Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence agent who prepared the dossier on Donald J. Trump's supposed activities in Russia, has gone underground. The strange story of the dossier, which United States intelligence agencies, the F. B. I. Senator John McCain and many journalists have had for weeks, if not months, and which Mr. Trump presumably must have known about, appears to have had personal consequences for Mr. Steele. According to neighbors and news reports, Mr. Steele hurriedly left his home in Surrey, a county southwest of London, on Wednesday to avoid attention or possible retribution once his identity as the author of the dossier was revealed, first by The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that Mr. Steele had declined its interview requests because the subject was "too hot. " Mr. Steele, 52, was a longstanding officer with MI6, the British equivalent of the C. I. A. serving in Paris and Moscow in the 1990s before retiring. In 2009, he started a private research firm, Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd. with Christopher Burrows, now 58. Mr. Burrows has refused to confirm or deny that Mr. Steele and Orbis wrote the memos that made up the dossier, initially under contract to a Washington firm paid to dig into harmful matters from Mr. Trump's past. Mr. Burrows's profile page on LinkedIn describes him as a former counselor in the Foreign Office, with postings in Brussels and New Delhi in the early 2000s. Diplomatic postings are sometimes used to provide cover for intelligence agents. Mr. Steele's profile on LinkedIn gives no specifics about his career. He is known in British intelligence circles for his knowledge of the intricate web of companies and associates that control Russia. Mr. Steele, as a known former MI6 agent, was thought not to have gone to Russia in his investigations but to have used contacts inside and outside the country to prepare the dossier, which United States intelligence agencies have said they cannot substantiate. But the file was used to prepare a appendix to the intelligence presentation American officials gave to Mr. Trump last Friday. Mr. Trump has denied the allegations in the dossier in the sharpest terms, and called them "fake news. " Russia has denied that it holds any compromising material on Mr. Trump. John Sipher, who retired from the C. I. A. in 2014 after 28 years with the agency, described Mr. Steele as having a good reputation and "some credibility. " Mr. Sipher was stationed in Moscow in the 1990s, and then ran the C. I. A. 's Russia program for three years, according to an interview he gave to PBS NewsHour. He now works at CrossLead, a technology company. "I have confidence that the F. B. I. is going to follow this through," Mr. Sipher said. "My nervousness is that these kind of things are going to dribble and drabble out for the next several years and cause a real problem for this administration going forward. " An investigator for a business research firm in London similar to Orbis, who knows the work of the company but who has met Mr. Steele only briefly, said he was not impressed by the dossier. "I have a lot of experience in this world," he said. "If I were the client, I would throw it back and say, 'Where's the evidence guys? I can't use this.' " The investigator, who asked for anonymity because he did not want to discuss publicly the work of a competitor, said that "all intel has to be caveated. " "Maybe they went to a usually reliable source," he added, "but there's no explanation about the credibility of these sources. " He continued, "Maybe sometimes sources want to tell the investigators what their clients want to hear. " Referring to companies like Orbis and his own, he said: "Usually your job would be to stop clients from dealing with corrupt, questionable counterparts in a country like Russia, but this same network could be put to use" to compile reports like the one on Mr. Trump. "There's a risk that maybe the sources fed questionable intelligence, knowing that it would do more damage to Trump's enemies than to Trump," the investigator suggested. Orbis's website says that it was "founded by former British intelligence professionals. " Based in Grosvenor Gardens, near Victoria Station in London, the company says it has a "sophisticated investigative capability" and mounts " operations" and "complex, often investigations. " According to the website, it also offers " source reporting on business and politics at all levels," and "draws on extensive experience at boardroom level in government, multilateral diplomacy and international business to develop bespoke solutions for clients. " Mr. Steele and Orbis have previously investigated corruption at FIFA, the governing body of world soccer. In October, David Corn of Mother Jones magazine wrote about the dossier and described his conversations with Mr. Steele, whom he did not identify by name or nationality. According to the British newspaper The Telegraph, a friend of Mr. Steele's said that after his name and nationality were revealed, he had become "terrified for his and his family's safety. " Mr. Steele's wife and children also were not at home.


Three members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, ahead of a planned hearing late this month, said Mylan NV appears to have greatly overcharged the military for its lifesaving allergy treatment EpiPen and asked the pharmaceutical company when it plans to reimburse the Department of Defense. The reimbursement demand came in a letter on Monday to Mylan Chief Executive Heather Bresch, from Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and committee members Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, both Democrats. "We are alarmed that Mylan may have overcharged our military for this life-saving drug," the Senators wrote. They said Mylan for years may have knowingly misclassified EpiPen as a generic product in order to avoid higher rebates the company would have had to pay state and federal Medicaid programs had it been classified as a branded product. The Medicaid rebate for a generic is 13 percent compared with a minimum of 23.1 percent for a branded medicine. Mylan spokeswoman Nina Devlin declined to comment on the letter, or its demands. The drug company has come under fire from consumers and politicians in recent months for raising the U.S. list price on a pack of two EpiPen injectors nearly six-fold to $600 since 2008. Lawmakers, including Grassley, have called for investigations into Mylan's pricing, helping put the product in the spotlight amid a larger debate over big drug price increases in the United States. Pentagon spending on EpiPen jumped to $57 million over the past year from $9 million in 2008, an increase driven by volume and by hefty price hikes that had a bigger bite on prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies, Reuters reported on Oct. 28, citing previously unreported data. The Pentagon gets a government discount on EpiPens dispensed at military treatment facilities and by mail order. But nearly half of its spending was at retail pharmacies where it most recently paid an average of $509 for EpiPen and $528 for EpiPen Jr two-packs - three times higher than its discounted rate, according to the data. The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to hold a hearing Nov. 30 on EpiPen pricing and related matters.


Japan s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will lay the foundation stone for India s first bullet train in Prime Minister Narendra Modi s home state this week, in a tightening of ties just days after New Delhi ended a dangerous military confrontation with China. The move by Abe, who starts a two-day visit to India on Wednesday, highlights an early lead for Japan in a sector where the Chinese have also been trying to secure a foothold, but without much success. Modi has made the 500-km- (311-mile-) long high-speed rail link between the financial hub of Mumbai and the industrial city of Ahmedabad in western Gujarat a centerpiece of his efforts to showcase India s ability to build cutting-edge infrastructure. The leaders will launch the start of work on the line on Thursday, India s railways ministry said in a statement. This technology will revolutionize and transform the transport sector, said Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, welcoming the prospects for growth brought by Japan s high-speed shinkansen technology. In Tokyo, a Japanese foreign ministry official told reporters, We would like to support Make in India as much as possible, referring to Modi s signature policy to lure investors in manufacturing. And for that, we want to do what s beyond the Mumbai-Ahmedabad line and achieve economies of scale. India would make all-out efforts to complete the line by August 2022, more than a year earlier than planned, the government said this week. Japan is providing 81 percent of the funding for the 1.08-trillion-rupee ($16.9-billion) project, through a 50-year loan at 0.1 percent annual interest. Ties between India and Japan have blossomed as Modi and Abe increasingly see eye-to-eye in countering growing Chinese assertiveness across Asia. Japanese investment into India has surged in areas ranging from automotives to infrastructure in the remote northeast, making Tokyo its third-largest foreign direct investor. India and Japan are also trying to move forward on a plan for New Delhi to buy Japanese amphibious aircraft - ShinMaywa Industries US-2 - in what would be one of Tokyo s first arms transfers since ending a self-imposed embargo. Tokyo hopes that by gaining a head start on rival exporters of rail technology such as China and Germany, its companies will be able to dominate business in one of the most promising markets for high-speed rail equipment. In 2015, China won a contract to assess the feasibility of a high-speed link between Delhi and Mumbai, part of a network of more than 10,000 km (6,214 miles) of track India wants to set up, but little progress has been made. Bullet train critics say the funds would be far better spent to modernize India s slow and rickety state-controlled rail system, the world s fourth largest. But a $15-billion safety overhaul has hit delays as a state steel firm proved unable to fill demand for new rail.


Republicans' tax plan would not make adjustments retroactive, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said on Friday, despite calls from U.S. lawmakers who want cuts to apply to 2017 as the party aims to pass the bill by year's end. "We're trying to deliver great tax reform to the American public. We can't get it retroactive to this year. We're trying to do a tax plan that starts on Jan. 1 of next year," Cohn said in an interview with Fox Business Network. (This version of the story was refiled to correct the headline to make it "Fox Business Network" instead of "Fox Business News")


