были вознаграждены: указом президента он принят в гражданство РФ. Формальными основаниями, которые озвучил пресс-секретарь президента Д. Песков, стали не только “тёплые чувства” в адрес России, но и тот факт, что Сигал является достаточно известным актёром И напрасно скептики кривят губы: и то, и другое – правда. Вне сомнения, Сигалу искренне симпатична российская публика (а равно и сербская, и белорусская): ведь больше он никому уже не интересен. А что до известности, так ведь и элита, и значительная часть общества — родом из 90-х, а воспоминания детства и ранней юности – это свято и навсегда. Так что с нетерпением ждём присвоения российского гражданства Сталлоне, Ван Дамму, Дитеру Болену, Си Си Кетч и полному актёрскому составу сериала “Просто Мария”. С Депардье-то получилось!

With Preet Bharara’s Dismissal, Storied Office Loses Its Top Fighter - The New York Times

Benjamin Weiser and William K. Rashbaum

For more than seven years, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, made a name for himself as one of the nation’s most aggressive and outspoken prosecutors of public corruption and Wall Street crime. With Mr. Bharara, 48, being told on Friday to step down from his post, it was unclear what effect his expected departure might have on the office’s current investigations. In past presidential transitions, the storied office, long known to be so independent of Washington that some people referred to it as the Sovereign District of New York, has in large measure moved forward unaffected by politics. Under Mr. Bharara, the office prosecuted Democratic and Republican officials with equal ardor, most notably Sheldon Silver, the former Democratic speaker of New York’s Assembly, and Dean G. Skelos, the former Republican majority leader of the State Senate. His office is preparing to try a group of former aides and associates of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in a bribery and case and has been investigating Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign as part of an inquiry into whether he or other officials exchanged official acts for political donations. The investigation into Mr. de Blasio’s perhaps the office’s highest profile continuing inquiry, began roughly a year ago and appears to be in its final stages, with prosecutors and F. B. I. agents interviewing the mayor for four hours two weeks ago. The mayor’s press secretary said at the time that Mr. de Blasio was cooperating in the inquiry and that “at all times the mayor and his staff acted appropriately and well within the law. ” Investigators have scrutinized scores of donors to the mayor’s 2013 campaign and his now defunct political nonprofit, seeking to determine whether anyone received favorable city action in exchange for their largess. And with the mayor gearing up for his campaign — he is now seeking to raise the bulk of his war chest from smaller donors — his lawyers are pressing prosecutors to conclude the investigation or, they say, risk affecting the election’s outcome. It remains unclear whether Mr. Bharara and his top aides have determined whether they will seek charges — against the mayor, any of his top aides or his primary . Under Mr. Bharara’s stewardship, the office was also known for its insider trading investigations, civil rights cases and terrorism prosecutions. Another pending investigation appears to focus on how Fox News structured settlements of claims brought by network employees. Mr. Bharara would presumably be succeeded temporarily by his deputy, Joon H. Kim, a longtime prosecutor and former head of the office’s criminal division. Also on Friday, the United States attorney for New Jersey, Paul J. Fishman, said in a statement that his resignation had been requested and in Brooklyn, Robert L. Capers, said he had been “instructed to resign. ” Mr. Bharara had not issued a statement as of Friday evening, when his office was uncertain whether the resignation request applied to him. The announcement that he had been told to resign along with 45 other United States attorneys around the country comes little more than three months after he met with Donald J. Trump, then at Trump Tower, and announced afterward that Mr. Trump had asked him to stay on as the United States attorney. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr. Bharara said that Mr. Trump had asked to see him to discuss “whether or not I’d be prepared to stay on as the United States attorney to do the work as we have done it, independently, without fear or favor for the last seven years. ” “We had a good meeting,” Mr. Bharara said. “I said I would absolutely consider staying on. I agreed to stay on. ” Mr. Bharara also said at the time that he had already spoken with Jeff Sessions, the Republican of Alabama who Mr. Trump appointed attorney general. “He also asked that I stay on, and so I expect that I will be continuing,” Mr. Bharara said. Among the names of lawyers mentioned as a possible United States attorney in Manhattan in the Trump administration is Marc L. Mukasey, a former Southern District prosecutor and the son of Michael B. Mukasey, the former attorney general in the Bush administration. The younger Mr. Mukasey is now a lawyer at Greenberg Traurig, a law firm in New York where Rudolph W. Giuliani, a close associate of Mr. Trump, also works. Mr. Mukasey declined to comment on Friday. Mr. Bharara is no stranger to politics: before being appointed United States attorney by President Barack Obama in 2009, he served as chief counsel to Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and played a major role in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the politically motivated firings of United States attorneys by the Justice Department under President George W. Bush. If there is a “credible whiff that justice has been politicized,” Mr. Bharara told The New York Times in 2014, “there’s nothing worse than that. ”

Drone Restrictions Can Help Peaceful Protesters Combat Injustice

Activist Post

By Shane Trejo The Dakota Access Pipeline protests have made national news, as millions of Americans are concerned with potential property rights violations and environmental...

Virgil: Making America Great Again—Or Not: The Establishment Targets Trump’s Top Strategist

Virgil

Part Three of a series … In Part One we saw how the gospel of globalism inspires its believers to disdain, even despise, nationalists — that is, the people who voted for Donald Trump. And in Part Two we saw how the Deep State, one of the many weapons in the globalist arsenal, is now targeting Trump and his agenda for America. Here in Part Three, we will focus on how one Trump opponent is seeking to pick off a key member of the new presidential staff. 1. Fake News: “Bannon vs. Trump” Attacks on Stephen K. Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart, slated to become the top strategist in the Trump White House, are nothing new. Just since the election, Mother Jones magazine has called him “worse . . . than a racist,” Joy Behar labeled him “a fascist,” and former Vermont governor Howard Dean insisted, against all evidence, that he is “a Nazi. ” You get the idea. Okay, these assaults haven’t gotten very far they were tried, too, during the 2016 campaign, and Bannon’s standing within Trump world has never wavered. And yet, of course, the assaults keep coming. And so to help keep track of them all, perhaps we should assign them into categories. For example, in an earlier article, not part of this series, Virgil cited the ways in which “argument from authority” — argumentum ad verecundiam — can be used and, more often these days, misused. So now we can add a second, slyer, category of media falsehood. We can call this one the “assertion of a false conflict,” declaratio contra falsum. This one is a version of the familiar attempt to stir the pot, whipping up hard feelings between people: Hey, did you hear what he said about you? And here’s Brooks’ description of the gist of Bannon’s speech: Humane capitalism has been replaced by the savage capitalism that brought us the financial crisis. National democracy has been replaced by a network of global elites. Traditional virtue has been replaced by abortion and gay marriage. Sovereign are being replaced by hapless multilateral organizations like the E. U. Decadent and enervated, the West lies vulnerable in the face of a confident and convicted Islamofascism, which is the cosmic threat of our time. So that’s how Brooks characterizes Bannon’s beliefs. And Brooks is just warming up. He then goes on to compare Trump to Vladimir Putin, and Bannon to a conservative Russian political figure in Putin’s orbit, Alexander Dugin. Yet after making these dark comparisons, Brooks offers his readers a ray of light: The dark he predicts, will fail. Why? Because, Brooks chortles, Trump is such a lazy, egocentric, lightweight that he will lose interest in these Bannonite topics and so will drift over to the side of the globalists. A question leaps immediately to mind: Did Brooks get some scoop as to Trump’s thinking? Some revelatory interview? The answer, Brooks indicates, is “no. ” It’s just his hunch: I’m personally betting the foreign policy apparatus, including the secretaries of state and defense, will grind down the populists around Trump. David Brooks has enjoyed a good career in the MSM. Born in 1961, he’s nominally a conservative, having worked variously at National Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, and, since 2003, as a opinion columnist for The New York Times. And along the way, he has expressed some interesting ideas for example, in 2006, he opined that Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman should form their own third party, based mostly on their shared neoconservatism and globalism. Needless to say, nothing ever came of Brooks’ suggestion. Over his career, Brook has been notable for three things: first, a book published in 2000 that celebrated the luxe lifestyle second, a fervent advocacy of the 2003 Iraq War and third, his journalstic love affair with Barack Obama. In other words, he’s the perfect sort of housebroken “conservative” for Washington, DC, just the sort of fellow who gets that gig on the PBS NewsHour. Okay, so let’s consider Brooks’ track record on Donald Trump. We can sum it up with two points: First, he hates Trump and second, he is not a good forecaster. In March of last year, the headline of his column was “No, Not Trump, Not Ever. ” In that piece he harumphed, “Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. ” Then Brooks really got going: Trump is perhaps the most dishonest person to run for high office in our lifetimes. All politicians stretch the truth, but Trump has a steady obliviousness to accuracy. And since Trump was so terrible in Brooks’ mind, it was hard for him to imagine that anyone else could like him. Thus in June 2016, he predicted that in the November election to come, Hillary Clinton would beat Trump. As he put it, “People will be sick of Donald Trump, and they will go for her. ” To cap it off, in a column published on November 4, four days before the 2016 general election, Brooks doubled down on his endorsement of Clinton, describing her as “the bigger change agent. ” Then he went on to describe Trump as “solipsistic, impatient, combative, unsubtle and ignorant,” all the while insisting that Clinton was “better suited to getting things done. ” Amusingly, among the things Clinton would get done, Brooks told his readers, was developing a plan to “secure the border. ” Perfectly expressing the Times’ view of the world, Brooks added, “Any sensible person can distinguish between an effective operating officer [Clinton] and a whirling disaster who is only about himself [Trump]. ” Okay, so Brooks, along with 99. 9 percent of the rest of the Times, liked Clinton and didn’t like Trump. We get that. Yet further details of that column are revealing — revealing, that is, about Brooks. Here’s how the piece starts: A few weeks ago I met a guy in Idaho who was absolutely certain that Donald Trump would win this election. He was wearing tattered, soiled overalls, missing a bunch of teeth and was unnaturally skinny. He was probably about 50, but his haggard face looked 70. He was getting by aimlessly as a handyman. We might linger over some of those snobby word choices: “tattered, soiled overalls . . . missing a bunch of teeth. ” Virgil might pause to ask: Since the 1972 movie Deliverance, has has there ever been a more profoundly perfect stereotype of how a posh Easterner looks down his nose at the rubes in the rest of the country? In the piece, Brooks, himself blissfully confident that Hillary was going to prevail, then goes on recount how he tried patiently to explain to the man that he was wrong in his thinking. And yet, Brooks writes with a sigh, “It was like telling him a sea gull could play billiards. ” One might think that the actual election results, four days later, would have humbled Brooks a bit, but they haven’t — not at all. Since the election, he’s been as strongly as ever. And, amazingly, he’s still in the game of making predictions for Times readers, “The guy will probably resign or be impeached within a year. ” As for Steve Bannon, he has views that can only be described as Trumpian, and he has held them for a long time. So of course the globalists hate him, too. Since Bannon only rarely gives interviews, some might be curious to know more about his thinking — that is, looking beyond the nasty canards hurled at him by the likes of Mother Jones, Behar, and Dean. In fact, Bannon has been articulating his vision for a long time since 2004, he has produced no fewer than 16 documentaries. Yet a more direct and personal window into Bannon’s thinking can be found in his 2014 speech to the Vatican that’s the one that Brooks ripped in his January 10 column. So, without Brooks’ “help,” let’s take a closer look: Bannon begins by saying that he believes, strongly, that there’s “a crisis” in our time — that is, “a crisis of our faith, a crisis of the West, a crisis of capitalism. ” And so he begins with the spiritual question yes, many today are well off, but the question they should be asking themselves is deeper than money: What is the purpose of whatever I’m doing with this wealth? What is the purpose of what I’m doing with the ability that God has given us, that divine providence has given us to actually be a creator of jobs and a creator of wealth? He continues in this vein: It really behooves all of us to really take a hard look and make sure that we are reinvesting that back into positive things. Yes, we should invest in positive things, things of faith and belief, which money can’t buy. Thus the “crisis of faith. ” So now we come to Bannon’s “crisis of the West. ” Here, we need only look to Angela Merkel’s Germany it’s the richest country in Europe, and yet it is now in deadly danger of demographic dissolution — and threatens to take the whole continent down with it. Indeed, Bannon’s words from 2014, before Merkel foolishly chose to open her borders while subsidizing permanent dependence, now look prescient. He warned then that the threat from jihadi Islam is “going to come to Europe . . . it’s going to come to the United Kingdom. ” Moreover, in his talk he took note of a tweet that very day from ISIS, promising to turn the United States into a “river of blood. ” Yes, a crisis of the West, indeed. Hawkins summarized Bannon’s Vatican speech, in which Bannon argued that in recent decades, capitalism seems to have come mostly in two forms, both at least somewhat pernicious: First, there’s the “crony capitalism” that we saw in the scandalous 2008 bailouts and second, there’s the “Ayn Rand influenced . . . libertarian capitalism, which he sees as commoditizing people into mere producers and products. ” This latter kind, Hawkins continued, weakens “our collective moral strength. ” The answer, Hawkins concluded, is “enlightened capitalism” — that is, the capitalism in which capitalists think about the fate of their country, not just their bank account. As Hawkins put it: It was this enlightened capitalism that gave the — through wide asset ownership — strong middle class and an aspirant and affluent working class which provided the moral and economic foundations for the West to defeat Nazism in 1945 and support Ronald Reagan in to and defeating the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And now this has been corrupted and in turn weakened the West itself and Bannon believes the West now faces losing everything it has gained across more than 2000 years. [emphasis added] Hawkins ended his essay with these hopeful words: With Bannon, Trump and “Trumpism” the US and the West has an opportunity for economic, moral and political renewal — a new enlightenment. Okay, so Hawkins ably describes the problem, and outlines the ultimate desired outcome. And yet we might ask: How, exactly, does America get there? How do we get from the crisis of 2017 to a better place — as soon as possible? For the answer, we might return to Bannon’s 2014 talk, in which he called for aggressively building “a populist movement,” the heart of which should be: . . . the middle class, the working men and women in the world who are just tired of being dictated to by what we call the party of Davos. Interestingly, that seems to have happened in the last three years! We can also pause to note that “Davos,” of course, is shorthand for the World Economic Forum, a conclave of billionaire globalists and their courtiers, meeting every year in Davos, Switzerland. And so Bannon’s reference to “the party of Davos” speaks to the reality that global high finance seems to have conquered most of the politics, and most of the parties, of most of the world — and as a result, the America middle class, now sinking in the globalist broth, has been made worse off. It might be worth noting that the next Davos meeting is just a few days away, on January 17 to 20. And since this is the first session since the November election, there’s going to be some — and a lot more attempted . And yet Davos Men, and Davos Women will not be giving up so easily. For instance, one of the scheduled “chats” at Davos will be between Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and Meg Whitman of HP together they will offer their audience their thoughts on shaping “a positive narrative for the global community. ” That is, a “global community” that’s safely profitable for Facebook and HP, wherever in the world they might choose to operate. Will these efforts at spinning globalism succeed? Will the globalists be permitted to keep inflating their financial bubbles — and keep getting bailed out when they pop? The Davosians surely hope so, but it’s possible, after Trump (and before Trump, Brexit) that the jig is up. But wait! There’s still hope for the globalists. The new American president might not think much of Davos, but the president of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, thinks differently. Indeed, he is scheduled to speak at Davos in a few days it will the appearance by a Chinese head of state. We can assume, of course, that Xi, picking up the torch from, say, Barack Obama, will offer a defense of globalism after all, globalism has been very, very good for his country. 4. Trump’s Moment, In the meantime, the eyes of the world are on the 45th president. As noted in Part One, Trump’s energetic economic activism is already making itself felt: And the good news has continues to pour forth: Just on January 12, Amazon announced that it would commit to creating 100, 000 new jobs in the US. Moreover, on January 13, Lockheed, which had earlier been chastised by Trump for announced that it would pledge not only lower costs for its fighter, but also an additional 1800 jobs in Texas. As Virgil also noted earlier, it’s astonishing that past presidents didn’t engage in this sort of economic patriotism perhaps they didn’t know how, or perhaps they didn’t care. In any case, Trump does know how, and he does care. And the American people are noticing. According to a January 10 Quinnipiac Poll, 47 percent of Americans believe that Trump’s economic policies will help the economy, while only 31 percent say they will hurt. In other words, Trump has already built for himself a advantage on that question. And his presidency has not yet even begun. To be sure, in the next few years, Trump, and his team, will be tested again and again. And while it’s impossible to predict the future, it would be foolish to bet against them.

Trump: ’We Must Realize the Full Potential of Women in Our Economy’ - Breitbart

Trent Baker

During Friday’s Weekly Address, President Donald Trump discussed the importance of women to the economy, saying he will deliver on his promise to help women in the workforce and ensuring they have “equal access to the capital, markets and networks of support that they need. ” Transcript as follows: My fellow Americans, we have taken major steps during the first few weeks of my administration to remove wasteful regulations and get our people back to work. I’ve been saying I was going to do that for a long time. This week, I signed two pieces of legislation to remove burdens on our economy, continued to keep my promises to the American people, and so much more. I signed House Joint Resolution 38, which eliminates an regulation put forward by unelected bureaucrats. Our coal miners have been treated horribly, and we are going to turn that around, and we’re gonna turn it around quickly. We are going to fight for lower energy prices for all Americans as part of the deal. That’s why I also signed a resolution to eliminate a costly regulation imposed on American energy companies. By stopping this regulation, we were able to save American companies and workers millions and millions of dollars in compliance costs. But to truly succeed as a country, we must realize the full potential of women in our economy. That is why I was thrilled to host the White House’s Women Business Leaders Roundtable. Very exciting. Great women. As president, I am committed to ensuring that women entrepreneurs have equal access to the capital, markets and networks of support that they need — and I mean really need. And it’s going to happen. This is a priority for my administration. I campaigned on helping women in the workforce and we are going to deliver on that promise, believe me. In fact, as part of my first official meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, this week we announced the creation of the Joint United Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders. Actually, very exciting. The United States also reaffirmed our unbreakable bond this week with our cherished ally Israel. It was an honor to welcome my friend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. I affirmed to the prime minister America’s commitment to working with Israel and our allies and partners toward greater security and stability. The threat of terrorism — and believe me it is a threat — must be confronted and defeated and we will defeat it. We share with Israel our deep conviction that we must protect all innocent human life. So as you head into Presidents’ Day weekend, the American people should know that we are working tirelessly on your behalf. We are not here for the benefit of bureaucrats, consultants or pundits. We are here to work for you and only for you, the American people. Thank you, God bless you and God bless America. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent

Here’s Why Everyone on Facebook Is Checking into Standing Rock, North Dakota

Eddy Lavine

posted by Eddie When it comes to brute force, law enforcement and private security currently have the upper hand on the ground in Standing Rock, North Dakota. They’re employing armored vehicles, riot gear, tasers, rubber bullets, pepper spray, sound cannons, and other shows of force against peaceful opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. But unlike most of the corporate media, the Internet is taking note of the struggle at Standing Rock and is trying to do its part to contribute to the protests. Over the weekend, unconfirmed reports emerged that police were using Facebook check-ins at Standing Rock to track individuals who arrived at the location to join water protectors. As word spread of the apparent news, the Internet stepped up to neutralize the power of the police-surveillance state. Shortly after, Facebook users from around the country and world began checking into Standing Rock, which registers as Cannon Ball, North Dakota, in an effort to confuse police. According to a statement many posters are copying and pasting: “ The Morton County Sheriff’s Department has been using Facebook check-ins to find out who is at Standing Rock in order to target them in attempts to disrupt the prayer camps. SO Water Protectors are calling on EVERYONE to check-in at Standing Rock, ND to overwhelm and confuse them. This is concrete action that can protect people putting their bodies and well-beings on the line that we can do without leaving our homes. “ Others merely checked in while still others added their own commentary. “ If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor ,” wrote Patrick Quinn below his check-in. Shortly after, Facebook users from around the country and world began checking into Standing Rock, which registers as Cannon Ball, North Dakota, in an effort to confuse police. According to a statement many posters are copying and pasting: “ The Morton County Sheriff’s Department has been using Facebook check-ins to find out who is at Standing Rock in order to target them in attempts to disrupt the prayer camps. SO Water Protectors are calling on EVERYONE to check-in at Standing Rock, ND to overwhelm and confuse them. This is concrete action that can protect people putting their bodies and well-beings on the line that we can do without leaving our homes. “ Others merely checked in while still others added their own commentary. “ If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor ,” wrote Patrick Quinn below his check-in. “ Messing with fascists ,” Luba Petrusha commented. While the troll effort is exciting, it’s unclear whether the efforts are having an effect. According to Snopes, a self-described fact-checking blog whose conclusions are generally reliable , police claim they are not using Facebook to track protesters. Snopes reported “ [a Morton County] officer explained not only that they were not using Facebook check-ins as a gauge of anything, but that the metric presented no intelligence value to them. The rumor suggested that protesters cited Facebook check-ins as a manner in which police could target them, but check-ins were voluntary — and if police were using geolocation tools based on mobile devices, remote check-ins would not confuse or overwhelm them.” Snopes also claimed it spoke to protesters within a large camp at Standing Rock who said they did not issue a call to Internet users to check in. Nevertheless, they reportedly said they appreciated the show of solidarity. Regardless of whether or not the online check-ins have any effect, the Internet has played a decisive role in the developing events in North Dakota. Livestreams have documented serious violations of free speech and the right to protest, and Facebook was accused of blocking such footage on at least one occasion. Amid the ongoing lack of mainstream coverage , the independent media has successfully drawn attention to the Standing Rock protests. Considering the establishment has come out in full force in North Dakota, from their use of surveillance to their haphazard employment of heavily armed police, the increasing number of check-ins at Standing Rock shows just how much technology empowers people. Even if police aren’t scouring social media and the check-ins fail to produce any tangible result, the rapid mobilization of efforts highlights a growing sense of opposition to unjust and exploitative power — and thanks to the Internet, the world is watching. source:

Men Have Book Clubs, Too - The New York Times

Jennifer Miller

None of the men in the Man Book Club had a problem with the scene in “The Power of the Dog,” a 1967 novel by Thomas Savage. But more than one member of this reading group in Marin County, Calif. got squeamish when the host announced that the taco appetizers he had prepared that night were filled with Rocky Mountain oysters — that is, animal testicles. “The fun part was looking at the expressions,” said the club’s founder, Andrew McCullough, 53. “Some guys had real difficulty swallowing. I kept eating. I have standards I need to adhere to, as secretary and founder. ” The Man Book Club is going into its ninth year. It has 16 members, a number of whom are lawyers and engineers in their . Each month, the host must prepare a meal appropriate to the book under discussion. There was an French supper to accompany Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer” and a meal of refined comfort food presented on TV trays for Bill Bryson’s memoir, “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. ” “I was always a little jealous of my wife’s book clubs,” Mr. McCullough said. “Now our wives are jealous of us. We’ve created something that is more durable. The book club my wife belongs to — there’s a lot of changeover. ” Women, it seems, can afford to drop in and out of reading groups. In its 2011 survey of voluntary organizations, the Pew Research Center found that 11 percent of Americans were active in “literary, discussion or study groups such as book clubs” and that women were more than twice as likely to take part in such gatherings as men were. Perhaps because participation in reading groups is perceived as a female activity, some book clubs have an outsize need to proclaim the endeavor’s masculinity. In addition to going by the name the Man Book Club, for instance, Mr. McCullough’s group expresses its notion of manliness through the works it chooses to read. “We do not read chick lit,” he said. “The main character cannot be a woman. ” This is detailed in the Man Book Club’s criteria, on the group’s website: “No books by women about women (our cardinal rule)”. The members of the club rate books on a scale of 1 to 10. The leader, with a score of 8. 8, is “Nobody’s Fool” by Richard Russo the book, at 3. 3, is “Oscar and Lucinda” by Peter Carey. Another reading group, this one with a name even more insistently macho than that of the Man Book Club, is the International Ultra Manly Book Club, of Kansas City, Kan. It was started by a group of college friends, and its website hammers home its identity through prominent images of Chuck Norris, Dwayne Johnson (better known as the Rock) and Oprah Winfrey, standing before an Oprah’s Book Club logo beneath the legend “Not Your Mother’s Book Club. ” Unlike the Marin County group, the International Ultra Manly Book Club is not big on the element. When one of its members does bring food to one of the monthly it tends to be “manly — like, spicy,” said John Creagar, 32, one of the regulars. In explaining the club’s purpose, the International Ultra Manly Book Club website makes explicit the notion that men take literature as seriously as women. The “About Us” section says it was founded, in part, on the vision that “one day we could step out of the shadow of our mothers’ book clubs and proclaim that yes, we too, are intellectuals. ” If that mission statement seems a tad defensive, there are indeed women who treat book clubs as entities that lie beyond the masculine sphere. Two years ago, Edward Nawotka, 44, a writer and editor in Houston, was out for drinks with the guys from his reading group, the Houston Men’s Book Club, when a woman started hitting on its president. “She asked how we knew each other, and when we said, ‘book club,’ she was like, ‘Wait, are you gay? ’” Mr. Nawotka said. (He added that he and the woman ended up dating.) He said he understood her reaction. “Fiction is designed to examine empathy,” Mr. Nawotka said. “Men aren’t encouraged to talk about their feelings or emotions in public. When your friend gets divorced, you don’t sit around with the guys wondering, ‘How do you think Jon feels about getting divorced? ’” But over discussions of José Saramago, Haruki Murakami and Anthony Doerr, the 15 members of his group have formed a bond. “We’ve seen each other through family tragedies,” Mr. Nawotka said. “When I needed a divorce attorney, I turned to these guys. ” And when the founding member’s wife died from cancer, all the club members attended the funeral. Jon Tomlinson is the founder of the NYC Gay Guys’ Book Club, which meets at the Jefferson Market Library in New York City and has 1, 200 members in its Meetup. com group. Anywhere from 10 to 60 men show up at the monthly meetings. “People come to connect, to find their place in a new city, to fall in love,” Mr. Tomlinson said. Especially popular NYC Gay Guys’ Book Club novels have included “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin, “A Single Man” by Christopher Isherwood and “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt, Mr. Tomlinson said. The selection process, he added, is largely democratic, but at times he feels obligated to vet suggestions. “Some guy wanted to read a book on lesbians who were persecuted in Russia,” he said. “I’m not going to get people to read that book. ” For the International Ultra Manly Book Club, in Kansas City, the monthly meetings provide a space to explore literary depictions of what it means to be a man. The regulars have considered the issue while discussing everything from “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” by Seth to “Rabbit, Run” by John Updike. “Manliness means something different for all of us,” Mr. Creagar said. But all the members share a love of books. “There’s this idea that if guys read, we don’t think that deeply about it,” Mr. Creagar said. The club rates the books it reads on a system for overall quality, and on a system for “manliness. ” “Gilead,” by Marilynne Robinson, for instance, earned four and a half stars and three hand grenades. Mr. Creagar suspects there are many male readers who would love to join a book club. “But they don’t get asked,” he said, “or they worry that, if they do join, they’ll be seen as intruding on a female activity or stigmatized as being the only guy. ” For this reason, the International Ultra Manly Book Club sees itself as a resource for men seeking a literary community. In addition to listing its reading schedule, its site includes “best of” lists, including the “Top 100 Books for Every Man. ” Though it includes rough stuff like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter Thompson and “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy, the list has room for gentler works, like “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis and the Harry Potter series. And yet the group has standards. “We are not allowed to suggest books that our mothers have suggested,” Mr. Creagar said. “We had an accident one time. We read ‘Water for Elephants.’ It was a huge mistake. ”

‘All Talk,’ ‘No Action,’ Says Trump in Twitter Attack on Civil Rights Icon - The New York Times

Mark Landler

WASHINGTON — On Friday, Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, declared that he did not view Donald J. Trump as a “legitimate president. ” Mr. Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement, said he planned to boycott the inauguration, the first he will skip in three decades. On Saturday, Mr. Trump hit back. “Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results,” Mr. Trump said in a pair of early morning Twitter posts. “All talk, talk, talk — no action or results,” he added. “Sad!” While some questioned Mr. Lewis’s assertion, many others expressed indignation about Mr. Trump’s outburst, pointing out the unseemliness of attacking a civil rights leader on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Mr. Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders, beaten by police officers while marching from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama. Others ridiculed Mr. Trump’s characterization of Mr. Lewis’s district, which is majority and encompasses of Atlanta, as “horrible,” “falling apart” and “crime infested. ” In fact, Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District includes parts of wealthy areas like Buckhead the world’s busiest airport, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Some pointed out that fighting with Mr. Lewis distracted attention from a Senate investigation, announced the day before, that will look at possible contacts between Mr. Trump’s campaign team and Russia. In addition, Mr. Trump’s poll numbers have slipped into uncharted depths for an incoming president, with a Gallup poll released on Friday finding that about half of Americans disapprove of Mr. Trump’s transition effort. Mr. Trump’s feud with Mr. Lewis carried echoes of his attacks on Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of an American soldier killed in Iraq, after Mr. Khan spoke out against Mr. Trump at the Democratic National Convention. Those attacks were widely viewed to have backfired, and Mr. Trump later modulated his words about the Khans. Mr. Trump himself has experience questioning a president’s legitimacy. He was instrumental in sowing doubts about President Obama’s birthplace. Mr. Lewis, who is 76 and was first elected to Congress in 1987, is one of the few genuinely historic figures on Capitol Hill, revered by Democrats and Republicans alike. Allies of Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama and Mr. Trump’s nominee for attorney general, circulated pictures of him linking arms with Mr. Lewis at the 50th anniversary of the Selma march to fend off accusations that Mr. Sessions was a racist. Nevertheless, Mr. Lewis testified against Mr. Sessions, declaring, “We need someone as attorney general who’s going to look out for all of us, and not just some of us. ” A few critics, including David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama, said they disagreed with Mr. Lewis’s statement that Mr. Trump was not legitimate, which he made in an interview with Chuck Todd of NBC News and which will be broadcast on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Still, Mr. Axelrod said of Mr. Lewis: “I honor the man he is. Honesty integrity courage — these are qualities you can’t buy. ” In his interview with Mr. Todd, Mr. Lewis said he believed that the Russians had delivered the election to Mr. Trump. “You know, I believe in forgiveness,” he said. “I believe in trying to work with people. It will be hard. It’s going to be very difficult. I don’t see this as a legitimate president. ” Mr. Lewis is one of a handful of Democratic members of Congress who have announced that they will boycott the inauguration on Friday. Others include Barbara Lee of California, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois.

Trump will win November 8 election: American professor

Politics US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gestures while speaking to a crowd of donors at the McGlohon Theater in Charlotte, North Carolina, on October 26, 2016. (Photo by AFP) US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will win the November 8 election, says an American professor who has correctly predicted almost every presidential election in the United States. Professor Helmut Norpoth, of New York’s SUNY Stony Brook University, said his model shows Trump performed comparatively better in the primaries so he will triumph next month, The Independent reported on Thursday. Norpoth developed a model which, when applied retroactively, successfully predicted every presidential election in the United States since 1912 all but one, which was the 2000 election, when it said Democratic nominee Al Gore would beat Republican candidate George W. Bush. But instead Bush won the election. Al Gore won the popular vote, but Bush was awarded more votes in the Electoral College following a disputed result in Florida. So Bush was declared winner. The political scientist’s model suggests that the person who emerges as the strongest candidate in the primaries will go on to win the presidency. “I think he was the strongest candidate in the primaries and that he will prevail,” Professor Norpoth told the New York Post . “The model predicted a Trump win in February and nothing has changed since then. Whatever happens in the real world doesn’t affect the model,” he stated. US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Professor of Political Science at Stony Brook Helmut Norpoth, New York Recent polls show that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Clinton’s national lead over Trump is shrinking as Election Day is approaching. The former secretary of state has the support of 49 percent of likely voters, while the billionaire businessman has 44 percent support, according to the CNN/ORC survey released on Monday. In addition, preliminary figures suggest the US presidential race remains tight in so-called swing states, despite boasting by Clinton’s campaign that she is far ahead. Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, has an edge in several of the roughly 10 swing states that will decide the 2016 White House race. Trump has also potential advantages of his own in some battleground states. On Wednesday, Trump said that he would win the key battleground states of Ohio, Florida and North Carolina, that could help him claim the election. "I think I'm gonna win," Trump told ABC News. The billionaire said that he intends to pour in millions of dollars in the final days of the campaign. Loading ...

Will Trump Resist War Hawks on Iran?

Consortiumnews.com

Will Trump Resist War Hawks on Iran? November 15, 2016 Though President-elect Trump seems ready to reduce tensions with Russia, his consideration of neocon John Bolton as Secretary of State could presage more Mideast warmongering toward Iran, writes Gareth Porter at Middle East Eye. By Gareth Porter Post-election comments on Middle East policy last week by President-elect Donald Trump and one his campaign advisers have provoked speculation about whether Trump will upend two main foreign policy lines of the Obama administration in the Middle East. But the more decisive question about the future of U.S. policy toward the region is whom Trump will pick for his national security team – and especially whether he will nominate John Bolton to become Secretary of State. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton. Bolton, one of the most notorious members of Dick Cheney’s team plotting wars in the George W. Bush administration, would certainly push for the effective nullification of the main political barrier to U.S. confrontation with Iran: the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal. Trump created a minor stir by giving an interview to the Wall Street Journal last Thursday in which he reiterated his criticism of the Obama administration’s involvement in the war against Syria’s Assad and supported cooperation with Russia against the Islamic State group. And a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser once connected with an extremist sectarian Christian militia in Lebanon named Walid Phares suggested in an interview with BBC radio that Trump would demand that Iran “change [a] few issues” in the agreement and that “the agreement as it is right now … is not going to be accepted by a Trump administration”. The significance of that interview, however, is very unclear. Trump himself had avoided threatening such a move during the campaign, denouncing the nuclear agreement as “disastrous” but avoiding any pledge to renounce it as his Republican rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio had done. In his speech to AIPAC, Trump thundered against the agreement but promised only to enforce it strictly and hold Iran “accountable.” Trump has consistently embraced the long-standing official U.S. animosity toward Iran, but thus far he has given no indication that he intends to provoke an unnecessary crisis with Iran. In any case, Trump’s own views will only be the starting point for policymaking on Syria and Iran. His national security team will have the power to initiate policy proposals as well as effective veto power over Trump’s foreign policy preferences. That is why Trump’s choices of nominations for the top positions on national security will certainly be the crucial factor in determining what policy lines ultimately emerge on those issues – and why the real possibility of Bolton’s nomination as Secretary of State now represents the greatest threat to international peace and security. Undermining Obama Barack Obama became president with a firm intention to get U.S. combat forces out of Iraq within 16 months as he had promised during the campaign. But in his very first meeting with CENTCOM Commander Gen. David Petraeus, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen in late January 2009, Petraeus and his two allies pressed Obama to back down on his pledge, arguing that it wasn’t realistic. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on May 1, 2011, watching developments in the Special Forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Neither played a particularly prominent role in the operation. (White House photo by Pete Souza) In the end, Obama accepted a scheme devised by the military and Pentagon officials under which combat brigades remained in Iraq long after the August 2010 Obama deadline for their withdrawal with no reduction in combat capability. They were simply given additional tasks of advising and assisting Iraqi military units and renamed “advisory and assistance brigades.” Later in 2009, Obama’s national security team, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pushed for a major U.S. military escalation in Afghanistan in 2009-2010. Obama didn’t buy the arguments by Petraeus, Gates and Mullen for a huge increase in U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He and Vice-President Joe Biden argued that the implosion of Pakistan was a much bigger problem than Afghanistan and that there was no evidence of a threat that Al Qaeda would return to Afghanistan. But the war coalition leaked a story to the press that the White House was ignoring a new intelligence assessment that the Afghan Taliban would invite Al Qaeda back into the country if they won the war. In fact, the intelligence community had produced no such assessment, but the proponents of a big counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan were demonstrating their power to use the media to raise the political cost to Obama of resisting their demand. Obama gave in on the additional troops, again imposing a deadline for their withdrawal, and the U.S. is still engaged in a losing war in Afghanistan seven years later. Those largely unknown episodes underline just how vulnerable Donald Trump will be as president to pressures from his national security team to support policies with which he may disagree – unless he chooses people who agree with his policy preferences. But Trump has a peculiar problem in that regard. Because he has already alienated virtually the entire Republican Party national security elite by attacking sacred cows such as NATO, and he has been boycotted by the corps of senior officials from the George W. Bush administration – except for Bolton. War with Iran Although he is best known as U.S. Ambassador the United Nations in the George. W. Bush administration, it was in his previous role as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security from 2001 through 2004 that he played his most important role in U.S. foreign policy. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani celebrates the completion of an interim deal on Iran’s nuclear program on Nov. 24, 2013, by kissing the head of the daughter of an assassinated Iranian nuclear engineer. (Iranian government photo) Although the story was never covered in the corporate news media, I have recounted in my history of the Iran nuclear issue how Bolton, with the full approval of Vice President Dick Cheney and in coordination with Israel, began in 2003 to implement a strategy aimed ultimately at maneuvering the U.S. into a military confrontation with Iran. The strategy relied on the accusation that the Islamic Republic was carrying out a covert nuclear weapons program. Bolton and Cheney failed to get their war with Iran, and Bolton was moved to the United Nations in the second Bush term. But Bolton has never stopped talking about the need for the United States to bomb Iran. In a New York Post op-ed on Nov. 14, he called on Trump to “abrogate” the nuclear agreement on his first day in office. He wants to be Secretary of State in order to pursue just such a policy, and he is under serious consideration, according to news reports last week. If he were nominated as Secretary of State it would be an open invitation for more plotting of schemes within the Trump administration for the war against Iran that Bolton still craves. Bolton would not necessarily prevail in pushing for a direct military confrontation with Iran over the nuclear issue, because the U.S. military would probably exercise its veto over any policy that risks war with Iran. But he could nevertheless provoke a crisis with Iran by subverting the agreement itself. He would begin by trying to get Trump to stop using his presidential waiver power to carry out its provisions on lifting sanctions against Iran. Under normal circumstances, Bolton would never have a chance to reprise his role as war provocateur, but the political circumstances today are anything but normal. There is a very real danger that the Trump transition team will turn to him because it sees no alternative among the usual suspects. The only alternative is to turn to a seasoned diplomat who has not served in senior national security positions in a Republican administration. And if the choices for other top positions are not determined to avoid the kind of confrontation that Bolton would try to provoke, he could conceivably succeed. So the disintegration of the political order controlled by the old Democratic and Republican party elites could spawn new threats of war unless Trump and his advisers are clever enough to see the need to avoid them in their choices of national security officials in the coming days. Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. He is the author of the newly published Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare . [This story originally appeared in Middle East Eya.]

