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Hurricane Irma likely to drop to Category 4 upon landfall in Florida: NHC | (Reuters) - Hurricane Irma is likely to be downgraded to a Category 4 storm by the time it makes landfall in Florida, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Thursday. Irma, at present a Category 5 storm packing maximum sustained winds of 180 miles (285 km) per hour, is moving off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, the NHC said. It has become a little less organized over the past few hours but the threat of direct hurricane impacts in Florida over the weekend and early next week continues to increase, it said. Hurricane watches were in effect for the northwestern Bahamas and much of Cuba. Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, killed eight people on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin and left Barbuda devastated on Thursday. Meanwhile, a hurricane swirling in the Gulf of Mexico, Katia, which is about 195 miles (310 km) northeast of Veracruz with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (130 km per hour), is likely to gain near major hurricane strength by landfall, the NHC said. A third hurricane in the Atlantic, Jose, has strengthened slightly and is expected to intensify further over the next 48 hours, it added. Hurricane Jose is about 815 miles (1,310 km) east of the Lesser Antilles with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour (150 km per hour), the Miami-based weather forecaster said. | 0fake
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Will Latino loathing of Trump drive a voter movement to swing the election? | Donald Trump’s rise is spurring a backlash from Latino communities across America that has the potential to prove a formidable barrier to the billionaire’s success in the November presidential election.
From Florida to Nevada, Arizona to Iowa, and countless other states beyond, there is evidence that the sleeping giant of the Latino vote is stirring. Trump’s favorability ratings with Hispanic voters are running at historic lows, while he faces an increasingly well-organized nationwide campaign to oppose him.
A Guardian exploration of three key swing states and survey of national Hispanic outreach groups has found that the presumptive Republican nominee faces an uphill struggle to repair the damage caused by his threats to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants and build a wall with Mexico.
A poll of Hispanic Americans carried out by Latino Decisions and America’s Voice in April found some 87% of Latinos felt unfavorably towards him. Significantly, almost half said they felt more enthusiastic about voting in the presidential election than they did four years ago, and 41% of those said it was because they wanted to “stop Trump”.
In Florida, groups report that new Hispanic voter registrations are running at 1,000 a week. (Some 2.6 million Hispanics are eligible to vote in Florida for this year’s general election, and about 800,000 of them have not yet registered.)
That unprecedented number corresponds – not coincidentally, Latino organizers believe – with polls that show almost nine in 10 Latino Floridians view Trump unfavorably.
In Iowa, the Latino community has been virtually silent until this year. In 2012 only 1,000 Latinos participated in the Iowa presidential caucuses; this year the number soared to 13,000 – about 25% of all registered Hispanic voters.
“Clearly they were worried about the rhetoric, specifically of Trump. We could not have mobilized the community anything like as effectively without him,” said Joe Henry of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
In Nevada, a state where almost one in five of the 1.9 million eligible voters are Latino, an aggressive push to mobilize the community has started to bear fruit among some 362,000 Latinos who are still unregistered for the November ballot.
Even in Arizona, which has voted Democratic only once in a presidential race in the past 60 years, Hispanic activists hope to bring the state into play by registering up to 75,000 first-time voters. They have already expanded by 125,000 since 2010, to a total of 536,003 registered Hispanic voters (14.4% of the overall voter pool).
“There is something new going on, something unique in the immigrant community,” said Luis Gutiérrez, a US Congress representative for parts of Chicago. “And it has something to do with the tenor and tone of the presidential race.”
To what extent Hispanic Americans will be motivated to vote by Trump’s anti-immigrant remarks is one of the great unknowns of 2016. The Latino population continues to grow at a faster pace than any other demographic, from 19.5 million eligible Latino voters in 2008 to 23.3 million in 2012, with 27.3 million projected by November. That would amount to some 12% of the nation’s electorate in 2016.
Yet the proportion who actually cast their ballot has remained stubbornly low. In 2012 it was only 48%, much lower than the figures for African Americans (66%) and whites (64%).
“The Latino vote cannot be taken for granted, even with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee,” said Sylvia Manzano, a principal of the political consulting firm Latino Decisions. “Telling Latino voters that Trump is hostile to you is one thing – getting them to the polling stations another.”
Against that backdrop of such unflexed political muscle, there are signs that 2016 may see a larger turnout. Mi Familia Vota, a not-for-profit group devoted to encouraging Hispanic participation, has reported a surge in interest in voter registration. In the first four months of this year it helped 18,450 Latinos to get on the voter rolls in six states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Texas.
Three of those states, Florida, Colorado and Nevada, are likely to be among the handful of battlegrounds where the outcome of the fight for the White House will be decided. Small but increasingly well-organized Latino populations in North Carolina and Virginia could also prove significant.
Outreach groups have been busily encouraging the 8.8 million Hispanic immigrants who are legal US residents to take up citizenship as the first step towards voting. Nationally, average requests for citizenship reached 65,000 every month in the five months up to January, with half the applicants being Latino. That’s a modest 15% increase on the same period in the previous year.
Non-partisan groups working to increase Hispanic political participation hope to boost that number as the presidential election looms, largely on the back of Trump’s attacks. In a normal year, some 650,000 green card holders are granted citizenship; this year the groups’ goal is one million, although with the election now six months away it is not certain how many of those the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) would be able to process in time for them to secure a vote by November.
Rocío Sáenz of the Service Employees International Union, which is part of a coalition that has helped 12,781 Latinos apply for citizenship in more than 300 “naturalization workshops” around the country, detects a new intensity: “There is a sense of urgency as a result of the hateful rhetoric about mass deportations, building walls, calling us criminals – this is personal for us.”
Guardian reporters in three key states sought to answer the increasingly critical question: is 2016 the year the sleeping giant of the Hispanic vote wakes up?
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Florida: it has (officially at least) sided with the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1996. All of the contests have been close, with Obama taking the state in both his presidential runs by fewer than three percentage points.
That paper-thin margin is vastly overshadowed by the potential of the Floridian Hispanic population – 24% of the total today, up from 17% in 2000. At the same time, the political affiliation of Latinos in the state has been drifting steadily towards the Democratic party, largely as a result of the influx of left-leaning Puerto Ricans to central Florida.
When you add in the Trump effect, the billionaire’s prospects appear particularly bleak in Florida where recent polls indicate that close to 90% of Hispanic voters view him unfavorably.
Latinos are registering to vote in “unprecedented” numbers to oppose him, advocacy groups say.
“There’s a lot of Latinos who are very angry with Trump,” said Vivian Rodriguez, president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida. “That’s created a wave of Latinos who want to get citizenship and get things going to vote in this election cycle.”
The most recent figures from Florida’s division of elections showed that 1.8 million Hispanics registered to vote in February’s primaries, almost 150,000 more than the number who voted in the 2012 general election, when Obama carried the state with more than 60% of the Hispanic vote.
With the number of Hispanics who registered for the Florida primary already so high, the figures suggest there may be an extraordinarily large turnout of Latinos for the general election in November. In 2012, the increase in registered Hispanic voters after the primary was 110,000. This year, the indications are it will be much greater.
A record 2.6 million Hispanics are eligible to vote in Florida, an increase of half a million since 2012 boosted significantly by the mass influx of Puerto Rican US citizens, particularly around Kissimmee and Orlando, seeking to escape the worsening economic conditions in their homeland.
That leaves about 800,000 eligible Hispanic voters who have not yet registered and if the feedback being received by the many outreach groups in the state is accurate – the National Council of La Raza alone told the Guardian it was signing up new Hispanic voters at a rate of about 1,000 a week – not many of them are going to be supporting Donald Trump.
“Latinos are going to be voting in unprecedented numbers against the villains, the politicians who dehumanize immigrant families to score political points,” said Maria Rodriguez, executive director of FLIC Votes (Florida Immigrant Action Committee).
“We’ve already been seeing the trend of a new generation of younger Cuban Americans registering as Democrats. There’s going to be an exodus from the Republican party; lots of Latino Republicans are going to switch to no party affiliation or the Democrats.”
One of those is Luis-Carlos Fumero, a Miami-born Cuban who fits kitchens for his uncle’s condo renovation company and who fervently supported Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful 2012 campaign. This time he says he will not vote.
“I cannot support this man,” said Fumero, 25, of Trump. “This nonsense over the wall, not letting Muslims into America, what he says about Mexicans and about women, this man is loco.”
The loss of support from Miami’s Cuban Americans could be a body blow to Trump’s hopes of carrying Florida in the general election. Historically a bulwark of Republican support, the influence of Florida’s Cuban voting bloc has already waned from 46% of the state’s eligible Hispanic voters in 1990 to barely 30% today, according to Pew research.
Now there are clear signs that even that bloc might desert the Republican candidate, under the weight of Obama’s opening up of trade and travel with Cuba and with the rise of a younger generation of Cuban Americans who are less ideologically driven.
In February’s primary, the heavily Hispanic Miami-Dade was the only county in Florida that Trump lost, and although he led Hillary Clinton 41-29 among Miami’s Cuban Americans in a Bendixen and Amandi poll this month, his support level is still far below the 64% Romney received from Cuban Americans statewide in 2012.
Perhaps more worryingly for Trump, Miami’s influential Republican Cuban American political leaders continue to speak out against him. House representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo have said they cannot vote for him, and Tomás Regalado, the mayor of Miami and himself a Cuban exile, launched a searing attack on the presumptive nominee in the Miami Herald.
“He mistreats people, speaks derisively of people,” Regalado said. “A president’s biggest asset is the bully pulpit. This guy is capable of creating national and international chaos.”
Karina Ruiz de Diaz, president of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, takes the long view. “The Latino vote is still very young,” she told the Guardian. “We will reshape the state, it’s just going to take a little bit of time.”
Arizona’s electorate is in the midst of rapid change. One in five eligible voters in the state are Hispanic, according to a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center. It estimates that 1.3 million Arizona Latinos will be eligible to vote in 2016, up from 796,000 in 2008.
Young Latinos make up a large share of the Hispanic electorate. Nearly twice as many Hispanic voters in Arizona are millennials, compared with their white counterparts, according to 2014 Pew data.
Arizona has historically been a conservative state. But the changing demographics and the prospective general election race between Trump and Clinton has activists and experts predicting that this will be the year Arizona Latinos realize their political force, and sweep Democrats in to power.
“It’s exciting for us in Arizona because we keep getting talked about as a purple state, as possibly a swing state,” said Kate Gallego, the vice-mayor of Phoenix.
That would be astonishing. Since the second world war, Arizona has only once voted for the Democratic presidential candidate: Bill Clinton in 1996. So could it happen?
“Certainly John McCain thinks so,” Gallego said, referring to comments recorded at a private fundraiser in which the long-serving Arizona senator said Trump could threaten his chances of being re-elected. “If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30% of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,” McCain is reported to have said.
Yet even if record turnout were to turn the solidly red state blue, Arizona’s 11 electoral votes would probably be superfluous as the outcome is unlikely to shift the dynamics of the race.
If Trump is to be the motivation that finally unleashes the electoral power of Arizona’s Latinos, the achievement will not be his alone. He will also have to credit the assistance of two of his most ardent supporters: Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, the self-styled “toughest sheriff in America”, and Jan Brewer, the former Arizona governor who signed into law one of the harshest state immigration measures in the country.
In 2010, Arizona enacted Senate Bill 1070, a draconian law aimed at driving out the state’s undocumented immigrants that pushed the state to the forefront of an acrimonious debate over border security and comprehensive immigration reform.
Yet instead of disappearing, the law drew many of the state’s undocumented immigrants out of the shadows. Latinos joined forces with business leaders, concerned about the economic impact of the law. Together, tens of thousands marched through the streets of downtown Phoenix in opposition.
“We have seen many Trumps in Arizona,” said Ian Danley, a director with One Arizona, speaking after a meeting on voter suppression in Phoenix. “We were birthed out of SB 1070, which is a Trump-like policy. We weren’t prepared in 2010. We’re prepared now.”
One Arizona, a non-partisan network of Hispanic and immigrant groups working to increase Latino voter turnout in the state, has registered between 110,000 and 125,000 new voters since 2010, and helped triple the number of Latinos enrolled in the state’s early voting system. Now the network has set itself the ambitious target of registering between 60,000 and 75,000 new voters by November.
Because volunteers are restricted from telling registrants who to vote for and the group doesn’t track registrants’ party affiliation, it’s hard to assess “the Trump effect”. Anecdotally, several volunteers said it was not uncommon for registrants to ask which party Trump belonged to and then tick the opposite box.
“People are paying a lot of attention,” said Raquel Terán, the state director for Mi Vota Familia, sipping vegan horchata at a coffee shop in downtown Phoenix.
When Donald Trump came to Arizona in March, he held his rally in Fountain Hills, a predominantly white town in Maricopa County. He was joined by Brewer, the former governor, and introduced by Arpaio, the controversial sheriff who has cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in an ongoing racial profiling case that found his officers had targeted Latinos during raids and traffic stops.
“We had a little problem. Some demonstrators were trying to disrupt,” Arpaio told the crowd, which began to boo and hiss. “If they think they’re going to intimidate you and the next president of the United States, it’s not going to happen – not in this town!”
“I call that the hate and fear playbook,” said Petra Falcon, a long-time Arizona activist and director of the rights group Promise Arizona. “If you want to divide a country or a state, just take out that playbook and start talking about the harm immigrants do – they come here to take your jobs. They rob. He took that playbook from Arizona and is using it nationally.”
The biggest challenge for Arizona’s Democrats remains voter turnout. There are approximately 170,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats in the state, according to the latest data from the secretary of state’s office.
In the primaries on 22 March, 55% of Republicans cast ballots, compared with 49% of Democrats. However, registered independents, who make up the largest share of Arizona voters but are not represented by a party, could not vote in either primary.
At an outlet mall in Tempe, José Barboza and Francis Sullivan of Promise Arizona took turns approaching shoppers and sales associates with their clipboards.
Jaritma Avilez told Barboza she was registered to vote and he moved on. But later Avilez admitted to the Guardian that even though she was registered, she didn’t plan on voting in November. “I don’t feel like politics really affects my life,” she shrugged.
“In November, the Latino community is going to come out in large numbers,” Jocelyn Sida, a Nevada organizer for Mi Familia Vota, which works to increase Hispanic turnout, told the Guardian. “A lot of millennials like myself are getting involved in leadership roles to educate and engage the community, and it’s been very accepting. They’re not withdrawing, they’re not closing their doors to us. On the contrary they’re seeking us out to find ways to get involved.”
With 17% of Nevada’s electorate being Hispanic, the Latino vote certainly has the potential to deny Trump victory through strong turnout. In 2012, 70% of Nevada Latinos voted for Obama, helping him to win the state by a comfortable six-point margin.
“All the time Trump’s yelling about kicking people out the country. It’s horrible,” said Rodulfo Martinez, 60, a Las Vegas construction worker, expressing an anger felt by many. “The way he insults us isn’t right. Many of the things he says about the [border] wall and why Latinos come here don’t make sense.”
A poll last month by Latino Decisions showed that immigration reform was the most pressing issue for Nevada Hispanics. The state has the country’s largest percentage of undocumented immigrants, many of whom count registered voters as friends and family.
“Está loco,” said Vicky Legaspi, 36, echoing Fumero in Miami. A restaurant owner on Las Vegas’s working-class east side, Legaspi nearly choked on a spoon of ice cream when asked if she would vote for the celebrity businessman. “He just wants attention. He doesn’t care about this country.”
Ana Hernandez, 34, a housekeeper, said Trump was “mean” and “has a bad heart” and that she intended to vote for Clinton because “first of all, she’s not a racist”, setting a somewhat low bar.
Latino participation in Nevada’s 2016 Democratic caucus showed a 5% uptick over the 2008 contest, another encouraging sign for Clinton, who won the vote in both cycles. The primary season also saw Democrats build a 5% lead in voter registration in Nevada, while an ongoing “naturalization blitz” organized by progressive groups has brought thousands of new minority voters into the fray.
At the start of this election season, Nevada had 362,000 potential new Latino voters, including 42,000 Hispanic youth who will come of voting age this cycle and 40,000 legal permanent residents eligible for citizenship, according to Mi Familia Vota.
“It’s amazing to hear from people who never had a reason to vote, or speaking of the citizenship workshops, people who have never had a reason to become citizens until now,” said Laura Martin, associate director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (Plan), which promotes civic engagement. “We focus on low-income communities of color, so we meet lots of people at the bus station, the welfare office, or outside the dollar store. They used to not care, but now they see Donald Trump and that’s scary to them.”
Additional reporting by Mona Chalabi in New York | 0fake
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مذكرة مفاهيمية عن رئاسة الروسية | اجتماع لمجلس الأمن من 28 أكتوبر 2016
مذكرة مفاهيمية عن رئاسة الروسية شبكة فولتير | نيويورك (الولايات المتحدة) | 27 تشرين الأول (أكتوبر) 2016 français English Español русский 中文 التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة والمنظمات الإقليمية ودون الإقليمية في صون السلام والأمن الدوليين: منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة. ورقة مفاهيمية
يعتزم الاتحاد الروسي أن يعقد مناقشة في 28 تشرين الأول/أكتوبر بشأن موضوع ”التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة والمنظمات الإقليمية ودون الإقليمية في صون السلام والأمن الدوليين: منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة“، وذلك بوصفها محور فترة رئاسته لمجلس الأمن.
في ضوء الطابع العالمي للتحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة، تتطلب صياغة النهج الجماعية اللازمة للتصدي لها بفعالية تعزيز التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة والمنظمات الإقليمية ودون الإقليمية في صون السلام والأمن الدوليين.
وفيما يتعلق بالأمم المتحدة، يرتبط ذلك في المقام الأول بطابعها العالمي، وذلك من حيث عضوية المنظمة وعملها على السواء، وكذلك بشرعيتها المعترف بها دوليا. وبالمقابل، فإن المنظمات الإقليمية غالبا ما تتمتع بفهم أفضل للحالة في المجالات التي تندرج في نطاق مسؤولياتها، وفي الكثير من الحالات، تكون مجهزة بآليات وقائية وآليات لحفظ السلام تتكيف مع الحقائق المحلية. ومن المهم في هذا الصدد أن تكون أنشطة المنظمات الإقليمية موجهة نحو السعي إلى إيجاد حلول سياسية سلمية للنزاعات الناشئة.
وفي هذا السياق تحديدا، يكتسب التنسيق المنتظم مع الشركاء الإقليميين الرئيسيين للأمم المتحدة بشأن المسائل المتعلقة بصون السلام والأمن الدوليين أهمية بالغة. فعلى سبيل المثال، يعقد مجلس الأمن اجتماعات منتظمة بشأن التعاون مع الاتحاد الأفريقي، ومنظمة الأمن والتعاون في أوروبا، والاتحاد الأوروبي. وفي السنوات الأخيرة، أجريت استعراضات للتعاون مع جامعة الدول العربية، ورابطة أمم جنوب شرق آسيا، واتحاد أمم أمريكا الجنوبية وغيرها من الجهات الفاعلة الإقليمية.
ولا يخفى على أحد أن التعاون بين المنظمة وشركائها الإقليميين يغطي مجموعة لا تنفك تتسع من المسائل. وتكمل هدفي حفظ السلام وبناء السلام الجهود الرامية إلى مكافحة انتشار أسلحة الدمار الشامل والتدفق غير المشروع للأسلحة الصغيرة والأسلحة الخفيفة ومكافحة الإرهاب الإلكتروني والهجرة غير الشرعية - وكلها مجالات يزداد التعاون فيها بين المنظمات المذكورة أعلاه والأمم المتحدة زخما. وهذا أمر بالغ الأهمية لصون السلام والاستقرار على امتداد المنطقة الأوروبية الآسيوية المترامية الأطراف، وخاصة في منطقة آسيا الوسطى.
وفي هذا المجال تحديدا، تعمل ثلاث منظمات فتية نسبيا في المنطقة الشاسعة الممتدة من أوروبا الشرقية إلى الشرق الأقصى، وهي منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة. وتعمل هذه المنظمات على بناء نفوذها السياسي في العالم وتسهم إسهاما ملموسا في تعزيز الأمن على الصعيدين الإقليمي والدولي.
وستركز المناقشات على مساهمة منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة في التصدي للأخطار التي تهدٍّد السلام والأمن في المنطقة، بما في ذلك مكافحة الإرهاب والاتجار بالمخدرات والجريمة المنظمة. وستوفر هذه المناسبة أيضا فرصة للتأكيد مجددا على التزام هذه المنظمات الثلاث بتطوير التعاون العملي مع الأمم المتحدة، بما في ذلك مركزها الإقليمي للدبلوماسية الوقائية لمنطقة آسيا الوسطى.
وتُعدُّ منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي هيكلا متعدِّد الوجوه قادرا على الاستجابة بقوة للطائفة الواسعة من التحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة التي قد تواجهها الدول الأعضاء فيها. وفي هذا الصدد، تتوافر فرص جيدة لتعزيز التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة ومنظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي في مجال حفظ السلام. وفي إطار منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، يجري العمل بشكل مكثف من أجل تطوير القدرات الخاصة بها على حفظ السلام، بما في ذلك القدرات التي يمكن أن تتاح لعمليات الأمم المتحدة لحفظ السلام. وفي الوقت نفسه، تسهم منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي بنشاط في الجهود الدولية لإعادة الإعمار بعد انتهاء النزاع في أفغانستان وتحييد خطر المخدرات النابع من إقليم ذلك البلد.
وتتطوَّر علاقات منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي مع الأمم المتحدة بنجاح في مجالات عديدة منها مكافحة الإرهاب والاتجار بالمخدرات، وحفظ السلام، ومكافحة الجريمة المنظمة. وتحافظ منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي على صلات مثمرة مع هياكل الأمم المتحدة المتخصِّصة وتعمل على تطويرها، بما في ذلك لجنة مكافحة الإرهاب التابعة لمجلس الأمن ومكتب الأمم المتحدة المعني بالمخدرات والجريمة.
وكل سنتين، تتخذ الجمعية العامة قرارا بشأن التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة ومنظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي. ومن المقرر اتخاذ قرار بشأن هذا الموضوع في الدورة الحادية والسبعين في سياق النظر في بند جدول الأعمال المعنون ”التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة والمنظمات الإقليمية والمنظمات الأخرى“.
ولقد أُنشئ الإطار القانوني للتعاون بين الأمم المتحدة ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون بشأن قضايا السلام والأمن الدوليين وفقا للفصل الثامن من ميثاق الأمم المتحدة بتوقيع إعلان مشترك بشأن التعاون بين أمانتي المنظمتين عام 2010. وفي الوقت الراهن، تتعاون منظمة شنغهاي للتعاون والأمم المتحدة تعاونا نشطا في مجالات من قبيل منع نشوب النزاعات وحلها، ومكافحة الإرهاب (ولهذا الغرض، يعمل هيكل إقليمي لمكافحة الإرهاب داخل منظمة شنغهاي للتعاون)، وعدم انتشار أسلحة الدمار الشامل، ومكافحة الجريمة العابرة للحدود الوطنية والاتجار غير المشروع بالمخدرات، وضمان أمن المعلومات على الصعيد الدولي.
وفي هذا السياق، تؤيد منظمة شنغهاي للتعاون بهمَّة جهود المجتمع الدولي وهيئات الأمم المتحدة الرامية إلى استعادة السلام في أفغانستان وتدعو باستمرار إلى الحفاظ على الدور التنسيقي المركزي الذي تضطلع به الأمم المتحدة في عملية التسوية الأفغانية.
ولقد كان التعاون في ضمان الأمن والتصدي للتحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة دائما وسيظلَّ أحد المجالات ذات الأولوية للتعاون المتكامل بين الدول الأعضاء في رابطة الدول المستقلة.
ويعتبر التعاون البنَّاء مع المنظمات الدولية أيضا عاملا رئيسيا في مكافحة التهديدات المستجدة بفعالية. ودول رابطة الدول المستقلة أطراف في جميع أهم الصكوك الدولية التي تنظم التعاون في ضمان الأمن، وتعزيز نزع السلاح، والتصدي للتحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة، وتسهم إسهاما كبيرا في تنفيذها.
ويجري تنفيذ تدابير مشتركة مع مراعاة الدور القيادي للأمم المتحدة والحاجة إلى تطوير شراكات بنَّاءة مع الهيئات الدولية الأخرى وهياكلها المتخصِّصة مثل لجنة مكافحة الإرهاب، ومكتب الأمم المتحدة المعني بالمخدرات والجريمة، والمنظمة الدولية للشرطة الجنائية (الإنتربول)، والمنظمة الدولية للهجرة، ومفوضية الأمم المتحدة لشؤون اللاجئين، وفرقة العمل المعنية بالإجراءات المالية المتعلقة بغسل الأموال.
ويؤدي استمرار تعزيز التعاون وتوثيقه بين الأمم المتحدة ومنظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة على أساس الفصل الثامن من ميثاق الأمم المتحدة دورا بنَّاء في تعزيز أهداف المنظمة، بما في ذلك مجابهة التحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة. ويجب أن تحدِّد هذه المنظمات الإقليمية موقعها بصورة فاعلة من حيث توظيف إمكانياتها لمصلحة الأمم المتحدة. وفي الوقت نفسه، ينبغي للأمم المتحدة نفسها أن تواصل إيلاء الاهتمام اللازم إلى زيادة التنسيق والتعاون مع تلك المنظمات، في إطار التقيد الصارم باختصاصات المنظمة ومجلس الأمن التابع لها.
وفي هذا السياق، نود أن نقترح أن تقدم الدول الأعضاء رؤيتها الخاصة عن السبل الكفيلة بتعزيز الأمن في المنطقة الأوروبية الآسيوية باستخدام الآليات الإقليمية القائمة. ومن الواضح أن الاستقرار في هذه المنطقة الكبرى سيكون الأساس لتحقيق النمو الاقتصادي وبناء الدولة للبلدان الأوروبية الآسيوية، ولذلك نرحِّب بآراء الوفود، بما في ذلك بشأن الصلة القائمة بين الأمن والتنمية. ونحن مقتنعون بأننا هنا، في الأمم المتحدة التي تتمتع بالشرعية العالمية، سنتمكن بشكل جماعي من اقتراح نُهُج مبتكرة لتناول مسائل تحقيق الاستقرار في المناطق الضعيفة يمكن تطبيقها لاحقا على أجزاء أخرى من العالم تشكل محط اهتمام مجلس الأمن.
وستشمل المناقشة ملاحظات يدلي بها السيد بان كي - مون، الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة، والسيد ن. ن بورديوزها، الأمين العام لمنظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، والسيد ر. ك. عليموف، الأمين العام لمنظمة شانغهاي للتعاون، والسيد س. إ. إيفانوف، نائب رئيس اللجنة التنفيذية لرابطة الدول المستقلة. والدعوة موجهة أيضا إلى الدول الأعضاء في المنظمات الإقليمية المذكورة أعلاه وممثلي الدول المهتمة الأخرى للمشاركة في الاجتماع. | 1real
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White House says Congress has no reason to wait until after Nov election to take up TPP | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday said that it sees no reason to wait until after the Nov. 8 presidential election for Congress to take up discussions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership “There’s no reason we need to wait that long, particularly when you consider that ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership would hasten the end to 18,000 taxes that other countries impose on American goods,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at the daily briefing. | 0fake
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U.N. envoy urges Security Council to visit Myanmar, Bangladesh | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A top U.N. official recounted to the Security Council on Tuesday heartbreaking and horrific accounts of sexual atrocities by Myanmar soldiers against Rohingya Muslim women, urging the body to visit the region and demand an end to attacks on civilians. Pramila Patten, special envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on sexual violence in conflict, said one woman told her she was held by Myanmar troops for 45 days and raped repeatedly, while another woman could no longer see out of one eye after it was bitten by a soldier during a sexual assault. Some witnesses reported women and girls being tied to either a rock or a tree before multiple soldiers raped them to death, Patten told the Security Council. Some women recounted how soldiers drowned babies in the village well. A few women told me how their own babies were allegedly thrown in the fire as they were dragged away by soldiers and gang raped, she said. Patten said the 15-member Security Council should visit Myanmar - also known as Burma - and Cox s Bazar in Bangladesh, where more than 626,000 refugees have fled to since violence erupted in Myanmar s northern Rakhine State on Aug. 25. She said that a Security Council resolution demanding an immediate end to violations against civilians in Rakhine state and outlining measures to hold the perpetrators accountable would send an important signal. Myanmar s army released a report last month denying all allegations of rapes and killings by security forces. This is unacceptable, said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Burma must allow an independent, transparent and credible investigation into what has happened. While we are hearing promises from the government of Burma, we need to see action, she said. Myanmar has been stung by international criticism for the way its security forces responded to Aug. 25 attacks by Rohingya militants on 30 security posts. Last month the Security Council urged the Myanmar government to ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state. China s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Wu Haitao said the crisis had to be solved through an agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh and warned that any solution reached under strong pressure from outside may ease the situation temporarily but will leave negative after effects. The two countries signed an agreement on voluntary repatriation Nov. 23. U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman pushed on Tuesday for the United Nations to be involved in any operation to return Rohingya. Plans alone are not sufficient. We hope Myanmar will draw upon the wealth of expertise the U.N. can offer, Feltman told the Security Council. | 0fake
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Trump to nominate Hassett to chair Council of Economic Advisers | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump intends to nominate Kevin Hassett, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and fiscal policy expert, as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, the White House said on Friday. Hassett, who previously served as a senior economist as the Federal Reserve, needs to be confirmed by the Senate. | 0fake
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Obama Lists Regrets -- Again: Failure to Secure Gun Control Still #1 | In a January 4 “exit letter” to the American people, President Obama again listed what he regrets most about the last eight years. Number one on the list was his failure to secure gun control. [Obama shared this same regret with CNN in early December 2016, and the BBC quoted him in July 2015 speaking about the “distressing” failure to secure gun control. On Wednesday, he used the letter to highlight his regrets once more. After listing numerous things he views as achievements — such as shifting from coal to solar power, pulling out of Iraq, pulling out of Afghanistan, and securing Obamacare — Obama wrote: Still, through every victory and every setback, I’ve insisted that change is never easy, and never quick that we wouldn’t meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime. And for all that we’ve achieved, there’s still so much I wish we’d been able to do, from enacting gun safety measures to protect more of our kids and our cops from mass shootings like Newtown, to passing commonsense immigration reform that encourages the best and brightest from around the world to study, stay, and create jobs in America. Regardless of whether a gun control group or an individual gun controller like Obama raises the topic, it is notable that no gun law would have prevented the Newtown, Connecticut, attack against Sandy Hook Elementary School. It is especially notable that the gun controls President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Senator Joe Manchin ( ) pushed in the wake of Sandy Hook would have done nothing to prevent another Sandy Hook. Manchin touted an expansion of background checks in reaction to the Sandy Hook attack. And then, just days before the Senate rejected the gun controls, he admitted that his proposal would not have prevented the attack. Isolated Sandy attacks continued around the country during the last four years of Obama’s presidency, and background checks would not have stopped one of them. But nearly all of them could have been reduced — or perhaps prevented altogether — by changing the one commonality many of them shared: namely, policies that mandate the disarmament of citizens in certain buildings locations. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0fake
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Sen. Tim Scott: Running A Small Business Makes Me An Authority On Abortion (VIDEO) | The 2016 Values Voter Summit is underway, and of course this yearly gathering of homophobes, misogynists, science deniers, and other assorted right-wing nuts is especially feverish since this is an election year. At the top of the list of priorities for such people, is, of course, abortion.These people hate the idea of a woman being able to control her own body. They think that a bunch of men in the government should have that authority, not a woman and her doctor. However, one GOP Senator who spoke at this horrible event really had the most absurd argument ever to make the case that he is somehow more qualified than anyone else to legislate on abortion: because he ran a small business before he was a member of Congress.South Carolina Senator Tim Scott said, with the air of a father finding out that his teen daughter has come home pregnant, that an employee told him that she was pregnant. So what did Sen. Scott do with this woman? Why, what any manipulative Christian who wants to control the lives of others would do: took her to a crisis pregnancy center.Crisis pregnancy centers are nothing but right-wing Christian organizations that lie about a woman s choices when it comes to dealing with an unwanted pregnancy. They manipulate young girls and women into believing that abortion is absolutely not an option, for any reason. And, of course, these are the same people who are opposed to any sorts of help for the mothers and children once they are born.Senator Scott said of the conclusion of his decision to help this woman in this way, and how it makes him especially qualified to opine and legislate on this matter: As an elected official, when I have the responsibility and the opportunity, the privilege to protect life, I do so having been in the private sector, realizing the importance that we should place on life and the choice of life. Senator Scott, you aren t protecting anything. You re just trying to control the bodies of women around the nation who you don t even know. Plus, you ll likely, like all GOPers, abandon these fetuses the second they are out of the womb. You people and your sick obsession with controlling women need to be voted out. As a South Carolinian, I plan to do just that.Watch Tim Scott s crazy unfold below:Featured image via Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images | 1real
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Trump Executive Order on Ethics Commitments Bans Lobbying for Executive Branch Employees | 21st Century Wire says Reactions around the world are mixed with regards to the first salvo of executive orders coming out of the Trump White House, but here s one that will likely have many readers nodding in agreement even some reluctant agreement from the left, perhaps?On January 28th, President Trump signed the Executive Order on Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees. Will this executive order have some of the DC swamp life scrambling to tune up the ethics associated with political appointees and lobbying on Capital Hill? Has President Trump just put some gravitas behind his campaign promises to drain the swamp ?Time will tell, but this could be a step in the right direction in curtailing some of the power that lobbyists can wield.RT has more in the report below: RTAs part of his promise to drain the swamp US President Donald Trump has signed an ethics commitments executive order restricting his administration officials from working as lobbyists after they leave government.The order bans his appointees from lobbying any government official for two years and the agency they worked in for five years. It also prevents them from ever lobbying the US on behalf of a foreign government or foreign political parties.The order is solely enforceable by the United States by any legally available means. Anyone found violating the ban could be barred from lobbying their former agency for up to another five years, on top of the five-year period covered by the order.The order also states that Trump, or his designee, may also grant to any person a waiver of any of restrictions contained in the pledge. A huge focus of Trump s election campaign was his promise to tackle Washington insiders. His pledge to drain the swamp became a hugely popular chant at his rallies. The executive order is an effort to deliver on those promises however it s far from certain that it will be effective.It s already common for former officials to find ways to use their influence without registering as lobbyists. Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, former officials can avoid registering as lobbyists if they spend less than 20 percent of their time in meetings with government officials Continue this report at RTREAD MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real
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How Secure is Your Cellphone ?? | posted by Eddie Ever wonder how cellphones went from being a point of wealth to household commodity? Well, there’s reason to believe that the accessibility of cellphones isn’t purely coincidental. The thought originated with metadata and the possibilities made possible through the documentation of information that cellphones provide, through both backdoor access and the location data each phone provides. FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, is an incredibly secret court that answers to no one and, has autonomy in not only their proceeding and rulings, but, is also highly-classified. Through this system, President’s George Bush and Barrack Obama have enabled their own domestic surveillance practices. Although, The NSA is heavily involved as well. In doing so, the government has created programs and jobs that are specific to collecting and translating meta-data. The government would have you believe that meta-data is not as invasive as specific data, but, let’s consider it this way. Imagine your coordinates being reported by the second, from the time you wake in the morning, during your commute to work, and whichever plans you have afterwards. This data system gives insight into each particular location, phone call, and the duration of said phone calls to these data collectors. Imagine being able to see each and every step your better half or child has throughout the day, and you notice they stops at location that seem unusual or speak/communicate with numbers/people unfamiliar to you while having access to the duration of those calls. Although, this leaves an opportunity for misconception, but, it also brings us to an objective truth, how revealing metadata can be. Edward Snowden, a former NSA employer who specialized in technology in the cyber division, released classified documents involving both government programs that enacted policies, and, FISA court rulings on said programs. These revelations brought his need to flee for asylum in China, and then and currently, Russia. Snowden’s attempt of transparency let Americans learn just how much census data has changed and the contracts deployed between the government and the major communications companies, such as AT&T. These companies have made millions by granting backdoor access and data to the government. Yet, this isn’t all bad. Local officials have occasionally solicited access, through communication companies, to find criminals and perpetrators of crime. For example, in 2013 California officials used the data and cellphone accessibility to find the murderer that slaughtered a man, his wife, and their two children. Until the solicitation, the local officials weren’t close to right suspect. After collaboration, the local officials were able to find, through metadata collection, analysis, and cellphone GPS, the exact location of the murderer. So, you tell me, do you think your phone is as private as you think? Written by Anthony A Fabrikant. From Around the Web Founder of WorldTruth.Tv and WomansVibe.com Eddie ( 8889 Posts )
Eddie L. is the founder and owner of WorldTruth.TV. and Womansvibe.com. Both website are dedicated to educating and informing people with articles on powerful and concealed information from around the world. I have spent the last 36+ years researching Bible, History, Alternative Health, Secret Societies, Symbolism and many other topics that are not reported by mainstream media. | 1real
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Pope urges Trump to show concern for poor, be guided by ethical values | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged U.S. President Donald Trump to be guided by ethical values and as he took office on Friday, saying he must take care of the poor and the outcast during his time in office. “At a time when our human family is beset by grave humanitarian crises demanding farsighted and united political responses, I pray that your decisions will be guided by the rich spiritual and ethical values that have shaped the history of the American people and your nation’s commitment to the advancement of human dignity and freedom worldwide,” Francis said in a message sent to Trump minutes after he was inaugurated. “Under your leadership, may America’s stature continue to be measured above all by its concern for the poor, the outcast and those in need ...,” Francis said in the message released by the Vatican. Francis, the first pope from Latin America, has made concern for the poor and the weakest members of society a key platform of his nearly four-year-old papacy. Last year, in response to an answer about Trump’s views on immigration and his intention to build a wall on the border with Mexico, Francis said a man with those views is “not Christian”. Trump struck back, calling the pope’s comments “disgraceful.” | 0fake
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Sugar Doesn’t Just Feed Cancer Cells it May Even CREATE Them | by PAUL FASSA
First realize that even without being diagnosed with cancer, we all have at least a few cancerous cells floating around in our “inner terrain”. A decent immune system residing in a slightly alkaline or neutral pH inner terrain is able to fend them off and keep them from colonizing into tumorous masses. On the other hand, those who indulge primarily in the SAD (Standard American Diet), which includes lots of factory farmed meat and junk foods saturated with refined sugars or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which processed foods use even with their non-sweet products to keep you addicted, along with all those refined carbs in refined grain baked products, are adding fuel (literally) to the fire of cancer.
Mainstream oncology ignores this 1930s Nobel Prize discovery by Otto Warburg, aka the “Warburg Effect”: When normal cells begin to lack oxygen respiration to utilize glucose and nutrients metabolically for cellular energy, they depend on fermenting sugar to thrive without oxygen and become cancerous.
Yum … ice cream with my chemo!
Instead oncologists administer chemo IV therapies while giving their patients ice cream and cookies as the poison is injected into them. Big profits from the treatment and selling those toxic drugs at a profit also. “Cancer cells consume sugar about 19x faster than healthy cells.” – Dr. Murray Susser, MD Mainstream medicine refuses to look into diet as a function of potential metabolic dysfunction that helps promote and maintain cancer while asserting genetic disposition as a primary cause of cancer. Their hubris and incredible profits thrive from toxic interventions such as chemotherapy and radiation. The first concern with preventing or eliminating cancer should be what you put into your body. That gives you control over cancer.
It’s a no-brainer when it comes to avoiding sodas, juices with added sugars, pastries, candies, and processed foods that use processed grains and even add sugar or HFCS to foods that are not even sweet. That’s to keep you addicted even if you can’t taste it. Refined sugar is actually addictive, some claim it’s even as addictive as cocaine.
A Recent Study That Makes Sugar Carcinogenic
But now it’s even worse. Green Med Info has uncovered a study that seems to be hidden from the public eye and is certainly not welcome within our orthodox oncology system. It would cramp the food and soda business’s profits if refined sugar is seen as carcinogenic.
The study, “Increased sugar uptake promotes oncogenesis via EPAC/RAP1 and O-GlcNAc pathways” was published in the 2013-2014 Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI). Because it is a free access journal, you can access the full text, not just the abstract, here .
I wonder how come this study hasn’t made much of a stir in our sick-care system since it is so accessible. Instead it was dug up by a research scout for Green Med Info.
It is of course full of biochemical details, which is what medical people are supposed to be familiar with. So for now, let’s be content with a layman’s summary report of their study, which was an in vitro (cultures, petri dishes, and test tubes) study as opposed to an in vivo (animal or human) study. This way they could really play around with and analyze the results with total control.
Here’s the bottom line of this study: Increased glucose uptake leads to early phases of cancer cell creation while curbing glucose intake reversed cancerous cells into normal cells. In other words, sugar is carcinogenic as well as fodder for already existing cancer cells.
It’s important to not confuse the enormous amount of refined sugar, table sugar or HFCS, one takes in with sodas and processed foods with naturally occurring sugars and fructose in plant foods, regardless of how high the glycemic index may be. Fruit juices don’t need added sugars, but many fruit juices have sugar added. That’s the type of beverage or food that needs to be avoided.
But table sugar is refined, and most off the shelf breads and pastries are composed of refined grains that are refined carbohydrates, which become sugar instantly without any compensating nutrition. They are processed out of whole foods to be independent of other compounds that balance natural whole foods to make them beneficial.
An interesting informative excerpt from the Cancer Tutor: Dr. Tony [Antonio] Jimenez hypothesizes that sugar from Organic Produce may not contribute to cancer cell growth like its adulterated counterpart [refined sugar/HFCS]. He explains that human mammalian cells absorb levorotatory (left spinning) molecules, while cancer cells can only assimilate dextrorotatory (right spinning) molecules.
Essentially, fruits in their natural state contain left spinning sugars, whereas GMO-influenced fruits consist only of right spinning sugars. Dr. Jimenez concludes that the glycemic index is not nearly as important as the source and lineage of the fruits and vegetables we eat. As an example, Dr. Max Gerson used Carrot Juice as a successful alternative therapy, despite its high glycemic index. An Easy Tip That’s Not So Easy for Many
So here is the simplicity of it all. Avoid putting adding sugar to your foods and drinks, avoid all sweets and processed foods, even the ones not obviously sweet contain added refined sugars to keep you coming back for more because of its addictive quality.
This is harder for most than you may think. I met an American woman in Mexico who was advised to return to Texas and have a top cancer hospital determine the status of a mass detected in her gastrointestinal tract. I advised her to lay off sugar because if did turn out to be cancer it would exacerbate her condition.
She slumped and groaned slightly, indicating the impossibility of such an abstinence for her. I have read enough reports from spouses, friends, and relatives that show many are unwilling to make dietary changes to cure cancer, and whatever therapy they had used did fail probably because of that.
Many would rather just do what their doctors’ say and eat and drink what they want. And some want the same freedom even while avoiding chemo or radiation. This is especially true among those who use cannabis as a “silver bullet” to treat their cancer.
Despite all the carcinogenic chemicals that blanket our biosphere, we do have one area that’s in our control – avoiding refined sugars and carbohydrates.
Paul Fassa is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. His pet peeves are the Medical Mafia’s control over health and the food industry and government regulatory agencies’ corruption. Paul’s valiant contributions to the health movement and global paradigm shift are world renowned. Visit his blog by following this link and follow him on Twitter here . | 1real
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Public Bullishness Towards Stocks Sees One Of The Highest 2-Week Jumps In History | (King World News) From Jason Goepfert at SentimenTrader:
Investors are starting to thaw Individuals in the AAII survey come roaring back to the bullish camp, a mixed blessing It takes a while for rapid changes in prices to be reflected in longer-term indicators, so some of the weekly series are just now reflecting the moves from the past 1-2 weeks.
Among them, the weekly survey from the American Association of Individual Investors showed one of the largest two-week jumps in bullish opinion in the survey’s history.