Whatever happens on November 8, Donald Trump can claim this achievement: His candidacy exposed the fact that the two-party system of Democrats and Republicans is an illusion.  What we have in the U.S. instead is a corrupt polity where Democrat and Republican élites form a single ruling party, as Professor Emeritus Angelo M. Codevilla stunningly asserted in 2010. (See " America's Bipartisan Ruling Class vs. the People ")  The evidence?  The following list of Republican bigwigs who, by publicly declaring their support for Hillary Clinton — the pathological liar who had accomplished nothing as secretary of state, but violated U.S. laws and jeopardized national security with her unsecured private email server; lied about and left four Americans to die in Benghazi; and supports the absolute "right" of women to kill their unborn — instead of Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump, have peeled away their masks, revealing their true faces.  Here's a list of the Republican élites who have declared they'll vote for Hillary: Dan Akerson , former chairman and chief executive of General Motors: ''Serving as the leader of the free world requires effective leadership, sound judgment, a steady hand and, most importantly, the temperament to deal with crises large and small. Donald Trump lacks each of these characteristics.'' Marc Andreessen , venture capitalist: ''[Silicon] Valley wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be doing any of this if we didn't have the amazing flow of immigrants that we've had in the last 80 years. And the idea of choking that off just makes me sick to my stomach.'' Richard Armitage , deputy secretary of state and adviser to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush: Trump ''doesn't appear to be a Republican, he doesn't appear to want to learn about issues. So I'm going to vote for Mrs. Clinton.'' Max Boot , senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and adviser to GOP presidential candidates: ''I'm literally losing sleep over Donald Trump. She would be vastly preferable to Trump.'' Sally Bradshaw , former top Jeb Bush adviser, who told CNN that she left the GOP and became an independent because of Trump: "As much as I don't want another four years of Obama's policies, I can't look my children in the eye and tell them I voted for Donald Trump.'' Arne Carlson , a former two-term Republican governor of Minnesota who supported Obama. Jim Cicconi , former Reagan and George H.W. Bush aide: ''Hillary Clinton is experienced, qualified and will make a fine president. The alternative, I fear, would set our nation on a very dark path.'' Eliot Cohen , former Bush administration official who has been called "the most influential neocon in academe," declared Clinton "the lesser evil, by a large margin." Maria Comella , former spokeswoman for governors Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani: ''Instead of speaking out against instances of bigotry, racism and inflammatory rhetoric whether it's been against women, immigrants, or Muslims, we made a calculus that it was better to say nothing at all in the interest of politics and winning elections.'' Doug Elmets , former Reagan spokesman: ''I could live with four years of Hillary Clinton before I could ever live with one day of Donald Trump as president.'' Elmets spoke at the Democratic National Convention, along with other Republicans now backing Clinton. Mike Fernandez , $4 million to GOP candidates in recent years: ''If I have a choice — and you can put it in bold — if I have a choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton, I'm choosing Hillary. She's the lesser of two evils.'' Charles Fried , US solicitor general under Reagan and current Harvard Law School professor: ''Though long a registered Republican, this will be the third consecutive presidential election in which my party forces the choice between party and, in John McCain's words, putting America first. . . . It is to [Mitt] Romney's credit that this year, like John Paulson and George Will, he is standing up against the brutal, substantively incoherent, and authoritarian tendencies of Donald Trump." Richard Hanna , a "moderate" Republican Congressman (NY) who is retiring this year, told The Syracuse Post Standard he will support Hillary because Trump is unfit to lead: "I think Trump is a national embarrassment. Is he really the guy you want to have the nuclear codes?" Ben Howe , contributing editor at RedState.com. Robert Kagan , senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; former Reagan State Department aide and adviser to the campaigns of John McCain and Mitt Romney; will vote for Hillary. Peter Mansoor , retired Army colonel and former aide to disgraced general David Petraeus: ''It will be the first Democratic presidential candidate I've voted for in my adult life.'' Hamid Moghadam , chairman and chief executive of Prologis: ''Our country is about tolerance and inclusion and that's why, as a lifelong Republican supporter, I endorse Hillary Clinton for president in this election.'' William Oberndorf , $3 million to GOP candidates since 2012: ''If it is Trump vs. Clinton, and there is no viable third-party candidate, I will be voting for Hillary Clinton.'' Henry Paulson , treasury secretary to George W. Bush. Paulson wrote: "When it comes to the presidency, I will not vote for Donald Trump. 'I will not cast a write-in vote. I'll be voting for Hillary Clinton, with the hope that she can bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and our place in the world. To my Republican friends: I know I'm not alone.'' Larry Pressler , former three-term Republican senator from South Dakota: ''I can't believe I'm endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, but I am. If someone had told me 10 years ago I would do this, I wouldn't have believed them.'' Chuck Robbins , chief executive of Cisco. Mark Salter , former top adviser to John McCain: ''Whatever Hillary Clinton's faults, she's not ignorant or hateful or a nut. She acts like an adult and understands the responsibilities of an American president. That might not be a ringing endorsement. But in 2016, the year of Trump's s campaign, it's more than enough.'' Kori Schake , National Security Council and State Department aide. Robert Smith , former judge on New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals: ''This year, I'm going to vote for a Democrat for president — the first time I've done it in 36 years — and I think the decision is easy. Hillary Clinton is the only responsible choice, and I don't understand why so few of my fellow conservatives see it that way.'' Brent Scowcroft , chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and adviser to three previous GOP presidents: ''The presidency requires the judgment and knowledge to make tough calls under pressure . . . [Clinton] has the wisdom and experience to lead our country at this critical time.'' Craig Snyder , former chief of staff to then-Republican former senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and also an ex-colleague of former top Trump adviser Roger Stone and current top Trump adviser Paul Manafort. Alan Steinberg , regional EPA administrator. Mike Treiser , former Mitt Romney aide: ''In the face of bigotry, hatred, violence, and small-mindedness, this time, I'm with her.'' Meg Whitman , Hewlett Packard executive; former California gubernatorial contender.  Add to the above list Glenn Beck , the billionaire Koch brothers , Bill Kristol ( National Review ), Mitt Romney , Karl Rove , and Ben Shapiro ( National Review ), who, although not declaring they'll vote for Hillary, are reported to be adamantly opposed to Trump.  Here are the Republicans who will vote for the Libertarian Party's Johnson-Weld ticket and so effectively assure a Hillary win : Martin Avila , CEO of Terra Eclipse, former Digital Campaign Director to former Rep. Ron Paul, member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld's steering committee. Julie Germany , Interim Executive Director of the White Coat Waste Project, former COO of Generation Opportunity, member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Mason Harrison , head of communications for Crowdpac, former strategist for the campaigns of Gov. Mitt Romney and ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Jon Henke , former adviser to US Sen. Fred Thompson, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and former Sen. George Allen; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Dawson Hodgson , former member, RI State Senate; former Rhode Island State Prosecutor; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Cyrus Krohn , former Republican National Committee e-Campaign Director; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Ed Lopez , former national vice chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus; former member of the national campaign at Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry; co-chair of Republicans for Johnson-Weld initiative. Liz Mair , longtime GOP operative whose group is behind the Facebook ad buy in Utah featuring a racy photo of Melania Trump; the RNC's first and only online communications director, and has advised US Senator Rand Paul, Governors Scott Walker and Rick Perry, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina on communications; co-chair of Republicans for Johnson-Weld initiative. Kevin Martin , former chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Massachusetts; small business owner; co-chair of Republicans for Johnson-Weld initiative. Michael Melendez , former leader of Young Americans for Liberty in Utah and Utah State Central Committee member; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Marco Nunez, Jr. , Republican strategist who served on the George W. Bush and John McCain presidential campaigns, Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign, and at the Republican National Committee; co-chair of Republicans for Johnson-Weld initiative. Moira Bagley Smith , former communications director to Sen. Rand Paul and multiple members of House GOP leadership; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Lyle Stamps , attorney; former White House staffer; leader of Latter-day Saints for Bush during the 2004 election cycle; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Michael Turk , President of Opinion Mover Strategies; former Republican National Committee e-campaign director; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Luke Williams , New York Times and USA Today best-selling author; Vice President at AECOM; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Dan Winslow , former Chief Legal Counsel to MA Gov. Mitt Romney; former member, MA House of Representatives; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee. Keith Velia , finance industry leader; Republican Liberty Caucus of Connecticut Treasurer; Ridgefield Republican Town Committee Associate; member of Republicans for Johnson-Weld steering committee.  As The Daily Bell observes:  There is only one party: pro-war and pro-technocratic (corporatist).  The fundamental mythology of US politics is that the Democrats are socialist-oriented and Republicans believe in freedom and individual human rights.  But Hillary is corporatist, not socialist….  Important Republicans call Trump's stances "brutal, substantively incoherent, and authoritarian."  Strangely, Hillary's actions and statements provide evidence of the very authoritarianism and brutality that Trump is being accused of.  When she and her husband entered the White House, one of the very first things Hillary did was fire the staff of the travel office in order to put her own people in place.  She didn't just fire the staff however, she also tried to get the head of the office, Director Billy Dale, put in jail for embezzlement. He was subsequently found not guilty and Hillary herself was investigated for initiating the firings and making false accusations.  Her intimidation and blackmailing of her husband's lovers is well known by this point- and thus her campaign's emphasis on "women's rights" is ironic to say the least.  Her voting record and statements reveal an individual who is most comfortable with US serial wars abroad, no matter the reason (or lack of reasons).  Additional accusations against Hillary and her husband include violence and even murder of individuals whose interests diverged from theirs.  Most notably, Hillary has been accused of orchestrating the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster.  None of this seems to register with Republicans who are "crossing over"….  Conclusion: Whatever else takes place during this federal election, the disintegration of the credibility of the two-party system is perhaps the most important development of all.  See also:


A North Miami resident shot his unarmed ex-girlfriend after following her into the ladies room at a Denny s in 2013, and he s now facing his hearing. He s been charged with attempted murder, but he and his lawyers are invoking Florida s insanely loose stand your ground law as a defense for him. That law has been used to justify all manner of shootings in that state.Brooke Tuchinsky, the victim, survived with a broken jaw. Sean Barnes, the shooter, claims he saw her open her purse and pull out something shiny. Fearing for his life, he pulled his gun and fired. However, Tuchinsky was found unarmed, and her purse was closed. She wouldn t have been able to put the object back in her purse and close it after getting shot in the face. Barnes told a bald-faced lie right there.Barnes lawyers are maintaining that he never intended to use the gun for anything other than self-defense, and that Tuchinsky was allegedly stalking him. That s all he really needs for a defense. Florida s dangerous law has made vigilante justice, and shooting people out of anger, entirely too easy since people no longer need to prove they tried to get out of a situation before using lethal force.While Tuchinsky does have a history of causing problems for ex-boyfriends, she also said that Barnes threatened her: I bought a new gun and would love to use it on you and make it look like an accident or self-defense. In a sane state, that would be pretty damning, even if every word Barnes spoke about Tuchinsky s actions was true. But not in Florida. Never Florida. In fact, Miami judges have cleared several people from wrongdoing under stand your ground, and the Florida Supreme Court decided that anybody invoking stand your ground, had a right to a hearing before a judge, who would decide whether their claim was valid. If it is, then the case would be dismissed and the defendant wouldn t be held responsible for legal fees or court costs.It s a little difficult to claim stand your ground when you lied about the person you were facing being armed. And with that law, Barnes doesn t have to have tried to leave the Denny s after the two got into an argument requiring employees to separate them. The fact remains that, instead of leaving, he followed her, likely with intent to shoot her, and then shot her. Then he lied about what took place. That s horrible, regardless of how horrible his situation was.