Cathy Milne

Amusing comment Gary! “Those week!” So, are you saying with that sentence that press only has followers for one week ? Or are you saying that the press rules the weak ?

America at the Crossroads: Abrogation of Democracy

Norman Pollack

Email Election eve, one finds the nation itself to be more pathetically unaware than the leading candidates are evil (morally reprehensible, arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct), although the margin of difference is negligible. The crowds gathered to hear Clinton and Trump, t-shirts and hoodies decorated with campaign slogans, are two sides of the same mindless fascistic adoration of power, righteousness, indignation, a voluntary submission betraying the same ideological convictions of American exceptionalism and psychodynamics of gut hatred for and fear of difference from themselves and image of ethnocentric superiority. Study the faces as the news cameras pan the waiting lines or audiences, smugness, occasional contorted features, feigned innocence disguising certitude. The emptiness of the American public, obediently laying down before billionaire wealth and militaristic narcissism (here self-love engendered through capitalism and assisted by compulsive attachment to the hegemonic purposes of the State). Each side, contemptuous of the other, in reality, brothers/sisters-in-arms, raises to leadership the perfect expression of their own, and hence similar if not identical, needs for recognition to cover their inner nakedness of spirit and purpose. Trump, a bottomless pit of mammon-worship, Clinton, a sinkhole of war and aggression, express the fusion of capitalism and militarism, each in America vital to the presence and fruition of the other, that typifies the national mission of unilateral global domination. It was not always thus, although historical-institutional development pointed the direction for at least a century, when America outstripped its earlier foundations, the normalization of advanced industrial capitalism, to claim world moral-political pre-eminence based on spurious privileged association with God in carrying out His/Her divine mission of promised economic salvation. The formula has been a surefire winner because scrupulously backed by the real or implied threat (and use) of force, a silent militarism when not engaged in war to announce global financial-and-market penetration presumed to be uncontested (or when contested, the mark of the adversary). Exceptionalism is the ideological battering ram to knock down all opposition, and for those standing in line for the political bread-and-circuses of the two major parties, a validation of their distorted hatreds brought on by their own subordination in the great chain of capitalist being. If deep-down, though not consciously admitted, there is recognition of systemic rottenness in misshaping their yearnings and thwarting their present wellbeing and future prospects, this throws them, again both sides of the supposed political divide, into the arms of the Leadership Structure not unlike the authoritarian submission characterizing fascism in the transition from Weimar to Nazi Germany. (To be still in the transition phase and not to have as yet crossed the line, holds little promise of reversion to democratic government; too much has happened to suggest drawing back from the brink.) Collective ego-loss, seen in the faces of the ecstatic political faithful, the now-worshippers of power, goes a long way to explaining the candidates and their visions on offer. A closed system awaits the body politic. There is little room for turning left or right, when the center subsumes an already hard-bitten right and the near-ejection of the left from the political spectrum. The vanished center, however fictitious, is kept alive for purposes of self-deception and authoritative indoctrination, a useful cloak for democratic pretentions, as meanwhile the society is placed, willingly so, on a permanent footing of structural hierarchy at home, incessant intervention abroad. The interests of capitalism must be guarded (and celebrated) at all times, lest an alternative way of life become visible, founded on humane standards of international peace and societal betterment. To break out of the present imprisonment in invidious class debasement, is more painful, given long-term ideological habituation, than risking a future of freedom (of system, of conscience, of social solidarity). Thus, only days remain in the exercise of meaningless choice. After that, one can expect few impedances to the downward cast of policy, with increasing risks of war, class division, false consciousness to grease the rails of additional discontents as context for resentments and hatreds poisoning the atmosphere. More environmental spoliation, more gun violence, as tokens of the wayward path to fascism.

MI5: Bonds to save UK from Russian spies

MI5: Bonds to save UK from Russian spies 02.11.2016 Andrew Parker, Head of the British Counter-Intelligence Servive MI5, claimed that Russia is a growing threat to the stability of Great Britain and is using all the possible tools to attain its goals. In an interview with the Guardian, Parker said, 'It is using its whole range of state organs and powers to push its foreign policy abroad in increasingly aggressive ways - involving propaganda, espionage, subversion and cyber-attacks'. According to him, Russia is currently working across the whole Europe and the UK, and the MI5 is to oppose it. There re a lot of Russian intelligence officers in the territory of Great Britain, but what is different from the cold war is that there is cyberwarfare today. Russia tries to get military secrets, information about industrial projects, economy, government and foreign policy, Director-General of the Security Service stated. As Pravda.Ru reported, before that the US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claimed that Russia was responsible for cyber attacks on the US. The US special services went all out to spy on Moscow. It is planned that underground CIA agents will be involved as well as abilities of the NSA within cyber espionage, satellite systems and other means. Russia in its turn allocates minimum funds for espionage. Pravda.Ru

FNC’s Geraldo Rivera: ’I Am Withdrawing My Opposition to the Wall’ - Breitbart

Jeff Poor

Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” network personality Geraldo Rivera announced he was withdrawing his opposition to a border. Rivera, who has had some heated on O’Reilly’s show over the past decade on the issue of immigration, acknowledged that elections have consequences, therefore he doesn’t oppose the wall — despite thinking it was a waste of money. “I’m going to shock you. I am withdrawing my opposition to the wall,” Rivera said. “No, listen, elections have consequences. This was his signature issue, and if the people want the wall, which I think is a waste of money. ” “Geraldo is down with the wall now,” O’Reilly replied. “And you know, I think you should have a piece full wall … sponsored by Geraldo. You could have your picture there. “You’re going to have a $ wall and a $25 ladder and the ladder will triumph,” Rivera added. Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

Comment on Due Process is Dead: A Staggering 95% of All Inmates in America Have Never Received a Trial by Raymond Karczewski

Raymond Karczewski

Home / Be The Change / Government Corruption / Due Process is Dead: A Staggering 95% of All Inmates in America Have Never Received a Trial Due Process is Dead: A Staggering 95% of All Inmates in America Have Never Received a Trial Claire Bernish January 25, 2016 268 Comments In the Land of the Free, one-quarter of the entire planet’s prison population, some 2.2 million people, currently languish behind bars; yet, an astonishing number of them — around 2 million — have never been to trial . Indeed, these figures categorically debunk the notion the criminal justice system in the United States maintains any semblance of its formation’s original intent: to ensure the guilty suffer punishment befitting their crimes, while the innocent avoid false conviction. As the fundamental basis for the justice system in the United States, the Sixth Amendment states: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.” Justice, as an untold — though no doubt, appalling — number can attest, has been utterly abandoned for the interests of the careless expedience , apathetic convenience, and unabashed profiteering of the U.S. prison-industrial machine. “The reality is that almost no one who is imprisoned in America has gotten a trial,” explains award-winning journalist, Chris Hedges, in a recent Truthdig column . “There is rarely an impartial investigation. A staggering 97 percent of all federal cases and 95 percent of all state felony cases are resolved through plea bargaining.” Of those millions who bargained away their right to a trial by accepting plea deals, “significant percentages of them are innocent.” Plea bargaining failed in its attempt to facilitate pragmatic justice seen in earlier courts, before the advent of the “adversary system and the related development of the law of evidence,” as John H. Langein once described . After the Civil War, as Judge Jed S. Rakoff explained in the New York Review of Books , rising crime and immigration rates began to burden the system and plea bargains offered an acceptable solution. In other words, court proceedings were at one time swift and simple, and though such expediency might have seemed a desirable quality in the past, the incontrovertible reality at present is a system wholly focused on speed at the expense of the necessary — in fact, imperative — assumption of innocence of the accused. Indeed, for incontrovertible proof the court system no longer functions for the people — neither in its capacity to protect the public from the actual criminals, nor in its ostensible assurances no innocent person will be punished unfairly — take even a cursory glance at the trial system. Plea bargains have actualized a replacement of justice with a farcical, well-oiled machine of incarceration. “In actuality,” as Rakoff described, “our criminal justice system is almost exclusively a system of plea bargaining, negotiated behind closed doors and with no judicial oversight. The outcome is very largely determined by the prosecutor alone.” Of all federal criminal cases, “fewer than 3 percent went to trial. The plea bargains largely determined the sentences imposed.” Plea deals are presented to defendants as a way to escape the near certainty of a heavy-handed sentence should they be found guilty by a jury at trial — because defense attorneys’ and prosecutors’ most pressing goal is to prevent a trial in the first place. “Once you are charged in America,” Hedges said, “whether you did the crime or not, you are almost always found guilty.” In part, such ‘unconditional guilt’ begat the need for The Innocence Project — “a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.” Since 1989, there have been 337 DNA-related exonerations with individuals having served a combined total of around 4,606 unjustified years — an average of 14 years, each, before being freed. Of those 337 cases, 31 individuals , who had served over 150 combined years, “pled guilty to crimes they didn’t commit — usually seeking to avoid the potential for a long sentence (or a death sentence),” states The Innocence Project’s website. “If all of the accused went to trial, the judicial system, which is designed around plea agreements, would collapse. And this is why trial sentences are horrific. It is why public attorneys routinely urge their clients to accept a plea arrangement. Trials are a flashing red light to the accused: DO NOT DO THIS. It is the inversion of justice. ” Of the students he teaches in prison, those “who have the longest sentences are usually the ones who demanded a trial.” While the rich and powerful, especially those associated with corporations and banks , are able to escape significant punishment — even when their crimes affect millions of people, such as those complicit in the 2008 financial crash — the poor, whether guilty or not, fall victim to this slanted system. As Hedges summarized: “If you are poor, you will be railroaded in an assembly-line production, from a town or city where there are no jobs, through the police stations, county jails and courts directly into prison. And if you are poor, because you don’t have any money for adequate legal defense, you will serve sentences that are decades longer than those for equivalent crimes anywhere else in the industrialized world … Being poor has become a crime. And this makes mass incarceration the most pressing civil rights issue of our era.” Share

Comment on Gaius Publius: Syria Is Another Pipeline War by lyman alpha blob

lyman alpha blob

by Yves Smith By Gaius Publius , a professional writer living on the West Coast of the United States and frequent contributor to DownWithTyranny, digby, Truthout, and Naked Capitalism. Follow him on Twitter @Gaius_Publius , Tumblr and Facebook . Originally published at at Down With Tyranny . GP article archive here . Originally published at DownWithTyranny Proposed pipeline routes through the Middle East to gas markets in Europe. The purple line is the Western-supported Qatar-Turkey pipeline. All of the nations it passes through — Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey (all highlighted in red) — have agreed to it … except Syria. The red line is the “Islamic Pipeline” from Iran through Iraq into Syria. See text below for further explanation. (Source: MintPress News ; click to enlarge) Summary first: We have been at war in Syria over pipelines since 1949. This is just the next mad phase. I’m not sure most Americans have figured out what’s happening in Syria, because so much of what we hear is confusing to us, and really, we know so little of the context for it. Is it an insurgency against a brutal ruler? Is it a group of insurgencies struggling for power in a nearly failed state? Is it a proxy war expressing the territorial and ideological interests of the U.S., Russia, Turkey and Iran? Or something else? According to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. it is something else — a war between competing national interests to build, or not build, a pipeline to the Mediterranean so natural gas can be exported to Europe. Inconveniently for Syria, that nation lies along an obvious pipeline route. Which makes it another war between interests for money — something not very hard to understand at all. Here’s Kennedy’s argument via EcoWatch. This is a long piece, well worth a full read, but I’ll try to present just the relevant sections here. The Historical Context: Decades of CIA-Sponsored Coups and Counter-Coups in Syria Kennedy’s introductory section contains an excellent examination of the history of U.S. involvement in Syria starting in the 1950s with the Cold War machinations of the Eisenhower-appointed Dulles brothers, John Foster Dulles, the Secretary of State, and Allen Dulles, the head of the CIA. Together, they effectively ruled U.S. foreign policy. Kennedy writes (my emphasis): Syria: Another Pipeline War … America’s unsavory record of violent interventions in Syria—obscure to the American people yet well known to Syrians —sowed fertile ground for the violent Islamic Jihadism that now complicates any effective response by our government to address the challenge of ISIS. So long as the American public and policymakers are unaware of this past, further interventions are likely to only compound the crisis. Moreover, our enemies delight in our ignorance. … [W]e need to look at history from the Syrians’ perspective and particularly the seeds of the current conflict. Long before our 2003 occupation of Iraq triggered the Sunni uprising that has now morphed into the Islamic State, the CIA had nurtured violent Jihadism as a Cold War weapon and freighted U.S./Syrian relationships with toxic baggage. During the 1950’s, President Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers rebuffed Soviet treaty proposals to leave the Middle East a cold war neutral zone and let Arabs rule Arabia. Instead, they mounted a clandestine war against Arab Nationalism—which CIA Director Allan [sic] Dulles equated with communism—particularly when Arab self-rule threatened oil concessions. They pumped secret American military aid to tyrants in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon favoring puppets with conservative Jihadist ideologies which they regarded as a reliable antidote to Soviet Marxism. At a White House meeting between the CIA’s Director of Plans, Frank Wisner, and Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, in September of 1957, Eisenhower advised the agency, “We should do everything possible to stress the ‘holy war’ aspect.” The CIA began its active meddling in Syria in 1949 —barely a year after the agency’s creation. Syrian patriots had declared war on the Nazis, expelled their Vichy French colonial rulers and crafted a fragile secularist democracy based on the American model. But in March of 1949, Syria’s democratically elected president, Shukri-al-Kuwaiti, hesitated to approve the Trans Arabian Pipeline, an American project intended to connect the oil fields of Saudi Arabia to the ports of Lebanon via Syria. In his book, Legacy of Ashes , CIA historian Tim Weiner recounts that in retaliation, the CIA engineered a coup , replacing al-Kuwaiti with the CIA’s handpicked dictator , a convicted swindler named Husni al-Za’im. Al-Za’im barely had time to dissolve parliament and approve the American pipeline before his countrymen deposed him , 14 weeks into his regime. Kennedy then details the history of coups and counter-coups in and against Syria, and concludes this section with this: Thanks in large part to Allan Dulles and the CIA, whose foreign policy intrigues were often directly at odds with the stated policies of our nation, the idealistic path outlined in the Atlantic Charter was the road not taken. In 1957, my grandfather, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, sat on a secret committee charged with investigating CIA’s clandestine mischief in the Mid-East . The so called “Bruce Lovett Report,” to which he was a signatory, described CIA coup plots in Jordan, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Egypt, all common knowledge on the Arab street, but virtually unknown to the American people who believed, at face value, their government’s denials. The report blamed the CIA for the rampant anti-Americanism that was then mysteriously taking root “in the many countries in the world today.”… A parade of Iranian and Syrian dictators, including Bashar al-Assad and his father , have invoked the history of the CIA’s bloody coups as a pretext for their authoritarian rule, repressive tactics and their need for a strong Russian alliance. These stories are therefore well known to the people of Syria and Iran who naturally interpret talk of U.S. intervention in the context of that history. While the compliant American press parrots the narrative that our military support for the Syrian insurgency is purely humanitarian, many Syrians see the present crisis as just another proxy war over pipelines and geopolitics. Before rushing deeper into the conflagration, it would be wise for us to consider the abundant facts supporting that perspective. So much for our supposed interest in “humanitarian” intervention in Syria. From a Syrian point of view, it has never been thus. It has been about pipelines since 1949, and they understand that, even if we don’t. The Current Conflagration Kennedy then turns to the present, or the near-present. Refer to the map above as you read: A Pipeline War In [the Syrians’] view, our war against Bashar Assad did not begin with the peaceful civil protests of the Arab Spring in 2011. Instead it began in 2000 when Qatar proposed to construct a $10 billion, 1,500km pipeline through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey . Qatar shares with Iran, the South Pars/North Dome gas field, the world’s richest natural gas repository. The international trade embargo, until recently, prohibited Iran from selling gas abroad and ensured that Qatar’s gas could only reach European markets if it is liquefied and shipped by sea, a route that restricts volume and dramatically raises costs. The EU, which gets 30 percent of its gas from Russia, was equally hungry for the pipeline which would have given its members cheap energy and relief from Vladimir Putin’s stifling economic and political leverage. Turkey, Russia’s second largest gas customer, was particularly anxious to end its reliance on its ancient rival and to position itself as the lucrative transect hub for Asian fuels to EU markets. The Qatari pipeline would have benefited Saudi Arabia’s conservative Sunni Monarchy by giving them a foothold in Shia dominated Syria. The Saudi’s geopolitical goal is to contain the economic and political power of the Kingdom’s principal rival, Iran , a Shiite state, and close ally of Bashar Assad. The Saudi monarchy viewed the U.S. sponsored Shia takeover in Iraq as a demotion to its regional power and was already engaged in a proxy war against Tehran in Yemen, highlighted by the Saudi genocide against the Iranian backed Houthi tribe. Which puts the Qatari pipeline squarely opposite to Russia’s national interest — natural gas (methane) sales to Europe. Of course, the Russians, who sell 70 percent of their gas exports to Europe, viewed the Qatar/Turkey pipeline as an existential threat. In Putin’s view, the Qatar pipeline is a NATO plot to change the status quo, deprive Russia of its only foothold in the Middle East, strangle the Russian economy and end Russian leverage in the European energy market. In 2009, Assad announced that he would refuse to sign the agreement to allow the pipeline to run through Syria “to protect the interests of our Russian ally.” That was likely the last straw vis-à-vis the U.S. Which brings us to another pipeline, the so-called “Islamic Pipeline” (see map above): “Assad further enraged the Gulf’s Sunni monarchs by endorsing a Russian approved “Islamic pipeline” running from Iran’s side of the gas field through Syria and to the ports of Lebanon. The Islamic pipeline would make Shia Iran instead of Sunni Qatar, the principal supplier to the European energy market and dramatically increase Tehran’s influence in the Mid-East and the world. Israel also was understandably determined to derail the Islamic pipeline which would enrich Iran and Syria and presumably strengthen their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. Another, competing pipeline which would run through Syrian territory, but this time carrying Iranian gas instead of Qatari gas. Thus the demonizing of Assad as evil in the mold of Saddam Hussein, instead of just a run-of-the-mill Middle East autocrat, as bad as some but better than others. Kennedy includes a good section on the history of the al-Assad family’s rule of Syria, including this information from top reporters Sy Hersh and Robert Parry: According to Hersh, “He certainly wasn’t beheading people every Wednesday like the Saudis do in Mecca.” Another veteran journalist, Bob Parry, echoes that assessment. “No one in the region has clean hands but in the realms of torture, mass killings, civil liberties and supporting terrorism, Assad is much better than the Saudis.” In September 2013, the Sunni states involved in the Qatar-Turkey pipeline were so determined to remove Syrian opposition to the pipeline that they offered, via John Kerry, to carry the whole cost of an U.S. invasion to topple al-Assad. Kerry reiterated the offer to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL27): “With respect to Arab countries offering to bear the costs of [an American invasion] to topple Assad, the answer is profoundly Yes, they have. The offer is on the table.” Obama’s response: Despite pressure from Republicans, Barrack Obama balked at hiring out young Americans to die as mercenaries for a pipeline conglomerate . Obama wisely ignored Republican clamoring to put ground troops in Syria or to funnel more funding to “moderate insurgents.” But by late 2011, Republican pressure and our Sunni allies had pushed the American government into the fray. The rest is a history of provocation and over-reaction — a great deal of both — and chaos and death in Syria. Kennedy provides much detail here, at one point adding: [Syria’s] moderates are fleeing a war that is not their war . They simply want to escape being crushed between the anvil of Assad’s Russian backed tyranny and the vicious Jihadi Sunni hammer that we had a hand in wielding in a global battle over competing pipelines . You can’t blame the Syrian people for not widely embracing a blueprint for their nation minted in either Washington or Moscow. The super powers have left no options for an idealistic future that moderate Syrians might consider fighting for. And no one wants to die for a pipeline. I’ll leave it there, but again, do read the entire piece if you want to truly understand what’s going on in Syria, and what is about to go on. Bottom Line Bottom line, it’s as Kennedy said: “No one wants to die for a pipeline”… but many do and will. I’ll offer three thoughts. One , if we weren’t so determined to be deeply dependent on fossil fuels, this would be their war, not ours. Two , we are deeply dependent on fossil fuels because of the political machinations of the oil companies, their CEOs, and the banks and hedge funds who fund them, all of whom pay our government officials — via campaign contributions and the revolving door — to prolong that dependence. We’re here because the holders of big oil money want us here. And three , keep all this in mind during the term of the next president. It will help you make sense of the phony warrior- cum -humanitarian arguments we’re almost certain to be subjected to. We have been at war in Syria over pipelines since 1949. This is just the next mad phase. 0 0 0 0 1 1