King World News note: Although the overall bullish opinion is still “muted,” the public is definitely increasing their appetite for stocks as the indexes hit new all-time highs. Of course this is the opposite of what we saw at the bottom of the stock markets in 2009.
The chart and commentary above are from SentimenTrader. To try a free 14-day trial of the internationally acclaimed work that Jason Goepfert produces at SentimenTrader simply CLICK HERE.
Look At These Markets Seeing Massive Waterfall Declines As Chaotic Global Trading Continues | 1real
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State Department was not doing enough on emails, records: spokesman | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. State Department officials were aware of Hillary Clinton’s use of private email as secretary of state but did not understand the full extent to which she employed it, a department spokesman said on Wednesday. Spokesman Mark Toner said the State Department has already complied with many recommendations in an inspector general’s report on Clinton’s email use and acknowledged failings during her 2009-2013 tenure. “We, like many federal agencies, were not doing enough to meet the requirements of records management and preservation,” Toner said at a news briefing. | 0fake
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TEXAS COLLEGE STUDENTS OUTRAGED: Traditional 9/11 Memorial Flag Display Moved…Could “Offend” Some Students | The shocker about this is that students on both sides of the political spectrum want the 9/11 flags to be displayed where they ve always been displayed. The inability of college campuses to stand up to people who are perpetually offended is a sad statement on where we are in American tolerance these days. It s so ironic that the left wants you to march to their drum beat or else they will destroy you. Note to SMU: You had a good thing going with your student body coming together to memorialize 9/11 so let it continue!DALLAS, Tex. In a time of extreme political divide, students both Republican and Democrat at one Texas college have found something they can agree on.For the past two years at Southern Methodist University, a campus group has planted thousands of American flags in front of Dallas Hall as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. That s simply contradictory to the very definition of free speech, said Grant Wolf, the Young Americans for Freedom Chairman.But in July, SMU changed its policy, saying student groups can no longer have displays there.The lawn has historically hosted tributes and protests from students of all political affiliations. The leaders of two prominent student groups say the policy violates their right to free speech. They re basically cornering us into a segment of campus and saying you re not allowed to have a display here because it s triggering, harmful or offensive to students over there, said Drew Wicker, the President of SMU College Republicans.SMU released a statement saying nearby Momac Park, where displays will be allowed, is larger than the lawn and is along one of the most prominent drives on campus.The university said it respects the rights of all campus community members to express their opinions, as well as their right to be free from coercion or harassment. Via: Fox 5 Atlanta | 1real
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The NRA Just Admitted It Was Always Lying About Obama Confiscating Guns |
The NRA has just s tated the obvious – that President Obama does not have the ability to confiscate guns, nor has he ever tried. This statement is an acknowledgment directly from the NRA, after years of warning their members that a Democratic president is going to take away their guns. This debunks the ludicrous “Obama conspiracy” to repeal the Second Amendment and confiscate guns, once and for all.
The article was featured in NRA magazine, “America’s 1 st Freedom” on June 9 th , in which the author admits that “Congress writes the laws, not the president” and therefore the president does not have the power to repeal the right to bear arms. The piece was written after the author took issue with Obama’s “rude” response to a gun store owner named Rhune, on “gun control,” which is below as follows:
“First of all, the notion that I or Hillary or Democrats or whoever you want to choose are hell-bent on taking away folks’ guns is just not true. And I don’t care how many times the NRA says it,” declared Obama.
“I’m about to leave office. There have been more guns sold since I’ve been president than just about any time in U.S. history. There are enough guns for every man, woman and child in this country. And at no point have I ever proposed confiscating guns from responsible gun owners. So it is just not true.”
The author’s response proves that the NRA has known all along that Dems will not take their guns and now they have publicly admitted it:
“Congress writes the laws, not the president. He could then have listed the many attacks on the right to bear arms — from Operation Fast and Furious to Operation Choke Point to Obama’s attempted ban on common ammunition for AR-15-type rifles to his using a “pen and phone” to push anti-gun executive actions. But Rhude respectfully stayed silent.”
Although neither Clinton or Obama have ever claimed they are going to take away guns from law-abiding gun owners, this has been the NRA’s campaign against Democrats for years. The NRA has basically just admitted to blatantly manipulating their members through scare tactics – but it hasn’t stopped them from reviving this tired old conspiracy theory and applying it to Hillary Clinton, who, for the record, does not want to take your guns.
Indeed, even in the doubtful scenario that Congress and the president agreed to repeal guns, the Supreme Court would veto this as unconstitutional. NRA members need to acknowledge once and for all that a democratic president is not going to seize their firearms and stop listening to the organization that clearly does not have their best interests in mind. | 1real
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NY Times: Being a Sanctuary City ’Not Enough’ | In a New York Times piece, “sanctuary” cities are called out for not doing “enough” to protect illegal aliens. [The piece, written by Shakeer Rahman and Robin Steinberg, slams New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for not going far enough when it comes to obstructing federal immigration officers from deporting illegal aliens: The abruptness of the raids provoked criticism from local officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, who vowed to stand with immigrant communities. But mass deportation under President Trump will also happen through a more routine policy that is in the mayor’s control: endless, unnecessary arrests for offenses, which end up feeding immigrants into the federal government’s deportation machine. It’s not enough for cities like New York to declare themselves “sanctuaries,” which simply means that the local police won’t detain noncitizens on the federal government’s behalf. If cities really want to protect immigrants, they must also end the style of policing that makes immigrants the victims of unnecessary arrests and disproportionate punishment. Many of these unnecessary arrests stem from the discredited idea that a draconian crackdown on the most minor offenses — littering, selling loose cigarettes, biking on the sidewalk — will prevent more serious crimes. This model of policing, known as broken windows or zero tolerance, helped to drive mass incarceration. Its next cost could be mass deportation. The then decries the idea that illegal aliens can be deported for “minor offenses like simple marijuana possession” or any “crime involving moral turpitude,” despite that policy seeming to have not changed at least over the last decade. ICE agents were also attacked in the with Rahman and Steinberg writing, “Even if cities stop sharing arrest information, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been known to send plainclothes agents to local courts, where they wait for immigrants to appear for misdemeanor charges. ” The goes on to say that Trump’s deportation effort of illegal immigrants, specifically those who have committed crimes, “can’t happen without boots on the ground,” though ICE has long used agents to investigate, arrest and deport criminals. “Until cities reject the failed thinking that led to mass incarceration, local police and prosecutors will be doing the legwork for mass deportation,” the concludes. John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 0fake
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JUDGE NAPOLITANO On Reckless Hillary’s Emails: She Could Be Responsible For Deaths Of CIA And FBI Agents [VIDEO] | Members Of The Intelligence Committee Simply Don t Want Hillary As Next President of the United States As Barack Obama blames Russia for hacking Hillary s emails and vows to pay back Putin with a massive cyber attack Fox News contributor Judge Napolitano explains why the NSA, and not the Russian government, is to blame for hacking the DNC email servers: | 1real
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null | Federally fund democracy by federally funding all political campaigns. No private or corporate money allowed. Bye bye lobbyist influence if we close the revolving door after office. Peace just may break out. | 1real
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Episode #208 – ‘Not The Network’ – Sunday Wire with Hesher, Funk$oul and Patrick Henningsen Live from Iraq | Episode #208 of SUNDAY WIRE SHOW resumes on Oct 29th 2017 as host Patrick Henningsen brings you this week s LIVE broadcast on the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) covering all the top news stories both at home and internationally LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:5pm-8pm UK Time | 12pm-3pm ET (US) | 9am-12am PT (US) This week the SUNDAY WIRE is broadcasting LIVE from the Iraq as host Patrick Henningsen is joined by guest hosts Hesher & Funk$oul from the Alternate Current Radio s Boiler Room to discuss this week s top stories internationally including the leveling of Raqqa by US-led Coalition forces, the new US-UK-Soros-sponsored war against RT guests and the new European McCarthyist hunt for political dissenters to compliment the US effort and the update on Trump s release of classified JFK files. We ll also review this past week s news events with guest FunkSoul. Enjoy the show SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TVStrap yourselves in and lower the blast shield this is your brave new world *NOTE: THIS EPISODE MAY CONTAIN STRONG LANGUAGE AND MATURE THEMES*Download Episode #208 Sunday Wire Radio Show Archives | 1real
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BUSTED! THE MOST DAMAGING Clinton Foundation Emails Yet: “Friends of Bill” | Friends of Bill Long-secret emails just caught Team Hillary in another blatant lie namely, the claim that Clinton Foundation donors got no special treatment from Clinton s State Department. In fact, ABC s case study of the 2010 Haiti-relief feeding frenzy may be the most damning foundation scoop yet.And the foundation isn t even denying it.ABC News got the emails via a Freedom of Information lawsuit. They show that, after the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, a top Hillary aide repeatedly gave special attention to Friends of Bill looking to cash in.Indeed, the aide, Caitlin Klevorick, kept asking foundation official Amitabh Desai to flag when people are friends of WJC William Jefferson Clinton. Anyone without a special tag (FOB, WJC-VIP) got rebuffed by State and referred to a federal website.State was besieged with requests to get in on $10 billion in aid contracts, described in one government cable as a gold rush. One FOB, a major foundation donor who d served as Bill s Texas chair, used his pull on behalf of a firm he admitted wanted to get some of the business and had him use the Clinton Foundation as a facilitator. Klevorick told ABC the special attention was about learning who had a history in Haiti so as to get the necessary resources to the right places as soon as possible to save lives. One problem: She never asked if anyone had experience in Haiti or even with aid relief. Her only question: Is this a FOB? And her only instruction to the foundation was that all FOBs be flagged. Which is why the Haiti analyst for the nonpartisan Center for Economic and Policy says, The line was pretty faint between the foundation and the State Department.Even if the Clintons follow through on their vow to put disinterested third parties in charge at the foundation, this is a warning of how a Clinton White House would work because political favoritism and corruption are just how Bill and Hillary roll.Via: NYP | 1real
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Tom Hayden: Things Come Around in the Mideast | By Padishah , July 23, 2006 at 12:19 am Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
I must address the complete drivel that was Mr Jeff Gershoff’s comment.
First and foremost, in 2002, with the full backing of the Arab league, Saudi Arabia offered the Israeli’s a peace treaty - I repeat - a peace treaty in the form of the Egyptian and Jordanian ones, stating the formal end to the Arab-Israeli conflict, recognition of Israel, and a whole host of other concessions in return for Israel returning all of the Occupied Territories captured during the 1967 war, and a just solution to the Palestinian humanitarian problem, amongst other concessions.
Generalissimo Sharon outright refused to aknowledge this peace deal, and it withered. US Administration said nothing, the US media allowed the story to die. So your statement:
“Let Hamas and Hezbolah recognize Israels right to exist and there can be peace. Let them keep strapping explosives to themselves and killing women and children, let them keep lobbing missles into Israel and Israel will continue doing what they are doing until one of them cannot get up off the canvas anymore.”
is quite irrelevant, seeing as Hamas was not governing the Palestinian territories, and Hezbollah was not governing Lebanon in 2002. A general Peace deal with the Arab World was allowed to die, and you suggest that Israel will be willing to deal with two entities it thinks are terrorist organisations.
Furthermore, you ask for the Arabs to make the first move. Always, the onus is on the Arab side to make many concessions even before Israel consider negotiation. There is no equal footing with which to negotiate with Israel because Israel will not allow it to be so. History and current events show that even if the Arabs were to accede to all Israeli demands, there is no gaurantee that the Israeli’s will not find some other demand in order to stall, or even to not just ignore Arab overtures out of spite. Indeed, judging from recent events, they seem quite capable of it.
Your statement:
“No one gave a rats ass about the Palestinians when their home land was squalor, flies, and dirt. Israel turned it into a garden and now everyone demands Palestine for the Palestinians.”
seems to imply that imprisonment in an Israeli garden; where your house can be demolished, or your olive and fruit groves be uprooted depending on your heritage, is much better than freedom in your own country, however squalid, fly-ridden or dirty. Furthermore, a land totally at peace would need no-one to give ‘a rat’s ass’ (in your parlance) about it anyway, and is a misrepresentation of the historical situation. Your statement smacks of the colonialist attitude of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Would you also hold this view for all those people of colour, who were enslaved and brutalised in many instances around the world? Would you believe that the sexual slavery of women practices in some parts of the world somehow beneficial to the women who must suffer those indignities?
It’s obvious from your comment that you harbour a prejudice for Palestinians in particular, and Arabs in general; they aren’t fit for the land they occupy, and only Israeli’s can make the Middle East bloom. Thus, by extension, all Arabs deserve to suffer under the heel of Zionism, for their own good. Corrrect? Does this sound eerily like the whole ‘White Man’s Burden’ trollop that precipitated the excesses of the colonisation of Africa? It certainly does, and it fits with the Israeli mindset as well.
By eleven bravo , July 22, 2006 at 9:24 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
Israel likes to spy on the country that feeds it to the tune of billions to date and then calls the traitor who spied on us, a hero -just the kind of ally we need in the middle east. By the way, they also like to sell our military technologies even if we tell them not to - China sure appreciates it. Remember, do not forget the USS Liberty. Some Brits certainly remember that these same Israelis that cry holy terror about terrorism were terrorists themselves when the Brits were in Palestine and they to this day are unrepentant for the terrorist acts they performed.
By wildhog , July 22, 2006 at 8:38 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
WOW, THIS IS AMAZING. AS A VIETNAM VETERAN AND A PATRIOTIC AMERICAN I AM GLAD YOU ARE SPEAKING OUT. WE SURE DONT NEED ALL THIS STRIFE AND BLOODSHED WE SURE HAVE NOT LEARNED OUR LESSON FROM THE PAST. WE HAVE GOT TO REGAIN OUR FREEDOM FROM ISRAELI TYRANY. MAKE NO MISTAKE WE NEED TO STAND UP FOR OUR NATION BEFORE WE ARE EMBROILED IN A CONFLICT WE CANNOT WIN.
By blues , July 22, 2006 at 8:32 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
Wow Jew Haters Gone Wild said:
Jews have contributed their energy, intellect, resources to every progressive cause in modern history. And yet you so-called progressives just turn your back, raise the chorus of Jew blame, and think youre moral? [....]
Well, yeah, I guess. In some ways, I think it could be argued that the Navajo have done far more.
But the power-mad neozionists that have hijacked the Nation of Israel have been treating all their neighbors worse than cockroaches for decades. And they have warped, probably wrecked our American society in the process. They collaborated with the vicious apartheid Union of South Africa to enable the South African tyrants and themselves to develop nuclear WMDs. So that just doesn’t make me feel friendly toward neozionists.
As far as the question of weather I harbor any actual hatred of Jewish people themselves, you will never begin to be able to discover the answer to that. I could easily bear the fervent wish that every Jew be burned alive in an oven, all the while pretending to love the Jews. Or I could accept Jews as just people who practice a particular religion, bearing no ill-will at all against them, while proclaiming to Jew-hating neighbors that I detest the Jews as much as they do. But you will never be able to begin to decipher what I truly feel.
By Toole , July 22, 2006 at 7:39 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
Israel and the U.S.A. are, by their present alliance to dominate, taking a walk to the wild side just like Hitler and Nazi Germany.
By Fadel Abdallah , July 22, 2006 at 7:22 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
To plunger, message # 14774
You piece on 9/11 is well reasoned and makes a lot of sense, and I thank you much for your interst in digging out the truth about this very tragic event and its far-reaching disastrous consequences on the whole world.
There is no hope of finding physical evidence to prove who and how it all happened. This is so for the simple fact that the sophisticated team that planned this inside job made sure to destroy any physical evidence possible.
In light of this, serious thinkers are only left to use their intellectual reasoning and circumstantial evidence to reach an approximation about the facts related to 9/11.
Yours is indeed a very serious analysis, and, most likely, very close to the truth. That’s why I was intrigued by your piece. I was particulary intrigued about your being specific on the Mossad role as a way to blackmail the political establishment. Remember Monica Lewinsky? I theorized, at the time, and wrote about her being an Israeli Mossad agent, planted in the White House to bring about the fall of Clinton, who was getting a little bit sympathysing to solving the Palestinian problem.
Your piece also supports my thinking about 9/11; about which I wrote a short comment somewhere else on the truthdig. In case you have not read my piece, I am attaching it below:
“To Janice A. # 14474:
Youre very smart Janice. Youre one of the few thousands in America and around the world who believe 9/11 was an inside evil job, to create the atmosphere of fear in preparation for the trauma and mind control you talked about.
I simply could not believe and will never believe that some people living in caves and constantly on the run could have carried out such sophisticated operation. This is not to say that Al-Qaeda had not enough hate for America to attempt hurting it in a big way when they could; but from a scientific point of view, know-how and sophisticated human resources, they did not have that, and no small group of enemies will ever have what it takes to prepare and carry out such operation. And imagine that!! The hijackers had only box-cutters as their weapons! From all those on board the hijacked planes, wasnt there a few courageous enough who were willing to get injured and possibly die to prevent a bigger disaster?!!
Elements in the Pentagon, CIA, FBI with possibly a lot of help from the Israeli Mossad must have started working on this just as Bush was put on the throne by the Supreme Court! For Bush and the Neocons to continue ruling the country and taking it in the direction they have taken it, something tragically big must have to take place! Everyone knows, that in every country and society there is that class of people called the merchants of death! For what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and now Lebanon, 9/11 was a must prerequisite!
Sad as it is to invoke thoughts about the 9/11, I always find consolation to find like-minded people. Thank you Janice for being a free thinker and publicly join the small but privileged group!”
By Mark , July 22, 2006 at 7:20 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
By the way: if Americans generally ever finally start to figure out what a false ally Israel really is, there is of course the danger of an upwelling of anti-Semitism in America. Let’s look at exactly why this is so.
The essential misunderstanding that may lead to such a horrible development is a failure of Americans to distinguish between Israel and “the Jews”. This is a conflation that Israel and many American Jewish leaders have done much to encourage.
Any strong condemnation of Israel’s actions, of its ethnocratic ideology, or of its interference in our political process, is regularly condemned as inherently “anti-Semitic” by prominent members of the mainstream American Jewish community. Right-wing American Christians perhaps even more extreme than American Jews in their adherence to the notion of Israel’s blameless holiness eagerly echo this charge.
And so, despite the fact that American Jews are in fact over-represented among intellectuals and activists who expose and denounce the crimes of the state of Israel, we may well see such a surge of anti-Semitic backlash in this country, if and when most Americans come to some glimmer of understanding concerning the worse-than-useless US/Israeli “alliance”.
Americans in general are not terribly sophisticated. This is why such a ludicrously one-sided alliance, so destructive to American interests, was ever possible in the first place. And it’s why an anti-Semitic reaction may accompany its end.
If this backlash should happen, then to Israel and to the American Jews who have laid the foundation for it, I have three words from a great Jewish philosopher: AS YE SEW.
By Wow Jew Haters Gone Wild , July 22, 2006 at 6:18 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
Wow, just read this thing and be amazed at the level of knee jerk jew hating, blindness to history, and desire for the death of Israel. So sad. If these terror groups lay down their weapons and agreed to stop attacking Israel tomorrow, that would be the end of war. If Israel lay down their weapons and agreed to stop hitting back at the terror groups, it would be overrun tomorrow and a new holocaust would ensue. Apparently, that suits the jew haters just fine. Islamic fascism is fascism, and again Jews stand against it while the moral ambivalence or antisemitism of non Jews seeks to guarantee yet another cycle of jew killing. SHAME, SHAME. It’s sad that Israel’s only friend can be found in the Bush government, but that doesn’t make ISrael complicit in anything that Bush does. If you have only one friend and you’re fighting for your life, you don’t question that friendship. More power to Israel in this fight for their life. Look at the numbers of arabs killed by arabs, of non muslims killed by muslims, of the track record of muslims in the world today (whereever there’s trouble, muslims are there trying to dominate and destroy non muslims). Jews have contributed their energy, intellect, resources to every progressive cause in modern history. And yet you so-called progressives just turn your back, raise the chorus of jew blame, and think you’re moral? You better hope that in the end we don’t all get what we deserve.
By Harry H. Snyder III , July 22, 2006 at 4:07 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
I surely didn’t say anything about Jews crucifying anyone…
HOWEVER crucifiction was hardly exclusively a “Roman thing”
This means of punishment was practiced by Persians, Seleucids, Jews, Carthaginians, among others. There is even some evidence it was practiced in Egypt.
reflex action? by whom?
By John Z , July 22, 2006 at 3:41 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
Marcia, of course Ishrael wants peace…..a piece of Iraq, a piece of Iran, a piece of Syria and a piece of lebanon. They also have our own government by the balls through, bribery, extortion and threats. I and thouroughly disgusted and sick to my stomach from it all. It is time for a new American revolution. We must: Take our government back from those who have corrupted it for their own benefit, including Ishrael. Prosecute those within the Whore House for betraying our nation, our constitution and its people. The punishment must be severe enough to deter any who might think about doing it again in the future. Stop paying tribute to that miserable little zionist state. No more money period! enough is enough, goddamn it! Congress should get its collective asses kicked, and maybe in the balls as well. Break all ties with Ishrael..they are on their own from now on. That way they will have to behave themselves. As long as they have the U.S. as their rich poodle Ishrael will continue to act like a pitbull. Round up the zionists, MOSSAD, AIPAC and the jew lobby and send them packing back to zionland. Use the laws we have to break up the jewish stranglehold on our media, including the newspapers. There are enough anti monopoly laws with which to use. Please realise I have nothing against people of Judaism. It’s the rabid, racist, zionist who I find to be our own worst enemy. Thank you Tom, for finally coming out with enough guts and patriotism to speak out on this matter. Even our founding fathers spoke out against zionism. Unless we change the course of our nation, we will be “undone”. I fear for my country and for those in the middle east for they are the ones who are the victims of zionist aggression. Now I will wait for the zionists to send their hitmen to my house.
By John F. Butterfield , July 22, 2006 at 12:58 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
Harry,
Crucifiction was a Roman thing. Jews have often been on the receiving end of brutality. Whether they have more often been teachers of brutality or learners from brutality can be disputed. That they have killed more Arabs in the last 60 years than Arabs have killed Jews in that same time period cannot be disputed. The side that the United States has taken in the disagreement cannot be disputed. It was interesting to see your reflex action.
By blues , July 22, 2006 at 12:34 pm Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
This article has pushed me beyond some point of critical mass. My world-view will never be the same.
What we are looking at here goes beyond issues like anti- Jewish sentiment, terrorism, capitalism, etc, etc, etc. We have been victims to a vast media conspiracy that has parlayed a typical religious ideal into a powerful, violent cult of death, and allowed that cult to play a key role in the establishment of a fascist regime in the United States. It needs to be called the neocon/ neomedia/ neozionist conspiracy of treason, or something like that.
These pseudo- religious traitriots are destroying America and the rest of the world too, including the people of the Middle East, including the Jewish ones, apparently for sport. This is evil in its purest form. I am stunned.
By Harry H. Snyder III , July 22, 2006 at 5:19 am Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter)
John;
Back when crucifiction was occuring in the Middle East the Brits were drawing and quartering folks, the Spanish were killing witches and most of Europe was pre civilized.
I will not be a party to a conversation where we blame one side or the other for this disagreement which clearly has enough blame to cover the northern hemisphere.
I thought the point of Tom’s message was that there are two valid points of view here?
By plunger , July 22, 2006 at 2:03 am Link to this comment (Unregistered commenter) | 1real
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WATCH: Trump Declares Himself One Of The Best Presidents In History With Historic Low Approval Rating | Seriously, this actually just happened.Prior to a round table ass-kissing contest, Donald Trump told a room full of reporters and his Cabinet members that he has passed more legislation than any other president except Franklin D. Roosevelt. I will say that never has there been a president with few exceptions, in the case of FDR he had a major Depression to handle who s passed more legislation, who s done more things than what we ve done, Trump bragged. We ve achieved tremendous success. I think we ve been about as active as you can possibly be at a just about record-setting pace. Here s the video via POLITICO:Unfortunately for Trump, most of what he has signed is insignificant stuff that Republicans have been easily able to get passed to make it seem like Trump is getting things done. In reality, he s not.As POLITICO points out,Many of the bills Trump has signed, such as designating buildings and appointing board members to the Smithsonian, do not have a major, direct impact on Americans, and Trump s ambitious legislative agenda on tax reform and infrastructure is largely stalled.NBC News further points out that one bill Trump signed was a war memorial, and another encouraged Americans to display the flag on a certain day.None of these pieces of legislation actually do anything to help Americans or improve our country. In short, it s not worth bragging about. The only reason Trump is bragging about it is because he has nothing else to brag about and he wants to convince Americans that he is succeeding. Of course, Trump won t mention that all of bills he has signed are insignificant.Trump s major legislative agenda has been a complete failure while past presidents have major legislative accomplishments on their records through the first 100 days.Trump also whined about Democrats and accused them of being obstructionists. Here s the video via NBC:The problem with this charge is that it s hypocritical and pathetic.Republicans control both the Senate and the House. So blaming Democrats for his own party s inability to get things passed in Congress is nothing more than an excuse, and a bad one at that.It s also hypocritical because Republicans obstructed President Obama for eight years. To expect Democrats to all of a sudden play ball, especially when such a destructive and incompetent person is in charge of the White House, is ridiculous.Trump claimed that Democrats would not even vote for the greatest healthcare bill in the world. He should put his money where his mouth is. Just introduce a universal healthcare bill in Congress and watch how fast Democrats vote in favor of it. The problem is that Trump s current healthcare bill is nowhere near the greatest. It strips healthcare from millions of people while giving massive tax breaks to wealthy people such as himself. It also raises the cost of healthcare and gives insurance companies the power to drop customers for a variety of reasons, including if a woman was raped.This Cabinet meeting was nothing more than blatant propaganda designed to stroke Trump s ego and fool the American people into thinking he s great. It s disgraceful and the American people should be outraged.Featured Image: Screenshot | 1real
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Factbox: Five facts about Mike Pence, Trump's running mate pick | (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump will name Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate on Friday, U.S. news organizations reported on Thursday. Here are five facts about Pence, a Republican who previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives: Pence did not initially support Trump. Shortly before Indiana’s Republican primary election in May, Pence endorsed Trump’s rival, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Pence praised Trump at the time, but he compared Cruz to former Republican President Ronald Reagan and called him a “principled conservative.” Trump won the state anyway, and Cruz dropped out of the Republican race. Trump and Pence have since met to discuss the running mate position. WELL-CONNECTED WITH DONORS Pence has strong ties to billionaire donors Charles and David Koch, including current and former staff members who have worked for them. After saying he was primarily self-funding his campaign during the Republican primaries, Trump has been holding fundraisers during the general election, with support from the Republican National Committee. The New York businessman comes to the money race at a considerable disadvantage, however, compared with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Pence sometimes describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.” Pence in 2015 signed a religious freedom law that critics said opened the door to anti-gay discrimination. When he was in Congress, he opposed repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy on sexual orientation. He also has pushed restrictive abortion regulations and has pushed for Congress to defund Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit women’s health provider that performs some abortions. He was a vocal opponent of the 2008 Wall Street bailout. In September 2008, Pence, then a U.S. House member, argued against the $700 billion package to stabilize the U.S. financial system, saying it would “nationalize almost every bad mortgage in America.” Pence also said the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation passed in 2010 would hurt jobs. Trump has vowed to dismantle Dodd-Frank, though he has not said how he would replace it. Pence opposed allowing Syrian refugees coming to the United States to settle in Indiana. In November 2015, the governor directed state agencies to suspend the resettlement of Syrians there. A family that was supposed to arrive in December was instead sent to Connecticut. A federal judge later ruled the order “clearly discriminates” against refugees from a particular country. However, Pence tweeted disapproval in 2015 for plans to ban Muslims from entering the United States, an idea Trump has advocated. Pence called it “offensive and unconstitutional.” | 0fake
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In the United States, anxiety is up, but crime is down | Felony crime declined nationwide in 2015, continuing a historic drop. But mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., and Charleston, S.C. – as well as a slight uptick in the number of murders – have contributed to the feeling of unease.
Latonya Jones holds a photo of her mother, Bettie Jones, during a vigil on Sunday, in Chicago. Jones, an antiviolence activist and mother of five, was accidentally killed early Saturday by officers responding to a domestic disturbance on the city’s West Side, police said.
Earlier this month, when New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told fellow officers that 2015 will end up being the safest year ever in New York City history, he paused to note that it was also “a year of great contradictions.”
Despite the fact that the nation’s largest city is still experiencing historic drops in crime, Commissioner Bratton’s tone was somber: Four police officers had died in the line of duty since this time last year, making the latest crime statistics ring somewhat hollow in a “terrible” year for the NYPD.
And such is the mood across the nation, in many ways. A study at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University found that overall crime was still declining throughout the United States a bit in 2015. Felony crime declined 1.5 percent nationwide, and dropped by roughly 2 percent in New York. But the highly visible violence of the past year – such as mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif.; Roseburg, Ore; and Charleston, S.C. – as well as a slight uptick in the number of murders, has contributed to the feeling of great contradictions when it comes to crime.
Indeed, 7 in 10 Americans said they believed there was more crime in the US this year than last, according to a Gallup poll in October, up from 2014. That’s despite the fact that the nation’s crime rates have plummeted over the past two decades. But as the polling center noted about its annual survey, “Americans' perceptions of crime … are not always on par with reality.”
“The public's perception of media coverage certainly gives a skewed image of what's going on with crime,” said Matthew Freidman, an economist with the Brennan Center in New York and coauthor of the study, to NPR last week. “What we find is that though we've seen a nearly three-decades-long decline in crime rates, public perception does not match that.”
The rise of social media and the 24-hour digital news cycle, as well as the high-profile nature of some of the deaths, may play into that.
For example, last December, two NYPD officers were gunned down in their patrol cars – randomly targeted by a man who said he wanted revenge for the shootings of black men. A sheriff’s deputy in Texas was shot at a gas station in August, and many police officers say they have felt under siege over the past year. However, there were 39 officers shot and killed so far in 2015 – a drop from 2014, when 47 were shot and killed, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
At the same, concerns about the number of people shot by police or who died in custody continues to create a climate of tension throughout the country. From the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore to the shooting of a black teen and the accidental killing of a black mother and activist in Chicago over the weekend, it has been a year in which violence has drawn much of the nation’s attention.
It is true that many cities saw a rise in the number of murders this year. In New York, there were 339 as of Christmas Day – slightly more than last year’s all-time low of 333, but still well below the 536 murders recorded in 2010.
However, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston are each projected to see double-digit increases in their murder rates this year. In Baltimore, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, rates have reached levels not seen since the 1990s, studies have found.
But scholars point out that despite such spikes this year, such statistics do not yet indicate a reversal in the dramatic drop in violence in the US over the past few decades, and can be attributed to normal variations in annual numbers. The overall crime rate is still half what it was in 1990, and nearly a quarter of what it was in 2000.
“The increase in the murder rate is insufficient to drive up the crime rate, and using murder as a proxy for crime overall is mistaken,” the Brennan study notes. “It is important to remember just how much crime has fallen in the last 25 years.”
But tensions remain high, fueled in part by the terror attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. Some 40 percent of Americans say that they believe the terrorists are winning – more than at any time after 9/11 – according to a CNN/ORC poll released Monday.
With the rise of the Black Lives Matter protest movement calling for an end to policing policies that activists say unfairly target minorities, many continue to perceive a “year of great contradictions.” Since last year, some high-profile deaths of black men and some women at police hands have prompted continued clashes and a feeling of unease within the nation’s law enforcement systems and the communities they serve.
In Chicago, police shot and killed two black people over the holiday weekend, including a 55-year-old mother of five and antiviolence activist who was accidentally killed after officers responded to a domestic disturbance by an emotionally disturbed college student.
The shootings come just a month after the Justice Department began an investigation of the Chicago Police Department after the release of a video showing the shooting death of a black teen last year. The video led to murder charges for the white police officer who shot the teen and the resignation of the city’s police commissioner.
By contrast, on Monday, a grand jury in Cleveland declined to bring charges against either of the two officers involved in the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was playing with an Airsoft gun in a park at the time he was shot.
In New York, like the rest of the country, many report a growing sense of anxiety about crime and policing. But in the past five years, crime continued to fall, even as police have made dramatically fewer arrests.
New York City police arrested about 333,000 people through Dec. 20, The New York Times reported, down 13 percent from the 385,000 arrested last year. And these numbers are way down from the 423,000 arrests made in 2010.
So despite the fact that 2015 has been in many ways a rough and contradictory year, police officials are optimistic as both overall crime and the number of arrests continue to fall.
“This is going to be, potentially, a very significant year in terms of the history of index crime in New York City,” Dermot Shea, deputy commissioner of operations for the NYPD, told the Times. | 0fake
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Ohio State University Student Says Terrorist Attack Was “Misunderstanding” Caused By Racism [VIDEO] | 1real
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ILLEGAL INVASION CONTINUES: NYC RAMPING UP TO GIVE 1 MILLION ILLEGALS VOTING RIGHTS | Insane! This really is the definition of insanity. Letting non-citizens vote in our elections is something no other country would even consider ever! When you elect a socialist radical as mayor then I guess that s what you get New York City lawmakers and Mayor Bill de Blasio are reportedly discussing legislation that would give voting rights to non-citizens in local elections. The Guardian noted that under the legislation that is being discussed, legally documented residents who have lived in New York City for at least six months will be able to vote in municipal elections. Lawmakers are reportedly discussing the legislation with Mayor Bill de Blasio s office and a bill might be introduced as soon as this spring. Two years ago, city councilman Daniel Dromm won the support of 35 of the city council s 51 members, forming a veto-proof majority when he tried to advance the non-citizen voting bill, but he faced the obstruction of then council speaker Christine Quinn and the unbreakable opposition of the Bloomberg administration. De Blasio has said he is willing to continue the conversation on non-citizen voting. Non-citizens make up as much as half the population in areas that Dromm represents and studies have found that more than a million would be eligible to vote citywide if such de Blasio were to sign such a bill. New York recently instituted its IDNYC card, which gives illegal immigrants access to a variety of city services in addition to the municipal identification card. As the Guardian points out, many Americans find the idea of non-citizen voting entirely unpalatable and fear that it undermines the sanctity and privilege of citizenship. Peter Schuck, an emeritus professor of law at Yale University, told the outlet, My guess is that it would cause many Americans to wonder what the point of citizenship is if anyone can vote without even bothering to learn or be committed enough to apply for naturalization. Eric Ulrich, one of three Republicans on the city council, recently told Newsday, The right to vote is a privilege and a sacred obligation that citizens have enjoyed. It should only be for United States citizens. It s also a reason for people who are on a path to citizenship to aspire to citizenship. It s something for them to look forward to. Six Maryland jurisdictions and Chicago allow non-citizens to vote in some local elections, and activists in Amherst, Massachusetts, Madison, Wisconsin, and Burlington, Vermont are also clamoring to give voting rights to non-citizens. -Breitbart NewsVia: Brietbart News | 1real
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Re: The Hard Working American vs. The Government Parasite | The Hard Working American vs. The Government Parasite By Michael Snyder, on April 10th, 2012
Which lifestyle choice produces better results – being a hard working American or being a government parasite? Actually, when you look at the cold, hard numbers they may just surprise you. In America today, we deeply penalize hard work and we greatly reward government dependence. If you live in a very liberal area of the country and you know how to game the system, it is entirely possible to live a comfortable existence without ever working too much at all. In fact, there are some Americans that have been living off of “government benefits” for decades. Many of these people actually plan their lives around doing exactly what they need to do to qualify for as many benefits as possible. America is rapidly turning into a European-style socialist welfare state and it is destroying our nation socially and financially. Ever since the “war on poverty” began our debt has absolutely exploded and yet now there are more poor people in this country than ever before. Obviously something is not working.
Now don’t get me wrong. I deeply believe in having compassion for those that are going through tough times and having a safety net for those that cannot take care of themselves. We should not have a single person in this nation going without food or sleeping in the streets.
But in America today it is absolutely ridiculous how many people are climbing aboard the “safety net”. At this point, an astounding 49 percent of all Americans live in a home that receives some form of government benefits.
So who pays for all of this?
The people that drag themselves out of bed and go to work each day pay for it all.
For a few moments, let’s examine how the lifestyle of a typical hard working American compares to the lifestyle of a government parasite.
In America today, the median yearly household income is somewhere around $50,000. About half of all American households make more than that and about half of all American households make less than that. When you break it down, it comes to about $4000 a month.
So how far does $4000 go in America today?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t go very far at all.
First of all, a hard working American family will need some place to live. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the decent jobs are near the big cities, and it is more expensive to live near the big cities. Let’s assume that an average family of four will spend about $1000 a month on rent or on a mortgage payment.
The government parasite, on the other hand, has a whole host of federal, state and local housing programs to take advantage of. During the recent economic downturn, more Americans than ever have been turning to the government for help with housing costs. For example, federal housing assistance outlays increased by a whopping 42 percent between 2006 and 2010.
Once you have a place to live, you have to provide power and heat for it. For the average hard working American, this is going to probably average about $300 a month, although this can vary greatly depending on where you live.
For the government parasite, there are once again a whole host of government programs to help with this. For example, LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) assists low income households in paying their home heating bills.
Most average hard working Americans are also going to need phone and Internet service. Let’s assume that the hard working family of four in our example is extremely thrifty and only spends $100 a month for these services.
For the government parasite, cell phone service is not a problem. As I have written about previously , those that “qualify” can receive a free cell phone and free cell phone minutes every single month from the federal government. In addition, in some areas of the nation low income families can qualify for deeply subsidized home Internet service .
In order to earn money, our hard working family is going to need to get to work. In most households, both parents have decided to work these days so both of them will need cars. Let’s assume that the family is very thrifty and that both cars were purchased used and that the car payments only total about $400 a month.
The hard working family will also need auto insurance for the two vehicles. Let’s assume that both parents have a great driving record and that they only pay a total of about $100 a month for car insurance.
The cars will also need to be filled up with gasoline. The average U. S. household spent $4155 on gasoline during 2011, but let’s assume that our family is very, very careful and that they only spend about $300 on gas each month.
So what about the government parasite? Well, the government parasite does not need to go to work, so this expense can potentially be eliminated entirely. But since most other things are paid for by the government or are deeply subsidized, in many instances government parasites are actually able to afford very nice vehicles.
In addition, a new bill (The Low-Income Gasoline Assistance Program Act) has been introduced in Congress that would give “qualifying” households money to help pay for gasoline….
Low-Income Gasoline Assistance Program Act – Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to states to establish emergency assistance programs to pay eligible households for the purchase of gasoline.
A hard working American family is also going to need health insurance. Well, we all know how expensive health insurance has become. In fact, health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent since Barack Obama became president. But let’s assume that our hard working family has somehow been able to find an amazing deal where they only pay $500 a month for health insurance for a family of four.
For the government parasite, health insurance is not needed. If there is an emergency, the government parasite can just go get free medical care at any emergency room.
And of course there is always Medicaid. Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid, and things are about to get a whole lot worse. It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
So what about food?
Everyone has to eat, right?
Well, the hard working family in our example is faced with an environment where food prices are constantly rising but paychecks are not keeping up. Let’s assume that the hard working family in our example clips coupons and cuts corners any way that it can and only spends about $50 for each member of the family on food and supplies each week. That comes to a total of $800 a month for the entire family.
So what about the government parasite?
Government parasites need to eat too.
Well, that is where food stamps come in. Right now, there are more than 46 million Americans on food stamps. Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased by 14 million. Food stamps have become so popular that rappers are even making rap videos about using food stamp cards.
Okay, so after all of this where do we stand?
Well, the average hard working family so far has spent $3500 out of the $4000 that they have to spend for the month.
We still need to find money for clothing, for paying off credit card debt, for paying off student loan debt, for dining out, for entertainment, for medications, for pets, for hobbies, for life insurance, for vacations, for car repairs and maintenance, for child care, for gifts and for retirement savings.
But wait.
There is actually no money left at all because we have forgotten one of the biggest expenses of all.
Taxes.
When you total up all federal, state and property taxes, our average hard working family is going to pay at least $1000 a month in taxes.
So that puts our average hard working family in the hole every single month.
Meanwhile, the government parasite does not pay any taxes because he or she does not earn enough money to be taxed.
Are you starting to get the picture?
In many ways, life can be so much easier when you are constantly taking from the government instead of constantly giving to the government.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently put it this way ….
“We’ll have a bunch of people sitting on a couch waiting for their next government check”
Once again, I am not dumping on those that have been through all kinds of nightmares because of this economy. As I have written about so frequently, the U.S. economy is simply not producing enough jobs for everyone anymore, and this is creating major problems.
Just about everyone needs a helping hand at some point, and we should always be compassionate to those that are in need.
However, there is also a growing number of Americans that are content to simply give up and live off of the government, and that is fundamentally wrong.
It is not the job of the U.S. government to take care of you from the cradle to the grave. What the U.S. government is supposed to do is to make sure that we have a well functioning economy that operates in an environment where hard working individuals and small businesses can thrive, and sadly the U.S. government has failed miserably in that regard.
We desperately need the U.S. economy to be fixed, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen.
As economic conditions get even worse in this country, millions more Americans are going to turn to the government for assistance and at some point the safety net is going to break.
What is our country going to look like when that happens? The Shocking Truth About Unemployment In America In One Chart » David H
Preach it Michael! I work in the finance industry and can’t tell you how many applications I see where the single mother of 1-4 kids, in some cases, from different fathers is getting child support, afdc, wic, housing assistance and has a boyfriend or ex- husband living with them and making 2-5k a month. These people live better than most others because they are working the system with no one to tell them anything different! In addition to this issue we have another large issue of people bartering or being paid in cash avoiding taxation completely. We are all going to pay dearly for our arrogance, indifference, and ignorance! Rancher
You know what… there are and more often times I would rather burn my cash than send it into the govt to pay these bums sitting at home. We do every darn thing we can to keep it out of those leaches grasp…. Prepared Pastor
I briefly dated a woman with three children who I saw really gaming the system. Her subsidized townhouse apartment was nicer than my own home. Her utilities were based on her income and she made great dinners using food stamps.
She was in her last semester of college to earn a bachelor degree when I asked her what her plans were for after college. When she told me she was going for another degree so she could stay on the dole I broke up with her.
I imagine she has a free cell phone now. Michael
I would say that you sure dodged a bullet there Pastor.
Michael Joel
If you want to have an idea of the sress it can create for workers just look toward Belgium (Europe). It’s the country with the “best” welfare system. From your birth to your death you are under government umbrella. Of course this come at a price : the active workforce pay for it.
For instance, did you know, an immigrant can receive money from the government (as a right to live decently) even without working. Then he can bring in his family if he was alone when he arrived (under the family reunion excuses), which in turn have some right also… The amount of money they can receive is between 900 – 1200euros per month… all of that at the expense of the workforce.
By the way, the demographic pyramid his completely reversed. At first the Belgian welfare system was build around an era of full employment (50’s and 60’s), when the workforce was made up of young generations (babyboomers) and when everything has to be rebuild after the war.
Now, the babyboomers at become the papyboomers and have a right for their retirment, etc, etc. Yet this system being based on the active workforce (made up of less young people and underqualified), it is meant to crash one day or another.
To see the USA going toward a European version of welfare system is a huge mistake destroying the foundation of your country.
Joël MisterD
Unfortunately, I believe this has passed the point beyond return. The best anyone can hope for now is a miracle or get ready for the inevitable crash. I pray that nobody nor I will be forced in the middle of the mess such as having to literally protect oneself from crazy people, etc. Ashley B.
Finally someone that is not afraid to say something about this! It sickens me to see people leeching off the system because it’s easy money and food and of course free.
I know of LOTS of people where I live that get food stamps, SSI, welfare etc. because it’s free and they don’t want to work (many of them are too lazy to take the trash out, seriously)
Yet me and the rest of my family earn a living, work hard and have to look at these bums drive nice cars, sit home all day and pump out paychecks, I mean kids.