It s highly illegal and it s likely that the owners of these aircraft took tax deductions as a gift to the Clinton Foundation, Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst and critic of the Clinton FoundationIra Magaziner, the CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, asked former President Bill Clinton to thank Morocco s King Mohammed VI for offering his plane to the conference in Ethiopia. CHAI would like to request that President Clinton call Sheik Mohammed to thank him for offering his plane to the conference in Ethiopia, Magaziner gushed in a November 22, 2011 email released by WikiLeaks.Clinton frequently has expected free, luxurious private jet travel during his post-presidential life. Clinton, his wife and daughter have artfully secured free air travel and luxurious accommodations since they left the White House. It s an effective way to accept gifts of great value without declaring them for the Clinton Foundation. It s highly illegal and it s likely that the owners of these aircraft took tax deductions as a gift to the Clinton Foundation, Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst and critic of the Clinton Foundation.In the Moroccan case, Clinton was able to fly for free, jetting 3,367 miles from Rabat, Morocco, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the King s specially equipped 747-400 jumbo jet.Not including the flight, King Mohammed has donated at least $28 million to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton was traveling to attend a conference organized by Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi, an Ethiopian-Saudi billionaire who is the second wealthiest man in Saudi Arabia. The sheikh has donated up to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. But neither the Clinton Foundation nor CHAI have listed any non-cash contributions such as free jumbo jet travel on their 2011 tax return for the free use of the aircraft.


Greek police found bomb making equipment and detonators during an early-morning raid at three addresses in Athens on Tuesday, it said in a statement. Nine persons were being questioned, police said. Earlier police officials told Reuters the individuals were being quizzed for alleged links to DHKP/C, an outlawed group blamed for a string of attacks and suicide bombings in Turkey since 1990. Police sources earlier said unspecified material in jars was found, and was being tested. The police statement said commercial goods, which could potentially be used in making explosive materials were found.


The last time Donald Trump went overseas, it was clear that he didn t have the physical or mental stamina to carry out his presidential duties at the level they needed to be performed at. It was widely reported that by just the third day of his trip, Trump was utterly exhausted. Now that Trump is on his second international tour, it seems he s having the same exact issue and his lack of competency is humiliating America in the process.On Friday, Trump made the United States look like a joke once again, when he was caught daydreaming at a roundtable meeting at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. While every other world leader was alert and paying attention to the fact that they were posing to take a photograph, Trump was clearly in his own world and didn t even know what the hell was going on as he kept himself turned the opposite way. If it weren t for British Prime Minister Theresa May having the decency to wake him up out of his little fantasy land, Trump would have taken the photo with his back turned to the camera perhaps the perfect symbolic gesture for how he turns his back on America (and the world).You can watch this cringeworthy moment play out below:It is insanity that the Republican Party has elected a man who doesn t even have the attention span or the intelligence to perform the role of being POTUS. Trump consistently zones out during important meetings and clearly doesn t have it all together. He is someone who cannot and should not be trusted with the important decisions he has to make, and his complete lack of focus continues to be a danger to our country s future. More than ever, we must question whether or not Trump is really fit to be president and there was far more evidence pointing to his necessary and immediate removal.Featured image is a screenshot


This post was originally published on this site  sott.net/news  A black, female Bowling Green State University student allegedly fabricated a hate crime story about white, male President-Elect Donald Trump supporters attacking her on campus and is now being charged for faking a police report.  The day after Trump's presidential victory, Eleesha Long told Bowling Green police that she had been attacked by three men wearing Trump gear who "began to throw rocks" at her , according to ABC13.  Long took to her Facebook page to share the story, describing in detail what each Trump supporter was wearing and giving a description of as to where the alleged hate crime had occurred, but never actually called the police.  Long's Facebook post went viral and her father notified law enforcement after he said he was not able to get in touch with her . Local detectives took Long into police headquarters and asked her to share details of the described hate crime.  Long reportedly began telling police multiple stories about the incident, to include changing the location of the alleged incident.  "Several times the complainant changed her story about what happened, where it happened, and when it happened," Lt. Dan Mancuso told ABC13.  Afterward, the police got a warrant for Long's Facebook and Verizon cell phone history, proving that she was not where she claimed she was at the time of the alleged attack .  "Based on that information, it proved that she was not in the location that of when she said it occurred," Lt. Mancuso said.  Police investigators said Long's cell phone history included discriminatory remarks towards Trump supporters that she had sent to her boyfriend and mother.  In one text message, Long said about Trump supporters "should take an IQ test to vote," while a couple other messages said "I hope they all get AIDS" and "I haven't met a decent Trump supporter yet."  Long is now being charged for falsifying a police report and obstructing official business, which she will have to appear in court for. Related


Britain and Ireland clashed over Brexit on Friday with Dublin saying it was not ready to allow talks to move on to trade issues next month and London ruling out the much longer transitional period preferred by its neighbour. The border between EU-member Ireland and Northern Ireland, which will be the UK s only land frontier with the bloc after its departure, is one of three issues Brussels wants broadly solved before it decides in December whether to move the talks onto a second phase about trade, as Britain wants. Meeting in Dublin, Britain s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his Irish counterpart Simon Coveney struck an amicable tone but remained far apart on several key aspects. Yes we all want to move onto phase two of the Brexit negotiations but we are not in a place right now that allows us to do that, Coveney said. We have very serious issues, particularly around the border, that need more clarity. He said Ireland s preference was that Britain as a whole would share the same regulations as the EU post-Brexit but if that was not possible, then London effectively needed to commit to allowing a tailor-made solution for Northern Ireland In the absence of that, from an Irish persecutive, there is a sense of jumping into the dark, Coveney said. Speaking before a meeting with his counterpart on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Sweden, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Dublin would need those assurances written into the conclusions of phase one. What we want to take off the table before we even talk about trade is any idea that there would be a physical border, he told reporters. Once those parameters are set, then we d be happy to move onto phase two, provided the other issues are resolved as well. However Johnson said talks would have to move onto the next stage before the border issue could be resolved as many of the questions around it were bound up with Britain s future customs arrangement with the European Union. While he said London has absolutely no interest in seeing any kind of hard border, any room for compromise is complicated by the fact that his government are propped up by Northern Ireland s pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party, which responded on Friday by saying Dublin was trying to block the talks. It is clear now that the Irish government are fully signed up with the European establishment to thwart the referendum result in the United Kingdom to leave the EU, DUP MP Sammy Wilson said in a statement. Johnson added that he understood why Ireland wants a four to five-year post-Brexit transition period for Britain to allow businesses in Ireland time to adjust to any new arrangements, but said this was possible within a much tighter timescale.