Donald Trump All but Clinches G.O.P. Race With Indiana Win Ted Cruz Quits - The New York Times

Jonathan Martin and Patrick Healy

Donald J. Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on Tuesday with a landslide win in Indiana that drove his principal opponent, Senator Ted Cruz, from the race and cleared the way for the polarizing, populist outsider to take control of the party. After months of sneering dismissals and expensive but impotent attacks from Republicans fearful of his candidacy, Mr. Trump is now positioned to clinch the required number of delegates for the nomination by the last day of voting on June 7. Facing only a feeble challenge from Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, Mr. Trump is all but certain to roll into the Republican convention in July with the party establishment’s official but uneasy embrace. In the Democratic contest, Senator Bernie Sanders rebounded from a string of defeats to prevail in Indiana over Hillary Clinton, who largely abandoned the state after polls showed her faring poorly with the predominantly white electorate. But the outcome was not expected to significantly change Mrs. Clinton’s sizable lead in delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. Mr. Trump’s victory was an extraordinary moment in American political history: He is now on course to be the first of a party since Dwight D. Eisenhower, a general and the commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, who had not served in elected office. Mr. Trump, a real estate tycoon turned reality television celebrity, was not a registered Republican until April 2012. He has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats, including his likely general election opponent, Mrs. Clinton. And, at various points in his life, he has held positions antithetical to Republican orthodoxy on almost every major issue in the conservative canon, including abortion, taxes, trade, and gun control. But none of this stopped him. With his ability to speak to the anxieties of voters, and his shrewd use of celebrity and memorable Mr. Trump systematically undercut veteran politicians in a field of candidates that many in the party had hailed as the strongest in at least three decades. He was underestimated by leading Republicans and Democrats time and again, and he succeeded while spending far less money than most of his rivals and employing only a skeletal campaign staff. After Mr. Cruz exited the race Tuesday night, Mr. Trump appeared subdued and projected a more sober than usual mien as he absorbed the ramifications of the Indiana victory. “It has been some unbelievable day and evening and year — never been through anything like this,” Mr. Trump said. Putting aside the venom he has spewed at Mr. Cruz this year, Mr. Trump said of the senator, “He is one hell of a competitor. ” He even veered toward empathy for Mr. Cruz, saying he knew how “tough it is” to be brought low by a brutal defeat. Of the 17 Republicans who ran for president this cycle, Mr. Cruz — a onetime ally of Mr. Trump’s — proved to be his strongest and most tenacious rival, winning 11 primaries and caucuses. But the senator’s appeal among traditional conservatives was no match for Mr. Trump’s fiery and uncompromising vow to fight for the interests of average Americans who have lost faith in the country’s political leadership. Republican primary voters made clear that they found Mr. Trump’s brand of nationalism more attractive. Mr. Cruz, speaking to supporters in Indianapolis, said he could not fight on without “a viable path to victory. ” “Tonight I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed,” he said, as some admirers called out for him to reconsider. Without mentioning Mr. Trump by name, Mr. Cruz said: “We gave it everything we got. But the voters chose another path. ” As remarkable as Mr. Trump’s achievement is, his expected nomination also poses undeniable peril to the party he is poised to lead. Republican leaders, who have been reluctant to embrace his candidacy, are watching him with great trepidation, and on Tuesday night they seemed to be grappling with the implications of Mr. Trump’s emergence as the new face of their party. No candidate since the dawn of modern polling has entered the general election with the sort of toxic image Mr. Trump has in the eyes of large groups of voters. Facing a race against the country’s first female nominee, Mr. Trump is burdened with disapproval ratings as high as 70 percent among women, who make up a majority of voters in presidential elections. He is also an unpredictable voice on policy. At Trump Tower on Tuesday night, amid his litany of Mr. Trump demonstrated the degree to which his nomination represented an astonishing break from political precedent. In denouncing Mrs. Clinton’s past support for the North American Free Trade Agreement and saying it had caused “carnage” for American workers, he signaled he would run to her left on free trade and upend the bipartisan consensus on the issue. Mr. Trump starts the general election campaign with a roll of incendiary proposals and provocations that are the stuff of dreams for opposition researchers. He made his name in the last presidential campaign as the country’s most prominent birther, fueling debunked conspiracy theories that President Obama was not born in America he has used hostile and language about Hispanics, suggesting that Mexican migrants are rapists and murderers and he has not backed off his proposal to bar all foreign Muslims from entering the United States, effectively creating a religious test for immigrants. No one is more eager to talk about those positions than Mrs. Clinton, who made clear on Tuesday that she wanted to sharpen her focus on Mr. Trump as soon as possible because the fight against him was likely to be bruising. “I’m really focused on moving into the general election,” Mrs. Clinton said during an interview on MSNBC. “And I think that’s where we have to be, because we’re going to have a tough campaign against a candidate who will literally say or do anything. ’’ Yet the Indiana results were an embarrassing reminder of her vulnerabilities: Only slightly more than half of Democrats voting Tuesday called Mrs. Clinton honest and trustworthy, according to early exit polls, a remarkably shaky assessment for the party’s likely nominee. After closing the gap with white voters in parts of the Northeast last week, Mrs. Clinton lost them by 30 points in Indiana. She also again suffered with independents casting ballots in the Democratic contest: 73 percent backed Mr. Sanders. Mr. Sanders, speaking to reporters after winning Indiana, had some tough words for Mrs. Clinton after a week when he toned down criticisms of her and shifted his focus to their policy differences. “I understand that Secretary Clinton thinks that this campaign is over,” Mr. Sanders said. “I’ve got some bad news for her. Tonight we won a great victory in Indiana. Next week we are going to be in West Virginia. We think we have a real shot to win in that great state. And then we’re going to Kentucky, and we’re going to Oregon. And we think we have a pretty good chance to win there as well. ” “We feel great about tonight not only in winning here in Indiana and accumulating some more delegates but also gaining the momentum we need to take us to the finish line,” he said, adding the he realized he faced an “uphill battle. ” While Mr. Sanders devoted three days to campaigning in Indiana and spent more than $1 million on television advertisements, Mrs. Clinton did not run any ads and spent only a day campaigning in the state, visiting the Indianapolis area. Clinton advisers said they saw no point in spending a couple of million dollars on television advertising and campaign travel when Mrs. Clinton was likely to lose the state anyway: Its Democratic primary electorate includes a healthy share of independents and newly registered voters, demographics that have repeatedly favored Mr. Sanders. And the two Democrats are expected to divide the state’s 83 delegates given the close outcome. Tad Devine, a senior adviser on the Sanders campaign, said that the Indiana results would not reshape the Democratic race markedly, given Mrs. Clinton’s sizable delegate lead. While the Democratic race has turned relatively civil, the Republican fight in Indiana grew bitter in the final hours. With Mr. Cruz on edge Tuesday morning about the future of his candidacy, Mr. Trump baited him by suggesting — with no evidence — that Mr. Cruz’s father had joined Lee Harvey Oswald in passing out Castro pamphlets in New Orleans shortly before Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Mr. Cruz, unburdening himself after a campaign in which Mr. Trump also mocked his wife’s appearance, responded with a flourish, called Mr. Trump a “pathological liar” and delved into his rival’s personal life. “Listen, Donald Trump is a serial philanderer, and he boasts about it,” Mr. Cruz said, directly raising Mr. Trump’s marital history for the first time. “I want everyone to think about your teenage kids. The president of the United States talks about how great it is to commit adultery. How proud he is. Describes his battles with venereal disease as his own personal Vietnam. ” But the appeal did not work. Indiana Republicans proved willing to embrace Mr. Trump, the once unimaginable but now virtually certain nominee, regardless of the personal flaws and political shortcomings that would have once derailed presidents.

Desperate Trump Supporter Offers Voters Discount On Horse Semen If They Vote Trump

Jameson Parker

Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr After a trainwreck campaign, Trump supporters are struggling to find ways to motivate people to vote for their candidate. Trump has alienated nearly every voting bloc in the country, and routinely smears the sort of people who would otherwise be undecided voters. The question for his supporters is how to get people to set aside their hatred for the man and cast their vote for him anyway. For one horse breeder, the answer is semen. In what has been described as “gross,”“totally illegal,” and the most Trumpian thing ever, a Texas Trumper posted on his Facebook page that he would be giving a 50 percent off coupon to all Trump voters good for either one breeding session with his stallions, or frozen semen for the horse owner on the go. The post was flagged by Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall who noted that offering people compensation – even if it’s half off horse semen – for a vote for Trump violates election law. This is totally illegal; also perhaps the most appropriately Trumpian vote buying scheme possible to devise https://t.co/7n0kDam7ZS pic.twitter.com/f11T5dEOmR — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 8, 2016 After mockery and disbelief swept the internet, the post was deleted from Facebook. It’s unclear if the post’s creator, Beto Orsi, had a change of heart or merely wanted to avoid the jokes at his expense. From his public profile, it’s clear that he still deeply believes in Donald Trump. And also horses. Here’s his profile background. This election can’t end soon enough. Share this Article!

Google Accused of Paying Women Less than Men - Breitbart

Chriss W. Street

The U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) asked a San Francisco federal judge on April 7 to compel Google to provide detailed data regarding systemic gender pay discrimination. [With the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) making a preliminary determination that Google Inc. in its capacity as a federal contractor, has exhibited a pattern of pay discrimination against women, the DOL began a suit in front of a San Francisco Administrative Law Judge to compel Google to allow auditors to inspect and copy records and data about the company’s compliance with federal laws governing equal opportunity. Google’s labor lawyer attorney Lisa Barnett Sween from Jackson Lewis stated that Google had complied with initial requests. But she argued that the DOL’s demand for employee names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses violated Google’s Constitutional Fourth Amendment right of protection against unreasonable searches. Silicon Valley CEOs view the DOL’s aggressive action against Google as the first salvo in President Obama’s January 29, 2016 Executive Order that expanded the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) gender compensation audits. Obama’s action came on the seventh anniversary of his signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The Order directed the EEOC, in partnership with the DOL, to start collecting summary pay data by gender, race, and ethnicity from all private sector businesses with 100 or more employees. The White House stated that the audits would cover 63 million American workers and “focus public enforcement of our equal pay laws and provide better insight into discriminatory pay practices across industries and occupations. ” President Obama protested that he was forced to issue an Executive Order because Congress had refused to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act that he claimed would “give women additional tools to fight pay discrimination. ” Obama issued a report titled “The Gender Pay Gap on the Anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act,” which claimed that the U. S. gender wage gap is now 2. 5 percentage points worse than the average for industrialized countries, after the world reduced the pay gap by 7 percentage points since 2000. DOL Regional Director Janette Wipper testified that the government had collected information to show that Google is violating federal EEOC laws on wages: “We found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce. ” Despite California being the eighth best state in the U. S. for gender equality, the DOL may have chosen to go after Google knowing the U. S. Ninth Circuit has a reputation as America’s most liberal venue. The DOL filed discrimination lawsuits against Palantir in September for alleged systematic hiring discrimination against Asian job applicants and sued Oracle in January claiming that the company paid white men more than other racial groups. Both company deny the charges as “politically motivated. ”

Re: Will The FBI Email Investigation Shed New Light On The Lolita Express And Other Clinton Sex Scandals?

Rick

Email Could it be possible that the newly discovered Clinton emails that the FBI is currently examining contain evidence of crimes other than just the mishandling of classified documents? For years, there have been shocking allegations about the sexual behavior of both Bill and Hillary Clinton in the conservative media, but neither Bill nor Hillary has ever been convicted of a sexual crime. However, that may be about to change. There is nobody on the planet that has been closer to Hillary Clinton over the past decade than Huma Abedin, and now the FBI has their hands on approximately 650,000 emails that were stored on electronic devices owned by her and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner. Without a doubt, many of those emails will relate to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified documents, but many of those emails will also be personal in nature. So what will the FBI learn about the Clinton sex scandals from those emails, and will that information be shared with the American public? In particular, any information regarding Clinton ties to Jeffrey Epstein and “the Lolita Express” could be extremely explosive. Bill and Hillary Clinton were both very good friends of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein before he was convicted of soliciting sex from a young girl in 2008. In fact, flight records show that Bill Clinton was a frequent passenger on Epstein’s plane that eventually came to be known as “the Lolita Express”… Bill Clinton took repeated trips on the “ Lolita Express “—the private passenger jet owned by billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein—with an actress in softcore porn movies whose name appears in Epstein’s address book under an entry for “massages,” according to flight logbooks obtained by Gawker and published today for the first time . The logs also show that Clinton shared more than a dozen flights with a woman who federal prosecutors believe procured underage girls to sexually service Epstein and his friends and acted as a “potential co-conspirator” in his crimes . Overall, Bill took at least 26 trips on board “the Lolita Express”. Fox News says that the plane “earned its Nabakov-inspired nickname because it was reportedly outfitted with a bed where passengers had group sex with young girls.” But sex with underage girls didn’t just happen on the plane. One of the favorite destinations for “the Lolita Express” was Epstein’s 72-acre “Orgy Island”. Here is more from Fox News … “Bill Clinton … associated with a man like Jeffrey Epstein, who everyone in New York, certainly within his inner circles, knew was a pedophile,” said Conchita Sarnoff, of the Washington, D.C. based non-profit Alliance to Rescue Victims of Trafficking, and author of a book on the Epstein case called “TrafficKing.” “Why would a former president associate with a man like that?” Epstein, who counts among his pals royal figures, heads of state, celebrities and fellow billionaires, spent 13 months in prison and home detention for solicitation and procurement of minors for prostitution. He allegedly had a team of traffickers who procured girls as young as 12 to service his friends on “Orgy Island,” an estate on Epstein’s 72-acre island, called Little St. James, in the U.S. Virgin Islands . Are you starting to understand how serious this could be? If Bill Clinton had sex with an underage girl just one time, that would be enough to potentially send him to prison for the rest of his life. Court records show that Jeffrey Epstein had 21 different phone numbers for Bill Clinton. To say that they were close would be a massive understatement. And what was the nature of Hillary Clinton’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein? There are so many unanswered questions, and I don’t know what these 650,000 emails are going to show. But there are persistent whispers that law enforcement officials that were looking through them for the Anthony Weiner case found something big. And the truth is that the FBI would have never renewed this investigation so close to the election unless a gamechanger had been discovered. FBI Director James Comey had to know that he was going to take a tremendous amount of heat for this decision, and to move forward on something like this without good reason would be career suicide. For the moment, Hillary Clinton is putting on a brave face. On Monday, she challenged the FBI to hurry up and read her emails so that they could see that she had nothing to hide… With eight days remaining until Election Day, Hillary Clinton told a crowd of supporters here Monday that the FBI should hurry up and check out the additional emails that agents said they found while investigating the estranged husband of one of her aides. “Go ahead. Look at them,” the Democratic nominee said about the emails that may have been originally housed on a private server she used as secretary of state — a revelation that has thrown the presidential election into turmoil. Maybe Clinton is telling the truth, but with her you just never know. As I recently explained to a live studio audience down at Morningside , Hillary Clinton is a habitual liar and it is hard to trust her about anything at this point. If she is lying about these emails, hopefully we will find out very quickly. Her opponent, Donald Trump, seems energized by this new scandal, and he is warning that America may be facing a “constitutional crisis” if Clinton wins the election… Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, buoyed by tightening polls and a renewed controversy over Democrat Hillary Clinton, told an enthusiastic crowd in suburban Grand Rapids Monday that the U.S. could face a “constitutional crisis” if Clinton is elected president on Nov. 8. Trump predicted a “protracted criminal investigation and probably a criminal trial,” and said “nothing will get done.” FBI Director James Comey has “brought back his reputation” by reactivating an investigation into the handling of her State Department e-mails , Trump said to loud cheers. But the cold, hard reality of the matter is that we could potentially be facing something much more serious than just a “constitutional crisis”. If the FBI finds evidence of very serious crimes committed by Hillary Clinton, she could actually be forced to withdraw from the race on the eve of the election, and that would throw the entire process into a state of chaos . Even so, it is exceedingly important that the American people get the truth about what is in these emails, and hopefully that will happen as rapidly as possible. Take a look at the future of America: The Beginning of the End and then prepare Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook , Google Plus , & Twitter . You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here . shares

Re: Don’t Let James Comey and the FBI’s October Surprise Fool You!