Don’t get me wrong, some people honestly need help and I often donate to the needy, but these are different from the pure lazy bums that just TAKE benefits because they’re too lazy to work. Jodi
I have to say I love the “pump out paychecks, I mean kids”. So true! I have a friend who is a retired nurse and she has seen a lot of young people in the hospital with child who had good intensions on going to college and getting a degree. Most of them go to school, get married and get pregnant before they even graduate. Without even thinking about starting a good life and financially being prepared, they get on medicaid & welfare because they don’t have the money or a job to take care of their child. Sheepdog 1
I guarantee that the “Government Parasites” will pay…
…come Judgement Day.
Meaning of course, they will never pay. Recoveryless Recovery
Great article, as usual!
One of the MAIN reasons why the American sheeple haven’t REVOLTED yet is precisely thanks to all the government hand-out programs that currently exist. Indeed as you well said; many, many Americans actually plan their entire lifestyles around doing whatever it takes to continuously qualify for them. Unfortunately for the rest of us, as long as there’s a dumpster behind a McDonald’s that these SLOBS can dive into for free food, they will NEVER go hungry. And revolutions rewquire HUNGRY people.
Checkmate.
Today’s America offers only TWO viable expectations for achieving actual “hope & change you can believe in®”: one requires you to wield a passport & one-way ticket overseas, the other requires wielding an AK-47.
I myself will go with Option A. Paul
The fostering of dependency on illegitimate governments installed through media fraud or outright election fraud (like you have in the US) is what it is really about. DAS
I will give you an example of the the system is flawed. My father worked full time all his life. Paid all his taxes, S.S. and so forth. When the doctors found his canser, it was to late, he had only a short time to live. He worked intill the day he fell and could not walk. We (his family) supported him with his finaces as best we could. Going to the goverment only for help with food stamps. They gave him 14 dollars a month! W.T.F. can you buy with that. We shopped at discount stores, were many people used food stamps. I watched as these people got in to nice cars, with nice clothes with BAGS full of food. Mean while I hurried back to my 12 year old truck (so i wouldent be late for work) with a small bag a crap food. I guess I need to lean how to milk the system too. R.I.P. dad mondobeyondo
$14.00 a month? GASP! The explanation that comes to mind is, the government must have been using employment and income data from 1912, not 2012.
The reality is, Uncle Sam is flat broke. He has too much pride to tell you he’s broke. Bernadette
That is just sick, I’m so sorry to hear that. That is so ridiculous I don’t even know what to say. GOD bless your poor dad, and you for having to go through that. I’m so sorry:( Jodi
It’s true, I’ve known some people in my life that do as little at possible to get government assistance. Most of them seem very proud of it and believe they deserve it. My question is, what happens when government runs out of money and can’t pay all these people who have been dependent for so long? That doesn’t sound good! Nothing to see here, go back to sleep. Ron
Think Greece WM
Jodi, Don’t go back to sleep when the money runs out. It is inevitable that the borrowed money will stop coming and all therse free loaders who have no clue of what it’s like to actually do something, will riot, protest, and burn the cities of America down. Consider this future event as a time of national cleansing, because the millions and millions of law abiding citizens who enjoy the 2nd Ammendment,and have worked for what they have, will surely bear arms to protect themselves from the entitlement zombies coming to take what they have…
There will be a population decrease and a cleansing of the entitlement crowd.
But, please do not sleep. This is a time to prepare and keep watch, things are going to get very interesting in this nation in the very near future. Jodi
I will never go to sleep. It seems like the media ignores this stuff and treats people like it’s time to go back to sleep. That is what I meant! 007
Have you ever watched a zombie movie. It will be a lot like that when the government checks stop. James
The poor and unemployed in the U.S. will never be able to get off of the government roles. We are experiencing what I like to call, “Reverse Industrial Revolution”. The Industrial Revolution was a time when farmers were attracted to the big cities for jobs that paid high wages, when compared to their farm incomes. Now, we are experiencing high unemployment from jobs that will never come back unless the energy situation is somehow reversed. These unemployed people will soon realize that they have to have someway to get food to feed themselves. Especially if food stamps and government assistance starts to disappear, and it will. These unemployed people should begin to relocate out into rural areas to find homes where they can grow and produce their food, and sell the rest for income. There is a situation starting to appear in this country where going to college is not a good investment anymore. The only real need for college nowadays is for medicine, engineering, and law. You would be better off taking out a loan for a farm. or opening a small business rather than going to college. Farm and agrarian related jobs can make good money, especially if you own your business. If this reversal comes to fruition, the small rural towns will come back to life and support families and provide a reasonably good life. Tom
The only real need for college nowadays is for medicine, engineering, and law.
Medicine and engineering- yes, but law? The LAST thing this country needs is another lawyer (sorry Michael)! MANY of the problems facing this country were caused but lawyers and the fear of law suits! Tom
sorry again- by lawyers nowwthen
Good points. If you can’t find work with a useless bachelor’s degree you will still be accountable for paying back your student loans even after going through bankruptcy. If, like you advise, you instead borrow money to buy a farm or start a business your hard work would benefit you and your family and not a corporation that views you as an expendable business expense. And if your business failed those loans could be reduced or eliminated through bankruptcy. Too many kids are brought up being told to study hard so they can grow up and find a good job. Parents should be telling them to study hard and learn how to run a business that involves doing what you’re good at. S. Wiseman
“You would be better off taking out a loan for a farm. or opening a small business rather than going to college. Farm and agrarian related jobs can make good money” James, you are right on the money. I know many people who are doing just that – buying or leasing small acreage to grow crops (1 to 5 acres) and build cottage industries. They are sick and tired of being milk cows for the government leeches and are doing the right thing by starving the beast of what it needs. The major news networks will never report this trend but it is happening. The peaceful revolution has begun. Of course, the government may react with forced labor. Bernadette
Wow, those are really good ideas, and I agree with you on so many levels:) Why are you not running for President? We need someone at the Helm with a sharp mind, with creative ideas. Not the ideas of destruction coming from Washington. Everything you said made so much sence. Now I know what to pray about:) Cinderella Man
Agreed going back to the basics of rural living will become a means to an end in the future. There is no hope in living in the superslum cities of tommorrow! ky survivor
One step closer to total control. That is what a welfare state is about. God help us. Josh
I highly doubt that Jesus would use the term parasite to describe a fellow human being. DAS
Your right. He would call them leaches Another Richard
How about “vipers” in Mathew 3:7? Jesus was not at all “politically correct” as we sweet Christians are Laodocian America are. Colin
…you have a better term? David H
True….but he would say get off your rear end and work for your living if you are able. At least volunteer your time to some worthy cause to help justify the free lunch your on. I have a relative that draws SSDI (Social Security Disability) and volunteers he says he does it to help justify his disability payments he recieves. We need more people in the world like that. 007
How about sluggardly leaches. If a man will not work let him not eat. Proverbs. Steve
Your blog refers to those who feeding off of the nanny state. What about the millions of government(valueless)workers making 75 – 150 K/year with all the perks and a rosy pension they can start to draw before they turn 60 (unless they double or triple dip). They’re just as parasitic as the the free loader on the dole. Altogether, these parasites make up more than half of America’s population. At this stage of the empires existence, I’m saying to myself, let it all collapse. It’s going to be hellish but the longer the government props up the dog poop with fiat money, the more chaotic it will be. Michael
Steve:
Yes, you are right. I have written about the inflated compensation that government workers get in the past.
Michael Klean
All systems are broken. There is no right anymore. Stop thinking there is a right way to do something. Going back to sleep is more interesting than earning a living. SpunkyBunks
My lazy obese sister is one of these parasites. We are all ashamed of her and she knows it. Her worthless husband doesn’t even bother showing up around us anymore because he knows we think less of him as well. And they have five children, 3 of them are high school dropouts so far. Great welfare system we have in Amrica. It rewards these losers to sit around and breed more idiots too! Paul
Nice family.
Where have family values gone these days?
Why should the tax payer pay for YOUR family, if you do nothing but complain about them?
What have YOU done to prevent your nieces and nephews dropping out of high school? Bernadette
Your sister is so lucky to have such a supportive family to help her through her hard times. I’ll just bet you all were that supportive of her during her whole life that’s why she’s been such a success.
Good job mom and dad:D Mattyboy
Start to hide your income. Make extra cash doing things (legal) that can be hidden. This has gone on for a long time in the EU. Taxes are close to 90% over there. I do not want to pay the Fed for a number of reasons. I wish we had a revolt of about 200 million that decided to not pay taxes. I guess we would only need 58 million. I like making cash that I do not have to claim. I would also support a flat tax and the abolition of the IRS. But, you can’t trust the Gov. they always “need” more money. Kathy Smith
I totally agree MATTY I wish there was a way to get everyone to not pay taxes for 1 pay check & not buy gasoline for 1 day.That would get some attention. Paul M
http://www.thoughtsfromaconservativemom.com/2012/02/number-of-americans-dependent-on-government-jumps-23-welfare-state-now-consumes-70-of-federal-budget/ mark
I have been a landlord since 1981. I no longer manage the apartment complexes, but I have seen all that Michael writes about in the past. It make me sad to see where this country has gone. We used to be a proud nation that could do anything, but no longer is our population strong in heart. We have become a weak useless country of people that think everyone else owes them a living. tappedops
For the umpteenth time… dont get mad–get even,… and if you cant get mad, its because youve been labotomized by the air food and the water… your programmed…your under mind control— yea- laugh while you can. And you say how can i get even… well you cant figure that one out as well because the chemical weapons have totally removed your ability to criticly think… game over —your done—toast— go back to dancing with the stars… Rodster
Gary2 is that you in the picture? DAS
I would gladly be in the picture! sistrunkqueen
I don’t agree with this article. I think any American who has paid their taxes should be able to get any type of government assistance. I am a tax payer. I also an unemployed, but if I need some assistance you betcha I will apply. My dad, who is a Vietnam Vet, can qualify for food stamps but he say “We aren’t that po’!” My mom wants him to get the aid. Anyway to help make ends meet should be explored. My sister has WIC. I need some government assistance. Where do I sign up? Oh by the way I got the free phone. It is great for local calling. McKinley Morganfield
” I am a tax payer. I also an unemployed…”
Error! Does not compute. Error! Review data and resubmit. Cinderella Man
Dude they take taxes out of unemployment checks… McKinley Morganfield
Yes, they take FICA out. But in the end isn’t it really government playing a charade by simply giving them less? BTW, SS & medicare, which are supposed to be funded by FICA receipts, are both in the red. For every $1.00 DC spends, $0.40+ is borrowed money. Annual interest payments on the federal debt will soon be $500,000,000,000. Do you think this can continue another 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? Rancher
Excuse while I barf…. Rodster
There’s a big difference. If someone is really down on their luck and needs help after doing all they could to get a job then I have no problem with what you just said.
If OTOH, someone wants to live of the Gubmint so they can stay home and play Call of Duty MW3 and watch TV then you sir might just be Gary2’s brother. 😛
I was down on my luck several times. At one point all I had to my name was a months worth of rent. You know what I did? I took “3” minimum wahe jobs just to pay the bills. And I refused to ask the Gubmint for assistance. I figured once I did that it would be a point of no return. Mal R.
shouldn’t your name be WelfareQueen? Tatiana Covington
Very well, let them starve to death and be done with it.
That will get rid of the unfit weaklings. Klean
Yeah more food for the powerful and parasitic. 007
They won’t go quietly into the night. They will turn violent and be hunting you they will not have the skills to do do anything else.
Can´t believe your comment got through the moderator, tells me a certain thing about the moderator himself. Tatiana Covington
Perhaps the world should be made free of Reds. Ryan
It appears that the author and the writers of the two comments have been seriously sniffing……. something. This article was a waste of time to read as it is merely the standard diatribe of “hard working family” against the “filthy masses”. You guys have been drinking the Wall Street/GOP/DLC Kool Aide. Tom Lowe
Baloney! There is a vast sea of professional freeloaders dragging this world down! Tatiana Covington
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzspsovNvII&feature=related Hognutz
Yes I am one who drags himself out of bed everymorning to go to work so the parasites can feed a little longer. But I have a feeling it will end very very soon…
“Keep working there are millions on welfare depending on you!” Already Gone
The economy is simply not producing enough jobs for everyone anymore and this is creating major problems. the problem with companies leaving this country started when obama took office and implemented his harsh environmental rules if the environment is such an issue then way did they not start implementing solar power,wind power,etc 20 or thirty yrs ago? the technology has always been there during WW2 germany was already making bio-fuel from potatoes and other vegtables,methanol gas from cow-shit my uncle told me back in the depression days they would create battery banks and hook up a generator to the windmill and charge the batteries to power the lites in the house at nite.As i had wrote before during Jesse Ventura’s days as Gov of Mn they had what was called the greyhound-chicago pipeline where people from chicago would come up and use family/ relatives adresses/claim they were residents of Mn get there welfare check and go back to chicago one individual said at the time that he was going to retire in Mn becasuse it was so easy to get welfare-26 yrs old! At This Time the Democrat party is pounding the welfare drum again, they want to add more people to the welfare rolls in this state, who in the hell is going to pay for this? This state is already having money problems we do not need anymore.Since i have been told that i am confused let me relate a fact to you sharonj one reason george bush would not sign the kyoto treaty back when he was president was because of the irreversable damage it would do to the u.s economy now obama has done this in his own way and look at what has happened and mix that together with the ptb’s desire to create a global economy somebody has to pay the price and it is obvious who it is. I Am Neither Democrat nor Republican as i do not care for either, old phart why don’t you tell them to point the gun the other way? Some people in this country are stupid and lazy and need to get off there fat asses and quit stuffing there faces full of potato chips and get a education and a job, the truth hurts doesn’t it. I Am tired of seeing more and more of my hard earned money going to deadbeats so they can live a nice easy life and not have one ounce of respect for the people that are making it happen for them. Gay Veteran
“…the problem with companies leaving this country started when obama took office….”
That is pure BS and you know it. I’m no Obama fan but outsourcing did not start with him. McKinley Morganfield
To protect fools for the folly of their actions fills the world with fools. If you want more of something subsidize it. If you want less of something punish it. We, in the name of compassion, reward fools who have made bad choices. We subsidize those bad choices generation after generation. We punish frugality and hard work via regulations, taxes, and low interest rates.
Democracy is dangerous when it creates a class of citizens who benefit from the frugality and hard work of others. Robbing Peter to pay Paul only works until you run out of Peters to rob. I have compassion for those who are truly needy through no fault of their own, but leeches must be starved. Blood sucking ain’t the way. mondobeyondo
The system seems to be geared toward rewarding the parasites. There are those out there who truly, honestly are in a hard-luck situation, and need a helping hand, so to speak.
And then you have the parasites and leeches. Those who decide to make government dependence their career choice. The ladies (ahem – I use that term loosely) who are accustomed to pumping out a baby every couple of years so they can get better benefits. Food stamps, Aid to Dependent Children, WIC, child support (hope you had a “sugar daddy” knock you up!) All coming their way in 9 months! And they didn’t even have to move their bloated gluteus maximus (okay, obese donkey) off of the couch. Life is grand!
Government assistance programs were not created so that these leeches can suck the lifeblood out of the hard working people. Another Richard
Government assistance programs were created to make the Masses dependent upon the Gubmit. Roosevelt once said that “nothing happens in Gubmit by accident”. Gubmit undrestands human nature very well and how dependent humanity becomes on freebies and will cooperate with the gubmit to attack the honest hard working people who produce things and are the Real tax payers. When the producers of goods and services want the Freebies stopped by the gubmit, the leaches and parasite Masses will defend the Gubmit giveaways to the Death. Gubmit knows that. whens dinner?
It’s a simple as this: “everybody wants to eat the corn, but nobody wants to plow the fields”. Tom Lowe
A lot of us don’t mind plowing the fields! In fact we actually enjoy doing so. mondobeyondo
I hope my federal income tax money (yes, I have to pay this year) doesn’t go to helping those lazy pathetic sloths. But you know and I know that’s exactly where it’s going.
Now I’m starting to get angry. You won’t like me when I’m angry. (Thanks, Incredible Hulk!)
To those intentionally taking advantage of the system: Someone is going to play Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” at your funeral. Just sayin’…. 007
The most infuriating aspect of this welfare system is that it is unrealistic and unsustainable. The welfare state slowly but surely strangles the economy. The higher taxes and regulations and overbearing laws destroy the ability of businesses to survive. Inevitably, the unsustainable benefits will end just like they are ending in Greece. What will the parasites do when the freebies stop. They will starve like domesticated pets do or they will turn violent. Either way it will be a night mare similar to post apocalyptic zombie movie. It will be a pitiful life trying to avoid being eaten alive by these same parasites that are currently living off of the government tit. Tom Lowe
I believe that is one reason why they have built ‘Camp FEMA’. 007
Great article Michael. You certainly articulated the crisis which is slowly strangling the life out of the country. I read your article and feel I am able to look into the future and see how this nightmare ends. At least we can see it and prepare ourselves. I will share this article with everyone I can because it so clearly frames the fight for our countries ultimate survival. Michael
007:
Thank you for sharing this article. The article may seem a little harsh, but the truth is that our society could use some “tough love” about now.
Michael
you need to give the tough love to the real parasites–corporate welfare Michael
I think that you will find that I did that in the article I just posted.
Michael 007
What a tremendous slap in the face to everyone who works and struggles every day to make a living and provide for their famalies. Pat
Let me also add that:
1. in Europe a garbage man makes as much income as a physician. Neither can be fired for incompetence.
2.Income taxes in some places can be as high as 70%. And they have no deductions.
3. The government is in direct competition with business.
4. There is very little fishing or hunting. Pollution is rife.
5. Few if any go to university.
6. You must register where you live.
7. Even your name change has to be approved by the courts if you want to use a name that is not on an approved list.
8. And most of the people live in small flats often without bath tubs.
9. In Spain we have no kitchen. In Denmark we had no shower or tub.
10. All protests must be approved by the government.
Welcome to your future.
…as it is so in many sectors of the U.S. education system.
How many schoolteachers are fired for incompetence? Not many, I suspect.
Teachers teach the leaders of tomorrow. Our future teachers, teach future biologists, musicians, artists, plumbers, scientists, Web page designers, doctors, veterinarians, you name it.
For the job they do, most teachers are highly underpaid. The athletic coaches and deans are well compensated, of course.
Maybe it is not so important to most of you. But try having garbage workers go on strike for a month. You will soon realize how essential they are. View from Abroad
@1) How did you like your stay in Albania?
@2) You seem to speak of some of the Scandinavian Countries (Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway)…but there the vast majority, even of those who are in the top-income-tax bracket, approve of it, because they see that they have a superior education system and an overall very efficient government and even welfare system.
@3) Yes, right – government chooses to do e.g. waste management themselves, ecologically and recyclable to the max…instead leaving it to the likes of “Barone Sanitation” (remember your “Sopranos”, do you?). And you really think, YOU are better off in this matter????
@4) In most of rural Europe there is as much fishing and hunting as in rural US. Of course maybe not so much fishing e.g. in the Thames or the Rhine – so what? Go fishing in downstream Hudson River, and see what you catch.
@5) Surprise: quite a LOT go to university – and WITHOUT burdening themselves with student loans for the rest of their lives, because it’s mostly FREE (except for some “Elite” institutions, where the only meaning of “Elite” is “Rich”).
@6) Yes. So what???
@7) Yes…there was a couple of immigrants in Cologne (Germany) a few years ago, who wanted to name their newborn son “Osama bin Laden” ( http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,212569,00.html ) – sorry, you are right, they were wrongfully turned down by our brutal, fascist, jackbooted Civil Servants. Horrible.
@8+9) Well, YOU get what YOU can afford, even in Europe. But I have heard rumors that somewhere in Germany and even in France there are flats with a water closet(!!!)…never seen one myself, poor me old European…
@10) Oh, yes…horrible. Luckily in the US you can rally any amount of people at any time you like – to let them get tasered down by the thugs you call “Police” Gary2
Stop speaking the truth you are ruining a lot of low information foolish republican conservatives world view.
You are 100% correct.
Like I said before reality has a well known liberal bias. Marcus
That was eastern Europe 30 years ago… In Scandinavia we’re doing quite well atm. I would say there’s less welfare here than in the USA by now. And I pay 30% tax. For these 30% I get healthcare as well. I live in a nice house, I have a new car, I eat good and healthy food. Almost all services are private, even the ones financed by taxes. And I’n not considered rich here. I’m middle class.
In my opinion the middle class is actually growing here. And, by the way, my country does not have any oil.
Have you ever been to Europe? Maybe Romania then… Idiot… Gwyn
I am so sick of hearing how wonderful is to be living on Government hand-out. One I start working at 16. At the age of 50 my health and back went. I have done manual work all my life and now I can not stand for 5 min. before I need to sit. And for all that I live on $718. a month and get $50. on food stamps. And in the winter I may get 500. for winter heat. My house is $300 a month in cold of winter. They used to give $150. for cooling in summer but that end so they could help more people with winter needs. I do not own a car, could not afford repair it if broke down. So that mean friend who I pay gas money to or a cab if shopping or bus to go doctors. Also medicaid is no wonderfulness either I am grateful for it, but I have go to a clinic and wait for a month or six weeks for appointment or go emergency ward. Also my pills can be change any time state decide that they get better deal from another company. Not if it good for me or not. I am not living in one of those towers and paying 1/3 of income. I am lucky my family left part ownership of house to me. But I have property Tax to pay and house insurence and repairs and I do not get free phone or internet,I pay for it and the taxes that go with it. I do have to pay some money to doctor and pills but not lot I agree. But living like this means you are my entertainment. I bake my own bread and clean my house from chair. Also my clothes are second hand. Goodwill have lots of visit from people now days. I get sick of this idea that poor pay no taxes. What bill do get that does not some kind of tax on it. Anyone useing those same service have to pay them as well. Are they has much as yours? no. but they all so have less. Less to have fun on less to go out on and less to buy lots food with. Live on $50 see how far that take you. The rest comes for that monthly check I so lovely dream about every month sitting on my sofa. Till you be there you have no idea what like to live it. Not the pain I live with or problem that come with living. I look forward with fear as I watch the state and Federal government talks about things they need to cut so they can give people who live fancy house more money and want to vote for man for President who has bank account in places,like that Island and country with special banking laws. Make no mistake I know that cuts are coming but I am not going easy into that goodnight, so our million dollar congress men and women can keep there golden rewards. I know neither of the parties are our friends but I also know games have been play and working people money got rip off instead of yell for their heads so offend you worry about those who have less then you do. denny
The article itself betrays its own horse . If families had that many liabilities every month, they wouldn’t be paying very much in taxes. The 1% have that part down though as most of them don’t pay near as much relative to what a $50,000 wage earner pays. It’s also suspicious that this article doesn’t mention corporate welfare which usually receives twice as much as the social welfare recipients do and let’s not forget what all those lobbyists are for. What’s a Lockeed/Martin contract except glorified corporate welfare or the blackmailing which corporations pull on municipalities when they promise to build a factory in the environs ONLY if they are exempted from paying local taxes. Nah, this article is just more of the Republican AND Democrat crap of blaming those of us who have been hit the hardest for the consequences of the war which the wealthy have laid our lives, infrastructure and jobs to waste. Surprised to find it on this site. Tom Lowe
The article is quite clearly directed at professional freeloaders, and not at unemployed people. Jeremy
While I disagree with much of Michael’s predictions and assertions in his articles (because our nation has come from the brink many times before), he writes on elite welfare and wealth hoarding all the time.
He is fair. Leonard
Dear Michael
If you take away every single benefit of all these people, you will end up creating plenty of criminals on the streets who will end up in jail getting free food, free air conditioning, libraries, internet, and free health care for many many years to come. You mentioned an article some time ago how somebody checked himself into jail with some kind of a fake holdup in order to get health care in prison. Who do you think will end up paying for this? The banksters? The fat cats? The corporations? Good luck. Remember this: EVERYTHING HAS A PRICE!
A job is a social program! Somebody has to give it to you when they hire you. When jobs are shipped overseas, then millions are out of work. If people are so happy with lay-offs, they end up paying for it one way or another! How many people are going to become successful like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? Almost everybody? Good luck. Remember to play the lottery next time, anybody can win $200,000,000,!
Let me give you a solution, Michael. Let’s bring ALL the jobs back that have been outsourced over the last two decades. Is this going to happen? Of course not! Michael
Leonard:
Yes, that is why I write about “free trade” and our trade deficit over and over so that people can understand what is happening.
Michael VyseLegendaire
“As economic conditions get even worse in this country, millions more Americans are going to turn to the government for assistance and at some point the safety net is going to break.
What is our country going to look like when that happens?”
Egypt. We will have chaos in major metropolitan areas around the nation. Or maybe we are so drug and entertainment-infused that we will simply throw up our hands and pull down our pants for big daddy government.
Oh, and did you forget to mention the amount of people taking subsidized anti-psyochotic medication? When people suddenly come off of their expensive drugs, let us hope their violent outbursts do not reach the level of other well known mass murders associated with coming off of these SSRIs, like Sgt. Bales in Afghanistan. curt
Yes insurance costs have gone up. Why? People are unemployed. Why? Why not, their example has been an industry whose greed is boundless. Lets not forget that if only the top couple of percent of income makers paid their share it could mean clean water, education and health for everyone on this planet. Certain parties have been trying to sink this system without coming up with an alternative and why in the world would anyone not greedy want privatization of natural resourses. Its industry that’s ruining this country and the greed that is their legacy. stan
And on top of that, race wars and riots are coming to a city near you. This from the Black Panther:
“If you are having any doubts about getting suited, booted, and armed up for this race war that has never ended, let me tell you something… The thing that’s about to happen to these honkies, these crackers, these pigs, these pink people, these mother ’ turtle people – it has been long overdue.”
If you happen to be one of them honkies, or crackers, or pig, or pink people, or mother turtle people, you might just end up dead, for no reason other than your whiteness. Nexus789
Amazing number of self righteous pompous individuals. The US has never had welfare state. It is more like a dependency system that has evolved to placate the masses as the US economy has declined and people have adapted to ‘game’ the system.
What do you expect will happen if millions of jobs and tens of thousands of factories have been closed down and off shored to China, India, etc. What are the millions of unemployed going to do. The payments, food stamps, etc, are ways of keeping the idle masses passive.
At some point this will end as the US is bankrupt and austerity measures will be introduced and many of these payments will be withdrawn..no food stamps, no unemployment benefits, no medical support, etc. Then you will all get you wish and reap the consequences. Paul
does a common shareholder contribute to the success of a company?
Isn’t the shareholder the true parasite?
He draws money out of the company and does nothing in return? Paul
Do you have any dependents?
Yes, shareholders, managers, chairmen, bureaucrats and politicians. Paul
In Hong Kong,
every citizen has the right to medical treatment in public hospitals (only entrance fee of USD10 to be paid).
There is no VAT in Hong Kong. 66% of Hong Kong people do not pay any income tax. Max. income tax is 15% of gross salary. Minimum is 2%
The Hong Kong government does not have debts. Last year they had so much money left over, they paid every Hong Kong citizen over 18 about USD600. In addition they gave every tax payer a tax rebate of USD600.
What are they doing wrong? de Malfosse
re: “Ever since the “War on Poverty” began our debt has exploded”… certain amount of accuracy in writing this BUT the “War on Poverty” ran alongside that other horse in the Imperial race: the Viet Nam War, and the Viet Nam War is the direct source for Americans monetary difficulties today.
I argue the debt explosion has much, much more to do with the maintenance of Uncle Sam’s Empire, an Imperium where tremendous amounts of American taxes continue to flow outward, then it does with the neighbor on welfare.
I suggest the “welfare bum” is an easy & obvious target deliberately promoted by Uncle Sam so as to divert attention from the Empire and it’s 70+ year history of perpetual conflict, war, and interfernece in the affairs of other nations.
Example: Country XXX (so as not to offend anyone) has itself received an average of 5 millions a day for more than 60 years off the American taxpayers back. Now if that doesn’t qualify as a “gov’t parasite”, what or who does?
Is your neighbor on welfare more damaging then an entire company, say Lockheed-Martin, which hasn’t been off the gov’t teat since Truman was president? Tom Lowe
Excellent points although they are clearly not directly related to the topic.
What I actually see on the ground here is me working night and day for $800/month after 6 years of college long ago while the completely able bodied guy over there who never bothered to go to school does nothing all month but smoke dope and gets $900. NeoIsolationist
I work. My wife worked for a long time and is now on unemployment. She would be one of that 49 percent collecting government benefits. She doesn’t want to be on unemployment, and intends to vote against the current administration come November. While lots of that 49 percent wants to continue scamming the system, I’d say there’s some in that group like my wife who don’t. I don’t think 49 percent in and of itself will be enough of a percentage. I could be wrong of course, but I recall hearing that Obama wanted to get about 75 percent of the population getting some kind of government assistance. I think he would agree that 49 percent, while alot, is not enough. Michael
“””””In America today, we deeply penalize hard work and we greatly reward government dependence. “””””
same Thing in france, for a longtime As a disabled, i could have until $1000 from government as benefits …. but, no support to get a job, and once i get my own business, many taxes and no more benefits because of my disability
stupid world chris
Great article Michael as usual. But imo it’s overlooking a critical component to this problem: the breakdown of the family structure. I know your fully aware of this but I just thought it could use some mention. It will be a cold day in hell before I or anyone in my family accept any sort of assistance from .gov. jazzage
You are missing three important areas of government dependance in this article. One, the liberal blue states pay more in federal taxes than they get back. That excess goes to the conservative red states that whine about the government but could not exist without their excess of government contracts, military bases, etc. The states of the old Confederacy get almost $2 back for every dollar they pay in. Two, the greatest amount of welfare in this country is money taken by taxing the middle class to subsidize the rich and big business. An example is the private prison industry. We privatize the prisons, the private companies that run these prisons then become lobbyists to bribe the “lawmakers” to make more laws making more things illegal so they have more prisoners and more revenue. Three, people with kids have more deductions and pay less taxes to the point where they have essentially zero taxes. Who has the most kids? Mothers on welfare, yes, but also Republicans who get away with paying little or no taxes. Guess who makes up the difference? Those of us with fewer or no kids, generally more liberal people. We also pay full freight on property taxes that fund the public schools.
The hypocrisy of conservative morons is astounding. I say let’s get rid of public funding of schools, end all corporate welfare in all its guises, and set the losers in the Southern states out on their own and watch the size of the federal budget plummet. Gary2
you are 100% correct. Michael will never acknowledge that you speak the truth as he does not let facts get in his conservative leanings.
How about the welfare of churches and pastors houses, err mansions being tax free. I do not want to subsidize some rich paster of a megachurch.
POOR Michael–what ever are you goiong to do when the real facts about welfare are pointed out?? The church is the biggest welfare scam of all. jazzage
You are right, I forgot about the Churches that pay no taxes but yet butt their way onto every political conversation and use the power of the Church to promote their idiotic ideas.
Welfare for those on the bottom exists to prevent rioting in the streets, and welfare for those on the top is the reason the government exists. Gary2
its not just churches but pastors homes. Tax payers subsidize these mega church mansions as they are also tax free. Barn Cat
The new gold rush is trying to qualify for SSI by being considered legally disabled. Tom Lowe
I sprained my ankle walking to a job interview. Can I qualify for SSI?!! Dave
Hello All.
I have been reading this blog for some time, it is good to read some non-mass media propaganda. I however do not subscribe to the notion that USA or the rest of the world will descend into anarchy overnight. It will continue to be a gradual decline over the next 3-5 years, as it has been so far.
It is not merely policymakers to blame, but a system that only operates on perpetal growth fuelled by cheap energy. As this energy rises in not only monetary cost,but also energy input costs, economic contraction is inevitable.
Peak oil is definitely here. Shale and tar sands proves they’re getting desperate.
Over time, perhaps people may need to return to the rural agrarian lifestyle they had pre-indutrial age,in order to survive. But the sun will stil rise and set.
I don’t think that anarchy will come either, at least not where I live. Just a slow decay of order. Whatever happens, I would rather die helping my fellow man, content with this life I’ve been lucky to have, than to go down defending my “stash”.
As for all this Dec 2012 rubbish, FYI our calendar (gregorian) ends every 400 years. Funnily enough we’re still around. Another Richard
The Powerz that be, hold the rip cord on this Gargantuan Unpayable Debt of the USA and Europe. When they are satisfied with the ever growing level of this Debt – They will pull the rip cord on the Trillions of $ of Derivatives By The End Of 2012. That is their timeline to commence the New World Oder, I mean Order. I believe we will All be startled and frightened by the Suddeness and the Severity of the Collapse. Jack the Leper
The United States Government is the parasite on the hard working people. Gary2
Journalist Chris Mooney discusses his new book, “The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Reject Science — and Reality.”
In his new book, The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Reject Science — And Reality, science journalist Chris Mooney surveys this growing body of data and explains its significance.
I think the authors mistake is assuming republicans have a brain to begin with. chuck
Isn’t the government our biggest parasite? Michael
The government feeds off of hard working Americans. It’s their lifeblood. Chris
Hmm… although this won’t be a popular thought, I really feel that the government should not hand out a dime to anyone for any reason. This was what the church was suppose to do. It was suppose to help those, widows, disabled, poor, etc. But, in our “anti-Christian” society now, we’ve given, or better stated, expect the government to take care of these and pushed the church out. The church still should be taking care of it’s own though. No matter what kinds of rules the gov’t tries to push.
As a side note, what really burns me is that all the so-called atheists, anti-Christians, etc would try to justify that Jesus would have wanted socialism and that the government should take care or it’s people via handouts. That is a completely different Bible from what I read however as the Jesus I knew was very clear about people taking care of themselves and their family. If hardship hit, then the church – more specifically, other church members (others in your congregation) were suppose to then help you out. But, sadly, most “church” goers are now so self-absorbed and Bible deficent that they aren’t willing to help other church members because they think the government should.
Ugh – catch 22.
Sorry – my ramble on to a great article that hit a nerve! Eric Ferguson
This article is an example of why America is going into massive debt. We have gone from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. People are content to sit on their but and receive enough money from the govt to live on. Yet it is people like me who go to work to support these lazy a$$ people. nowwthen
This is not the country I grew up in. As I’ve said before I remember the days in the 60s and 70s when anyone with a high school diploma (and many without one) could find a job with a living wage. There were smokestacks and office buildings all over the country that needed workers. Most from my generation hate that things have devolved into the semi-socialist society Michael has painted here. The corporate lobbyists have convinced our country’s leaders to buy into the belief that tossing U.S. workers into a world labor pool is somehow good for us. Tens of millions of jobs have been lost as a result. Add to that the technological unemployment caused by all of the robotic and computerized replacements for human labor and it’s no wonder that unemployment and underemployment remain at record levels. A person who’s exhausted his or her 99 weeks of unemployment after losing a job they held for 20 years is likely to reason that “the government caused my job to go away so the government must pay me for what they took from me.” I guess it’s what they refer to as a “moral hazard”. I’d like to think that most Americans would still prefer to work at a job that paid a decent wage rather than stay on the dole. But sadly that will not happen as long as good American jobs are being eliminated by lopsided “free trade” policies and productivity gains resulting from more automation with less human labor. Jeremy
You think clearly and make good points. Winston Smith
though I can agree with your assesment of lack of jobs and good paying ones at that, the problem in part is the result of your statements-we have encouraged and trained people in this nation not to be their own bosses, but employees (wage slaves) dependant on others. Guilds- destroyed largely during the “reformation”, which then ushered in a dog-eat-dog, selfish economy, highly individualistic. Said guilds then and could now, provide training, placement, apprenticeships and benefits (health, insurance,etc). During the 20’s and 30’s, the RCC laity had land associations in the USA and Britain-due to lackluster support of clergy, none from Protestants and a depression/WW II, those died on the vine. Their purpose? to train men how to famr and then, to buy/rent a farm to provide for themselves and others. Ditchling survived, in sorts, until 1989. The men might have gotten training, but nowhere to go and nothing to buy/use/rent afterwards. They then were continually unemployed and stuck in filthy cities.
Or many has to rely on a lot of ready cash, equity and suck to buy a franchise. A lot more to get a loan from them or a whole lot more to buy their own buisness, plus where then is training? Open a bar/grill? great, would love to do that-do not know the first thing about payroll, taxes, with holding, how and where to order products,etc…. pete
Yes. This is all true and accurate information.
Here’s some more:
After 27 months of being unemployed, the jobs I am being offered are for about 1/4th of my former salary, while the costs for about everything are about twice as much.
So, my choices are get back to work and suck it up like a good sheople…..or do my best to drive a spear into the beast’s heart and try to kill it. More of a mercy killing actually.
It boils down to this. Do you buckle down, stiff upper lip, shoulder to the wheel and nose to the grindstone…..or give up?
I’m going with the idea that supporting the crooked, decietful and errant policies is a loosing game and I am going to be merciful by helping put the ailing beast (US ECONOMY)to death. Right now it’s a wounded and dangerous animal.
Don’t get me wrong….if it was possible to nurse it back to health…I’d be on board. However, Bernanke and the politicoes have decided that injecting growth hormones and a diet of five hour energy drinks is practicing good medicine….so am I evil by wanting to see a suffering animal put to sleep? Tom Lowe
This happened to me 25 years ago and I swore then to kill the Beast and I know I am going to win. Tom Lowe
BTW I got zip in unemployment from the Corporate Pigs.
ZIP
you got that right–the jobs are low pay walmart crap. Jeremy
Your anger is about where I was last July. But, you are still accountable to God for your actions, and He requires that you work and do your best (Apostle Paul: if you don’t work, you don’t eat).
The misery on this website will not help you either. I used to visit this site daily, but I realized that, while providing some key facts, it is no more knowledgable of the future than you or I.
Don’t give up. Many days are difficult, but trust me, you WILL find peace in the valley, on the other side. Now I am encouraging people who actually have good jobs. THAT is service, and is a blessing.
I take the bar exam in July, and look at it more as an adventure to where God will take me. Gemtap
Track what they use….make them pay it back whent they get a real job…if not debtors prison! Cinderella Man
Good topic, Michael. Now I know why my Dad gets so infuriated around tax time. When I was out of work and unemployment expired, I worked in the “underground economy” paid under the table because that was the only work there was. I breifly had to get SNAP assistance cause I had no other way to feed myself. Now that Im working again reading articles like this I often have to ask myself Why do I work? Tax time pisses me off too… I already told you about the welfare mama that got back $8,000 on EIC. She also gets section 8 housing assistance, and food stamps. So basically all you have to do is produce illegetimate children, apply for aid and presto! Set for life!! Keep working fools, millions on welfare depend on you! Michael
Almost everyone needs help at some point, but the key is to pick yourself back up and get off of the help and that is exactly what you did.
I don’t blame those that are going through temporary troubles. But those that have gotten comfortable living off of the system year after year and they never try to get off of it trouble me.
Michael davidmpark
Not exactly.
I’ve been on both sides of this lately, so here’s how things really work.
I worked as a government contractor until my wife became severely disabled about 5 years ago. So, I left to get a part-time merchandising job with a big box to be closer to her and our young kids.
That “safety net” where I live is not very big.
LIHEAP’s funding, at most, is about 2 months worth of utilities per year. The paperwork cost us about $30 to process and mail, after 4 hours of filling in and photocopying.
Medicaid is very limited to kids and the disabled – I’m not covered at all. Every 3 months I have to fill out a 15 page review and send in all related documents to prove everything that I claim. Most of the time, I’m either missing a document or not enough info, so it lapses for about 10 – 15 days.
Social Security – Disability has been a trial and half! We finally got full disability after 4 years, more than 1000 documents, and a law firm. For this, it’s not much; about $1100 per month. And since there really isn’t housing assistance from everyone else already on that program (been on the waiting list for 4 years), almost all goes to rent.
Our kids do an online charter school (and doing well, they can actually read and do the math! The school district is an abysmal failure), but we can’t qualify for discounted (not free) internet because we have to cut service for 3 months before we can apply. We can’t do that unless we let the kids fall way behind.
We don’t qualify for the cell phone discount (again, not free) cause I’m still working part-time. I need to quit to get that one; but if I do, the wife looses medical coverage and a few others.
It’s not a fun system: and I don’t spend time waiting for a check – I spend a lot of time trying to build what we can afford to create our own utilities and grow food, looking for a better job to work-from-home because, as I said before, she is severely disabled and needs me here! I get up at 5 AM, got work ’till 11 (if I’m lucky and she doesn’t have a seizure or something – then I have to stay home all day), then clean house, help the kids with school, fill out paperwork, cook what I can, and then, if I’m blessed, do some stuff in the workshop and then go to bed at 12 AM.
This is not a paradise; it’s near to hell! I don’t know who is profiting so much from being on these programs, but I know it ain’t us! And from the experiences while working for the federal government, I’m sure it’s the bureaucrats running the programs that are living the sweet life! Some of those guys make over $100,000 per year salary alone and spend most of their time in meetings. Tom Lowe
Your case just illustrates how those who really do need help have such difficulty getting it in a system clogged with rank freeloaders.
I know numerous fully able bodied mentally competent people who get SSI of $900 +/- or large Veteran mental disability payments up to $2500 and more who do NOTHING. Most of them are actually alcoholics or pill people.
I knew a guy who gets $2500–plus SS–for some concocted mental disability (PTSD from a military helicopter accident? Come on, liar-actor! This was not even in combat). He came to me on the 11th of the month whining that he was already broke. Well he has lived in a van for the past 43 years while he freeloaded off of the phony PTSD disability. So he spent $2500 in 11 days living it up to the tune of $225+ per day and shows up broke and whining on the 11th here where we self sufficient people have had way more than our share of dumpster meals just to keep this roof over our head.
I sent him to Camp FEMA, so to speak.
I often have to work for myself for as little as $1-$2 per hour, and have for many years now. All you out there who think there is some sort of automatic minimum wage had better realize there is no such thing if you intend to survive. davidmpark
Thanks Tom mondobeyondo
All one needs to do to see government efficiency at its best, is to go to the local Department of Motor Vehicles office to get your vehicle registered. There are 30 counters available. Two employees, at two counters, are assisting customers. Some 600 or so people sitting, staring at screens, or chasing their kids. Already a bad sign.
Press the little green button on the machine near the entrance. Your ticket reads “number 863″.
The loudspeakers announce, “Now serving number 108″.
Come on – even the Post Office is better than this! Gary2
there are only 2 employees at the DMV because right wing gov like the soon to be replaced walker cut cut cut.
Stop voting repube. Diane C
It is really people like you who do need the help, and are not able to get enough. The problem is the entire system (government) is broke. There are those who really take advantage, and there are those who really need it. You would think because the government is so big and bloated, they would have enough people to check on these things. However you would have to be efficient in order to do that. Our government certainly is not.
I wish you and your family the best. davidmpark davidmpark
Okay, I need to clarify some things.
My wife has an actual disability: severe traumatic brain injury, that caused epilepsy and a few other things. She was in a coma for almost a year and had to relearn most everything. It will cost her her life. It’s real – not easy to fake those CT scans and the other numerous tests.
Second, I don’t know how to game this system: I give ’em all the requested info, they tell me what we can get. Honesty doesn’t pay off with these guys: and that’s the point!
We HATE being on these programs! Using that EBT card in public is the most embarrassing thing; and the stares the cashier gives me is just damning. I hide the card best I can when swiping it and then quickly stash the eyesore away. When the receptionist at the doc’s office asks about insurance, I always whisper the answer.
If these gov people want to do something right and good (for once); then pass a law that voids zoning laws for families that have a legitimately disabled member. I am capable of rearing animals and producing things here, but am limited because these guys want us on castrating programs that serve themselves!
We have food storage, but it’s pretty basic now. And as someone here mentioned: if we don’t have these programs, they’ll take the kids and force my wife into assisted living – a kind of partial divorce.
This isn’t the society I wanted; this is where I’m stuck! Phillip Sherwood
The people I personally know who “work the system” aren’t getting rich but just treading water since they double up with family members and work low wage jobs. If they didn’t “work the system” they wouldn’t have enough to eat or their children wouldn’t be able to access health care. Many are caught up in drug abuse or alcoholism and are hardly able to maintain themselves. Some work very hard at low wage jobs and some don’t work at all. I agree at one level that throwing money at these people is worthless but cutting them off is just as bad since the children are the ones who suffer. I remember at the church I grew up in that what worked wasn’t monetary policy but individual assistance and genuine caring. Our pastor went to great lengths to assist a member who had a mentally ill mother and neither the pastor nor the church got a thing out of it except the right thing was done and people knew that this man and this congregation cared. My youth pastor said “am I my brothers keeper?” I thought he was referring to the specific scripture and I fumbled the answer but the Bible is clear from cover to cover what the answer is. Tom Lowe
You missed the whole point of the article. It states that there are too many freeloaders burdening a well-intentioned system designed for the truly needy. It never says or even implies that needy people should not get help. What it says is that people who AREN’T needy are robbing the system. Stan522
I agree with you. Government sustenance programs are over burdened. However, over burdening is inevitable. Since government defines “success” only when they can increase their budget, and/or getting as many people reliant on it, you will always grow a program of free-loaders. By definition, this will always happen.
Now, we have politicians openly feeding people with guilt for not putting up with supporting these ridiculous programs. They equate charitable “giving” of your money to private support programs to you supporting government taking your money and creating a program. They are not the same thing. Government will ALWAYS be more inefficient. Gary2
am I my brothers keeper
That passage is not in Michaels and the other “Christians” on this site. Stan522
Gubamint programs are not supposed to make you rich. They are intended to keep you captive into a low level of sustenance where politicians can get you to keep voting for them as they play the system and put you into a voting block that will ensure their continued candidacy. That goes for ANY program:
Home Mortgage Interest Deduction Hope or Lifetime Learning Tax Credit Student Loans Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Earned Income Tax Credit Food Stamps (did I miss any–?)
None of these will provide people with what they need. All they will do is get you hooked just like a crack addict. Tell you friend to break away from government handouts and find their own way to success. It’s inside of every single one of us. It’s God given and we just need to unleash it. Stan522
I believe we are at that point where there may be more takers than givers in our society. The politician’s are now so open about how if you vote for them, they will give “you” free stuff. This “safety net” and how politicians have leveraged it into voting blocks has destroyed our country. Their political greed (power and money) has enticed the weak to become weaker by accepting these bribes. It’s immoral and should be illegal to destroy the drive for success, self-reliance, and determination out of American’s. Michelle
You have no idea just how much that hit home. God bless you jox
Very unfair and disappointing article! You talk about a pitiful state of things in America, and suddenly, without justification, you equates it with a “European-style socialist welfare” that destroys your nation “socially and financially”. Even worse, you end with that picture, which has NOTHING to do with the content of the article.
If you don’t like socialism, OK, let’s discuss it with arguments. But this method of picking something that you don’t like and associate it somehow with the socialism is very unfair and not appropriate for your otherwise brilliant articles. It is exactly the same as when the far left blames any problem in the world on America and capitalism.
And, by the way, let me inform you that some of the more “socially and economically” advanced and prosperous countries in the world are European and socialists (or social-democrats, if this word exists in English). You are going to have a hard time finding arguments against the ethics and politics of those countries, which are a model for everybody. Tom Lowe
Everyone but Europe knows that Europe are the biggest freeloaders in the entire world.
The biggest. Tom Lowe
In fact, Europe is nothing but a whole subcontinent wholly dedicated to freeloading off of the rest of the world, and has been for centuries now. Gary2
Michael is becoming an idological right wing warrior where facts are whatever he hears on fox. He can no longer think for him self. This crap was probably transcribed from rush pill head bimbo show. DownWithLibs
I see you have even more screws loose than you did before. So sad…we pity you!!!! knightowl77
Well they are not a model that I would like to emulate. We’ll see where they are in 3 to 5 years, but I do not ever think I will support Gov’ts taking from one group to provide to another….
That is not the role of any gov’t that I would care to be subject to….you can keep it… Barn Cat
A lot of government jobs are necessary jobs. A lot of those people are incredibly arrogant. They think they’re God because they work for the government. I saw that when I worked for the Census and my superiors had to deal with people who worked for the Department of Commerce. But those people are nothing compared to God. Bobby
the line at 2:14 applies here… Bernadette
Every time I read something like this it makes my blood boil. It’s this mindset which is making me fight tooth and nail to get my SSI which I worked most of my life paying into. I’m dissabled now. I have a list of illnesses longer than my left arm, and SSI has denied me and now I have to try to find a way to drive 200 miles away to go to some court hearing. You people seem to think it’s so easy to get gov help when you need it. It’s NOT! I’ve been trying to get my SSI benefits since 2009 when I finally became too sick to work. I worked for years with my illnesses, but they got too bad for me to manage in 2009 and I just couldn’t do it any more. Bernadette
BTW I would much rather be able to get up and go to work everyday like I used to. I miss working, it’s ridiculous to think that people who were created to create and work would rather sit and be sick, just so that they could get a few hundred dollars every month for free. Talk about socialism, that was Hitler’s mind set “Let the strong survive and the weak go to the wall” That’s why I can’t believe there are so many Believers who are against public assistance. The Church is supposed to take care of sick people like me, not the gov. The Church isn’t supposed to be robbing old ladies of their SS, there supposed to be caring for them. And Christians certainly shouldn’t be complaining about services to assist sick and old people. Oh well it will all come out of the wash when JESUS gets back. Even so Please come quickly Lord JESUS. Cinderella Man
Bernadette, I woundnt be mad at you for getting SSI its perfectly healthy young teenagers and 20 somethings that say they have “depression” or “bi-polar” and get to sit around and goof off all day while the rest of us foot the bill. BTW the reason that most people are depressed is because your govt. is tyrranical and you are materialistic!! Tom Lowe
EXACTLY!!
And then there are all the phony 420 patients, PTSD phantoms, pain pill puppies, and more! Gary2
most 90% Christians are hypoctrites to the max. All one need do is read this site for proof of that. Stan522
They will be left behind…….. Another Richard
No, you are wrong. All 90% Christians are hypocrites. Only 100% Christians are Truely Christian. Another news flash for you buster – Only God can see the heart of any person and He alone Knows the True from the Hypocrite. So, quit wasting your energy trying to pick who is and who isn’t a True Christian,because it is useless. Examine your own life and relationship to God is the best thing you could do for yourself and others. Ozmo
Thank you so much for that post. It would do well for everyone to live by this. Just my 2 cents Stan522
Isn’t that just like government…. create programs with big promises, make it near impossible to attain, move the goal posts mid game (extending the qualifying years out farther and farther), then steal from it, bankrupt it and then pander to the voting block of retirees and near retirees to garner more votes for the ones who bastardized it in the first place.
Our problem is “we” keep believing these SOB’s every time they speak. Be wary of ANY politician coming up with a gubamint program that takes care of “us”. Besides, there isn’t enough to live on once you get it. I would have rather kept my own money for the 40+ years (and still going) instead of giving it to the ripoff artists.
My beef is not with you who worked their whole life and believed the promises of politicians. My issue is with bastard (redundant) politicians that make false promises and then leverage votes promising more free “stuff”. They all can go straight to hell…… mondobeyondo
Remember that scene in the movie “Titanic”, where Jack asks Rose to hold onto her hand as the ship sinks?
“You jump, I jump!” No, wrong scene! It’s the scene where the ship is taking the final plunge to the bottom. The undertow would have sucked anyone near the ship under water.
The USA is the Titanic. The people abusing the system, depend on the U.S. government for their survival. They will be dragged underwater. (Some of them already are. “Underwater mortgages”.. wink, wink!) And they will suck everyone else under along with them. Chris
In the pyramid of wealth that could describe the population you would have parasites at the very top and at the bottom. At the very top the 1% also live a parasitic existence. I mean people like bankers/ CEOs and others who produce nothing and get rich by scamming those below and basically living a parasitic existence on those that actually do work, the middle of the pyramid. Under the middle there is a large population of an underclass some of whom are genuine hardworking people and some who game the system. The middle supports the lower and the upper parts of the pyramid. A host can only support a certain amount of its energy going to a parasite living on it. Too much energy lost and too many parasites and the host will be killed. This stage must be getting close. Those at the top with their corruption and fraud and greed set the example for those below to follow. When faced with corruption at the top and indolence below the middle will lose heart, see it’s supporting a unjust system and may give up. CitizenS
Been a Paramedic for 21 years now and I have continually see things worsening. People used to call for EMS when they or a loved one was sick, now it seems we’re just a ‘free’ taxi service. Sadly they don’t realize or care that while they are being hauled around someone may actually need our service. And even though they aren’t paying foir it…….. I AM!!! I’m all about giving a people a hand up, but I’m getting tired of a third of my pay going to buy them cell phone minutes and the like. I built my own house payday to payday and I own the land. My family and I are putting up feeder pigs and a calf and just broke the sod on 2 acres of ground for a garden. We have wind power when there’s a breeze and 3 underground springs on site. By all means let it collapse. Then these parasites will be forced to work!! Again Michael, good article. Michael
They use you for a free taxi service?
That is just sad.
Michael CitizenS
In this state (WV) an individual can activate EMS, not give a reason, and state which hospital they want to go to and we have to take them. They do not even have to give us there name if they so choose. We call it a ‘you call we haul’. And on top of that many use the non emergency ambulances because they don’t want to spend the money on gas or the bus to go to Dr. Visits and other non urgent medicals. I love my state and only wish that we and other states would reform our system. That by itself could save countless money and lives….. the optimist
Oh Yay for you. Don’t you get it — you built your house paycheck to paycheck — there are millions of us out here who don’t have the paycheck! And we don’t because of the CEO parasites and 1% parasites who are all about churning and grabbing money over jobs. Outsourcing, golden parachutes, whatever, the jobs are gone and they aren’t coming back.
Don’t be so grossly smug and superior. I just lost my house, which was my prepping homestead. I did all those homesteading things for years too, but without a good source of income, when my business failed 2 years ago, I lost it. DON’T think for a SINGLE SECOND that you are invulnerable and incapable of losing YOUR paycheck — YOU CAN LOSE IT ALL.
Then maybe you’ll have a deeper understanding of reality.
“Then these parasites will be forced to work!!”
Hateful. Don’t you think “we” WANT to have jobs?? FOOL, hateful fool. Please read Karol’s comment below. The real parasites are at the top, in DC and in corporate boardrooms. CitizenS
If smug and being a fool means harsh austerity @ home (eating ramen, bologna sandwiches, working by myself til 3 in the morning on my house then getting up to be @ work @ 0800 (in which I couldn’t even claim the $8000 tax credit because I didn’t borrow from the banksters), and scratching odd jobs on days off) is smug then I guess that shoe fits. Did I work the system? No. Do I live in the lap of luxury? No. Have I gone without to provide a roof and food for my family? Yes. Am I prepared for what is coming? I hope so. I feel for anyone that looses their job, I really do, I’ve been there before. My comment was not meant to be condescending towards anyone. But I will say this and its as timeless today as it ever has been……. Judge only a man after you have traveled in his footsteps. libertyin413
In the interest of not repeating what others have said, I would just like to add that I don’t believe that we should have any of these government “benefits” or “safety nets” at all. The only thing the government can to is tax (read:steal) from producers and assist (read:redistribute) others. And it’s not just the “poor” receiving benefits/entitlement [sic], the connected elite get their welfare too. Government setting up these safety nets only exacerbates any problem that may have existed because now prices skyrocket as providers know any increase will be backed by the full faith and credit of the US Tax Payer; this hurts the very people the program was intended to help in the first place. All assistance should be done by private local charity as it was before. This way it is truly just a temporary helping hand when someone hits hard times and the organization/church can monitor for fraud. For the Progressives who claim this doesn’t work, we never read about having to step over alternating piles of child prostitutes and dying old people in the street as you tried to make your way to your sweatshop job. The standard of living was increasing like history has never seen before when people were allowed to keep the fruits of their own labor (a one income household could support 5-6 people, children were being better educated, new cars & appliances, etc…). Now under the Progressive model the standard of living is decreasing drastically as once again everyone has to contribute to the household income and the need to hop on the safety net has reached unprecedented levels. Lastly, even if the producers are lucky enough to retain some of their earnings and try to defer some of it for later consumption, they are hit again with the hidden tax of inflation that destroys their wealth and actually decreases their purchasing power. All of this made possible through the criminal and malevolent actions of the Federal Reserve. Karol
Hi Michael, Thank you for writing such honest and informative articles. I no longer watch the news or read the local papers because it is mostly all rubbish. Your website is fascinating and I have recommended your site to all my friends and family. No body likes a lazy cheat who games the system for a living, but I am fed up with the parasitical Wall Street Fat Cats, the Politicians, the criminals in D.C. And the 1%, who having been gaming the system for decades at our expense. These rich crooks have stolen billions from the American people, far more than the food stamp family ever will in a life time. BofA paid no federal tax in 2010 and got a billion dollar rebate as well, and I read that they paid no federal tax in 2011 either. When companies that make billions of dollars and give out millions of dollars in bonuses every year don’t pay federal or state tax then the tax payer is robbed. On a local level police and fire stations are affected, schools too. Bridges and roads aren’t being repaired. These parasites send their children to the best schools, they vacation all over the world, own multiple homes with tennis courts and pools, multiple cars and jets, they get to eat the best food, probably cooked by the in-house chef, they have housekeepers and nannies, they have the best health care money can buy, I could go on and on. Disney, a multi-billionaire company, got welfare for a fireworks display and multi-millionaire Sam Donaldson got welfare for mohair. Really! Our schools suck, minimum wage adjusted to inflation should be $22.50 an hour, people are getting screwed out of time-and-a-half, over-time, vacation time, their pensions, health care, etc. And if you work you are lucky if you can get 20 hours a week! Wage theft is the best way for the 1% to steal from the 99%. Most people are so Ignorant they don’t even realize they are being robbed. I worked for the 1% in a private club in Boston, they docked my paycheck for 3 weeks of work. I am a poor single mother, and the richest people felt the need to steal 3 weeks of my wages. Wow! I couldn’t afford to work for free so I had to quit. Do I begrudge the obese, lazy, and unmotivated for scamming the system? Not really. Especially since there ain’t a Benz or a Jag in their driveway, no lawn service for their patch of grass, or a maid to clean up after their sub-par, high-fructose, hydrogenated, sodium laced, junk food dinners, and if they get fuel assistance to keep warm while eating their food-stamp dinner and watching Judge Judy, then good for them. Michael
Karol:
Yes, I have written many articles about the corruption of the banksters and the elite as well.
I am definitely not on their side.
Michael Mr. G
You are largely right, Karol. Many people who are not doing well would do far better if they were dishonest.
That’s what bothers me about the US today – no real earned privilege, just lots and lots of unearned, unfair big cash going to some fat-cats who are RUINING THE COUNTRY at the same time they are getting all that money! I mean, they could at least do a good job for all that cash. I don’t think they even try, really.
Good luck! Jimmy
Once citizens find out that they can vote themselves MONEY (i.e. the democratic party and has already occured) the system is heading straight to hell and is destined for failure. kHRIStu4
To honestly fix problems like this we need free energy. It is possible, just held up by corporations(owned by bankers) who own the government. Its all about control. This is one more thing added to the list to divide people and keep them docile.
Its a long movie (about 2hr). Some stuff may be way out there but have an opened mind. It describes the “food chain” of banks, corporations, governments and people as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEV5AFFcZ-s grandpa
These parasites you speak of live from the miniscule turds dispersed by the leeches that thrive on 95% of the oxygen you burn… so now we have rich vs poor. black vs white,, and gov vs god… someday people may get the balls to reverse the genocide being played upon us all.. Corey Lewis
WOW! What a great article! Loved it! My ex-wife has been one of these friggin parasites for 15 years and doing her best to raise my kids in that lifestyle…over my dead and rotting body I say. People who have never worked hard or refuse to work hard do not deserve to have residency in this country. Put them all on a boat and ship them off. I’ll even pilot the boat. Rick
I know of at least one parasite in particular that lived off my older sister for many years. After she finally divorced the leach, he’s now on government subsistence. These type of people all have one thing in common; they just are not employable. Stan522
…..and the rest of them have government jobs…. have you ever been to the DMV–? Nobody Special
The Low-Income Gasoline Assistance Program Act was introduced in 2005. Fortunately, it hasn’t gone anywhere since then.
Don’t mention it – let’s not give them the idea to revive it. Mike S.
When a person loses their job the first thing you do is apply for unemployment. After that runs out and your savings run out and your food runs out and you have kids. Do you honestly think the government will let you live off dehydrated food that is on the shelf in the basement? You will be on foodstamps and medicaid or they WILL take your kids! If you can’t show proof of income, regardless of my house paid for and enough money(at the time)to pay my bills for another year. The first time you take you kids to E.R. for something it opens up a whole crap of worms if you don’t have insurence. Just for stitches from a bike accident I now have my kids on Medicaid and foodstamps. I try to be positive about the government waste and use all they give on foodstamps to restock my shelves for the next go around. I will be pleased to answer any questions about my situation, even negative ones. I get on this site daily and this is my first comment. Michael
You make some very good points there.
Michael Tom Lowe
You are not the person we are talking about. We are talking about lots of fully able bodied people who not only scam for all the gummint benefits but who also work in the underground economy year in and year out. tex
Yeah you hypocrites are always talking about some other person- not the person in front of you who has real need.
Yes there are abusers- but in my experience most people would rather work for their money walking to work over broken glass than jump through all of the hoops the bureaucracy demands for their meager pittance.
The fact is that the US economy is in the toilet and the sheeple are going to let Romney flush it. There are not enough jobs, not even in the cash economy. $6 to $10 an hour jobs won’t pay the rent and feed a man’s kids.
When there is no alternative, people will work the government system to eat or they will turn to crime or justice in the streets- and there are not enough guns in this country to turn that tide once it starts.
I think it is time quit with the rhetoric and get real- or it is all going to end very badly for us all. mondobeyondo
I forgot about the kids aspect of the situation (I do not have children).
Whoa… talk about growing up fast! Children in these dire situations don’t need to ask what a “budget” is. erheault
As we wander down the road to total automation in our industrys the need for middle and lower semi skilled labor will dwindle and the unemployed and the unable to work will multiply we will face a revolt as all other nation in the past and present have or now undergoing, How this will work out is unknown but it will happen to us, it dont matter who is president or in congress. no nation or country in history has survived by devaluing their monies or massive unemployment which is where we are heading, Enjot the ride as it will be historic to say the least. Bryan
it’s simple people our nation has gotten so far from God that we are reaping what we are sowing it’s only a matter of time before the Lord Jesus Christ returns the mark of the beast is coming! don’t be here for it after seeing how the U.S.A has mare debt than most of the european countries alone and look what is happening to them only a matter of time…how much only The Lord knows wheter you believe or not it is amazing to see prophecy being fullfilled right in front of our eyes who will fix this huge world financial mess!!! read revelations chapter 13 turn your hearts to God while will still live in this age of grace! monk
Cut down on spending. Donald Wilson
The bums who live like vultures living off the system will crash and burn one day. Later.We Tom Lowe
I’m a landlord in a lower middle class neighborhood, and down to 105 lb from 135 lb in 2007 for lack of food and time to cook it. There is almost nothing but professional freeloaders for as far as the eye can see from here. I could tell all of you stories about freeloaders that would make your blood boil right off. My only hope is that the gummint finally stops issuing the by-now absurd freeloader checks and benefits and sends all of the professional freeloaders to Camp FEMA, right next to the bankster criminals and right where they all belong until they get off their dead butts and start doing something for themselves. And I don’t mean maybe! Cinderella Man
My goodness man!! You need to bulk up on protien powders and high fructose corn syrup immedietly!! 105?? Thats skinny!! no offense. Tom Lowe
It’s scary. I’m surrounded by a sea of human sinkers. That means I have to do everything for myself and half of what they need done for themselves. There’s just not enough time or money to eat well enough–especially after all the coffee, cigs, feeding several spoilt cats, and whatever else I might decide to indulge in, like several hours of reading blog comments.
OK–so ya caught me! !!!! Eva
Yup, it’s not a good time for jobs or growth or prosperity and it won’t be until we get rid of the man in the Oval Office and replace him with someone who takes creating a business-friendly environment seriously. And returning Congress to baseline budgeting. They haven’t been since the 1974 Budget Reform Act, which adds 10% annually to each federal budget regardless of necessity and I hardly need add regardless of federal revenue. sharonsj
Articles like this piss me off. Right-wingers like to blame anybody who is struggling to survive–but they never attack corporate welfare.
ExxonMobil earned $5 billion a year for the past four years and not only paid no tax but got a tax refund! Corporations get away with murder and rob us blind, but their execs are not in prison, are they? But let some guy steal food from a grocer cause he can’t afford to buy meat and he lands in jail.
I don’t know why I remain amazed at the stupidity of the American public to swallow Republican talking points, but I am. If you folks don’t learn how to look up facts on your computers, instead of being yes men, you’ll help the Repubs steal what’s left of the country. Michael
I have written quite a bit about the corporations that pay no taxes and about all of the corporate welfare that takes place.
Michael Gary2
100 articles on the poor to 1 on the corporate welfare. Come on Michael–I see through your bs. Michael
Gary you know that I hit Goldman Sachs far harder than I hit the poor.
Michael Gary2
I said corporate welfare not just goldman sucks. and no you bash the poor way more than the corporate welfare which is a FAR bigger cost. sharonsj
Economist Richard Wolff pointed out that over the last 30 years, corporations (along with government) have rigged the system so that they now pay only 25 cents in taxes for each $1 of tax paid by the average citizen. He also said that if people understood how they were being screwed we’d have a second American revolution. Michael
Yes, I discussed corporate taxation quite a bit in the article I just posted.
Michael Winston Smith
True, but that never seems to upset “conservatives”, who benefit a lot from Big Govt/Big Biz.Their answer? Just lower taxes (but not spending) and “get the Govt out of the way”. El Pollo de Oro
“I call them GC’s three Gs: guns, gold and a getaway plan.”—Gerald Celente
Michael T. Snyder write: “As economic conditions get even worse in this country, millions more Americans are going to turn to the government for assistance, and at some point, the safety net is going to break.” Yes, and when it does break, God help The Banana Republic of America (formerly the USA). That’s when things are going to get really nasty in this Third World nightmare. I’ve often said that when the going gets tough, the desperate do desperate things. They rob, they steal, they sell drugs, they mug, they carjack, they kidnap. They do all the things that make it so dangerous to live in Caracas, Ciudad Juarez, Port Moresby, Guatemala City, Kingston and a long list of other Third World cities with high rates of violent crime. They collect the dreaded Desperate People Doing Desperate Things Tax (DPDDTT), which is what the wealthy minority end up paying when they’re surrounded by a dirt-poor majority.
“I don’t think people realize just how evil and what an abomination our country has become.”—Alex Jones
“America’s not the same place it used to be. And when you look at the decline going on in this country, how anybody can believe that the dollar is going to be a reserve currency is beyond me.”—Gerald Celente
Not all Third World countries are ultra-dangerous. I’ve visited Morocco, which has a lot of poverty but doesn’t have a lot of violent crime (only a lot of touts trying to sell you a carpet that you don’t need). But I definitely see the BRA moving in the direction of the really violent and dangerous Third World countries, where kidnappings are a way of life and the cops are often in cahoots with the thugs. So if you think Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia and St. Louis are bad now, just wait—the worst is yet to come. And rural places aren’t necessarily going to be all that safe either when the you-know-what hits the fan (some small towns in Mexico are extremely dangerous).
Of course, smart preppers understand all these things. They’re the ones who’ve been listening to Alex Jones, Gerald Celente, Paul Craig Roberts, Gary Johnson and Ron Paul and realize that those guys aren’t alarmists—they’re telling it like it is, and the truth ain’t pretty.
If you have a gun, I recommend keeping it in a safe, secure place and knowing how to use it. That gun will come in handy when the DPDDTT collectors come a knockin’ here in The Banana Republic of America. William
The real government “parasites” are actually 90% of all federal workers (GS & WG). These federal employees are grossly OVERPAID, and do little work. It is almost IMPOSSIBLE to fire one of these slackers once they get tenure. My brother-in-law retired as a GS-14. In his last job in Wash DC, he TOOK NEWSPAPERS and MAGAZINES to work to read BECAUSE HE DID NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO Most civil service and wage grade federal workers sit around doing very little except for reading their benefits manual. That is a HARD FACT! TX4Life
Most have tv’s in their offices, paid for by the taxpayer, that they watch several hours a day. No one wants confrontation so they ignore it. Or they let it go because they also watch tv a good portion of the day. Some work other jobs during their required GS/WG hours even though it is prohibited. Again, no one wants confrontation so they look the other way. Some come and go as they please, never listing time off on their weekly time cards as required. At the end of the year, they take most of December off to “use or lose” their accumulated “time off”. It will continue and grow worse because no one is willing to do anything about it. Me
$50,000 * 0.3 = $15,000 where 0.3 = 30% tax rate.
$50,000 – $15,000 = $35,000 /12 = $2916 a month.
$2916.
Not $4000. $2916. It’s even crazier than you think. By quite a wide margin.
Add to that I’d love to see you find a rent of $1000 in Los Angeles. Anywhere.
Try it.
Minimum is $1400 and that’s if you’re living in hell with a bed that folds up into the wall.
I’m seriously considering building a cabin on some nice land in the middle of nowhere and buying a 20 year supply of Ramen noodles. I hear you can…“feed” (if it can be called such a thing) yourself on them for $142 a YEAR. Mr. G
I have known plenty who are parasites. They really do work the system amazingly well. I once worked a charity-related job in a city where I found that people coming from Latin-American countries had welfare forms filled out before they even got on the plane to come here. That’s rotten.
But it is also rotten that those who really try often can’t get any help at all! That is why I know much welfare is a scam. We should be willing to help those who need it and deserve it. But, we tend to help those who don’t deserve it.
For example, many poor American kids who can’t read get no special help, while foreign nationals who are going here while their parents get educated or work fancy professional jobs get special English tutors on the tax-payers’ dime. When are we going to wake up and help those we should?
But never, never turn against helping those who have it coming. This is one reason I cannot even support Republicans anymore. (I never did support Democrats) Too mean-spirited, too many people who have never been down and out! DaytoDay
Good Article Michael,
I had to take some time away from the doom and gloom for a while, although, it is impossible to escape it entirely.
I agree with this article, I know people 1st hand who are on welfare, some in my own family who have been on welfare/govt assistance most of their adult lives.
I worked at Walmart at one time, and one of the guys I worked with used to be a construction worker and was on welfare for 2yrs before they cut him off, he was receiving $1,000/month while on welfare compared to the $800/month working at Walmart.
So, I can understand why some people choose to leach off the system “forever”, because it literally pays more to be dependent than independent…
Stay Strong and Keep Up the Good Work! David Gurney
New GOP slogan:If you believe in hope,you must be a dope. Mad Max
The truth is, none of us really have to work hard anymore. Why get mad at the people who discovered that first. Only a sucker wants to work hard. Work is just a modern extension of slavery from ancient times. That’s why people want to become rich. Because they want to be free. Free to do what they want when they please. Only a jaded fool wants to work hard, and only a jaded fool would criticize others that don’t want to kill themselves making someone else’s dream come true. I’d rather spend more time with my family and doing the things I really love to do. Do you think the 1% care about working their butts off, NO! They care about working your butts off. It is the stupid 99% that persist in this nonsense and guess what? You’ve gotten your wish. We behave like slaves then we complain about how we are treated.
Wake up!
Read “Common Sense 3.1” at ( http://www.revolution2.osixs.org ) FIGHT THE CAUSE – NOT THE SYMPTOM
How else can I say this? “We Are Free!” http://WeAreFree.osixs.org John Rambo
Nevermind that most welfare people are WOMEN. Women bankrupted America. They sucked the system dry with all of their special women’s rights and privledges, and also they drove away all of the big corporations who are afraid of frivilous lawsuits from women.
American women are sue-happy. They will sue a company or their employer for the stupidest of reasons. So can you really blame the corporations for outsourcing to countries that are not so radical feminist-like?
American women are the main ones that destroyed America. Feminism destroyed America.
When are you going to start blaming the real culprits, Michael? When are you going to grow some balls and start speaking the TRUTH, instead of watering it down like a ? Michael
Michael John Rambo
Yes but you RARELY call out WOMEN and FEMINISTS as being the main cause behind the economic collapse of America.
Also, American women destroyed TENS OF MILLIONS of men’s lives FINANCIALLY through the divorce courts.
So financially destroying TENS OF MILLIONS of men’s lives didn’t help the economy either.
When are you going to directly expose the WOMEN as the primary culprits behind this collapse? tex
Joh Rambo? Sure you’re not Rick Santorum out slumming? Gary2
ive paid into this system that people are using.i personally know of 10 people using the system to get ssi only one is disabled the rest lied to get ssi. you lie and keep saying your depressed my back hurts etc. etc. etc. i read these coments and funny how all these people diserve ssi and none of these people are lieing to get it. give me back my money and i shouldnt have to help strangers with my money i paid into it with,hell i could retire,ive paid into this since i was 15 im 48. if your a man get a dam job and quit faking if you can work period,i know about it taking four to five yr. it didnt stop those bums i know that are on it,dont forget to tell the people here they back pay you all that money did you. sorry what it comes down to is i shouldnt have to support any stranger,i will help me and my family and no one else and that includes food stamps. i get one third of my money taken in taxs and etc. then i spend it and get taxed again,i dont care who you are,i shouldnt have to raise you as if your a child,get a job even if its flippin handburgers-enough is enough
sorry they taken the comas out and ran the sentences together but youll get the point Gay Veteran
“…Ever since the “war on poverty” began our debt has absolutely exploded and yet now there are more poor people in this country than ever before….”
FACTS please? The Federal debt started exploding under Reagan. Michael
It has been exploding for a long time. Both parties are to blame.
Michael tom singa
yes they are all to blame, and until obama debt was increasing slightly which needed to be put under control, , but Obama ,he has doubled the debt himself, period there is no way to argue otherwise Evie
America is rapidly turning into a European-style socialist welfare state
The evidence says not!
I wish we were a european socialist state tex
or even a Canadian style Conservative one…. tom singa
well then leave go there and live Gary2
Michael-ALL estimates are that between 3-5% of the welfare recepients are getting benefits fraudently and gaming the system. While I know focusing on the 3-5% who abuse the system makes for a better headline you are ignoring the 95-97% who get benefits that if they did not get they would die. for the most part literally.
I know in your ayn rand wet dream that is how you may want the world to be–social darwin like that fool paul ryan but what what a horrible world that would be.
For the record I do believe that those 3-5% who are abusing the system need to be kicked off and dealt with. Gary2
How about all the corporate welfare and welfare for the rich? That is WAY more than ANY welfare for the poor.
Michael–turn off fox, you can do better. Gary2
49 percent of all Americans live in a home that receives some form of government benefits.
Because the wall street corporate bailouts put the economy into a recession. You need to finish the tape to the end.
Michael–stop being sop disingenuinous. you know better. Gary2
michael–too one sided–what about the corporate parasites??and the rich parasites who own congress? How much extra does the average family pay for those parasites??
you have sunk to a new low with this article.
You are so one sided and incomplete facts I can hardly read this crap. MisterC
Then haunt some other blog TROLL! Gary2
nice hypocritical Christian referring to Gods children as parasites.
I knew all the was nothing but to make people think you are christian. When push comes to shove you are right up there with the libertarian selfish crowd.
You probably really worship Magog Rhynn
The only way anybody is going to spend $400 a month on gasoline is if they are riding a motorcycle or simply have no job and nowhere to go and thus couldn’t even afford that $400 a month.
Even econo-boxes cost close to $60-$70 per full tank on 87 gas where I live. Nobody is going to fill up a car 6 times a month here if they are employed. Try double that.
Same goes for a $1000 a month rent or mortgage. That will barely get you a single in the worst area of the city.
One person could not make it under those circumstances. A family of four can completely forget about it, unless they all live in the car and eat out of the 7-11 they park behind. Once you add in insurances, health coverage, car maintenance, etc. you’d have to quadruple that $4000 figure for that size family to even pretend it was comfortable. And that’s only if the $16K figure I mention is net.
America is a bad punchline now – nothing more. Newton
It’s not even so much the actual people that really costs us all, but the incredibly innefective and almost inexhaustive amount of bureaucratic “support” personnel for all these“programs”.
I mean; if you; Michael want to “find a money trail”– follow a single minority mother with 3 kids to 2 different “guys” living in a burb with mom and dad next door – I mean; it’s amazing !
These people have individual “caseworkers”– you can’t make this up ! Now; how does the caseworker keep his/her job? get a raise? What a vicious cycle !
I’ve been saying for 30 years –” when the percentage rowing the boat equals the percentage riding —- in the boat; the boat; she stops.
The rowers; they grow weary; but cannot rest as more and more become dependant on them – it is like running a marathon; if you stop at mile 21 for a breather; I GUARANTEE you; you’ll NEVER pick up the pace again.
It’s just law # 113 of my 200; right behind if you eat more calories than you burn; you’ll gain weight.
Their days are numbered however; as the rowers; they know how to do things; make things; repair things; the parasites – not so much
One of these days ( I give it 3-5 years ) we’re gonna find out just who is worth what in this country. Currently we have farmers making 60K and Senators making 160K
I’m betting – these roles are gonna change! joe
And what about the government employment sector that overpays millions of lazy so-called workers to either do nothing all day or push meaningless government dripple. This article is a shill for the fat cat rich who are so greedy that they would take social security from people who earned it and benefits from people who truly need it.
We never hear about the lazy government union parasites in these type of articles because thats what the real parasites who run america want to keep going.
Even when these government employees were “layed off” they got full pay and benefits and did not have to apply for unemployment like private sector. Always getting some special privilege including the right to a paycheck without working. This amounts to alot of money payed for nothing and far exceeds the amount anyone receiving government benefits gets.
Are they to work or just fill space and stand around and look stupid. Most of these “jobs” are not necessary but work to keep the corrupt political machine going.
Government employees are a lazy pack of overpayed,overprivileged spoiled brats who think everything in life should be handed to them on a silver platter. Yet not one word will be uttered against them by their elite masters while these same masters seek to make the lives of those forced onto government benefits more miserable. Another attempt at class warfare. tom singa
that can’t get fired! James
The Hard Working American vs. The Government Parasite – that’s a good one. Did it occur to you “hard working” types that what you call “work” is actually as chattel on a slave farm? The Indians would never have understood that a person must continually pay to live on the piece of ground they were born on. So to those of you who think you are more noble for working and the poor are despicable – i say its because of you that the system keeps functioning and so its on your head. If people all thought like me then the system would end tomorrow. But they don’t – so those of you who support it – its your mess so you deal with it and i will take what I can, because no man has the right to demand payment of me to live on the land so I have to take steps to circumvent the crime of what most of the rest of you created and continue to support. And by the way – this disdain for the poor “parasites” is one more psyop your rich masters are running on you to divide the lower and middle classes. nowwthen
I guess if you try hard enough you can justify your disdain for taking care of yourself. Just throw in some nonsense about “The Indians” and paid work as slavery and all of a sudden you’re smarter than any self-sufficient man or woman and entitled to what you take from them. Timothy Leary’s dead genius now get off your fat and go to work. james
Look up the term Sheeple on Wikipedia and learn about yourself. James
So, put otherwise – not only are those of you who have jobs fools – your also morally liable for keeping this mess going. Your not better than, but less than. I am all for taking care of my own needs – but they stole the land and put us in cages and its now illegal to do so. A person has to have satanic blood tickets to do any trade. I curse it and refuse to be a good little obedient slave. so yeah, i will take what they give until the rest of you come to your senses. And remember that disdain for those on the government “dole” will not serve you as your turn is coming. Pray your envious demographic has not demonized the poor by that point so that you are just put in a work camp. Mr. G
You are so right, James! WE really don’t need so much labor to make the world run – and much of our labor goes to supporting people above us, who want want want. I live happily in a lifestyle from the 1930’s. It is a very full life and I have a great many hobbies and interests which do not require constant outlays of money, though oddly others who do the same things spend constantly and don’t actually DO the things too much anymore.
I can live like this, why can’t they? And if they want more, fine by me – but they ought to work like dogs to produce their plastic crap, not enslave the little people! Mr. G Jeremy
Lots of anger in these comments. My suggestion: just log off (I come about once per week), and your blood pressure will drop. starr
It just makes me sick knowing the economic disaster America is in. I’m 53 years old have worked since i was 14. Unfortunately, the company i worked for 7 years went out of business, which put me on unemployment. Been on it for 8 months, and it’s making me crazy not working. I have alot of skills, put in several applications but no job. The jobs are not there, our government is lying to us. They want to keep us under there control. Wake up America, we need to get rid of the socialism/communism that’s destroying our country!!! mondobeyondo
Even a maggot has to work its way up the system, to become a worm.
(Yes, I know. Not funny. Sorry!) Jimbo
Until our VIP’s start appearing in roadside ditches with bailing wire around their wrists and bullet holes behind their ears every morning, things will continue to get worse bill
if im not mistaken the system you curse is givin you free food and shelter that you call a cage,at myself and other workers expense,i curse the system also. i have a firm belief that if you can work but refuse to do so for whatever reason like not enough money,dont like that kind of work or whatever,,STARVE and live on the street or woods where ever,why should working men and women support people who are to lazy to work..i believe that part of being a man anyway is supporting you and your family NOT ME SUPPORTING YOUR FAMILY BECAUSE YOU FEEL YOU SHOULDNT HAVE TO WORK your not one of my kids why should i support someone that THINKS hes a man when he wont work Rowell
Michael, I have to call you out on this statement: “If you live in a very liberal area of the country and you know how to game the system, it is entirely possible to live a comfortable existence without ever working too much at all.”
Why are you saying that it’s the liberal areas of the country that people take advantage of the system? Aren’t several southern conservative states among the top recipients of government aid for its citizens? Such states as Alabama and Mississippi have extremely high numbers of people on welfare. So, saying that this is a “liberal” problem is just being divisive. Please, keep objective in your reporting; it would lend more credibility to your articles, especially to those of us who are in the middle (like myself) or liberal (like Gary2), and not hard-core conservatives. Michael
Yes, it is true. There are people gaming the system all over the country. It just happens to be a little easier to do in very liberal areas such as Chicago.
Michael
EXCELLENT article. I was waiting for this one! Great job! Nex
This has been the case for years, just for the longest time no one wanted to notice it. We got hicks in Alabama who live off subsidies from cradle to grave and we got blacks in NY doing the same, just now when economy turned to (thank you mortgages for everyone), it all of the sudden became an issue.
Stop policing the world or conquer whoever we own money to. Or just default already and lets watch fly. Phoenix
Great, we’ve seen the problem loud and clear. The solution however is here. This is for open minded free thinkers, those who can envision a different, better world.
I like how you’re talking solution-oriented instead of problem-oriented. It’s the best way to promote change.
http://rondetafelbeleid.nl/meritocracy ivan
As a foreigner living and working in this country, it is sort of strange to watch Americans yell about “socialism”
“socialist” Norway debt 48% of GDP“socialist” Denmark 49%“socialist” Sweden 37%
socialist East Germany at unification, some 25%
United States 69% (not including intra-government debt like medicare and social security) and debt owed by individual states.
Japan. A cool 208%
Tell me again how “socialism” is killing america? Gary2
its because all the low information right wing voters who are easily manilupated by fox.
Scandavian countries are beating the USA in pretty much every catagory and they are socialist. We need to be much more socialist and drop the self made man crap as its simply a myth. Pauly
So who is manipulating the left wing voters? Sagacious
You’re a sad little child thinking he is a man Gary. I agree with Benjik…is this article about you? Are you a government parasite?? I’m thinking yes, yes you are! Brunot
Let me tell that to my high school educated wife who was a nanny till 23 y/o and now makes $300K a year. She’ll be quite surprised.
I’m self employed and semi-retired at 48 from a business mowing lawns where I broke a sweat every day. But what do we know, eh? It’s impossible to achieve anything without a govn’t check. What an ignorant statement. tom singa
oh there you have it a cash based business running under the table not paying his fair share, can you please tell me the name of your lawn care, Id like to report it to the IRS Tim
Yes I hear that all of the time. But look at the populations of those countries, take Norway for example. Population ~5 million. the US ~311 million. And did you know that Norway is an oil country? Without their oil their economy would probably stagnate. You are comparing apples to oranges my friend and your argument about those countries being better is not looking at all of the factors. Oil country= $$$ Marcus
We spend less than we earn. Simple as that. Sweden is not an oil country! And we are not socialist, study our economy before ranting please! We are market driven economies with a strong governmental influence. Which is not a problem for most of us, since we consider the government to be our servants, while americans consider the government their enemy.
Sometimes it feels like America aimed for freedom and ended up with anarchy. And I don´t hate the USA, but I expected more from you. 20 years ago people in Europe dreamed of California, now they dream of The Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada. Benjik Cherenkov
This is retarded. Americans should only be so lucky as to have a higher standard of living, better health care for less, better education, more cultural events, more vacations days by at least double, and governments who weren’t in the pockets of the corporations. Gosh what a terrible thing. All this and you get to vote in a parliamentary system where your views might actually be represented instead of co-opted by politicians owned lock, stock, and barrel by the corporate elites.
Anyone who believes this stupid story deserves the crappy American life they get. Gary2
Michael–are you listening..your libertarian is just that a dream. tom singa
spoken like a true piss antt mooch Bob Marshall
European-style socialism “is exactly what we need now. I am against market fundamentalism. I think this propaganda that government involvement is always bad has been very successful-but also very harmful to our society.” George Soros.
If you are trying to defend this it is because you are in the 49 % without a doubt!!! tom singa
a true mooch! Mia
Typical liberal!! Fox news is the the only channel that make sense and I`m glad I do not believe the fairytale of change the liberal leaders want us to believe. The American Dream is dying because of Marxism. Go ahead, nobody can change you anyway… go sit in your couch get all the free money you want from the govt. You don`t care if the hardworking taxpayers suffer because all you libs care is yourself. Lee
Do you even know the ideology behind Marxism or the ‘American Dream’? When you find out, come back and explain how it has killed the American Dream. In fact, as a loyal follower of Fox, in your own words, explain the difference between a liberalism and conservitism.
As shown by your lack of knowledge, I will assume you did not attend college, but if you did how did you pay for it? Use Pell Grants? Student loans?
Sometimes think before you speak…. TheFulishBastid
So let me get the logic straight. Most everyone on welfare, snap, medicaid are “gaming” the system. I can quit my job tomorrow, or better yet, be willfully fired. Apply for my “socialist” benefits, and voila, I’m living the high life? Rollin’ in my caddy, wakin’ up at noon, heading down to the store and buying steaks for me and my girl, drinking and smoking to the wee hours of the morn, wake up at 1 in the afternoon and do it all over again, ad infinitum? WHERE DO I SIGN UP?!?!
Or the other option, we get rid of the “benefits” that these people are living off of and demand that these folks go get jobs that don’t exist?
I think you shouldn’t quit your day job, though maybe you should go work in a soup kitchen one day and see how well these folks you are blaming for your woes are truly living. tom singa
Song as your willing to live in a dump, or share a nice home wiht a few others doing he same thing. better yet you can even own that home and charge the “roomies” rent in cash! JF
I work in Los Angeles (I live 1 hour away-thank God) as a Parole Agent. Many parolees are claiming a mental health ailment (Depression, hearing voices) and then sign up and receive SSI. Usually just below $900.00 dollars per month (many receive “back pay” which can be several thousand $). They also receive housing rental assistance, and EBT food cards. They lounge around all day and then buy alcohol and drugs with the money. This does not include all of the other freeloaders (Hoodrats-girls, having multiple children, illegals etc) who receive the same freebies. Los Angeles is a total mess and California itself is the same. The collapse is gonna be hard, and I see many cities erupting in violence and bloody riots when this occurs. hora
SSI 900$ you said? well I am 65 retired and disable and get 350$. Now for sure a systems will collapse and very soon. 750$ SS and SSI what I collect I was working and paid taxes. Now when collapse sure a lot will stop get any check free, only real disable and older will keep a own money for was paid for long time, and riot? well that will a end of DEM KKK Party. InYoFace
Go back to Mexico you are part of the problem Anonymous
I will say say this… $4000 per month is MORE than enough to support a family of 5 people.
The problem with most Americans is they are not savvy or frugal. They are poor at micro managing and quite honestly, many suffer from narcissism and addiction.
Many Americans live their lives ignorant of how their tools work, such as; automobiles, home appliances, computers, clothing, their own bodies.
If a family of 5 cannot live off of $4000 per month, they might be terrible at management, likely spending heavily on things they do NOT need to survive. Buying in excess of expensive food, luxury items, luxury clothing and accessories, cigarettes, drugs, bars, new automobiles, automobiles with poor gas mileage.
Of course many Americans are bred in the system to believe that they were not be socially accepted if they do not own new cars, new houses, new clothes, new appliances, worship sports teams…
The future of many Americans will likely end up as a giant temper tantrum, with riots… followed by scores of military hosing them down and telling them to “shut the fuck up and deal with it.”
I’m not going to judge people, but it’s the truth, people need to micro manage their lives better, not be lazy and learn how to care for their bodies and their tools. tom singa
just had a conversation about this, how to cut back, but they cant live without a $120+ cable bill a mo, their landline with internet access, two smart phones at almost 200 a mo, I explain to them even turning up the AC o 81 or 82 during the day and no lower than 78 at night will cut that bill some 40 or more a mo, (they cant sleep if its not set at 70 degrees, My gosh, and these people thing tthey are entitled tto get GOC help! and they do! Jan Honeycutt
The National Guard requires my husband to have internet access and we have to pay it out of pocket. I coupon constantly, my kids get clearance clothes that are cheaper than Walmart its worth the hunt. We have about 950 a month come in after taxes every other week before taxes 1400, we have honestly needed help before and deserved it, and couldn’t get it. My husband had to have surgery to remove a tumor luckily it wasn’t cancerous, but he was still out of work and our insurance left us with a 1,000 dollar copay. I was in the ICU at the time of his surgery complications from a heart condition, a UTI, and extreme IBS. He ended up going back to work early, we have medical bills coming in everyday despite paying for 2 insurances. Both of our children have asthma, I have several bad health problems, and our daughter has extreme IBS and GERD on top of her asthma. I worked everyday I would now it just isn’t possible and I can’t get a penny of the disability I paid in despite having a non working bladder, heart condition, and epilepsy, while I watch healthy people walk around on it for Fibromyalgia and I even know of one government moocher getting 800 a month because her daughter has dyslexia! On top of that most of these people have never worked or paid a penny into disability! Our daughter has dyslexia and I would rather not manipulate the system to use my daughter as a pay check, these people have no integrity. I will admit we do have to keep our air on 71 at night due to my heart condition if I get too hot my heart rate goes up but blood pressure plummets, I seriously doubt most of the people getting their bills paid have a real need to keep their air low though, they just know they can. My husband works at a factory but he has an education and he is a staff sergeant in the Guard but still we only gross a round 42,000 a yr and one time while he was on orders he didn’t get paid until a week later because of the system being down, we had to use credit cards and ask family for money. My husband only gets 2 sick days a yr I was in the hospital over 10 days last yr. We desperately needed help and because my husband is home now his 3 tours of duty count for nothing and we could not get military aid. We sunk to the ultimate low of applying for food stamps just to get a through a few months and were denied. We get cut out the wazoo to support people who refuse to help themselves, and when we needed help the door was slammed in our face. Now we’re drowning in more debt due to 401k loans and credit cards we had to use during the hard times we were also forced to refinance to an armed interest rate to get by, I really hope it is easy to refinance out of it as we were told, but I doubt it, and we had no choice. Our government is horribly flawed. What this article is saying is that 4,000 a month is before taxes not after if we got half of the taxes we pay monthly we would be fine. Ken Sack
The problem wouldn’t exist if people lived by the letter and spirit (no freeies from the government)of the law: Thou shalt not steal. Max Power
Unfortunately, most Americans would rather commit mass suicide than see a single high paid multi-generational government neopot lose their job or pension.
In the US, there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who have US citizenship — but who are banned from the workforce by law, statute and regulation. Each person in this situation costs the government at multiple levels millions of dollars.
Possibly up to 5% of the US debt burden at all levels is exacerbated by this problem — and nepotism, favoritism and cronyism do the rest…
Anyway, here is an example of a Canadian with US Citizenship but banned from any kind of employment due to their nationality. Max Power
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Australian-marry-preg/ Brunot
Scandinavian countries can do ok with socialism because of their high functioning populace. They’re smarter and have a better culture in terms of work ethic, norms about work, etc, on average. They also live in tiny homes and drive tiny cars to achieve some of this “prosperity”. They also don’t have much military spending, which is why they were conquered in a few weeks the last time anyone tried. A uniform ethnic makeup has helped with cultural issues of socialism as well, though this is changing.
There is also something to be said for the way socialist programs are administered. It wouldn’t be difficult to beat us at that.
The fact is, before the 60’s welfare state we had virtually no debt problem. That is a FACT.
We are not Trillions in debt because of free markets and lack of government programs. That is a ridiculous leap of logic. Buckaroo Banzai
Um, also don’t forget the fact that the Scandinavian countries have been pumping oil (and wealth) out of the North Sea for 30 years now. Norway, especially, is just unbelievably rich from North Sea oil.
Socialism is real easy to manage when you are pumping stuff out of the ground for $10 and selling it for $100. The monumental bureaucratic waste kind of gets lost in the shuffle of endless free money. John
Some good comments that ring true, Brunot. NO NATION is greater than the productivity of its citizens. No nation is more moral that the morality of its people. Any nation that believes (and thinks) otherwise is doomed to eventually fail. tom singa
my reply to them, for them to move to any socialist country they like, ge out go live off some other country and see how that works out for you TheFulishBastid
lols, what?
Didn’t appreciate my logic, or just my comment on working a soup kitchen for a day?
Maybe I should just take Gary2’s approach and call you a **** | 1real
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Hollande and Trump agreed to 'clarify' key issues including Middle East: source | PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande and U.S President-elect Donald Trump had a phone conversation on Friday in which they agreed to clarify positions on key issues such as the Middle East and Ukraine, said a source in Hollande’s camp. The source told Reuters that the phone conversation lasted between seven and eight minutes and took place in “good conditions”. “They agreed to work together on a number of key issues in order to clarify positions - the ‘war on terror’, Ukraine, Syria, Iran’s nuclear deal and the Paris climate change agreement,” said the source. | 0fake
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WATCH: Chomsky Explains Why The GOP Is The ‘Most Dangerous Organization In Human History’ | Linguistics professor and political commentator Noam Chomsky has come out with a shocking statement about the Republican party. We ve all known that Republicans are pretty much the scum of the earth today, but Chomsky warns they are the most dangerous organization in human history. During an interview with BBC s Newsnight Wednesday with host Evan Davis, Mr. Chomsky quickly addressed the Republican Party, saying that they are worse than the Islamic State terrorist group or anyone else who have caused millions of casualties during the 20th century.Chomsky agreed his statement was outrageous but made it hit home when comparing the Republican part to ISIS. Is ISIS dedicated to trying to destroy the prospects for organized human existence? He went on to explain, What does it mean to say not only are we not doing anything about climate change, but we re trying to accelerate the race to the precipice? he said. It doesn t matter whether they genuinely believe it or not if the consequence of that is, let s use more fossil fuels, let s refuse to subsidize developing countries, let s eliminate regulations that reduce greenhouse gases. If that s the consequence, that s extremely dangerous. Chomsky has a real point. The rate at which the GOP is deregulating industry and ignoring the effects of climate change, the world will see levels of human suffering that have never been experienced in history.Watch the video here: | 1real
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Trump’s Son-In-Law OBLITERATED By His Jewish Family After Defending Trump’s Anti-Semitic Tweet | Jared Kushner, who is Ivanka Trump s husband and therefore King Donnie s son-in-law, played the good son-in-law by stepping up and boldly defending His Royal Anti-Semite s anti-Semitic tweet against Hillary, just like everyone else who thinks the whole brouhaha is just political correctness run amok. The problem is, he did so by invoking his Jewish grandparents history in the Holocaust, and now his family is rightfully livid at him for it.Because really, he s going to defend an anti-Semitic image by saying his grandparents are Holocaust survivors so he knows better than the evil media what is and isn t anti-Semitic? Where has he been living that he thinks this is okay? In a bubble that s under a rock, which is deep in a cave in the middle of the Himalayas?Marc Kushner, Jared s first cousin, responded to this brown-nosing butt-fuckery with a link to Jared s op-ed, and this simple statement at the top: I have a different take-away from my Grandparents experience in the war. It is our responsibility as the next generation to speak up against hate. Anti-semitism or otherwise. It was Jacob Schulder, another cousin, though, that really let loose on both Jared and the Anti-Semite-in-Chief with a comment that appears to have since been deleted, but that Politico still has: When an out of touch with reality nominee hires an out of touch with reality campaign manager, who is also a son -in- law, you get the BS Jared wrote. I don t think Trump is an anti Semite; I think he s a lying idiot (among other things) with little to no experiences outside his teetering fiefdom of failed development projects, divorces, bankrupted sports leagues, fraudulent Universities and golf courses (and the list keeps going). The very first thing a responsible campaign manager should do, I d think, and I mean the very first thing, would be to take away his father- in -law s Twitter account. Even Joseph Kushner would ve had the street smarts to figure that one out while living on boiled potatoes in the forest. Schulder went on to explain exactly how the rest of us know that this was no accident, and King Dunce isn t the least bit sorry, so it ll probably happen again: That my grandparents have been dragged into this is a shame. Thank you Jared for using something sacred and special to the descendants of Joe and Rae Kushner to validate the sloppy manner in which you ve handled this campaign. From the references to Palestine at the AIPAC conference (which got Donald jeered) to the justification of the itchy Twitter fingers your father in law has, you ve managed to further prove what so many of us have known for many years. Kudos to you for having gone this far no one expected this. But for the sake of the family name, which may have no meaning to you but still has meaning to others, please don t invoke our grandparents in vain just so you can sleep better at night. It is self serving and disgusting. So what did he say that was so offensive? In an op-ed posted to Observer.com on Wednesday, Kushner said: [T]he worst that his detractors can fairly say about him is that he has been careless in retweeting imagery that can be interpreted as offensive. He then launched into a narrative of his grandparents history of trying to escape the Nazis in Russia, and some of the horrors they endured while doing so. His grandmother did escape and joined a resistance cell, where she met his grandfather, who had been living in a literal hole in the ground for three years, trying to remain hidden from the Nazis. Then he said: I go into these details, which I have never discussed, because it s important to me that people understand where I m coming from when I report that I know the difference between actual, dangerous intolerance versus these labels that get tossed around in an effort to score political points. Where he s coming from? Oh, that s right, he s coming from His Royal Racism s rear end in the same manner as diarrhea. The thing is, using the Star of David in the manner of that tweet, along with the fact that it originally came from neo-Nazis, is intentionally anti-Semitic. This was no accident of ignorance in any way, shape or form, and someone with family that survived the Holocaust should know a lot better than this.But Kushner has drunk the Kool-Aid mixed by King Dunce himself, and is brainwashed into believing that the Serial-Racist-Tweeter-in-Chief can t possibly be that hateful and bigoted. With that explanation out of the way, the only one left is that the tweet was not anti-Semitic, and Trump is just a little careless.Please.Of course, a source close to Kushner says that he hasn t even spoken to these people in ten years, so they don t matter. That s a bunch of bull cookies right there. Kushner may not have spoken to them in ten years, but he invoked his history, which is their history too, in a public forum. Therefore, it matters. End of.The entire campaign is rife with broad racism, which includes anti-Semitism. Trump has a bad habit of retweeting white supremacists, including neo-Nazi groups. Kushner shouldn t be telling anybody that the anti-Semitic tweet was a mere mistake, especially not if he s going to insult his own family, and their Jewish history, in doing so.Featured image by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for FINCA | 1real
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You Can't Be Intersectional While at the Same Time Being Elitist and Exclusionary | By Djuan Wash / filmsforaction.org
One cannot claim to be intersectional while at the same time being elitist and exclusionary. Everyone isn't hip to what heteronormativity, heterosexism, cisgendered, cissexism or many new-age terms mean. You can't write people off for not being where you are or prescribing to your beliefs. Being intersectional means to love and support people where they are and assist them in their efforts at gaining a better understanding of intersectional social justice. While the work ultimately lies on the individual to read/research further once you enlighten them, you can't do that if you brow beat them for being ignorant. If you're unwilling to meet people where they are, you're not being intersectional, you're being an asshole. This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License 4.0 · | 1real
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AMERICA TAKES IN 37,027 “REFUGEES” IN 5 MONTHS: Why are we taking “REFUGEES” from places on this list? | LET S FACE IT EUROPE IS TOAST! HERE S A MUSLIM IMAM SPILLING THE BEANS ON THE HIJRAH: WE WILL CONQUER THEIR COUNTRIES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLE1pXGo700It s difficult to see this screenshot of the list so please go to Wrapsnet for more details: WRAPSNET | 1real
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Kurdish leader Barzani condemns Iraqi parliament vote to remove Kirkuk governor: Kurdish media | (Reuters) - Kurdish President Massoud Barzani condemned the vote by Iraq s parliament to remove the governor of Kirkuk from office on Thursday, according to local media reports. Speaking at a pro-referendum rally in Zakho, a city in Iraq s autonomous region of Kurdistan, Barzani said that Baghdad had left no room for negotiations over the independence referendum, according to Kurdish TV channel Kurdistan 24. The decision to remove the governor, Najmaddin Kareem, comes after Kirkuk - an oil-rich province claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq - voted to take part in a referendum set for Sept. 25 on Kurdish independence. The governor has said he will stay in office. | 0fake
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MILO and Pamela Geller Protest Sharia-Advocate Linda Sarsour in NYC - Breitbart | Former Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos and Pamela Geller held a protest against Linda Sarsour’s speaking engagement at The City University of New York (CUNY) on Thursday.[ Calling out CUNY chancellor James Milliken for making Sarsour the keynote speaker at the commencement address, Geller started by claiming, “First of all, this is not about free speech. ” “I’m a free speech activist. Linda Sarsour is free to speak on college campuses and does frequently,” she continued. “The idea of inviting her to keynote the commencement address, those invitations are bestowed upon people to enhance a college’s reputation. Why would you hold her up as a role model? As Representative Carolyn Maloney said, ‘surely CUNY can do better?’ The norming of evil and terror and Jew hatred, surely CUNY can do better?” “She’s earned a reputation as one of this country’s most vicious activists, she has called Netanyahu a ‘waste of skin’. She tweeted a picture of a young Muslim child throwing a rock at Jews, calling him the definition of courage. Surely CUNY can do better?” continued Geller. “She’s the leader of the Boycott Divestment movement, which is in its calls for the boycott of the Jewish state. These boycotts are illegal, and inhumane. The German’s boycotted businesses, this was a direct antecedent to the Boycott Divestment movement. Surely CUNY can do better?” Continuing her speech to applause, Geller added that Sarsour “has partnered with Rasmea Odeh, a convicted terrorist who killed students at Hebrew University, and threatened to bomb the British consulate. Surely CUNY can do better?” “Linda Sarsour was outraged when police and an FBI agent killed a jihadi, who was on his way to behead me. She said it was police violence. She said that at the end of the day, a black man was shot at a bus stop on his way to work. Beheading me is work for the jihadi … Surely CUNY can do better?” Sarsour declared. “She’s an open supporter of the Sharia, she says a Jew cannot be a feminist, but she says nothing about Islamic honor violence, gender apartheid, female genital mutilation, and the oppression of women under Islam. Surely CUNY can do better?” “Sarsour said that the underwear bomber, who tried to detonate a bomb on an airplane in 2009, was a CIA plot in America’s war on Islam. Surely CUNY can do better?” concluded Geller. “She has solicited funds for Hamas. Surely CUNY can do better? … Anyone who tells you that this is Islamophobia, I want to quote Christopher Hitchens: ‘Islamophobia is a word created by fascists, used by cowards, to manipulate morons,’ and the morons are to my left. Silence is affirmation, we will not be silent, resist. ” Assemblyman Dov Hikind followed Geller onstage, declaring simply that “Linda Sarsour supports terrorism. ” “Let us talk about her record, that’s all we’re interested in doing,” he proclaimed. “The fact that she’s a woman is not an issue of course. The fact that she’s a Muslim, is not the issue. That is not the issue. The fact that she is Palestinian is not the issue. That is not the issue. That’s what Linda Sarsour wants people to believe. When CUNY invites Linda Sarsour to be the commencement speaker, that is something that’s imposed upon the students … When CUNY imposes Linda Sarsour on the students, that’s outrageous. Shame on CUNY. ” Hikind continued to display a picture of the two victims of Rasmea Odeh, who was jailed for terrorist attacks in Israel, adding, “Linda Sarsour thinks Rasmea Odeh is a great hero. ” Other speakers included Nonie Darwish from Former Muslims United, who detailed her escape from Sharia law, and David Wood, who spoke about the indoctrination of young people before Milo took to the stage. “I notice there aren’t that many Muslim protesters, but if you’ve ever tried to walk in a sodden burka, you’ll know why,” joked Milo, referencing the rain. “It’s enough to dissuade even the most determined jihadi. ” “Now we all agree on a few things, don’t we? We all agree for instance that Linda Sarsour is a ticking of progressive horror,” he continued. “We agree on that. Now I’ll call her Linda, because her surname Sarsour, did you know this, it means cockroach in Arabic, and I do so hate to be disrespectful. So we’ll call her Linda. ” “Yes, I’m back, and just as much of a waspish c*nt as ever. This week, another Muslim loser, a friend of Linda’s probably, strapped a bomb to his chest in Manchester and murdered over 20 people, including children,” Milo stated. “Does Linda Sarsour in her dark hut approve of this atrocity? If she feels any remorse at all, maybe its for the Muslim grooming gangs and Pakistani child rapists who have 20 fewer victims this week. What Manchester has done is once again raise the stakes. ” Milo continued to declare that “It’s now more important than ever to fight Islam in America and particularly its emissaries like Linda Sarsour,” before explaining the importance of America hearing bad ideas. He made it clear that he did not want Sarsour banned from speaking but that she must be held accountable for her views: I believe that Linda Sarsour should be allowed to speak at CUNY. In fact, if they’d asked me, I would’ve paid her fee, no matter how many goats she asked for. And the reason that I think she should be allowed to speak is that her words, odious as they are, should be broadcast far and wide. The best response to authoritarianism is not more censorship, but more speech. I want America to hear her. I want America to listen to her arguments and weigh their merits. I am a free speech fundamentalist. I believe that in an open marketplace of ideas, the best ideas prevail. In America you don’t have an open marketplace of ideas, because the massed ranks of the establishment media, academia, and the entertainment industry are set up to condemn conservative and libertarian points of view as hateful, bigoted, and oppressive. They are none of those things. And so one of the real enemies here isn’t just ordinary Muslims. It isn’t Linda Sarsour. The bigger enemy, and the enemy to American freedom has always been from within. The enemy here are the progressive elites who run the entertainment industry, academia, and the media in this country. It is only through the open marketplace of ideas, with no more censorship of conservatives and libertarians, and no more oppressive speech codes from the left, that I believe America can realize its promise and its destiny, and that is why this country is the greatest country in the history of human civilization. That is why we are out here, in the pouring rain, because this stuff f*cking matters. And when we reach that goal, when we reach that day, when there is a full, free, frank, open exchange of ideas, when anyone can present their ideas to scrutiny, when anyone can present their system of belief, for discussion and debate, then people will see Linda Sarsour for what she is. It’s true that her ideology is as ugly as Chelsea Clinton, it’s true that Linda wants to replace graduated women’s mortar boards with hijabs, and when that happens the burka will replace those graduation robes . Linda wants to substitute prayer rugs for diplomas, and CUNY is going right along with her. It’s true CUNY is going to see the consequences of this. They’re going to see it in enrollment, they’re going to see it in alumni donations. And the other speakers here have done a much better job than me of explaining why she is wrong about absolutely everything. So if you disagree with a commencement speaker, hold back on giving money to this university. Don’t enroll your kids. Teach them a lesson the American way, which is with your speech and with your wallet. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 0fake
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As Trump targets immigrants, U.S. farm sector looks to automate | LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Convincing big U.S. dairy owners to buy robots to milk their cows - and reduce the farmhands they employ - used to be a tough sell for Steve Fried. Recently, his job has gotten easier, he says, in part because of President Donald Trump. “I get calls on a daily basis and it typically starts with, ‘I don’t want to deal with this labor headache any more’,” said Fried, sales manager for Lely North America, which makes robotic dairy milking and feeding systems. Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration through stepped-up arrests and border enforcement has shaken the U.S. agricultural sector, where as many as 7 in 10 farm workers are undocumented, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. In addition, Republican lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation that would require all employers to check social security numbers against federal databases to ensure their workers are in the country legally, something that is now voluntary in all but a handful of states. The get-tough approach "has created a great deal of anxiety," said Tom Vilsack, chief executive of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, who was U.S. Agriculture Secretary for eight years under President Barack Obama. The shift comes as the industry was already struggling to cope with a shrinking, aging workforce. That is ratcheting up pressure on the sector to embrace new technology. Farmers and food companies increasingly are moving to automate dairy operations, chicken processing, crop production and harvesting. Even delicate crops such as strawberries and peaches are being considered for mechanization. “You’d be a fool to not have a plan that moves you that way,” said Duff Bevill, who owns a vineyard management company in Sonoma County, California. Pilgrim’s Pride Corp, (PPC.O) the second largest U.S. chicken producer, this year cited a tightening migrant labor market as key to its decision to invest in robots and X-ray technology for its slaughterhouses. The goal: to swap human hands for machines that can debone the front half of chickens and perform other chores. “We’re investing heavily in automating our processes, taking labor out and making jobs easier,” Pilgrim’s CEO William Lovette said in an earnings call. He said the company also decided to increases wages. In Gilroy, California, Christopher Ranch is likewise embracing new machinery. The largest North American producer of fresh garlic, Christopher Ranch will spend about $1 million this year for a new Spanish-made robot in its packing plant that inserts garlic heads into sleeves, according to Ken Christopher, vice president of the family-owned business. A 2014 report by WinterGreen Research forecast significant growth in the use of robotics in “every aspect of farming, milking, food production” and other agricultural enterprises. The report put the market for agricultural robots at $817 million in 2013 and projected that it would reach $16.3 billion by 2020. Sensing opportunity, investors are stepping up to address agriculture’s labor squeeze with new automation, helped by falling electronics costs and advancements in software, robotics and artificial intelligence. Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), this year spearheaded a $10 million investment in Abundant Robotics, which is working on an apple-picking robot. It also participated in a $20 million funding round for Bowery Farming, which uses robotics to grow leafy greens indoors. Elsewhere, farm machinery maker Deere & Co (DE.N) announced that it spent $305 million to buy precision weed-killing robot maker Blue River Technology. INCENTIVES TO AUTOMATE While little official data exists to illustrate the impact of Trump’s immigration policies on farm laborers, there is no question that illegal migration is down sharply since he took office in late January. The number of people caught trying to enter the United States illegally from Mexico dropped almost 60 percent between February and May compared the same period last year, according to government figures. Between late January to early September, the number of individuals arrested in the interior of the country by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rose almost 43 percent over the same period in 2016. Gary Wishnatzki, a third-generation strawberry farmer in Florida, says scarce labor convinced him to raise $5 million so far to build a robotic strawberry picker that he hopes someday will reduce his industry’s need for field hands. Bruce Taylor, CEO of Taylor Farms, a Salinas, California producer of salads and chopped vegetables for stores and restaurants, says his company has automated 20 percent of its packing plant. The company has also teamed with an equipment maker to build a mechanized romaine harvester that is currently in use, and it is exploring automation for iceberg lettuce, broccoli and other field crops, Taylor said. In the meantime, farmers are raising wages. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent farm labor report shows average wages during the week of April 9 to 15 were $13.23 per hour, up 4 percent from the same week a year ago. “The mantra in agriculture right now is automate what you can and pay well for the labor you absolutely have to have,” said Paul Pittman, CEO of Farmland Partners Inc, (FPI.N) a real estate investment trust that invests in North American farm land. To win the loyalty of its full-time production workers, garlic grower Christopher Ranch decided to raise pay by 50 percent between 2016 and 2018, getting a four-year jump on California’s mandated $15 minimum wage that will take effect in 2022. “Companies need to find ways of adapting and adjusting,” Christopher, the executive, said. “We’re going to take a small financial hit, but we’re going to be ready.” Follow Trump’s impact on energy, environment, healthcare, immigration and the economy at The Trump Effect www.reuters.com/trump-effect | 0fake
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28 Alternative Uses for Life Saving Mylar Emergency Blankets | By Lizzie Bennett Some Life-Saving Advice About Mylar Emergency Blankets: And 28 Alternative Uses for Them As it’s getting colder it’s a good time to revisit the uses of mylar blankets in survival... | 1real
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CHRIS MATTHEWS CONFUSED About Georgia Election Loss: “I don’t know what the h*ll he was selling” [Video] | MSNBC s Chris Matthews definitely didn t get a tingle up his leg when it came to Democrat Jon Ossoff. Turns out he s confused over what Ossoff was selling Matthews said about Ossoff: I don t know what the hell he was selling. He wasn t selling much. Ossoff lost a race that was the most expensive House election ever to Republican Karen Handel on Tuesday night in a race Democrats hoped to turn blue as a sign of national discontent with President Donald Trump. Outside donors from liberal states like California, spent big bucks to win this seat. Donations totaled a whopping $50 million1Ossoff s loss has prompted much soul searching from Democrats, including the left-leaning Matthews.Introducing his panel, Matthews discussed the race, saying that he wasn t even really sure what Ossoff was running on. It seems to me that there was a lot of progressive hype about a guy who wasn t running as a progressive, which is another interesting twist to this, Matthews said. He was running on basically, let s get together and be normal or something. I don t know what the hell he was selling. He wasn t selling much, he said.Further on in the discussion, Matthews made fun of his panelists for the rapidly changing narrative pushed by Democrats in the wake of yet another Democratic defeat. If it went for Ossoff, you would be jumping up and down, saying how great a victory it was, right? Come on, you re smiling. I know you re smiling. I know how people play politics. If you lose, oh, no, big thing. if you win, yay! I mean, which is it? Matthews asked.Wow! What an ASS! He s treating his guests with such a condescending tone. | 1real
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THE FUTURE BELONGS To AI And Whoever Masters It First Will Rule The World | While all eyes are on North Korea and Melania s stilettos RT Competition for superiority in Artificial Intelligence at national level will most likely cause World War Three, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has said, warning that an AI may deem first use its best chance of winning. China, Russia, soon all countries with strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3, Musk tweeted.China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017It will likely not even be the countries leaders that start the war, Musk elaborated, but one of the AI s, if it [AI] decides that a pre-emptive strike is most probable path to victory. May be initiated not by the country leaders, but one of the AI's, if it decides that a prepemptive strike is most probable path to victory Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017The SpaceX founder says he doubts that North Korea can launch its own nuclear strike. He believes that Pyongyang launching a nuclear missile would be suicide for their leadership, as South Korea, [the U.S.] and China would invade and end the regime immediately. NK launching a nuclear missile would be suicide for their leadership, as SK, US and China wd invade and end the regime immediately Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017 | 1real
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CNN Talker Famous for Saying 'Pu***' on Air Lashes Out at Newt for Saying Megyn's 'Obsessed with Sex' | Share on Twitter The Wildfire is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR.
During a panel discussion on Wednesday's “Anderson Cooper 360,” Republican strategist and CNN regular Ana Navarro went off on Newt Gingrich over his meltdown on “The Kelly File”— during which he angrily accused Kelly of being “ fascinated with sex .”
After Cooper referred to Gingrich's rant as “ironic,” Navarro jumped to take issue, 'correcting' the host before torching Gingrich over the treatment of his wife:
“I think the word you were looking for was ‘hypocritical.' Remember Newt Gingrich’s wife? When he was running in 2012, told all of us, told the media [...] Gingrich offered her the choice between an open marriage or a divorce.
So maybe, just maybe, if all of that baggage is on your shoulders, maybe you shouldn’t be the surrogate out there wagging your finger and accusing the woman who was reporting on sexual assault.
Let me explain it slowly — sexual assault and sex are two things. One is unwanted. One is wanted. So maybe they need to understand that to begin with.”
Navarro told uber-Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes that Gingrich shouldn't be used by the campaign in any capacity, given his past. Image Credit: Screenshot/CNN YouTube
Incidentally, following the release of the now-infamous leaked 2005 video in which Trump brags about grabbing women by the p***y, Navarro angrily yelled the word during a CNN panel discussion after Hughes chastised her for saying it on-air.
We'll go ahead and put Ana down as a “maybe” for Trump. | 1real
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Murdoch's UK paper arm admits computer hacking, fuelling criticism of Sky takeover | LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch s British newspaper group said on Friday one of its titles had hacked the computer of a former intelligence officer, an admission which critics said showed why his takeover of European broadcaster Sky should be blocked. In a hearing at London s High Court, Murdoch s News Group Newspapers admitted vicarious liability for the hacking of computers belonging to Ian Hurst, who worked for British military intelligence. The case comes a month after Britain s media minister said regulators should scrutinize Murdoch s planned $15 billion takeover of Sky over concerns about broadcasting standards and its impact on media plurality. Hurst s lawyer Jeremy Reed said in a court statement the Irish edition of the News of the World newspaper had hired a private investigator to intercept his client s emails in 2006. Hurst had served in Northern Ireland and later wrote a book about his experiences, including details of Britain s top spy in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Alfredo Scappaticci, known by the codename Stakeknife . Reed said it was likely he was targeted because an employee of the newspaper wanted to trace Scappaticci. I confirm that News Group Newspapers ... accepts vicarious liability for the wrongful acts of computer interception, said Anthony Hudson, the lawyer for the newspaper group, adding it had paid substantial damages to Hurst and his family. News Group Newspapers accepts that such activity happened, accepts that it should never have happened, and has undertaken to the court that it will never happen again. Opponents of Murdoch s takeover said the case was evidence the deal should not be allowed to go through and they would send a dossier to the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) which is examining the proposed deal. It s vital that the CMA is able to take this new evidence of criminality and corporate failure into account as it assesses the Murdochs bid to take over Sky, said Tom Watson, deputy leader of Britain s opposition Labour Party. Murdoch shut the News of the World in 2011 after its journalists were found to have been involved in widespread phone-hacking. His original attempt to buy full control of Sky was ditched in the wake of the scandal. Since then the company has been split in two, separating the newspapers from entertainment assets to help to smooth the deal s passage. Last month Murdoch s son James said he was confident regulators would assess the deal on its merits and not be swayed by those with grievances against his father s newspapers, saying the company had dealt effectively with past problems. | 0fake
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BOOM! JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO: “New deep divisions are created by Obama” [Video] | This is probably the best seen from Judge Jeanine she nails Obama! Police brutality is color blind Judge Jeanine | 1real
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German industry see FDP revival boosting digital transition | FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German industry leaders want a shift toward digital services to be a priority as the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) appear set to enter coalition talks with Angela Merkel s conservatives and the Greens. The FDP, which returned from the German political wilderness with 10.7 percent of the vote in Sunday s election, promise to cut taxes and raise investment in infrastructure, partly funded by privatizations. Investing in high-speed telecoms networks and automation would boost economic activity and global competitiveness and has long been a key demand of Germany s export-led manufacturers although some workers fear it risks job losses. Investments in education and digital infrastructure are urgently needed, Werner Baumann, chief executive of drugmaker Bayer (BAYGn.DE), said in an emailed statement. Joe Kaeser, chief executive of industrial group Siemens (SIEGn.DE) agreed, but warned of marginalizing workers and pushing them into the arms of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the first far-right party to enter the German parliament in more than half a century. We are an industrial nation and must shape the fourth industrial revolution and design it in a socially inclusive way - so that as many people profit from its as possible, he said. Economists see such investments as a way to combat the effects of an ageing population and to boost stalling productivity gains, factors that are casting a shadow over growth prospects in the medium term in Europe s largest economy. Domestically, a focus on digitalisation is one opportunity to counteract these structural headwinds, and re-accelerate productivity growth, Morgan Stanley economist Elga Bartsch wrote in a note. German business confidence deteriorated unexpectedly in the weeks before Sunday s federal election, suggesting that a consumption-led upswing could lose momentum in coming months. Thilo Brodtmann, executive director of powerful engineering lobby VDMA, said on Monday: We need a clear signal for a digital breakthrough, for education and research, innovation-friendly tax policies and above all a priority for flexibility and good ideas. The VDMA represents large manufacturers such as engineering group Siemens, robot maker Kuka (KU2G.DE) or machine-tool maker DMG Mori (GILG.DE) as well as a host of smaller firms banking on digitization to boost productivity. And a host of communications firms including Vodafone (VOD.L), Liberty Global (LBTYA.O) and United Internet (UTDI.DE) stand ready to take advantage of funds that may be made available to expand rural broadband, for example through the further privatization of incumbent Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE). But UBS economist Felix Huefner said he doubted that any radical stimulus measures would be taken soon, given that the German economy is expected to grow at its strongest pace in six years this year. Even if digitalization may be a key priority for Merkel, we don t expect deep reforms... given the lack of pressure in a very benign economic environment, he wrote in a note. | 0fake
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Sweden: Migrant Cries ’Racism’ When Woman in Hijab Asked to Show Train Ticket Attacks Passengers with Knife | An Iraqi man travelling from Stockholm to Hallsberg by train launched a brutal attack on passengers after a Muslim woman was asked to show her ticket, accusing them all of racism. [Karim Alaa Hussain, 25, became infuriated when the unnamed woman, who was wearing a veil, was asked to show her rail ticket by a female conductor. The Muslim woman complained she had already been asked to show her ticket once before, although eyewitnesses say the conductor was “polite and correct”. Hussain took a different view, according to a report by Fria Tider, corroborated by court documents seen by Breitbart London. Hussain sprang to his feet and demanded to know why the conductor had asked to see the woman’s ticket, refusing to accept her explanation that she was “only doing her job” and he became “extremely intimidating”. Other passengers intervened to try and calm him down, but this only increased his anger. He accused them of racism, threatening one of the men in particular and striking him in the face. Alarmed, Hussain’s victim wrestled him to the floor — but the Iraqi managed to break free and produced a long kitchen knife, stabbing the man four times in the side and back and inflicting critical internal wounds. Witnesses describe how Hussain then strode around the train cabin “as if he had won the national championship” brandishing his bloody knife at the terrified passengers and demanding a father and his daughter tell him if they were “also racists”. Hussain then began lecturing his captive audience on equality, instructing them that everyone was of “equal value” and demanding they show respect while his victim lay bleeding. When the train stopped Hussain fled and hid in a nearby garden, but was apprehended by the police. He told officers he had acted in and was “proud” of what he had done, but the judge did not accept this, handing him a nominal sentence. Hussain has an extremely long criminal record, and should have been serving a sentence for a variety of offences at the time of his attack — but was released early. He will not be deported from Sweden after his current sentence is completed, having been awarded EU citizenship in 2008 despite having already wracked up several convictions. | 0fake
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Is American Food Killing Us? Author Brandon Turbeville Talks Food and the Middle East | By Natural Blaze Brandon Turbeville made a fascinating journey to the Middle East and lives to tell you about it. He is a geopolitical expert and author of 7 books including “The Road to... | 1real
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Gays Against Sharia March Branded ’Islamophobic’, Will Be Picketed by LGBT Activists | An event organised by Gays Against Sharia to mark the anniversary of the Orlando shooting has been branded “divisive” and “Islamophobic” by LGBT activists planning a . [The organisers of the Unite Against Hate march, set to take place in Manchester on Sunday, say they organised the event to “honour the victims of hate” including the 49 people who lost their lives at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, Florida, at the hands of an Islamic terrorist on June 12, 2016. Planned speakers include author Shazia Hobbs, a Glaswegian who was forced into an arranged marriage at 18 with a man who beat her, believing it was his right under Sharia law Mohammed Fiaz, a Christian convert from Islam and founder and former leader of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson. But LGBT activists have reacted with fury, insisting the event is nothing more than the cynical hijacking of gay rights by the “far right” as a cover for Islamophobia. Two groups, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, and Action for Trans Health, are arranging a against the march. “We’re protesting because the want to use Orlando and the recent killings in the UK to demonise all Muslims,” one of the organisers of the Anna, told Pink News. “We are clear that it is genocidal to consider millions of people responsible for the actions of a few violent men. “As queers, we know what it’s like for to hate us — so we won’t be divided like this. ” One of the organisers of the Unite Against Hate march is Tommy English, a fellow traveller of Tommy Robinson’s and former leader of the English Defence League’s LGBT group who now runs Gays Against Sharia. Opponents have seized upon his presence to claim the march is nothing but a front for Islamophobes. Pink News quotes Sam Bjorn as saying: “As LGBT+ people we won’t stand idly by as far right bigots like the EDL attempt to use our rights as a weapon against people from the Muslim community. “When groups like the EDL are preying on tragedy like the recent attack in Manchester to promote hate and division, it’s more important than ever to come together and say that we do not tolerate their Islamophobia and racism. “We encourage everyone, gay or straight, to join us on 11 June to show that the LGBT+ community and the people of Manchester won’t let the hate of bigots divide us. ” Pink News has joined in the condemnation, branding the event as a “fake” and accusing the organisers of “hijacking the first anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting with an march,” which it described as a “disturbing tactic”. Veteran gay rights activist Peter Tatchell has also entered the fray, tweeting his opposition to the march. If you like our work opposing Islamist homophobia https: . please consider donating https: . THANKS A LOT : ) pic. twitter. — Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) April 16, 2017, When confronted by fellow Twitter users who accused him of “defending the wrong people” he reacted by tweeting his “delight” at having been “targeted” by “fascists” as he said it showed he had “rattled the far right”. Just a few weeks later Tatchell tweeted an appeal to help overturn the death penalty for homosexuality, which still exists in several countries. Several countries still have the death penalty for LGBT people. We urgently need your help to stop it. Donate https: . THANX! pic. twitter. — Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) May 11, 2017, The ten countries in which homosexuality is punishable by death are Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. In some cases, the laws apply only in regions of the country under Sharia law or are only applicable to Muslims. | 0fake
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China Sees New Ambiguity With Donald Trump’s Taiwan Call - The New York Times | BEIJING — China’s leaders have been markedly reticent about what kind of leader they think Donald J. Trump will be. A pragmatic dealmaker, as his business background might indicate? Or a provocateur who tests the ways of statecraft? By talking on Friday with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Mr. Trump answered that question in stark terms, Chinese analysts said Saturday. Breaking decades of American diplomatic practice, he caught the Chinese government off guard by lunging into the most sensitive of its core interests, the “One China” policy agreed to by President Richard M. Nixon more than four decades ago. “This is a call for Beijing — we should buckle up for a pretty rocky six months or year in the . S. relationship,” Wang Dong, an associate professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University, said Saturday. “There was a sort of delusion based on overly optimistic ideas about Trump. That should stop. ” Chinese leaders covet stability in their relationship with Washington, and perhaps for that reason, they have allowed fairly rosy assessments of Mr. Trump to appear in the news media. Many of those accounts have depicted the as a practical operator devoid of ideology, the kind of person China might find common ground with despite his threats of a trade war. In the hope of maintaining a relatively smooth relationship as Mr. Trump begins his administration, Beijing will probably take a attitude despite his phone call with Ms. Tsai, said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University. Indeed, China’s first official reaction, from Foreign Minister Wang Yi, was fairly benign — though it was firm in reiterating the One China policy, under which the United States formally recognized Beijing as China’s sole government in 1978 and broke ties with Taiwan a year later. No American president or had spoken to a Taiwanese president since then. Mr. Wang blamed Ms. Tsai’s government for arranging the call. “It won’t stand a chance to change the One China policy agreed upon by the international community,” he said. A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday, noting that the ministry had filed a formal complaint with the United States government, was similar in tone. It urged “relevant parties in the U. S. ” to “deal with the Taiwan issue in a prudent, proper manner. ” China’s leaders disdain Ms. Tsai, of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party, who was elected president this year after pledging to wean the island off its economic dependence on China, a policy that won enthusiastic support from younger Taiwanese. China favored her original opponent, Hung of the Kuomintang, which has sought closer ties with mainland China. (Ms. Hung later dropped out of the race.) Before the election, President Xi Jinping of China met with Ms. Tsai’s predecessor, Ma also of the Kuomintang, in the first encounter between the leaders of the two governments, a rapprochement that Beijing had long sought. Mr. Trump broke a Chinese taboo merely by using Ms. Tsai’s title. The Chinese state news media refer to the Taiwanese president as the “leader of the Taiwan region,” to indicate that Beijing regards Taiwan not as a sovereign nation but as Chinese territory to eventually be brought under its control. A basic tenet of the Chinese government is that Taiwan, where Chiang ’s forces fled in 1949 after losing China’s civil war, will be brought back into the fold. According to Mr. Xi, Taiwan is destined to become an integral part of his China Dream, a vision of an economically successful Communist China astride the world. Mr. Trump’s phone call also violated a longstanding principle of American policy: that the president does not speak to the head of Taiwan’s government, despite selling arms to it. “Interesting how the US sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter after the stunned reaction to his conversation with Ms. Tsai. Though Beijing vehemently protests the arms sales, it also warily acknowledges them as part of practice. Since the Washington has signaled to Taiwan that it will not support any military effort to gain independence from China. The Obama administration’s last arms sale to Taiwan, in 2015, was relatively modest — consisting of antitank missiles, two frigates and surveillance gear, worth $1. 8 billion in total — but it still provoked a bitter denunciation from Beijing. Douglas H. Paal, a former director of the American Institute in Taiwan, which represents American interests there, said it would not be surprising if the United States sold arms to Taiwan early in the Trump administration. Beijing’s reaction would depend on the price tag, the kinds of weapons sold and how the administration informed China of the sale, Mr. Paal said. While it broke diplomatic precedent, Mr. Trump’s conversation with Ms. Tsai could be seen in some ways as following a pattern of Republican presidents’ reaching out to Taiwan, although others did not do so before taking office. George W. Bush, for example, was vocal in his support of Taiwan early in his presidency, saying in a television interview that the United States would do “whatever it took” to defend it. His aides said afterward that the comment did not reflect a change in the One China policy. By the end of his second term, Mr. Bush had helped to strengthen trade ties between Beijing and Washington through the approval of China’s entry into the World Trade Organization. Though Mr. Trump has received generally favorable coverage in the state news media, some Chinese analysts have expressed irritation with him, and some have suggested that his administration will offer China opportunities to show strength. Yan Xuetong, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University and a foreign policy hawk, said the overall tenor of the States relationship in the coming years would depend a great deal on the personal chemistry between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi. He said China, with its growing military and the economy in the world, could largely afford to act as it liked. “China is increasingly resilient to the United States,” he said. Shen Dingli, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, took a contrarian view of Mr. Trump’s call with Ms. Tsai: He said it was not a problem because Mr. Trump had yet to take office. “He is a private citizen,” he said. But if such contacts continue after Inauguration Day, Mr. Shen said, China should end diplomatic relations with the United States. “I would close our embassy in Washington and withdraw our diplomats,” he said. “I would be perfectly happy to end the relationship. I don’t know how you are then going to expect China to cooperate on Iran and North Korea and climate change. You are going to ask Taiwan for that?” | 0fake
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WOW! STERLING HTS, MI CITY COUNCIL Caves On Mega-Mosque Project In Middle Of Christian Neighborhood…Council Member CAUGHT On VIDEO Admitting Mosque Is Part Of “Religious War” | In September 2015, the Sterling Heights, MI City Council representing a city of 130,000 people in southeastern Michigan, denied the proposal for a mega-mosque in a residential neighborhood populated largely by Christian refugees who fled Islamic persecution in Iraq.Sterling Heights already has two mosques, but a third, the American Islamic Community Center, applied for a permit and was rejected after it was determined its proposed use was incompatible with the residential area. Too much traffic, too little parking, the city planning commission decided by a 9-0 vote against the mosque in September 2015.But in December, the mosque sued the city and the Obama Justice Department joined in, claiming the real reason the mosque was denied was because the city was caving to anti-Muslim bigotry in the community. A settlement deal was announced last night during a Sterling Heights City Council meeting.As expected, the attorney for the mosque developers claimed the reasons these mostly Christian refugees from Iraq are in opposition to a mosque being built in their residential neighborhood fake :Sterling Heights, MI residents spoke out against the proposed mega-mosque during a planning commission meeting where the residents were given an opportunity to have their views heard by the city council:Many of the Sterling Heights residents who live in the area of the proposed mosque are Christian-Iraqi refugees who fled persecution of Muslims in their native land. The last thing they want is an Islamic mega-mosque erected in their backyards. Before announcing the decision to go ahead with the proposed plan for building the mega-mosque in a local neighborhood, Sterling Heights City Councilman Doug Skrzyniarz claimed the primary reasons for going ahead with the plans were to avoid costly litigation while allowing officials to have more say in the mosque s layout. We have reduced our financial risk and we ve been able to have input on what the actual development is going to contain, Councilman Doug Skrzyniarz told the large crowd. But it s what he said next, that s NOT being reported by local or national news outlets that was even more telling and it happens near the end of the video: | 1real
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What is going on with WikiLeaks? | What is going on with WikiLeaks? Defend Democracy
WikiLeaks director and founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Gavin MacFadyen has died at age 76. The cause of death is yet unknown. His ‘fellows in arms’ have flocked online to post their farewells, including WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange.
“ We are extremely sad to announce the death of Gavin MacFadyen, CIJ’s Founder, Director and its leading light ,” the Centre for Investigative Journalism team wrote on its Twitter.
MacFadyen was a pioneering investigative journalist and filmmaker, who back in 2003 founded the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ), an organization that helped break several major stories and has trained a number of prominent journalists.
Gavin Macfadyen was mentor to Assange (and his closest friend in London), to WikiLeaks’ Sarah Harrison, Joseph Farrell and many others.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 4:03 AM – 23 Oct 2016
He was a mentor and friend to famous whistleblower and co-founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange, as well as the director of the publication. Paying tribute to their head, WikiLeaks published a post on the group’s Twitter account saying MacFadyen “ now takes his fists and his fight to battle God .”
The post is signed “ JA ,” indicating that the phrase belongs directly to Julian Assange, with WikiLeaks claiming that, despite the whistleblower being deprived of internet access in his suite in the Ecuadorian embassy for a week now, he has been able to contact them and is “ still in full command. ”
The CIJ team also published an address from MacFadyen’s wife and member of Julian Assange’s Defense Fund, Susan Benn, who described her husband as a “ larger-than-life person, ” with gratitude and respect.
“ He was the model of what a journalist should be… He spearheaded the creation of a journalistic landscape which has irrevocably lifted the bar for ethical and hard-hitting reporting. Gavin worked tirelessly to hold power to account.
“His life and how he lived it were completely in sync with the principles that he held dear and practiced as a journalist and educator – to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, ” Benn wrote .
Recounting her husband’s achievements, she said he had produced and directed more than 50 investigative documentaries covering diverse and multiple countries and problems. She also noted that he had been banned from apartheid South Africa and the Soviet Union for his investigative work, and was also attacked by British Neo-Nazis.
In his professional career, MacFadyen shed light on topics like child labor, pollution, the torture of political prisoners, neo-Nazis in Britain, UK industrial accidents, Contra murders in Nicaragua, the CIA, maritime piracy, election fraud in South America, South African mines, as well as many others. He worked on investigative television programs for PBS’s Frontline, Granada Television’s World in Action, the BBC’s Fine Cut, Panorama, The Money Programme, and 24 Hours, as well as Channel 4’s Dispatches.
The cause of MacFadyen’s death has not yet been made public. In the original post from his wife Susan, she wrote that he had died from “ a short illness, ” but that line has now been removed.
Did you know: Gavin Macfadyen was arrested with Bernie Sanders, was a body double for Nick Nolte & was banned from South Africa & the USSR?
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 4:20 AM – 23 Oct 2016
Twitter has been full of tributes from his colleagues and like-minded people. Even the hacktivist organization Anonymous has spoken out. Gavin MacFadyen, always kind & supportive of young journalists & filmmakers. Can never forget your booming laugh. Thank you my friend.
Earlier this year, MacFadyen gave an interview to RT’s Going Underground program to talk about the publication of leaks related to US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the most recent of which have been emails from the account of her aid, John Podesta. The barrage of sometimes shocking revelations has proven to be a bit of a thorn in the side for Clinton’s election campaign. In the interview, he said that the documents released so far are merely a drop in the ocean of the information WikiLeaks is receiving, and was hopeful that while “ there’s only one known Snowden, ” there may be other whistleblowers who will keep shedding light on injustice and other major global pain points. | 1real
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WHOA! FEMINIST HACK LAWYER Gloria Allred REFUSES To Say If High School Yearbook Used As Evidence Against Roy Moore Is A Forgery | This story just keeps unraveling Two days ago, conservative Thomas Wictor dropped a bombshell on Twitter, exposing what he suggested was a forged Roy Moore signature on the yearbook that allegedly belongs to Beverly Young Nelson, the most recent sexual misconduct accuser of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore.CNN published a story about Roy Moore signing Nelson s yearbook. Thomas Wictor dissected the signature and the validity of her story on Twitter:Beverly Young Nelson said Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore wrote a message in her yearbook in December 1977 that said, "To a sweeter more beautiful girl, I could not say, 'Merry Christmas.'"She said he signed it, "Roy Moore, D.A." https://t.co/aluJzQsv15 pic.twitter.com/esjGd1ssd9 CNN (@CNN) November 13, 2017Here are close up versions of the signatures. Note, that when viewed close up, the signature is signed in both black and blue ink.Here is a closer version of the yearbook signature:Here is Wictor s explanation for the different colors of ink:(4) The LIGHT is reflecting off of the ink.The ink that LOOKS blue is actually black. It's DIFFERENT ink than the ORIGINAL ink.Therefore it reflects light differently. Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) November 16, 2017(11) So, to recap:The signature is a forgery, and everything after the name "Roy-Ray" was added later with different ink. pic.twitter.com/1sPv6aABge Thomas Wictor (@ThomasWictor) November 15, 2017Just like the "TH" doomed Dan Rather, "DA" will doom the anti Roy Moore forces. They copied his signature on Nelsons divorce order not realizing "DA" was his assistants initials, not his title. The sheer stupidity! pic.twitter.com/oWJ5fzM6fr TruthHurts (@tru768) November 15, 2017Moore s attorney came out today with a statement regarding the signature in question in the high school yearbook. Here s what he had to say:Roy Moore's Attorney: "[Nelson & Gloria Allred] said that Ms. Nelson after the allegations had never seen or had any contact with Judge Moore In 1999, Ms. Nelson filed a divorce action The judge assigned was Roy S. Moore." pic.twitter.com/Bv5ZV0CMvc Fox News (@FoxNews) November 15, 2017Meanwhile, the leftist, feminist lawyer, Gloria Allred, refused to deny that her client Beverly Nelson s Roy Moore signature in her high school yearbook is NOT a fabrication. CNN s Wolf Blitzer grilled Allred on the matter Wednesday.Big League Politics Well, all I m saying is, we will permit an independent examiner of the writing We will allow all of this to be asked and answered at the hearing, Allred said. But that s not a flat denial, Gloria, Blitzer said. Well, all I m saying is, we re not denying, we re not admitting, we re not addressing, Allred said. We will not be distracted. Blitzer asked why Allred needed a Senate hearing and would not just permit an independent handwriting expert to take a look. Well, uh, all I can say is we want it done in a professional setting to the extent possible, that s the only setting in which people can testify under oath, Allred said.Blitzer asked if Allred s client would take a lie-detector test, but she refused, pushing for a Senate hearing.Go to the 25:30 min. mark in the video: | 1real
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Learning to Speak for the Dead - The New York Times | The dead man waited on a gurney. His corpulent frame, after days of decomposing, had turned the mottled green of a ripe watermelon. He had been found alone in bed in his Manhattan apartment, surrounded by an avalanche of discarded bottles and trash. Now Dr. Jacqueline Nunez was by his side. As a medical examiner training in New York City, she had the job of finding out what had happened to him. It would not be quick or easy, not like television crime shows in which deaths are neatly wrapped up in under an hour. The job requires examiners to break apart bodies: hard physical work. too. Dr. Nunez would be on her feet for hours, splattered by blood and other body fluids, at times breathing an unimaginable stench. She could spend weeks, or even months, piecing together clues that might never add up. Standing on top of a metal stool, Dr. Nunez cut into the torso. A thick greenish fluid oozed out. She grabbed an ladle to scoop out more of it. Then she stuck both hands into the body to feel around for the liver. She came up empty, her gloves dripping. “Oh, what a mess,” she said. “I’m not sure what’s going on. This is the worst I’ve ever seen. ” It got messier. Dr. Nunez cracked open the chest with clippers to remove the heart and the lungs. She cut out the intestines. Then, as a whirring electric saw was used to open the skull, Dr. Nunez reached in to lift out the brain. When she was finished, she cleaned up. Then she started on her next patient. DR. NUNEZ is part of a New York City fellowship program that has become one of the country’s most renowned training grounds for medical examiners. The Forensic Pathology Fellows Program has helped resurrect a agency, the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, which as recently as the 1980s was widely accused of incompetent management and bias toward the police. The estimated 500 forensic pathologists working nationwide are roughly half the number needed, according to the National Association of Medical Examiners. “Everyone who passes the medical examiner’s boards is sought after,” said Dr. David Fowler, the association’s president, who attributed the shortage to limited training opportunities and relatively low compensation compared with the pay that pathologists receive at hospitals or in private practice. Since 1990, the New York fellowship program has trained 100 medical examiners. The program has bolstered the agency’s status as a national model for medical examiner’s offices and has been the source of a new generation of forensic experts, producing the current or former chief medical examiners in more than 20 jurisdictions, including Washington, San Francisco, Honolulu and the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont. Since the program is based in New York, the city is somewhat insulated from the shortage elsewhere in the country. Dr. Nunez, 34, is one of five doctors who have spent the past year preparing to become medical examiners. A cheerful woman who favors large gold hoop earrings, she is often mistaken for a schoolteacher. She grew up in Amityville, on Long Island, the older of two children of a landscape worker and a homemaker, and she went to medical school in the Dominican Republic. Instead of a black doctor’s bag, she carries a Craftsman toolbox packed with knives, scalpels, forceps and scissors. She does not mind working on bodies, not even one that is decomposing, known as a “decomp,” which is often the least favorite case for medical examiners. “A lot of people — especially other physicians and other pathologists — used to tell me, ‘I would have loved to have done forensics, but I can’t deal with the decomp,’” she said. “I actually have no problem doing them, and one of the reasons is because I feel like I’m the last person that is going to be providing some kind of care, bridging their death and their life. I’m the last person. ” NEW YORK CITY’S Office of Chief Medical Examiner is based in a squat, building, at 520 First Avenue, with letters missing from its name. Inside, a Latin inscription behind the reception desk translates to: “This is the place where the dead help the living. ” The medical examiners are the conduit for the two, providing answers, consoling grieving relatives and, if needed, informing police detectives. They fill a crucial but often overlooked role in a city where 5, 000 autopsies a year are performed for deaths that are deemed sudden or suspicious or are a result of crimes, accidents or suicides. It was medical examiners who sifted through the remains of more than 2, 700 victims after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. When there were no intact bodies, the pathologists had to improvise. They measured fingers to help identify people, using metal ring sizers that were donated in Tiffany’s little blue bags. That was also the year when Flight 587 crashed in Queens with 260 people aboard, and the year when envelopes laced with anthrax became a new terror threat. “When things get bad here, they get very bad,” said Dr. Barbara Sampson, who was appointed the city’s chief medical examiner in 2014. The agency’s staff of 600 includes 24 senior medical examiners, 20 of whom graduated from the fellowship program. The agency runs offices in every borough, three mortuaries and the country’s largest public DNA lab, along with other labs for toxicology, molecular genetics and histology, the microscopic examination of tissue. The agency’s $75 million annual budget is the equivalent of $8. 82 per city resident for the laboratories, investigations and other activities, far more than the national average of $3. 36 per resident, according to the National Association of Medical Examiners. Dr. Sampson, herself a 1998 fellow, says she looks for future medical examiners who can communicate and work well with others. The fellows, who have already graduated from medical school and completed a residency program in pathology, are selected after a unpaid tryout. They receive a salary of $131, 566 for the academic year, which runs from July 1 through June. At the end, the fellows sit for a nationally administered board exam nearly everyone passes. Some will be offered permanent positions as senior medical examiners with annual salaries starting at $159, 741, or invited to continue as fellows for a second year to specialize in the pathology of the brain and the heart. In contrast, general pathologists at hospitals and in private practice typically earn $200, 000 or more. In total, there have been 58 women and 42 men in the program. About are black, Hispanic or Asian. Many have foreign backgrounds. This year’s fellows include doctors who grew up in Croatia, Russia and Mexico. For some it is a calling. Dr. Stephen Melito, 32, went to medical school just so he could become a medical examiner. As a teenager in Farmingdale, on Long Island, he used to volunteer as an underage buyer of cigarettes in undercover police operations. For a high school class, he researched how to tell the time of death at a crime scene. Dr. Kanayo Tatsumi relocated to New York from Vermont less than a year after she was married. Her husband, a surgical resident, stayed behind to finish his training. Dr. Tatsumi, 33, was still in college when she interned at an Illinois coroner’s office. The first autopsy she observed was of a young woman killed in a car accident. She could not stop thinking about her. Had she been wearing a seatbelt? Had her airbag deployed? “It could have been me it could have been any of my friends,” Dr. Tatsumi recalled. “I started realizing that we could do a lot to prevent injuries, even though we’re getting that data, if you will, from death. ” THE MEDICAL EXAMINERS in training have desks side by side in Room 335 — known as the fellows’ room — where a bulletin board is crammed with photos of fellows in hazmat suits, at parties and holding babies. They alternate between “A” days for autopsies and “P” days for paperwork, while squeezing in lectures on topics like firearm injuries, trauma and pediatric deaths. They go to crime scenes, rotate through the labs and learn to handle infectious diseases like Ebola and respond to terror threats. The A days begin with an 8 a. m. triage meeting. Dr. Nunez stood behind a lectern, presenting case histories to senior medical examiners, forensic anthropologists, police detectives and medical students. There were 11 cases that day, not unusual in number or scope: An older man died after falling at home a younger man with a cocaine habit was found dead by his brother. Afterward, Dr. Nunez headed down to the mortuary. She checked the body bags in the hallway. “This is one of mine,” she called out to a technician. “This is another one. I’ve got one more. ” Her next stop was the autopsy room, which has eight stations, each equipped with a metal table and a scale. By 9:30 a. m. Dr. Nunez was at one of the stations, engrossed in her first case. A thin black man lay on the table. She removed his pancreas. It had dark spots where blood had pooled, a possible sign that he had spent a lot of time out in the cold before he died. Just before 11 a. m. she was ready for her next case. Dr. Nunez does not take breaks or stop for lunch. “Once I get going, I just keep up the pace,” she said. “You build endurance, you pick up stamina and you get used to it. That’s what this year is for. ” Her scrubs were stained with blood and fluids. “I’m not squeamish about it at all anymore,” she said. At 3 p. m. Dr. Nunez was still working on her third autopsy when the other medical examiners reconvened to review their findings. She did not have much to report yet. “It happens,” she said. “I’d rather we look at everything and not rush through anything. ’’ Afterward, Dr. Nunez retreated to the fellows’ room to draft a report for each autopsy. She would order lab tests, interview relatives and consider other evidence before closing each case. Dr. Sampson reads every report. The fellowship program is the legacy of Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, the city’s chief medical examiner from 1989 to 2013, who was known to focus not only on technical skills but also on scientific integrity, common sense and compassion. “I still quote Dr. Hirsch two or three times a day,” said Dr. Susan Ely, a 1997 fellow who is now the program’s director. “His presence is still very much felt here. ” Dr. Hirsch, a former chief medical examiner for Suffolk County, was appointed in 1989 by Mayor Edward I. Koch, to lead an agency battered by conflict and mistrust. The mayor had fired the previous chief medical examiner, Dr. Elliot M. Gross, citing poor leadership and management. In 1985, Dr. Gross was accused by defense lawyers and forensic specialists of producing misleading or inaccurate autopsy findings in cases of people who died in police custody. A mayoral commission cleared him of wrongdoing but faulted a longstanding agency practice in which deaths in police custody were routinely left as undetermined. Though the medical examiner’s office is now considered professionally run and independent, it has not entirely escaped controversy. The agency has been challenged for using a highly sensitive technique to analyze trace samples of DNA — known as low copy number DNA testing — that has been criticized as unreliable. In February, a former toxicology lab director sued the city, claiming that she was forced out in part for raising questions about its use of the technique. EACH FELLOW is expected to complete about 250 autopsies, a goal based on national standards for training medical examiners. The sheer diversity of cases in a big city ensures that they see just about every kind of injury imaginable. Dr. Judy Melinek, who chronicled her fellowship experience in a 2014 memoir, “Working Stiff,” recalled that she was told to go to New York by a former fellow who noted, “All kinds of great ways to die there, and the teaching is brilliant. ” Dr. Rafael Garcia, 36, had barely started the fellowship program in July when he was assigned not only his first homicide but a double homicide. He spent seven hours working on just one of the victims, a man who had been stabbed 20 times. As it happened, he had attended a lecture on stab wounds the day before. Almost a year later, Dr. Garcia has completed 250 autopsies, of which about have not been resolved. “It’s funny to see a TV show and how they do everything in the same day,” he said. “That’s not reality. ” Dr. Garcia, a father of two who grew up in Mexico and trained to be an ophthalmologist, said he had no regrets about switching to forensic pathology. “Money is important,” he said, “but I’d rather feel happy with what I’m doing than just being frustrated by an entire life doing something that I don’t enjoy as much. ” The fellows keep track of their autopsies in Excel spreadsheets that list the names of the dead, brief histories and findings. The most common deaths are accidental or natural the least common are undetermined in cause or manner of death, or both. At one point in February, when Dr. Nunez surpassed 150 autopsies, her fiancé, an accountant, figured that she needed to complete about 25 autopsies per month in the time left. In May, she surpassed 215 autopsies. By Tuesday, she was at 242. Though she tries to stay positive, Dr. Nunez said the cases can take an emotional toll. She tries to decompress by going out to dinner with her fiancé and spending time with their extended families. Still, she loses sleep. “I feel like I want to give them more than I can, and I know I can’t,” she said of the victims’ families. “Something the senior medical examiners tell me all the time is, ‘You’ve done a full, competent exam.’ There are limitations. You have to learn to become comfortable with limitations. ” The other fellows have ways of coping, too. Dr. Melito said he did not check the news at home in New Jersey, where he lives with his wife, Mary, a teacher, and their two young children. On hard days, he gets extra hugs. Dr. Tatsumi said she found herself crying a lot. In an autopsy, she will discover that someone did not die right away and probably felt pain or fear in the final moments. “That just destroys me,” she said. “I’m not very good at hiding things, and so I wear it on my sleeve I wear it on my face. ” The five medical examiners in training have been invited to stay on. All have accepted except for Dr. Melito, who is taking a job closer to home. In Dr. Sampson’s office, there are framed photos of every class of fellows on graduation day — the counterpart of the informal collage upstairs in the fellows’ room. Nearly all of these smiling group shots are arranged in neat columns running down one wall. “This side is all Dr. Hirsch,” Dr. Sampson said. She pointed across the room, where there are just two photos of the last two fellows’ classes. “And that’s my wall,” she said. “Hopefully, it will be long someday. ” A photo of Dr. Nunez’s class will soon be added. Even in medical school, Dr. Nunez said, she was interested in the cause of a disease more than the treatment. A doctor would be poring over a patient’s lab work while “all I’m thinking is, I really wish I could take a piece of this woman’s lung to see what’s happening. ” Dr. Nunez said that she still wanted those answers, but that now her desire was to serve the families left behind. “I think that’s definitely what drew me the most,” she said. “It’s being able to be useful, and bring closure to families, and give them answers that they otherwise weren’t going to have. ” | 0fake
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Ecuador Votes as Latin America’s Left Sags, a Generation of Icons Gone - The New York Times | QUITO, Ecuador — For most of Luis García’s adult life, a single name dominated the politics of this tiny Andean country: Rafael Correa, the leftist leader of Ecuador’s citizens’ revolution. But when Mr. García went to the polls Sunday, Mr. Correa was not on the ballot. Unsatisfied with the options that remained, Mr. García, a musician who first voted for Mr. Correa in 2006, chose to simply scribble over his ballot, rendering it invalid. “I don’t feel represented now,” he said. That feeling of malaise among the left has been spreading throughout Latin America as, one by one, a generation of iconic leaders has departed the stage, brought down by death, elections, impeachment or, in Mr. Correa’s case, term limits. They were known by many names, including the New Left, and ruled the length of the continent with big promises and bigger personalities. Picking up the mantle of the revolutions for which the region became famous in the 1960s and 1970s, these leaders expanded education, increased subsidies for the poor and built roads, highways and hospitals. But they often ran roughshod over those who tried to check their power, from judges to international lenders. And now, nearly all are gone. Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s fiery leader, died of cancer in 2013, leaving behind a far less popular successor, Nicolás Maduro. The country spiraled into economic collapse as oil prices fell and the country elected the opposition to its National Assembly in 2015. Mr. Maduro dug in, tightening his grip with increasing repression. In Argentina in 2015, voters elected a businessman to replace a populist, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, whose programs were popular with the poor and working class. The following year in Brazil, the leftist Dilma Rousseff was ousted through impeachment. Her Workers’ Party now faces numerous corruption allegations, while Ms. Kirchner is defending herself against an indictment on financial charges. Then, November brought the death of the of the region’s left: Fidel Castro of Cuba. “These are not isolated events it is a great reversal,” said Gabriela Rivadeneira, the president of Ecuador’s National Assembly, controlled by Mr. Correa’s Alianza País party, which for years his reforms with few questions asked. “We are now the place that the region is looking at for what comes next. ” Mr. Correa was a and often contradictory figure, an economist who regularly flipped between the mold of a fiery populist and the pragmatism of a studied technocrat. By most accounts, poverty and inequality decreased in Ecuador as Mr. Correa funneled oil revenue into everything from raising the salaries of teachers to rebuilding the country’s highways and expanding clinics into the Amazon region. It helped that the price of oil was more than $100 per barrel for some of his tenure. Wealth flowed into the capital, Quito, whose streets bustle with new cars and S. U. V.s as workers dig a vast new metro system below. Mr. Correa also pulled his tiny country onto the international stage, echoing Mr. Castro from an earlier time by railing against capitalism and globalization. In 2012, he granted Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, protection at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, a thumb in the eye of the United States. Mr. Assange remains there today. But whether Ecuador’s leftist agenda will continue when Mr. Correa leaves office is unclear. There is the question of oil revenue, for one. As in Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil, the social programs in Ecuador that lifted millions out of poverty were underwritten by a commodities boom that sputtered out years ago. Government revenue, around $25 billion a year when oil prices spiked, has now shrunk to less than half that, $11 billion, mainly because of the declining price of oil. That has left the country heavily indebted to China. Ecuador’s economy ground to a halt last year after growing, on average, 4 percent or more from 2006 to 2014. “The model has reached its end because the money has run out,” said César Robalino, a conservative banker at the Pichincha College of Economists in Quito. Mr. Robalino said Ecuador’s next president, regardless of political affiliation, would need to take a tougher line on spending, reduce the number of government workers and cut subsidies like the ones used to reduce gas prices for all Ecuadoreans. That is the stance championed by the conservative opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso, a wealthy banker from Mr. Correa’s hometown, Guayaquil, who finished second in the last election against him in 2013. Mr. Lasso is promising to roll back public spending while eliminating more than a dozen taxes, which would mean the loss of billions of dollars from state coffers. “What a government should do is facilitate entrepreneurship,” Mr. Lasso said in a TV interview during the campaign, adding that he thought Mr. Correa generated too much employment through jobs. Lenin Moreno, the leading candidate, has promised to do more with less, borrowing when necessary. In a response to written questions, Mr. Moreno said that despite the collapse of oil prices, Mr. Correa had avoided cutting social programs and gas subsidies used by the poor. Mr. Moreno said he would continue that policy if the left won. With about 80 percent of ballots counted on Sunday night, Mr. Moreno, 63, a former deputy of Mr. Correa, was leading with 38. 8 percent, just more than a point short of the threshold needed to avoid a second round in April. Analysts said that if the numbers held, they would create an opening for Mr. Lasso, who was in second place, to unite his and the remaining opposition votes and potentially capture the presidency. If Mr. Moreno wins, he will face the challenge of setting himself apart from his predecessor and his legacy. Mr. Correa has said he will move to Belgium after his term ends, but some argue that if the left remains in power, Mr. Correa will try to influence politics from behind the scenes. “‘I command, I direct,’ is how he thinks,” said Jorge León, a political scientist at the Central University of Ecuador. Mr. León pointed to an authoritarian streak in Mr. Correa that also became a hallmark of leftists in several other South American countries. After changing the Constitution — a move that allowed him to be twice — the president proposed allowing himself to run for a fourth time. (He backtracked when it became clear that popular opinion was against him.) Mr. Correa also tried to make life difficult for his critics during his time in office. He sued journalists, toughened defamation laws and even took over TV channels whose owners criticized him. More recently, he tried to close an environmental group that was stirring up opposition to a planned copper mine in the Amazon. It will be up to Mr. Correa’s successor to decide whether to build on his legacy or reverse it. But those who have tried to forge a different path in the region have faced troubles. President Mauricio Macri of Argentina, despite his vow to revive the country’s economy with policies, has had trouble attracting investment to his country, noted Franklin Ramírez, a professor at the Latin American Social Sciences Institute in Quito. Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, has been dogged by corruption allegations similar to those that brought down leftists. “It’s a little early to speak of the end of a cycle here” for the left, Mr. Ramírez said. “The hegemony of the left has ended,” he said, but added that it was not clear what would replace it. | 0fake
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Gavel Battle: Boehner resignation sparks House leadership scramble | House Speaker John Boehner’s stunning announcement that he will resign his post and seat in Congress sparked chaos on Capitol Hill Friday, with lawmakers immediately jockeying for position ahead of the upcoming reshuffle.
“This is going to be a barn burner of a leadership election,” one source said.
The 13-term Ohio Republican shocked his GOP caucus early Friday morning when he informed them in a closed-door session that he intends to step down at the end of October. One lawmaker told Fox News he was "stunned," and that there was "some anger" in the room "against the people who caused this to happen."
But the drama didn't stop the almost-immediate scramble for his gavel.
Some lawmakers swiftly hit the phones, making intense calls as they jockeyed for position ahead of what could potentially be an overhaul of the entire leadership team.
The immediate favorite to inherit the gavel is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., a Boehner ally. Fox News is told he's actively seeking the post.
Asked about a potential successor, Boehner said that's "up to the members" but then gave McCarthy a near-endorsement: "I think Kevin McCarthy would be an excellent speaker."
But it is far from a done deal, with Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas; Rep. Pete Roskam, R-Ill.; and Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., thought to be potential candidates who could throw their hats into the ring.
Fox News learned late Friday that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La, are both looking at running for the leadership position.
The leadership battle also begins as Congress still struggles over a budget measure and efforts by conservatives to defund Planned Parenthood as part of it. Even if that issue is resolved in the near-term, the next speaker will confront those same partisan divisions.
Not everyone wants that responsibility. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the party's vice presidential nominee in 2012, has already ruled himself out of the race, calling the job “a great job for empty nesters.”
For his part, Roskam attempted to become whip after then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary race last June, and was replaced in leadership by McCarthy – then the majority whip. However, Roskam was beaten by Scalise.
Fox News understands Roskam is one of the lawmakers jockeying for position. When asked for comment, Roskam warned against merely “reshuffling the deck.”
"I'm for somebody who can bridge the divide in our Conference. If we don't have a plan to get us out of this dysfunction, reshuffling the deck won't make anything better. I'm going to work hard to make sure we get the leadership we need, not just settle on the fastest, easiest choice," Roskam said.
An aide to Hensarling told Fox News that he was considering his options and would expect to have a decision next week.
Should McCarthy succeed Boehner, there would be an opening for House majority leader, as well as potentially further down the roster in positions such as majority whip.
Boehner’s backing may help McCarthy’s chances with the establishment, but may hurt him elsewhere.
“[Boehner’s backing] will help him with the establishment but not with the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He may face a challenge [from conservatives] but even the House Freedom Caucus admit they aren’t organized, and so they may not even put up a candidate,” GOP strategist Ron Bonjean told FoxNews.com. “Speed is the key. Waiting can hurt your chances. Members who can get members behind them can build momentum, and a snowball effect allows them to wrap things up. That’s what McCarthy is going for – there’s already a sense of inevitability that he’s getting the job.”
If conservatives do put forward a candidate of their own, Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio and Rep. Ted Yoho R-Fla., are among the names that could be put forward.
Democrats, too, will almost certainly run Boehner’s predecessor -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. -- for the post.
At a press conference Friday afternoon with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Obama also voiced his own general hopes for the next speaker:
“My hope is there’s a recognition on the part of the next speaker, something I think John understood … that we can have significant differences on issues but that doesn’t mean you shut down the government,” Obama said.
Boehner's resignation could make next week's budget battle easier to resolve in the short-term. Conservatives want to use the budget measure to defund Planned Parenthood, and Boehner previously had to worry about an internal party revolt if he tried to strike a deal with Democrats to pass a "clean" budget bill.
However, it also could work the other way. A lame-duck Boehner could open a situation where aspiring GOP leaders are put on the spot and under even more pressure from the conservative wing.
Once Boehner resigns, the total number of members in the House will be 434. An absolute majority of the House is required to elect a new speaker, not a simple majority -- meaning the magic number of votes that a candidate must get is 218.
Once Boehner resigns, the House will be unable to do anything until it elects a new speaker.
Boehner’s resignation is rare, but not unprecedented. The last speaker to resign in the middle of a Congress was Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas who resigned in 1989 amid an ethics scandal.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram and FoxNews.com's Adam Shaw contributed to this report | 0fake
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OBAMA RACES TO SET GITMO TERRORISTS FREE…Leaves Servicemen Punished For Making “Heat-of-the-battle decisions that saved lives” In Fort Leavenworth | It s hard to imagine a President who could be more anti-American and more pro-terror than Barack Hussein Obama. And then my mind drifts to Hillary and Benghazi The Obama administration is emptying the military s Guantanamo Bay detention facility of avowed terrorists captured fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, but several American service members languish in another military prison for actions on those same battlefields that their supporters say merit clemency, if not gratitude.Among the prison population at Fort Leavenworth, in Kansas, are remaining members of the so-called Leavenworth 10, convicted service members doing terms ranging from 10 to 40 years for heat-of-the-battle decisions their supporters say saved American lives.[quote_box_center] The very people who protect our freedoms and liberties are having their own freedoms and liberties taken away, said retired U.S. Army Col. Allen West, a former congressman and political commentator. I think it s appalling and no one is talking about this issue. [/quote_box_center]The Leavenworth 10 is the name given to a fluctuating number of men housed at Leavenworth for actions in Iraq and Afghanistan that their supporters say were justified. Over the years, a handful have been paroled, and more have been incarcerated.Among the more well-known cases is that of Army First Lt. Clint Lorance, who is serving a 20-year sentence for ordering his men to shoot two suspected Taliban scouts in July 2012 in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan. Lorance had just taken command of the platoon after the prior leader and several others were killed days before. The Taliban suspects were on motorcycles and matched descriptions given by a pilot who flew over the area earlier and spotted them as scouts.A Facebook page devoted to Lorance s case has drawn more than 12,000 likes, and supporters have launched a website, FreeClintLorance.com, dedicated to winning his release. A WhiteHouse.gov petition calling for Lorance to be pardoned garnered nearly 125,000 signatures, but the White House has not taken action.Critics say Lorance was given a military trial, and his conviction was based in large part on the testimony of men serving under him.It was September of 2010 when Sgt. Derrick Miller of Maryland, on a combat mission in a Taliban-held area of Afghanistan, was warned the unit s base had been penetrated. An Afghan suspected of being an enemy combatant was brought to Miller for interrogation and wound up dead. Miller claimed the suspect tried to grab his gun and that he shot him in self-defense. But he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.U.S. Army Master Sgt. John Hatley a highly decorated, 20-year vet who served in Operation Desert Storm and did another three tours during the Iraq War also is serving a life sentence at Leavenworth. His conviction stems from an April, 2007, incident in Iraq in which he and his unit captured enemies following a firefight. He radioed a U.S. detention facility to notify officials he was bringing in four prisoners, but was ordered to let them go, according to his legal team.Two years later, a sergeant who had served with Hatley, Jesse Cunningham, was facing charges for assaulting another officer and falling asleep at his post. As leverage for a plea deal, he told investigators that Hatley and two other officers had taken the insurgents to a remote location, blindfolded them and shot each in the back of the head. He claimed their bodies were dumped in a canal, though none was ever found.Hatley, now 47, insists he and his men let the insurgents go, but believes he was punished in the interest of the government s relations with Baghdad. When concerns over appeasing a foreign country are allowed to interfere with justice for the purpose of the U.S. government or the military demonstrating that we, the military or the U.S. government will hold our soldiers accountable using a fatally flawed military judicial system, it doesn t matter what the truth is; it matters only that there is only the appearance of the truth, he wrote in a message to supporters posted on freeJohnHatley.com.Law experts say military service members face a daunting task once accused of committing crimes in the heat of war. Killing on the battlefield is not the same as [a police officer] killing someone on the streets, Dan Conway, an attorney who specializes in military law, told FoxNews.com. When a cop uses force, there s a line of duty investigation. When a soldier uses force, it is investigated as criminal, and non-infantry investigators handle the case, many who have no combat experience. If you had experts handling the investigation, you d have much more balance, he added.While the military rightly holds its soldiers to a high standard of justice, detainees housed at Guantanamo Bay have been freed even with no mitigating circumstances or reasonable belief of rehabilitation. The release of Gitmo detainees began during the presidency of George W. Bush in 2005 when nearly 200 detainees were released before any tribunals were held.According to a March 2015 memo released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, of the 647 detainees transferred or released, 17.9 percent were confirmed of re-engaging in extremist activity with another 10.7 percent suspected of doing the same. Via: FOX News | 1real
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NEW POLL Asks Trump Voters If They’d Vote For Him Again…Liberal Heads Will Explode When They See The Results | One year later, and Donald Trump s supporters couldn t be happier with their choice for President. Prepare for liberal heads to explode in 5 4 3 2 1According to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted on the eve of the first anniversary of Trump s historic election, 82 percent of those who say they supported Trump last year would vote for him again if they had to do it over. That s slightly more than those who say they would vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton again 78 percent if they had the chance.Only 7 percent of Trump voters and 8 percent of Clinton voters say they would vote for a different candidate if they could complete their 2016 ballot again.Trump s supporters have largely rallied around the president, despite his poor overall approval ratings, the chaos of his first year in office and the ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.But there are worrying signs for Trump that voters are less inclined to give him a second term three years from now if he decides to run for reelection.Those red flags go beyond the natural, downward trajectory of most new presidents. Like Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush saw their parties lose governorships in both New Jersey and Virginia the year after their first elections as president. But both Obama and Bush had job-approval ratings over 50 percent at this point.While most Trump voters would back him in a 2016 do-over, some defect when asked whether they will vote for Trump or a generic, unnamed Democrat in 2020. About three-quarters of Trump voters, 76 percent, back Trump in the 2020 matchup, while 8 percent would support the Democrat. Politico | 1real
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PETITION TO STOP GEORGE SOROS VOTING MACHINES HITS 100K | posted by Eddie
A White House petition to remove Soros-owned electronic voting machines has passed the 100k votes necessary for a response. Will America finally stand up to global elite rigging our elections? The U.K.-based company Smartmatic has sent voting machines to important battleground states across the US including Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. “Other jurisdictions affected are California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin,” noted the Daily Caller . “Smartmatic Chairman Mark Malloch-Brown is a former U.N. official and sits on the board of Soros’ Open Society Foundations.” The discovery has caused concern among the US voting populace given Soros’ deep ties with Clinton. Soros Linked Voting Machines To Be Used In Key Battleground States
source: | 1real
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Stephen Colbert Explains The Horrifying Future Of The GOP Primary Race (VIDEO) | With only three clowns left in GOP clown car, Republicans are doing everything they can to prevent Donald Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination. During a segment on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert hilariously mocks Trump s victory tantrum and explains the only two ways to stop Trump from securing the nomination.Since the Republican primary race is being dominated by a has been reality TV star, Colbert appropriately likens the race to The Bachelor. Colbert lampoons Ohio governor John Kasich s claim that he can still win the nomination after his only win in Ohio. Colbert quips that Kasich would have to be made the governor of every remaining state in the U.S. in order for the candidate to have any real chance of winning the nomination.So, even though Kasich has not dropped out of the race, the only possible person left in the race who could defeat Trump is The Zodiac Killer Ted Cruz. That isn t good news for the GOP or the U.S. Cruz, while he has yet to start a race riot at a campaign event, is actually far worse than Trump in terms of policy. Cruz is also incredibly creepy. Colbert jokes at the idea of Cruz winning the Republican nomination, saying: If every single Trump voter unites behind him, he could get enough delegates to be the nominee. Then the GOP establishment can say, Goodbye, candidate we don t like! Hello, candidate, we can t stand! If Cruz cannot secure enough votes to secure the nomination, Republicans will have one final shot at defeating Trump a brokered convention. So if Trump doesn t get to 1,237 delegates in the first round of voting, they re all free to vote for whoever. Which is great news. The Republican campaign can start all over again, only this time it s all crammed into one week. You can binge watch the death of the GOP! You can watch the segment, in full, below.Featured image from video screenshot | 1real
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WATCH WHO RACIST DINGBAT TX Rep Sheila Jackson-Lee Blames For Leaked Emails [VIDEO] | Besides Nancy Pelosi, there really isn t a dumber person in Congress than Sheila Jackson-Lee(D-TX). Watch her blame leaked emails on Wikipedia, the online source for information. Uhhh perhaps when you re criticizing someone on TV, you should know who you re criticizing:https://twitter.com/WDFx2EU7/status/789491508781035521Believe it or not, this is not one of the stupidest things she has ever said. Here are a few of Jackson-Lee s greatest hits:Here s Jackson -Lee telling fellow members of Congress that our Constitution is 400 years old:Sheila Jackson-Lee is not only one of the stupidest people in DC, she is also one of the most racist. Here she is blaming Congress for not wanting to raise the debt limit because their racists :Here is black billionaire Herman Cain s response to dingbat, racist Sheila Jackson-Lee s ignorant comments:Here s Jackson-Lee telling congressional colleagues how much money Americans have to squander. Watch her call for martial law over the non-support of Obamacare by Americans: | 1real
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null | Obamas blunder. | 1real
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Richest Man In The World Puts Trump In His Place On Donating To Charity | Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. Unlike Donald Trump, there has been independent verification of his net worth, which is currently estimated to be about $76 billion. Also unlike Trump, Gates made his money by selling actual products to people and not on the sort of smoke-and-mirrors flim flam that is currently being exposed at Trump University.At a recent event, the topic of Trump s claim that he donated to veteran s charities came up, and Gates who heads one of the largest charities in the world made a dig at the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.Gates took the jab at Trump during an interview alongside his wife, Melinda, at a panel discussion hosted by the news outlet ReCode. He hasn t been known for his philanthropy. He s been known for other things, Gates said to laughter, when asked if the presumptive GOP presidential nominee had been approached to sign a pledge to give away at least half of his wealth to philanthropic causes.Trump was shown to only cut checks to veteran groups after the Washington Post asked him to back up his boasting about donating $6 million months ago on the same day he boycotted a Fox News debate, arguing that moderator Megyn Kelly had been mean to him.By comparison the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation already has $44 billion at its disposal, thanks to the couple parting with some of the money generated from Microsoft. It has made major investments around the world in education, health, and more.Gates and his wife Melinda are also part of a group of the super-rich who have signed The Giving Pledge in which they promise to give more than half of their wealth to charity during their lifetimes, or in their wills. Several real life billionaires have signed the pledge, including Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and others. But they haven t approached Trump yet.Melinda Gates, with a smirk, said the couple has not approached Trump, adding that they are still working their way down Fortune s list of billionaires. We don t have any immediate plans to approach him, she said. I think we should probably let this cycle play itself out before we do anything related to that. Gates may just be being polite. Previous reporting has indicated that Trump may not even be worth $1 billion, far less than the $10 billion he has been claiming. He has refused to release his tax returns, which some believe proves he is hiding that he is a millionaire and not a billionare.Featured image via Flickr | 1real
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ABC NEWS: Hillary Swore Under Oath Not To Accept $$$ From Foreign Donors [Video] | The video below is a great snapshot of what was going on with the Clinton foundation and huge donors from all over the world. Hillary treated the State Department like an arm of The Clinton Foundation | 1real
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Hariri says will clarify position on Lebanese crisis on his return to Beirut | PARIS (Reuters) - Lebanon s Saad al-Hariri said on Saturday he would travel to Beirut in the coming days and announce his position on the crisis in his country after holding talks with President Michel Aoun. With regard to the political situation in Lebanon, I will go to Beirut in the coming days, I will participate in the independence celebrations, and it is there that I will make known my position on these subjects after meeting President Aoun, Hariri said after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. | 0fake
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Suppressing free press is 'how dictators get started': Senator McCain | MUNICH (Reuters) - Senator John McCain, defending the media against the latest attack by President Donald Trump, warned that suppressing the free press was “how dictators get started”. The Arizona Republican, a frequent critic of Trump, was responding to a tweet in which Trump accused the media of being “the enemy of the American people”. The international order established after World War Two was built in part on a free press, McCain said in an excerpt of an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that was released in advance of the full Sunday morning broadcast. “I hate the press. I hate you especially,” he told interviewer Chuck Todd from an international security conference in Munich. “But the fact is we need you. We need a free press. We must have it. It’s vital.” “If you want to preserve - I’m very serious now - if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started,” he continued. “They get started by suppressing free press. In other words, a consolidation of power. When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press. And I’m not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I’m just saying we need to learn the lessons of history,” McCain said. U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, told the conference on Sunday she was also concerned about Trump’s comments. “The real danger is the president’s criticism of the media,” Shaheen told the conference. “A free press ... is very important to maintaining democracy, and efforts on the part of a president to undermine and manipulate the press are very dangerous.” The comments from U.S. lawmakers followed Trump’s tweet and came days after the president held a raucous news conference at which he repeatedly criticized news reports about disorder in the White House and leaks of his telephone conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized the importance of a free press at the conference on Saturday, saying, “I have high respect for journalists. We’ve always had good results, at least in Germany, by relying on mutual respect.” | 0fake
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Ted Cruz Busts Elon Musk for Flying Private Jet While Lecturing Trump on Global Warming - Breitbart | Sen. Ted Cruz ( ) ripped into Tesla CEO Elon Musk Thursday night for his use of a private jet after the tech billionaire tweeted his disapproval of President Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. [Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, took to Twitter to announce that he would be departing from all future presidential councils in protest of President Trump’s decision to pull the U. S. out of the Paris Climate Accord. He assured his followers that global warming is real and that leaving the Paris accords is “not good” for America or the world. Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017, Hours later, Cruz mocked Musk’s outrage, pointing out that he regularly travels around the country in his own private jet. If the billionaire CEO was so dedicated to reducing the world’s carbon output, Cruz snarked, he would choose to fly commercial planes rather than private ones. In support of Paris, CA billionaires pledge to never again fly private, will only fly commercial. — will quit symbolic councils instead. https: . — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 2, 2017, Musk has come under fire previously for his liberal use of his private jet, which he upgraded last year from a Dassault Falcon 900 B to a Gulfstream G650 ER. It was reported in 2010 that Musk took private jets to Washington on at least 12 occasions over the course of two years to lobby the Department of Energy for a loan of $465 million, which Musk’s company Tesla was eventually granted. Around the same time, Tesla also struck deals with the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority that made the company exempt from up to $320 million in California State sales and U. S. taxes. Musk has been a vocal supporter of carbon taxes, saying, “All we are doing [with a carbon tax] is trying to match the inherent subsidy for fossil fuels … on the sustainable energy side. Fossil fuels are already getting a massive subsidy if you believe in global warming. If you don’t then [the subsidy] seems really unfair. If you do then it is like oh we are just trying to correct it. ” Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 0fake
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JULIAN ASSANGE REVEALS John Podesta’s Hilarious Email Password…”A 14 Year Old Kid Could’ve Hacked Podesta” [VIDEO] | 1real
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BLACK FEMALE RAPPER Endorses Trump: “Black Folks Have Been Voting Democrat For Last 70 Years And We Don’t Have Shit To Show For It…Hillary Treats Us Like ‘PETS'” | We may not agree with MOST of what rapper Azalea Banks has to say, but she is a fierce defender of free speech and as such, has come out with a flurry of in-your-face tweets to the black, typically Democrat voters, announcing her supporting Donald Trump. Donald Trump can add another member of Hollywood to his list of supporters.Azalea Banks offered her support for Donald Trump in a series of tweets that started out with, I REALLY want Donald Trump to win the election. She went on to say Trump just wants the U.S. to be lavish for all of us. Her tweet seems to suggest that Trump wants everyone to have the opportunity to prosper in America. She followed it up by saying, Hillary talks to black people as if we re children or pets. i can t stand herrrrr. When her followers called her out, suggesting Trump was a racist and symbol of hatred, Banks replied:Banks defends her right to her opinion against angry Twitter followers over her endorsement of Trump: It wasn t that long ago Azealia Banks called for the gang rape of Sarah Palin. We re not so sure her endorsement is one that Donald Trump will embrace. | 1real
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Bannon Allies: Breitbart Return Imminent, Gear Up For War On Trump’s ‘Democrat White House’ | Prior to being on Donald Trump s campaign, and later his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon ran Breitbart news. That particular internet news outlet is known for its promotion of racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and other various forms of overt bigotry. They have also always been huge Trump supporters. However, that may be changing now that Bannon is out as Trump s White House Chief Strategist.According to journalist Gabriel Sherman, Breitbart is about to unleash to the full force of far-right media on the Trump Administration. Bannon could be set to return to Breitbart, where he will wage a full-on war on Trump s quote, Democrat White House. Source close to Bannon confirms Bannon expected to return to Breitbart after a WH exit Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) August 18, 2017Bannon friend says Breitbart ramping up for war against Trump. "It's now a Democrat White House," source says. Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) August 18, 2017Now, with his racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ views, Trump is far from being in line with the mainstream Democratic Party. The fact remains, though, that Trump himself was once a Democrat and that is not ancient history. His own kids couldn t vote for him in the GOP primaries because they forgot to unregister as Democrats and re-register as Republicans. He has given money to top Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. Further, two of Trump s most trusted confidantes, Ivanka and Jared, are huge supporters of traditional Democratic causes, such as LGBTQ rights, climate change action, and women s right to choose.So, we can expect a shift to the left if Trump listens to his daughter and son-in-law with Bannon gone, and therefore we can expect ripe fruit for infighting between right-wing media and the Trump White House. It really does seem as if the GOP made a Faustian deal with their proverbial devil, and they are losing. That s terrible for Trump but great for America.Pop your popcorn folks, and keep watching. This is about to get VERY interesting. Let s just hope the republic survives it.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1real
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Republican Senator Arrested After Attacking Landscaper With Shovel, ‘Other Lawn Equipment’ (VIDEO) | Mississippi senator Chris Massey, who is chair of the state ethics committee, was arrested on assault charges early last week.WMCA reports that the republican senator and his father started a brawl with a local landscaper and one of his employees, who were trying to reach the home of a client.Massey and his father, Jack Massey, reportedly blocked the road, refusing to let the landscaping truck pass.An argument broke out, which escalated after the senator spit in the face of the landscaping employee. He spit in my employee s face and it made him so mad, so he pushed him off him and that s when the old man reached in the truck and got a shovel, the landscaper told reporters.According to WMCA, the situation escalated quickly and resulted in a shovel, tire iron, and other lawn equipment being swung. At one point Massey even threatened to get a gun from his vehicle.Eventually the police arrived and brought the situation under control. Massey and his father are both facing aggravated assault charges. The landscaping employee is also facing charges.During an interview with WMCA, the homeowner who hired the landscaping company said: It makes me mad that they would treat him like he is nobody and wouldn t let him come down the street. According to neighbors, this is not the first time that the Massey family has caused problems in the Olive Branch, Mississippi community.Neighbor Dale Spikes told the station that Jack Massey tried to get him to come out and brawl with him in the street. Spikes said he has been forced to call police on the family several times. He even went as far as to make a sign warning other people about them. He s the Chair of the Ethics committee, and that is very, very, scary, Spikes told WMCA.Here s more on the story from WMCA.WMC Action News 5 Memphis, TennesseeFeatured image via video screen capture WMCA | 1real
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Once credited with Trump's success, Bannon quickly fell from grace | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When President Donald Trump fired White House chief strategist and former campaign manager Steve Bannon on Friday, it was almost like bidding goodbye to a part of himself. Trump’s most polarizing stances on matters such as immigration and national security closely tracked Bannon’s “America First” anti-globalist worldview. Despite their close alignment, Trump was always reluctant to credit Bannon with the stunning electoral victory of November 2016, often noting Bannon, 63, came late to the campaign, joining only after Trump had secured the Republican nomination. He rewarded Bannon, nonetheless, giving him a top job in the administration. But as the White House grew increasingly chaotic in the early months of Trump’s presidency, Bannon clashed with more mainstream advisers, including, most crucially, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump. Trump was reportedly unhappy with the attention that Bannon got early on as the architect of Trump’s campaign, and with Bannon’s tendency to promote himself, as he operated an almost independent power center within the West Wing. Ultimately, Bannon wore out his welcome. Trump fired him at the urging of his new chief of staff, John Kelly, who has been working to reorganize the White House and limit access to Trump. The dismissal could have political repercussions. Bannon was viewed as the administration’s conduit to Trump’s rabid political base. Bannon’s departure may antagonize some of Trump’s most passionate supporters, who fear that without Bannon, Trump will move closer to the Republican political establishment. “We are extremely disappointed,” Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, a conservative advocacy group, said in a statement. On specific policies, Bannon was credited with helping craft the administration’s “travel ban,” which restricted emigration to the United States from some mostly Muslim countries, as well as Trump’s opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and the Paris global climate accord. Bannon has been seen as wary of U.S. intervention abroad, arguing against sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. In recent months, Bannon has battled for influence inside the White House with Trump’s national security adviser, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, a tension that was destabilizing Trump’s team of top advisers, senior officials have told Reuters. Trump himself has suggested Bannon’s influence was overstated. While Bannon was viewed as perhaps responsible for Trump’s initial response to the violence last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, when he blamed both sides for the confrontation, Trump said this week that he never spoke to Bannon about the matter. Bannon may return to the provocateur role he played at the right-wing Breitbart News website, where he spearheaded its shift into a forum for the “alt-right,” a loose online confederation of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. Under Bannon’s leadership, the Breitbart site presented a number of conspiracy theories about former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as Republicans deemed to be lacking in conservative bona fides. Whether he returns to Breitbart and uses it to challenge the so-called “cucks” and “globalists” he disdains - and perhaps Trump himself - will be closely watched in coming weeks. Bannon is a former U.S. Navy officer, Goldman Sachs investment banker and Hollywood producer. Almost immediately after Bannon’s departure became public, Breitbart published a piece calling him “the conservative spine” of the administration and questioning whether Trump would now move in a more moderate direction. Another Breitbart editor, Raheem Kassam, posted a picture of Bannon on Twitter with the caption Bannon 2020, seemingly suggesting that Bannon, not Trump, should be president. | 0fake
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TWELVE ON TRUMP TRANSITION TEAM Announced Today…It’s All In The Family! | Donald Trump values loyalty in a big way so who better than his incredible children to lead the team for his transition to the presidency. If you ve been following the children of Trump on the campaign trail then you know they re smart and very business savvy.Trump moved away from Christ Christie and chose VP Mike Pence as the leader of the team another great choice!The list of 12 via the NYT:The president-elect told advisers he wanted to tap Mr. Pence s Washington experience and contacts to help move the process along, according to people familiar with the discussions. An executive committee including members of Congress will advise Mr. Pence as the process moves forward.Mr. Christie, along with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who has been a top campaign supporter, will serve as vice chairmen of the transition, the sources said.The transition team is adding 12 members, including a Republican donor, Rebekah Mercer; Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump s campaign chairman; Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee; Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal; Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee; and three of Mr. Trump s adult children and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. | 1real
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Trump judicial nominee withdraws from consideration | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A lawyer nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as a federal judge withdrew from consideration on Monday after video of his Senate confirmation hearing showing him unable to provide answers to rudimentary legal questions went viral last week. Trump accepted Matthew Petersen’s offer to withdraw his nomination as a district court judge in Washington, a White House official said. Petersen, a Republican member of the Federal Election Commission, became the latest of Trump’s judicial nominations to fail as the president seeks to win confirmation of judges who will make the federal judiciary more conservative. “Just because you’ve seen ‘My Cousin Vinny’ doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge,” Republican Senator John Kennedy, who grilled Petersen during his Dec. 13 confirmation hearing, told WWL-TV, referring to the 1992 comedy film about a novice lawyer. Kennedy, who has been critical of some of Trump’s judicial nominees, asked several basic legal questions that Petersen could not answer. The video was shown on cable news shows and widely viewed on the internet. “While I am honored to have been nominated for this position, it has become clear to me over the past few days that my nomination has become a distraction - and that is not fair to you or your administration,” Petersen wrote in his withdrawal letter to Trump. “I had hoped that my nearly two decades of public service might carry more weight than my two worst minutes on television,” Petersen added. Petersen became the third Trump judicial pick whose nomination foundered in the past week. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said last week Trump’s nominations of Jeff Mateer and Brett Talley would not move forward. Both had faced criticism for controversial statements. Talley was reported by online magazine Slate as having posted online sympathetic comments about the early history of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) white supremacist group. He also failed to disclose that his wife works in the White House counsel’s office, which overseas judicial nominations. Mateer ran into trouble over 2015 speeches including one in which he referred to transgender children as being part of “Satan’s plans,” CNN reported. Despite those setbacks, Trump has made significant progress in filling vacancies on the federal courts with conservative judges, including 12 on the important courts of appeal. He also appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Courts, restoring the high court’s conservative majority. | 0fake
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EU says needs concrete evidence from Turkey to deem Gulen network as terrorist | ANKARA (Reuters) - The European Union does not share Turkey s view that the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen is a terrorist organization and would need to see substantive evidence to change its stance, the EU s counter-terrorism coordinator said. The comments by Gilles de Kerchove are likely to infuriate Ankara, which accuses Gulen of masterminding a failed military coup last year, in which more than 250 people were killed. Gulen has denied the charge and condemned the coup. Turkey has long accused its NATO allies, including the United States and Germany, of failing to condemn the abortive putsch strongly enough, saying they appeared more concerned by Ankara s ensuing crackdown on suspected supporters of the coup. As for FETO, we don t see it as a terrorist organization, and I don t believe the EU is likely to change its position soon, Kerchove said, using the Turkish government s acronym for Gulen s network. You need not only circumstantial evidence - like just downloading an app - but concrete substantive data which shows that they were involved..., he told Reuters in an interview cleared for publication on Thursday. Turkish authorities have detained some 50,000 people, including teachers, police officers, journalists and U.S. consular staff for alleged links to Gulen s network. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs. Some have been detained for having downloaded ByLock, a messaging app the government says was used by the coup plotters. Others have been detained for having had telephone calls with ByLock users. Human rights groups and some EU officials accuse Erdogan of using the crackdown to muzzle dissent in Turkey, a charge Ankara denies. It says the scale of the clampdown is justified because the Gulen network threatens national security. Gulen was once an ally of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party and his movement ran schools, banks and media outlets in Turkey until the two men had a public falling-out in 2013. Germany s BND spy agency has said it is not convinced that Gulen was behind the failed coup, in which rogue soldiers used tanks and helicopters to attack Turkey s parliament and other key targets. Turkey has also sought, so far unsuccessfully, Gulen s extradition from the United States, where the cleric has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999. U.S. officials say their courts require sufficient evidence to order his extradition. As of July, Turkey had supplied 84 boxes of documents to the United States for evidence, Ankara s envoy to Washington has said, although he has acknowledged that more concrete evidence of Gulen s direct involvement has remained elusive. Germany, which has sharply criticized the mass arrests in Turkey, has refused to extradite people Ankara says were involved in the plot or linked to Gulen s network. The decision on extradition is in the hands of all member states, and most of the time the judiciary, the independent judiciary, and they need hard evidence, Kerchove said. | 0fake
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See Who Sarah Palin Just Compared Donald Trump To – It Will Make You Queasy (IMAGE) | Seldom in life do you come across someone so dumb that they literally make you cringe, but alas, Sarah Palin is one of those people. And if her general presence doesn t make you cringe then hearing her speak will, but if that still doesn t do it to you, just wait until you hear what she has to say.In her latest bout of idiocy, she took to her favorite pastime of posting on Facebook for her imbecilic following. What is it that she posted this time? Well, Palin posted an image of her new BFF Donald Trump with a quote by none other than Mahatma Gandhi. Yes, really, that Gandhi.This is the quote she used: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ <span class="mceItemHidden" data-mce-bogus="1"><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span>(function(d, s, id) { var js, <span class="mceItemHidden" data-mce-bogus="1"><span class="hiddenSpellError" pre="" data-mce-bogus="1">fjs</span></span> = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; <span class="hiddenSpellError" pre="" data-mce-bogus="1">fjs</span>.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', '<span class="hiddenSpellError" pre="" data-mce-bogus="1">facebook-jssdk</span>')); // ]]>Posted by Sarah Palin on Wednesday, February 24, 2016This quote has long been used by civil rights pioneers in their quest for justice and equality. For Palin to equate the bombastic and racist Trump to that of not only Gandhi, but those who have long been fighting for justice, is not only inaccurate, but outright disgusting. Trump is exactly opposite of everything Gandhi stood for.She s trying to say that no one took Trump seriously and now that he s the likely GOP nominee he may go on to win. However, what she doesn t get, is the fact that Trump, as well as herself, are still jokes not to be taken seriously. Their brand of politics is toxic not only to the GOP, but to the nation and the world. Her idiocy really knows no bounds, and by equating Trump to Gandhi she proves, yet again, how truly stupid she is.Featured image: Flickr | 1real
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Bernie Sanders Releases Scathing Statement On Rick Snyder Over The Flint Water Crisis | On Saturday, Bernie Sanders released a much-anticipated statement on Michigan s governor Rick Snyder and the Flint water crisis. In the statement, Sanders calls for Snyder to resign. There are no excuses. The governor long ago knew about the lead in Flint s water. He did nothing. As a result, hundreds of children were poisoned. Thousands may have been exposed to potential brain damage from lead. Gov. Snyder should resign, Sanders said in a press release.In April 2014, Flint s emergency manager forced the city to switch from using Detroit s water system to using the Flint River for water. The decision to do so was touted as a means to cut costs for the city. It turned out to be a disaster. There is an unusual amount of salt in the Flint River. The river is also extremely contaminated. So when the salt began to corrode the pipes of Flint s water system, lead leaked into people s drinking water.One study found the pipe corrosion problem could have been solved for as little as $100 a day. Now it is estimated that it will cost up to $1.5 billion dollars to fix Flint s water system. There has been massive outcry over the water system transition since day one. When evidence was shown that Flint s water had become contaminated, Snyder and the emergency manager choose not to act. That s why Snyder is currently being investigated by the EPA.Just before the new year, Snyder released an official apology to the people of Flint and Michigan. Considering people are so angry at Snyder, that they are calling for his arrest, the apology has been almost universally lambasted. I want the Flint community to know how very sorry I am that this happened. And I want all Michigan citizens to know that we will learn from this experience, because Flint is not the only city that has an aging infrastructure, Snyder said in the apology.Sanders, like so many others was critical of that apology. Because of the conduct by Gov. Snyder s administration and his refusal to take responsibility, families will suffer from lead poisoning for the rest of their lives. Children in Flint will be plagued with brain damage and other health problems. The people of Flint deserve more than an apology, Sanders said.Sanders is absolutely right, Snyder should resign. It is the only move he could make that would leave him with a scrape of dignity. Every moment that Snyder continues to stay in office, is a slap in the face to residents of Flint and the rest of Michigan. Though, I am sure Snyder won t resign.Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) | 1real
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Leaders Struggle to Unite House Republicans Behind Health Bill - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — The House bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act faced an uncertain fate on Wednesday as conservative Republicans pushed to eliminate federal requirements that health insurance plans provide certain benefits to consumers. House Republican leaders met with members of their party late into the night on Wednesday as they struggled to muster support for the bill, scheduled for a vote on the House floor on Thursday. President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, worked through the day to placate conservative House Republicans who said that the bill did not do enough to lower health insurance costs by reducing federal regulations. The legislation would roll back major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, a significantpillar of President Barack Obama’s legacy. But in trying to satisfy conservatives, the Trump administration and House Republican leaders risked jeopardizing support for the bill among more moderate Republicans. On the eve of the crucial vote, party leaders appeared to be short of a majority and were working into the night to whip their members into line. Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, expressed optimism on Wednesday night that talks with Republican leaders would lead to revisions to the bill. “We’re encouraged tonight, just based on the real willingness of not only the White House, but our leadership, to make this bill better,” Mr. Meadows said, crediting the personal involvement of Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence. But Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania and a leader of a moderate bloc of lawmakers known as the Tuesday Group, said late Wednesday night that he would oppose the bill. “I believe this bill, in its current form, will lead to the loss of coverage and make insurance unaffordable for too many Americans, particularly for income and older individuals,” Mr. Dent said. And the powerful conservative network funded by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch issued a direct challenge to the president and said that it would provide financial support to members who voted against the plan. “We will stand with lawmakers who keep their promise and oppose this legislation,” said James Davis, executive vice president of Freedom Partners, the umbrella organization responsible for the Koch brothers’ political efforts. About two dozen conservative Republicans, including Freedom Caucus members, met Wednesday with top administration officials, including Mr. Pence and Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump. “I don’t think they changed any minds,” Representative Randy Weber, Republican of Texas, said after the meeting. The tenacity and persistence of the conservatives appeared to give them outsize influence as Mr. Ryan struggled to round up votes for the repeal bill, which faces solid opposition from House Democrats. Supporters of their bill have put their faith in Mr. Trump, whose young presidency could be badly damaged by a public and consequential loss. “When the president calls someone and says, ‘I need your vote on this,’ it’s very hard to say no to the president of the United States when this torpedoes our entire conference, Trump’s entire presidency, and we end up losing the Senate next year and we lose members in the House,” said Representative Chris Collins, Republican of New York and a top Trump supporter in the House. But conservative opposition was over substance, not politics. Conservatives are upset over the failure of the House bill to repeal a set of regulations in Mr. Obama’s signature health law, which require insurers to cover a base set of benefits, like maternity care, preventive services, wellness checkups and rehabilitative services. These “essential health benefits” raise the cost of insurance and prevent companies from offering options, the conservatives say. “How can you talk about repealing the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, without repealing the essential health benefits?” asked Representative Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican who attended the meeting with Mr. Pence. Republican leaders say that if the House makes such changes to the bill, it could imperil their ability to push the legislation through the Senate using expedited procedures that neutralize the threat of a filibuster. Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, likened the swirling cloud of uncertainty to the situation in November 2003, when the House approved a bill adding prescription drug benefits to Medicare after a vote that lasted nearly three hours in the middle of the night. The bill passed, 220 to 215, after House Republican leaders put down a conservative rebellion. “It’s tough to pass controversial things, especially when Republicans have different ideas,” Mr. Simpson said. Eventually, he predicted, House leaders will get the votes they need, though they may need to tweak the repeal bill. Representative Scott DesJarlais, Republican of Tennessee, said the administration tried to sell the House bill, known as the American Health Care Act, by arguing that it could be improved later in the Senate. But House members rarely relish handing their political fate to the other chamber. “I am more skeptical,” Mr. DesJarlais said. “I like to see what I’m going to get when I vote for it, not promises that I get later. ” Asked if supporters of the bill had the votes to pass it in the House, Mr. DesJarlais said, “I don’t think they do. ” A spokeswoman for the Freedom Caucus, Alyssa Farah, said that more than 25 members of the caucus were “no” votes on the health care measure — enough to sink the bill in the House, though that count could not be independently verified. Representative Andy Harris, Republican of Maryland, said that despite recent changes to the health care bill, he was unable to vote for it. “This legislation simply won’t lower premiums as much as the American people need, and lowering the cost of coverage is my primary goal,” said Mr. Harris, an anesthesiologist and member of the Freedom Caucus. House leaders were also contending with opposition from more moderate Republicans worried about the toll that the health bill could take in their districts. Representative Dan Donovan of New York, who attended a meeting at the White House with Mr. Trump on Tuesday, said Wednesday that he would vote against the bill. “Recognizing that the status quo is failing isn’t, on its own, a compelling reason to vote ‘yes’ on the current replacement plan,” said Mr. Donovan, the only Republican House member from New York City. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said he was sure the House would pass the repeal bill. “Slowly but surely we’re getting there,” he said. “There is no Plan B. There’s Plan A and Plan A. We’re going to get this done. ” | 0fake
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Dakota Access Caught Infiltrating Protests to Incite Violence, Funding Trolls Online | posted by Eddie You know the Dakota Access Pipeline protests are working when oil interests start resorting to underhanded tricks to paint water protectors in a negative light. As the fight against the pipeline grows in North Dakota and around the country, dirty tricks are being deployed in an apparent attempt to delegitimize the opposition. Dakota Access Employee Tries to Incite Violence, Sheriff’s Department Makes False Report That He Was Shot by Protesters Mother Jones journalist Wes Enzinna, who was at the protests, says he witnessed a Dakota Access LLC employee try to infiltrate the Dakota Access Pipeline protests: “An armed security agent employed by the company behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline was arrested Thursday after he was caught entering the camp of activists protesting near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in southern North Dakota. After a car chase and a standoff during which he allegedly pointed his assault rifle at a local Sioux teenager, the man, whose ID indicated he was an employee of Dakota Access LLC, was arrested and handed over to the FBI.” According to an official statement from the tribe, the man fired several shots from his gun before being peacefully apprehended by tribal police. Witnesses at the scene say he pointed his gun at several protesters. The man was clearly trying to provoke violence that could later be used to demonize protesters who have so far remained peaceful. The Morton County Sheriff’s Department circulated a false report claiming the man was shot, presumably by protesters. As you can see in the images above, the man was not harmed. The Sheriff’s Department has since retracted that report. Anti-Media ’s attempts to obtain clarifying comments from Morton County Sheriff’s were ignored.
Fake Internet Trolls Slam Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, Promote Pipeline on Twitter
With very little organic support for the Dakota Access Pipeline remaining, groups allied with the pipeline builders now seem to be creating paid Internet trolls or bots to slam protesters while praising the pipeline. DESMOG , an environmental blog, conducted an investigation and found what it says are “sock puppet” accounts tied to an oil industry lobby operating on Twitter: “A DeSmog investigation has revealed the possibility that a front group supporting the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) — the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now (MAIN) — may have created fake Twitter profiles, known by some as ‘sock puppets,’ to convey a pro-pipeline message over social media. And MAIN may be employing the PR services of the firm DCI Group, which has connections to the Republican Party, in order to do so. “DeSmog tracked down at least 16 different questionable Twitter accounts which used the #NoDAPL hashtag employed by protesters, in order to claim that opposition to the pipeline kills jobs, that those protesting the pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s encampment use violence, and that the pipeline does not pose a risk to water sources or cross over tribal land. “On September 13, people began to suspect these accounts were fake, calling them out on Twitter , and by September 14, most of the accounts no longer existed.”
With the Dakota Access Pipeline builders resorting to backhanded trickery, it’s clear the tide is turning against the pipeline following law enforcement’s overwhelming militarized crackdown of the protests. source: | 1real
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5 Shows to See in New York When You Have Only an Hour - The New York Times | Crunched for time but still want to see a show in New York? Here are five productions this month that will take about a “Homeland” episode of your time, with room enough for dinner — or a “Walking Dead” binge — afterward. Running time 1 hour I don’t know about you, but I’m way too busy to spend more than an hour a day contemplating my own death. That’s where this show fits in nicely. Written by the Pulitzer playwright Will Eno, “Wakey, Wakey” stars Michael Emerson as a man in a wheelchair who reflects on his life knowing that death is around the corner. There are existential echoes of Beckett and Albee in this contemplative work that’s part TED talk, part show and tell. Our critic praised it as a “glowingly dark, profoundly moving new play. ” [Read the review] At the Pershing Square Signature Center, through March 26 Running time 1 hour 10 minutes Yeah, yeah, yeah: You want to see “Hamilton. ” But you don’t have A) the time, B) the connections or C) the tickets. This “Hamilton” parody, from Gerard Alessandrini, the creator of the “Forbidden Broadway,” is the next best thing. (O. K. maybe more like the next available thing.) If the lyric “In New York, you can be a real ham” sounds like a sidesplitter, this one’s for you. (If not, stay far away.) Our critic called it a “smart, silly and often convulsively funny thesis, performed by a cast that is fluent in many tongues. ” At Stage 72, the Triad, through May 14 spamilton. com Running time 1 hour Marin Ireland, of Amazon’s “Sneaky Pete,” stars in Martín Zimmerman’s drama about a university professor whose child is killed. Inspired by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings of 2012, it’s a solo show on a bare stage, with a story that takes a surprising direction. The play “approaches the subject of American gun violence from a startlingly original perspective,” according to our critic. [Read the review.] [Watch our Facebook Live chat.] At the Black Box Theater, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, through April 2 Running time 45 minutes For parents of small children, this one’s a . Based on Oliver Jeffers’s book of the same title, “The Way Back Home” is about an adventurous boy who makes an unexpected landing on the moon and has to summon the courage to find his way home. Told with puppets, it’s a great way to introduce children as young as 3 to the visual treats of the theater. And tired parents can do it in less time than it might take to put their kids to bed. At the New Victory Theater, March Running time 1 hour 20 minutes Ok, so the reviews for David Mamet’s new play weren’t great. “Cynical and morose” is how our critic put it. But if you’ve never seen the dark work of this provocative American playwright (“Glengarry Glen Ross”) now’s your chance. This one’s about a psychiatrist who refuses to testify on behalf of a gay client accused of a horrific crime. If you don’t like it, soothe yourself with a killer cupcake from Billy’s Bakery around the corner from the theater. At the Atlantic Theater through March 26 | 0fake
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WATCH: Van Jones Says EXACTLY What Needs To Be Said About Tonight’s Election Results In This Video | The election result tonight is hard to swallow for many of us. Donald Trump is so deeply unpresidential in so many ways, it s hard to imagine we live in a country that would actually stoop so low as to elect him. And the hardest part might be explaining it to those that just don t have the tools yet to understand especially when we re having trouble grasping it ourselves.Nobody has made that point better than CNN s Van Jones, who makes a passionate and stirring point about the difficulty for some parents in explaining to their children how a person like Donald Trump could become president. He s also right about his other point Donald Trump is the result of whitelash. It s the middle finger from white America for electing Barack Obama, and for daring to nominate Hillary Clinton. This was about race, and it was about sexism and it was about gerrymandered districts which gave the Republican Party more electoral representation per vote than the Democratic Party.Here s the video of his comments, courtesty of Now This:Featured image via screenshot | 1real
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CETA Is Step towards a Corporate Land Called Euramerica | 3 Shares
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The signing of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement with Canada (CETA) on the 30th of October marks the beginning of North America's annexation of Europe. The negotiations for the treaty were carried out behind closed doors. For over 751 deputies in the European Parliament, there are more than 30 thousands lobbyists. The Society for European Affairs Professionals (SEAP) - the organisation which lobbying on behalf of multinational corporations – this is the real power block in Europe. The European worker has absolutely no say and henceforth he will lose the right to form join unions. Multinational corporations will have unlimited power over European workers, who will see the destruction of what is left of social gains won from over a century of class struggle.
Will European workers lie down and accept this imposture? What concrete policies would weaken the stranglehold of corporations over European workers? Which parties in the current political landscape hold policies which, if implemented, would weaken the transatlantic stranglehold?
There are currently no political parties running in the major European elections with candidates who genuinely represent workers' interests. But there are some political movements which threaten the corporate 'power-elite'. We will mention them below.
There are two important geopolitical processes to consider here. The first is the East-West corporate , geopolitical axis. America is pulling the European peninsula away from the Eurasian continent. With the installation of a neo-Nazi regime in Kiev, Washington attempted to re-create an 'Intermarium' from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and down to the Eastern Mediterranean - driving a permanent wedge between Russia and Germany.
In order to facilitate the social transformation of Europe into a 'America Minor', millions of 'pilgrims' are necessary. Hence, the deployment of coercive engineered migration as a tool to replace class- conscious European workers with deracine youths - in some instances educated enough to do the low-paid work assigned to them and acculturated enough to pose no problem to the 'Power-Elite'.
In the new Trotskyite language of this imperial order, any leader who attempts to stem the tide of globalisation through populist appeals to tradition and national identity is 'fascist'. Fascist is a loaded term which generally connotes evil in the public mind. In each European country there is a ready-made army of youths from wealthy families whose job is to don hoddies, attack police and scream 'fascist' and 'racist' at working-class people desperately trying to find a way out of this nightmare. These 'antifa' are the modern equivalent to Oswald Mosley's fascist gangs in the 1930s; they represent the same class interests .Petty-bourgeois leftism is the New World Order's avant-garde.
A favourite passtime of the 'Antifa' mob is throwing stones at police officers. One can only gain acceptance in the anti-fascist gang by showing how much one hates the 'pigs'. So, police officers from honest working-class families get burned alive while the anti-fa mob chants slogans from the Spanish Civil War. Such violence is now a regular occurrence in demonstrations. The agents provocateurs often receive help from the intelligence services. French police are finding it hard to cope with the chaos developing all over French suburbs. They complain that they are not sufficiently equipped and do not have the powers necessary to deal with the growing violence from delinquents. They have been demonstrating in Paris. They have been calling for an end to the control of the French police by free masonry. Exacerbating the problem is the deep-seated racism of many police officers who target Black youths with spot-checksm – very often without reason.
The recent demonstrations by French police in France against poor working conditions and low pay strongly suggests that there is the possibility that the rank and file of the French police could be waking up to the reality that France is government by a criminal gang. After the Magnanville terrorist attack in June where two police officers were killed, a police officer at the funeral of the deceased refused to shake the hand of President Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls. It was a highly significant act of insubordination.
The police, who in capitalist societies are the guardians of the ruling class, are beginning to realise the criminality of the people they are protecting; they are perhaps beginning to understand that the role of the state is to impose the dictatorship of one class over another - that of the minority of super wealthy over the labouring masses.
Many of these dissident police officers are linked to Le Pen's National Front. A reliable source in French intelligence informed me that the secret services spend more time watching the far-right than the so-called 'far left'. They see the far right as a real potential danger to the ruling order, whereas the far left present no danger but are in fact a key component of ruling class ideology. From the 'Arab Spring' to Nuit Debout, the far-left are the life-blood of capitalism. The potential of a major split between the national and compradore bourgeoise of imperial states for prospects of working-class gains is something that needs more study.
What should we make of all this in the context of CETA? As I have said on numerous occasions, the far right in France are and always have been political opportunists who exploit the despair of the masses; they serve the interests of the national bourgeoisie. But the National Front are regularly denounced by the media, not for being right wing. Rather, they are dismissed as being closer to the far left. The prospect of raising worker's salaries, nationalisation of key industries and a halt on the importation of cheap labour appeal to working-class families.
As I have pointed out before, looking at a debate between the Trotskyist Jean-Luc Melanchon and Marine Le Pen in 2011, one would have thought that Le Pen was was the leftist and Melanchon the right-wing militarist. Melanchon shamelessly defended the NATO bombing campaign of Libya, while Le Pen opposed it!
Civil war on the horizon
The right-wing presidential candidate Philippe de Villiers has said there are plans afoot to divide the French territory between Muslims and non-Muslims. He Quote: s Francois Hollande's own writings to back up his claims. Everyone is talking about an imminent civil war. In the bars and cafes of Paris one can hear more and more disgruntled French citizens talking about media disinformation, the demonisation of Russia, the homogenisation of thought and the criminality of the ruling class.
The scene has never been more propitious to a populist take over of French politics. But one should not have illusions about the National Front; they are following the menacious Zionist narrative on the war on terror: Muslims are the problem. The party's vice-president Forian Philippot is close to the ultra-Zionist lawyer Gilles-William Goldnagel, a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Philippot recently condemned the comments of presidential candidate Jean- Frédéric Poisson who said Hillary Clinton presented the greatest threat for the world as she is in the pay of the Zionists. Poisson was subsequently forced to kneel before the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) where he sought forgiveness. He was told he would be forgiven but they they would never forget! In spite of the National Front's anti-Muslim bias, an increasing number of Muslims are voting for the party. Many Muslims prefer the National Front as they are sick and tired of being patronised and manipulated by the left – with their pseudo 'anti-racism' and 'humanitarian' wars.
There have also been major strikes by police in Ireland for similar reasons to France. French workers are losing everything and will soon become a lumpen proletariat. Meanwhile the French government has programmes in place to encourage migrants heading to Britain to stay in France. The Socialist Party is creating a new electorate. It is a wise move for them because after the next election abstentionism will be the norm and the indigenous lumpen proletariat will resent the migrants. The oligarchs will keep the masses in bondage through GMOS, Takfiri anti-Islam and total reification of life. CETA is the beginning of the end for social hope. It is the prelude to the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – the most evil trade deal in history.
French vice-president of the Trilateral Commission Herve de Carmoy wrote a book in 2007 entitled 'L'Euramerique' – Euramerica, where he argues for the formation of what amounts to a transatlantic super-state run by a financial oligarchy. CETA is the prelude to that project. | 1real
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PA RESTAURANT Forced To CLOSE After ICE Sweep Nabs Illegal Workers…Attorney For Illegals Has UNBELIEVABLE Response | The Attorney representing the illegal aliens who were arrested alleges that, Other than drunken driving, and driving without a license, and entering the country illegally, they ve done nothing wrong LOL! The popular Aroma Buffet & Grill in York, Pennsylvania reopened Wednesday after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweep that nabbed several employees forced owners to close down.The restaurant s new manager, Kyle Lin, told the York Daily Record he was recently hired to run the place but he s not sure whether the former manager s role in hiring four kitchen employees who were arrested by ICE agents two weeks ago. I m not sure if the previous manager hired them or knew of their proper status, or if those employees provided false information, Lin said.Attorney Stephen Converse is representing the four employees all men in their 20s who were in the country illegally from Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador.Converse would not identify his clients, but told the news site they re not serious criminals. He alleges that other than drunken driving, and driving without a license, and entering the country illegally, they ve done nothing wrong.Converse credited the Trump administration with removing them and numerous other illegal immigrants he is currently representing. The Obama administration very methodically focused on criminal aliens, he told the Daily Record. Now they re targeting everyone. The defense attorney said he s personally spoken with 16 illegal immigrants arrested by ICE agents in York County over the last three weeks, and contends another 14 were arrested in Carbon County.Converse also complained that local courts will no longer simply release illegal immigrants back into society as they await a hearing, and are now holding them for ICE.ICE officials would not discuss operations with the Daily Record, which cited a U.S. Department of Homeland Security statement that more than 680 illegal immigrants were arrested last month in large metropolitan cities.ICE field office director for greater Los Angeles, David Marin, told the Associated Press in mid-February that those sweeps were planned before the (Trump) administration came out with their current executive orders on immigration. The American Mirror | 1real
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Despair and introspection on U.S. coasts after Trump win | BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans in liberal enclaves from New York to San Francisco reacted with shock and despair on Wednesday to Republican businessman Donald Trump’s defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton, with many struggling to explain the result to their children. Trump, who had never before run for public office, won on a broad wave of support both from the Republican U.S. heartland and by flipping previously Democratic states, including Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio, helping his party protect majorities in both chambers of Congress. The victory stunned residents of major cities up and down the East and West coasts, many of whom had trusted opinion polls that had long predicted a Clinton victory but were proven profoundly wrong by Tuesday’s results. “I’m feeling physical pain. I’m shocked. I’m sad,” said Sofia Huizar, 30, as she waited outside the Manhattan hotel where Clinton conceded her loss on Wednesday morning, some eight hours after Trump declared victory. Huizar, a U.S. citizen who was born in Mexico, said she spent much of Tuesday night commiserating with family across the border. “It’s a way to help process the fear,” Huizar said. Trump’s campaign promises have included building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal crossings and to deport the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Others, like Kim Priban, a 38-year-old nurse who lives in the Cleveland suburb of Boston Heights, Ohio, said they had a difficult time breaking the news to their children. Priban said she had proudly taken her 5-year-old daughter along to vote for Clinton, who would have been the first woman U.S. president, and on Wednesday morning had to discuss the result with her. “I still haven’t quite figured out what to tell my daughter. I’ve been crying all day,” Priban said. “I feel like I have to go out and make my voice heard for women and children.” Priban and Huizar are likely far from alone in the depth of their pain over Clinton’s loss, academic research suggests. A 2015 paper by researchers at Harvard University found that voters who supported Republican Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful White House bid reported sharper spikes in their unhappiness than parents following the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre of Connecticut schoolchildren or Boston residents after the deadly 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. While many Democrats along the coasts mourned Clinton’s defeat, Trump supporters celebrated the outcome, saying they hoped he would shake up a dysfunctional political system. “The overwhelming majority of Americans want change, and this is a direct result. ... Trump is the disrupter, for better or for worse,” said Kelley Smith, 33, who lives in Chicago and works in software sales. “He’s a little bombastic. I don’t think he’s polished. But I don’t think he’s going to purposefully take our country down.” The divide between the coasts and the heartland, evident not only in the results but also in the social media battles ahead of the election, made the Trump victory more shocking for liberals. Deena Pioli, an attorney from San Francisco, said she had rarely run into people who were not supporting Clinton, and that she now regrets that. “Those of us here in San Francisco and California should not be so safe in our bubble,” she said. Trump dropped his angry speaking style to take a conciliatory tone when he declared victory early Wednesday morning, saying, “I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans.” Clinton and Democratic President Barack Obama sounded similarly restrained. But the breadth of Trump’s win left his opponents urging self-examination. “Folks should have deep humility in this moment,” said civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson on Twitter. “We all have things to learn from how Trump happened.” Karen Parnett, a 48-year-old mother of three in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said she had been heartbroken to tell her children about Trump’s win, and said the result illustrated the growing anger of lower-income voters who believe their concerns are being ignored by Washington. “I have too much at stake with three kids to just throw up my hands and weep and say that all is lost,” Parnett said. “There are new realities and we need as a country to reckon with what in the world we are going to do about the disenfranchisement of the white working poor.” (This story has been refiled to fix typo in ninth paragraph) | 0fake
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Trump says ready to act alone on North Korea | ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would be ready to act unilaterally to address North Korea’s nuclear program if China does not step up to help with the matter. “Certainly I would be,” Trump told reporters when asked whether he would be willing act alone on North Korea. “But I think China will want to be stepping up.” | 0fake
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U2 SUDDENLY CANCELS Huge St. Louis Concert Tonight…Why Bono’s Decision To “Cut and Run” Makes Him Look Like Ridiculous Hypocrite | In 2016, celebrities came together to create an emotional video that minimized crimes committed or incidents that led to the death of black men and women, both young and old, across America. One of those celebrities was U2 s lead singer, Bono.For many, Bono s part in the video was even more controversial because he attempted to link the death of 9 black church members in South Carolina, who died while conducting a bible study at the hands of a young racist man, Dylann Roof, (who has since been sentenced to death for his heinous crime) with white cops who have killed blacks and have been found not guilty of intentional murder.The video doesn t just shine a light on injustices by white police officers, it promotes an atmosphere of hate and distrust for white people in America.It seems rather unusual that after U2 s Bono would cancel his concert in St. Louis that was scheduled for tonight, following a night of violent protests that led to the breaking of windows in the St. Louis Mayor s home (who supports BLM) and the shutting down of traffic for safety reasons. Isn t this the same group he stood by when he participated in the controversial video above? Why would Black Lives Matter protesters harm anyone who came to see an entertainer who stood by them in such a powerful and emotional video?Why not host the concert? Let your fans know you support the people rioting in the streets. Give everyone a chance to sing kumbaya Here s U2 s announcement on Twitter that they are canceling their concert out of concern for their fans safety . The hypocritical tweet reads: Tonight s St. Louis Show Cancelled We cannot risk fans safety. Tonight's St. Louis Show Cancelled'We cannot risk fans' safety.' Live Nation statement. https://t.co/0xDnUGfb7p pic.twitter.com/r3lF5TsxKF U2 (@U2) September 16, 2017Here s a screen shot of their statement: | 1real
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Hillary Clinton’s Real Record On LGBT Rights | Hillary Clinton is a complicated woman running in a country that wants its political platforms to fit on a trucker s cap. As a candidate, she has taken a lot of heat from progressives for being late to coming around to marriage equality. She was, but it s not that simple. If you scratch just a little beneath the surface, you ll find a true champion of LGBT rights throughout the world.When it comes to Clinton s evolution on LGBT rights, there are a lot of legitimate complaints. First, her husband s legacy, although also not that simple, is the failed military policy of Don t Ask, Don t Tell. Bill Clinton didn t love the policy, but it was what he saw as the best compromise at the time.Of course, that wasn t Hillary s policy. In fact, in 1999, she said she was against Don t Ask, Don t Tell, so let s move on. The criticism that has the most teeth is that Hillary didn t come around to accepting marriage equality until just three years ago, but that was only one step in a long history of support.One accomplishment that has received scant attention is that she ushered gay rights onto the international stage. It is fair to say that without Clinton s efforts, the global struggle for equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people would not have proceeded as fast as it has in the past several years, nor would the United States be seen today as a global leader in that struggle. At the heart of these efforts was the 2011 United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, otherwise known as the UNHRC Gay Rights Resolution, an international agreement whose drafting and signing Clinton oversaw. With that document, and a sister UNHRC resolution of 2014 condemning anti-LGBT violence and discrimination, the UN has formally recognized gay rights as part of the international human rights regime.Clinton s gay rights crusade began within the State Department, which she transformed into one of the most if not the most gay-friendly bureaucracies in Washington, both in terms of its policies and its administration. This signaled a radical makeover for the stodgy institution, which under Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, Clinton s predecessors in the George W. Bush administration, had seen little drive for gay equality. Largely beholden to the Christian right and social conservatives, the Bush administration was hostile toward LGBT people and issues. As president, Bush endorsed an amendment to the federal constitution banning same-sex marriage, and his political managers used same-sex marriage as a wedge issue during his reelection campaign in 2004 with the intention of mobilizing so-called values voters in swing states like Ohio.Source: Foreign AffairsHer support of LGBT rights didn t stop in international waters. She extended family leave and other government benefits to families of same-sex couples who worked in the State Department.She fought discrimination in the State Department, despite a 1950s executive order by Dwight Eisenhower to fire all gay people, because homosexuality was considered a risk. Clinton instead recognized the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Association (GLIFAA) for its courageous actions in the face of historic discrimination. She also ended the firings.Clinton even had gay pride celebrations at embassies and consulates throughout the world. Every May 17th, to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, embassies hang rainbow flags. She also made a concerted effort to be inclusive in her hiring, by, among other things, appointing six openly gay ambassadors to serve on several continents.Here she is with her own words:Don t take my word, or hers, for it. She s been endorsed by nearly every LGBT organization.Featured image via Getty Images | 1real
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Watch Joe Scarborough Frantically Backtrack After Donald Trump Outs Him As A Supporter (VIDEO) | Considering left-leaning MSNBC still signs Joe Scarborough s paychecks and he s consistently feigned neutrality in the presidential election, it seemed clear that his support of Donald Trump was meant to remain under the radar. Unfortunately for that facade, nobody bothered to tell Trump.While Scarborough was interviewing Trump on MSNBC s Morning Joe things reached an awkward tipping point when the Republican front-runner casually remarked that he appreciated the fact that Scarborough and his co-host Mika Brzezinski were his supporters while most of the media was against him. It was great seeing you, you guys have been supporters and I appreciate it. And not necessarily supporters but at least believers. Hilariously, this sent the pundits scrambling to undo the potentially career-ending damage of being tainted with Trump s name. After all, it s bad enough that they, in their capacity as journalists, would choose to pull for any particular candidate, but a racist, xenophobic, torture-enthusiast one is egregious. Brzezinski fares pretty well. She has consistently criticized Trump s toxic demagoguery. Scarborough on the other hand In his clawing desperation to distance himself from Trump, he manages to throw several of his colleagues under the bus as well: Well, I will tell you what when you say supported you re talking about how actually you re talking about Bob (Costa), Mika, myself, also Halperin, Willie and those of us around the table. There were a handful of people who for six months have been saying what happened last night could happen, and the rest of the media world has been mocking and ridiculing what he s done. But while Scarborough would like us to believe he s simply a political savant who predicted Trump s rise, there is mounting evidence that he really does long for a Trump win.In December, when Trump s campaign was starting to change from This guy is a complete joke to This guy could actually win the nomination, Scarborough openly bragged that he helped Trump prepare for the first debate. It was largely considered to be a make-or-break moment for Trump and his buddy Joe Scarborough was there to help walk him through the process. Let s allow Scarborough to tell it. I ve actually called him up, and I ve said Donald, listen, you need to speak in complete sentences in debates. And he goes, I m up 30 points, Joe, and I m like, Good point, Donald, he said to laughter.He later admitted he met personally with Trump to congratulate him on his second debate performance, albeit saying I hope we don t have reporters here. Further, there has been rumors that Scarborough and Brzezinski met up with Trump on the night of the New Hampshire primary to celebrate his first win. Again, he had hoped to keep it a secret. CNN broke the story anyway:Scarborough and Brzezinski visited Trump s hotel room on Tuesday night while the New Hampshire primary results were rolling in, according to two sources with knowledge of their visit. Scarborough and Brzezinski did not respond to a request for comment.After this article was published, Scarborough posted a series of tweets accusing CNN of lying about him. Your sources are wrong, he wrote. Scarborough did not explicitly deny that he visited Trump s hotel room, however.Undermining Scarborough s denials, Trump greeted Scarborough on Morning Joe by saying it was great seeing them the previous evening. Oops.While it s a wonder that anyone would support a guy like Trump, Scarborough s fixation isn t entirely out of left field. Despite his posturing as a moderate Republican, he s provided plenty of evidence to suggest a war-mongering, egomaniac like Trump would get him hot and bothered. When a group of U.S. soldiers accidentally floated into Iranian waters and were briefly detained, Scarborough shot off a series of embarrassing tweets that advocated for a president who was willing to start a world war over it.Hey Iran, you have exactly 300 days left to push a US president around. Enjoy it while you can. After that, there will be hell to pay. Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) January 12, 2016(Obama didn t take his advice. Instead, he got the sailors released in less than 24 hours by diplomacy. No shots were fired.)Scarborough has flirted with supporting Trump for too long. To maintain any credibility at all, he needs to either openly admit he s backing the racist buffoon or clarify why he feels so invested in helping him win the election. Hotel visits, late-night debate prep calls, endless soft interviews on his show, all of this is beginning to paint a pretty clear picture. It s not a good one.Featured image: Screenshot | 1real
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Un orangután gana el Premio Planeta de los Simios 2016 | Un orangután gana el Premio Planeta de los Simios 2016 SUS COMPETIDORES HAN ARROJADO PLÁTANOS EN SEÑAL DE PROTESTA Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría
Un orangután llamado Jacinto se ha llevado el Planeta de los Simios 2016 y los 600.000 euros con los que está dotado el premio gracias “la prosa primitiva y vanguardista” de su obra “Te daré un mañana mejor”.
Un año más, los Reyes presidieron la cena de un certamen al que este año se presentaron más de cuatrocientos simios de todo el mundo. A la fiesta asistieron más de quinientas personas y unos trescientos animales, entre simios y monos. No faltaron los representantes de las principales instituciones políticas y jurídicas del Estado, y así se pudo ver junto al resto de mamíferos al presidente de la Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, con la vicepresidenta del Gobierno Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría y el Presidente de la Asociación de Circos y Zoológicos Alfonso Carcaso.
Sobre las 23:30 de la noche de ayer, Fernando Delgado, presidente del jurado integrado por Chopi, Juan Eslava Galán, Aurelio, Pere Gimferré, Yuma, Carmen Posadas, Katanga, Rosa Regás y Javi, anunciaba el nombre del ganador. El finalista, el mono bonobo N´tua, mostró su satisfacción al recoger el premio masturbándose repetidas veces sobre el galardón.
Los aplausos y gruñidos fueron empañados por las acusaciones vertidas desde ciertos medios de comunicación, según las cuales la novela ganadora no habría sido escrita por el orangután Jacinto sino por un negro. | 1real
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Comment on World Heaves Sigh of Relief after Trump’s Victory by Debbie Menon | Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Many of his recent articles appear on the renowned Canadian-based news website Globalresearch . He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in journalism. He specializes in Middle East and East Africa issues and has also given several American radio interviews as well as TV interviews on Press TV and Russia Today. His interests include capitalism, imperialism and war, socialism, justice and peace, agriculture and trade policy, ecological impact, science and technology, and human rights. He is also a musician and songwriter. Previously, he was based in Bahrain and witnessed the political upheavals in the Persian Gulf kingdom during 2011 as well as the subsequent Saudi-led brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protests. The author and media commentator was expelled from Bahrain in June 2011 for his critical journalism in which he highlighted many human rights violations by the Western-backed regime. For many years, he worked as an editor and writer in the mainstream media, including ,The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Originally from Belfast, Ireland, he is now based in East Africa where he is writing a book on Bahrain and the Arab Spring. World Heaves Sigh of Relief after Trump’s Victory By Finian Cunningham on November 9, 2016 A reflection of how disconnected the political class are from their own people.
SPUTNIK
The election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the US certainly sent shockwaves around the world. But perhaps the uppermost sense is one of huge relief that Hillary Clinton was kept out of the White House.
For most ordinary citizens around the world, Clinton, her multi-billion-dollar election campaign and the fawning corporate media coverage represented everything that is perceived as fundamentally wrong in Western politics.
Her cronyism goes so far that she would not hesitate to start a world war with Russia, or whoever, in order to appease her corporate sponsors and indulge her deluded notion of “exceptional liberalism”.
Trump’s stunning victory is a victory for common people and common sense. Despite the Western media’s systematic shielding of Clinton from criticism, a good number of ordinary Americans and other nationals around the world could clearly see her irredeemable flaws.
She is a self-enriching puppet for Big Finance and the military-industrial complex. And, as her email scandal shows, a consummate liar on top. Donald Trump is a billionaire property tycoon with a big mouth and uncouth manner. He has never held an elected office before. It is unprecedented that he should become the president of the US.
Will he really “make America great again”? Will he really deliver on massive infrastructure investments to regenerate impoverished working-class communities across America? We don’t know if he just an opportunist conman, or if he really does have a humble heart to reach out to all the “forgotten people” that he speaks about. One can hope.
But one thing is for sure. Trump is no warmonger. And he doesn’t seem to be a puppet that can be pushed around.
“We will deal fairly with everyone”
In one of the live TV debates with Clinton during the campaign, Trump surprised many viewers when he said, apparently sincerely, that he would never commit a first-strike nuclear attack against any nation. It took a lot of guts and moral integrity to say that. Clinton didn’t answer the question, but her past record as Secretary of State shows that she has no hesitation about launching illegal wars and murdering foreign heads of state.
Trump has also spoken several times about restoring friendly relations with America’s biggest nuclear rival Russia. He took a lot of heat for that from the Clinton campaign and the biased US media, who accused him of being a “stooge” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. To his credit, Trump did not cave in to the anachronistic “Russian baiting”, which has been a staple of American politics for decades.
During his acceptance speech as President-elect, Trump repeated his oft-mentioned desire for the US to base its foreign relations on “partnership” instead of “hostility and conflict”.
Notably, Russia’s Vladimir Putin was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on winning the White House. Reciprocating goodwill, Putin said he hoped to work with Trump so that Russia and the US can “restore relations from their current critical condition”.
Surely, this is the point. To replace outmoded ideological stereotypes and animosity with a pragmatic mutual respect to cooperate.
Russia and its leader are not the enemy of the US, Europe nor the rest of the world – unless you are a terrorist network seeking illicit regime change. Architects of Endless “Regime Change” wars
The people who have demonized Russia are ideologues in Washington and their surrogates among European governments and the Western corporate media. That negative image of Russia does not match reality as ordinary people perceive it, including many ordinary Americans.
Russia did not destabilize Ukraine. It did not annex Crimea. Russia was not involved in shooting down a civilian airliner. It is not massacring civilians in Syria. In Syria, it is helping a sovereign state defeat terrorist mercenaries in a US-sponsored covert war for regime change. Russia is not a sports-drug pariah. It is not hacking computer systems nor subverting foreign democracies. These are all just false ideological constructs manufactured by the Western establishment and its subservient media.
Ordinary citizens around the world, especially those in the US, know that. Their real-world concerns are dealing with poverty, unemployment and crumbling societies. This stuff about “Putin being the new Hitler” and “threatening the free world” is just so much baloney.
Maybe because Trump is not a career politician or a Washington insider he knows all that too. And he knows that ordinary Americans are not being listened to by the establishment. That’s why Trump’s victory comes as such a shock.
The political class have been so wrong on almost every issue, whether it was the Brexit and discontent with the European Union, or foreign relations with Russia, or Trump’s chances of winning the presidency.
The Western political class have gotten it so wrong on so many issues because it is divorced from the reality as it affects most people. Aloof, elitist, out of touch and undemocratic.
Yet this Western ruling class, as embodied by Hillary Clinton, would be prepared to start even more wars around the world than they already have, based on their own twisted self-serving logic.
Consider these figures just released by the Pentagon. Under President Obama – who advocated for Clinton – US military exports to Saudi Arabia and other Mideast despots are double the amount under George W Bush. This weapons supply has gone towards arming jihadi terror groups. Clinton approved of this arms bazaar for terrorists when she was in office as part of Washington’s regime-change schemes.
Yet these people like Obama and Clinton spout all sorts of “humanitarian” and “moralistic” mumbo-jumbo. They are liars. And they are the most cynical of corrupt politicians. The very breed of politician-puppets that ordinary decent people around the world have come to despise. Americans Not Fooled by ‘Presidential Campaign Tricks’
Trump, for all his personal flaws, is in a different category. He is astute enough to know that the pain of ordinary citizens stems from a badly broken economic system.
The main good thing about Trump is that he is a pragmatist who at least appears to be on the side of ordinary people and on the side of restoring peaceful relations with other nations, Russia in particular.
The prominent people dejected about Trump are the political class both in the US and Europe and their media echo chambers.
It is notable that Germany’s Merkel and France’s Hollande both affected an air of disapproval over Trump’s victory – unlike Putin who magnanimously congratulated. Hollande said he would be “vigilant” in his future dealings with Trump. What is he talking about?
That’s why Merkel and Hollande will be next to get kicked out of office in forthcoming elections. Like Obama, Clinton and the American establishment, the pro-US European ruling parties are so out of touch with reality.
The demonization of Russia is a reflection of how disconnected the Western political class are from their own people. Ordinary people around the world want jobs, prosperity and peace. They know they can’t afford futile hostilities with Russia as have been foisted on them by their rulers, while such urgent social needs go neglected.
Crazy as it may seem, Trump’s win may be a chance for the US to redeem. And for the world to heave a huge sigh of relief.
See: | 1real
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ICE Busts 39 MS-13 Members in New York Operation | Law enforcement immigration officers and agents joined forces to round up 39 members of the criminal gang. Six other people were also arrested during the operation. [U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents teamed up in Operation Matador to arrest a total of 45 criminal gang members. In addition to the 39 members, the operation led to the arrest of two Sureños, one member of the 18th Street Gang, one Latin King, one Los Niños Malos, and one with Patria, according to information obtained by Breitbart Texas from ICE officials. Operation Matador was conducted over a period of time. “Transnational gangs like bring nothing but violence and conflict to our communities and their presence will not be tolerated. Their vicious criminal activities present an ongoing challenge for law enforcement everywhere,” Special Agent in Charge of HIS New York Angel M. Melendez said in a written statement. “It is with the efforts of our federal partners under DHS and the incredible assistance provided by our local law enforcement partnerships with Suffolk County and Nassau County Police Departments that we will continue to dismantle these gangs piece by piece to enhance the safety and security of our communities. ” Officials stated that 20 of the gang members had criminal histories. Some of those offenses include convictions for assault and weapons charges. One of the gang members reportedly has a conviction for larceny and a final order of removal from an immigration judge. Other significant gang members arrested include: “These individuals are members of a violent street gang actively wreaking havoc in the community. This unified effort is about keeping New York citizens safe,” New York ERO Field Office Director Thomas R. Decker said in the statement. “ERO and HSI, along with our law enforcement partners, face no limitations in the apprehension and dismantling of transnational criminal organizations. We will not rest until our communities are safer and individuals like these are brought to justice. ” More than 30 of the arrests came in Suffolk County, which routinely releases criminal aliens from its jail, even if ICE has placed an immigration hold on the suspect. In April, Breitbart News reported on the massacre of four Hispanic young men from Long Island, New York. The bodies of the men were so mutilated, they could only be identified by tattoos. Police eventually tied the murders to . Breitbart Texas has been covering this violent transnational gang for several years. In July 2013, we reported on four gang members that were convicted on counts of murder, armed robberies, and firearms offenses. That trial lasted for four weeks. At that time, FBI officials indicated members of the gang were active in at least 42 states and had between 6, 000 and 10, 000 members. Those numbers have increased substantially with the massive influx of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) from Central American countries, particularly El Salvador. On June 10, Breitbart Texas reported the numbers of UACs, particularly from El Salvador, being apprehended at our southern border with Mexico is again on the rise following a downtrend. Since October 1, 2916, 8005 UACs from El Salvador have been apprehended after crossing the border illegally — 1, 493 in May alone. This is nearly a fifty percent increase from the previous month. Almost half of those apprehended this month had crossed in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in south Texas. ICE officials stated that of the 39 gang members arrested in Operation Matador, 12 had entered the U. S. as unaccompanied minors. Three other members entered the U. S. under Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Some of those arrested had previously been deported and now face felony charges for illegal after removal, officials stated. The rise of violence has also dramatically impacted crime in the nation’s city, Houston, where Governor Greg Abbott announced in April, the creation of a Texas Task Force to target these criminal aliens. Breitbart Texas covered the press conference on April 11 of this year in Houston Gov. Abbott announced the expansion of the Texas Task Force (TAG) and the creation of a technical operations center. Houston is one of the five cities that the FBI has identified to have a large presence. ICE officials worked with state and county law enforcement officers in conducting the operation. Operation Matador was carried out under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security’s Transnational Organized Crime Initiative. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook. | 0fake
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WATCH: Donald Trump Throws A Hissy Fit About Morning Joe And Gets Hilariously Buried | Despite claiming that he never watches Morning Joe on MSNBC, it became very clear on Monday morning that Donald Trump lied about that.Political analyst Rick Tyler joined the panel and had a field day mocking the Republican nominee for finally toning down his campaign rhetoric instead of continuing to act like a petulant child. Reince Priebus has been particularly happy about the change and Tyler couldn t resist comparing him to a dad who had just successfully potty trained his toddler. He s sort of talking about his candidate as if he graduated from diapers to big boy pants, Tyler quipped as the studio broke out in laughter. This is not great progress, he continued. His new tone, I don t understand what the new tone is. Tyler went on to question whether Trump s new pivot is the real Donald Trump since he s only doing it late into the campaign after weeks of disastrous poll numbers.Mika Brzezinski chimed in later on that Trump s claim that Hillary Clinton would cause Americans to lose everything sounded like it came from someone who loaded up on alcohol prior to the rally. He belted like, honestly, like he s had a lot to drink, Brzezinski said. His delivery is very Blaaaaaagh! Here s the video via Twitter..@rickwtyler: Reince Preibus sort of talked about Trump as if he graduated from diapers to big boy pants https://t.co/5NlRA9O5L7 Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 22, 2016As it turns out, Donald Trump was watching Morning Joe while they were mocking him, so of course the thin-skinned businessman lashed out on Twitter by attacking Mika and threatened to reveal secrets about her and Joe Scarborough. Tried watching low-rated @Morning_Joe this morning, unwatchable! @morningmika is off the wall, a neurotic and not very bright mess! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2016Some day, when things calm down, I ll tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2016Trump s hissy fit drew a fantastic response from Joe in defense of his co-host. He even thanked Trump for helping the show draw the best ratings. Neurotic and not very bright? Look in the mirror. https://t.co/FPaqGW9JWv Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 22, 2016Thanks for watching. Morning Joe is enjoying it s best ratings ever thanks to obsessed fans like you. GLAD? https://t.co/FPaqGW9JWv Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 22, 2016Trump s new campaign staff had one job and they failed. One of the reasons why Trump s campaign has been imploding is because he can t control his reactions towards those who mock or criticize him. So it looks like it only took a morning cable show to end Trump s new tone. That change didn t last long at all.Featured image via John Moore/Getty Images | 1real
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Trump’s Voter Fraud ‘Expert’ Just DISPROVED His Own Voter Fraud Argument In The Most Ironic Way Possible | Ah, Trump and voter fraud. The subject that he can t let go because, on his warped planet, he s so beloved by everyone that there s no way he lost the popular vote. Donald Trump is just not a loser in any way, shape or form. So why is it that so many people around him are guilty or caught up in one of the things he himself decries: Being registered to vote in more than one state? His chief strategist, Steve Bannon, is guilty of that, which is bad enough.What s worse is that the person Trump is getting his 3 million people voted illegally and if it weren t for them I d have won everything information from is likewise registered to vote in multiple states.The Associated Press has learned that Gregg Phillips, who praised True the Vote for allegedly uncovering thousands of duplicate records and registrations of dead people, is registered to vote in Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi. Three states.This is proof that voter fraud is rampant? Har de har har don t make us laugh too hard. It hurts.Now, Gregg Phillips isn t exactly a unique name. What the AP found, though, was that all three of these registrations had identical Social Security numbers. That makes it a little harder to claim that these registrations are to three different people who all happen to have the same name.This is the guy who tweeted, back in November, that he had evidence of three million people voting illegally and then never provided or published said evidence, but Trump jumped on it anyway, which is dangerous as hell.Phillips is on Twitter now, pretending that it s voter fraud in every case except for his:AP just wrote and said I am still registered to vote in MS, a place I haven t lived for 20 years. Makes my point, elections are broken. Gregg Phillips (@JumpVote) January 30, 2017While that s a fair point, what Phillips totally fails to mention (because of course he does) is that it also illustrates the fact that being registered to vote in multiple states isn t indicative of voter fraud at all. Instead, it shows that the states aren t psychic. Most people registered to vote in multiple states didn t do that intentionally they moved away (or died) and the states didn t realize that.All these people vote multiple times except for the two anal pustules known as Trump and Phillips.Sure. Right. There is no proof there, and if Trump wants to pretend there is, then he s got to find better evidence than one man who s registered to vote in three states.Trump and his little bestie here (at least, insofar as voter fraud is concerned) need to shut their goddamn mouths on this once and for all.Featured image by Andrew Harrer via Getty Images | 1real
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Trump urges Senate Republicans to move ahead with healthcare reform | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump urged Senate Republicans on Monday to move ahead this week on a bid to repeal his predecessor’s signature healthcare law, saying any senator who votes against it is telling America “you are fine with the Obamacare nightmare.” “To every member of the Senate I say this: the American people have waited long enough. There’s been enough talk, and no action. Now is the time for action,” Trump said at the White House. He added that people were demanding change, saying, “You’ll see that at the voter booth, believe me.” | 0fake
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Two Defending Champions, but Two Outlooks, at Wimbledon - The New York Times | WIMBLEDON, England — The Kingdom clearly has bigger concerns than a mere tennis tournament, with the focus on the country’s leaving the European Union and on England’s remaining in soccer’s European Championships. It’s rather strange how that timing has worked out. But no matter what is transpiring in the wider, less orderly world, there is still plenty to play for in the bubble of Wimbledon, where the grass — at least on Henman Hill — looks even greener than usual this year. On the eve of the tournament on Sunday, the defending champions Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams spoke in the interview room at the All England Club. Neither has played an official event since the French Open. Both sat with their hands folded in front of them. Both spoke more softly and slowly than usual, but only Williams seemed subdued, keeping her answers terse, even to questions that lent themselves to rambling on, and not so subtly checking her watch as the allotted 15 minutes neared an end. She has had a fine season by nearly anyone else’s standards, reaching the finals at the Australian Open and the French Open and remaining No. 1 in the rankings. But it has definitely been a downbeat year for her, with upset losses to Angelique Kerber in Melbourne and to Garbiñe Muguruza in Paris. Williams’s mood on Sunday could be taken two different ways: One, she is still reeling, or two (and much more likely) she is simmering and much more interested in crushing serves and returns and restoring the tennis universe to its natural order than in the game. “I’m definitely ready to start playing at this point,” she said. “I’m kind of over practicing every day for two hours, then going to the gym. ” When she won here last year, Williams held all four of the Grand Slam singles titles. Now she holds only Wimbledon’s. Djokovic, her dancing partner at last year’s champions dinner, is the one on the roll now. He’s the first man to hold all four major titles since Rod Laver in 1969 and the player with a chance to do what Williams could not quite manage last year by completing the Grand Slam and winning all four majors in the same calendar year. I asked Williams what she might tell Djokovic after her unsuccessful chase last year, which ended two rounds short of the Grand Slam when she was stunned in the United States Open semifinals by Roberta Vinci. “You know, he has every opportunity to do it,” she said. “I think he’ll get it easy, so he should be fine. ” Easy sounds unlikely, given the pressure and fatigue that will surely build up in a year that also features the Olympics. Less than an hour after Djokovic won the French Open this month for his first Roland Garros title, the former star Henri Leconte walked past the Djokovic camp in the players’ lounge and said theatrically: “Two to go! Two to go! Oh, my God! Two to go!” Marian Vajda, one of Djokovic’s coaches, laughed. This was Leconte, one of tennis’s class clowns, after all. Vajda, in typical fashion, then acknowledged the reality. “Real Grand Slam, now we can think about it,” Vajda said. “This was a real mental breakthrough for Novak, to win in Paris. And now he needs to focus on going to Wimbledon fresh and going for the U. S. Open, and there’s obviously the Olympic Games in the middle, so it’s too many goals in a row. It makes it more complicated. ” More compelling, too, and all the more so because Djokovic surely never gave the Grand Slam too much serious thought earlier in his career. He was too preoccupied with leveling the playing field with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to think about outclassing the field to this degree. Even Djokovic’s biggest supporters — his family — were not thinking about it. Vajda said he ran into Djokovic’s father, Srdjan, at a restaurant in Paris during the French Open. Srdjan was with a group of friends and asked Vajda to tell the group what Srdjan had told him when they first met. “You told me he will be No. 1,” Vajda replied, “and I started laughing because I thought you were joking with me. And Novak’s father said: ‘No, I was not joking. I knew he was going to be No. 1, knew it, but I forgot one thing. I didn’t know he would be dominating so much in the tennis world one day.’ ” But here Djokovic is, undoubtedly the world’s top player on all surfaces, with a record against the top 10 during the past two seasons. He has done it, in part, by learning how to conserve his physical and emotional energy — unplugging from the game when necessary, which he did again before Wimbledon. “Winning Roland Garros was obviously one of the most memorable and beautiful moments of my career,” said Djokovic, who will face James Ward of Britain in the opening match on Centre Court on Monday. “Also, it took a lot out of me. I thought that it’s more important for me to just rejuvenate and rest a little bit from tennis and then come back preparing for Wimbledon. ” He does not plan to overplay. Defend his title at Wimbledon, and it is entirely possible that he will play only the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the United States Open in the two months that follow. But there are other temptations, including a Davis Cup quarterfinal versus Britain (and Andy Murray) in July and the Rogers Cup in Toronto, which could serve as a hardcourt for Rio. The Grand Slam is such a rare prize that it bears sacrificing other worthy goals, as Williams is better placed than anyone to grasp. She has not been the same irresistible force since that loss to Vinci in September, and Wimbledon is full of ghosts as well as big victories for her. Not that she remembers them all. On Sunday, she could not recall any of the details of her first appearance in 1998 (she retired in the third round versus Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain). But she surely remembers losing to Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round in 2013 and to Alizé Cornet in the third round in 2014, just as she surely remembers beating Muguruza in straight sets last year to win her sixth Wimbledon singles title. “This year, I don’t feel as much tension as I usually do,” she said. “Well, there’s some years that I haven’t felt any tension, either. I’m feeling pretty good. I don’t feel any pressure or stress. ” In truth, it was a challenge to sense what Williams was feeling on Sunday, and she will now let her racket do the talking, beginning with her match on Tuesday versus Amra Sadikovic of Switzerland, 27, who retired in May 2014 but is now back for more and making her Grand Slam debut. Williams, at 34, knows too well that life is full of such surprises, and surprise has been the rule of late in the women’s game, with the Flavia Pennetta, Kerber and Muguruza winning the past three major titles. “Think about how many women now know that they have an opening,” said Pam Shriver, an ESPN analyst. “During most of the Serena era, the players have felt there was no opening for them,” she continued, “so the question is, who is big enough to walk through it, especially at Wimbledon, where there’s more media and where you better have control of your breathing and know how to manage your nerves more than anywhere else? Because there’s a quietness and an aura about the place, and if you’re not firmly planted with two feet with your confidence, it will knock you off balance. ” | 0fake
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Supreme Court Throws Out Ruling On Obamacare Contraception Mandate | WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out an appeals court decision that went against the University of Notre Dame over its religious objections to the Obamacare health law's contraception requirement.
The justices asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision in favor of the Obama administration in light of the June 2014 Supreme Court ruling that allowed closely held corporations to seek exemptions from the provision.
The court's action means the February 2014 appeals court ruling that denied the South Bend, Indiana-based Roman Catholic university an injunction against the requirement has been wiped out.
The 2010 Affordable Care Act, known widely as Obamacare, requires employers to provide health insurance policies that cover preventive services for women including access to contraception and sterilization.
In the 2014 ruling, the high court said that Hobby Lobby Stores Ltd could, on religious grounds, seek exemptions from the contraception provision.
Days later, in a case similar to the Notre Dame dispute, the Supreme Court allowed a college in Illinois a temporary exemption while litigation continues.
Catholic groups say they should not have to pay for or facilitate access to contraception or abortion because of religious objections.
But courts that have considered the issue since then have found that a compromise aimed at nonprofits with religious affiliations, issued in 2013 and amended in August 2014, did not impose a substantial burden on the plaintiffs' religious beliefs. Religious rights are protected under a law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Notre Dame case was the only appeals court decision on that issue that pre-dated the Hobby Lobby ruling.
The compromise allows the groups to certify they are opting out, which then forces insurers to pick up the tab.
Notre Dame says the certification process still essentially forces the groups to authorize the coverage for its employees, even if they are not technically paying for it. Religious institutions are exempt from the contraception coverage requirement.
The case is Notre Dame v. Burwell, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 14-392. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham) | 0fake
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An Appraisal: Leonard Cohen, Master of Meanings and Incantatory Verse - The New York Times | Leonard Cohen, who was 82 when he died on Monday, was young once. That can be hard to remember after his years of public, eminence: touring arenas while he was in his 70s and playing leisurely shows that seemed to slow down time itself. He intoned his songs with serene gravity, revealing once again how carefully chiseled every one of his quatrains is. And with every line he shared, implicitly and in his lyrics, there was a humbling knowledge of mortality: one that grows even more significant on Mr. Cohen’s final studio album, “You Want It Darker,” which was released less than a month ago. In “Who By Fire,” from 1974, one of his many songs that is both a list and an incantation, he itemized causes and sites of death, getting morbid while keeping a hint of puckishness: Mr. Cohen was aware, always, of every option. In his concerts, Mr. Cohen played the venerable sage, dapper in his suits and precisely angled hats. He was also sly and avuncular, making droll, deadpan comments in his sepulchral voice. He had aged to match the perspective he had brought to his lyrics since the late 1960s: a long view that stretched back to biblical and psychological archetypes and envisioned myth and history — and the economy of Zen koans — far more often than the everyday. Perhaps because he was already in his 30s when he set aside novels and poetry for songwriting, he was a from the start. Mr. Cohen was a monumentally painstaking songwriter who described, in interviews, a process of endless writing and rewriting for his lyrics. By his accounts, he tinkered with some of his songs for years on end. That meticulousness was obvious in the songs he did release, which he did in no great hurry: 14 studio albums in 49 years. Bob Dylan’s associations were sometimes a influence, particularly on Mr. Cohen’s albums, but the Cohen trademark was the paradox, the finely balanced lyrics that can be deliberately heard (and read) in contradictory ways: reverence or blasphemy, affection or animosity, reportage or mockery, tragedy or comedy. “Everybody Knows,” a dark masterpiece of bitter cynicism from 1988 that Mr. Cohen wrote with the singer Sharon Robinson, opens with politics that still ring unfortunately true: Then, because political battles are not always physically felt, the song’s catalog of betrayals veers toward the personal: “Everybody knows that you’ve been give or take a night or two. ” As serious as he was, Mr. Cohen was always frisky too. His first albums, especially, are suffused with appreciative eroticism and sensuality: describing a lover with “your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm” in “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,” or recalling, with explicit details, a tryst with Janis Joplin in “Chelsea Hotel #2,” which has her declaring, “We are ugly but we have the music. ” The Cohen song that became an unlikely pop perennial, “Hallelujah,” veers between biblical allusions and ecstatic sex. In its melody and chord progression, “Hallelujah,” which has been subjected to renditions both humble and bombastic, points to something Mr. Cohen’s countless literary admirers don’t mention: He understood tunes, and he knew they were more than just backdrops to his words. It’s one thing — a complicated, prodigious thing — to write such fastidious lyrics, and then to mock that fastidiousness by rhyming “Hallelujah” with “what’s it to ya. ” It’s another to carry them in a melody that, once created, seems to sing itself. “Hallelujah” is a succession of tensions and releases, which stay no less magical despite the way Mr. Cohen analyzes them in the first verse of his lyrics: “the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift. ” Mr. Cohen had to cope with the limitations of his vocal cords. That’s why his first exposure, with songs like the conundrums of “Famous Blue Raincoat,” came via the prettier voices of singers like Judy Collins. In Mr. Cohen’s early years he was a low tenor, decent enough technically and smart enough as a melody writer to keep his songs where he could sing them. On his debut album, “Songs of Leonard Cohen,” the producer John Simon gave Mr. Cohen exactly as much counterpoint as he needed, although Mr. Cohen complained, in a 1967 interview with The Village Voice, “They tried to make my songs into music. ” Later, as his voice plummeted down to a bass register, he used the voices of women — as angels, consorts, muses, ghosts — to provide melodies around him. Mr. Cohen was clearly aware of how many of his album titles insisted that his work was music above all: “Songs from a Room,” “Songs of Love and Hate,” “Recent Songs,” “Ten New Songs. ” Sometimes, he tried to be palatable to pop radio. He delved widely across idioms, writing not just folk and pop but tunes that hinted at rock, blues, country, klezmer, Viennese waltzes and Greek rebetika — even disco on the trenchant “I’m Your Man” in 1988. And in one of the most improbable (and mismatched) collaborations in pop history, Mr. Cohen made his 1977 album “Death of a Ladies’ Man” with Phil Spector. Mr. Cohen could frustrate his listeners by treating some albums, like the 2004 record “Dear Heather,” merely as skeletal demos. One of the benefits of his touring was that he rescued some songs from misbegotten studio arrangements. On his final studio albums — in 2012, 2014 and 2016 — he collaborated with an unexpected and adept fan: the producer Patrick Leonard, who wrote and produced “Like a Prayer,” among many other songs, with Madonna. Yet it’s inevitable that Mr. Cohen will be remembered above all for his lyrics. They are terse and acrobatic, scriptural and bawdy, vividly descriptive and enduringly ambiguous, never far from either a riddle or a punch line. “There is a crack in ’s how the light gets in,” he advised in “Anthem. ” His final ruminations on his last album, “You Want It Darker,” were on mortality, love and a divinity that he faced and questioned to the very end. “Steer your way through the pain that is far more real than ’s smashed the cosmic model, that blinded every please don’t make me go there, though there be a God or not,” he intoned in “Steer Your Way. ” In his last songs, as always, he sought stark truth before comfort. | 0fake
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Yet Another School Bombing In Syria: 22 Children And 6 Teachers Killed | “Syria’s children, like children anywhere else in the world, deserve the chance to learn and play without running the risk of being killed in their classrooms.” A damaged classroom at a school after it was hit in an air strike in the village of Hass, in the south of Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province on October 26, 2016. (Photo: Omar haj kadour/AFP)
Twenty-two children and six teachers were killed after a school in Idlib, Syria was bombed on Wednesday, which aid groups are saying may be the deadliest attack on a school since the conflict began.
“This is a tragedy. It is an outrage. And if deliberate, it is a war crime,” said Anthony Lake, executive director of the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF, of the attack on the school compound.
“This latest atrocity may be the deadliest attack on a school since the war began more than five years ago,” he continued. “Children lost forever to their families…teachers lost forever to their students…one more scar on Syria’s future.”
According to BBC :
The attack on Haas, about 75km (46 miles) south-west of Aleppo, appears to have been intense and flattened a number of buildings, reports the BBC’s James Longman in Beirut.
Children were reportedly gathered around an entrance when it was hit, at about 11:30 local time (08:30 GMT). They had been allowed to leave classes early because of the raids elsewhere in the village.
Activists shared photographs of dead bodies—many of them children—on the floor of a makeshift treatment center.
Many are saying that Wednesday’s bombing is evidence of the increasing human suffering caused by the intractable war within Syria . | 1real
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UK's Johnson in Iran talks to lobby for jailed aid worker | DUBAI (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson flew to Tehran on Saturday to seek the release of a jailed British-Iranian aid worker. The Foreign Office said Johnson spoke frankly with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif about consular cases of dual nationals such as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who Britain says was visiting family on holiday when she was jailed by Iran for attempting to overthrow the government. The case has taken on domestic political importance in Britain, especially since Johnson said last month that Zaghari-Ratcliffe trained journalists, which her employer denies. Johnson later apologized. Opponents have called for him to resign if his comments lead to her serving longer in prison. Johnson is also expected to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday to discuss bilateral and regional issues, a Foreign Office official said, during just the third visit by a British foreign minister to Iran in the last 14 years. Talks with Zarif were constructive , Johnson s office said, despite differences between the two countries. They both spoke frankly about the obstacles in the relationship, including the Foreign Secretary s concerns about the consular cases of British-Iranian dual nationals, a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in a statement. The two-day visit takes place against a complex backdrop of historical, regional and bilateral tensions. Johnson stressed Britain s support for Iran s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in the meeting, the spokeswoman said. International sanctions against Iran have only recently been lifted as part of the multilateral nuclear deal to curb Tehran s disputed uranium enrichment program. That deal is under threat after U.S. President Donald Trump decided to decertify Iran s compliance with its terms. Johnson told Zarif he believed the deal should be fully implemented. Johnson also met Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran s Supreme National Security Council, and parliament speaker Ali Larijani during the first day of his two-day visit, Iran s state news agency IRNA reported. The Foreign Office statement did not mention Zaghari-Ratcliffe by name, although Johnson has vowed to leave no stone unturned in Britain s efforts to free her. A project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, she was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges. Zaghari-Ratcliffe is not the only dual national being held in Iran, but has become the most high-profile case. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News. It says Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been on holiday and had not been teaching journalism in Iran. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been told she will appear in court on Dec. 10, her husband Richard has said. The visit is a test of Johnson s ability to navigate a political landscape littered with potential pitfalls. Iran s 1979 Islamic Revolution turned it into a pariah state for most of the West and many Middle Eastern neighbors. Britain has voiced its continued support for the nuclear deal but is one of a number of Western powers voicing concerns about Tehran s destabilizing influence in the region. | 0fake
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CNN’s Don Lemon Tries to Downplay Horrific ‘Anti-Trump’ Torture of Mentally Disabled Man | In case you missed it, CNN anchor Don Lemon went on a drunk, alcohol-fuelled tear this past New Years Eve, drinking tequila shots during CNN s nationally televised show. It was a shocking scene, even by CNN standards. After making a show of himself, the 50 year-old Lemon then got a free pass from CNN executives, and the next day he was back to work on set as if nothing had happened. Things only got worse from there On Wednesday, shocking reports surfaced of what appears to be both a politically and racially motivated attack, where four black youths from Chicago kidnapped and tortured a mentally disabled white man (pictured above), in an ordeal which lasted over 24 hours. The perpetrators live-streamed the abuse on Facebook s Live.Later that evening, host Don Lemon assembled a panel of CNN regulars, most of whom appeared to downplay the political and racial nature of the attack despite having the video evidence right there, clearly showing the captors ill intentions.The kidnappers could be heard shouting at their victim, F*** Trump! and F*** white people! as they proceeded to humiliate and torture the mentally disabled man, including taking a knife and scalping a lock of his hair and drawing blood in the process.Aside from the political and racist overtones, the fact that the victim was a helpless disabled man added another dimension to the cruelty. The fact that this was a vulnerable person who was probably duped into going along with them. It appears it is someone who is mentally disabled, I think makes it even more sickening, said CNN guest Matt Lewis. But at the end of the day, you just try to wrap your head around evil. That s what this is, it s evil. It s brutality. That s when CNN s Don Lemon stepped in, trying to steer the conversation towards being sympathetic towards the four black assailants, with Lemon stating, I don t think it s evil. I think these are young people and I think they have bad home training.Lemon s obvious cognitive dissonance is clearly on display here, as the troubled anchor claims he cannot image such criminal behavior, even as four people conspire and broadcast the torture right in front of Lemon s eyes. I say, who is raising these young people? I have no idea who s raising these young people. Because no one I know on Earth who is 17 years old or 70 years old would ever think of treating another person like that. Watch Lemon s shameful gatekeeping episode here: Lemon s racial and political bias was trumped only by CNN s flippant black activist and Democratic Party surrogate, Symone Sanders, who tried selling the idea that this incident wasn t a hate crime even though all aspects of an anti-white racist hate were on full display. The Democratic Party worker then infers that Donald Trump is to blame for creating the conditions for the attack, as she callously tries to downplay the event as merely stupid on the part of the black kidnappers.One could easily argue based on their commentaries, both Don Lemon and Symone Sanders have a clear bias because of the racial identities of the assailants, and are thus incapable of covering this story with any level of normal objectivity.SEE ALSO: Don Lemon Hits Back at Fake Information That He s Making Excuses for Torture Gang Democratic Party operative and Black Lives Matter supporter Symone Sanders (Image: CNN)In a separate segment, #BlackLives Matter supporter and CNN panelist Angela Rye, attempted to divert the conversation away from the racist aspects of the crime by attacking The Blaze radio host Glenn Beck who tweeted earlier and blamed the militant activist George Soros-funded militant group Black Lives Matter for the incident.You are right. Stand up with me and demand justice in Chicago for the beating of a disabled trump supporter by BLM https://t.co/aP79pKnHA1 Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) January 5, 2017It is not yet clear whether any of the four black assailants were members or supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.Mainstream Media: Institutional Double Standards It goes without saying that had the racial identities been reversed in this case, then it would have sparked national outrage and certainly organized rioting in dozens of cities across America as well as any white-on-black crime being blamed on President-Elect Donald Trump.READ MORE CNN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire CNN FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV | 1real
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Watch Lab MP claim that “The Government is hurtling towards a chaotic breakfast” | Next Prev Swipe left/right Watch Lab MP claim that “The Government is hurtling towards a chaotic breakfast”
The brexit / breakfast slip strikes again and this time for Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell . "Hurtling towards a chaotic breakfast" https://t.co/s451F9ixoP
— Sean Clare (@Sean__Clare) October 27, 2016
The question is: is this chaotic breakfast going to be hard or soft? | 1real
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WATCH KARMA IN ACTION: CNN GETS HIT With Tear Gas While Defending Violent Alt-Left Protesters At AZ Trump Rally | The timing couldn t have been better. Just as Gary Tuckman, a reporter for Very Fake News CNN, was in the middle of a hit piece on President Trump, he was literally hit with tear gas being used by law enforcement to keep the radical Alt-Left protesters from harming innocent people who came to support our president at his Phoenix, AZ rally last night.Very Fake News CNN s Gary Tuckman, can be seen clearly struggling to speak to CNN host Don Lemon in the video below.Tuckman told Very Fake News CNN host Don Lemon, All of our faces are burning, all of our throats are burning. He also relayed what was very likely bad intel, to Lemon: There were some water bottles thrown at police and the next thing we felt were the burning tear gas. But how does Tuckman know they were they bottles filled with water? The radical, and very violent Antifa group that CNN is working so hard to redefine as a kinder, gentler resistance group, was accused of throwing bottles of urine at free speech advocates and law enforcement in Charlottesville less than 2 weeks ago. So how does Tuckman know for certain that the bottles the non-violent group he is so quick to defend, were only filled with water? And since when is lobbing ANYTHING at police officers who are protecting our president and his supporters considered NON-violent?Earlier in the evening, another CNN reporter nearly got hit by the lit end of a smoke grenade.CNN may want to rethink this whole bunkering with Antifa thing during what appears to be ongoing, violent protests by the Democrat Partys Soros funded Alt-Left groups.The Alt-Left came prepared last night, as they were seen proudly displaying their AR-15 s. | 1real
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Sri Lanka court jails top former senior officials for graft | COLOMBO (Reuters) - A Sri Lankan court on Thursday jailed and fined two top officials in former president Mahinda Rajapaksa s government for misappropriation of funds, a lawyer said, the first convictions in a series of investigations into official corruption. The government of President Maithripala Sirisena unseated Rajapaksa in 2015 on promises to expose corruption and is under pressure to follow through. Sirisena s administration has been probing money laundering and misappropriation of state property in more than 50 cases, but no one had been convicted until Thursday. Colombo High Court sentenced Lalith Weeratunga, former secretary to Rajapaksa, and Anusha Palpita, ex-head of the state-run Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, to three years of rigorous imprisonment , or jail with hard labor, and fined them 52 million rupees ($340,760) each. Election monitors had complained that the state fund was used to influence voters ahead of 2015 presidential polls. Kalinga Indratissa, the lawyer who appeared on behalf of Weeratunga and Palpita, told Reuters the two would appeal. Two of Rajapaksa s sons, Namal and Yoshitha, have been arrested and released on bail over money laundering allegations. His brother, Basil, who headed the economic development ministry, has also been arrested at least three times - twice over suspicion of misuse of anti-poverty funds and a once over suspicion of laundering money and released on bail. Rajapaksa and his family deny any wrongdoing. Rajapaksa was president for a decade until January 2015 and is popular among ethnic majority Sinhala Buddhists who credit him with ending the 26-year-war against minority Tamil separatist rebels in 2009. | 0fake
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