Seven of the 12 jurors who convicted Ronald B. Smith in the murder of a convenience store clerk voted to spare his life. When the case reached the Supreme Court, four of the eight justices voted to stay his execution. The arithmetic of capital punishment can seem curious. Mr. Smith was executed Thursday night. Mr. Smith was convicted of murdering the clerk in 1994 in Huntsville, Ala. The jury recommended life without parole, but the trial judge overrode that determination, sentencing Mr. Smith to death. Alabama is the only state that allows such overrides. It is a good bet that the Supreme Court will soon weigh the constitutionality of the practice. That will be too late for Mr. Smith, who came up one vote short on Thursday night, illuminating a lethal gap in the Supreme Court's internal practices. It takes four votes to put a case on the court's docket, but it takes five to stop an execution. Over the years, in fits and starts, some justices have sought to address this anomaly by casting a "courtesy fifth" vote to stay an execution when four justices thought the case worthy of further consideration. In a 1985 concurrence, Justice Lewis F. Powell explained his reluctant decision to supply such a courtesy vote. The inmate's case had "no merit whatever," he wrote. "But in view of the unusual situation in which four justices have voted" to hear it, he wrote, "and in view of the fact that this is a capital case with petitioner's life at stake, and further in view of the fact that the justices are scattered geographically and unable to meet for a conference, I feel obligated to join in granting the application for a stay. " Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was asked about the practice at his confirmation hearing in 2005. "How would you feel, if you were chief, if you had four of the justices now voting for a stay of execution?" Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, asked. "Do you feel as chief you would do the courtesy of kicking in the fifth one?" Chief Justice Roberts seemed receptive. "I don't want to commit to pursue a particular practice," he said. "But it obviously makes great sense. " "You don't want to moot the case by not staying the sentence," he added. In the 11 years that Chief Justice Roberts has led the Supreme Court, its commitment to such courtesy votes has been inconsistent. Until Thursday, though, it seemed to be on the upswing. The recent trend started with a case on transgender rights. A Virginia school board wanted to stop a transgender boy, Gavin Grimm, from using the boys' restroom at his high school while the Supreme Court considered an appeal from a decision in Mr. Grimm's favor. In August, the court's four more conservative members — Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — voted to grant a stay. Justice Stephen G. Breyer added a fifth vote "as a courtesy. " Justice Breyer's motives were not hard to discern. He was concerned about execution chambers, not restrooms. The only case he cited in his concurrence in the transgender case was Medellin v. Texas, a death penalty decision in which he had expressed frustration that "no member of the majority has proved willing to provide a courtesy vote for a stay. " Last month, Justice Breyer's gambit seemed to pay off. On Nov. 3, the court considered an application for a stay of execution from another Alabama death row inmate, Thomas D. Arthur. Chief Justice Roberts provided the fifth vote needed to halt the execution. He said he would not ordinarily have favored a stay, but noted that four justices had voted in favor of one. "To afford them the opportunity to more fully consider the suitability of this case for review," Chief Justice Roberts wrote, "I vote to grant the stay as a courtesy. " On Thursday, in Mr. Smith's case, the court's more liberal members — Justices Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — voted for a stay. But this time there was no courtesy fifth vote. Upon hearing that news, Mr. Smith's lawyers immediately filed a request for reconsideration. "The court should not permit executions in the face of four dissents," the motion said, adding that the court's practices in this area "clash with the appearance and reality both of equal justice under law and of sound judicial decision making. " That motion was denied, too, this time without noted dissent. The leading student of the courtesy fifth is Eric M. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University. The title of his 2015 law review article on the subject makes his views plain: "No Execution if Four Justices Object. " On Thursday night, as it became clear that Mr. Smith was going to die, Professor Freedman made a more modest point. The justices, he said, should at the least explain their reasoning and standards. "The time has long ago passed for the court to address forthrightly a situation which is simply unseemly," Professor Freedman said. "For people to live or die in the middle of the night on the basis of no visible rule is simply at odds with any defensible system of judicial decision making. "


It was stupid, clumsy and inappropriate for someone to edit the video of a State Department briefing in 2013, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday as two U.S. lawmakers demanded information about the incident. A Republican congressman asked the State Department inspector general to investigate why part of a public briefing that dealt with Iran nuclear talks was cut before it was posted online while another demanded documents about the incident. The excised portion of the Dec. 2, 2013, briefing included a question about whether an earlier spokeswoman for the department had misled reporters about whether the United States was holding secret direct nuclear talks with Iran. The spokeswoman had denied there were such talks, which were later made public. The State Department this week said she did not know about the secret talks when she denied their existence. Speaking to reporters in Paris, Kerry sounded chagrined about the episode, which has drawn Republican criticism. "Whatever happened was both clumsy and stupid and inappropriate," Kerry said. Asked if he wanted people who tampered with the historical record working for him, he replied: "Of course not. I just said, it's inappropriate." The State Department initially said it believed a "glitch" caused the gap but on Wednesday said an internal inquiry found it was a deliberate omission. However, it said no rules were broken because none existed governing the integrity of the briefing video. Rules are now being put in place. U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the technician who excised part of the video told investigators she got a call asking her to do so, discussed the request with her supervisor and concluded it came from a "level of credibility and authority" high enough that they should act on the request. The State Department has said the technician does not remember who called her. On Friday the department said it cannot use internal phone records to trace who requested the cut to the briefing video because it keeps such data for only 24 hours. Top officials in the Bureau of Public Affairs in late 2013, including former Assistant Secretary Doug Frantz, former spokeswoman Jen Psaki, former deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf, and deputy assistant secretaries Dana Smith, Valerie Fowler and Moira Whelan have all denied asking for the video to be excised. "In tampering with this video, the Bureau of Public Affairs has undermined its mission to 'communicate timely and accurate information with the goal of furthering U.S. foreign policy'," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said in a letter released by his office that asked the department's inspector general, Steve Linick, to investigate the matter. Separately, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, also a Republican, on Tuesday wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry asking for documents related to the edited video to be turned over to his panel by Wednesday.


Republican officials are reportedly scrambling to tear down signs at the party convention site in Cleveland in order to avoid yet another racial incident.Wall Street Journal reporter Byron Tau photographed a sign in the Quicken Loans Arena labeled White Elevator. Tau noted on Twitter: I m told it s being replaced for obvious reasons. Spotted at the #RNCinCLE. I'm told it's being replaced for obvious reasons. pic.twitter.com/SVayl1zGCd Byron Tau (@ByronTau) July 16, 2016Republicans have struggled to shed the image of their party as racially hostile to minority groups, especially blacks. But the rhetoric of many of their leaders and elected officials, including presumptive nominee Donald Trump, have made such moves difficult.Signs that echo Jim Crow racism, with segregated water fountains and schools are just the latest headache.Party bosses are already keeping their mouths shut over the controversy.It s unclear who vetted the signs or why they were hung in the first place. Neither RNC organizers nor Trump s campaign immediately responded to the Daily News request for further comment.The white banners are eerily similar to the signs that once kept America segregated: Everything from bathrooms to restaurant entrances were labeled for white and colored use until segregation was abolished in 1964.City officials in Cleveland have expressed concern about the mix of anti-Trump protesters and pro-Trump forces, who have also promised that they plan to carry weapons with them, as Ohio is an open carry state.One of the groups who had previously promised to attend the convention was a white supremacist group, who was also involved in a protest that broke out into violence in California. The head of that group, the Traditionalist Worker Party, has said they have been attracted to Trump s campaign because they believe that he has tapped into their key issue: immigration.Trump and the Republican Party face an uphill climb among black voters. While Mitt Romney attracted six percent of the black vote in 2012, even without President Obama on the ballot (he has endorsed Clinton), Republicans are still viewed with skepticism and the party s support of voter identification laws that suppress the black vote don t help.Recent state polling showed Trump receiving ZERO black votes in key swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.


Wait until you read this woman s biography and past quotes about conservatives! Popular myth-busting website Snopes originally gained recognition for being the go-to site for disproving outlandish urban legends -such as the presence of UFOs in Haiti or the existence of human-animal hybrids in the Amazon jungle.Recently, however, the site has tried to pose as a political fact-checker. But Snopes fact-checking looks more like playing defense for prominent Democrats like Hillary Clinton and it s political fact-checker describes herself as a liberal and has called Republicans regressive and afraid of female agency. Snopes main political fact-checker is a writer named Kim Lacapria. Before writing for Snopes, Lacapria wrote for Inquisitr, a blog that oddly enough is known for publishing fake quotes and even downright hoaxes as much as anything else.While at Inquisitr, the future fact-checker consistently displayed clear partisanship.She described herself as openly left-leaning and a liberal. She trashed the Tea Party as teahadists. She called Bill Clinton one of our greatest presidents. She claimed that conservatives only criticized Lena Dunham s comparison of voting to sex because they fear female agency. She once wrote: Like many GOP ideas about the poor, the panic about using food stamps for alcohol, pornography or guns seems to have been cut from whole cloth or more likely, the ideas many have about the fantasy of poverty. (A simple fact-check would show that food stamp fraud does occur and costs taxpayers tens of millions.)Lacapria even accused the Bush administration of being at least guilty of criminal negligience in the September 11 attacks. (The future fact-checker offered no evidence to support her accusation.)Her columns apparently failed to impress her readership, oftentimes failing to get more than 10-20 shares.After blogging the Inquisitr, Lacapria joined Snopes, where she regularly plays defense for her fellow liberals.She wrote a fact check article about Jimmy Carter s unilateral ban of Iranian nationals from entering the country that looks more like an opinion column arguing against Donald Trump s proposed Muslim ban.Similarly, Lacapria in another fact check article argued Hillary Clinton hadn t included Benghazi at all in her infamous we didn t lose a single person in Libya gaffe. Lacapria claimed Clinton only meant to refer to the 2011 invasion of Libya (but not the 2012 Benghazi attack) but offered little fact-based evidence to support her claim.After the Orlando terror attack, Lacapria claimed that just because Omar Mateen was a registered Democrat with an active voter registration status didn t mean he was actually a Democrat. Her fact check argued that he might have chosen a random political affiliation when he initially registered. Lacapria even tried to contradict the former Facebook workers who admitted that Facebook regularly censors conservative news, dismissing the news as rumors. In that fact check article, Lacapria argued that Facebook Trending s blacklisting of junk topics was not only not a scandalous development, but to be expected following the social network s crackdown on fake news sites. The opinion-heavy article was mockingly titled: The Algorithm Is Gonna Get You.Lacapria again played defense for Clinton in a fact check article when she claimed: Outrage over an expensive Armani jacket worn by Hillary Clinton was peppered with inaccurate details. One of the inaccurate details cited by Lacapria was that, The cost of men s suits worn by fellow politicians didn t appear in the article for contrast. She also argued the speech Clinton gave while wearing the $12,495 jacket, which discussed raising wages and reducing inequality, wasn t actually about income inequality.