Zoe2010

Email It’s not exactly breaking news that only an infinitesimally small number of people in this country trust the mainstream media to report the truth, so it shouldn’t come as a great shock that the mainstream media is getting people all ginned up about James Comey’s announcement today regarding the “re-opening of the investigation” into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, or as the letter to Congress said, “taking appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.” What does come as a bit of a shock, is how many people are buying into the hype. At this point in the election, hasn’t anyone learned that NOTHING is what it seems when first reported by the media? Anyone at all? “But… but… but… the media says that Comey’s announcement took everyone by surprise… even the President…” Right… and I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona I'd like to sell you. Are you interested? Correct me if I'm wrong, but are we talking about the same media that less than 10% of Americans thinks is honest and trustworthy? Exactly! My fellow countrymen, especially my fellow Trump supporters, beware! Beware that we don't all get lured into a perfect example of "rope a dope," by the very same people and institutions we already know haven't given us the honest truth about much of anything since long before this election season began. In the video below, I review the facts that cannot be denied, and ask the question, “Why isn’t the media telling you this?” The RT Reports: The FBI has learned of more emails involving Hillary Clinton’s private email server while she headed the State Department, FBI Director James Comey told several members of Congress, telling them he is reopening the investigation. “In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of email that appear to be pertinent” to Clinton’s investigation, Comey wrote to the chairs of several relevant congressional committees, adding that he was briefed about the messages on Thursday. “I agree that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.” The FBI director cautioned, however, that the bureau has yet to assess the importance of the material, and that he doesn’t know how long that will take. The Clinton campaign has yet to comment, but an aide told CNN: “We’re learning about this just like you all are.” Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine was asked about Comey’s letter while campaigning at an early voting site in Tallahassee, Florida. “Gotta read a little more, gotta read a little more,” he told reporters. Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, praised the decision to reopen the case. “Now that the FBI has reopened the matter, it must conduct the investigation with impartiality and thoroughness,” he said in a statement. “The American people deserve no less and no one should be above the law.” Almost 15,000 new Clinton emails were discovered in September, but it's unclear if the announced investigation relates to them or other correspondence. The newly discovered emails are not related to Wikileaks or the Clinton Foundation, law enforcement sources told CNN’s Evan Perez. The messages were not found on the private email server in the Clintons’ New York residence, a government source told Reuters. The emails were apparently discovered as part of the sexting probe into former Representative Anthony Weiner (D-New York), the New York Times reported. His electronic devices, as well as those belonging to his wife, senior Clinton aide Huma Abedin, were seized during that investigation. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) renewed his call for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to “suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.” “Yet again, Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame,” Ryan said in a statement. “This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators.” Kellyanne Conway, Republican nominee Donald Trump ’s campaign manager, applauded the decision. “That is superb. That is extraordinary news for the American people,” she told Yahoo News. "A great day in our campaign just got even better," she tweeted. “They are reopening the case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United States,” Trump said in Manchester, New Hampshire, 10 minutes after learning about the reopening of the case. “We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.” “I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” he said. “This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understand, and it is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.” “With that being said, the rest of my speech is going to be so boring. Should I even make the speech?” he joked before turning to his prepared remarks. The “FBI reopening investigation isn’t an October surprise, it’s an October nuclear explosion,” conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro wrote as part of a tweetstorm, adding that “Comey [is] trying to cover his a** 11 days before [the] election” and wondering if a “pre-emptive impeachment of a president elect” is possible because “the odds on President Tim Kaine just rose substantially.” An ‘October Surprise‘ is a major event that happens in the month before the election that affects the outcome of the vote. In response to the announcement, the Democratic Coalition Against Trump filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against Comey. “It is absolutely absurd that FBI Director Comey would support Donald Trump like this with only 11 days to go before the election,” Scott Dworkin, senior advisor to the Democratic Coalition Against Trump , said in a statement . “It is an obvious attack from a lifelong Republican who used to serve in the Bush White House, just to undermine her campaign. Comey needs to focus on stopping terrorists and protecting America, not investigating our soon to be President-Elect Hillary Clinton.” Stocks fell after Comey’s announcement, CNBC reported. Article posted with permission from The Last Great Stand . Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook , Google Plus , & Twitter . You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here . shares

WARNING: A Pivotal Moment For The Stock Market May Be Here

Anonymous Coward (UID 72071746)

WARNING: A Pivotal Moment For The Stock Market May Be Here Page 1 10/16/16 2 Mail with questions or comments about this site. "Godlike Productions" & "GLP" are registered trademarks of Zero Point Ltd. Godlike Website Design Copyright © 1999 - 2015 Godlikeproductions.com

Next Steps: Clean Up The Democratic Party, Oppose Trump

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November 10, 2016 Next Steps: Clean Up The Democratic Party, Oppose Trump People have now learned and accepted that Trump is inevitably the new president of the United States. They try to figure out what that means. We do not know, neither does anyone else. A lot of rumors and speculation are circling of who will take up this or that job in a Trump administration. These rumors are mostly created by those who would like that job, or their personal lobbies. They should be ignored. The mainstream media is barely able to issue a mea culpa for their extreme pro-Clinton campaign and total failure of reporting the real state of the union. It is now looking for obfuscations like claiming no one could have gotten it right. That is a cheap excuse for incompetence. It is astonishing that THE media outlet that did the most to shine lights on Clinton is ignored in any of the main stream after-election reporting. I am talking of Wikileaks and Julian Assange who did their very best, under high personal risk, to report the truth about Clinton's and the DNC's utter corruption. A big thank you to them! Clinton in her very late concession speech, found no words for her culpability or that of the campaign she ran. But the loss of the running is her personal failure. The "bernie bros" and "deplorables" thanked her hostility by not showing up to vote. She had 6 million votes less than Obama while Trump got about the same number as Romney! Instead of focusing on Trump's disastrous economic program she ran a warmongering "blame Putin" campaign. Her economic program was tinkering on the margins of the neoliberal status quo. Certainly not what voters in difficult financial situations, and there are a lots of those in today's U.S., needed to hear. There are now attempts to get Clinton pardoned for breaking classification laws and rules with her private email server as well as for her tax cheating, private slush fund "charity", the Clinton Foundation. If the Democrats want to keep at least some appearance of uprightness they should fight all such attempts. Let her pay a very heft penalty for her shenanigans. apparatus is corrupt and was completely on Clinton's side. It cost the party the presidency as well as the House and any progress in the Senate. I find it very likely that Sanders would have won the primaries if the party apparatus had acted as neutral as it should have. He had a much better chance of beating Trump. With Sanders as candidate in the general election House and Senate seats would have been easier to keep or to win. There is an urgent and thorough cleanup needed in the party from top to bottom. Sanders should be given the lead of the party and be tasked to again win a majority in the House and/or Senate in the 2018 midterm election. Trumps true program will now come to the fore. A lot of stuff he said during the campaign will soon be forgotten. His economic program is a repeat of Reaganomics with a dose of isolationism in trade. How that is going to work out with the pivot to Asia and countering China is a mystery . His stand against Muslims was fake, as he let the embassies of the Gulf states know early on. The military will get more money for lots of funny programs. That is nothing new. It just build some $7.5 billion a piece battleships solely for their new, very special guns which now will not be used because their special ammunition is, at $800,000 a shot, too expensive. A total waste of money but at least it paid for some good jobs. (More jobs could have been created with that money in more important, non-military programs.) Trump will cut taxes for big enterprises and the rich. He will cut social programs. The general budget will go deep into red. In a few years he will have to, just like Reagan, increase taxes to regain some budget balance. His campaign unleashed a new wave of racism. Racism had not vanished - indeed it was very much in the open during Obama's time. But open hostile incidents against "the other" will probably increase. It will be difficult and take some time to reign it in again. It will be important to oppose Trump as much as possible. He is a somewhat megalomaniac and he currently has party majorities in both houses. He will have to be taught that not everything he tries is good or even possible. Trump will want a reelection and another four years as president. He can face opposition on the ground, from people who voted for him, if those people can see a plausible alternative . Clintonian tinkering on the edges of the status quo is no such alternative. There needs to be broad stroke economic policy, plausible and explainable, that offers a better world to them. If the Democrats, or a third party, can develop and present such a program there is good chance that the era of Trump will be a short unremarkable chapter in the history books. 10, 2016 at 02:09 PM | Permalink

Joanna Coles, Cosmopolitan Editor, Named to New Job at Hearst - The New York Times

Sydney Ember

Not long ago, Joanna Coles was having lunch with David Carey, the president of Hearst magazines, when he suggested she should take on a bigger role at the company. Ms. Coles had been the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan since 2012 and, she said in an interview, “I was definitely ready to do something else. ” “I love Cosmo, but I gave it everything I had,” she said. “I just didn’t have another sex position in me. ” On Tuesday, Hearst announced that Ms. Coles would leave her post at Cosmopolitan, one of the company’s marquee publications, to become Hearst’s first chief content officer. In her new role, Ms. Coles will work closely with Hearst editors and oversee the company’s magazines in the United States and internationally. She will also look to identify new business opportunities and partnerships for Hearst in areas including television and live events, with the goal of extending the company’s brands beyond just print magazines and websites. Michele Promaulayko, who worked at Cosmopolitan as executive editor from 2000 to 2008, will succeed Ms. Coles as the magazine’s editor in chief. Ms. Promaulayko was previously the editor in chief of Yahoo Health and has served as editor in chief of the magazine Women’s Health. Ms. Promaulayko will also become editorial director of Seventeen magazine. In an interview, Mr. Carey called the new role for Ms. Coles a “natural next step for our company and for Joanna. ” Hearst has formed many partnerships in recent years, but lately, he said, many companies who wanted to work with Hearst reached out to Ms. Coles first. “I’ve watched Joanna lead Cosmo,” Mr. Carey said, “and the whole time, I thought she could make an even bigger impact. ” Ms. Coles, 54, started working at Hearst in 2006 as editor in chief of Marie Claire, and she has raised her profile and that of the magazines under her leadership since then. With Marie Claire, she had a hand in a partnership between the magazine and the popular television show “Project Runway. ” At Cosmopolitan, where she took the reins four years ago, she has greatly extended the magazine’s reach, notably forging a partnership with Snapchat that both companies have viewed as a success. Cosmopolitan’s Snapchat channel draws six million visitors a day, according to Hearst. Ms. Coles calls herself a “brand steward,” and in many ways, she has become the public face of not only Cosmopolitan but Hearst itself. She frequently speaks at media conferences, has active Twitter and Instagram accounts and recently joined the board of Snapchat. On the television side, she is helping to produce the E! reality show about young Cosmopolitan employees (she will be in the show, but, she said, “I’ll be less in it than I was going to be”) and is involved in a scripted series for the network Freeform, called “Issues,” that is inspired by her life. She is also writing a book about sex and intimacy in the digital age. Cosmopolitan under Ms. Coles has not lost its sizzle, and its pages are filled with the relationship advice and sex tips that have made it a popular guide for young women for decades. But it has also taken on heavier subjects, including women’s health and politics. The magazine reached roughly 34 million people in July across print, digital and video, according to the Magazine Media 360 Brand Audience. That was up from 29. 5 million at the end of 2014. Ms. Coles said she was leaving Cosmopolitan in a position of strength, but that she was “really excited to do a bigger job. ” Though she was on her plans, she said she had two projects she has been working on with other Hearst brands, which will be announced soon.

New Trump Deportation Rules Allow Far More Expulsions - The New York Times

Michael D. Shear and Ron Nixon

WASHINGTON — President Trump has directed his administration to enforce the nation’s immigration laws more aggressively, unleashing the full force of the federal government to find, arrest and deport those in the country illegally, regardless of whether they have committed serious crimes. Documents released on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security revealed the broad scope of the president’s ambitions: to publicize crimes by undocumented immigrants strip such immigrants of privacy protections enlist local police officers as enforcers erect new detention facilities discourage asylum seekers and, ultimately, speed up deportations. The new enforcement policies put into practice language that Mr. Trump used on the campaign trail, vastly expanding the definition of “criminal aliens” and warning that such unauthorized immigrants “routinely victimize Americans,” disregard the “rule of law and pose a threat” to people in communities across the United States. Despite those assertions in the new documents, research shows lower levels of crime among immigrants than among Americans. The president’s new immigration policies are likely to be welcomed by some law enforcement officials around the country, who have called for a tougher crackdown on unauthorized immigrants, and by some Republicans in Congress who have argued that lax enforcement encourages a flow of unauthorized immigrants. But taken together, the new policies are a rejection of the sometimes more restrained efforts by former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush and their predecessors, who sought to balance protecting the nation’s borders with fiscal, logistical and humanitarian limits on the exercise of laws passed by Congress. “The faithful execution of our immigration laws is best achieved by using all these statutory authorities to the greatest extent practicable,” John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, wrote in one of two memorandums released on Tuesday. “Accordingly, department personnel shall make full use of these authorities. ” The immediate impact of that shift is not yet fully known. Advocates for immigrants warned on Tuesday that the new border control and enforcement directives would create an atmosphere of fear that was likely to drive those in the country illegally deeper into the shadows. Administration officials said some of the new policies — like one seeking to send unauthorized border crossers from Central America to Mexico while they await deportation hearings — could take months to put in effect and might be limited in scope. For now, Dreamers, who were brought to the United States as young children, will not be targeted unless they commit crimes, officials said on Tuesday. Mr. Trump has not yet said where he will get the billions of dollars needed to pay for thousands of new border control agents, a network of detention facilities to detain unauthorized immigrants and a wall along the entire southern border with Mexico. But politically, Mr. Kelly’s actions on Tuesday serve to reinforce the president’s standing among a core constituency — those who blame unauthorized immigrants for taking jobs away from citizens, committing heinous crimes and being a financial burden on federal, state and local governments. And because of the changes, millions of immigrants in the country illegally now face a far greater likelihood of being discovered, arrested and eventually deported. “The message is: The immigration law is back in business,” said Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports restricted immigration. “That violating immigration law is no longer a secondary offense. ” Lawyers and advocates for immigrants said the new policies could still be challenged in court. Maricopa County in Arizona spent years defending its sheriff at the time, Joseph Arpaio, in federal court, where he was found to have discriminated against Latinos. And courts in Illinois, Oregon, Pennsylvania and several other states have rejected the power given to local and state law enforcement officers to hold immigrants for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release from detention at the request of federal authorities under a program known as Secure Communities, which Mr. Trump is reviving. “When you tell state and local police that their job is to do immigration enforcement,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, “it translates into the unwarranted and illegal targeting of people because of their race, because of their language, because of the color of their skin. ” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday that the president wanted to “take the shackles off” of the nation’s immigration enforcers. He insisted that the new policies made it clear that “the No. 1 priority is that people who pose a threat to our country are immediately dealt with. ” In fact, that was already the policy under the Obama administration, which instructed agents that undocumented immigrants convicted of serious crimes were the priority for deportation. Now, enforcement officials have been directed to seek the deportation of anyone in the country illegally. “Under this executive order, ICE will not exempt classes or categories of removal aliens from potential enforcement,” a fact sheet released by the Department of Homeland Security said, using the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “All of those present in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention, and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States. ” That includes people convicted of fraud in any official matter before a governmental agency and people who “have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits. ” The policy also expands a program that lets officials bypass due process protections such as court hearings in some deportation cases. Under the Obama administration, the program, known as “expedited removal,” was used only when an immigrant was arrested within 100 miles of the border and had been in the country no more than 14 days. Now it will include all those who have been in the country for up to two years, no matter where they are caught. “The administration seems to be putting its foot down as far as the gas pedal will go,” said Heidi Altman, policy director for the National Immigrant Justice Center, a group that offers legal services to immigrants. In the documents released on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security is directed to begin the process of hiring 10, 000 immigration and customs agents, expanding the number of detention facilities and creating an office within Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help families of those killed by undocumented immigrants. The directives would also revive a program that recruits local police officers and sheriff’s deputies to help with deportation, effectively making them de facto immigration agents. The effort, called the 287( g) program, was scaled back during the Obama administration. The program faces resistance from many states and dozens of sanctuary cities, which have refused to allow their law enforcement workers to help round up undocumented individuals. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio in a statement on Tuesday pledged the city’s cooperation in cases involving “proven public safety threats,” but vowed that “what we will not do is turn our N. Y. P. D. officers into immigration agents. ” Under the new directives, the agency would no longer provide privacy protections to people who are not American citizens or green card holders. A policy established in the last days of the Bush administration in January 2009 provided some legal protection for information collected by the Department of Homeland Security on nonresidents. The new policies also target unauthorized immigrants who smuggle their children into the country, as happened with Central American children seeking to reunite with parents living in the United States. Under the new directives, such parents could face deportation or prosecution for smuggling or human trafficking. Officials said that returning Central American refugees to Mexico to await hearings would be done only in a limited fashion, and only after discussions with the government of Mexico. Mexican officials said on Tuesday that such a move could violate Mexican law and international accords governing repatriation, and immigrants’ advocates questioned Mexico’s ability to absorb thousands of Central Americans in detention centers and shelters.

ESPN SportsCenter Anchor Linda Cohn: Those Who Ignore Politics Problem at ESPN are ’Blind’ - Breitbart

Robert J. Marlow

“SportsCenter” anchor Linda Cohn stated on Thursday what Breitbart News has been asserting for years: that ESPN’s constant insertion of politics in their sports coverage contributed to the network’s massive loss of subscribers over the last five years. [ESPN has pushed a narrative that the loss of about 12 million subscribers, down to 88 million from its 100 million subscriber high in 2011, is due to viewers preferring to watch streaming video platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and others, which can be purchased at a considerably lower price than cable packages. The popular host commented on 77 WABC’s “Bernie and Sid” show that broadcasters sharing political opinions definitely turned off some viewers, prompting them to turn off ESPN. “That is definitely a percentage of it,” said Cohn when asked whether certain social or political opinions played a part in the “bloodbath” this week when parent company Disney ordered the firing of some 100 employees. Most of those let go were radio and TV broadcasters and sports writers. “I don’t know how big a percentage, but if anyone wants to ignore that fact, they’re blind. “You know, when you work for a big company, you have to follow in line, you have to pay the bills. But you just kind of look in the mirror and do what you think is right no matter what else is going on around you. And that’s what I always tried to do. ” According to the New York Post, the ESPN veteran believes that certain sports fans did not like the way the network covered controversial personalities like Roger Goodell, Colin Kaepernick, and Caitlyn Jenner. Cohn cited ESPN’s granting of the 2015 Arthur Ashe Award for Courage to Jenner, right after Bruce transitioned to Caitlyn, as an example of a political statement that turned off viewers. Many felt that athletes suffering from disease or disability — particularly women’s basketball player Lauren Hill, who died from cancer three months before the ESPY Award Show, and marathoner Noah Galloway who lost an arm and a leg in the Iraq War, would have been better selections for the prestigious award.

Why Palestinians Want to Sue Britain: 99 Years since the Balfour Declaration

Ramzy Baroud

Lord Arthur Balfour in Tel Aviv, c. 1925 (from the G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress)

Rejecting TPP Deal Would Hinder US to Advance Objectives in Asia Pacific

Get short URL 0 16 0 0 Rejecting the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement would be a gigantic self-inflicted wound for the United States as it would slow growth and prevent fully advancing US interests in the Asia Pacific region, US Secretary of State John Kerry said. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Kerry called on the US Congress to approve the TPP agreement and said rejection of the agreement would be a conscious turning of our backs on the Asia Pacific at the very moment the United States ought to be linking arms. © AFP 2016/ NICHOLAS KAMM Obama to Advocate TPP Deal in Peru Summit of Asia-Pacific Leaders "[It would be an] act that would hurt American workers, slow the economy, hinder our ability to advance the full range of US objectives in a region that is by common sense with five of the fastest growing nations in the world," Kerry at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in the state of Illinois on Wednesday. © Flickr/ Backbone Campaign China Developing Two Free Trade Deals for Asia-Pacific as US-Backed TPP Losing Momentum The TPP would link the US with the economies of 11 other Pacific Rim nations in a trade zone with lower tariffs and fewer import restrictions. Critics of the TPP agreement claim it undermines domestic companies, laws, regulations and institutions through an extra-judicial process that stacks the deck in favor of multinational corporations. Kerry explained one of the main benefits of the TPP deal lies in mandating a level playing field between private sector and state-owned companies in addition to abolishing 18,000 foreign taxes on American goods and services. To maintain a growing economy, Kerry added, the United States has be able to sell its goods to places where 95 percent of the world’s customers live. "If we’re going to live up to our responsibilities in Asia… if we’re going to do what’s necessary to protect our interests, we have to maintain a steady and reliable presence in that region," Kerry maintained. ...

Rapper Ice Cube Hammers Maher for ’N-word’: ’Sometimes You Sound Like a Redneck Trucker’ - Breitbart

Jeff Poor

Friday on HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher apologized for his use of the “ ” during an interview with Sen. Ben Sasse ( ) during last week’s broadcast of his program. However, despite that apology and a stern lecture from his earlier guest Michael Eric Dyson, Maher took on heat from rapper Ice Cube for the racial slur at the end of his panel segment. “I knew you was going to a fuck up sooner or later,” Ice Cube said. “I did. I did. I love your show. You got a great show. But you’ve been bucking up against that line the little bit. You got a lot of black jokes. You do. ” “Sometimes you sound like a redneck trucker,” he added. “Yes, you do. ” Ice Cube went on to castigate Maher for using the term and said when he heard a “white person” use it, it felt like a “knife stabbing” him. Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

Fed Holds on Raising Rates, Fears Rising Dollar

Activist Post

By Tom Luongo The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee chose not to raise interest rates six days out from an election. The statement was also...

NY Daily News And Nearly All Liberal News Media Outlets Experiencing Stunning Decline In Readership

Geoffrey Grider

NTEB Ads Privacy Policy NY Daily News And Nearly All Liberal News Media Outlets Experiencing Stunning Decline In Readership While the entire newspaper industry has been hammered by print circulation declines in recent years, the drop-off by Mort Zuckerman’s Daily News in September was much steeper than the declines at The Post and the New York Times. by Geoffrey Grider November 17, 2016 Daily News or other liberal news outlets report steep decline in circulation The infamous main stream media are no where near the “main stream” when it comes to understanding what the vast majority of America wants and needs. Donald Trump’s landslide election night win was a referendum on the corrupt, liberal-biased opinion creators posing as journalists. Donald Trump Calls Out The Corrupt Bias Media – Mainstream Media Attacks: 2016 will go down as the year that the American people woke from their slumber and began to throw off the shackles of globalism, elitism and the faux journalism of the Chicago Way . News organizations like the ultra-liberal NY Daily News are being driven into bankruptcy, brought down by the sheer weight of their own careless regard for the truth. To which we happily say, “adios!”. The Daily News is a four-time lose r, recently released circulation stats show. The embattled newspaper reported sharply lower sales on weekdays and Sundays and on newsstand sales and home deliveries, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. While the entire newspaper industry has been hammered by print circulation declines in recent years, the drop-off by Mort Zuckerman’s Daily News in September was much steeper than the declines at The Post and the New York Times. source AOL will announce layoffs of 5 percent of its staff today , with 500 employees expected to lose their jobs. In an interview yesterday, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said that most of the cuts will come in its corporate units, while resources will be shifted more at mobile, video and data offerings going forward. “The layoffs are related to a 2017 strategy where we will add to our business,” he said. “These are super-targeted by area, and we will be re-growing, especially in video and mobile.” Armstrong reiterated that plan in a memo sent to employees. “Based on our strategy and the changes we see in the industry, we are reshaping parts of the company today,” he wrote. “The company … will be aligned to drive a talent and operations plan in line with profitability.” The cuts come after AOL added about 1,500 workers this year from an advertising deal with Microsoft and its purchase of Millennial Media, which prompted the consolidation to improve financial performance. source The Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications will lay off almost 6 percent of its workforce — between 200 and 250 people — after it slipped into the red last quarter, the company announced Wednesday. The layoffs, along with a planned restructuring, “are in response to difficult times, challenging times,” Isaac Lee, Univision’s digital, entertainment and news chief, told The Washington Post in his first public comments on the moves. “We need to position ourselves for the future.” Univision had a third-quarter net loss of $30.5 million on total revenue of $735 million, down 8 percent. source The New York Times Company reported a $14 million net loss for the first quarter of 2016 as it continued to grapple with how to offset falling revenue in print advertising. Digital subscriptions remained a bright spot for the company, showing robust growth. source 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

Just Another Day In the Life of the Clinton Crime Family

Dave Hodges

Just Another Day In the Life of the Clinton Crime Family In the past 24 hours, some very stunning pieces of information have leaked out regarding the Clinton Crime Family. I am shocked about how pervasive the criminality is in what has been only a 24 hour news cycle. Assange’s Lawyers Are Dead There are two lawyers who represented WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, who died and their deaths were in very close proximity, only a mere month apart. Assange attorney, John Jones, suicide was committed by the top lawyer when he jumped in front of a train in West Hamstead, in which the police did not even consider the possibility of foul play. The authorities, courtesy of the Clinton Foundation, found nothing suspicious about the manner of Jones’ death. Michael Ratner made a career out of defending government whistle-blowers and detainees, something that one could argue was right inside of Assange’s wheelhouse. Ratner’s death was shrouded in mystery. It is important to note that Ratner had actually sued three sitting US Presidents and tried to get George W. Bush impeached for lying America into the Iraq war. Certainly, when someone like Ratner who had begun to represent Assange, was a terrible threat to the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation and had to be dealt with. Chief Investigator for Bill Clinton’s Impeachment Trial Lives In Fear of His Life Aaron Klein, yes the same Aaron Klein who released emails, before they were purged, which demonstrated that Clinton was sending out, through her personal server the travel plans of Ambassador Stevens prior to his death at Benghazi, recently interview Dave Shippers the Chief Investigator of Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. Shippers professed that he still lives in fear of his life. “Today, I am still terrified of Hillary. Absolutely I am terrified. Because if she gets into office. In fact, I’ve told my wife, I said, ‘If Hillary gets elected, look for the FBI or somebody to come and pick me up the next day.’ “And I think I’m the only one left. [Former Congressman] Henry Hyde is dead. [Independent Counsel Kenneth] Star didn’t really hurt her. Yeah. I was scared when I was out there… I’ve been terrified ever since. Because things happen. Things happen.” Klein allowed his interview to drift into the area of Vince Foster’s alleged suicide which Shippers was convinced that his event was a murder designed to cover up Hillary Clinton’s criminal behavior. Shippers also mentioned the impeachment investigation, centering around Clinton lying about his affair with Monica Lewinski, uncovered evidence of at least three murders connected to Hillary Clinton. However, as Shippers stated, the investigation was limited to to the Lewinski angle. This is really ashame because of the fact that Hillary Clinton could have been stopped in the 1990’s and this nation would not, today, be fighting for its life under the threat of an extinction level event such as the specter of a Clinton Presidency. Anthony Weiner Fears for His Life At the Hands of Hillary Clinton The perverted Congressman, who could not stop sexting grossly inappropriate images of himself to underage girls, may have unwittingly put another very large nail in the political coffin of Hillary Rodham Clinton. According to sources , we now know that the FBI accidentally discovered that Weiner had several emails that were suspiciously marked “life insurance” and the FBI found that these email were directly related to the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton. Disturbingly, these same sources indicated that the sources were turned over to the FBI over a month ago while the FBI was still running interference for the Clinton Crime Family. It is very concerning that Comey never mentioned these damning emails. The NYPD had the same information and they planned to leak the information despite intense pressure not to do so. This information not only shows that Anthony Weiner was in extreme fear of his life, from the Clintons, that he actually created his Julian Assange’s style of a dead man’s switch in the event of his death. I would add, that Huma may want to avoid subway trains and airplanes for awhile for her own safety. I predict that Weiner will become a star witness in either the immediate take down of Hillary, or her impeachment trial should George Soros be able to steal the election for her. Conclusion For the good of the country, Hillary needs to step down immediately. She has made our justice system and nation, as a whole, a complete laughing stock. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who would vote for Hillary Clinton, needs to take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself what kind of person are you. How can you face your kids and claim to be a moral authority in their lives and vote for this evil monster? This is just another day in the life of the Clinton Crime Family.

United Airlines Passenger Is Dragged From an Overbooked Flight - The New York Times

Daniel Victor and Matt Stevens

The disturbing scene captured on cellphone videos by United Airlines passengers on Sunday went beyond the typical nightmares of travelers on an overbooked flight. An unidentified man who refused to be bumped from a plane screamed as a security officer wrestled him out of his seat and dragged him down the aisle by his arms. His glasses slid down his face, and his shirt rose above his midriff as uniformed officers followed. At least two passengers documented the physical confrontation and the man’s anguished protests, and their videos spread rapidly online on Monday as people criticized the airline’s tactics. A security officer involved in the episode has been placed on leave, the authorities said, and the federal Transportation Department is investigating whether the airline complied with rules regarding overbooking. Tyler Bridges, a passenger on Sunday’s flight who posted a video to Twitter, said in a telephone interview on Monday that “it felt like something the world needed to see. ” The shocking scene raised questions about the common practice of overbooking and how far airlines will go to sell all of their seats. Particularly annoying, Mr. Bridges said, was that the airline was looking for extra seats for some of its employees. The videos show a security officer removing the unidentified man from his seat and dragging him off the plane as he screams. The flight was scheduled to depart O’Hare International Airport in Chicago for Louisville, Ky. at 5:40 p. m. but was delayed two hours. Charlie Hobart, a United spokesman, said in a telephone interview on Monday that “we had asked several times, politely,” for the man to give up his seat before force was used. “We had a customer who refused to leave the aircraft,” he said. “We have a number of customers on board that aircraft, and they want to get to their destination on time and safely, and we want to work to get them there. “Since that customer refused to leave the aircraft, we had to call” the police, and they came on board, he said. The Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement on Monday that the incident “was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure” and that an officer had been placed on leave pending a review of the matter. The department declined to identify the officer. Airlines routinely sell tickets to more people than the plane can seat, counting on several people not to arrive. When there are not enough airlines first try to offer rewards to customers willing to reschedule their plans, usually in the form of travel vouchers, gift cards or cash. The arrangement — which is usually negotiated before passengers board the plane — can be lucrative to flexible travelers and is crucial for airlines to maximize profit. “A bakery doesn’t want to have a lot of extra pastries at the end of the day they have to throw out,” said Seth Kaplan, managing partner at Airline Weekly, an industry publication. “To an airline, an empty seat is basically the same thing as stale bread. It’s something they can never sell again. ” But involuntarily bumping passengers is rare. In 2016, United involuntarily denied boarding to 3, 765 of its more than 86 million passengers on oversold flights, according to the Transportation Department. An additional 62, 895 people voluntarily gave up their seats. The event on Sunday was the second social media stir for United in two weeks. In March, two girls were barred from a flight because they were wearing leggings, which the company said violated its dress code for a benefit for United employees and their dependents. Critics called the policy sexist and overbearing. On Sunday, Mr. Bridges said that when he arrived at the gate about 20 minutes before boarding, United had announced that the flight was overbooked the airline was offering $400 vouchers to anyone who would give up their seat, Mr. Bridges said. As the passengers boarded the plane, “there was no indication anything was wrong,” Mr. Bridges said. An airline employee came on board and said United needed four people to get off, Mr. Bridges said, adding that the airline had by then increased its incentive to an $800 voucher. The airline later said that it offered up to $1, 000 in compensation. Mr. Hobart, the United spokesman, confirmed that United sought passengers willing to give up their seats with compensation but that none stepped forward. Another United employee told passengers that the plane would not leave until four people got off, Mr. Bridges said. The employee specified that the airline had four United employees who needed to get to Louisville, he said. Four passengers were selected to be bumped, and three left without incident, Mr. Hobart said. Mr. Hobart would not say whether the bumped passengers were chosen by a computer, an employee or some combination of the two. But factors can include how long a customer would have to stay at the airport before being rebooked, he said, and the airline looks to avoid separating families or leaving unaccompanied minors. A United employee first approached a couple who appeared to be in their Mr. Bridges said, and the pair begrudgingly got off the plane. Then the United employee went to a man five rows behind Mr. Bridges and told him he needed to get off the plane. Mr. Bridges said the man told the employee: “I’m not getting off the plane. I’m a doctor I have to see patients in the morning. ” Mr. Hobart said: “We explained the scenario to the customer. That customer chose not to get out of his seat. ” The United employee then told the man that if he did not get off the plane, she would call security. As she turned to leave, the man shouted after her, Mr. Bridges said. Specifically, he said, the passenger complained that he had been singled out because he was Chinese. “It was really intense, really uncomfortable,” he said. The situation also became uncomfortable for the United employees who then got on board and took the vacated seats, Mr. Bridges said. They were berated by passengers and told they should be ashamed, he said. The man who had been removed returned to the flight briefly, Mr. Bridges said. Video shows him jogging through the aisle, repeatedly saying, “I have to go home. ” Jayse Anspach, a seminary student who was also on the flight, said that when the man returned to the plane, he ran toward the back. It was not clear how the man had managed to board again. At one point, the authorities and medics surrounded the man and gave him tissues for his mouth, which was bleeding, Mr. Anspach said. Eventually the man moved to the front of the plane and collapsed sideways into a seat before being taken off the plane on a stretcher, Mr. Anspach said. In a statement, Oscar Munoz, the chief executive of United Airlines, called the episode “an upsetting event. ” He said the company apologized for having to “reaccommodate” the customers. “Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened,” he said. “We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation. ” In a statement, United said, “We apologize for the overbook situation. ” Andrew D. Gilman, the chief executive of CommCore Consulting Group, a crisis communications firm, said the situation would probably make people reconsider whether they wanted to fly United. That could be particularly damaging with business passengers, a lucrative group that is “outraged as much as anybody,” he said. “As somebody who flies hundreds of thousands of miles, I’m saying, ‘I thought once I was on the plane, it was my seat,’” Mr. Gilman said. “They unfortunately disrupted a number of certainties that people tend to rely upon, so I think it’s a big trust thing. ” Mr. Gilman said the episode was “also going to be really hard on their employees for a while. ” “It’s a hard enough job — high stress, tense people, delays — and now you have people who are suspicious of you,” he said. “How they can communicate that they were sincere and meant well is going to be very challenging. ”

Don’t Root, Root, Root for the Racist, Red-Face Team from Cleveland

Henry Wolff

Don’t Root, Root, Root for the Racist, Red-Face Team from Cleveland Paul Thornton, Los Angeles Times, October 26, 2016 How I wish it were the Dodgers who took the field Tuesday night in Cleveland. Yes, we’re all sad in Los Angeles that our team is now one year closer to celebrating the 30th anniversary of its last World Series appearance, but this goes beyond provincialism and wounded civil pride. The Dodgers deserved the chance to humiliate a Cleveland baseball team that not only persists in identifying itself as the “Indians,” but also resurrected the laughably racist, red-faced mascot Chief Wahoo just in time for the playoffs. For those who haven’t kept up with the baseball drama, here’s a summary: The Cleveland team drew the curtain on its regular-season minstrel show in the spring, having replaced Chief Wahoo on its caps with a vintage red “C.” It never officially retired the offending mascot, but Wahoo remained confined only to uniform sleeves throughout the regular season, leading reasonable people to believe that the team ownership had finally seen the light where other franchises such as the NFL’s Washington Redskins remained defiantly in the dark, and was easing its fans into the post-“Indians” era. Or so we thought. Chief Wahoo reappeared when the Cleveland team began its impressive playoff run against the Boston Red Sox, and he hasn’t left. He remained stitched on hats and held aloft by adoring Cleveland fans as the team convincingly defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, even surviving a legal attack by advocates of Canada’s indigenous peoples that threatened to forbid even so much as the use of the term “Indians” while the team was on Canadian soil. {snip} It’s tempting to look past all this and take pity on a city that’s had it as rough as Cleveland. The Cubs’ championship drought has famously lasted for 107 baseball seasons, but the Cleveland team boasts a pitiable 67 years without a World Series title. Beyond sports, Cleveland’s decline as an important American metropolis is arguably unmatched, having tumbled from a population peak of 900,000-plus in 1950 to less than 400,000 today. {snip} But Cleveland? Hey, I know some generous, wonderfully caring people from that part of Ohio, which makes wishing for their team’s brutal defeat personally difficult. But being on the right side of a moral dispute isn’t supposed to be easy, especially when the team in question isn’t the evil Washington Redskins and its infernal owner, Daniel Snyder. Cleveland’s municipal misery doesn’t excuse the disgraceful exalting of Chief Wahoo any more than white men’s economic hardship makes Donald Trump’s popularity OK. {snip}

Trust Records Show Trump Is Still Closely Tied to His Empire - The New York Times

Susanne Craig and Eric Lipton

Just days before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump stood beside his tax lawyer at a Midtown Manhattan news conference as she announced that he planned to place his vast business holdings in a trust, a move she said would allay fears that he might exploit the Oval Office for personal gain. However, a number of questions were left unanswered — including who would ultimately benefit from the trust — raising concerns about just how meaningful the move was. Now, records have emerged that show just how closely tied Mr. Trump remains to the empire he built. While the president says he has walked away from the operations of his business, two people close to him are the named trustees and have broad legal authority over his assets: his eldest son, Donald Jr. and Allen H. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer. Mr. Trump, who will receive reports on any profit, or loss, on his company as a whole, can revoke their authority at any time. What’s more, the purpose of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust is to hold assets for the “exclusive benefit” of the president. This trust remains under Mr. Trump’s Social Security number, at least as far as federal taxes are concerned. Since his election, there have been widespread calls for Mr. Trump to sell his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust. He has resisted those calls, stressing that the president has no legal obligation to do so. While the trust structure, outlined in documents made public through a Freedom of Information Act request by ProPublica, may give the president the appearance of distance from his business, it drew sharp criticism from experts in government ethics. “I don’t see how this in the slightest bit avoids a conflict of interest,” said Frederick J. Tansill, a trust and estates lawyer from Virginia who examined the documents at the request of The New York Times. “First it is revocable at any time, and it is his son and his chief financial officer who are running it. ” It is not uncommon for people to place assets in a trust with themselves as beneficiaries for purposes. But Mr. Trump’s situation is unprecedented because it involves a wealthy president acting to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest. The Trump Organization declined to comment for this article. The most immediate test of Mr. Trump’s legal moves to separate himself from his company, the Trump Organization, pertains to the ownership of the new Trump International Hotel in the Old Post Office Building in Washington. The trust documents, which were prepared last month, argue that “all beneficial ownership in the licensee previously held by Donald J. Trump, personally, now is held derivatively and beneficially by The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust,” which is legal language intended to suggest that Mr. Trump no longer has a personal tie to the hotel lease. A provision in the 2013 lease for the building, held by Mr. Trump and his three oldest children, appears to prohibit a federally elected official, including the president, from benefiting from it. But lawyers who specialize in federal contracts say the trust arrangement simply creates an additional legal step between Mr. Trump and the hotel — meaning he will still profit from it. Robert H. Sitkoff, a professor at Harvard Law School, said the new details in the trust documents were unlikely to resolve the apparent legal problems with the Old Post Office site. “Formally he is no longer the owner, but functionally he still is,” he said. Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform who has called for a congressional investigation into the lease, said he remained unsatisfied that Mr. Trump had addressed his conflicts. “This is smoke and mirrors,” he said of the new documents. While Mr. Trump may have to take additional legal steps to avoid violating the terms of the Old Post Office lease, he is exempt from laws that prohibit federal employees from participating in government matters that will directly affect their own financial interests. At the Jan. 11 news conference in which she outlined the plans for Mr. Trump’s assets, Sheri A. Dillon, his tax lawyer, called the steps he had already taken significant, adding there was an agreement governing the president’s trust that “sharply” limited the amount of information about his company that he could access. “The will have no role in deciding whether the Trump Organization engages in any new deal,” she said, “and he will only know of a deal if he reads it in the paper or sees it on TV. ” Ms. Dillon added that an asset sale by Mr. Trump would also be fraught with issues. “Whatever price was paid would be subject to criticism and scrutiny,” she said. “Was it too high? Is there pay for play? Was it too much pay to curry favor with the ?” The Trump Organization, which is privately held, has also released a list of 488 Trump companies that Mr. Trump has held positions at, saying he resigned from all of them. Public records show that he has severed ties from some of these entities. The Trump Organization has pledged not to pursue new business deals overseas, though it plans to expand within the United States. Last month the company named Bobby Burchfield, a longtime Republican Party lawyer and corporate litigator, as an “independent ethics adviser. ” The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust has existed since at least 2014, records show. By 2016 it was the only shareholder in DJT Holdings, one of Mr. Trump’s main limited liability companies, according to documents filed by Mr. Trump as part of his bid for president and released by the Federal Election Commission. That company holds some of Mr. Trump’s largest assets, including his Old Post Office lease, golf courses and residential properties including a house in Beverly Hills, Calif. New York City property records show that in recent weeks Mr. Trump has transferred several residential condominiums he owns into the trust.