With a swipe of his pen, U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday started killing off a retirement advice rule that wealth managers from Wall Street to Wisconsin have spent the last six years lobbying against. A landmark policy from the Obama era, the so-called fiduciary rule requires brokers and financial advisers to act in the best interest of retirement savers. This restricts their ability to earn commissions and to sell some higher-fee products. Wall Street has argued it would harm consumers because it would raise compliance costs and therefore fees, and force them to get rid of Main Street clients and small businesses that offer 401(k) plans. Trump's executive order asks the Labor Department to review whether the rule needs to be changed or dumped. Both supporters and opponents are girding to argue their case. But the industry has the edge, with Trump officials stating they were planning on rolling back regulation generally and criticizing the fiduciary rule in particular. The Chamber of Commerce, one of a number of trade groups which have filed lawsuits to kill the rule, cheered Trump's order. "We look forward to swift action from the Department of Labor in putting this delay into effect and reevaluating matters of policy and law," the Chamber said in a statement. Shares of banks with large wealth management divisions jumped on Friday with Bank of America (BAC.N) up 2.5 percent, Morgan Stanley (MS.N) 5.5 percent stronger and Wells Fargo (WFC.N) over 2 percent higher. Insurers, whose sales of annuity products were at risk from the rule, also rose, with shares of Prudential (PRU.N) up 1.9 percent and Metlife (MET.N) 1 percent stronger. "Everyone will be pleased that DOL's rush to get it done before the administration change is set back," said Judi Carsrud, director of government relations for the National Association of Insurance Financial Advisors (NAIFA), which has been fighting the rule for years. NAIFA plans to pursue a "very straightforward" fix such as a "legislative approach" that directs retirement account advisers to act in clients' best interest – a standard that Carsrud believes the group's members already meet. The Obama administration had said conflicted advice costs American families $17 billion a year but the industry has said that figure was inflated. No-one disputes the high cost that firms would have to pay to comply with the new rule, an amount the Labor Department estimates at as much as $31 billion over the next decade. Banks have already started changing things with Bank of America saying this week it would more clearly disclose the fees it charges clients of its Merrill Lynch wealth management business. Bank of America Corp had already started cutting back on "transactional" accounts that charge clients a commission for every trade, rather than a flat fee based on assets. Morgan Stanley (MS.N) has decided to keep such accounts but is making changes that will allow advisers to work within the rule's confines by creating new contracts, re-training advisors and updating supervisory software. Swiss bank UBS UBSN.VX welcomed Trump's order and said it supported the creation of a fiduciary rule under the Securities and Exchange Commission, which could apply to all advisers not just retirement advisers. Wells Fargo said it would continue to work with regulators to ensure higher standards of care for investment clients. Other banks either declined to comment or were not immediately available to comment. Implementing changes was particularly tough for small-time financial advisers. Along with two colleagues, Juli McNeely, who runs McNeely Financial Services in Spencer, Wisconsin has spent between 45 and 60 hours each week since December preparing for the rule. Their work has focused largely on figuring out which clients from their rural community should now pay a flat fee for financial advice, instead of commissions, and creating new templates for paperwork. "Now we have a little breathing room to make sure we do this right and not quickly to meet a deadline," said McNeely, who voted for Trump, in part because of his pro-business stance. One person who has yet to comment on the retirement rule review is the person who will be at the center of it — Trump's choice to head the Labor Department, Andy Puzder. Puzder, chief executive of fastfood group CKE Restaurants, has been a vocal opponent of what he has called "overregulation" during the Obama administration. The 401(k) plans he offers his own employees are less generous than some rivals, suggesting a more industry-friendly approach. While the Labor Secretary cannot unilaterally repeal a rule, his agency can rewrite and change a rule substantially or scrap it. William Galvin, the top securities regulator in Massachusetts, described Trump's order as "reckless". "My office will continue to protect small investors when those in Washington cave to big business." Not all proponents of the rule were as pessimistic. "There's no question that in the minds of industry lobbyist, delay is just a step toward repeal," said Barbara Roper, investor protection director for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). "If the Department of Labor follows an honest process and considers the impact on retirement savers, we have a winning argument."


Beverly Emers strode through campus with assurance, her son, Jabari, a few paces behind, as she gave the history of each monument at Bronx Community College this fall. Although decades older than most students there, Ms. Emers, 43, cannot walk between the buildings without someone waving, calling her name or inviting her to a party. It was not always this way. About fourteen years ago, Ms. Emers was too consumed with getting high to even consider college. It was winter 2003, and she was with friends strung out on drugs, her mind in a crazed disorientation. They had a word for the feeling: monos, Spanish for monkeys. By this time, Ms. Emers, who had been dealing drugs since she was 13, had lost track of the number of times she had been arrested. She dropped out of high school in 9th grade and spent six years in jail, usually on charges of selling or possessing drugs, according to police records. Ms. Emers knew the consequences, serving nine stints at the Rikers Island jail complex under three different aliases, according to records from the Department of Correction. Every time she walked out of jail, Ms. Emers swore she would never return. But each time she went back to the streets, only to start dealing again. But high on drugs that winter night, with her friends appearing like ghosts all around her, she found clarity. "I thought, 'What am I doing here? '" she recalled. "I saw the ugliness of my lifestyle for what it was. I knew where I was going wasn't where I was supposed to be. And I just walked out. " For a year, she had eluded officers on a parole violation charge, but no more. She went to the parole office in Midtown Manhattan to turn herself in. The office was closed, but she still banged on the back door. "You're late," she recalled an officer as saying. She replied: "You're right. I'm more than a year late. " Ms. Emers spent the next few months at Rikers. In a court hearing, she requested treatment for her drug addiction. She sought help from the Dreitzer House for Women and Children in East Harlem, which offers drug treatment and affordable housing. Ms. Emers moved into a shelter, where she was pregnant with Jabari and lived for the next year and a half, she said. But she struggled to disconnect from the toxic yet accepting community that had taken her in after an unhappy childhood. After kicking her drug habit, Ms. Emers said, she spent years "in limbo. " "Not doing what I'd been doing before," she said, "but not doing anything else instead. " She cloistered herself in her Bronx apartment to avoid the temptations outside, but was depressed that her criminal record limited her job prospects. And when Jabari started school, his homework became another stressor for her, prompting verbal abuse. "He bore the brunt of that," she said. Ms. Emers said she realized she needed to end the abuse, so she turned to Community School 61, an elementary school in the Bronx that partners with the Children's Aid Society, one of eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. There she volunteered and joined the association. She also signed up for parenting classes at the Children's Aid Society's East Harlem Center and became more engaged at home. School administrators suggested she enroll in college, but Ms. Emers dismissed the idea until shortly after Jabari's fifth grade graduation, when the mother and son were discussing his future. Jabari asked her, "When are you graduating?" "It wasn't planned," Jabari recalled. "It just came out. " "And that was an aha! moment for me," Ms. Emers said. "Because here I was telling him to read and study, and I don't even have a high school diploma. " So Ms. Emers "surrendered," took college prep classes and enrolled in Bronx Community College in spring 2015. Ms. Emers, who is majoring in human services, hopes to work with South Bronx Rising Together, a partner of the Children's Aid Society, which provides opportunities and educational resources to impoverished children and youth in the South Bronx. She is now on the dean's list, serves as the executive secretary in student government and has received leadership and service awards from the college. She was also awarded the Kalief Browder Memorial Scholarship, given to students who served time in jail it is named after a man who was sent to Rikers at 16 and spent three years there without trial. In 2015 at the age of 22, Mr. Browder, who had been a student at the college, committed suicide, after struggling to rebuild his life following incarceration. Ms. Emers is the first recipient of the scholarship — $5, 000 for this academic year — which covers most of her costs. But an invitation to the scholarship gala held at the event space Tribeca Rooftop in June posed a problem. "I didn't have a dress to go to a gala in," she said. To help, the Children's Aid Society withdrew $640 from the Neediest Cases Fund for gift cards to pay for Ms. Emers's and Jabari's attire for the event, as well as expenses for school uniforms and household items. The family also received $550 from the fund to help with clothing and household goods in 2012. The family receives $194 in cash assistance and $376 in food stamps each month. Dressed for the occasion, they arrived at the industrial penthouse with large windows overlooking Manhattan and the Hudson River. Feeling out of place, Ms. Emers found comfort in her son. "Jabari was the guy in the room," she said, smiling. "And I'm not just saying that because he's my son. " Waiters passed hors d'oeuvres, and she encouraged Jabari, who wants to become a chef, to try a little of everything. "Just getting exposed to certain things could motivate him to work hard, and maybe he won't make the same choices I did," she said. Now, Ms. Emers is helping to plan a discussion in the spring on the importance of mental health and suicide prevention at her college. She also wants to develop resources to ease the transition between jail and civilian life for other formerly incarcerated students. Ms. Emers has not forgotten how far she has come, she said. More than a decade after leaving the treatment center, she still attends monthly meetings and visits her caseworker. "It's an act of gratitude," she said. "I want people to know we're doing well, because they invested in me before I was doing well. This is our victory. "


Israel is in a class all by itself when it comes to perpetuating some of the worst human rights violations of any country on earth today. For decades, Israel has had a policy of ethnically cleansing and robbing the indigenous Palestinian population of its lands and resources and killing them when they resist the atrocities committed against them under the guise of self-defense. Now, an Israeli military general, someone who is one of the leaders of Israel s killing machine, has come out and admitted that Israel today shares many of the same elements as Nazi Germany.Addressing an audience at Tel Yitzhak in central Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel Defense Forces Major General Yair Golan dropped a bombshell on the Israel s racist establishment when he said: It s scary to see horrifying developments that took place in Europe begin to unfold here. The Holocaust should bring us to ponder our public lives and, furthermore, it must lead anyone who is capable of taking public responsibility to do so. Because if there is one thing that is scary in remembering the Holocaust, it is noticing horrific processes which developed in Europe particularly in Germany 70, 80, and 90 years ago, and finding remnants of that here among us in the year 2016. The general was immediately attacked by Israeli government officials. Justice minister Ayelet Shaked told local media that Golan was a little confused and that he showed a lack of understanding, if not a disrespect of the Holocaust. Yet, it is Shaked who has shown disrespect for humanity when she advocated for the genocide of Palestinians. Here s what she posted on her Facebook page two years ago: They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there. The next day, Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khudair was kidnapped and burned alive in Jerusalem. Neftali Bennett, leader of one of Israel s right-wing parties also called on General Golan to retract his statements. Bennett is at the forefront of Israel s genocidal and war mongering saber-rattling. He has said of Palestinians: I already killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there is absolutely no problem with that. We should keep in mind that these are not two government ministers with fascist tendencies in the midst of a normal government. Israel today is inherently driven by beliefs that makes the general correct in comparing Israel with Nazi Germany. Zionism, which drives Israel, is an ideology whose adherents advocate for a pure Jewish state. In a land where the majority of the population was not Jewish (97%) in the early 20th Century, Zionists have always advocated for the destruction of the inferior non-Jewish Palestinians to create and maintain their Jewish state. 100 years later, with 2/3 of the Palestinian population ethnically cleansed and not allowed to return to their ancestral homeland, the Israelis see the remaining Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, Gaze Strip, as well as those inside of Israel, as a demographic threat.The rhetoric of Shaked and Bennett is not the exception to the rule of the state of Israel: It is the norm. For the Palestinians, this will continue to mean their oppression and gradual destruction. It is up to the American people to say no to the billions of dollars a year we send to a country that is thirsty for the removal of an entire people in order to achieve its pure state.


Militants attacked the convoy of a minister in the restive Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, killing at least two bystanders and injuring several others though the minister escaped unhurt, police said. A grenade hurled at the motorcade of Jammu and Kashmir Public Works Minister Naeem Akhtar exploded on the road after hitting a security vehicle, senior state police official Manoj Pandita told Reuters. Akhtar, who was on his way to inaugurate a project in the town of Tral in south Kashmir, told Reuters he was safe. The incident occurred despite tightened security in the town, which was home to former militant leader Burhan Wani whose death last year at the hands of Indian forces sparked massive protests that led to dozens more deaths. India has been fighting a long-running counter-insurgency campaign in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim in full but rule in part. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of pushing in militants from its part of Kashmir to carry out attacks, a charge denied by Islamabad. So far this year, around 44 civilians have been killed in militant attacks in the state, passing the highest annual total seen in the last eight years, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal.


As if the Republican Party couldn t possibly look any worse thanks to Donald Trump s exploding Russia scandal, some of the party s top members are hellbent on destroying conservatives reputation even further.On Wednesday morning, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) went on CNN to propose a heartless, revolting solution to getting Trump s border wall paid for. King is apparently accepting Mexico s refusal to pay for Trump s moronic border wall (even as Trump still insists that the country will pay) and has come up with another solution cutting food assistance to low-income Americans! And while he s at it, he d also like to slash Planned Parenthood funding.This disgusting suggestion came up when Alisyn Camerota asked King if he would be comfortable with providing $1.6 billion of taxpayer money not from Mexico to bill that wall? This question was prompted by the House Republicans threat to Democrats on Tuesday, where they suggested a government shutdown if $1.6 billion for the border wall wasn t included in the 2018 budget. King responded: Absolutely yes and more. And I d throw another $5 billion on the pile, and I would find half of a billion of dollars of that right out of Planned Parenthood s budget. And the rest of it could come out of food stamps and the entitlements that are being spread out for people who have not worked in three generations. Camerota, of course, was speechless. She did a double take and asked: You want to take food from people who are on the lowest rung in terms of the nation s safety net and their children, in terms of foot stamps you re happy to take money from them in order to give the $1.6 billion for the border wall? King tried to defend himself, stating that the border wall would create jobs. Then, he jumped to the school lunch program that Michelle Obama had created. He said: I would just say let s limit it to that anybody who wants to have food stamps, it s up to the school lunch program, that s fine. You can watch King turn into an absolute piece of sh*t below:These food stamps provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are responsible for assisting 45 million people. Trump has already proposed that this program be cut 25% over the next 10 years, and King wants to cut it even more to support an ineffective border wall that most Americans strongly oppose. By cutting SNAP and Planned Parenthood funding, King is solidifying himself as a conservative who doesn t care about low-income Americans. He s truly living up to the GOP s reputation.


High-income Wall Street financiers could be unintended winners from a section of U.S. President Donald Trump's tax-cut plan that is meant to help mostly small, "mom-and-pop" businesses. Trump called on Wednesday for a new "pass-through" tax rate of 25 percent that could mean big savings for owners of sole proprietorships and partnerships who now pay 39.6 percent. But it could also mean a windfall for partners in private-equity, venture-capital and hedge funds, unless Congress can figure out a way to block them from taking advantage of the new rate. Ron Wyden, top Democrat on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, said Democrats supported a pass-through rate for small businesses, such as "a cleaner, a garage, a restaurant." He said Trump's plan, however, would create "a whole new set of wealthy individuals being able to dodge their taxes through this new provision." At issue is the taxation of the roughly 95 percent of American businesses that are not public corporations. Non-public pass-through businesses, such as sole proprietorships, limited liability companies and partnerships, pay no income tax themselves. Instead their profits "pass through" directly to their owners, who pay tax on them at the individual tax rates. A small fraction of those business owners pay the top individual tax rate of 39.6 percent, higher than the current top corporate income tax rate of 35 percent. Those business owners have long complained that the disparity is unfair, especially in view of the fact that many multinationals pay much less than the 35 percent statutory corporate tax rate by exploiting abundant loopholes and tax breaks available to large, global corporations. Republicans have been eager to address the issue. Trump's plan proposes a new tax rate of 25 percent for the pass-through income of "small and family-owned businesses." The problem, according to the plan's critics, is that financial entities such as private-equity, venture-capital and hedge funds are all partnerships whose wealthy partners would see substantial tax savings on large portions of their income unless congressional tax writers find a way to exclude them. 'GOOD' VERSUS 'BAD' PASS-THROUGH INCOME The White House document that spelled out Trump's plan signaled that the administration was aware of the potential problem but would leave addressing it up to Congress. The document said: "The framework contemplates that the (congressional tax) committees will adopt measures to prevent the recharacterization of personal income into business income to prevent wealthy individuals from avoiding the top personal tax rate." Trump's plan also proposes cutting the top corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent and cutting the top individual tax rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said two weeks ago that the administration would ensure partners at services firms such as accounting, law and financial firms would not benefit from a new, lower pass-through rate. A Treasury Department spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the pass-through rate or plans to exempt certain categories of firms. Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, a liberal advocacy group, said the idea that a new pass-through rate would help small business was "simply a hoax." Tax experts said it would be difficult for congressional tax writers to exempt partners at services firms from using the new pass-through rate. "There has always been talk of how to carve out 'good' pass-through income from 'bad' pass-through income. The problem is it's exceedingly hard to do and there is no way to draw clear lines that won't be manipulated," said Seth Hanlon with the Center for American Progress, a liberal group. Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the University of San Diego, agreed it would be "challenging." "Still, I think it can probably be done," Fleischer said.


Anniversary of Great Reporter's Death By Daily Bell Staff - November 23, 2016  We got the very sad news today, Nov. 22, 2015, that Dave McGowan passed away from cancer at 12:47 p.m. – Truth and Shadows  We missed the anniversary of McGowan's death, which was yesterday, but he was one helluva a writer, exposing in brief books the"directed history" of the modern era. So, we'll remember him today. We've written about him before, here.  He died of an extremely aggressive form of lung cancer, which made some of his fans speculate that he'd actually been assassinated. Unfortunately, much of Dave's work is no long freely available on the 'Net, though some is available here .  The following is Dave's last post here from his Blog Center for an Informed America (June 14, 2015).  Just nine weeks ago, on April 14, I presented a lengthy video deconstruction of the 2013 Boston Marathon incident through the Caravan to Midnight radio show/podcast. About a week later (on April 20, of all days), the nearly four-hour video presentation was uploaded to YouTube.  Not long after that, someone using the username Phoenix Archangel posted an interesting comment: "John [Wells, the host of the show] always signs off with some of the best advice ever. Speaking of advice: this David McGowan fella really ought to quit smoking. With all the elitist feathers he's ruffling, he's likely to come down with a spontaneous case of hitherto undiagnosed stage 4 inoperable Pancreatic cancer."  … Mr./Ms Archangel … wasn't too far off, though I've been told that it's actually incurable small-cell lung cancer that has already spread to my liver and bones. And no, that's unfortunately not a joke. It's my new reality as of just a few short weeks ago, when my entire world was turned upside-down and I suddenly found myself being admitted to the oncology ward at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. Four days later, I was beginning my first round of chemotherapy infusions. The second round begins tomorrow, on Monday, June 15.  More from Truth and Shadows:  The first thing I read from McGowan was his series on the Apollo Moon missions called "Wagging the Moondoggie." This amazing 14-part series is what finally convinced me that the Moon landings never took place. What struck me was not only his insight but his wit. Very dry, which is the best kind.  In addition to what became a whole series on 9/11, I was also blown away by series on the Boston Marathon "bombing" and dark side of the music scene in Laurel Canyon in the 1960s (which became a book). Other books he has written include Programmed to Kill, Understanding the F-Word: American Fascism and the Politics of Illusion, and Derailing Democracy: The America the Media Don't Want You to See.  We ran into McGowan's work very early in the 2000s when we were researching an article on the Peak Oil hoax. At the time, libertarian analysis was mostly theoretical, but we were trying to focus on a synthesis between free-market theory and "directed" history.  We could hardly believe McGowan's comments on Peak Oil. Without, apparently, a deep background in Austrian free-market economics, he nonetheless fully grasped the idiocy of asserting that the modern world was running out of oil, and that since alternatives were not going to be developed in a timely manner, the only solution was drastic, government action. He even mentioned abiotic oil, see here, as we recall.  When we read his short books, we were further impressed. McGowan moved far beyond simplistic assertions of "conspiracy" to show you clearly how modern history seemed to work.  For us, the book on the mid-1960s Laurel Canyon music scene here was perhaps the most brilliant. Who knew that Jimi Hendrix was in the military, here, prior to becoming a rock star? Who knew that many of the musical stars of the early- to the mid-1960s were somehow gathered together in Laurel Canyon prior to their fame, here – and that many or most had military ties or came from military families.  McGowan didn't state everything. Some things he left up to you. But it was hard to come away from his books without understanding his main point, that society was directed purposefully from above and that before the Internet (and people like McGowan), you would live your entire life unknowingly according to someone else's plan.  His short book about Laurel Canyon not only shows how directed history operates, it makes the point, resonantly, that society and even culture can be shifted according to elite strategies. In other words, in not very many pages it SHOWS (not tells) how Western social manipulation actually works. Likely it has worked this way for thousands of years.  Before McGowan, it was easy to believe that social manipulation must inevitably be a clumsy affair, imposed brutally as it was in the USSR. McGowan presents ways cultural reconfiguration can take place secretly and powerfully, without anyone but a handful knowing it is happening.  For instance, the standard story of the 1960s is that young people got upset over the war and in the process of protesting, quickly created an entire counterculture that opposed much of what "corporate America" stood for. The trouble with the 1960s counterculture was that it never adequately defined the real problem, nor did it fully explain the solution.  The hippie ethos blamed much of what was wrong with America on corporate greed and the like. This led to the conclusion that government itself could rectify what was wrong. But both modern corporations and today's massive governments are the result of monopoly force wielded behind the scenes.  In reality, as McGowan showed, the 1960s movement was likely painstakingly created to generate certain results, mostly by reinforcing social chaos. Thus, blaming problems on corporations and looking to government for solutions was only to be expected, though it was wrongheaded on numerous levels.  As we know today from Internet information, government is seemingly supported by a handful of unfathomably rich individuals – those who likely control central banking – to provide "solutions" that inevitably generate more problems not less.  We know from Austrian economics that almost every law and regulation is surely a price fix that must drain prosperity from society. We know, via "marginal utility" here that valid prices can only be generated via market competition itself.  The 1960s hippie revolution explored little of this because – as McGowan suggested – it was created and sustained by the CIA. So many 1960s figures were apparently working with the CIA.  These may have included singer Jim Morrison, whose father helped initiate the fake military incidents that Lyndon Johnson used to generate the full-on Vietnam war here – and many other musicians, promoters and business opportunists. And also those individuals who initially dispersed CIA-created LSD, here.  In fact, one can speculate that the Vietnam War itself was created as part of a Hegelian dialectic that included the creation of a manipulated 1960s alternative "hippie" culture. Each Hegelian thesis demands an antithesis that leads to a synthesis. The war was the thesis, and the counterculture was the antithesis leading to the synthesis we have today.  The goal is always globalism, apparently. And social chaos must be regularly induced in order to reinforce additional government actions. If one has the patience and the desire, it is relatively easy to discern the evolution of these modern manipulations and even to predict their future.  It's one reason, we continue to distrust narratives present in the mainstream media and even those being offered, sometimes, in the alternative media. We're not sure that this presidential election, for instance, is what it seems. And we have written numerous articles suggesting that a good deal of purposeful propaganda surrounds nuclear weapons, to name one additional promotion, here .  Conclusion: McGowan helped show the way, however, and we simply need to follow his lead to better our own comprehension. It's not pleasant to pursue such information, nor come to additional conclusions, but the alternative is living in ignorance of the true influences on our life and times. Some people are content to live without embarking on such explorations. Others are not.


Kurdish-led Syrian groups plan to attend Russia s proposed Syria peace talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Kurdish officials have said. The Syria peace congress was originally scheduled for Nov. 18 but was postponed and the Kremlin said on Thursday that no new date had been set. If the invitation is renewed, we will attend Sochi and every other meeting that concerns the Syrian crisis as representatives of the people s will Sihanouk Depo, an official of Syria s main Kurdish party, PYD, told an affiliated website on Wednesday. We are still invited, Badran Jia Kurd, a senior Kurdish official, told Reuters on Thursday. If the framework for the congress still stands, we will attend , said Jia Kurd, an adviser to the administration that governs Kurdish-led autonomous regions of Syria. It would mark the first time Syria s main Kurdish groups are brought into peace talks. Although they now run at least a quarter of Syria, they have so far been left out of international talks in line with Turkish wishes. Before the Sochi talks were postponed, the PYD said in November it had been invited and favored attending. Since the conflict erupted in 2011, the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and its allies have carved out autonomous cantons in the north. The YPG spearheads the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting Islamic State militants with Washington s backing. Their territorial grip has expanded since joining forces with the United States, though Washington opposes their autonomy plans. Turkey views the PYD and the YPG as offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey. Last month, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan s spokesman said Russia had told Ankara that the PYD would not be invited to the peace talks. The Kurdish groups share enmities with both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad s government and with neighboring Turkey. This week, Assad described the U.S.-backed militias as traitors . On Wednesday, in an interview with Iran s Arabic language Al-Alam television, Syria s deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad equated the Kurdish-led forces with Islamic State. There is another Daesh called SDF, he said, using the Arabic acronym for the militant group that until recently controlled swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. In his interview on Wednesday, Depo said: Any attack from the regime will be a failed venture.


There's evidence that when weighing Donald Trump versus rival Ted Cruz, many Republican leaders have become more concerned about Senator Cruz. Donald Trump speaks to a crowd on Jan. 4, 2016, in Lowell, Mass. Thousands attended the rally in packed Paul E. Tsongas Center Arena at the Lowell campus of the University of Massachusetts. Is the Republican establishment – or at least some of it – coming to terms with the possibility that Donald Trump will be the GOP presidential nominee? A number of signs in recent days indicate that's the case. Or, to be more specific, there's evidence that when weighing Mr. Trump versus rival Ted Cruz, many Republican leaders think Senator Cruz the greater danger. That's an implicit admission that they're beginning to think Trump might not be, you know, so bad. Let's go to the list: Earlier this month, right-leaning New York Times columnist David Brooks unloaded on Cruz, saying the Texas senator's speeches are full of a sort of "pagan brutalism." Since then, two former Republican Senate majority leaders, Trent Lott and Bob Dole, have indicated they think a Cruz nomination would be cataclysmic for the GOP and lead to widespread losses down the ticket. Then this week, the Republican governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad, said flatly that he hopes anyone but Cruz wins his state's first-in-the-nation caucuses. True, Governor Branstad cited Cruz's opposition to ethanol subsidies, crucial to Iowa's economy, as the reason for his opposition. But the open and vehement nature of the anti-endorsement indicated a high level of political enmity. "It is no surprise that the establishment is in full panic mode," Cruz told reporters after hearing of this news. Why does this imply anything about Trump? Well, the Iowa caucuses are now less than two weeks away. The New Hampshire primary is within three. The primary season moves quickly through South Carolina and other states after that. If the Republican Party as an entity is to exert influence on the nominating process, now is the time. Many have expected Republican leaders to band together against Trump, given that some party figures see him as an existential threat to the GOP in its current form. That doesn't seem to be occurring. "The sort of GOP effort against Trump that many anticipated is happening instead vs. Cruz," tweeted Sunlight Foundation political analyst Richard Skinner on Thursday. Yes, this description of the state of play is a bit simplistic. The Republican establishment is not a cohesive entity chaired by the ghost of Nelson Rockefeller. Many GOP journalists and public intellectuals continue to worry that Trump, with his belligerent populism, will push the party so far from its small-government roots that it will become unrecognizable. "What we're seeing is the attempt at the normalization of Trump on the right, and defining conservatism down. Can be resisted and defeated," tweeted right-leaning Weekly Standard editor William Kristol earlier this week. But the fact remains that the legislative, Washington wing of the party now seems inclined to cut Trump slack. Mr. Dole, the party's nominee in 1996, said in a New York Times interview that Trump could probably work with Congress, because "he's got the right personality and he's kind of a dealmaker." It may be as simple as that. Trump, for all his insults, is the kind of person members of Congress understand. He's a businessman who knows that deals aren't all one-sided, and a political neophyte who would be willing to defer to their judgment. That's the theory, anyway. Cruz? He's proved that the only legislative opinion he listens to is his own, in the view of the establishment. Many in the GOP believe he pushed them into the 2013 government shutdown and then blamed their lack of courage for the shutdown's inevitable collapse. Consider this: Back in the 2008 campaign, questions arose about whether nominee John McCain was a "natural born citizen," and thus eligible for the presidency under the Constitution, because he was born in the Canal Zone. The Senate quickly moved to pass a nonbinding resolution affirming Senator McCain's citizenship. When Cruz became embroiled in the same question, because of his Canadian birth, that did not happen. "I just don't think the Senate ought to get into the middle of this," said majority leader Mitch McConnell of the issue on ABC News's "This Week" earlier this month. Does the GOP establishment think it can block Cruz, then turn to oppose Trump and boost someone else? Maybe, but it's getting late to pull off that kind of maneuver. Trump may rocket through the first primaries, and then, who could head him off? Jeb Bush? (Hey, he's at 10 percent in some New Hampshire polls!) Are GOP figures counting on influencing someone who's not that easy to push around? Sure, Trump knows little about the day-to-day operation of government. That doesn't mean he'll be Silly Putty in Senator McConnell's hands. He's a billionaire with little vested interest in the party per se. "He might well completely ignore Congress's wishes and just do whatever feels right to him on any given day. Trump's primary goal over the past several decades has been to enhance the Trump name. What policies that translates into is anyone's guess," writes Seth Masket at Vox. Or does the party leadership still think that somehow or other, without its involvement, Trump is just going to lose?


Ransom Riggs's novel "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," with its haunting photos, quirky outsiders and feel for the macabre, reads a bit like a Tim Burton movie. And, fittingly, it has now become one. The director of "Beetlejuice" and "Edward Scissorhands" was drawn to "Miss Peregrine" (in theaters Sept. 30) because it fell in line with the themes he often explores: misfits struggling to be understood and tales that blend the comic and the tragic. The "Peculiar Children" of the title possess special abilities, like the power to reanimate dead creatures or shoot fire from their fingers. For this story of a teenage boy (Asa Butterfield) who uncovers a family mystery that involves a handful of those children, invisible monsters known as Hollows, and time travel, Mr. Riggs built his narrative around vintage photographs he collected. "I liked Ransom's approach with the pictures," Mr. Burton said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. "It was an interesting kind of way to create a story. It made it feel like a weird old fable. " For the production, Mr. Burton sketched characters, props and more. Here, he explains why he decided to put clothes on evil creatures and how he came to storyboard a feast of human eyeballs. This is Hugh (Milo Parker) a Peculiar who has a wild hive of bees living inside of him. Mr. Burton's simple sketch shows the intensity of the character using only dots to illustrate the bees. "I didn't do too many sketches of the kids because I didn't want to do three drawings and try to cast the kids to look like that," he said. "This was just a little more my process, my doodles really," Mr. Burton said. "Doodling these little things helps me to get thoughts from the inside out. " These creatures are the biggest threat to Peculiars, and all the more menacing because they are invisible to most everyone. In his sketch, Mr. Burton incorporated mouth tentacles and other traits described in the novel but also put his stamp on this lanky figure, which could be at home in his films "The Nightmare Before Christmas" or "Corpse Bride. " "Originally, we were doing things that felt too much like monsters," he said. "I got back to the idea that they should have a human quality. That made it feel more like a folk tale kind of children's horror story. So I kept clothes on them so they had a human aspect to them. " This scene is from an experiment conducted by the creepy villain, Barron (Samuel L. Jackson) who has evolved from a Hollow and is trying to achieve immortality. The helmet has a sinister, torturous medieval yet industrial look that Mr. Burton came up with after earlier designs left him dissatisfied. "I had a lot of artists working on things, and the helmets were looking overly elaborate, overly cartoonish, like from an old Disney movie," Mr. Burton said. "But I thought there was something a bit more weird and scary about a more simple helmet. This riveted simplicity felt kind of cultish to me. " To become more humanlike, Barron must eat human eyeballs. In one scene, he and other former Hollows enjoy an eyeball feast. It's a grisly, but also a kind of funny, visual set piece that gets at the children's nightmare spirit of the novel. Mr. Burton's simple watercolor drawing helped realize this moment. And while he doesn't make as many storyboards for his movies as he used to, they were necessary in this case. "We had to do this scene in a montage kind of a way," Mr. Burton said, "so it is one sequence that helped to storyboard. " In the end, though the feast's vibe is lifted from in the book, he said, "it's not as literal as what we ended up with. "


Jimmy Kimmel landed a rare, on-air appearance from Donald Trump on the May 25th edition of his show, and wasted no part of the segment in grilling Trump on everything. Possibly the most interesting twist, however, came when Kimmel read a question from Bernie Sanders, who will be tonight s guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The question? Hillary Clinton backed out of an agreement to debate me in California before the June 7th primary. Are you prepared to debate the major issues facing our largest state and the country prior to the California primary? Trump, ever the attention-whore, replied with something surprisingly philanthropic: Yes, I am. How much is he going to pay me? Because if I debated him, we would have such high ratings and I think I should take that money and give it to some worthy charity. If he paid a nice sum for a charity I would love to do that. Trump later said that whatever network picked it up could donate the money to charity for this debate.The Sanders campaign wasted absolutely no time in responding to Trump on this:Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary. Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 26, 2016This would be a truly interesting debate, especially given that primary season isn t over yet, despite all expectations that both nominations would be locked up by now. There have already been so many monkey wrenches thrown into the primaries that one would think nobody would notice this one. However, one would be very wrong this could throw the biggest monkey wrench yet into the works, depending on how the two candidates interacted with each other and the moderators in such a setting.As of the time of this posting, there was no formal arrangement to actually hold this debate, and setting it up could be a logistical nightmare for the campaigns. That could change quickly, though, depending largely on whether the networks see any potential in it. Honestly, they d be idiotic not to want to do it. It s hard to imagine that anybody in the country wouldn t want to see these two put their arguments side-by-side in a debate format.As Bernie said, Game on.


This is the economic policy that s bringing throngs of college-age young adults to rally for Bernie Sanders.It s a sad but true commentary on the generation of adults who will be leading our nation in the years to come. Note to college students, this is what mature bill-paying adults call B.S. economics.


At the Democratic National Convention this summer, Hillary Clinton said were due for a tax increase. "This is not because we resent success," she said. "But when more than 90 percent of the gains have gone to the top 1 percent, that's where the money is. " But defining America's 1 percent — and finding out "where the money is" — has become an increasingly subjective endeavor. As wealth becomes more concentrated in certain states and even counties, the gap between the national 1 percent and the local 1 percent is growing, creating wealth clusters that are pulling away from the rest of the country. To be in the top 1 percent of incomes nationally, families need to take in a minimum of $389, 436. The average income of America's is $1, 153, 293, according to a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute. Yet when incomes are measured state by state, the study shows wildly diverging fortunes for . in the New York metro area (which includes parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania) earn at least $673, 000. Those in the Conn. area make at least $1. 4 million. Both are eclipsed by the of Jackson, Wyo. who earn at least $1. 7 million. Why Jackson? Billionaires have been flocking to Wyoming, attracted by its outdoor lifestyle and low taxes. Teton County, Wyo. is the richest in America when it comes to 1 percent incomes, with earning more than $2. 2 million. New York County, or Manhattan, ranks second, with a $1. 44 million threshold, followed by Fairfield County, Conn. with just under $1. 4 million. The tech boom has helped the 1 percent in San Mateo County and Marin County, Calif. where they earn at least $1. 1 million. By contrast, you need only $97, 000 to be a in Holmes County, Miss. or Lamar County, Ala. or $108, 000 in Grayson County, Va. "All high incomes are going up, but they're going up much faster in places like New York, Maryland and California," said Mark Price, a labor economist at the Keystone Research Center and of the Economic Policy Institute study. It's no surprise that the most expensive states have the highest incomes at the top. And wealth, by nature, has always been relative. Yet economists and wealth experts say the economic distance between in rich states and the in middling or even affluent states has widened drastically, creating a new national landscape of the 1 percent. "We have a growing concentration of wealth and income by locality," said Edward N. Wolff, an economics professor at New York University. "The localities and those top earners are moving away from the rest of the country. " Regionally, the Northeast has been pulling away the fastest. The income threshold of the top 1 percent surged 101 percent in the Northeast from 1979 to 2013, according to Mr. Price. In the South and Midwest, the threshold has grown by about half that. In Massachusetts, ' incomes jumped 130 percent from 1979 to 2013 they've increased by 112 percent in New York and 113 percent in New Jersey. In New Mexico, they've grown only 22 percent over the same period, and in Nevada, only 15 percent. Yet the rich are also moving beyond the traditional hubs of the Northeast and California, creating some unlikely enclaves, such as Wyoming. North Dakota also moved up the ranks — from 45th to ninth from 1979 to 2013 — as the oil boom lifted the fortunes of its fortunate. The new peaks and valleys of America's elite have made national definitions less and less useful. The 1 percent is no longer the very top layer of the national economy, but a much deeper slice of residents in states like New York, Connecticut and California. The shift has important policy and cultural implications. Calls to tax the 1 percent nationally are really calls to tax the top 5 or 10 percent in the richest states — while missing the top 1 percent in many Western and Southern states. "A tax on the 1 percent is increasingly a regional tax," Mr. Price said. "On average, more folks will be touched by higher rates in New York than, say, West Virginia. " Many economists say that's as it should be — people making more than $389, 000 should pay higher tax rates, regardless of where they live. "They should pay more," Mr. Wolff of N. Y. U. said. "It shouldn't matter where they live. They're earning large amounts of money. " Yet they may not feel like top earners. People making $389, 000 in New York or Connecticut, for instance, are only in the top 10 percent for their states. They may not feel like since so many people around them are far richer. "I have friends who may be in the 1 percent nationally but say they don't feel rich because they have friends who are richer," Mr. Wolff said. "Psychologically they don't feel like a . They don't feel rich. But they really are. "