A Scholarly Sting Operation Shines a Light on ‘Predatory’ Journals - The New York Times

Gina Kolata

The applicant’s nom de plume was not exactly subtle, if you know Polish. The middle initial and surname of the author, Anna O. Szust, mean “fraudster. ” Her publications were fake and her degrees were fake. The book chapters she listed among her publications could not be found, but perhaps that should not have been a surprise because the book publishers were fake, too. Yet, when Dr. Fraud applied to 360 randomly selected academic journals asking to be an editor, 48 accepted her and four made her editor in chief. She got two offers to start a new journal and be its editor. One journal sent her an email saying, “It’s our pleasure to add your name as our editor in chief for the journal with no responsibilities. ” Little did they know that they had fallen for a sting, plotted and carried out by a group of researchers who wanted to draw attention to and systematically document the seamy side of publishing. While those types of journals began with earnest aspirations to make scientific papers available to everyone, their proliferation has had unintended consequences. Traditional journals typically are supported by subscribers who pay a fee while authors pay nothing to be published. Nonsubscribers can only read papers if they pay the journal for each one they want to see. journals reverse that model. The authors pay and the published papers are free to anyone who cares to read them. Publishing in an journal can be expensive — the highly regarded Public Library of Science (PLOS) journals charge from $1, 495 to $2, 900 to publish a paper, with the fee dependent on which of its journals accepts the paper. Not everyone anticipated what would happen next, or to what extent it would happen. The business model spawned a shadowy world of what have been called predatory journals. They may have similar names to legitimate journals, but exist by publishing just about anything sent to them for a fee that can range from under $100 to thousands of dollars. The fee often is between $100 and $400, said Jeffrey Beall, scholarly communications librarian at the University of Colorado, Denver, as the journals compete for paying customers. Of course, it is easier for predatory journals to have low fees because their expenses are minimal. The researchers decided not to list any of the fake journals that they uncovered in the sting, saying that some have names so close to those of legitimate journals that it would be confusing. There are now thousands of fake journals, about as many as legitimate ones, according to one of the creators of Dr. Fraud, Katarzyna Pisanski, a researcher in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex in England, and her colleagues. It was that alternate world that Dr. Fraud tapped into. The legitimate journals rejected her application out of hand, but many fake ones did not hesitate to take her on. The investigators, writing about their sting operation in Nature, said they had seen young colleagues fall for the blandishments of predatory journals, not realizing that the emails they received were from publications that only wanted their money. Dr. Pisanski and her colleagues wanted to help researchers understand how fake journals operated. “The emails can be very flattering,” Dr. Pisanski said, telling the recipients they are “eminent researchers” and “inviting” them to contribute. When researchers respond and send in papers, “they are published at lightning speed, often without peer review,” she said. But not everyone who publishes in these journals is an innocent dupe. Mr. Beall, who until recently published a list of predatory journals, said he believes many researchers know exactly what they are doing when they publish there. “I believe there are countless researchers and academics, currently employed, who have secured jobs, promotions, and tenure using publications in journals as part of their credentials and experience for the jobs and promotions they got,” Mr. Beall said. And it can require real diligence on the part of employers to ferret out those questionable publications, Mr. Beall said. “Examining someone’s publications now requires close scrutiny,” Mr. Beall said. “Merely eyeballing a C. V. is insufficient now. ” David Knutson, the manager of communications at PLOS, said that young researchers may feel relentless pressure to publish, at all costs. “These authors are shopping around their papers,” he said. “There is so much pressure to publish. ” As for Dr. Fraud, she got some lucrative offers. One journal suggested she organize a conference, whose papers would then be published she would get 40 percent of the proceeds. Another invited her to start a new journal and offered her 30 percent of the profits. Dr. Pisanski and her colleagues told the journals that accepted Dr. Fraud that she wanted to withdraw her application to be an editor. But it was not easy to withdraw. Dr. Fraud remains listed as a member of the editorial boards of at least 11 of those journals. She is also listed as a member of committees. At least one journal she did not apply to also listed her as an editor. And, Dr. Pisanski and her colleagues wrote, Dr. Fraud is even listed as an advisory board member of the Journals Open Access Indexing Committee. Its mission? To “increase the visibility and ease of use of scholarly journals. ”

Surging on the Riviera, With Mario Balotelli in Tow - The New York Times

Rory Smith

NICE, France — Rivère accepts the compliment, but rejects the comparison. Rivère, the president of OGC Nice, can see why his team, this season, has been cast as France’s equivalent to Leicester City. He knows their stories follow the same arc: a provincial David defying overwhelming financial obstacles to outwit Goliath. He appreciates that the parallel is intended as praise, a convenient, flattering shorthand to explain the scale of Nice’s achievement in competing with Monaco and Paris at the summit of France’s Ligue 1 over the last six months, maintaining a title challenge despite a budget that is a small fraction of its two bigger, richer rivals’. Sitting in an office at the back of Nice’s official club store, though, Rivère does not indulge the comparison for long. What Leicester did in winning the Premier League last season, he says, came from the realms of fantasy. It was an alignment of the stars, one that can no more be explained than it can be repeated. Nice, he is convinced, is different. If Leicester was a wonderful accident, Nice’s metamorphosis is entirely by design. From the outside, it is tempting — though misguided — to put a specific date on Nice’s ascendance: Aug. 31, 2016 (more on that below). In reality, the club has been growing, slowly and steadily, ever since Rivère, a real estate magnate, took control in 2011. When he arrived, he said, it was a “club with a bad reputation, without a strategy, a club in perdition. ” He has changed all of that. Nice moved into a new stadium, the Allianz Riviera, in 2013. Rivère is overseeing the construction of a new training facility. He has even delivered on his promise to find outside investment, having sold 80 percent of the club to a consortium of Chinese and American investors. Results on the field have consistently improved, too, culminating in last season’s finish under Coach Claude Puel. When Puel left last summer for Southampton — a more apposite English parallel for Nice — Rivère persuaded Lucien Favre, an astute Swiss coach who had led Borussia Mönchengladbach to the Champions League, to replace him. “Like Puel, he was not at the level of Nice when he arrived,” Rivère said. “He was much higher. ” The squad Favre inherited was one of youth and promise, yet he has lifted it to another plane despite a wide disparity in resources. Nice’s annual budget is $45 million. Monaco’s is three times that, and P. S. G. ’s more than 10 times as large. Nice, though, has led the league for much of the season. A place in the Champions League next season now looks like the least of its ambitions. The spotlight, though, always prefers to fixate on hares, rather than tortoises. It was only on Aug. 31, when Rivère confirmed the arrival of Mario Balotelli, the enigmatic, Italian striker, that the rest of the world sat up and took notice of what was happening on the Riviera. The year before, Nice had signed an equally tempestuous character, the France winger Hatem Ben Arfa. The move piqued interest in France, and a degree of curiosity from the rest of Europe. Balotelli was another order of magnitude. Dozens of reporters descended on the Riviera. L’Équipe, the French sports daily, devoted five pages to the signing. Nice’s name flashed around the planet. “With Ben Arfa, it was Europe,” Rivère said. “With Balotelli, it was the world. ” Much of the coverage, naturally, centered on Balotelli’s reputation, his truculence and his rebelliousness. Many felt that Nice — like Liverpool, Milan and Manchester City before it — would struggle to control Balotelli, to restore his focus. The move was dismissed, in some quarters, as a publicity stunt. Rivère was more confident. “I do not often do this,” he said, “but I looked at everything that had been said about him. I asked to see the videos of his matches, the good and the bad. I saw 20 bad things and just one good thing. “One day, after training at Manchester City, he met a small boy. He asked him what he was doing there, and the boy said he did not want to go to school, because he had been bullied. So Balotelli took the boy to school in his car, so the boy could feel like a star, and sorted out the problem. I said that if he had done this, he must have a good heart. ” Rivère has been proved right: Working to a customized training plan, Balotelli has thrived, emerging as a central plank of Nice’s title challenge. He has scored 11 goals in 18 games though there have been controversies, they have happened to him, rather than because of him: a red card that was later rescinded, and racial abuse directed toward him during a game at Bastia. “When a player arrives, I guarantee only one thing: that if they come to play here, they will find a family club, a good atmosphere, a good group,” Rivère said. “They will find a smile. “When you have a player who is in trouble, the problem is often in the head, not the feet,” he continued. “If you had talent in the past and lost it, with us you have more chance of rediscovering the pleasure of playing football. ” That is not to say Rivère is running some sort of corrective institution for the chronically wayward. Nice benefits from Balotelli just as much as he benefits from Nice, if not more on the field, of course, but off it, too. Rivère referred to the Italian as a marketing “accelerator. ” That is particularly important as the club tries to grow. Nice is one of the oldest soccer teams in France, and one of the proudest, too: It is the only French club with its own anthem — “Nissa la Bella,” or “Beautiful Nice,” in Niçois dialect. When its new stadium opened, Nice arranged for the turf from the center circle at its old home, the Stade du Ray, to be laid into the field, a symbolic gesture by club officials to worried fans that though the location had changed, Nice’s heart remained the same. And yet the city seems too genteel, too well heeled, to feel as as Marseille, for example, a couple of hours down the Côte d’Azur. Soccer tends to thrive where it is the single unifying factor at first glance, that is not the case in Nice. The mountains are an hour away, Monte Carlo even less. There are beaches and nightclubs, money and glamour. All act as competition. So signing Balotelli was not just a way to garner international attention, but another effort to draw fans away from the various other delights of the area and into the stadium. “We try to make matches a complete experience,” Rivère said. He has always demanded that the style of play be “popular,” appealing. The club regularly hands out free tickets to local children, and it has refitted all of its V. I. P. areas some do not close until the small hours of the morning. There was even an ice rink installed outside the Allianz Riviera before Christmas. It would be unfair to dismiss all of those initiatives as gimmickry, an artificial imposition of a soccer culture. Beneath the surface, the bond between this city and this club is strong. At the start of the Promenade des Anglais, in the heart of the city, is a memorial to the 86 people killed in the Bastille Day terror attack last year. It is an impossibly moving sight: a bandstand awash with thousands of teddy bears left to commemorate the dead, poems written in their honor, flags, stones, candles and messages of condolence. Rival fans have made pilgrimages here, during the season, to pay their respects: a Montpellier pennant, a Lens jersey, a scarf from F. C. Krasnodar, a Russian team, all nestle among the tributes. And everywhere, there are flashes of red and black, OGC Nice’s colors, the team’s identity acting as a surrogate for that of the city. It is a role that Rivère, and the club as a whole, feel keenly. OGC Nice has helped raise hundreds of thousands of euros for the families of the victims. In the 86th minute of every home game, it remembers those who were murdered. It would be glib to say the tragedy has helped inspire Nice’s success this season nobody at the club would make that claim. But they know that such events cannot only put soccer into perspective but, in the aftermath, also lend it a greater significance. This year they have a greater responsibility and, as they write this latest chapter on their fastidiously planned journey, an opportunity for a greater impact, too. “What happened on July 14 wounded every citizen of Nice,” Rivère said. “It gives us even more willingness to succeed. We are like a medicine, for those who love football. The day of the match, the day after, we help people to forget. ”

Donald Trump Seizes on Orlando Shooting and Repeats Call for Temporary Ban on Muslim Migration - The New York Times

Jonathan Martin

WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump on Sunday sought to capitalize on the mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, reiterating his controversial call for a temporary ban on Muslim migration to the United States and criticizing Hillary Clinton for what he claimed was her desire to “dramatically increase admissions from the Middle East. ” In a demonstration of his willingness to flout convention and engage in a style of demagogic politics rarely displayed by a presidential nominee, Mr. Trump claimed he had warned of the sort of terrorism that marked the shooting, which killed 50 and was the worst in the country’s history. “I said this was going to happen — and it is only going to get worse,” Mr. Trump said in a statement, arguing that Mrs. Clinton’s presidency would mean “hundreds of thousands” more Middle East migrants. “And we will have no way to screen them, pay for them, or prevent the second generation from radicalizing,” said Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican . The suspected gunman, Omar Mateen, was an American who declared allegiance to the Islamic State and was the son of an immigrant from Afghanistan. Mr. Trump extended his opprobrium to that heavily Muslim country by noting the wide support there for Shariah law. In a separate statement on Twitter, Mr. Trump said that the rampage in Orlando “is just the beginning” and noted that he “asked for the ban” on Muslim immigration to America. He has made his hard line against Muslims central to his campaign, and, even after becoming the presumptive nominee and turning to a broader electorate, refused to fully back off from his call to temporarily halt Muslims from traveling to America. Mr. Trump has faced widespread condemnation for this stance from both Mrs. Clinton and numerous Republicans, but, as he did again Sunday, he has said such vigilance was necessary and that the country “can’t afford to be politically correct. ” To this end, he said Mrs. Clinton should quit the presidential race if she proved unwilling to acknowledge that the attack in Orlando was the result of “two words: radical Islam. ” Mrs. Clinton did not use that phrase or respond directly to Mr. Trump’s broadsides. Her campaign instead sought to use the event to diminish their Republican rival. “This act of terror is the largest mass shooting in American history and a tragedy that requires a serious response,” Jennifer Palmieri, Mrs. Clinton’s communications director said, adding that: “Donald Trump put out political attacks, weak platitudes and . ” Mrs. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, initially responded with caution Sunday morning after early reports about the assault, offering her thoughts to those affected “as we wait for more information. ” But after President Obama spoke in the afternoon, and called the Orlando killings an “act of terror,” she issued a longer statement echoing the president. “This was an act of terror,” Mrs. Clinton said. In her statement, Mrs. Clinton said “we need to redouble our efforts to defend our country from threats at home and abroad,” focusing on the threat of terrorism. Further down in her statement, she called for more stringent restrictions on guns. “Finally, we need to keep guns like the ones used last night out of the hands of terrorists or other violent criminals,” she said, taking up the call many on the left made in the hours after the attack. Mr. Trump, who made no mention of access to firearms in any of his comments, said Mr. Obama should resign for his own refusal to say “radical Islam. ” The White House declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s demand for the president’s resignation. A tragedy in the middle of a presidential race would typically force restraint on candidates. But this tradition has largely vanished in the era of the superheated, social media news cycle, where mass shootings immediately set off debates about access to guns and, if the perpetrator is Muslim, Islamist terrorism. And if the Orlando massacre was a test of how willing candidates and their supporters are to pursue partisan attacks in the aftermath of horrific violence, Mr. Trump left little doubt about his willingness to push the boundaries of the country’s public discourse. He had no public events Sunday and, in a rarity, did not appear on any of the weekly political talk shows. But he made ample use of his Twitter account, where he said: “appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism. ” It was a vivid illustration of how little heed Mr. Trump pays to traditional political standards, whether it is on how campaigns are waged or on the kinds of positions he embraces. But there were few Republicans criticizing him for his Muslim ban proposal on Sunday. Mr. Trump had planned a speech on Monday in New Hampshire focused on what he sees as the Clintons’ ethical lapses. But he indicated in his statement on Sunday that he would use the appearance to “further address this terrorist attack, immigration, and national security. ” If Mr. Trump was characteristically bellicose in his response, Mrs. Clinton was typically restrained. She used her statement to make clear she recognized that the country had suffered yet another act of terrorism, but also made sure to offer her solidarity with the gay community and reiterate her support for gun control. She was also off the campaign trail for the day, but avoided Twitter blasts and refrained from making any extended public comment until after the president delivered his remarks in the White House briefing room. Mrs. Clinton was also planning to give remarks Monday lacerating her rival. She had planned to speak about what she deems as Mr. Trump’s dangerous demagogy at an appearance in Ohio. It is unclear whether Mrs. Clinton will use her speech to forcefully confront Mr. Trump. Mrs. Palmieri, the campaign aide, said Mrs. Clinton would discuss “steps she would take to keep the country safe” in the coming days and another aide said the candidate intended to refashion her address Monday to focus on the terrorism in Orlando. What is clear is that the shooting will reorient the race for at least the next week. Mrs. Clinton was to have held a campaign rally with Mr. Obama in Green Bay, Wis. on Wednesday, her first joint appearance with the president. But she quickly postponed the event on Sunday after the severity of the shooting became clear.

President Putin Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club | The Vineyard of the Saker

Vladimir Putin took part in the final session of the Valdai International Discussion Club’ s 13th annual meeting, which this year took the theme The Future in Progress: Shaping the World of Tomorrow . Over the three-day event, 130 experts and political analysts from 35 countries examined current issues concerning development of international relations, internal political organisation, the economy, demography, and technology. The participants looked, in particular, at ways to mitigate the consequences of radical changes on the global political map and the crisis in democratic systems and their work, and discussed development roads for Russia-EU relations and what the global system might look like in 10 years’ time. The final session was also attended by former President of Finland Tarja Halonen, former President of Austria Heinz Fischer, and former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki. * * * President of Russia Vladimir Putin : Tarja, Heinz, Thabo, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to see you again. I want to start by thanking all of the participants in the Valdai International Discussion Club, from Russia and abroad, for your constructive part in this work, and I want to thank our distinguished guests for their readiness to take part in this open discussion. Our esteemed moderator just wished me a good departure into retirement, and I wish myself the same when the time comes. This is the right approach and the thing to do. But I am not retired yet and am for now the leader of this big country. As such, it is fitting to show restraint and avoid displays of excessive aggressiveness. I do not think that this is my style in any case. But I do think that we should be frank with each other, particularly here in this gathering. I think we should hold candid, open discussions, otherwise our dialogue makes no sense and would be insipid and without the slightest interest. I think that this style of discussion is extremely needed today given the great changes taking place in the world. The theme for our meeting this year, The Future in Progress: Shaping the World of Tomorrow , is very topical. Last year, the Valdai forum participants discussed the problems with the current world order. Unfortunately, little has changed for the better over these last months. Indeed, it would be more honest to say that nothing has changed. The tensions engendered by shifts in distribution of economic and political influence continue to grow. Mutual distrust creates a burden that narrows our possibilities for finding effective responses to the real threats and challenges facing the world today. Essentially, the entire globalisation project is in crisis today and in Europe, as we know well, we hear voices now saying that multiculturalism has failed. I think this situation is in many respects the result of mistaken, hasty and to some extent over-confident choices made by some countries’ elites a quarter-of-a-century ago. Back then, in the late 1980s-early 1990s, there was a chance not just to accelerate the globalisation process but also to give it a different quality and make it more harmonious and sustainable in nature. But some countries that saw themselves as victors in the Cold War, not just saw themselves this way but said it openly, took the course of simply reshaping the global political and economic order to fit their own interests. In their euphoria, they essentially abandoned substantive and equal dialogue with other actors in international life, chose not to improve or create universal institutions, and attempted instead to bring the entire world under the spread of their own organisations, norms and rules. They chose the road of globalisation and security for their own beloved selves, for the select few, and not for all. But far from everyone was ready to agree with this. We may as well be frank here, as we know full well that many did not agree with what was happening, but some were unable by then to respond, and others were not yet ready to respond. The result though is that the system of international relations is in a feverish state and the global economy cannot extricate itself from systemic crisis. At the same time, rules and principles, in the economy and in politics, are constantly being distorted and we often see what only yesterday was taken as a truth and raised to dogma status reversed completely. If the powers that be today find some standard or norm to their advantage, they force everyone else to comply. But if tomorrow these same standards get in their way, they are swift to throw them in the bin, declare them obsolete, and set or try to set new rules. Thus, we saw the decisions to launch airstrikes in the centre of Europe, against Belgrade, and then came Iraq, and then Libya. The operations in Afghanistan also started without the corresponding decision from the United Nations Security Council. In their desire to shift the strategic balance in their favour these countries broke apart the international legal framework that prohibited deployment of new missile defence systems. They created and armed terrorist groups, whose cruel actions have sent millions of civilians into flight, made millions of displaced persons and immigrants, and plunged entire regions into chaos. We see how free trade is being sacrificed and countries use sanctions as a means of political pressure, bypass the World Trade Organisation and attempt to establish closed economic alliances with strict rules and barriers, in which the main beneficiaries are their own transnational corporations. And we know this is happening. They see that they cannot resolve all of the problems within the WTO framework and so think, why not throw the rules and the organisation itself aside and build a new one instead. This illustrates what I just said. At the same time, some of our partners demonstrate no desire to resolve the real international problems in the world today. In organisations such as NATO, for example, established during the Cold War and clearly out of date today, despite all the talk about the need to adapt to the new reality, no real adaptation takes place. We see constant attempts to turn the OSCE, a crucial mechanism for ensuring common European and also trans-Atlantic security, into an instrument in the service of someone’s foreign policy interests. The result is that this very important organisation has been hollowed out. But they continue to churn out threats, imaginary and mythical threats such as the ‘Russian military threat’. This is a profitable business that can be used to pump new money into defence budgets at home, get allies to bend to a single superpower’s interests, expand NATO and bring its infrastructure, military units and arms closer to our borders. Of course, it can be a pleasing and even profitable task to portray oneself as the defender of civilisation against the new barbarians. The only thing is that Russia has no intention of attacking anyone. This is all quite absurd. I also read analytical materials, those written by you here today, and by your colleagues in the USA and Europe. It is unthinkable, foolish and completely unrealistic. Europe alone has 300 million people. All of the NATO members together with the USA have a total population of 600 million, probably. But Russia has only 146 million. It is simply absurd to even conceive such thoughts. And yet they use these ideas in pursuit of their political aims. Another mythical and imaginary problem is what I can only call the hysteria the USA has whipped up over supposed Russian meddling in the American presidential election. The United States has plenty of genuinely urgent problems, it would seem, from the colossal public debt to the increase in firearms violence and cases of arbitrary action by the police. You would think that the election debates would concentrate on these and other unresolved problems, but the elite has nothing with which to reassure society, it seems, and therefore attempt to distract public attention by pointing instead to supposed Russian hackers, spies, agents of influence and so forth. I have to ask myself and ask you too: Does anyone seriously imagine that Russia can somehow influence the American people’s choice? America is not some kind of ‘banana republic’, after all, but is a great power. Do correct me if I am wrong. The question is, if things continue in this vein, what awaits the world? What kind of world will we have tomorrow? Do we have answers to the questions of how to ensure stability, security and sustainable economic growth? Do we know how we will make a more prosperous world? Sad as it is to say, there is no consensus on these issues in the world today. Maybe you have come to some common conclusions through your discussions, and I would, of course, be interested to hear them. But it is very clear that there is a lack of strategy and ideas for the future. This creates a climate of uncertainty that has a direct impact on the public mood. Sociological studies conducted around the world show that people in different countries and on different continents tend to see the future as murky and bleak. This is sad. The future does not entice them, but frightens them. At the same time, people see no real opportunities or means for changing anything, influencing events and shaping policy. Yes, formally speaking, modern countries have all the attributes of democracy: Elections, freedom of speech, access to information, freedom of expression. But even in the most advanced democracies the majority of citizens have no real influence on the political process and no direct and real influence on power. People sense an ever-growing gap between their interests and the elite’s vision of the only correct course, a course the elite itself chooses. The result is that referendums and elections increasingly often create surprises for the authorities. People do not at all vote as the official and respectable media outlets advised them to, nor as the mainstream parties advised them to. Public movements that only recently were too far left or too far right are taking centre stage and pushing the political heavyweights aside. At first, these inconvenient results were hastily declared anomaly or chance. But when they became more frequent, people started saying that society does not understand those at the summit of power and has not yet matured sufficiently to be able to assess the authorities’ labour for the public good. Or they sink into hysteria and declare it the result of foreign, usually Russian, propaganda. Friends and colleagues, I would like to have such a propaganda machine here in Russia, but regrettably, this is not the case. We have not even global mass media outlets of the likes of CNN, BBC and others. We simply do not have this kind of capability yet. As for the claim that the fringe and populists have defeated the sensible, sober and responsible minority – we are not talking about populists or anything like that but about ordinary people, ordinary citizens who are losing trust in the ruling class. That is the problem. By the way, with the political agenda already eviscerated as it is, and with elections ceasing to be an instrument for change but consisting instead of nothing but scandals and digging up dirt – who gave someone a pinch, who sleeps with whom, if you’ll excuse me. This just goes beyond all boundaries. And honestly, a look at various candidates’ platforms gives the impression that they were made from the same mould – the difference is slight, if there is any. It seems as if the elites do not see the deepening stratification in society and the erosion of the middle class, while at the same time, they implant ideological ideas that, in my opinion, are destructive to cultural and national identity. And in certain cases, in some countries they subvert national interests and renounce sovereignty in exchange for the favour of the suzerain. This begs the question: who is actually the fringe? The expanding class of the supranational oligarchy and bureaucracy, which is in fact often not elected and not controlled by society, or the majority of citizens, who want simple and plain things – stability, free development of their countries, prospects for their lives and the lives of their children, preserving their cultural identity, and, finally, basic security for themselves and their loved ones. People are clearly scared to see how terrorism is evolving from a distant threat to an everyday one, how a terrorist attack could occur right near them, on the next street, if not on their own street, while any makeshift item – from a home-made explosive to an ordinary truck – can be used to carry out a mass killing. Moreover, the terrorist attacks that have taken place in the past few years in Boston and other US cities, Paris, Brussels, Nice and German cities, as well as, sadly, in our own country, show that terrorists do not need units or organised structures – they can act independently, on their own, they just need the ideological motivation against their enemies, that is, against you and us. The terrorist threat is a clear example of how people fail to adequately evaluate the nature and causes of the growing threats. We see this in the way events in Syria are developing. No one has succeeded in stopping the bloodshed and launching a political settlement process. One would think that we would have begun to put together a common front against terrorism now, after such lengthy negotiations, enormous effort and difficult compromises. But this has not happened and this common front has not emerged. My personal agreements with the President of the United States have not produced results either. There were people in Washington ready to do everything possible to prevent these agreements from being implemented in practice. This all demonstrates an unexplainable and I would say irrational desire on the part of the Western countries to keep making the same mistakes or, as we say here in Russia, keep stepping on the same rake. We all see what is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and a number of other countries. I have to ask, where are the results of the fight against terrorism and extremism? Overall, looking at the world as a whole, there are some results in particular regions and locations, but there is no global result and the terrorist threat continues to grow. We all remember the euphoria in some capitals over the Arab Spring. Where are these fanfares today? Russia’s calls for a joint fight against terrorism go ignored. What’s more, they continue to arm, supply and train terrorist groups in the hope of using them to achieve their own political aims. This is a very dangerous game and I address the players once again: The extremists in this case are more cunning, clever and stronger than you, and if you play these games with them, you will always lose. Colleagues, it is clear that the international community should concentrate on the real problems facing humanity today, the resolution of which will make our world a safer and more stable place and make the system of international relations fairer and more equal. As I said, it is essential to transform globalisation from something for a select few into something for all. It is my firm belief that we can overcome these threats and challenges only by working together on the solid foundation of international law and the United Nations Charter. Today it is the United Nations that continues to remain an agency that is unparalleled in representativeness and universality, a unique venue for equitable dialogue. Its universal rules are necessary for including as many countries as possible in economic and humanitarian integration, guaranteeing their political responsibility and working to coordinate their actions while also preserving their sovereignty and development models. We have no doubt that sovereignty is the central notion of the entire system of international relations. Respect for it and its consolidation will help underwrite peace and stability both at the national and international levels. There are many countries that can rely on a history stretching back a thousand years, like Russia, and we have come to appreciate our identity, freedom and independence. But we do not seek global domination, expansion or confrontation with anyone. In our mind, real leadership lies in seeing real problems rather than attempting to invent mythical threats and use them to steamroll others. This is exactly how Russia understands its role in global affairs today. There are priorities without which a prosperous future for our shared planet is unthinkable and they are absolutely obvious. I won’t be saying anything new here. First of all, there is equal and indivisible security for all states. Only after ending armed conflicts and ensuring the peaceful development of all countries will we be able to talk about economic progress and the resolution of social, humanitarian and other key problems. It is important to fight terrorism and extremism in actuality. It has been said more than once that this evil can only be overcome by a concerted effort of all states of the world. Russia continues to offer this to all interested partners. To be continued. The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world $27.95

Sorry, Ms. Jackson: You’re Underrated. ‘Control’ at 30 - The New York Times

Wesley Morris

The standard for artistic statements in pop music is now so high that you need a pilot’s license to compete with the Beyoncés, Kanyes and Kendricks of the world. But when Janet Jackson craved ascent, she didn’t go to flight school. She went to Flyte Tyme. That was the Minneapolis production company Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis operated and where the three came up with “Control,” Ms. Jackson’s third record and the first of their subtly strange, sonically complex thematic carnivals. The album turned 30 in February, peaked in popularity right about this time that year (hitting No. 1 in July) and still sounds today as much like 1986 as it does 2056. Some producers make hooks. These three made wedgies. “Control” is a work of confidence, cleverness and justifiable irritation. It’s also full of weird, amazing sounds that, 30 years later, it’s easy to take for granted as the way pop music has always been: polished in a factory to a gemlike gleam. But most of the nine songs on this album — nine songs! — weren’t just they were performed by almost entirely aggressive, attitudinal heavy machinery that was new for both Top 40 and the outer limits of mainstream RB. Meanwhile, for any number of reasons (that Super Bowl scandal, the long shadow of other stars, our cultural amnesia) the woman behind the wheel has been demoted to the back seat. And that, of course, warrants a correction. Ms. Jackson was around 20 when she entered the recording studio after a stint as a sitcom star (poor Penny on “Good Times,” richer Charlene on “Diff’rent Strokes”) an annulled marriage and a split from her notoriously oppressive father, Joe. So a decree was in order: “When it’s got to do with my want to be the one in control. ” That’s from the opening song, “Control,” which begins with a spoken proclamation of : “This is a story about control. ” Jimmy Jam and Mr. Lewis orbited Prince, and that opening has always sounded like a counterpoint to the mania of “Let’s Go Crazy,” which had just completed devouring America the year before. In the face of collapse, Prince demanded chaos. Ms. Jackson’s idea of anarchy was, well, control. In the middle of the title track, Ms. Jackson sings, “First time I fell in didn’t know what hit me,” and you can hear a car screeching into a collision. The next song starts with a demand: “Gimme a beat!” And the beat she gets is like no beat you’ve heard. It’s a bunch of drums punching themselves silly, then five notes of metallic, pipelike noise, joined by a strange, constant click. This is “Nasty,” and its violence is delicious. If the song has one climax, it must have four. Here was America’s Penny sounding like the proudly nasty funk artist Millie Jackson (no relation not biologically, anyway). The song is part antichauvinist call to arms, part street fight, part “had it up to here” exasperation, part wink — each a mood Ms. Jackson would deploy for most of her career. That constant click starts to make a lot of sense. It’s the first No. 3 hit built around the sucking of teeth. For two happy weeks, my favorite song on “Control” was also America’s. “When I Think of You” hit No. 1 in October 1986, but it began its hike toward the top in July and sounds the most like summer. It’s wearing the lightest clothes of any of the tracks and it dons them very slowly: first a plink of keyboard, then some jabs of bass, drums and percussion, hopscotching vibes, and, finally, a blast of artificial horns that sound an alarm that Ms. Jackson is going to do some of her prettiest singing. Hearing her here is like being able to see the seafloor from the shore. Ms. Jackson has a soufflé of a voice — thin, delicate, pleasurably sweet. Sometimes she, Jimmy Jam and Mr. Lewis could bury it with layers of sound, but not here. After about three minutes and 18 seconds of straightforward, daydreaming pop, she says, “Break,” and the bottom falls out, leaving just the keyboard and percussion, and a new, primal energy takes over. Then the bass reappears, some chanting builds to a squawking wail, the music explodes, and Ms. Jackson laughs and sings, “Feels so I think of you. ” Seconds later, the song’s over. So what’s it about? “You,” but probably what Ms. Jackson does when she, uh, thinks of you. It makes sense to admire “Control” as an album about independence. It’s a compelling tale of freedom in which Ms. Jackson liberates herself from the demands of suffocating men to make her own demands. She granted herself permission to define her sexiness. Even now, the excitement of “When I Think of You” is the sight of a cherubic Janet Jackson across a soundstage in a silky, jacket and bustier, matching pants, heels, that hoop earring with the key on it, and the mane of three lions. That was also the summer of Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” video, in which she seduced with just the bustier, some fishnets and a peep show. Despite, or more likely because of, all those clothes, Ms. Jackson’s dancing seemed all the freer. One reason to revisit “Control,” aside from its general excellence and a milestone anniversary, is to consider Ms. Jackson’s value as a pop artist, which doesn’t happen often enough. Her most recent album, “Unbreakable,” hit No. 1 last fall, but the gleam of her stardom never recovered from that evening in 2004 when Justin Timberlake ripped open her costume, exposing her breast at the Super Bowl. The logistics and intent of the moment are still ambiguous Ms. Jackson publicly apologized. It didn’t matter. The stain had set. She went from a steady maker of big hits to some kind of postlapsarian seemingly overnight. But it still feels less like she’s fallen and more like she was pushed. The album she released soon after the Super Bowl, “Damita Jo,” remains underrated as a result. But so does Ms. Jackson, who’s made several great records, including “The Velvet Rope” (1997) and “All for You” (2001). The punitive racial and gender politics of the halftime show partially explain her diminishment. She’s spent the latter part of her career as a vital member of Tyler Perry’s movie troupe and opted for more discreet attire than she used to. Another explanation is that her natural demureness and inclination toward privacy have made her seem more reclusive in a age in which an artist like Madonna — or her and Ms. Jackson’s proliferating progeny — seems more omnipresent. Really, though, the narrative history of popular music tends to narrow with distance, regardless of how many tens of millions of albums you’ve sold or how vertiginous your fame. We often think of pop’s top echelon in terms of Prince, Madonna and Ms. Jackson’s brother, Michael, each of whom tends to overshadow what makes Ms. Jackson crucial. For one thing, she was as necessary as Michael Jackson and Prince for the integration of MTV. And she should have been: She was the superior artist. Only Madonna was keener about the power of . Ms. Jackson’s hits might be less distinctive, too, in collective hindsight. I rarely hear her at parties, even at nostalgic ones. There is, apparently, no “1999,” “Holiday” or “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” in her trove. It could just be that for a song as fed up as “What Have You Done for Me Lately” or as fun to sing along to as “Escapade,” from “Rhythm Nation 1814” (1989) the music might just be too quirky to lure you to the dance floor. So say certain D. J. s and algorithms, anyway. Eventually, Ms. Jackson made blackness an important part of her music and presence, too. Her “Janet. ” album (1993) includes a song with Chuck D called “New Agenda,” in which she denounces racism and declares that, as an woman, “I stand tall with pride. ” When “Control” reached the top of the Billboard 200, the second and third positions were held by Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston. And Tina Turner had just mounted a legendary second act as a solo artist. America seemed O. K. with black women dominating different areas of pop music. Ms. Jackson just inserted politics. She recorded “New Agenda” the year after the Rodney King beating and the riots that followed. The only difference between then and now is that Ms. Jackson would have built a concept video around the song and put it on HBO. As it is, the premiere of her “Rhythm Nation” video was pretty much the “Lemonade” of its day. Thirty years of “Control” is a useful, if contrived, excuse to argue for Ms. Jackson’s necessity, especially as someone who knew the power of an image. Take that hoop earring with the key. It was as iconic as L L Cool J’s Kangols, George Michael’s stubble and Steven Tyler’s scarves. It was the perfect symbol for both a project called “Control” and a woman whose guard has gone down and up over the decades. People thought that key was a potential invitation, something sexy. But what if it was just ? What if she was never looking for someone to give it to? What if she was her own lock?

Boston Marathon Bombing Survivor to Marry Firefighter Who Rescued Her - Breitbart

Katherine Rodriguez

A Boston Marathon bombing survivor is set to marry the firefighter who rescued her after the bombs detonated. [Roseann Sdoia, a Boston native who was a spectator near the finish line of the race in 2013, was hit by shrapnel from the second bomb that exploded, the Daily Mail reported. Firefighter Mike Materia stepped in to save Sdoia’s life by using a belt as a makeshift tourniquet, and he held her hand as she was rushed to the hospital. While at the hospital, Sdoia’s mother tried to set him up with her. “In the hospital, my mom tried to set me up with him,” Sdoia told the New York Post. “She was like, ‘Oh, did you see that firefighter? He’s so cute.’ And I was like, ‘Mom, I just got blown up. ’” Sdoia’s leg required amputation, and Materia was there by her side throughout the recovery process. “I do feel that, in a sense, some things happen for a reason,” Sdoia said. The couple went on their first date in June 2013, and Materia proposed to Sdoia in December. He put a special engraved dog tag on their dog Sal, saying “Mike wants to know … If you’ll marry him. ” The couple plans to have a small wedding in October or November. They plan to release a book in March called Perfect Strangers, which tells the story of four lives that intersected during the bombing.

Pope Francis: The Virgin Mary Was No ‘Couch Potato’

Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

In a video message to young Catholics throughout the world, Pope Francis proposed the Virgin Mary as a model of active Christian discipleship, noting that she was no passive “couch potato. ”[The Vatican released the video message on Tuesday in preparation for the next World Youth Day, to be held in Panama in 2019. The Virgin Mary, Francis said, “encourages us with her faith,” when she acknowledged that the “Mighty One has done great things for me. ” She also “knew how to give thanks to God who looked upon her littleness,” he said, and “recognised the great things that God was accomplishing in her life. ” Importantly, the Pope noted, Mary did not sit by idly but “set off to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was old and needed her to be close by. ” “Mary did not stay at home because she was not a young couch potato who looks for comfort and safety where nobody can bother them,” Francis said. “She was moved by faith because faith is at the heart of Our Mother’s entire life story. ” In his message, the Pope told young people that God is watching over and calling them, looking at all the love they are able to offer. “Like the young woman of Nazareth,” he said, “you can improve the world and leave an imprint that makes a mark on history — your history and that of many others. ” “The Church and society need you,” he added. “With your plans and with your courage, with your dreams and ideals, walls of stagnation fall and roads open up that lead us to a better, fairer, less cruel and more humane world. ” The Pope also encouraged young people to cultivate a relationship of familiarity and friendship with Mary as “our Mother,” urging them to speak to her “as you would to a Mother. ” “Together with her,” he said, “give thanks for the precious gift of faith that you have received from your elders, and entrust your whole life to her. She is a good Mother who listens to you and embraces you, who loves you and walks together with you. ” “I assure you that if you do that, you will not regret it,” he said. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome