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(Before It's News) (Don Boudreaux) Tweet Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal : Wilbur Ross’s and Peter Navarro’s defense of Donald Trump’s economic policies is mostly a mash of bunkum (“ A Vote for Trump Is a Vote for Growth ,” Oct. 26). Consider this claim: “Donald Trump will cut taxes, reduce regulation … and eliminate our trade deficit through muscular trade negotiations that increase exports, [and] reduce imports….” Cut taxes? Bunk. Trump famously promises to raise taxes on Americans who buy imports. Reduce regulation? Rubbish. Trump promises more government intrusions into Americans’ commerce with foreigners. As for ‘eliminating’ our trade deficit, Trump might indeed succeed on that front. But such ‘success’ would be regrettable, for it would be the inevitable outcome of the American economy being made an unattractive destination for investment. (Ross and Navarro seem to be unaware that to “eliminate our trade deficit” – such as was done, for example, during the Great Depression – is to eliminate net contributions by foreigners to increasing the size of America’s capital stock.) But Trump’s most absurd promise is to enrich Americans by increasing exports and reducing imports. Imports are what we voluntarily buy and exports are the price we pay. Therefore, a policy meant to increase exports while decreasing imports is a policy meant to force Americans to pay more to foreigners and to receive less in return – a decidedly unartful deal the architect of which would deserved to be fired. But the Trump camp’s confusion runs even more deeply. Exporting for Americans is worthwhile only because it supplies us with the means to purchase imports, either currently or in the future. So a policy that aims both to increase exports and to decrease imports is akin to a policy that aims both to increase people’s spending power and to decrease it. It’s a policy meant to give Americans greater means for acquiring imports as it simultaneously strips Americans of the freedom to use those means. It’s the economic policy equivalent of an attempt to square a circle. Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux Professor of Economics and Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030

U.N. Secretary General Complains That The ‘Masses Have Rejected Globalism’ In Favor Of Nationalism Antonio Guterres, elected in October to take over as U.N. secretary general next year, told a conference in his native Lisbon that this trend had undermined the willingness to receive refugees in Europe this year. He said the world must re-establish international protection for refugees coming from war zones such as Syria, but it would not be easy as developed countries were turning to nationalist agendas. 22, 2016 The incoming head of the United Nations warned on Tuesday that ‘losers of globalization’ in rich countries have felt ignored by establishment politicians, prompting them to turn to nationalist agendas, as in the U.S. election and Brexit referendum. “Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” Zephaniah 3:8 (KJV) EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bible clearly says that God’s desire is to “gather all the nations of the world together”, in order to “pour His fury” upon them. The United Nations, something unique in world history, has been created by the will of God, and things are going to end exactly how the Bible says they will end. All Muslims will be driven out of Israel as prophesied in Zechariah 14:21 (KJV), Israel will expand its borders to cover the size of the original land grant to Abraham , and Jesus will rule the world from Jerusalem . And that will be the “new” world order. Antonio Guterres, elected in October to take over as U.N. secretary general next year , told a conference in his native Lisbon that this trend had undermined the willingness to receive refugees in Europe this year. He said the world must re-establish international protection for refugees coming from war zones such as Syria, but it would not be easy as developed countries were turning to nationalist agendas. Antonio Guterres formally elected as UN chief: Europe has struggled to handle a huge influx of refugees, many of whom displaced by the war in Syria. The United States has accepted only a very small number of refugees and may take in even fewer next year. “In 2016, we have witnessed a dramatic deterioration of that international protection regime (for refugees),” Guterres said. “This example started in the developed world, it started essentially in Europe, it is spreading now like a virus into other parts of the world.” Guterres, who was U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees until last year, linked the growing resistance to accepting refugees to wider concerns about globalism. “I don’t think we can look strictly at the refugee issue, I think the problem is a broader problem,” he told the conference on Europe’s refugee crisis. There was a consensus in the mid-1990s that globalization would benefit all, he said. “But a lot of people were left behind … In the developed world, (there are) those who have been losers in globalization,” he said. “The recent analysis of the rust belt in the United States, I think, is a clear demonstration of that, when we speak about the elections.” Donald Trump won this month’s election in the United States in part thanks to support from voters who have seen their jobs lost to countries with cheaper labor. “So globalization has not been as successful as we had hoped and lots of people became not only angry with it, but feeling that political establishments and international organizations are not paying attention, were not taking care (of them),” he said. This led to what he called “a kind of evolution” in which anti-establishment parties now tended to win elections and referendums tended to attract majorities against whatever was put to a vote. source SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr Add another group to the list of people who won’t be voting for Donald Trump. Oh, a few of them might but after they see this ad for Trump, I’m betting the majority will laugh and vote for Hillary Clinton. Earlier in the month, Trump attended a Bollywood concert for charity. It was organized by the Republican Hindu Coalition, a group that was founded by a rich Indian-American named Shalli Kumar, who is looking to be the Hindu Sheldon Adelson. The Indian community is heavily Democratic so good luck with that. Trump came to the event, lit the Diya — it’s doubtful that he had any idea what it was — and then spoke. He pandered told the attendees that “the Indian and Hindu community will have a true friend in the White House,” promising they will “defeat radical Islamic terrorism.” This inspired Kumar to make an ad which will be playing 20 times a day on Indian-American channels. He refused to say how much it cost the campaign to buy that much time but we can guess that Mr. Kumar is helping foot the bill. He previously has given almost $1 million to a fundraising committee which benefited both Trump and the RNC. There is a lot to laugh about in the ad, bt Trump’s inability to pronounce Hindi words takes teh cake. It is such an obvious bit of pandering, even for him. The ad starts with a wish for a Happy Diwali , a holiday I am certain Trump is ignorant of. The cut to Trump’s orange face is a bit jarring after the pretty lights and flowers. Kumar wanted to draw a similarity between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM’s campaign had used a clever catchphrase which loosely translates to “This time a Modi government.” Kumar wanted Trump to replace Modi’s name with his own. In Hindi, that is “Ab ki baar Trump sarkar.” Don’t get ahead of me, now. In the ad, which uses footage of Trumps speech at the charity concert, a 2008 photo of the hotel which was attacked by Islamic militants in Mumbai gives way to a picture of PM Modi. Then back to Trump who tries to speak the short Hindi phrase. It’s something one must see to believe. Make sure you aren’t drinking anything as you may endanger your computer. “Approved by Donald Trump?” Well, I guess so. This ad is not just pandering, it is awful. I hope the Indian American community laugh this off and then go vote against this man who only shows interest in their culture when it might get him votes. Oh, and Happy Diwali! May the light burn away any bad times and welcome the good. Featured Image by Kena Betancur/Getty Images Share this Article!

Crushing the hope-filled “it’s just a backup of what they have already seen” narrative of a campaign clutching at straws to defend their candidate, and confirming Fox News Bret Baier’s earlier reporting , CBS News reports that the FBI has found new, non-duplicate emails related to Hilary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State on Anthony Weiner’s laptop . Sources earlier described to Fox News’ Bret Baier as an “avalanche of evidence…” And tonight we are getting further clarification, from US Officials, as to what that evidence consists of (via CBS News) These emails, CBS News’ Andres Triay reports, are not duplicates of emails found on Secretary Clinton’s private server. At this point, however, it remains to be seen whether these emails are significant to the FBI’s investigation into Clinton. It is also not known how many relevant emails there are. This is a major problem for the surrogates, lawyers, life-long friends, and defenders of the status quo as it destroys the narrative that has been painted suggesting these emails found on Weiner’s laptop are merely backups of what law enforcement officials have already seen (and found no intent in). But what is most intriguing is the question of whether the missing 33,000 ‘personal’ emails ‘deleted’ by Bryan Pagliano in the full knowledge of Hillary Clinton (according to Wikileaks emails), are also on the estranged husband of Clinton right-hand-lady Huma Abedin’s laptop. As Federal law enforcement officials concluded to CBS News tonight : “These emails have never been seen before” Fox’s Bret Baier summed up what happens next… “I pressed again and again on this very issue… The investigations will continue, there is a lot of evidence. And barring some obstruction in some way, they believe they will continue to likely an indictment .” The noose is tightening… Delivered by The Daily Sheeple We encourage you to share and republish our reports, analyses, breaking news and videos ( Click for details ). Contributed by Zero Hedge of www.zerohedge.com .

Serena Shim is an American citizen of Lebanese descent who was born near Detroit. Shim worked for Iranian broadcaster Press TV as a foreign correspondent covering wars, legitimate protests and fake uprisings in multiple countries. Via AnonHQ She reported live from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Lebanon during the conflict since 2011, including in the critical region of Daraa during the beginning of protests, which are misrepresented by American media as the reasons for the fake civil war. Serena Shim was killed two years ago on October 19, 2014, in Turkey while reporting on the intense battle for the Syrian border city of Kobani which was the focus of international media attention. She was 29 when she died. Scroll Down For Video Below! The city of Kobani, which has one of Turkey’s major border crossings with Syria, because it was under threat of being completely captured by the Islamic State. The US was forced to respond because Islamic State grew out of control and threatened the border stability of Turkey, and it became the first major area bombed during the US campaign in Syria. The US and Turkey were also arguing over Washington’s plan to arm Kurdish fighters on the Syrian side of the border and how to allow Kurds from Iraq to support the effort by crossing through Turkey. On the day she was killed, the US began operations to airdrop weapons to the Kurds. Less than two days later, Islamic State fighters released a video showing the capture of an American weapons cache airdropped near the city. The video received international media attention which led the Pentagon to admit the weapons mistakenly reached ISIL terrorists. It is claimed she was killed in a car accident with a cement truck. However, physical details about the case raise questions about the official explanation by Turkish officials. There are also conflicting stories about the timeline after her death and before the family received her body, which indicate actions by the government of Turkey and possibly the United States. Two days before her death, Serena Shim reported on live international television that Turkish intelligence services were planning to arrest her for questioning on the suspicion her being a spy. The day after her death, US officials denied releasing any information it had about whether the US government was aware of Turkey’s plans. State Department officials told WTF News it would be December 2017 before a Freedom of Information Act request could be completed for information on what actions were taken by them to assist her as a US citizen. Serena Shim conducted an undercover investigation in Turkey and Syria lasting multiple months during 2012 as she spoke fluent Arabic. Her report aired on Press TV beginning in December 2012. The issues listed below are topics she reported on first or experienced in person before they were reported by major media outlets. US officials continue to hide her death and not a single major media outlet in America reported on her death at the time despite the fact that she was popular in America and the Middle East. 1. HILLARY CLINTON’S EMAILS PROVE THE US STATE DEPT AND WHITE HOUSE KNEW SAUDI ARABIA AND QATAR ARE FUNDING ISLAMIC STATE Clinton admitted, in an email conversation from August 2014 obtained by Wikileaks, that US allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar were sending money and weapons to ISIL. August 2014 was the height of terror during Islamic State’s rise, leading to the growing international media outrage which forced President Obama to publicly announce the beginning of airstrikes against ISIL in Syria on September 23, 2014. THE FREE THOUGHT PROJECT “While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” “The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious U.S. pressure.” The business newspaper Financial Times reported that Prince Saud al-Faisal admitted Saudi Arabia created and funded Islamic State as a response to the US supporting Shia powers in Iraq. The FT also reported in 2013that Qatar had already spent $3 billion on funding the opposition. America’s top military official General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked “Do you know any major Arab ally that embraces ISIL?” by Republican Senator Lindsay Graham. “I know major Arab allies who fund them,” replied Dempsey. 2. THE UNITED STATES WANTED THE ISLAMIC STATE TO GROW, AS PROVED BY LEAKED INTELLIGENCE DOCUMENTS The rapid growth of the Islamic State was not an accident, and many observers of the conflict questioned the US commitment to fighting terrorism as they ignored the group’s rise. Since the start of the armed conflict in 2011, United States officials including Hillary Clinton have publicly stated that their solution to stop the war is to replace Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other government leaders. The public policy of the United States has been to support what the US calls moderate opposition groups under the name Free Syrian Army (FSA) with the goal of having them weaken the government forces. That strategy changed in mid-2012 as news reports confirmed these rebels were committing war crimes by killing civilians and executing soldiers. One of the largest factions Al Nusra was specifically identified as a terrorist group in December 2012. At the same time, the Islamic State (known as Al Qaeda in Iraq) was growing in Syria and had become a dominant force by 2013. The Islamic State grew in Syria for almost two years before the US announced it would take military action in September 2014. The intelligence report was dated August 2012 confirms the US government would have known about this threat for two years. JUDICIAL WATCH “If the situation unravels, there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).”Syria has been fought over for two separate gas pipeline projects, a pipeline from Qatar rejected by Assad for one from Iran. The second pipeline is a Russian plan to connect with Turkey to deliver gas to Europe; the deal was finalized less than two weeks ago.

Geert Wilders is the founder and leader of the Freedom Party in The Netherlands. Wilders is a favorite to be the next Dutch Prime Minister. Because of his strong stance against the expansion of Islam in the West he was put on the Al-Qaeda hit list and has 24 hour security protection. Geert posted this tweet today, reported The Gateway Pundit. He wants to “Make the Netherlands Great Again.” Flashback: Geert Wilders attended Trump’s coronation at the RNC and gave a superb interview and a speech, check them out:

Business Insider : Donald Trump praised former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Wednesday for his fiery interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Tuesday night. “By the way, congratulations, Newt, on last night,” the Republican nominee said during a press event at the opening of his new hotel in Washington, DC. Trump added: “That was an amazing interview. Amazing interview. We don’t play games, Newt, right? We don’t play games.” DONALD TRUMP IS BIG BOSS. HAIL NEWT! Next Cernovich book: The Newt Gingrich Mindset: How to Improve Your Life by Shutting Whore Mouths pic.twitter.com/GJZhO23W1C

Comments Last night, Louisiana Senate candidates vying for disgraced Senator David Vitter’s empty seat took the stage at the historically black Dillard University. Among them was former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, who is making yet another run for public office. The students at Dillard rightfully came out to protest – but were met with shocking violence from the police. Seventy or so students protested Duke’s presence at their college. “They’re allowing a terrorist, a neo-Nazi Ku Klux Klan member to be secured in a building in which we paid thousands of dollars to attend annually,” said political science major Brielle Kennedy , who was arrested moments later. Nobody was allowed in the building during the debate, but students tried to enter anyway to express their fury – and were met with pepper-spray and beatings from police, who arrested six students. “They sprayed us directly in the face with it. I was covered on my shirt, my arms, my face. They’re bodyslamming people, they pulled girls’ hair. They’re just acting like heathens” recounted student Hannah Galloway. The debate itself went off the rails almost immediately as David Duke began complaining about “Jews ,” saying that “there is a problem in America with a very strong, powerful tribal group that dominates our media, dominates our international banking.” He then went on to say that “[Hillary Clinton] should be getting the electric chair, being charged with treason.” What did the police and state board of elections expect would happen when they held a debate at a historically black school in the deep South and invited a deplorable white supremacist and prominent Trump supporter to attend? The violence with which the police reacted evokes the violence that white police visited on black protesters during Jim Crow and the battle for African-American civil rights – and is a painful symbol of how little has changed in the past sixty years. The fact that David Duke had the support to qualify for the ballot is evidence enough.

Despite stringent gun controls that read like a Democrat for U. S. gun policy, a new study shows the province of Ontario, Canada, witnesses one “child or youth” shot every day. [The study was conducted by the Canadian Medical Association Journal. According to The Star, the lead author of the study, Dr. Natasha Saunders, said, “A child or youth injured by a gun each day in this province is staggering. ” She believes this should serve as impetus for doctors to be more involved in the conversation about firearms in Ontario, including conversations between doctors and their patients. Saunders said, “Our findings indicate that this is a conversation we should be having with our patients and their families, particularly with these populations. ” The study shows that children and youth are prone to accidental shootings while immigrants of the same age are prone to being shot intentionally. It also shows that children and youth in rural areas were more prone to accidental shootings while those in urban environments were prone to assaults with firearms. The study offers this explanation: The observed variation in firearm injury by region of origin may have been related to higher participation in Canadian gangs by Caribbean and African immigrants than by those from other regions, and it highlights the need to ensure a healthy transition to Canada by these particular groups. It is interesting to note that Canada has all the gun controls Democrats in the U. S. push as a means of keeping citizens safe. They have criminal background checks, mental background checks, and licensing requirements for gun ownership that include domestic abuse checks. In fact, The University of Sydney’s GunPolicy. org reveals that “licensing authorities are required to conduct interviews with, or to advise an applicant’s spouse, partner, or next of kin before issuing a gun licence. ” This is clearly a step intended to discover any problem that may have slipped through the cracks during the numerous other checks required for a gun license. But despite these controls — and so many more — one “child or youth” is shot every day in Ontario. These same “restrictive” controls also proved impotent to stop a determined attacker who killed six and wounded eight in Quebec on January 29. Breitbart News reported: The Quebec attack was similar to those in other European countries with restrictive gun control laws. For example, twelve people were shot and killed on January 7, 2015, when terrorists opened fire on Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris. Just months later, on November 13, 2015, more terrorists in Paris opened fire and killed 130 innocents. 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.

Normani Kordei, a member of the girl group on the rise Fifth Harmony, sat for a lighthearted Facebook Live interview earlier this month. Within a week, she had been chased off Twitter by a mob spewing racist insults. “I’ve not just been cyber bullied, I’ve been racially cyber bullied with tweets and pictures so horrific and racially charged that I can’t subject myself any longer to the hate,” she wrote. Her account has been silent since. Online harassment has become a depressingly common workplace hazard for people of color in the public eye. Last month, the “Ghostbusters” star Leslie Jones temporarily quit Twitter after weathering a deluge of racist abuse. And last year, the Brazilian actress Taís Araújo reported a series of harassers to the police after they had inundated her Facebook page with similar comments. But the racist taunts hurled at Ms. Kordei didn’t originate from some white supremacist message board, or even from a crew of Fifth Harmony haters. It came from within the Fifth Harmony fandom itself. The incident illuminates some strange similarities between the bands of internet trolls stalking the web and the legions of online fans seeking to stir up some drama. They both know that the most hurtful weaponry to wield against black women include images of apes, threats of lynching and a . Fifth Harmony is a Simon girl group that snagged its first Top 10 hit this year with the saucy single “Work From Home. ” Its brand would best be described as “gyrating girl power. ” But when Ms. Kordei sat down with the digital lifestyle magazine Galore for the Facebook Live interview on the subject of female friendship, one question — “Describe each girl in one word” — ripped a fault line through the group’s young, female fan base. Of her bandmate Ally Brooke, Ms. Kordei said: “Sunshine, because she is literally the light of the group. ” Of Lauren Jauregui: “My therapist, I can go to her about absolutely anything, and I feel like I can trust that she won’t judge anything that I say. ” And Dinah Jane: “She’s like the queen, she just has a good time anywhere she is. ” When she reached Fifth Harmony’s final member, Camila Cabello, she paused. “She is … let’s see. Camila. Very quirky. Yeah, very quirky. Um, cute. Quirky. ” That’s it. But that was enough to enrage some fans of Ms. Cabello, the who has been positioned as Fifth Harmony’s breakout star (and earned a spot in Taylor Swift’s squad). To this set, Ms. Kordei’s answer was apparently insufficiently effusive. “Camila is a lot more than cute and quirky she’s kind, classy, mature and hardworking,” one fan tweeted. The backlash soon grew big enough to hit the teen gossip sites (“OMG: Did Normani Kordei Throw Shade at Camila Cabello?” the magazine asked) before curdling into something more sinister. In fan enclaves across the web, a subset of Fifth Harmony followers called Ms. Kordei “Normonkey,” “coon,” and “nigger. ” One said she “deserves to be lynched. ” Another Photoshopped her face onto the body of a woman hanging from a tree. This is the kind of rhetoric you expect to see on 4chan’s political message board, a den of white supremacist rhetoric fused with ironic memes. The trolls of 4chan have lately helped power the online presence of the the folks who led the Twitter assault against Ms. Jones. Now the internet’s most unruly celebrity fans are cribbing their troublemaking tactics from the same playbook. The firestorm against Ms. Jones was touched off by a nasty review of “Ghostbusters” published by Milo Yiannopoulos, a conservative provocateur. As the attacks built, comment threads unspooled inside 4chan, surfacing racist images and commentary to hurl at Ms. Jones in Twitter’s open marketplace. Abuse against Ms. Kordei was organized, too, by an anonymous Twitter account that popped up directing fans to inundate her with slurs. Trolls thrive off provoking a response from their targets. When Ms. Jones began speaking out against the abuse on Twitter, 4chan posters traded gleeful messages. Fans, too, delight in forging some connection with the stars, even if it comes in the form of a rebuke. The abuse against Ms. Kordei escalated after she took to Twitter to deny a feud with Ms. Cabello and to denounce the fans attempting to stir up trouble. That behavior eventually scored a response from Ms. Cabello, too. “You don’t have to hate on somebody else to support me — I don’t appreciate it and it’s not what I’m about,” she tweeted. “Be kind or move on. ” Most Fifth Harmony fans, who call themselves Harmonizers, are not racists. As the abuse mounted, support for Ms. Kordei poured out under the hashtags #IStandWithNormani and #WeLoveYouNormani. Still, racially tinged remarks about Ms. Kordei have been a presence amid her rise in popularity — fans have expressed surprise that she reads books and called her “ugly” and “ape” — and the abuse tends to flare at dramatic moments within the roiling fan narrative of imagined alliances and feuds (like the supposed ongoing beef between Ms. Kordei and Ms. Cabello). A similar dynamic has played out among One Direction fans, some of whom have greeted Zayn Malik, the group’s lone Muslim member, with death threats and slurs like “terrorist. ” He briefly quit Twitter in 2012, citing Islamophobia, and left the band last year. And when Robert Pattinson started dating the singer FKA Twigs in 2014, a subgroup of his fans inundated her with racist abuse on Twitter that left her “genuinely shocked and disgusted. ” Some level of infighting is embedded within pop fandom itself. Like One Direction before it, Fifth Harmony is a pop group that’s been perfectly primed to exploit differences in personality, style and ethnic background of the group’s singers. The Spice Girls played this trick most baldly, naming and dressing members after a singular trait — Baby, Scary, Sporty, Posh and Ginger. But supporting a favorite bandmate can easily degrade into trashing a least favorite. In a New York Post article from 1998, one Spice Girls fan said of Ginger (Geri Halliwell): “A lot of people don’t like her. I think some people hate her the most out of all of them. ” She added: “I personally don’t like Scary Spice, though. ” Typically, girl group loyalism falls into the benign end of human . But in the crucible of online fandom, demographic distinctions can coarsen into warring factions. A fan fantasy that frames the band members as hating one another — and paints one of them as rude, stupid, evil, and deserving of death because she is black — is no longer just idle fan fictions. As Ms. Kordei put it in one of her notes to fans, “For those of you who enjoy speculating creating drama that doesn’t exist, please keep in mind that myself and the other girls in the group are PEOPLE. ” She added: “This is our story so let us write it our way, instead of you trying to write it for us. ”

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama has burned off her meals at Washington’s new generation of acclaimed restaurants by pedaling at SoulCycle. President Obama has shopped for Jonathan Franzen novels with his daughters at local independent bookstores. Obama administration staff members, their barhopping chronicled in the gossip pages, have hit the 14th Street hot spots hard. Decades ago, Washington was broke and run by a mayor best known for smoking crack with a friend on a surveillance tape. Neighborhoods had not fully recovered from the 1968 riots, and an aging Georgetown elite still set the tone. The administrations of two Bushes and a Clinton in between hardly had an effect on the city. But Mr. Obama’s arrival in 2009 coincided with an urban renaissance. Economic development, federal and private investment, and an influx of highly educated young, gay and diverse professionals gentrified neighborhoods, leading to an explosion in restaurants, bars and cafes. And the Obama family — youthful, attractive and urbane — were archetypes of a modern city on the upswing. What the effect on Washington will be when Donald J. Trump moves into the White House is hard to predict. But many Washingtonians fear the worst. Among them is Vincent Gray, the city’s mayor during much of the Obama administration. “I’m worried about people not wanting to come here because of the image they have of the Trump administration,” Mr. Gray said. Now a member of the City Council, Mr. Gray said the engagement of Mr. Obama and his family with the city has been “tremendously uplifting. ” “Their presence in the city brought a level of dynamism that just wasn’t there before,” he said. By contrast, Mr. Trump seems unlikely to drop in at Oyamel, the Mexican restaurant and Obama favorite owned by José Andrés, a star chef and devoted Trump critic. For that matter, it is even unclear whether Mr. Trump, who has used his new Trump International Hotel as an outpost here, will spend weekends in the White House or in New York. And he is unlikely to feel a debt of gratitude to a city where Hillary Clinton won 93 percent of the vote. “D. C. is going to take a really hard hit, culturally, socially, everything. We were really finding our footing we weren’t second to New York,” said Jazmine Johnson, a graphic designer who said she now planned to move to New York. Ms. Johnson, 25, was speaking in the Coffee Bar, a fashionable cafe on M Street where Mr. Trump’s “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” played in the background. In the aftermath of Mr. Trump’s election victory on Tuesday, she sought solace in caffeine. Others around town signed up for free sessions at yoga studios, or meditated on emails from their progressive rabbis reminding them of the Jewish mantra “Od lo avda tikvateinu,” or, “We have not yet lost our hope. ” Reports abounded of federal workers and nonprofit employees crying at their desks, scanning the web for rentals or accepting the free hugs on offer in Farragut Square. “The world has definitely shifted on its axis, and we’ve taken a step into the abyss,” said Michael Steel, an establishment Republican by virtue of having worked for former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and departed House Speaker John Boehner, and a frequent critic of Mr. Trump. Mr. Gray said he worried that a Trump administration could set the city back because the federal government still controls its purse strings and could enact abortion restrictions, cut vital investment and relax gun control laws. But Democrats now in the government and thinking of leaving it, and young people who had hopes of joining it, have a more immediate concern — a job. Meredith Lightstone, 21, who led the University of Maryland’s Terps for Hillary club, had been preparing her résumé for positions in a Clinton administration. She said she had no interest in a role in the Trump White House. “Do I go into government or politics, or another route? Maybe tech?” she asked. “T. B. D. ” At least some Washington institutions are likely to remain shockproof. The lucrative real estate market seems to be one. Andrew C. Florance, a Washington resident and founder of CoStar, a provider of data, marketing and analytic services to the commercial real estate industry, said he expected a wave of “glitzier” New Yorkers — “the Delta Shuttle crew” — to join the Trump administration and quickly become part of the city’s lobbying ranks and downtown neighborhoods. “It will be a terrific real estate market,” he said. Lobbying firms on K Street are already treating Mr. Trump’s election as a bonanza and are gearing up for more work. Conservative think tanks are looking forward to serving up new ideas to Mr. Trump and a Republican Congress. James Wallner, a vice president for research at the Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Trump’s election was met with . “Trump is a change agent,” Mr. Wallner said. “As long as everyone is trying to change Washington, that’s all that matters. ” Liberal and environmental groups are determined to stay and fight. Debbie Sease, who heads lobbying for the Sierra Club, presided over a office of employees who took silent Metro rides into work last week and hung “free hugs” signs on their desks. She expects an invigorated resistance to come to Washington, bringing moral outrage as well as sophisticated palates. “I’d be surprised if all the good restaurants disappear or become steakhouses,” she said. Cork, the wine bar that pioneered 14th Street’s restaurant boom during the Obama years, set up televisions for an election night watch party. It turned into a tragedy with the owner, Diane Gross, telling her mother to calm down or she would have a heart attack. Jen Psaki, the White House communications director, had her engagement party at Cork, Mrs. Obama dropped in, and Jill Biden became a regular there. Ms. Gross said she hoped that Washington, despite its reputation as a transitory place, had reached a cultural critical mass that would prevent hemorrhaging of the young, fashionable and talented. Still, she acknowledged, “there’s a real possibility of people going back to wherever they are from to do progressive politics there. ” Mike O’Malley, an owner of the Red Hen, a popular restaurant in the recently gentrified neighborhood of Bloomingdale, said he expected his patrons to stay put. “There are things that make people want to live here besides government,” he said, as diners commiserated at the bar over Mrs. Clinton’s loss. “People are living here as opposed to working here. ” Mr. Trump must now populate the federal government with new appointees, but some members of his inner circle are already entrenched in Washington. Stephen K. Bannon, whom Mr. Trump named chief strategist and senior counsel on Sunday, lives, works and entertains out of a townhouse near the Supreme Court. David Bossie, another key aide to Mr. Trump, runs Citizens United, a conservative advocacy group, out of a Capitol Hill townhouse. And there will be newcomers like Richard B. Spencer, who took a break from reveling with other ecstatic supporters in the lobby bar of the Trump International Hotel on election night to declare the party over for the Washington establishment. “We are winners and we have displaced them,” said Mr. Spencer, a leader of the “ ” movement who champions white identity politics and is currently looking for Beltway headquarters for his movement. He added, “We want to become the new establishment. ”

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is struggling to adapt to an economy that refuses to boom. The Fed said on Wednesday, after a meeting of its committee, that it would not raise its benchmark interest rate, and that future increases were most likely to unfold at a slower pace. The period since the end of the Great Recession has become one of the longest economic expansions in American history and, at the same time, one of the most disappointing. The Fed, in a statement announcing its decision, noted what had become a typical mix of good news and bad. Economic output has increased while job growth has slowed, the Fed said. Consumers are spending more while companies are making fewer investments. Exports are rebounding, but Britain’s June 23 referendum on whether to leave the European Union could set off another round of disruptions. “Recent economic indicators have been mixed, suggesting that our cautious approach to adjusting monetary policy remains appropriate,” the Fed chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, told a news conference. The decision to wait was unanimous. Even Esther L. George, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, who voted to raise rates at the Fed’s last few meetings, agreed this time that the moment was not ripe. “The labor market appears to have slowed down, and we need to assure ourselves that the underlying momentum in the economy has not diminished,” Ms. Yellen said. Investors already are heavily discounting the chances of a rate increase at the Fed’s next meeting in July, or at the following meeting in September. Those chances, derived from asset prices, stood at 12 percent and 28 percent respectively on Wednesday, according to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In this environment of tepid growth and weak inflation, Fed officials once again dialed back their expectations for future rate increases. The Fed in December had predicted four rate increases this year. On Wednesday, the Fed released new projections showing that 15 of its 17 policy makers now expected no more than two increases this year, and six of those officials predicted just one. Even more striking, the median prediction of Fed officials was that the central bank’s benchmark rate would rise to just 2. 4 percent by the end of 2018, down from the March median of 3 percent. That suggests officials increasingly regard mediocre global economic growth as an enduring malaise. The Fed also appears increasingly open to the view that a shift in basic economic dynamics, driven by factors like lower productivity growth and an aging population, is holding down interest rates. That means low rates are less stimulative than they would have been in earlier eras. “It means that long rates can remain low without causing the economy to overheat, and therefore the urgency of tightening is very substantially diminished,” said Andrew Levin, a Dartmouth College economist. Markets are even more pessimistic than the Fed. The yield on the benchmark Treasury fell to 1. 574 percent, the lowest level since 2012. That is part of a broader decline in global rates that, in recent days, also has sent the yield on German debt below zero for the first time. Equity markets, which in recent years have often celebrated when central banks hold down rates, also declined modestly on Wednesday. The Standard Poor’s index fell 0. 18 percent to close at 2, 071. 50. Fed officials increasingly think the economy has exited its postcrisis period, according to economic projections the central bank published on Wednesday. The recovery, in other words, may not be complete, but it is over. Most officials predicted stable growth around 2 percent over the next few years, and they foresaw little if any additional decline in the unemployment rate, which fell to 4. 7 percent in May, the lowest level unemployment had reached since 2007, before the recession. But economic growth has disappointed expectations, and the Fed’s benchmark rate remains in a range between 0. 25 and 0. 5 percent after a single rate increase last December. As recently as late May, Ms. Yellen predicted the Fed would raise rates in “the coming months. ” On Wednesday, she downgraded a summer move to “not impossible. ” Jon Faust, an economist at Johns Hopkins University and a former adviser to Ms. Yellen, said the Fed was standing still because the basic economic situation had been remarkably stable. For the last several years, the labor market has gradually improved while inflation has been sluggish. “I suspect that the core policy developments have never been so static for so long,” Mr. Faust wrote. Under those circumstances it makes perfect sense for the Fed to watch and wait. Consumer spending has driven domestic economic growth, and Ms. Yellen said she expected the trend to continue on the back of job growth and rising wages. But Fed officials were surprised by the slow pace of job growth in May, when the economy was estimated to have added just 38, 000 jobs. And a Fed index that summarizes labor market conditions has fallen to the lowest level in seven years. Officials also have expressed increased concern about inflation expectations, which play a significant role in determining future inflation. (Workers, for example, may seek larger raises if they expect prices to rise more quickly.) The University of Michigan’s consumer survey reported last week that consumers expected 2. 3 percent annual inflation in five years, the lowest level in the survey’s history. Ms. Yellen emphasized again on Wednesday that Fed officials also saw significant risks in moving too quickly. Because interest rates already are low, the Fed has little room to ease conditions if growth falters. Officials say it will be easier to respond to faster inflation than to an economic downturn. Some economists see evidence that the Fed itself is playing a role in the slowdown. The Fed raised rates in December for the first time since the financial crisis, and officials have made clear that they would like to keep raising rates. Moreover, the decline in the Fed’s projection of interest rates suggests that the Fed may have underestimated the impact of its actions in December. But Ms. Yellen said on Wednesday that the Fed’s move in December amounted to a small adjustment in rates, and that she did not agree with critics that it had an outsize impact. “I really don’t think that a single rate increase in December has had much significance for the outlook,” she said.

The Muslim Bloc may have won the battle, but did Israel win the war? October 28, 2016 Ari Lieberman By now it should be clear to all but the blindest (or rabidly disingenuous) that the United Nations is an organization that has been co-opted by the nefarious interests of Muslim nations and their despotic third world allies. It is an organization rife with prejudice and hypocrisy. An organization that can undeniably and without equivocation be described as today's greatest purveyor of Judeophobia, historical revisionism and conspiracy theories. This fact is best illustrated by three resolutions passed this year by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that deny the indisputable Jewish nexus to the holy city. On April 12, the 58-member body voted in favor of an asinine and wholly one-sided resolution that referred to Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem exclusively by their Muslim names and designated the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, as a “Muslim holy site of worship.” To add insult to injury, the resolution also adopted wild conspiracy theories including a claim that Israel was “planting Jewish fake graves in other spaces of the Muslim cemeteries.” Unsurprisingly, the resolution, which was submitted by seven Muslim nations, passed by a wide margin with 33 votes in favor, six against and 17 abstentions. Two nations were absent for the vote. France, Sweden, Slovenia and Spain shamefully supported the vile resolution. That the resolution would pass was never in doubt given the large number of Muslim and despotic third world nations that constitute the makeup of UNESCO but it was hoped that the resolution would fail to garner European support and Israel could thus claim a moral victory. France with its collaborationist past and proclivity to kowtow to the world’s despots did not disappoint and predictably voted with the rabble. But following the vote, a crack appeared in the façade of anti-Israel invective so prevalent at the U.N. It appeared that France was having a case of buyer’s remorse. In an address to the French parliament, Prime Minister Manuel Valls termed the resolution “clumsy” and “unfortunate.” He then added in rather sharp and pointed terms that “France will never deny the Jewish presence and Jewish history in Jerusalem. It would make no sense; it is absurd to deny this history.” France is one of Europe’s strongest advocates for the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority and their Muslim allies at UNESCO should have understood from Valls’ statement that future resolutions with similar toxic content would no longer enjoy automatic European support. Instead of declaring victory and moving on, they pressed their luck by introducing another vile resolution in October. The October 13 resolution , sponsored by the usual suspects contained nearly identical language as the April resolution. It condemned Israel for various contrived transgressions and again severed the Jewish (and Christian) nexus to the city. This time however, the Muslim bloc was in for a rude awakening. While the resolution passed, the Muslim bloc was unable to garner a majority in the 58-member body. Of the 24 nations that voted in favor of the resolution (Mexico later withdrew support lowering the final tally to 23), 14 were composed of states with Muslim majorities while a fifteenth, Nigeria, is 50 percent Muslim, making passage of the resolution a forgone conclusion. What was notable was the fact that this time around, the resolution failed to garner a single western European concurrence. Other developing nations, like India, which had hitherto supported Arab-sponsored drafts also abstained. Israel’s behind-the-scenes political offensive aimed at exposing the lunacy of the Muslim initiative was paying dividends. Following the resolution’s passage, the Palestinians and their Muslim allies suffered additional political reversals. Mexico , asked for a revote because it wished to withdraw support for the motion. Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that his government’s changed position “reiterates the recognition that the Government of Mexico gives the undeniable link of the Jewish people to the cultural heritage of East Jerusalem.” Brazil soon followed suit echoing Mexico’s position. In a statement, the Brazilian government noted that it would no longer support such one-sided resolutions. Italy, which had abstained, went one step further and announced that it would actively oppose such resolutions in the future. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told an Italian radio station that these resolutions were “incomprehensible, unacceptable and wrong.” He added that “to say that the Jews have no links to Jerusalem is like saying the sun creates darkness.” Even UNESCO’s director-general, Irina Bokova voiced disapproval by stating that “the heritage of Jerusalem is indivisible, and each of its communities has a right to the explicit recognition of their history and relationship with the city.” She later received death threats for voicing objection to the motion. On Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan introduced a third draft resolution to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee seeking to generate further political terrorism. The proposed resolution once again attempted to sever the Jewish nexus to the city and its holy sites. The 21-member WHC body was expected to pass the resolution by consensus but in a surprise move, Croatia and Tanzania asked for a secret ballot which infuriated the Muslim bloc. Instead of the motion passing by consensus, the vote was 10 in favor, two opposed, eight abstentions and one nation absent. The two nations opposing were Tanzania and the Philippines. Of the 10 ayes, seven were Muslim. It was a pyrrhic victory at best. Given the large number of Muslim countries represented at the U.N. and the hostility that most of these nations harbor against Israel, it is a virtual certainty that toxic resolutions of this nature will continue to be sponsored and passed. But as evidenced by recent Arab political reversals, gone are the days that the Palestinians can rely on automatic European and non-aligned support. Israel has been effectively reaching out to the so-called non-aligned nations and it is having a significant positive impact. Part of the Israeli success lies in the fact that the Jewish state has much to offer these nations in the fields of water technology, agriculture, energy, counter-terrorism, cyber warfare and arms. This outreach has translated to political dividends at the U.N. Nevertheless, the UNESCO resolutions serve to highlight the noxious nature and malevolence of many U.N. member states. It also underscores the need for the United States to maintain its commitment and assurance to Israel that it will never allow the U.N. to impose terms and dictates on Israel. There have been rumors circulating that Barack Obama in his twilight months would seek to impose a deleterious settlement on Israel utilizing the UN Security Council. The White House has remained uncharacteristically mute on the subject raising fears that there may be some merit to the speculation. The administration’s objective would be accomplished by actively supporting a proposed anti-Israel resolution, likely introduced by France, or by choosing to abstain rather than exercising a veto. In addition to betraying long-standing commitments to Israel and running counter to strong bipartisan opposition, the notion that the United States would throw Israel under the bus and allow those who engage in despotism and blatant anti-Semitism to have a say on Israel’s fate, is beyond asinine. Hopefully, the outrageous conduct exhibited at UNESCO steers the administration in the right direction.

WASHINGTON — President Trump received an urgent warning in February, informing him of a crucial date he was about to miss. “FYI manufacturing deadlines for the Easter eggs are near,” said a Twitter post directed at Mr. Trump the first lady, Melania Trump and the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump. “Please reach out!” The message came from Wells Wood Turning Finishing, the company that supplies commemorative wooden eggs for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, the celebration that has drawn 35, 000 people to the South Lawn in recent years. The staff of the company, based in Buckfield, Me. wondered whether the Trumps planned to continue distributing the wooden eggs as party favors, or whether they were even going to have a White House Easter Egg Roll at all. By early March, the White House announced that the roll was on — Monday, to be exact — and soon followed up with a rush order for the wooden eggs. By that time, the ovoid uncertainty had raised a question perhaps not as consequential as investigations into Russian interference in the presidential election, a legally dubious travel ban and a collapsed health care bill, but no less a window into the inner workings of the Trump administration: Could this White House, plagued by slow hiring and lacking an first lady, manage to pull off the largest, most elaborate and most heavily scrutinized public event of the year? “It’s the single most event that takes place at the White House each year, and the White House and the first lady are judged on how well they put it on,” said Melinda Bates, who organized eight years of Easter Egg Rolls as director of the White House Visitors Office under President Bill Clinton. “I’m really concerned for the Trump people, because they have failed to fill some really vital posts, and this thing is all hands on deck. ” White House party catastrophes have been the stuff of presidential nightmares in the past. During his first year in office, President Barack Obama drew harsh criticism for lax security procedures after a pair of aspiring celebrities successfully crashed a state dinner honoring the prime minister of India, with one of them managing to buttonhole Mr. Obama for a handshake. The late start in planning by the Trump White House points to a smaller and less ambitious Egg Roll than in previous years. There may be half as many guests, a fraction of the number of volunteers to manage the invasion of the South Lawn, and military bands in place of entertainers like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Idina Menzel and Silentó who have performed for Egg Rolls past. White House officials did not respond to several weeks’ worth of inquiries about the Easter Egg Roll, typically a heavily and enthusiastically promoted affair, and declined to provide basic information such as how many people are expected to attend. It is unclear, for instance, whether Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, will reprise his appearance in a bunny suit for the event, as he did a decade ago when George W. Bush was president and Mr. Spicer was an aide in the Office of the United States Trade Representative. Stephanie Grisham, who started as Mrs. Trump’s communications director on Monday, had previously denied that the event was being scaled back from past years. But she acknowledged on Tuesday that attendance this year would be “a bit less,” based on feedback from former officials who had said “the event had become so large that many children were not able to enjoy the planned activities. ” “Our team has been working very hard to make this year’s event a success,” Ms. Grisham said. “I am confident that the success of this year’s Easter Egg Roll will speak for itself. ” The evidence points to a quickly affair that people close to the planning said would probably draw about 20, 000 people — substantially smaller than last year’s Easter Egg Roll, which drew 37, 000. It will be staffed by 500 volunteers, Ms. Grisham said, half the usual. Ms. Grisham said she did not have “firm numbers” on the overall number of attendees, and those who provided estimates did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe the plans for the Easter Egg Roll, which are still evolving just a week before the event. The White House has ordered 40, 000 of the commemorative eggs — about half of the roughly 85, 000 ordered in 2016 — with 18, 000 to be given away at the Easter Egg Roll and another 22, 000 available for sale, according to Lara Kline, the vice president for marketing and communications at the White House Historical Association, the official retailer. The relatively small number, Ms. Kline said, “is due to the limited manufacturing window for this year’s Easter Egg Roll. ” The employees at Wells Wood Turning were not alone in wondering whether the White House would ever get in touch. public schools that normally receive blocks of tickets for as many as 4, 000 children have yet to hear from the White House, according to representatives for school systems in the District of Columbia Arlington, Va. and Alexandria, Va. Several groups representing military families, who have accounted for as many as 3, 000 guests in recent years, also said they had yet to be contacted. “I’ve had quite a few families from across the country reach out and say: ‘Hey, are we getting tickets? Our family wants to drive in for the event,’” said Ashley the president of the American Military Partner Association, which represents the families of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender service members and has received tickets for five to 10 of them for each of the last several years. “Unfortunately, the Trump administration has not reached out about it. ” But Ms. Grisham said on Tuesday that tickets had been set aside for schools, children’s hospitals and military families. She could not say how many. Even Curious George and Elmo did not know for sure that the Easter Egg Roll was happening until late last month, when the White House first contacted PBS Kids to ask if it could provide costumed characters. “We just got word about this year’s Egg Roll and are working on planning,” Jennifer Rankin Byrne, the senior director of media relations for PBS, said on March 20. The Easter Egg Roll has been crowded in past years with cast members from “Sesame Street,” but this year, there will be a lone emissary. “PBS asked us to participate with them, and we agreed to provide a ‘Sesame Street’ character,” said Elizabeth Weinreb Fishman, the vice president for strategic communications for Sesame Workshop. She declined to say which character would attend, referring questions to the White House. Members of Congress have not received word from the White House about whether they will get tickets to distribute to their constituents. One aide to a Republican lawmaker said White House officials “seem to be a bit behind schedule. ” Nor have the organizers of the Yoga Garden featured on the South Lawn during Easter Egg Rolls been asked to share their asanas. “No one has reached out to me about the 2017 event,” said Leah Cullis, the yogi who coordinated the Yoga Garden for all eight of the Obamas’ Easter Egg Rolls. Mrs. Trump, who lives in New York and has had a limited presence in Washington since her husband was sworn in, has been slow to hire a staff for the East Wing, which typically takes the lead on the Easter Egg Roll. She named a chief of staff and social secretary in early February but has yet to announce a director for the Visitors Office, normally the crucial player in the daunting execution of the event. “You don’t understand what a beast this thing is to plan until you go and plan your first one,” said Ellie Schafer, who organized Easter Egg Rolls for the Obamas as the director of the White House Visitors Office from 2009 to 2016. “Every administration tries to put its own stamp on it, but the stakes are high because it’s such a Washington tradition, and people just love it and have very strong feelings about it. ” Ms. Bates, whose memoir “White House Story” documents the challenges of planning Easter Egg Rolls, said the event was a window — up to a point — into the competence of an administration. “If you can pull off an Easter Egg Roll,” she said, “you can do anything. ”

The Secret Service is investigating a burlesque dancer from Kentucky after she posted a Tweet that said she hoped someone would be “kind enough” to assassinate President Donald Trump. [“If someone was cruel enough to assassinate MLK, maybe someone will be kind enough to assassinate Trump,” Heather Lowrey, 26, of Louisville wrote on Twitter. The Secret Service confirmed it interviewed Lowrey and is still investigating the incident, the New York Daily News reported. Lowrey posted the Tweet Jan. 17, three days before Trump’s inauguration. The Tweet disappeared not long after it was posted, along with all her social media accounts. The bio on her profile said she was a “a Louisville Vixen and aspiring WWE diva” before the account was taken down, the Daily News reported. No charges have been announced against her yet, but her former employers have already issued statements denouncing the Tweet and have severed ties with her, WAVE reported. Va Va Vixens, a burlesque group in Louisville, let Lowrey go as soon as they found out about the incident, citing a “zero tolerance policy” for her behavior. “We do not condone hate by any party and will not partake in it. We in no way support negative behavior or malicious intent from anyone,” the group said. American Income Life, Travis Moody Office, also severed ties with Lowrey and issued a statement on the company’s Facebook page saying, “Heather Lowrey is no longer contracted with the Travis Moody Agency. ” “The Travis Moody Agency, its agents and its staff do not share the same views, nor opinions as Heather Lowrey. We have a zero tolerance policy and would never condone this behavior,” the company said. She is the only person to face a federal investigation for posting about the assassination of President Trump. The Secret Service is also reportedly looking into Madonna’s comments at the Women’s March on Washington Saturday after the singer said she had thought of “blowing up the White House. ”

Tweet Widget by Nathan J. Robinson Bill and Hillary Clinton’s role in the “remaking” of Haiti after a devastating earthquake and foreign occupation is “indefensible,” according to the author’s article, “Superpredator: Bill Clinton’s Use and Abuse of Black America,” from which this piece is excerpted. “Many Clinton projects “have primarily benefited wealthy foreigners and the island’s ruling elite.” Other projects simply fizzled. “The money donated and invested was extraordinary, but nobody seems to know where it has gone.” What the Clintons Did to Haiti by Nathan J. Robinson This article previously appeared in Global Research and Current Affairs . “She intended to ‘make Haiti the proving ground for her vision of American power.’” Bill and Hillary Clinton had long shared a personal interest in Haiti, dating back to the time of their honeymoon, part of which was spent in Port-au-Prince. In his autobiography, Bill says that his understanding of God and human nature were profoundly transformed when they witnessed a voodoo ceremony in which a woman bit the head off a live chicken. Hillary Clinton says the two of them “fell in love” with Haiti and they had developed a “deep connection” to the country. So when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State in 2009, she consciously made the redevelopment of Haiti one of her top priorities. The country, she announced, would be a laboratory where the United States could “road-test new approaches to development,” taking advantage of what she termed “the power of proximity.” She intended to “make Haiti the proving ground for her vision of American power.” Hillary Clinton selected her own chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, to run the Haiti project. Mills would be joined by Bill Clinton, who had been deputized by the U.N. as a “special envoy” to Haiti. Bill’s role was not well-defined, and Haitians were curious about what was in store. Mills wrote in an email to Hillary Clinton that Haitians saw Bill’s appointment as “a step toward putting Haiti in a protectorate or trusteeship status.” Soon, “joking that he must be coming back to lead a new colonial regime,” the Haitian media “ dubbed him Le Gouverneur.” The project was heavily focused on increasing Haiti’s appeal to foreign corporations. As Politico reported , Clinton’s experiment “had business at its center: Aid would be replaced by investment, the growth of which would in turn benefit the United States.” “Clinton announced that Haiti would be a laboratory where the United States could road-test new approaches to development, taking advantage of ‘the power of proximity.’” One of the first acts in the new “business-centered” Haiti policy involved suppressing Haiti’s minimum wage. A 2009 Haitian law raised the minimum wage to 61 cents an hour, from 24 cents an hour previously. Haitian garment manufacturers, including contractors for Hanes and Levi Strauss, were furious, insisting that they were only willing to agree to a seven-cent increase. The manufacturers approached the U.S. State Department, who brought intense pressure to bear against Haitian President René Préval, working to “aggressively block” the 37-cent increase. The U.S. Deputy Mission Chief said a minimum-wage increase “did not take economic reality into account” and simply “appealed to the unemployed and underpaid masses.” But as Ryan Chittum of the Columbia Journalism Review explained , the proposed wage increase would have been only the most trivial additional expense for the American garment manufacturers: “As of last year Hanes had 3,200 Haitians making t-shirts for it. Paying each of them two bucks a day more would cost it about $1.6 million a year. Hanesbrands Incorporated made $211 million on $4.3 billion in sales last year, and presumably it would pass on at least some of its higher labor costs to consumers. Or better yet, Hanesbrands CEO Richard Noll could forego some of his rich compensation package. He could pay for the raises for those 3,200 t-shirt makers with just one-sixth of the $10 million in salary and bonus he raked in last year.” “U.S. Deputy Mission Chief said a minimum-wage increase ‘did not take economic reality into account” and simply ‘appealed to the unemployed and underpaid masses.’” The truth of the “economic reality” was that the Haitian undergarment sector was hardly likely to become wildly less competitive as a result of the increase. The effort to suppress the minimum wage was not solely a Clinton project. It was also a “concerted effort on the part of Haitian elites, factory owners, free trade proponents, U.S. politicians, economists, and American companies.” But it was in keeping with the State Department’s priorities under Clinton, which prioritized creating a favorable business climate. It was that same familiar Clinton move “from aid to trade.” Bill Clinton’s program for Haitian development, designed by Oxford University economist Paul Collier, “ had garment exports at its center.” Collier wrote that because of “propitious” factors like “poverty and [a] relatively unregulated labor market, Haiti has labor costs that are fully competitive with China.” But the Clintons’ role in Haiti would soon expand even further. In 2010, the country was struck by the worst earthquake in its history. The disaster killed 160,000 people and displaced over 1.5 million more. (The consequences of the earthquake were exacerbated by the ruined state of the Haitian food economy, plus the concentration of unemployed Haitian farmers in Port-au-Prince.) Bill Clinton was soon put in charge of the U.S.-led recovery effort. He was appointed to head the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), which would oversee a wide range of rebuilding projects. At President Obama’s request, Clinton and George W. Bush created the “Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund,” and began aggressively fundraising around the world to support Haiti in the earthquake’s aftermath. (With Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State overseeing the efforts of USAID, the Clintons’ importance to the recovery could not be overstated; Bill’s appointment meant that “at every stage of Haiti’s reconstruction—fundraising, oversight and allocation—a Clinton was now involved.” Despite appearances, the Clinton-Bush fund was not focused on providing traditional relief. As they wrote , “[w]hile other organizations in Haiti are using their resources to deliver immediate humanitarian aid, we are using our resources to focus on long-term development.” While the fund would advertise that “100% of donations go directly to relief efforts,” Clinton and Bush adopted an expansive definition of “relief” efforts, treating luring foreign investment and jobs as a crucial part of earthquake recovery. On their website, they spoke proudly of what the New York Daily News characterized as a program of “supporting longterm programs to develop Haiti’s business class.” “At every stage of Haiti’s reconstruction—fundraising, oversight and allocation—a Clinton was now involved.” The strategy was an odd one. Port-au-Prince had been reduced to ruin, and Haitians were crowded into filthy tent cities, where many were dying of a cholera outbreak (which had itself been caused by the negligence of the United Nations). Whatever value building new garment factories may have had as a longterm economic plan, Haitians were faced with somewhat more pressing concerns like the basic provision of shelter and medicine, as well as the clearing of the thousands of tons of rubble that filled their streets. The Clinton-led recovery was a disaster. A year after the earthquake, a stinging report from Oxfam singled out Clinton’s IHRC as creating a “quagmire of indecision and delay” that had made little progress toward successful earthquake recovery. Oxfam found that: “…less than half of the reconstruction aid promised by international donors has been disbursed. And while some of that money has been put toward temporary housing, almost none of the funds have been used for rubble removal.” Instead, the Clinton Foundation, IHRC, and State Department created what a Wall Street Journal writer called “a mishmash of low quality, poorly thought-out development experiments and half-finished projects.” Haitian IHRC members lamented that the commission had produced “a disparate bunch of approved projects. . . [that] do not address as a whole either the emergency situation or the recovery, let alone the development, of Haiti.” A 2013 investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that most money for the recovery was not being dispersed, and that the projects that were being worked on were plagued by delays and cost overruns. Many Clinton projects were extravagant public relations affairs that quickly fizzled. For example, The Washington Post reported that : “…[a] 2011 housing expo that cost more than $2 million, including $500,000 from the Clinton Foundation, was supposed to be a model for thousands of new units but instead has resulted in little more than a few dozen abandoned model homes occupied by squatters.” “ A stinging report from Oxfam singled out Clinton’s IHRC as creating a ‘quagmire of indecision and delay.’” Other Clinton ventures were seen as “disconnected from the realities of most people in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.” Politico reported that many Clinton projects “have primarily benefited wealthy foreigners and the island’s ruling elite, who needed little help to begin with.” For example, “the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund invested more than $2 million in the Royal Oasis Hotel, where a sleek suite with hardwood floors costs more than $200 a night and the shops sell $150 designer purses and $120 men’s dress shirts.” Predictably, the Royal Oasis didn’t do an especially roaring trade; The Washington Post reported that “[o]ne recent afternoon, the hotel appeared largely empty, and with tourism hardly booming five years after the quake, locals fear it may be failing.” In a country with a 30-cent minimum wage, investing recovery dollars in a luxury hotel was not just offensive, but economically daft. Sometimes the recovery projects were accused not only of being pointless, but of being downright harmful. For instance, Bill Clinton had proudly announced that the Clinton Foundation would be funding the “construction of emergency storm shelters in Léogâne.” But an investigation of the shelters that the Foundation had actually built found that they were “shoddy and dangerous” and full of toxic mold. The Nation discovered , among other things, that the temperature in the shelters reached over 100 degrees, causing children to experience headaches and eye irritations (which may have been compounded by the mold), and that the trailers showed high levels of carcinogenic formaldehyde, linked to asthma and other lung diseases. The Clinton Foundation had subcontracted the building of the shelters to Clayton Homes, a firm that had already been sued in the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) for “having provided formaldehyde-laced trailers to Hurricane Katrina victims.” (Clayton Homes was owned by Warren Buffett ’s Berkshire Hathaway, and Buffett had been a longstanding major donor to the Clinton Foundation.) The Nation ’s investigation reported on children whose classes were being held in Clinton Foundation trailers. Their semester had just been cut short, and the students sent home, because the temperature in the classrooms had grown unbearable. The misery of the students in the Clinton trailers was described: “Judith Seide, a student in Lubert’s sixth-grade class [explained that] she and her classmates regularly suffer from painful headaches in their new Clinton Foundation classroom. Every day, she said, her ‘head hurts and I feel it spinning and have to stop moving, otherwise I’d fall.’ Her vision goes dark, as is the case with her classmate Judel, who sometimes can’t open his eyes because, said Seide, ‘he’s allergic to the heat.’ Their teacher regularly relocates the class outside into the shade of the trailer because the swelter inside is insufferable. Sitting in the sixth-grade classroom, student Mondialie Cineas, who dreams of becoming a nurse, said that three times a week the teacher gives her and her classmates painkillers so that they can make it through the school day. ‘At noon, the class gets so hot, kids get headaches,’ the 12-year-old said, wiping beads of sweat from her brow. She is worried because ‘the kids feel sick, can’t work, can’t advance to succeed.’” “Three times a week the teacher gives her and her classmates painkillers so that they can make it through the school day.” The most notorious post-earthquake development project, however, was the Caracol industrial park . The park was pitched as a major job creator, part of the goal of helping Haiti “build back better” than it was before. The State Department touted the prospect of 100,000 new jobs for Haitians, with Hillary Clinton promising 65,000 jobs within five years. The industrial park followed the Clintons’ preexisting development model for Haiti: public/private partnerships with a heavy emphasis on the garment industry. Even though there were still hundreds of thousands of evacuees living in tents, the project was based on “the more expansive view that, in a desperately poor country where traditional foreign aid has chronically failed, fostering economic development is as important as replacing what fell down.” Much of the planning was focused on trying to lure a South Korean clothing manufacturer to set up shop there, by plying them with U.S. taxpayer funding. The Caracol project was “the centerpiece” of the U.S.’s recovery effort. A gala celebrating its opening featured the Clintons and Sean Penn, and it was treated as the emblem of the new, “better” Haiti, that would demonstrate the country’s commitment to being “open for business.” In order to build the park, hundreds of poor farmers were evicted from their land, so that millions of dollars could be spent transforming it. But the project was a terrible disappointment. After four years, it was only operating at 10% capacity , and the jobs had failed to materialize : Far from 100,000 jobs—or even the 60,000 promised within five years of the park’s opening— “Caracol currently employs just 5,479 people full time. That comes out to roughly $55,000 in investment per job created so far; or, to put it another way, about 30 times more per job than the average [Caracol] worker makes per year. The park, built on the site of a former U.S. Marine-run slave labor camp during the 1915-1934 U.S. occupation, has the best-paved roads and manicured sidewalks in the country, but most of the land remains vacant.” Most of the seized farmland went unused, then, and even for the remaining farmers, “ surges of wastewater have caused floods and spoiled crops.” Huge queues of unemployed Haitians stood daily in front of the factory, awaiting jobs that did not exist. The Washington Post described the scene: “Each morning, crowds line up outside the park’s big front gate, which is guarded by four men in crisp khaki uniforms carrying shotguns. They wait in a sliver of shade next to a cinder-block wall, many holding résumés in envelopes. Most said they have been coming every day for months, waiting for jobs that pay about $5 a day. From his envelope, Jean Mito Palvetus, 27, pulled out a diploma attesting that he had completed 200 hours of training with the U.S. Agency for International Development on an industrial sewing machine. ‘I have three kids and a wife, and I can’t support them,’ he said, sweating in the hot morning sun. ‘I have a diploma, but I still can’t get a job here. I still have nothing.’” “ The interests of the market, the interest of foreigners are prioritized over the majority of people who are impoverished in Haiti.” For some , the Caracol project perfectly symbolized the Clinton approach: big promises, an emphasis on sweatshops, incompetent management, and little concern for the actual impact on Haitians. “Caracol is a prime example of bad help,” as one Haiti scholar put it . “The interests of the market, the interest of foreigners are prioritized over the majority of people who are impoverished in Haiti.” But, failure as it may have been, the Caracol factory was among the more successful of the projects, insofar as it actually came into existence. A large amount of the money raised by Bill Clinton after the earthquake, and pledged by the U.S. under Hillary Clinton, simply disappeared without a trace, its whereabouts unknown. As Politico explained : “Even Bill’s U.N. Office of the Special Envoy couldn’t track where all of [it] went—and the truth is that still today no one really knows how much money was spent ‘rebuilding’ Haiti. Many initial pledges never materialized. A whopping $465 million of the relief money went through the Pentagon, which spent it on deployment of U.S. troops—20,000 at the high water mark, many of whom never set foot on Haitian soil. That money included fuel for ships and planes, helicopter repairs and inscrutables such as an $18,000 contract for a jungle gym… Huge contracts were doled out to the usual array of major contractors, including a $16.7 million logistics contract whose partners included Agility Public Warehousing KSC, a Kuwaiti firm that was supposed to have been blacklisted from doing business with Washington after a 2009 indictment alleging a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government during the Iraq War.” The recovery under the Clintons became notorious for its mismanagement. Clinton staffers “ had no idea what Haiti was like and had no sensitivity to the Haitians.” They were reportedly rude and condescending toward Haitians, even refusing to admit Haitian government ministers to meetings about recovery plans. While the Clintons called in high-profile consulting firms like McKinsey to draw up plans, they had little interest in listening to Haitians themselves. The former Haitian prime minister spoke of a “weak” American staff who were “more interested in supporting Clinton than helping Haiti.” “A large amount of the money raised by Bill Clinton after the earthquake, and pledged by the U.S. under Hillary Clinton, simply disappeared without a trace, its whereabouts unknown.” One of those shocked by the failure of the recovery effort was Chelsea Clinton, who wrote a detailed email to her parents in which she said that while Haitians were trying to help themselves, every part of the international aid effort, both governmental and nongovernmental, was falling short. “The incompetence is mind numbing,” she wrote . Chelsea produced a detailed memorandum recommending drastic steps that needed to be taken in order to get the recovery on track. But the memo was kept within the Clinton family, released only later under a Freedom of Information Act disclosure of Hillary’s State Department correspondence. If it had come out at the time, as Haiti journalist Jonathan Katz writes , it “would have obliterated the public narrative of helpful outsiders saving grateful earthquake survivors that her mother’s State Department was working so hard to promote.” The Clintons’ Haiti recovery ended with a whimper. The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund distributed the last of its funds in 2012 and disbanded, without any attempt at further fundraising. The IHRC “ quietly closed their doors” in October of 2011, even though little progress had been made. As the Boston Review ’s Jake Johnston explained , though hundreds of thousands remained displaced, the IHRC wiped its hands of the housing situation: “[L]ittle remained of the grand plans to build thousands of new homes. Instead, those left homeless would be given a small, one-time rental subsidy of about $500. These subsidies, funded by a number of different aid agencies, were meant to give private companies the incentive to invest in building houses. As efforts to rebuild whole neighborhoods faltered, the rental subsidies turned Haitians into consumers, and the housing problem was handed over to the private sector.” The Clintons themselves simply stopped speaking about Haiti. After the first two years, they were “nowhere to be seen” there, despite Hillary’s having promised that her commitment to Haiti would long outlast her tenure as Secretary of State. Haiti has been given little attention during Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, even though the Haiti project was ostensibly one of great pride for both Clintons. “One of those shocked by the failure of the recovery effort was Chelsea Clinton.” The widespread consensus among observers is that the Haiti recovery, which TIME called the U.S.’s “compassionate invasion,” was a catastrophically mismanaged disappointment. Jonathan Katz writes that “it’s hard to find anyone these days who looks back on the U.S.-led response to the January 12, 2010, Haiti earthquake as a success.” While plenty of money was channeled into the country, it largely went to what were “little more than small pilot projects—a new set of basketball hoops and a model elementary school here, a functioning factory there.” The end result has been that little has changed for Haiti. “Haitians find themselves in a social and economic situation that is worse than before the earthquake,” reports a Belgian photojournalist who has spent 10 years in Haiti: “Everyone says that they’re living in worse conditions than before… When you look at the history of humanitarian relief, there’s never been a situation when such a small country has been the target of such a massive influx of money and assistance in such a short span of time… On paper, with that much money in a territory the size of Haiti, we should have witnessed miracles; there should have been results.” “If anything, they appear worse off,” says Foreign Policy of Haiti’s farmers. “I really cannot understand how you could raise so much money, put a former U.S. president in charge, and get this outcome,” said one Haitian official. Indeed, the money donated and invested was extraordinary. But nobody seems to know where it has gone. Haitians direct much of the blame toward the Clintons. As a former Haitian government official who worked on the recovery said , “[t]here is a lot of resentment about Clinton here. People have not seen results. . .. They say that Clinton used Haiti.” Haitians “ increasingly complain that Clinton-backed projects have often helped the country’s elite and international business investors more than they have helped poor ‘Haitians.” There is a “suspicion that their motives are more to make a profit in Haiti than to help it.” And that while “striking a populist pose, in practice they were attracted to power in Haiti.” But perhaps we should be more forgiving of the Clintons’ conduct during the Haitian recovery. After all, instead of doing true harm, the Clintons simply failed to do much good. And perhaps it’s better to have a luxury hotel than not to have one, better to have a few jobs than none at all. Thanks to Bill Clinton, there’s a gleaming new industrial park, albeit one operating at a fraction of its capacity. Yet it’s a mistake to measure Clinton against what would have happened if the United States had done nothing at all for Haiti. The question is what would have happened if a capable, nonfamous administrator, rather than a globetrotting narcissist, had been placed in charge. Tens of millions of dollars were donated toward the Haiti recovery by people across the world; it was an incredible outpouring of generosity. The squandering of that money on half-baked development schemes (mainly led by cronies ), and the ignoring of Haitians’ own demands, mean that Clinton may have caused considerable harm through his failure. Plenty of people died in tent cities that would not have died if the world’s donations had been used effectively. “Defending the Clintons’ Haiti record is an impossible endeavor.” Democrats have bristled at recent attempts by Donald Trump to criticize Hillary Clinton over her record in Haiti. Jonathan Katz, whose in-depth reporting from Haiti was stingingly critical of the Clintons, has now changed his tune , insisting that we all bear the responsibility for the failed recovery effort. When Trump accused the Clintons of squandering millions building “a sweatshop” in Haiti in the form of the Caracol park, media fact-checkers quickly insisted he was spewing Pinocchios. The Washington Post said that while Clinton Foundation donors may have financially benefited from the factory-building project, they benefited “writ large” rather than “directly.” The Post cited the words of the factory’s spokesman as evidence that the factory was not a sweatshop, and pointed out that Caracol workers earned at least “minimum wage” (failing to mention that minimum wage in Haiti remains well under a dollar). PolitiFact also rated the sweatshop claim “mostly false,” even though Katz notes “long hours, tough conditions, and low pay” at the factory and PolitiFact acknowledges the “ongoing theft of legally-earned wages.” Defending the Clintons’ Haiti record is an impossible endeavor, one Democrats should probably not bother attempting. As the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which has studied the recovery, noted , when it comes to the Clinton-led recovery mission, “it’s hard to say it’s been anything other than a failure.” Haitians are not delusional in their resentment of the Clintons; they have good reason to feel as if they were used for publicity, and discarded by the Clintons when they became inconvenient. None of this means that one should vote for Donald Trump for president. His tears for Haiti are those of a highly opportunistic crocodile, and his interest in the country’s wellbeing began at the precise moment that it could be used a bludgeon with which to beat his political opponent. As we have previously noted in this publication , one does not need to be convinced that Hillary Clinton is an honorable person in order to be convinced that she is the preferable candidate. It is important, however, not to maintain any illusions, not to stifle or massage the truth in the service of short-term electoral concerns. It remains simultaneously true that a Clinton presidency is our present least-worst option and that what the Clintons did to Haiti was callous, selfish, and indefensible.

It might be hard to remember now, with one governor embroiled in a corruption scandal for the last three years and his counterpart across the Hudson River plunging headlong into another, but Chris Christie of New Jersey and Andrew M. Cuomo of New York were once lionized for relentlessly prosecuting bad behavior in government. The wars they waged against corrupt politicians, as the attorney general of New York (Mr. Cuomo) and the United States attorney for New Jersey (Mr. Christie) won them bipartisan kudos and, eventually, smooth ascents to their states’ highest offices. After the ethical morasses that swamped figures such as former Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York and Alan Hevesi, the state’s former comptroller, and former Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey in the 2000s, Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Christie — each a tough prosecutor with White House aspirations — looked more immaculate than ever. Those were the days. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, spent Thursday reeling at the arrest of one of his closest friends, confidants and former aides, as well as the arrests of several other close advisers and donors. Prosecutors had accused them of involvement in a bribery scheme whose many grubby details included the fact that two of the governor’s former aides referred gleefully to corrupt payoffs as “ziti,” à la “The Sopranos,” and to one skittish ziti contributor as “fat boy. ” (As in: “Handle fat boy carefully. We don’t need an interruption in that Zitti delivery or else well really be up the creek. ”) Over in New Jersey, Mr. Christie, a Republican, is up a very unpleasant creek of his own. A former top aide and a former political ally are on trial over their roles in the 2013 scandal that elevated a traffic jam on access lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge into an immortal symbol of political payback. Having helped puncture Mr. Christie’s presidential hopes earlier this year, the episode later went on to help sink his bid to join the Donald J. Trump ticket. The trial, which began last Monday, has been no kinder to the governor: Prosecutors waited exactly zero days before asserting, during opening statements, that Mr. Christie knew three of his aides and allies were involved in the plot as it was unfolding. Neither governor is accused of breaking the law. But for two men who once prided themselves on managing administrations, claiming to have been blind to alleged acts of petty revenge and bribery at the highest levels of state government seems bad enough. As they campaigned for the governor’s office, each promised to cut through what they called partisan nonsense, bureaucratic inertia and dodgy dealing to get real results for residents in their states. Each had the trophy case to back it up. As state attorney general, Mr. Cuomo took aim at the other two statewide elected officials, both fellow Democrats: Mr. Spitzer, whose administration’s misuse of state troopers to target a political rival Mr. Cuomo helped uncover, and Mr. Hevesi, who went to prison after a Cuomo investigation found that he had accepted personal benefits in exchange for approving a state pension fund investment. In New Jersey, where Mr. Christie was appointed a United States attorney by President George W. Bush in 2002, the young prosecutor quickly dispelled questions about his readiness for the job by pursuing corruption charges against dozens of local officials and leading inquiries that implicated several more. They were sane. Smart. Clean. Capable. Determined. And smug. “I am putting each and every one of you on notice,” Mr. Christie said in a 2002 speech, taking aim at his home state’s notoriously debased political culture. “We are going to root this stuff out, and I expect all of you to help me. ” By 2009, as a virtual political neophyte and a Republican in a blue state, he had managed to defeat the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Jon S. Corzine. “Job 1 is going to be to clean up Albany and make the government work for the people,” Mr. Cuomo said in 2010, kicking off his campaign for governor on the steps of Manhattan’s Tweed Courthouse, New York’s monument to political corruption. (He also vowed to run the “most transparent” administration in state history.) But as the fallout from each scandal has made clear, the professionalism and integrity of their offices were compromised almost from the start by aides and advisers who seemed far more interested in their own endgames — whether political, financial or both — than in serving a state. In both cases, they were empowered by Mr. Christie and Mr. Cuomo themselves. Each man had cultivated a small group of trusted advisers who, driven by unshakable tribal loyalty and a hunger to see their bosses taste the White House one day, enforced the governor’s will, punished his enemies and rewarded his friends. For Mr. Christie, they included Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, the two former officials currently on trial, and Bill Stepien, his former top lieutenant, an old friend and political operative who left ears ringing across New Jersey on the governor’s behalf. They met for strategy sessions around Mr. Christie’s kitchen table in Mendham and mingled at N. F. L. games. They worked together to single out local officials who supported the governor’s 2013 bid for perks and to mete out revenge to those who did not — including Mayor Mark Sokolich of Fort Lee, N. J. a Democrat who, having declined to endorse the governor, got a catastrophic traffic jam in return, prosecutors say. Their equivalents in Albany were a group of stalwarts who had marched at Mr. Cuomo’s side, in some cases as far back as the administration of Mr. Cuomo’s father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, who became governor in 1983. The men, and they were all men, even had a “term of endearment” for one another, according to the federal criminal complaint released on Thursday: “Herb. ” (It remains unclear why.) Chief among them was Joseph Percoco, who had started working for the elder Mr. Cuomo when he was 19. So high was his place in the family firmament that during Mr. Cuomo’s eulogy for his father in January 2015, he called Mr. Percoco “my father’s third son, who I sometimes think he loved the most. ” It was Mr. Percoco who, everyone in New York’s political establishment understood, woke Mr. Cuomo up in the morning, dispensed threats for him during the day and put him to bed at night. It was also Mr. Percoco, working with another “Herb” and former Cuomo aide, Todd R. Howe, who shook down a developer and an energy company for at least $315, 000 in bribes in exchange for putting his considerable power at their service, prosecutors say. There was the legal opinion that Mr. Percoco got reversed. The energy policy decisions, made by state experts, that he overrode. The $5, 700 raise, the criminal complaint says, that he berated staff at the governor’s office into approving for the son of an executive who had paid him off. And there was the fact, apparent from the complaint, that no one in state government questioned his authority to do so. These days, there is no avoiding the central question: How could the governors not have known? Mr. Christie has said that while he took ultimate responsibility for the lane closings, it was impossible for him to keep tabs on 65, 000 state employees. He was “disturbed,” he said, by Mr. Stepien’s behavior, while Ms. Kelly was “stupid” and “a liar. ” Mr. Cuomo, too, has been moved to muse on personal betrayal. “The central plank of my administration has always been about public integrity and zero tolerance for any waste, fraud or abuse. If anything, I hold a friend to a higher standard,” he said in Buffalo on Friday. “It’s the first time since we lost my father that I didn’t miss him being here yesterday, because it would’ve broken his heart. ”

Fluoridation of public water supplies as well as the abundance of fluoride in food and dental products have become more controversial in recent years as more and more people realize that the...

Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command, speaks to the Marines of the maintenance section from Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 121 on the Al Asad flightline, May 6, 2007 (US Department of Defense)

The question from the analyst on Thursday was delicate enough. In agreeing to buy the Craftsman tool brand from Sears Holdings, how would Stanley Black Decker protect itself from legal issues that could arise at the seller down the line? But the response from Stanley Black Decker’s chief executive, James M. Loree, acknowledged a concern that many on the conference call were likely to have harbored: that Sears could be forced to file for bankruptcy protection someday. “We expect to get this approved before there is any indication whatsoever that there would be any restructuring of that nature from Sears,” Mr. Loree said, adding that he believed such a move was not imminent. The sale of Craftsman, valued at more than $775 million, was meant to prevent that day of reckoning by raising cash for Sears. For Sears, selling one of its classic brands — one it created nearly a century ago — is the latest move to bolster its balance sheet during a prolonged sales slump. Edward S. Lampert, the chairman and chief executive of Sears, has struggled for years to find ways to help the company, as much through esoteric financial maneuvers as through operational fixes. These have been tough times for retailers. Macy’s and Kohl’s said this week that their holiday sales were weaker than expected. Macy’s also announced plans to cut more than 10, 000 jobs and close 100 stores. Sears also suffered during the season, with sales at its Sears and Kmart units down at least 12 percent. Sears has been in trouble far longer. Under Mr. Lampert, who is also a hedge fund manager, Sears has consistently lagged behind its peers, as analysts said, pointing to underinvestment in stores and slumping sales. Last September, analysts at Moody’s estimated that the company’s negative cash flow for its 2016 fiscal year would be $1. 5 billion. As of Oct. 29, Sears had $258 million in cash and equivalents on hand, compared with $3. 1 billion in debt, the company said. Its market value Thursday morning, by comparison, was $1. 2 billion, even with a jump in its stock price after the Craftsman news. Sears shares surged as much as 8 percent on Thursday, before ending up 0. 3 percent on a day when some retail stocks tumbled. Sears has long been dogged by predictions that it would eventually be forced into bankruptcy. But on Thursday, the company listed its latest initiatives for shoring up its cash position, including closing 150 more stores and raising up to $1 billion through a $500 million loan backed by its real estate and a previously announced loan from Mr. Lampert’s hedge fund. “We are taking strong, decisive actions today to stabilize the company and improve our financial flexibility in what remains a challenging retail environment,” Mr. Lampert, the company’s biggest shareholder, said in a statement. Stanley Black Decker will be able to sell Craftsman tools in even more outlets. Today, only 10 percent of the product lineup is sold outside Sears stores. “Craftsman is a legendary American brand,” Mr. Loree said in a statement. “This agreement represents a significant opportunity to grow the market. ” Reaching the deal took months, as Mr. Loree acknowledged on the analyst call. Last spring, Sears announced that it had hired the banks Citigroup and LionTree as advisers to explore the sale of some of its brands, including Craftsman, DieHard and Kenmore, to raise money. Stanley Black Decker was one of several dozens of companies approached during the summer about bidding on the tool business. But after the company and its bankers at Deutsche Bank spent time devising a potential takeover bid, Stanley Black Decker turned its eyes toward buying Newell Brands’ tool business, a deal announced in October. By late fall, however, Sears returned to ask if Stanley Black Decker would reconsider a bid for Craftsman. Under the deal, Stanley Black Decker will pay $525 million when the transaction closes, which is expected to occur by and an additional $250 million at the end of the third year after closing. Sears will also collect a percentage of new Craftsman sales for 15 years after the deal closes. The transaction is now valued at $900 million. “We literally spent months putting this transaction together and to cover each other’s needs and manage the risk profile for both parties,” Mr. Loree told analysts.

TOKYO — The chief executive of Takata said on Tuesday that he would step down, as the embattled car parts supplier looks to attract financial support to deal with the fallout from the largest automotive safety recall in history. The decision by the chief executive, Shigehisa Takada, reflects the financial pressure on Takata, which lost nearly $130 million last year. The company is in danger of buckling under the cost of the recall without a lifeline. His departure is the inevitable price of a cash infusion from new investors, who would most likely want a clean management slate. And any financial rescue would most likely mean shrinking the influence of the Takada family, which founded company in the 1930s and remains the largest shareholder. The resignation of Mr. Takada, the grandson of the founder, has been assumed for a while but never publicly discussed. In the more than two years after Takata was engulfed in a crisis over dangerously defective airbags, automakers have recalled 60 million vehicles in the United States and tens of millions more worldwide to fix the problem. The faulty equipment has been linked to 14 deaths and more than 100 injuries. Mr. Takada has been criticized for his leadership during the crisis. He has stayed largely in the background as the company’s reputation and cash reserves have plummeted, leaving it to subordinates to explain Takata’s response to regulators, politicians and the news media. The company did not make any public statements until nearly a year after the defect came to light. Mr. Takada did not say when he would resign or what role, if any, he would retain inside the company, which is publicly traded but has been controlled by his family for more than 80 years. “I don’t intend to hold on to my position,” he said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday. “Once I’ve delivered this company to a place where it’s not at risk of faltering, I want to pass the baton. ” Mr. Takada has rarely addressed the crisis in public, but shareholder meetings, where investors can grill executives on a range of issues, have been an unavoidable exception. At Takata’s annual meeting last year, Mr. Takada apologized to victims but defended his company’s airbags as fundamentally safe. The meeting on Tuesday was the first time Mr. Takada had said publicly that he would resign. Takata has been seeking emergency capital to keep it from falling into bankruptcy because of mounting recall costs. Once a rescuer is found, the company will probably be drastically restructured, including changes in its top management. “Nobody wants to see anybody from the Takada family in charge at this point,” said Koji Endo, an auto industry analyst at Advanced Research Japan. “The Takada family, practically speaking, is being kicked out. ” Until 2014, Mr. Takada served in a more ceremonial role as Takata’s chairman. But he took over responsibility for operations that year as the company’s problems escalated, and its board named him to succeed a Swiss executive, Stefan Stocker, who was then its president. Few seem to believe that Takata can weather the recall crisis on its own. The company lost 13 billion yen last year, or about $127 million, and had just ¥54 billion in cash reserves as of the end of March, against recall costs that specialists say may ultimately exceed ¥1 trillion. A committee of lawyers and other advisers appointed by the company this year said it risked bankruptcy if it did not find a rescue, and last month Takata hired the American investment bank Lazard to lead the search. Takata and its bankers have held discussions with a range of potential white knights, according to news reports, including the American buyout fund KKR Company, formerly Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and a Chinese car parts maker, Ningbo Joyson. Japanese automakers and banks, as well as the Japanese government, are also seen as potential contributors to a bailout. The most crucial question for Takata, specialists say, is how much of the recall costs will ultimately be borne by its automaker customers, rather than by the company itself. Fourteen carmakers have been affected by the airbag problem, in which the devices’ inflaters can explode with too much force, sending shrapnel flying into a vehicle’s cabin. The latest deadly incident, a crash on Saturday in Malaysia that killed a woman, involved a 2005 Honda City. The model had been recalled, but the vehicle had not been taken in to have the airbag component replaced, according to a spokesman for Honda Motor. In the most recent report on the airbag problem last month, safety regulators in the United States said prolonged exposure to environmental moisture and wide temperature fluctuations could degrade the propellant that Takata used in its inflaters, making it unstable and prone to unexpectedly exploding. Based on the finding, which was consistent with theories put forward by engineers and other specialists, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ordered Takata to work with automakers to recall an additional 35 million to 40 million airbags, bringing the number recalled in the United States to nearly 64 million. Carmakers have paid most of the bills for repairing defective airbags so far. They can try to recoup costs from Takata, but the amount is negotiable and subject to complicated calculations. Forcing Takata to repay the full cost would almost certainly bankrupt the company, depriving carmakers of a supplier that, for all its problems, is crucial to keeping their assembly lines running. Takata is one of just three major airbag manufacturers worldwide and controls 25 percent to 30 percent of the market, according to industry researchers. And cost sharing is vital to finding a savior for Takata: The more the recall costs are absorbed by carmakers, the more attractive Takata will look to potential investors. The intricate negotiations over cost sharing, which involve Takata, carmakers, potential investors and Japanese banks that have lent Takata money, are expected to take months. “There’s KKR, other funds, companies from China, Japan, American, maybe India — 20 or 30 companies are interested,” Mr. Endo said. “It all depends on the cost split. We’re likely to see a very complex structure that limits any one party’s responsibility. ”

Police in San Jose arrested a teenage trio that had terrorized and robbed over a dozen minimarts and gas stations at gunpoint or knifepoint over three months while wearing Geisha masks. [According to the San Jose Mercury News, the group known as the “Geisha Dolls” crew targeted businesses in San Jose and Milpitas, and in some cases the store workers, between Oct. 23 and Jan. 25. They were given the name because their masks resemble the white powder makeup that Japanese geishas traditionally applied to their faces. The group consists of three teenagers. Two are 17 and one is 16. Authorities have reportedly withheld their names because they are minors. According to NBC Bay Area, a break in the case arrived on January 25 when “police arrested a juvenile suspect in connection to a robbery at the Arco located at 2104 N Capitol Ave. Officers searched his residence and found evidence of the Arco robbery. ” Nearly three weeks later, on Feb. 14, members of the Metro Unit reportedly located arrested a and a juvenile in San Jose . Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz

Donate Remember This When You Talk About Standing Rock Dan Nanamkin during the treaty camp’s confrontation with militarized police force on Thursday afternoon. Photo by Adam Alexander Johansson. By Kelly Hayes / yesmagazine.org This piece is very personal because, as an Indigenous woman, my analysis is very personal, as is the analysis that my friends on the frontlines have shared with me. We obviously can’t speak for everyone involved, as Native beliefs and perspectives are as diverse as the convictions of any people. But as my friends hold strong on the frontlines of Standing Rock, and I watch transfixed with both pride and worry, we feel the need to say a few things. I’ve been in and out of communication with my friends at Standing Rock all day. As you might imagine, as much as they don’t want me to worry, it’s pretty hard for them to stay in touch. I asked if there was anything they wanted me to convey on social media, as most of them are maintaining a very limited presence on such platforms. The following is my best effort to summarize what they had to say, and to chime in with a few corresponding thoughts of my own. It is crucial that people recognize that Standing Rock is part of an ongoing struggle against colonial violence. #NoDAPL is a front of struggle in a long-erased war against Native peoples — a war that has been active since first contact, and waged without interruption. Our efforts to survive the conditions of this anti-Native society have gone largely unnoticed because white supremacy is the law of the land, and because we, as Native people, have been pushed beyond the limits of public consciousness. The fact that we are more likely to be killed by law enforcement than any other group speaks to the fact that Native erasure is ubiquitous, both culturally and literally, but pushed from public view. Our struggles intersect with numerous others, but are perpetrated with different motives and intentions. Anti-Blackness, for example, is a performative enforcement of structural power, whereas the violence against us is a matter of pragmatism. The struggle at Standing Rock is an effort to prevent the construction of a deadly, destructive mechanism, created by greed-driven people with no regard for our lives. It has always been this way. We die, and have died, for the sake of expansion and white wealth, and for the maintenance of both. The harms committed against us have long been relegated to the history books. This erasure has occurred for the sake of both white supremacy and US mythology, such as American exceptionalism. It has also been perpetuated to sustain the comfort of those who benefit from harms committed against us. Our struggles have been kept both out of sight and out of mind — easily forgotten by those who aren’t directly impacted. It should be clear to everyone that we are not simply here in those rare moments when others bear witness. To reiterate (what should be obvious): We are not simply here when you see us. We have always been here, fighting for our lives, surviving colonization, and that reality is rarely acknowledged. Even people who believe in freedom frequently overlook our issues, as well as the intersections of their issues with our own. It matters that more of the world is bearing witness in this historic moment, but we feel the need to point out that the dialogue around #NoDAPL has become extremely climate oriented. Yes, there is an undeniable connectivity between this front of struggle and the larger fight to combat climate change. We fully recognize that all of humanity is at risk of extinction, whether they realize it or not. But intersectionality does not mean focusing exclusively on the intersections of our respective work. It sometimes means taking a journey well outside the bounds of those intersections. In discussing #NoDAPL, too few people have started from a place of naming that we have a right to defend our water and our lives, simply because we have a natural right to defend ourselves and our communities. When “climate justice”, in a very broad sense, becomes the center of conversation, our fronts of struggle are often reduced to a staging ground for the messaging of NGOs. This is happening far too frequently in public discussion of #NoDAPL. Yes, everyone should be talking about climate change, but you should also be talking about the fact that Native communities deserve to survive, because our lives are worth defending in their own right — not simply because “this affects us all.” So when you talk about Standing Rock, please begin by acknowledging that this pipeline was redirected from an area where it was most likely to impact white people. And please remind people that our people are struggling to survive the violence of colonization on many fronts, and that people shouldn’t simply engage with or retweet such stories when they see a concrete connection to their own issues — or a jumping off point to discuss their own issues. Our friends, allies and accomplices should be fighting alongside us because they value our humanity and right to live, in addition to whatever else they believe in. Every Native at Standing Rock — every Native on this continent — has survived the genocide of a hundred million of our people. That means that every Indigenous child born is a victory against colonialism, but we are all born into a fight for our very existence. We need that to be named and centered, which is a courtesy we are rarely afforded. This message is not a condemnation. It’s an ask. We are asking that you help ensure that dialogue around this issue begins with and centers a discussion of anti-Native violence and policies, no matter what other connections you might ultimately make, because those discussions simply don’t happen in this country. There obviously aren’t enough people talking about climate change, but there are even fewer people — and let’s be real, far fewer people — discussing the various forms of violence we are up against, and acting in solidarity with us. And while such discussions have always been deserved, we are living in a moment when Native water protectors and water warriors have more than earned both acknowledgement and solidarity. So if you have been with us in this fight, we appreciate you. But we are reaching out, right now, in these brave days for our people, and asking that you keep the aforementioned truths front and center as you discuss this effort. This moment is, first and foremost, about Native liberation, self determination and Native survival. That needs to be centered and celebrated. Thanks, K and friends Kelly Hayes is a direct action trainer and a co-founder of The Chicago Light Brigade and the direct action collective Lifted Voices. She blogs at TransformativeSpaces.org , where this article originally appeared, about U.S. movements and her work as an organizer against state violence. 4.0 ·

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said that “nobody will be worse off financially” if Republicans in Congress repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act dubbed Obamacare. Price said, “I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we’re going through, understanding that they’ll have choices that they can select the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family, not that the government forces them to buy. So there’s cost that needs to come down, and we believe we’re going to be able to do that through this system. There’s coverage that’s going to go up. ” Price added, “I believe, and the president believes firmly, that if you create a system that’s accessible for everybody and you provide the financial feasibility for everybody to get coverage, that we have a great opportunity to increase coverage over where we are right now, as opposed to where the line is going right now where people are losing coverage and we’re going to have fewer individuals covered than we do currently. ” ( Politico) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

‹ › Arnaldo Rodgers is a trained and educated Psychologist. He has worked as a community organizer and activist. VA fails to properly examine thousands of veterans By Arnaldo Rodgers on October 29, 2016 VA Thousands of veterans may have been improperly diagnosed by the VA. The federal department admits it was improperly testing for traumatic brain injuries from 2007 through 2015. Nate Anderson has served in the United States Army for 12 years. “There’s a promise that we make to service members, that if you serve and you put your life on the line or sacrifice in whatever way you do, we’ll take care of you. I didn’t know what that was going to look like, it’s certainly not what I saw,” Anderson said. “This is something the VA should have been prepared for.” He enlisted after 9/11. “It was time in my generation that the desire to serve was strong,” he said. Fast forward to 2008, Anderson was assigned to his first unit at Fort Bragg and deployed to central Afghanistan. Read the Full Article at wncn.com >>>> Related Posts: The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VNN, VNN authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. Notices Posted by Arnaldo Rodgers on October 29, 2016, With 0 Reads, Filed under Veterans . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can leave a response or trackback to this entry FaceBook Comments You must be logged in to post a comment Login WHAT'S HOT

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As an example of just how much the left hates Donald J. Trump, after becoming enraged because football great Jim Brown expressed kind words for Trump, a writer for SportingNews. com decided that Brown’s decades of work for civil rights was erased merely because the Hall of Famer was nice to Trump. [SportingNews writer David Steele began his January 18 piece noting that the Cleveland Browns star has been a candidate for the “Mount Rushmore of social, political and activism. ” “If Jim Brown is not on the Mount Rushmore of social, political and activism by athletes in our time (up there with, at least, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos) he’s on the short list waiting for a vacancy,” Steele wrote. But that adulation came to an abrupt end. “He was, that is,” Steele continued. “Jim Brown himself is now the vacancy. ” How could a man who spent nearly 50 years at the forefront of the civil rights movement be toppled from that place with just one action? He said nice things about Donald Trump. “Those are the consequences when you insert yourself into a feud between John Lewis and Donald Trump — and take the side of Trump while insulting Lewis,” Steele proclaimed. Steele, who once wrote for the Baltimore Sun, went on to “explain” his “reasons” for erasing 50 years of civil rights advocacy work, “There is simply no way to reconcile Brown’s words, and all the others he has spouted in defense of the man who has spent the week insulting an icon of the movement, and this image, of the meeting Brown himself adjourned on behalf of Ali 50 years ago, when the same forces Lewis was fighting were coming after Ali’s resistance to the draft. ” So, because Jim Brown said a few nice things about Donald Trump and opposed the hateful attacks Congressman John Lewis launched against Trump, including the outright lie that he never missed a past inaugural when he in fact skipped George W. Bush’s for the same “he’s illegitimate” reason, Brown’s decades of good work has become meaningless. Brown has done a lot for his community, and was universally praised by civil rights activists for organizing sports figures to come to the aide of boxing great Muhammad Ali when his title was stripped from him for refusing service in the Vietnam War in 1967. The NFL great also founded the Black Economic Union to help promote business in the nation’s inner cities. But his founding of the Foundation has done the most good, after he spent years trying to mitigate the gang culture. “I was doing economic development for minorities. I was getting black folks to use their dollars to help each other. I looked up and saw black men killing each other over red and blue. Until we did something about that, there was no use for economic development,” Brown recently told the New York Daily News. Since its founding nearly 25 years ago, has improved the lives of gang members, prison inmates, kids and thousands of other people in more than a dozen states across the nation. The heart of is a course Brown created which helps train young blacks to gain control of their emotions in order to lead useful, productive lives. The program he developed helps youth learn to keep a job, raise a family, and go back to school. But to David Steele, all that is meaningless. “That Jim Brown is dead,” Steele says at the tail of his hyperventilating and biased attack on Brown. In the end, though, one might doubt that a man who has 60 years of fame and achievement under his belt will be much bothered by the words of a man with a failed newspaper career and who now writes for a sports website. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.

A wave of prominent Republicans have announced their intention to skip the party’s national convention in Cleveland this summer, the latest sign that Donald J. Trump, who last week secured the delegates needed to clinch the Republican presidential nomination, continues to struggle in his effort to unite the party behind his candidacy. The list of those who have sent regrets includes governors and United States senators — almost all facing tough fights this year — and lifelong party devotees who have attended every convention for decades. Some are renouncing their seats like conscientious objectors. “I could not in good conscience attend a coronation and celebration of Donald Trump,” wrote one Indiana delegate, Josh Claybourn, in a blog post resigning his position. The coolness toward Mr. Trump amounts to a remarkable rebuke. A broad range of party leaders are openly rejecting the man who will be their nominee. And the July convention, usually a moment of public catharsis for political parties after contentious primaries, is shaping up to be another reminder of the disarray and disunity that is still rocking the Republican Party after a bitter fight for the nomination. Even the two Republicans in the convention’s host state of Ohio — Gov. John Kasich and Senator Rob Portman, who is fighting to hold onto his seat — say they do not know if they will set foot in the convention hall. Mr. Kasich, who only four weeks ago quit the presidential campaign and has not endorsed Mr. Trump, has no idea “what role if any he will have,” a spokesman said. He will be in Cleveland that week but has no plans, as of now, to partake in any official convention activities. Several other of Mr. Trump’s former rivals for the nomination have said they will not attend or have not committed. Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, will not be there. Neither will Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. “I’m sure it will be fun, I’m sure it will be entertaining,” Mr. Graham said last week. “And I can watch it on TV. ” Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is a delegate as well as a former presidential candidate, has yet to decide. “T. B. D. ,” a spokesman said. “The schedule is still being firmed up. ” At least two former competitors of Mr. Trump’s are expected to attend: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who last week offered his services as a speaker should they be wanted. Among those staying away include some major corporations like Microsoft and . And some who do plan to be there might find the atmosphere somewhat uncomfortable. Mr. Trump has still not fully reconciled with Speaker Paul D. Ryan, the convention’s chairman, who said in early May that he was not ready to support the nominee and would relinquish the role if asked. Mr. Trump is also at odds with the head of the Republican Governors Association, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, who will lead her state’s delegation in Cleveland. Ms. Martinez has also withheld her endorsement, a slight that evidently prompted Mr. Trump to attack her performance in office last week. Scheduling conflicts seem to be a surprisingly common excuse for missing an event that was announced a year and a half ago. Others offered mushy noncommitments. “Just as they’re firming up the schedule, it kind of looks like there’s a lot of stuff for me to do,” said Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, explaining why he probably couldn’t make it. Asked if Mr. Trump had anything to do with his reluctance, Mr. Johnson, who is in a heated campaign, broke into a big smile and said, “Oh, of course not. ” Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, a state Mr. Trump has said he believes the Republicans can wrest from Democrats this year, also might have more important things to do at home. “Michigan has some pressing challenges right now,” a spokeswoman said last week, “and state issues are his foremost priority. ” Mr. Snyder is one of at least nine Republican governors who are noncommittal or skipping the convention: Mr. Kasich, Brian Sandoval of Nevada, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Bruce Rauner of Illinois, Larry Hogan of Maryland, Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina, Matt Mead of Wyoming and Nathan Deal of Georgia. “I don’t even want to be involved,” Mr. Hogan said in an interview in March. “It’s a mess. I hate the whole thing. ” Just about every Republican senator in a difficult race is staying away, fearful of what the association with Mr. Trump might do to reputations back home. Senator John McCain of Arizona will join four of the five living former Republican nominees in skipping the convention. “I’m in a very tough campaign,” he said last week, explaining his expected absence. Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, two of the most endangered Republican incumbents, will also be nowhere near Cleveland that week. Mr. Portman, another senator in a tight race, said his time would be better spent holding a miniconvention of his own in Cleveland, which he plans to do with events for veterans, the homeless and his volunteers. “I’ve spoken at every convention since 1996,” he said. “Nobody listens, nobody covers it. ” This mass avoidance might seem, on its surface, to be yet another example of party elites snubbing Mr. Trump in the kind of rejection that he would welcome as a professed political outsider. But it also reflects a deeper and more dangerous problem for him: Mr. Trump’s popularity with Republicans remains uncomfortably low. The candidate’s own party generally delivers support in the 90 percent range. (Mitt Romney won 93 percent of his own party in 2012.) Mr. Trump’s support among Republicans, according to the latest NBC Street Journal Poll, was 86 percent. And the snubs keep coming from the upper echelons of the party and the rank and file. In New Hampshire, the former senator Judd Gregg was initially a delegate for Mr. Bush. But when Mr. Bush suspended his campaign, Mr. Gregg became unbound. He has instead opted to skip the convention, telling a local television station, “Don’t like large crowds. ” The Indiana delegate who renounced his place at the convention, Mr. Claybourn, would have been bound to vote for Mr. Trump on the first ballot, a step he said he simply could not stomach. “Donald J. Trump is the Republican Party’s nominee,” Mr. Claybourn said. “But he will not be my nominee, and I will not attend a convention celebrating his candidacy. ”

Comments As election day draws closer and closer, it becomes even harder to understand or tolerate Donald Trump supporters. It is conceptually difficult for many of us to understand how anyone could support Trump knowing all we know about him. But many people don’t know what we know, so here’s a viral list that every Trump supporter needs to read before they vote on Tuesday, courtesy of some anonymous Facebook poster. So You Want Someone To ‘Tell It Like It Is’? OK, Here You Go. 1. You join a lying machine and call Hillary crooked. But you support a man who refuses to release his tax returns. You support a greedy, self serving, manipulative proven tax cheat. You support a crooked narcissistic psychopath who is worried his tax returns would reveal evidence of financial ties to Russian oligarchs and other dictators of the world. Just like we now know Putin’s puppets illegally paid millions to his crooked former campaign manager, maybe he has been getting paid too. A corrupt little man whose daughter vacations with Putin’s girlfriend. Making Russia great again? A con man who funneled millions of campaign money to his own companies and used campaign money to pay his family handsomely. Using his own words, a disgusting and corrupt man who surrounds himself with a disgusting corrupt people. 2. You say you love our veterans but support a man who believes POWs are not heroes because they were captured? A man who has shown he lacks emotional intelligence when he attacked families of a fallen war hero. A man whose company fired a veteran for being deployed to Afghanistan. A man who insults and derides our generals. 3. You think a soulless, heartless small man who mocked a disabled reporter will make a good president. A man whose first instinct after a tragedy is always self-aggrandizement, like after Orlando mass shooting & when Dwyane Wade’s cousin Nykea Aldridge was killed. As 3,000 people were dying, this man bragged about how 9/11 attacks were good for him & bragged about how his building is now the tallest in Manhattan just hours after the attack. When the pound fell to a 30-year low following the vote to exit EU, he boasted about making money off British economic uncertainty. When the housing market collapsed in 2008 and millions of Americans lost their homes, he said “ I ‘sort of hope’ real estate market tanks.” Trump is always looking out for Trump. How do you believe a greedy, narcissistic man who fundamentally lacks empathy and compassion will be a good president? He is not even a good person. 4. You say you’re patriotic & love this country but you support a man who has so little understanding of the basic parameters of our constitution’s limits & has zero respect for it, except the part he uses to incite violence. A careless small man who asked Russia to spy on our former Secretary of State. A man who trash talks our NATO allies and our president but lavishly praises brutal dictators like Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Un, Muammar Gaddafi, Vladimir Putin…etc 5. You support a small man who has been married three times and has admitted to infidelity in the past. A man who was accused of raping his wife & has a federal lawsuit accusing him of raping a 13-year-old girl during a party hosted by convicted pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. A man who comments about his daughters breasts and body. Then you turn around and bring up Bill Clinton’s history with women? I agree with you 100% Bill has a disgraceful history with women but no comparison to Trump who has said cringeworthy, disturbing things about women his whole life. May I remind you Bill is NOT running to be the next president. If you are saying oh, candidates spouses are fair game then you can’t ignore that he is married to a woman whose naked pictures are all over the internet. 6. You support a man whose business career is a very long list of bankruptcies, defaults and deceptions because he is good for our economy? A man who was born into wealth and built that wealth by scamming, stiffing and bullying ordinary working citizens of this great country. 7. Yes, Hillary is not perfect, then again no one is. You call her dishonest but support a narcissistic pathological liar? Every time Trump opens his mouth every other word that comes out is a lie. Fact checkers have proven it over and over again. We are talking about a man who makes things up to spew hate and fear, like when he lied about seeing an Iran ransom video and a video of muslims celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11. The man is incapable of telling the truth and he is delusional. 8. You support a hypocritical man who hired undocumented immigrants for his real estate projects & exploited our visa program. He is a man capable of solving our immigration problem? 9. I agree 100% if she’s elected Hillary and her whole family must distance themselves from the Clinton foundation. Let other people continue the great work the foundation is doing. With that said, you support a man whose foundation is found guilty of a pay-to-play scam and false claims of giving on its tax forms and then turn around and try to push fabricated scandals about the Clinton foundation. The IRS found the con man used funds from his charitable foundation to make a campaign donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Just after 4 days of the bribe payment Pam dropped Trump U case. He also held $150K fundraiser for Pam after she dropped a criminal case against his university. His foundation claimed on its tax return forms that it gave $10,000.00 to The Giving Back Fund, but the organization says that donation does not exist. A man who completely retooled his charity to spend other people’s money. A man with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and criminals. 10. You claim the con man whose line of clothing and accessories are made in Bangladesh, China, Honduras and other low-wage countries is the man to fix our labor laws? You claim the man who outsources everything is the answer to creating jobs here at home? 11. You claim the unfit, unstable Putin’s little puppet whose campaign is fully embracing alt-right’s anti-Muslim and anti-Immigrant ideologies with all their conspiracy theories is the one to unite the country? 12. You support a bottom feeder who put racial discrimination in housing at the heart of his real estate developments, started the birther movement, said “Obama would look perfect on food stamps, he has the right face for it,” and has shown he is prejudice with his actions & words over and over again. Then he pretends he cares about the black communities. He brings up Hillary’s reference to a group of violent repeat criminals as “super-predators” in 1996? I don’t agree with her choice of words all those years ago but she has apologized since. Something Trump refuses to do. Of course you can use all kind of deflection tactics & tell yourself whatever makes you feel better but the reality is if you are supporting a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, bigoted, unfit, unqualified, disgusting con man, you really should admit to yourself you don’t care what he says or does. You are using your hatred to cloud your judgement.

Teacher unsure about getting smashed eighth night running 28-10-16 A TEACHER unsure if he can manage an eighth straight night of drinking acknowledged that half-term gives him little choice. 29-year-old secondary school teacher Tom Booker told friends that, despite the debilitating physical effects, he feels honour-bound to spend the last nights of his holiday drinking until 3am and sleeping in until 1pm. Booker continued: “It’s a job with responsibilities, and one of those responsibilities is making the most of a week off in October. “Some of my colleagues take walking holidays or pop to Center Parcs with the kids, but I’m single and not outdoorsy so I spend the week getting shitfaced. “Two more nights to get through, then on Sunday I have a big roast dinner and a bath and rock up Monday like I spent the whole time marking homework.” Booker added: “Plus one of the year 12 lads has been in the pub every night so far, so to maintain discipline in the classroom I need to show I’m more hardcore than he is.” Share:

CAIRO — When two Libyans hijacked a passenger jetliner on Friday and forced it to land in Malta, they claimed to be acting in the name of the country’s former ruler, Col. Muammar . They were ripping a page from history as they did it: During his 42 years in power, Colonel Qaddafi sponsored numerous acts of international airline terrorism, including hijackings and the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie in 1988 that killed 270 people. Yet unlike most airline dramas, this one was resolved easily. Within hours of landing in Malta, the two hijackers had released the other 115 people aboard and had surrendered peacefully to the Maltese authorities. Their weapons — a pistol and a grenade — turned out to be replicas. Libyan officials said the two men had asked for visas to Europe. But the hijacking, and its stated inspiration, did point to the enduring chaos of Libya, a country with three rival governments that, despite United peace efforts, remains fragile and deeply unstable five years after Colonel Qaddafi’s death. After forcing the plane to land in Malta, one of the hijackers emerged with a flag in the green that symbolized Colonel Qaddafi’s rule, and claimed to have established a new political party honoring the autocrat. The episode started early Friday when an Airbus A320 operated by the Libyan state airline, Afriqiyah Airways, took off from the desert town of Sabha, heading north to the capital, Tripoli. Before it could land, the hijackers, whom officials identified as Subah Mussa and Ahmed Ali, seized control of the plane and diverted it to Malta, about 200 miles off the Libyan coast. They had initially demanded to be taken to Rome, but the pilot said there was only enough fuel to reach Malta. The hijackers threatened to detonate a grenade if their demands were not met. Aboard the plane were 109 passengers and six crew members. (Maltese officials initially said there was seven crew members.) The hijackers claimed to represent a new political party called Al Fateh Al Jadeed — a reference to the 1969 military coup in Libya that brought Colonel Qaddafi to power. “We did this to announce and publicize our new party,” one of the men said in a telephone interview with a Libyan news outlet. Libyan officials, though, believed the hijackers had more personal goals. A senior official with Afriqiyah, Capt. Abdelatif Ali Kablan, said they had demanded Schengen visas to travel in Europe. They did not seem to be linked to any of the radical Islamist groups, like Islamic State, that operate in Libya, he added. “We feared they might be some of those ideological people, but that seems not to be the case,” Captain Kablan said by phone from Libya. Throughout the crisis, Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, used Twitter to provide a running feed of information about the security operation, the orderly release of the passengers in batches of 25 and the eventual surrender of the two hijackers. In a news conference later, Mr. Muscat said his security forces had found a pistol and a grenade on the hijackers, and discovered a second pistol in a subsequent search of the airplane, raising questions about security standards in Libyan airports. Later, though, Mr. Muscat posted that the weapons were replicas. It was the second hijacking this year of a passenger jet in the Mediterranean region. In March, an Egyptian man commandeered a domestic EgyptAir flight en route to Cairo and forced it to land in Cyprus, where he demanded the release of political prisoners in Egypt and a meeting with his estranged wife. The crisis ended hours later with the surrender of the hijacker, Seif Eldin Mustafa, who turned out to be wearing a fake explosive vest fashioned from mobile phone cases that had been taped together. Some news outlets later nicknamed him the “lovejacker. ” In September, a court in Cyprus ordered the deportation of Mr. Mustafa to Egypt. His lawyers are resisting the order and seeking asylum for Mr. Mustafa, claiming that he could be tortured if sent home. As well as supporting the Pan Am bombing in 1988, Colonel Qaddafi was also linked to the bombing of a French aircraft over Niger in 1989 that left 170 dead and the hijacking of a Pan Am flight to New York from Karachi in 1986 by a Palestinian splinter group that ended with a deadly siege. Today, many senior officials from his government live in exile in Cairo, Tunis or Europe. There is no significant movement inside Libya, although the dominant military commander in the east, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, has often been said to harbor strongman ambitions similar to those of Colonel Qaddafi. Many Libyans, though, say in private that they yearn for the order and prosperity of the Qaddafi era. Rival militias and political factions have carved the country into zones of influence, causing a sharp decline in the country’s oil production and a severe economic crisis that has caused hardship for most Libyans.

Normally, you’d be confused. Why would HBO lower the curtain on Season 5 of “Girls” with two episodes on Sunday rather than the usual one at a time? Why not give the show’s 10 episodes a full 10 weeks? But there are the mysteries. Then there are the realities. And the presumable reality is that decks needed clearing and hatches needed battening for next weekend’s simultaneous resumption of “Game of Thrones,” “Veep” and “Silicon Valley” — and the Saturday unveiling of whatever this Beyoncé “Lemonade” thing is supposed to be. So Sunday’s “Girls” finale points to the national indifference that’s accrued around a show whose fealty to discomfort, poor choices and social cannibalism, which felt new in 2012, are now just part of television’s oxygen. In the last two seasons, the show’s senses of satire and pathos are stronger and more pungent than everBut it’s true: Funny narcissists are indeed easy to come by (even on HBO). Perhaps instead you’re watching “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Veep” “Transparent,” “Togetherness” “Crazy ” and “You’re the Worst. ” And “Girls” didn’t invent them. There they were, for instance, on “The Golden Girls,” “Will Grace,” “Sex and the City” and “30 Rock. ” But “Girls” keeps finding ways of dramatizing its satire so that it doesn’t always seem satirical. Few shows better explore the complications of personality and behavior. Even if it doesn’t appear as robust, refined and specific an achievement as, say, “Transparent,” the show still has the confidence to jump along a tightrope of displeasure. [ Has “Girls” gotten better? Read our discussion. ] The show’s ringmastered by its chief protagonist, Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) pinball off one another, going from friends to lovers to frenemies. What set the show apart this year — from both its previous seasons and most of its peers — is the use of the space, place, framing, allusion and mood to house that narcissism. Bad manners are met with mannerism. Shoshanna’s first adult job landed her in Tokyo and, for a few episodes, the show went with her. Her intoxication with the culture — without her Japanese pals losing sight of her foreignness — felt like a gentle rebuke of the incurious insularity of a movie like “Lost in Translation. ” She wasn’t a citizen. Nor was she a tourist. This season’s seventh episode was particularly handsome. Written by Sarah Heyward and directed by Richard Shepard, it turned the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese into a piece of immersive theater staged inside and around a stately apartment complex, which was meant to evoke the building near where Genovese was killed, while her neighbors went about their business. The killing inspired decades of research the show used the case as an ideal test for the characters’ own emotional nearsightedness. (“Hello Kitty” is the episode’s title.) Hannah enters the building lobby with her current boyfriend, Fran (Jake Lacy) and leaves devastated that her ex, Adam (Adam Driver) might be sleeping with one of her best friends, Jessa (Jemima Kirke). As usual, the comedy comes, in part, from Hannah’s obnoxious rebellion against propriety, which tends to be represented by poor Ray (Alex Karpovsky). His morality, civic engagement, loyalty and earnestness (culturally, he’s a generation older) are constantly disrupted, compromised and exploited by everyone else. This time he just wants to lose himself in some theater and no one will let him. The small silences in this episode are rich and absorptive. They’re too much, though, for Hannah, who keeps breaking them to muse about the artifice of it all. When her friend Marnie (Allison Williams) enters one apartment, newly single and almost radioactively aglow, she doubles the obliviousness. It’s unclear she even knows she’s at a play. They’re there to see Adam perform as half of a squabbling married couple, but by the time the play reaches its grisly climax, none of these people are really paying attention. Adam looked across the courtyard at Jessa, who’s vamping at him on a fire escape, while Hannah watches them both in disbelief. They ignore the screams and barely notice the amateurish plaster statues that stand in for the victim and her killer. There’s just Brenda Lee misting up the soundtrack. Basically, a crime loses out to a figurative one. It’s one of the show’s most sophisticated and most intricately filmed gags about selfishness. The camera glides toward windows. It cranes downs at the plaster . It oscillates from Jessa to Adam to Hannah. Perhaps you think about “Rear Window,” “Monsieur Hire,” “Stakeout” or any other movie involving voyeurism, danger and a little melodrama. And the atmosphere is so rich you can practically feel the balm of warm spring air. But Hannah and Marnie peel off to commiserate. And by the time you see these two spread out on somebody’s bed, they’ve cast themselves in their own sitcom: “The Sorrow and the . ” But the show manages to maintain the gravity of both transgressions: an ambitious if seemingly dumb take on real tragedy and the tragedy that Hannah thinks is her life. It’s a kicky, poignant of television — half of which is spent elsewhere at a Manhattan party, featuring Hannah’s roommate, Elijah (Andrew Rannells) who is trying to hold his own among greasy gay celebrities. Each plot warranted its own episode, but that was “Girls” this year: so many good ideas, so little space to unfurl them. There were moments during the series’ underrated fourth season when, between Hannah’s damningly indulgent stint at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the invention of a carnivorous named (Gillian Jacobs) the show looked as if it had found its groove as a farce. This fifth season ended on a note, after Hannah runs into Tally (Jenny Slate) a college classmate, with a dark cloud of hair, who has become a literary star. She’s like Bizzaro Hannah: Her narcissism doesn’t repel success it vacuums it up. Tally encourages Hannah to steal a guy’s unlocked bike (it’s a sign, Tally says) and through two montages — set first to Vanity Fare then to Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé — they take a ride, smoke a joint on Hannah’s bed, and dance in her apartment. And for half an episode, as Tally and Hannah pedal and puff, “Girls” is no longer “Girls. ” It’s “Broad City. ” On that show, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson mount a perfectly calibrated celebration of millennial obnoxiousness, while also nailing the ridiculousness of consumer culture. The two shows have unruly young women and Brooklyn in common. That’s about it. But the way Ms. Slate is made to look resembles — passingly, cartoonishly — Ms. Glazer. These scenes between Ms. Slate and Ms. Dunham suggest a lunatic road not taken. “Girls” has some great slapstick. But it’s bending toward maturity that “Broad City” doesn’t care about. When it started, “Girls” was received as an anthem for entitled white women. Detractors had a field day with Ms. Dunham, who created this show and has written and directed much of it, for privileging privilege, as if she couldn’t be aspiring to the withering heights of Luis Buñuel or Carrie Fisher. Through 52 episodes of television — some of them, like that Kitty Genovese episode, marvelous — “Girls” has never stopped looking for the grander, harsher psychological picture. It’s never stopped looking for tough laughs. It fights American absurdity with its own version of it, as it does in the final episode of the season, in which Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet, a crayon turning at last into a scalpel) rebrands Ray’s coffee shop as a haven for people who actually work — that is, for “adults,” in other words. But in its highest gear, the show peerlessly vanishes the line between sociocultural satire and mental instability, between send up and crack up. That business with Hannah, Adam and Jessa closes the season with an unnerving cliffhanger. Hannah performs her pain for the storytellers’ radio hour “The Moth,” which obviously she takes to like a to a flame. The night’s theme is jealousy. In her tale, she proves she’s overcome it by delivering a peace offering in the form of a fruit basket. But the story deepens and darkens a deranged argument that took place a few minutes earlier. Suddenly, Hannah’s narcissism seems terroristic. Her personality disorder has the power to disorder other people’s personalities. Maybe, she’s the disorder. One of the last shots hovers about a demolished living room. But it’s not exactly a cliffhanger for the show’s next and final season. It’s a view of the wreckage in the canyon. Plus, there’s something about the way the camera lingers on the basket outside the door that makes Hannah’s offering seem more than a gift. It looks like a bomb.

They are microscopic artwork: tiny tubes and long filaments, strange squiggles etched into some of the most ancient rocks known. On Wednesday, researchers reported that these may be the oldest fossils ever discovered, the remains of bacteria thriving on Earth not long, geologically speaking, after the very birth of the planet. If so, they offer evidence that life here got off to a very early start. But many experts in the field were skeptical of the new study — or downright unconvinced. Martin J. Van Kranendonk, a geologist at the University of New South Wales, called the patterns in the rocks “dubiofossils” — structures, perhaps, but without clear proof that they started out as something alive. Heated disputes are nothing new in the search for the earliest life on Earth. In 1993 J. William Schopf, a paleontologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues found what that they, too, argued were the world’s oldest fossils: chainlike blobs in 3. 46 rocks made, they said, by bacteria. Other researchers later argued that the structures were just oddly shaped minerals. But additional specimens from other sites came to light over the past two decades, and many of them have withstood scrutiny. There is now solid evidence of life dating back about 3. 5 billion years. Earth was a billion years old by then, and scientists have long wondered if even older fossils might be found. In August, Dr. Van Kranendonk and his colleagues reported discovering fossils in Greenland dating back 3. 7 billion years. The scientists argued that the organisms were once mats of bacteria that grew in shallow coastal waters. In the new study, published in the journal Nature, Mattew S. Dodd, Dominic Papineau and their colleagues at University College London studied rocks that were either slightly older or much older than those containing the Greenland fossils. They came from a remote geological formation in Canada called Nuvvuagittuq, which stretches across four square miles on the coast of Hudson Bay. Geologists surveyed the formation for the first time in the 1990s. Researchers have variously estimated its age at 3. 77 billion years or 4. 22 billion years — just 340 million years after the formation of the planet. In 2008, Dr. Papineau collected rocks from the formation and found a number of clues indicating that they had formed around hydrothermal vents on the ancient sea floor that spewed iron and other minerals. He also found hints that there might have been life there — tiny blobs of rock, for instance, that contained a compound called apatite, which can form from phosphorus released by dying organisms. The tubes and other structures in the rock that Mr. Dodd found are also reminiscent of bacteria that live today around hydrothermal vents. They grow as filaments, feeding on iron compounds and creating cavities in the sediment. Similar filaments contain iron compounds in the Nuvvuagittuq rocks, Mr. Dodd and his colleagues found, and they are attached to round clumps that resemble the tiny anchors bacteria use to hold on to rock surfaces. The rocks also contain forms of organic carbon that could have been created by bacteria. The researchers argue that it would be unlikely for all of these features to have formed in the absence of life. “Then you’re left with one scenario — a biological origin,” Mr. Dodd said. Such a discovery could have big implications for the understanding of life’s early evolution. If these really are fossils 3. 77 billion years old, then they show that life was already diversifying by that time, thriving in both the shallow ocean in what is now Greenland and the deep ocean in today’s Canada. And if these are fossils 4. 2 billion years old, then scientists will have evidence that life began quickly on Earth, not long after the oceans formed. Yet Frances Westall, the director of research at the de Biophysique Moléculaire in Orléans, France, isn’t convinced these are fossils at all. “I am frankly dubious,” she said. For one thing, she has argued, the filaments in the Nuvvuagittuq rocks are too big. She and her colleagues have found filaments formed by bacteria in rock dating back 3. 3 billion years, and these are far smaller. On the early Earth, bacteria were forced to stay small, Dr. Westall said, because the atmosphere did not yet have enough oxygen to fuel their growth. Long after the Nuvvuagittuq rocks formed on the sea floor, they were heated to tremendous temperatures. Some experts doubted that microscopic fossils could have survived such a baking. “These authors built their research on pushing speculative ideas and appear totally unaware of the considerable evidence against their interpretation,” said Wouter Bleeker, of the Geological Survey of Canada. In response, Dr. Papineau observed that the type of rock studied, known as chert, is very hard and might have protected fossils from high temperatures. “I think the authors have done a good job,” said David Wacey, who researches the origins and evolution of life at the University of Western Australia. With the new evidence, he said, “One comes up with a pretty convincing biological scenario” for the origins of the mysterious rock features. Dr. Wacey was not surprised that the new work had drawn criticism. “It may be many years before a consensus is reached,” he said. “But this is how science progresses. ”

BEIRUT, Lebanon — In Moscow on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia laid bunches of flowers in memory of the victims of the truck attack in Nice, France, then spent hours debating proposals for new cooperation in Syria. But the discussions, aimed at fighting terrorism and restarting political talks to end the war, took place against a backdrop of new carnage in Syria, where a very different dynamic is playing out. forces are tightening a new siege around the country’s largest city, Aleppo, amid intense bombing. Farther south, they are on the verge of overrunning the Damascus suburb of Daraya, one of the first to rebel against the government of President Bashar five years ago. They have stepped up airstrikes, hitting marketplaces and tent camps, as civilians trapped behind blockades continue to die for lack of food and medical care. Both supporters and opponents of Mr. Assad say he and his allies are seeking to press their military campaign as far as it can go before January, when a new American president might take a tougher line in Syria. Even as the Syrian government periodically issues declarations of temporary that policy is playing out with devastating effect on the ground in Syria. The siege that people on the side of Aleppo have dreaded for years seems to have arrived this week, adding to besieged areas across the country where aid groups say one million people are already trapped. The only road connecting the city to the border with Turkey and countryside has long been subject to airstrikes. But after recent advances, government forces can now rake it with artillery and fire. The United Nations and international aid groups are raising alarms, saying that food, medicine and medical personnel are unable to reach the city. “We need to be able to reach eastern Aleppo,” Jan Egeland, the United Nations humanitarian adviser to the special envoy on Syria, said in Geneva on Friday, estimating that about 250, 000 people still live there. “It is on the verge of becoming yet another besieged location — our largest. ” The fear in Aleppo is that the government will surround it and starve and shell it until it surrenders, as it did with Homs, a smaller city, where a siege of the downtown lasted more than two years and left virtually every building damaged. But Aleppo is far larger, and such a siege would be longer and bloodier. Abdul Ghani Shoubak, a lawyer and member of the local council who made it into the city last week from Turkey, is now not sure when he will be able to make it out. Signs of siege are already evident, he said. “Sugar and eggs disappeared from the market, and it is hard to find cooking gas,” Mr. Shoubak, 30, said in a telephone interview. He said that the council was trying to ration food for the public, but that the biggest problem was the inability to evacuate the wounded. “We counted 150 air raids and 450 barrel bombs in the past two days,” he said, speaking of the primitive bombs, filled with nails and other shrapnel, that the Syrian government uses. Rebels also increased their shelling of the side and, as usual, civilians bore the brunt of it. Scores of people died on each side throughout the week. There have been more than 300 attacks on medical facilities during the war, according to the advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights. The vast majority were carried out by the government or its allies, and Aleppo has been one of the hardest hit areas. There are just a few dozen doctors left for a population of 300, 000, according to a physician who works for the city’s only pediatric hospital, the Children’s Hospital of Aleppo, even after several colleagues died in the bombing of another facility, the Quds Hospital, earlier this year. “This tells us that they are trying to displace people, forcing them to leave the city,” the doctor, who uses a nickname, Dr. Hatem, for safety, said in a phone interview. “They have no problem in targeting anything. ” Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, the capital, has held out for so long that residents find it hard to believe that government tanks are suddenly threatening to split the town. It lies just south of Damascus, close to major roads and military installations, and is a symbol for both the government and its opponents. Rebels there are running out of arms and ammunition as the government, backed by Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, has slowly retaken supply routes. Daraya was one of the first towns to revolt, first with peaceful protests, where residents such as Ghiath Mattar, who would hand roses to soldiers and police officers, inspired imitators around the country before he was detained and tortured to death. Later, Daraya was one of the first of the suburbs around Damascus to take up arms, and to be attacked with artillery and helicopters. In a 2012 massacre, numerous witnesses reported at the time, hundreds were killed with knives by government militias. Just a few thousand people are left in Daraya now, and they have been besieged so long that they remain a kind of time capsule of the original 2011 revolt the rebels controlling the town are local residents, not led by foreign jihadists, and the leaders of the local council took part in early protests. That is why Muhammad Shihadeh, a member of the local council, fears retaliation if government troops take the town: The government, he said, wants to eliminate any alternative model. “Daraya joined the peaceful revolution, and exported peaceful activists,” Mr. Shihadeh said. “It had a local council, and this all gave Daraya a value that made it a target for the regime. If the regime manages to enter this area, we are expecting massacres against the civilians. ” Daraya went without any United Nations aid until June, when a single delivery took place, providing what was supposed to be a month’s supply for 4, 000 people, but Mr. Shihadeh said there were twice that many civilians in need. Even the smuggling routes that had enabled the delivery of exorbitantly priced food have been cut off, he said people are surviving on rice, lentils and greens they grow on rooftops and in empty lots. Residents say they are getting hungrier as rebels have lost agricultural areas on the outskirts. “People use whatever expired medicine they find in destroyed houses,” Mr. Shihadeh said. “Most people have one meal a day. ” Daraya got a brief respite from the bombing for a few weeks beginning in March, under a brokered by the United States and Russia, but in recent weeks it has been bombarded daily. Residents are asking for a renewal of the truce and airdrops of food if the government continues to deny permission for convoys. Aleppo and Daraya are just two highly symbolic areas facing new stresses, but similar scenes are unfolding around the country, raising questions about whether Russia has the will or the ability to press the Syrian government to stop targeting civilians or to allow aid deliveries. In Madaya, for instance, the town near Damascus where images of starvation galvanized international pressure for aid access this year, people are continuing to die from malnutrition after treatment kits were removed from the few convoys that went through. The last one was on April 30. There have been 86 preventable deaths there since the siege began last year, including 65 related to malnutrition, according to Physicians for Human Rights and the Syrian American Medical Society. “Starvation is back” in Madaya, Mr. Egeland said. “It will be a debacle for all of us if we have the same images coming out of Madaya which were there when we started our work. ”

WHO cancer agency under fire for withholding ‘carcinogenic glyphosate’ documents Published time: 27 Oct, 2016 01:32 Get short URL © Philippe Huguen / AFP The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), facing criticism over its classification of carcinogens, has reportedly been advising its scientific experts not to publish internal research data on its 2015 report on “probably carcinogenic” glyphosate. The IARC urged its scientists not to publish research documents on its 2015 weedkiller glyphosate review, according to Reuters. The agency told Reuters on Tuesday that it tried to protect the study from “external interference,” as well as protect its intellectual rights, since it was “the sole owner of such materials.” The scientists had been asked earlier to release all the documentation on the 2015 report under US freedom of information laws. The groundbreaking review, published in March 2015 by the IARC – a semi-autonomous agency of the World Health Organization (WHO) – labeled the glyphosate herbicide as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Glyphosate is a key ingredient of Monsanto’s flagship weedkiller well-known under the trade name ‘Roundup.' It is one of the most heavily used herbicides in the world and is designed to go along with genetically-modified “Roundup Ready” crops, also produced by Monsanto. Read more EU may ban Monsanto weedkiller over health concerns The IARC’s report caused problems for both the notorious agrochemical giant and the agency itself. The report sparked a heated debate around the use of Roundup, and caused several EU countries – including France, Sweden, and the Netherlands – to object to the renewal of the glyphosate’s EU license. The vote on prolonging the glyphosate license for 15 years failed several times in June 2016, but the license was temporarily extended for 18 months during last hours before its expiration. The controversial report has seemingly made the IARC a target for attacks from multiple directions, and raised scientific, legal, and financial questions. Various critics, including those in the chemical industry, said the IARC's evaluations are fuel for “unnecessary health scares,” since the IARC allegedly studies the potentially harmful substance itself, and not a “typical human” exposure to it. It remained unclear whether the critics urged a WHO body to test the potentially carcinogenic chemical on humans. The critics also brought up other controversial statements from the IARC, over whether such things as mobile phones, coffee, red meat, and processed meat could cause cancer. The agency defended its methods as scientifically sound and “widely respected for their scientific rigor, standardized and transparent process and...freedom from conflicts of interest.” Numerous freedom of information requests by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), a US conservative advocacy group, have since been turned down with this reasoning. Read more Bayer vows not to use reputation to impose Monsanto’s GM crops on Europe E&E Legal told Reuters that it is pushing a legal challenge over whether the documents in question belong to the IARC or to the US federal and state institutions where some of the experts work. Basically, it’s being decided whether the IARC, as part of the WHO, is truly independent and free from “conflicts of interest.” According to Reuters, officials from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be questioned by a congressional committee about why American taxpayers fund the cancer agency, which faces much criticism over its allegedly faulty classification of carcinogens. “IARC’s standards and determinations for classifying substances as carcinogenic, and therefore cancer-causing, appear inconsistent with other scientific research, and have generated much controversy and alarm,” a letter from US Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz to NIH director Francis Collins states, as quoted by Reuters. The Oversight Committee demanded a full disclosure of NIH funding of the IARC, and even money spent in relation to the cancer agency’s activities. READ MORE: Conflict of interest? Members of UN panel on glyphosate have Monsanto ties IARC opponents from scientific circles vowed to provide their data on the matter. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which believes glyphosate is “unlikely pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans,” promised to release its raw data on the subject as part of its “commitment to open risk assessment.” The food safety watchdog made this statement in late September, and still has to deliver the promised information.

#FROMTHEFRONT #MAPS 13.11.2016 - 1,004 views 3.5 ( 2 votes) Militants Used Toxic Gas Near Aleppo Airport – Report 3.5 out of 5 based on 2 ratings. 2 user reviews. Militants Used Toxic Gas Near Aleppo Airport – Report Donate Click to see the full-size map. Oiriginal map source: @v4st0/Twitter; Additional notes by SF Militants have launched a toxic gas attack near the international airport in the Syrian city of Aleppo , the Lebanon-based TV channel, Al Mayadeen TV, reported Sunday. The report says that miliants used projectiles with poisonous gas during the artillery shelling of the Syrian army’s positions at the Aleppo international airport. At least 28 Syrian servicemen were reported injured. Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russian military experts had found evidence that militants had used chemical weapons (chlorine and white phosphorus) in Aleppo city. The ministry send samples of soil and shell fragments found in Aleppo to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Despite numerous reports of militants’ use of chemical weapons, the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) expert panel keeps its line to blame the Syrian government for almost every chemical attack since the start of the war. Donate

Steve Harvey, the comedian and television host, became the latest celebrity to ascend Trump Tower on Friday to discuss federal policy with Donald Trump, in this case housing issues. But before Mr. Harvey was off the premises, he unexpectedly revived a recent controversy over his comments about Asian men. After the meeting, Mr. Trump and Mr. Harvey briefly appeared together in the lobby. When Mr. Trump left, Mr. Harvey said they had discussed ways he could work with Ben Carson, Mr. Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Harvey has spoken openly in the past of being homeless as an adult while struggling to start his comedy career, though he gave no reason on Friday for why he was consulted on housing affairs. Mr. Harvey said he was invited a week ago by “both transition teams,” referring to representatives of President Obama and Mr. Trump, and emphasized that the visit was informal. “Well, you know it’s not my jump into politics,” Mr. Harvey said. “I ain’t gonna pass a background check. It’s just me following orders from my friend President Obama who said, ‘Steve, you gotta,’ as he told everybody, ‘get out from behind your computer, stop tweeting and texting and get out there and sit down and talk. ’” The Trump team confirmed the invitation. The White House did not comment. Mr. Harvey announced his support for Mr. Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, last March in the presidential primaries. In September, during an interview with her on “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” on iHeartRadio, he said: “She’s a mother, she’s a grandmother, and we’re going to put her back in the White House, just flat out. Simply put. ” This was just the latest crossover for Mr. Trump during his transition. Last month the surprised reporters at Trump Tower by posing for photographs in the lobby with Kanye West. For Mr. Harvey’s part, he said that the incoming president was “a great guy” and “genuine. ” He deflected questions about Mr. Trump’s history of questionable comments regarding race from the campaign trail, and was diplomatic about his doubts about Mr. Trump. “You don’t kill it with one conversation, but you can start it with the conversation,” Mr. Harvey said. “So, you know, a lot about what people say, ‘Now, well, it’s time to see what you do.’ And he said he wanted to do something. ” Mr. Harvey also mentioned a controversy in which, during his television show last week, he mocked the dating skills of Asian men. At Trump Tower, Mr. Harvey said, unprompted, that he hadn’t laughed recently as a result of the controversy. “I ain’t been laughing that much over the past few days,” Mr. Harvey said. “They’re kinda beating me up on the internet right now for no reason. But, you know, that’s life, ain’t it?” After the meeting, Mr. Harvey put out a message on Twitter, saying that he found Mr. Trump “congenial and sincere” and that he would “sit with him anytime. ” Here are some edited excerpts from Mr. Harvey’s conversation with reporters in Trump Tower: REPORTER: There have been a lot of doubts about this administration about race. Jeff Sessions, his record in Alabama, some of the things the said during the campaign about the inner cities. Are your doubts fully gone or are you going to still try and work them out? STEVE HARVEY: Well, I mean, you know, look, you don’t kill it with one conversation, but you can start it with the conversation. So, you know, a lot about what people say, now, well, it’s time to see what you do. And he said he wanted to do something. You can’t beat better than that. You know, and so, we’re gonna see. I’ve been put in contact with Ben Carson, which was great, I spoke with him. And so, we’re gonna get some things started, and they have a plan for the inner cities but they need help. And so, that’s why they called me. So we’ll see what I can do. REPORTER: Do you have any lingering things you still want to talk further about, that you’re still concerned about, you haven’t heard quite what you wanted to hear yet? HARVEY: Well, I mean for this, we got off to a great start. I think it could be the beginning of something. For them to invite me here to talk about a specific problem and thought that I might be able to help — I know I got a big radio show, I got a lot of people listening every morning. So I’ve always been concerned about inner city problems because they’re huge. My mentoring problem, excuse me, my mentoring program has been a part of this type of — and that’s what I want to see happen. And they were spot on with it. And Ben Carson got on the phone. I met with him over the phone today, but I sat with Trump and we laughed a little bit. I ain’t been laughing that much over the past few days. They’re kinda beating me up on the internet right now for no reason. But, you know, that’s life, ain’t it? REPORTER: What did you laugh over? HARVEY: Well we talked about golf. We laughed about my score in golf, his score in golf, we talked about some of the friends that we have in common. Mark Burnett. Talked about TV shows. Things like that. He’s a fan. So he’s seen it. I met his daughter, she was very sweet. So I think we’re off to a good start.

UK citizens and war heroes get cheap pre-fab houses while Muslim colonizers get taxpayer-funded luxurious council homes UK Ministers have been forced to put forward plans for pre-fabricated homes after 30,000 luxury council houses were handed out to unemployed illegal alien Muslim migrants. Migration Watch said the costs will continue to rocket if a “sustainable” level of migration is not achieved. UK Daily Mail More than 11,000 households are raking in benefits that are at least the equivalent of a higher rate taxpayers’ £47,000 salary, it was revealed last month. According to official figures, thousands of Muslim migrant families on benefits are living in luxury homes, with many receiving housing handouts of about £5,000 per month – enough to fund a £1million mortgage. Jonathan Isaby, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Many taxpayers struggling to make ends meet will find it incredibly unfair that some people are drawing more in benefits than they’ve ever actually earned themselves. UK Express (h/t Rob E) A spokesperson said: “There is a long standing controversy over the granting of social housing to immigrants. This has not been helped by local authorities’ reluctance to publish the relevant information. “Some immigrant groups have very low use of social housing whereas others are more likely to be in social housing than the UK born. There is absolutely nothing in the rules that state that immigrants should get preferential treatment. “However, priority for social housing is largely determined by need and so some ‘high need’ immigrant families (with multiple wives and large litters of kids) will gain access to housing over longer standing local residents deemed to be of lower need. This can be contentious. The 100,000 pre-fab homes(below) proposed by the Government are a far cry from those properties “fit for heroes” and service personnel who were awarded social housing on their return from the horrors of the First World War. “In the future, any housing strategy must address both supply and demand. The Muslim invasion is a major part of housing demand. “Unless net migration is reduced to a manageable and sustainable level a large house building programme will have to continue indefinitely, with all the costs and loss of amenities involved.” A white paper due out next month includes measures to encourage banks to lend to firms which construct off-site before delivering them to their final destination. A Government source said: “The first and most obvious advantage is speeding up the building of housing. “There is pretty good evidence that if you did it at scale it is cheaper.” This has pushed ministers to plan a new wave of pre-made homes to solve the housing crisis. The prefabricated homes can be built off site in as little as a day and take just 48 hours to install on a site. Jonathan Isaby, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Many taxpayers struggling to make ends meet will find it incredibly unfair that some people are drawing more in benefits than they’ve ever actually earned themselves. But today when approximately 9,000 of our servicemen and women are sleeping rough after leaving the military, Government figures show how an influx of Muslims has seen 30,000 social housing lettings given to immigrants in 2015. Outrage as Afghan War hero who guarded the Queen is thrown out of council home From 2015, Jamie Streets, 34, spent 15 years in the Household Cavalry and suffered brain damage while on duty. But he, his wife Charmaine and their four children are to be kicked out of temporary accommodation after Cornwall County Council denied them a permanent home. Mr Streets served in both Kosovo and Afghanistan and escorted the Queen on ceremonial duty, holding the rank of corporal of horse. But he was discharged on medical grounds last year after suffering serious head injuries and a brain tumor. Although he recovered enough to return to work, he then suffered a seizure and had to leave the Army. Sorry, we decided that unemployed Muslim colonizers deserve a nicer home than war heroes In an open letter to the Prime Minister and Cornwall Council’s chief executive Andrew Kerr, the Household Cavalry Veterans Association says it is “incensed”. Signed by Secretary Rob Mather, the letter claims taxpayers’ money is spent on “lavish lifestyles and foreign aid”, while “serious issues on our own doorstep are not resolved”. “This is not acceptable treatment of one who served his Queen and country.” The seven-bedroom home in Acton, West London, where an Afghan Muslim family were placed at a cost of £2,875 a week to taxpayers UK: Muslim Welfare ‘Refugees’ Trash The £1.25 Million Home They Are Living In For Free And Laugh About It A family of PALESTINIAN MUSLIM freeloaders provoked outrage yesterday by saying they “deserve” to live in a £1.25 million taxpayer-funded luxury home (above) despite trashing it. The mother, Mrs Mahmoud, gets £20,000 a year in housing benefits to pay her rent. Yet she said: “I don’t care if people think I am not grateful. I am entitled to live in a house like this even if I don’t pay for it. “I deserve to live in a nice house and get benefits because I am human.” The family is one of at least 100 unemployed Muslim invaders living in homes on state handouts that could fund £1million mortgages. Muslim mother of eight was placed in a £2.6m house in Notting Hill, west London at the taxpayers’ expense She has since split with her husband and was given British citizenship five years ago but has never worked in this country. She moved with her two sons and five daughters to the three-bedroom house in Fulham, west London, three years ago. It had just undergone a £76,000 refurbishment, half paid for by the taxpayer. She claims her family is being persecuted because neighbours “don’t want a foreigner to come and live in this street.” Thanks for the nice council house, suckers. Migration Watch said the costs will continue to rocket if a “sustainable” level of migration is not achieved. A spokesperson said: “There is a long standing controversy over the granting of social housing to immigrants. This has not been helped by local authorities’ reluctance to publish the relevant information. There is absolutely nothing in the rules that state that immigrants should get preferential treatment.

‘Have you seen the latest polls? I’m beating Hillary. ” Donald Trump was on the phone with a man he had never met, a Republican delegate in Pennsylvania. It was May 2, one day before the Indiana primary election, and the private plane bearing his last name in gigantic letters was taxiing along a runway at Indianapolis International Airport. Trump proceeded to quote the numbers to the man in Pennsylvania: ahead of Clinton by 2 points in that day’s Rasmussen poll, 3 points behind her in the previous week’s George Washington University poll. These were the only two national polls at the moment that did not show him lagging behind the Democrat by a wide margin in the general election, but Trump was a businessman who preferred to negotiate using numbers that were in his favor. “I’d love your support, Phil,” the candidate said as he squinted at his own handwriting, a scrawl in black marker on a piece of paper. “You know, you’re the only delegate I’ve talked to. But I saw you on television, and you appreciate what I do — I won your county by a massive amount, and you’re respectful of that, and I just appreciate what you’ve said: ‘Having a moral obligation to support the winner’ — I hadn’t heard a delegate say that before. ” Trump thanked the delegate and hung up just as the Boeing 757 took off, en route to a final campaign stop in South Bend. He settled into his plush leather seat, beside a large cardboard box containing various documents relating to the Trump Organization’s sundry enterprises. “It’s hard negotiating elevator rates while you’re running for president,” he said. On the table before him were some notes for a speech on law and order prepared by his senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, who sat behind the candidate around a table with a few other aides, including Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. On the more conventional presidential campaigns I have covered — George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney — the candidate’s mobile inner sanctum was a hive of activity, the advisers hovering constantly over their boss, rattling off the latest polling data or words of unsolicited advice from a big donor. On Trump’s plane, the aides spoke when spoken to and otherwise kept to their labors on their laptops. Trump’s attention was on the large TV on which various Fox News pundits were forecasting his probable victory in Indiana’s Republican primary the following day and the bleak implications for his opponent Ted Cruz. The Republican contest, they all seemed to agree, was pretty much over. The billionaire now appeared destined to be Clinton’s opponent in the general election. The Fox commentators, even the ones who favored Trump, seemed to struggle for the words to convey this eventuality. The candidate took in the good news with an oddly inert expression. “Maybe I’ll get beat tomorrow,” he said, for at least the third time that day. Not a single poll had given him cause for worry. But for all his swagger, Trump had an awareness of unseen, contingencies that held his triumphalism in check. He was compulsively superstitious twice on other plane trips I had seen him toss a few granules of salt over his left shoulder after eating. And here he was, on the day before he would effectively clinch his nomination, calling a single obscure delegate in a state he had already won in a landslide — an implicit nod to the forces aligned against him before resuming the affect of indomitability. On the TV, Fox had moved on from the election to footage of the smoky aftermath of a bombing in Baghdad. Trump rose from his seat and walked over to the screen for a closer look. “Boy, this ISIS,” he murmured. I asked Trump if he had ever been to Iraq. “Never!” he said, sounding horrified by the thought. “What’s the most dangerous place in the world you’ve been to?” He contemplated this for a second. “Brooklyn,” he said, laughing. “No,” he went on, “there are places in America that are among the most dangerous in the world. You go to places like Oakland. Or Ferguson. The crime numbers are worse. Seriously. ” It was a stark reminder of what set Trump apart from every other politician in recent memory who had occupied his current position: how little of the world he had seen beyond the archipelago of boardrooms, golf courses and hotels he inhabited, how utterances that by now would have torpedoed a more normal campaign continued to roll off his tongue with impunity. That Trump would emerge as the last candidate standing from a field that once included 17 seemed at times unimaginable over the five spasmodic weeks I had spent intermittently in the company of the Trump campaign. More than during any other stretch over the past year, everyone — at times even Trump and his loyal advisers — seemed hellbent on denying him victory. Now it was clear that there would be no technicalities, as some had long suspected, to keep the victory from him no fatal error, as so many had assumed. No, this was it: the final stage of a process by which Americans accepted that this man, wholly unlike any politician they had ever seen, was going to definitely, not maybe, become the of one of the two political parties of the most powerful nation on earth. On the TV, the Fox News pundits were speaking consolingly of the Cruz’s political future. Standing in front of the oversize screen, Trump scoffed: “I don’t think he has much of a future. ” He returned to his seat and proceeded to scratch out a few notes for what would be his final speech as a Republican competing for the nomination. “This is probably the most successful club anywhere in the world,” Trump informed me. “I have the best building and the best location. ” It was early on the evening of March 23 at the bar of Trump’s private resort in Palm Beach, Fla.: an estate that was envisioned after the death of its original owner, the cereal magnate Marjorie Merriweather Post, as a winter presidential retreat and that could conceivably be, by next January, a Camp David. Trump strolled in wearing a navy blazer and white dress shirt — no tie — and appearing slightly tanner than usual. We were supposed to have met late that morning, to begin my several weeks of following the campaign. But his communications director, Hope Hicks, emailed shortly before the scheduled : “Something has come up, and the boss is going to be occupied for a few hours. ” I deduced — correctly, as it turned out — that Trump had ditched me for a golf game. It was the first sunny day all week, and the previous evening the candidate had crushed Cruz in Arizona, which occasioned some celebration. Now Trump apologized for having kept me waiting. “Are you going to have dinner with us tonight?” he asked. Trump sat down across the table from me and next to Hicks and Lewandowski, who were poring over their smartphones. Opposite them loomed a painting of a much younger Trump in tennis whites. A waiter materialized and poured him a Coke. (Trump says that he has never touched alcohol.) The month of March had been Trump’s best thus far as a presidential candidate. Although he had, early on, privately rated his chances of winning the Republican nomination as one in 10, he now seemed poised to do just that. On March 1, he clobbered Cruz across the South, winning five of the seven primaries in the region that day — victories that wiped out hope, among the many Republicans who viewed Trump as an apocalyptic threat to their party, that Cruz’s support among evangelicals would form a bulwark against the interloper. Two weeks later, Trump decisively won Illinois and North Carolina, and seemed to have squeaked by in Missouri, though the narrow margin there meant that the result wasn’t yet official. More astounding, he won Florida, beating its native son, Senator Marco Rubio, by nearly 19 points and forcing him out of the race. Less than two months earlier, the senator was the Republican Party’s favorite son: precocious and upbeat but exquisitely calibrated, never in danger of wandering — in short, the antithesis of Donald Trump. By early March, Trump had baited him into the tar pit, where he was reduced to questioning the penis size of the man who called him “Liddle Marco. ” “He was branded beautifully,” Trump said, slouching contentedly in his chair. He turned to Lewandowski. “Did they ever announce the results of Missouri?” “Sir, they’re still certifying the counts of the delegates,” Lewandowski said. “Am I leading? Have they taken anything away from me?” “So far you’ve lost a net of three votes. ” “So when will we know?” “They’re trying to certify this by Friday. They’ve allocated 25 delegates to you, 15 to Cruz — there’s still 12 out there. ” Trump’s brow wrinkled. “So are they saying I won Missouri by doing that?” he asked. “Not yet,” Lewandowski patiently explained. “You’ve won a series of congressional districts. You won five of them, which is 25 delegates. Cruz won three — so 15 for him. ” Distaste clouded Trump’s face. Like most Americans, he had until recently been almost completely ignorant of the obscure mechanics by which a candidate became the party nominee. To win the nomination, he needed the support of 1, 237 delegates. Achieving this was not as straightforward as simply winning the most votes in primaries. In each state, lifelong party officials largely controlled the process. This was the Republican establishment’s last front in its war against Trump — and Trump feared, not without cause, that his rivals would resort to whatever connivances were necessary to deny him a 1, 237 majority and throw the Republican convention into a melee of multiple balloting and . “What I don’t like,” Trump said, “is Cruz has a guy working for him” — his campaign manager, Jeff Roe — “that’s one of the most powerful guys in Missouri. So when I hear there’s a revote” — there wasn’t, actually — “I know too much about politics, so I get it. And I don’t like it. ” Cruz was, perhaps, the only candidate as among Republican Party hands as Trump was, but Trump plainly saw the Cruz campaign’s machinations as a reflection of the party establishment’s ferocious determination to stop him. It was no secret that many Republicans viewed Trump as an explosive device poised to obliterate in a single blast the party’s economic orthodoxy and its ability to project an image of tolerance. Trump himself had vowed to blow up the party’s “rigged system. ” And yet he remained somewhat puzzled as to why the party was so opposed to him. In his view, he had arrived on the scene as something of a gift to the G. O. P. He had attracted to the polls hordes of Americans who had previously given up on the party, or on politics as a whole. Viewers were tuning in to the Republican debates in numbers — and this, he argued, was “100 percent Donald Trump. ” The party had become too obsessed with ideology. “One thing I’ve seen over the years,” he observed, “is that the Democrats stick together, and the Republicans eat their young. That’s why they lose so many elections. You know, a normal, very nice, very likable Republican would be hard pressed to win. ” Trump did not accept the concern that his more incendiary statements had alienated women and minorities and thereby made him unelectable. “I’m going to be better to women on women’s issues than Hillary Clinton and everybody else combined,” he would later tell me. Now, sipping his Coke, he cited his view that Planned Parenthood was a valuable women’s health care organization, albeit one that should not receive federal funding as long as it performed abortions. “Frankly, for the general election I think that’s a very good issue for me,” he said. “Structurally, it’s very hard, almost impossible, for a heavily conservative Republican to win, because of the Electoral College. Whereas I bring in Michigan. Look at what I did in Michigan — I won it in a landslide, it wasn’t even close. So I bring in Michigan. I maybe bring in New York. Republicans don’t even go for the general election to campaign in New York, because there’s no chance. ” “Illinois!” Hicks chimed in. “I win Illinois,” Trump said of a state in which, by the latest polling from early March, he was trailing Clinton by 25 points and which a Republican had not won since 1988. “The reason they did an autopsy of the party,” Hicks said, referring to the Republican National Committee’s internal analysis following the defeat of 2012, “was because the party was dead! People are accusing Mr. Trump of killing the party — well, that’s already been done. He’s bringing the party back to life!” Trump said: “By the way, I’m going to do great with the vote. One poll came out saying Donald Trump’s going to get 25 percent of the vote. ” Trump was referring to last September’s SurveyUSA poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 10 percentage points. (In 1960 against Kennedy, Nixon received 32 percent of the black vote. Since then, the highest share of the black vote any Republican nominee has received was Reagan’s 14 percent in 1980.) “And I said, Huh — why not more? I’m going to do great with the . I’m going to bring back jobs. And I’ve had good relations with them. ” And, he said, “I’m going to do far better with Hispanics than anyone thought. I have thousands working for me. When this is over, one of my first pictures is going to be me at the Doral” — his golf resort near Miami — “with a thousand of my people working there, most of whom are Hispanic and all who love Trump. ” As we moved to the patio for dinner, Trump signaled for Lewandowski and Hicks to join us, which seemed to surprise them. We were seated at a table that afforded a view of the beach while also placing the resort’s owner in the center of everyone else’s attention. Trump accepted the greetings, congratulations and selfie requests with rote magnanimity — posing for the camera phones, his forced wince of a smile looked as if someone were grinding a shoe into his toe — before dispatching each with an “Enjoy your evening. ” He regarded the parade of men in or blazers with a flicker of amusement. “Right out of central casting,” he said. Melania Trump joined us on the patio Trump doted on her throughout the meal, often touching her shoulder or leg and calling her “baby. ” His eldest son, Donald Jr. sat with his wife at a nearby table, as did Trump’s grandchildren and his youngest son, Barron. Melania’s and Lewandowski and Hicks’s deferentiality — both referred to Trump as “sir” and “Mr. Trump” — lent the whole tableau an Old World texture, like a Habsburg patriarch in repose. “This is fun, right?” Trump exclaimed. “Really! We’re having a good time!” Sometime after 10, he and his wife rose from the table and said good night. Back in his bedroom just before midnight, he checked his Twitter feed, as he often did when, he told me, he felt the passing urge to “knock the crap out of” somebody. Tonight, one of his eight million Twitter followers had tweeted a pair of photographs: a flattering image of Melania alongside one of Cruz’s wife, Heidi, with a sort of expression, with the caption “A picture is worth a thousand words” and the hashtag #NEVERCRUZ. Trump retweeted it from his own account — his last public statement of the day. The next morning, a Thursday, Lewandowski drove Hicks and me from to Trump’s nearby golf resort in one of the candidate’s many cars. “I’m Corey,” Lewandowski, in shorts and loafers, explained to the security guard at the entrance. Then, more emphatically: “With Mr. Trump’s campaign. ” The guard eyed him skeptically as we drove past. Though he was Trump’s top aide, Lewandowski was viewed by some political observers in Washington as a glorified body man — he seldom left the candidate’s side, and he lacked the credentials usually characteristic of campaign strategists. Lewandowski handled the details, not the vision. He was not a guru. Had he been, Trump, who is his own guru, would not have hired him. In his briefcase, Lewandowski carried a bulky black binder. It contained virtually everything of significance in Trump’s political universe: the daily, weekly and monthly master schedules the full staff list with everyone’s contact information a similar list of the campaign’s various contractors daily talking points for staff and surrogates a running tally of the delegate count a list of Trump endorsers a metrics chart of field activities in each state, including the daily number of calls made and doors knocked position papers on each major issue various documents requiring the candidate’s signature and drafts of coming speeches. When he was not taking orders from the candidate, he was on the phone executing them, pacing around with his hand cupped over the receiver like an offensive coordinator furtively calling in plays. What Lewandowski did have in common with David Axelrod, Karl Rove and other marquee strategists was a romanticized view of his candidate — one that even Trump, for all his didn’t seem to share. Lewandowski saw him as a tilting against a party elite that had not seen fit to embrace either of them. Though Lewandowski had kicked around in the political circles of New Hampshire for much of the past two decades, he had never seen thousands of people turn out to greet a candidate there the way they did his new boss. Nor had he expected the campaigns of more experienced candidates run by consultants to collapse so quickly and spectacularly in the face of Trump’s challenge. Today, 15 months into the job, Lewandowski plainly admitted that he was not this campaign’s “architect. ” Instead, he described himself to me as “a jockey on American Pharoah. You hold on and give him a little bit of guidance. But you’ve got to let him run. ” Over coffee in the club’s sunny dining room overlooking the links, Lewandowski and Hicks joked about the “toxic infighting” that some media outlets had claimed was bedeviling the campaign. Its four principals — Lewandowski, Hicks, the deputy campaign manager, Michael Glassner and the director, Dan Scavino — were, Hicks insisted, extremely close. They had also been made aware of two things by Trump: There was only one star of the campaign, and there was also only one communications director. Unlike most who held her job title, Hicks did not tend to the campaign’s messaging strategy. Nor did Hicks, who is 27, see it as her job to spend evenings sharing insights over drinks with the traveling press corps. The rest of the Trump team felt similarly. This, combined with the campaign’s unusually long blacklist of media outlets it deemed unfair or unfriendly, had left reporters with few of the usual means of interpreting the campaign’s inner doings, requiring them to rely instead on more sources. Among those was Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone, an inveterate in the dark seams of American politics who lived by the credo that, as he put it, “the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. ” Depending on whom you believed, Stone had either been dismissed by Trump last August or had quit. Trump had also parted company with Stone’s former protégé, Sam Nunberg, who worked for Trump from 2011 until last August, when it was disclosed that he had previously posted racist messages about Obama and the Rev. Al Sharpton on his Facebook page. Nunberg no longer spoke to the candidate Stone remained on good terms with Trump but communicated with him infrequently, usually when Trump called to compliment him on a TV appearance. Both harbored an intense dislike for Lewandowski, who they believed had tried to wall off their access to the candidate — Stone, whose formative years were spent working for the campaign of President Richard Nixon, described Lewandowski to me as having “all of Bob Haldeman’s negative traits and none of his good ones” — and merrily disseminated tales of his imminent professional demise. Outside Trump World, these whispers dovetailed with a sense in the media and the political class that a campaign that began as an odd novelty was evolving into something darker. Trump’s rhetoric had been inflammatory since his announcement speech in June, in which he castigated Mexico for sending “rapists” to the United States in December, after a team of Islamic State sympathizers shot 35 people in San Bernardino, Calif. he issued a statement calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on. ” Now reports and videos were surfacing of Trump supporters flinging racial slurs and, sometimes, attacking protesters at his rallies. “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?” Trump told a crowd in Iowa on Feb. 1. “Seriously. O. K.? Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. ” Then on March 8, Lewandowski grabbed the arm of Michelle Fields, then a reporter for Breitbart News, when she approached Trump at a campaign event at the golf club where we were now sitting, leaving bruises. Fields filed a complaint, and the stories now circulating portrayed a Trump campaign in a state of “serious existential threat,” as one Politico article put it. Stone had been quoted in that article, and Nunberg, who would later announce his support for Cruz, had reached out to Fields through an acquaintance and suggested lawyers to her. Inside Trump World, these matters were regarded as drastically overblown. Trump had no intention of punishing Lewandowski for the Fields incident the way Cruz had thrown his national spokesman Rick Tyler overboard the month before for Facebook and Twitter posts. Nevertheless, Trump quietly issued the order that his rally venues for the time being be smaller, and thus more easily controlled, even as he stood by his campaign manager and defended his revolution as a nonviolent one. At the golf resort, I brought up the more strategic criticism that had been leveled at the campaign, that Trump needed to turn his guerrilla squad into something resembling a more conventional operation, and asked Lewandowski and Hicks how that might happen. “Ever since we won Nevada, all these guys have been calling us and saying we had to build out the team,” Hicks said. The campaign’s core staffers had received this advice with recognizing it as a worldview at odds with their own — and from time to time would draw up imitation organizational charts imagining what an expanded Trump World would look like: But a small cloud was gathering in the otherwise unblemished sky over Palm Beach. That evening, a Wall Street Journal article by Reid J. Epstein was published online under the headline “Ted Cruz Gains in Louisiana After Loss There to Donald Trump. ” Epstein wrote that although Trump had won that state’s primary, Cruz’s team was exploiting the state party’s arcane rules to help draw many of the delegates their way. The man Trump called “Lyin’ Ted” was running a campaign operation that, in the view of Trump World, wasn’t half as brilliant as the media had given it credit for. After all, who had won the evangelical vote in South Carolina? Who had swept nearly all of the South? Who had snatched victory in Missouri from the jaws of Cruz’s supposed wizard Roe? Still, Cruz’s campaign had found a different way to win. Trump read the story at the next day. Unnerved, he called Roger Stone. “Can they really steal this thing from me?” Stone later recalled Trump asking him. Stone told him that yes, such a feat was entirely possible. The last time anyone in the Republican Party had felt the need to prepare for a brokered convention was 1976, when former Gov. Ronald Reagan of California mounted an insurrectionary challenge to President Gerald Ford. Among the operatives managing Ford’s short but intense fight was Paul Manafort, a protégé of Ford’s campaign manager, the future secretary of state James Baker. Manafort went on to advise several subsequent Republican presidential campaigns, but since the ’80s, much of his counsel had been devoted to helping foreign leaders including Ferdinand Marcos and Vladimir Putin’s ally in Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. Still, with his pinstripe suits and deftness, he represented a steady and contrast to Trump’s whippetlike campaign manager. He was also more than 25 years Lewandowski’s senior — a true peer to Trump, who often referred to his traveling entourage as “the kids. ” As it happened, he lived on the 43rd floor of Trump Tower, and was Stone’s former business partner. At Trump’s request, Manafort had dinner the evening of March 24 with the candidate at . Manafort offered his services pro bono — he was already plenty wealthy, and presumably preferred an optimized blend of influence and independence. Four days later, on the morning of Monday, March 28, members of the campaign staff assembled at the Washington office of Donald McGahn, Trump’s campaign lawyer, for a secret meeting. The team conferred for three and a half hours. The manager of Trump’s shoestring delegate operation, Ed Brookover, and his deputies Brian Jack and Alan Cobb, began with a review of the campaign’s current status state by state. But midway through the presentation, the discussion spilled over into a deeper examination of the state of the campaign — of how the candidate’s message should be shaped and how his operation should be broadened. As the newcomer in the room, Manafort was deferential but also pointed in his observations. He told Lewandowski he was taking on a new role now, according to two people present at the meeting. He was bigger than just a campaign manager, he said. Senators would want to meet with him directly, and he should leverage that when he was in Washington. Such leveraging was, of course, exactly the skill of an establishment hand like Manafort, not an outsider like Lewandowski. (A spokesman for Manafort said he did not recall this being said.) The next morning, March 29, Lewandowski turned himself in to police in Jupiter, Fla. and was charged with simple battery for the incident with Michelle Fields. Ultimately the state attorney for Palm Beach County would decline to prosecute him. What lingered in significance, however, was the complete senselessness of his denial that he had ever touched Fields. (The episode was captured on video.) Instead, Lewandowski had followed the example of his pugnacious boss, which he and Hicks characterized to me during our meeting at Trump’s golf resort in Palm Beach: Don’t back down. Double down. Trump, meanwhile, had other problems. He was now campaigning in Wisconsin, where forces were mounting a fierce and skillfully coordinated effort to deny him the nomination at the convention. “I’ve never said this before, but if I don’t win it on the first ballot, the dishonest establishment will never allow me to win,” Trump told me aboard his 757 on the morning of April 5. We were departing Milwaukee, where voters were going to the polls, and the Fox News pundits on his TV were dissecting what had been the worst stretch of his young political career — one that had begun with his campaign manager’s arrest. When one commentator made reference to Trump’s recent “unforced errors,” Trump said, “O. K. you can turn the sound down now. ” Scavino obliged. Referring to the results of the Wisconsin primary that would arrive that evening, Trump asked me, “What do you think is going to happen?” “You’re probably going to lose,” I said. He shrugged. “I have the whole machine against me. ” Surveying his recent setbacks, however, he allowed that he had perhaps made some mistakes. He had come to regret his decision to retweet the Heidi Cruz photo that night at which had dogged him for weeks now. “I could’ve done without it,” he gruffly acknowledged. “Some people were offended. ” I asked him if it was strategically wise to have spent the past week in Wisconsin repeatedly attacking the state’s governor, the former presidential candidate Scott Walker — who, granted, was a Cruz supporter but who also enjoyed an 80 percent favorability rating among the state’s Republicans. “Maybe not,” Trump mumbled. “We’ll see. ” Then there was his interview the previous week with the MSNBC host Chris Matthews, who asked him whether his views meant that he also supported criminal penalties for a woman who had an abortion. Trump had replied that yes, there should be “some form of punishment. ” Now he argued to me, rather unconvincingly, that he had been misinterpreted: “I didn’t mean punishment for women like prison. I’m saying women punish themselves. I didn’t want people to think in terms of ‘prison’ punishment. And because of that I walked it back. ” A more believable explanation, furnished by a senior adviser for the Trump campaign, is this: Trump, a serial initially saw nothing wrong with his remark and refused to walk it back. Only when every network chief executive and over 100 media outlets besieged the Trump campaign with requests for additional comment on how women should be punished for abortions did the Trump campaign turn to an ally: Chris Christie, whose tenure as the Republican governor of the blue state of New Jersey had given him experience placating both social conservatives and the moderate voters Trump hoped to attract in the general election. A member of Christie’s political team helped draft a statement that essentially repudiated Trump’s earlier one. In any other presidential campaign, this string of failures would have cost someone his or her job. But no heads had rolled in Trump World — a tacit acknowledgment by the candidate, perhaps, that responsibility for the campaign resided in the man with the office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower. The campaign’s inner circle remained intact Hicks now sat directly behind Trump on the plane, pecking away at her laptop alongside Lewandowski, whose eyes were haunted with fatigue and who had lost so much weight recently (15 pounds, he would later tell me) that his blue blazer drooped like a cloak around his shoulders. I asked Trump if his campaign manager’s job description had been affected by recent developments. “Zero,” he insisted. That evening Trump lost Wisconsin by 13 points to Cruz. Further setbacks followed in Colorado and Wyoming, where Cruz’s team outmaneuvered Trump’s in the process, as even some of Trump’s staff members would concede to me. Lewandowski thought highly of the 1993 Bill Clinton campaign documentary “The War Room,” and admiringly regarded Clinton’s team as a roomful of “killers. ” The able but Trump delegate crew, which included Jack, Brookover and Barry Bennett — all alumni of Dr. Ben Carson’s recently shuttered campaign — did not seem to have the appetite for the jugular that Cruz’s team did. At 8 in the morning on Saturday, April 16, Trump’s top staff members convened on the fifth floor of Trump Tower. Ten months into the race, the candidate’s headquarters looked more like the dingy redoubt of a mayoral campaign than the hypercaffeinated situation room of a presidential . On ordinary days, no more than eight or 10 staffers inhabited the warehouselike floor, which in the manner of many campaigns was decorated like a dorm suite: a model White House topped with pink flamingos, posters of John Wayne and Ronald Reagan, an oversize plush lion the team had named Lion Ted. A recent description in New York Magazine of its spartan condition offended the building owner, who protested to me, “It’s this beautiful raw space!” He conceded that Hillary Clinton’s campaign offices in Brooklyn might be better appointed — “though she never had my location. ” Manafort and Lewandowski had gathered the team to discuss the campaign’s new structure — which would now have Manafort overseeing the entire delegate operation and Lewandowski the campaign apparatus — and to introduce its new members, including Rick Wiley, the national political director, previously Scott Walker’s campaign manager. The candidate strolled into the conference room. “Wow, this looks like a professional group of people,” he said, smiling, according to two sources who were present. “All right, guys. I need you to go win. And we’re going to make sure you have what you need to win. ” After speaking for less than two minutes, Trump walked out. For the rest of the meeting, much was said by everyone in the room, but nothing was decided, because Manafort and Lewandowski had thoroughly opposing visions of how the campaign should be run. The strategist believed it was time for Trump to close out the primaries by taking a more scripted, mollifying approach. The campaign manager held to the view that people attended a Trump rally fully expecting the same type of raucous, unpredictable drama they saw at a sporting event. Trump apparently was listening to both men now. But it was not obvious that morning whose view would prevail — or even which of the two had the authority to give orders. One attendee told me that he came out with no more clarity than he had before the meeting. When Politico broke the news of the secret meeting two days later, on the evening of April 18, Trump was en route to a campaign rally in Buffalo aboard his smaller Citation X airplane, with Hicks, Lewandowski and Ivanka Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, who was informally advising the campaign. It was the day before the New York primary, and Trump sat in the front of the plane. “I have to think about my speech now,” he told me, and began composing one on the spot. He leafed through various talking points and issue memos, from which he culled a few ideas that he then scribbled on another piece of paper. Once he was done with the other documents, he tore them in half lengthwise and let the scraps flutter to the floor. The plane touched down at the airport, and the waiting fleet of black sedans whisked the candidate and his entourage to the city’s hockey arena, where the rally would take place. Trump was posing for photographs with campaign volunteers when Hicks’s phone buzzed. It was Paul Manafort, calling to try to head off another controversy. A woman whom Trump had briefly considered hiring in 2015 to help with communications strategy, Cheri Jacobus, was suing the candidate, his campaign and Lewandowski for libel after Trump tweeted that she had “begged my people for a job,” in addition to a few other disparaging remarks. Trump wanted to punch back — it was what he did and in Lewandowski’s view, the candidate’s brawling, politically incorrect impulses were what had made him the to begin with. At the candidate’s direction, Hicks had prepared a statement chiding Jacobus’s threat. Manafort was now on the phone urging Trump not to release the statement. Attacking Jacobus yet again struck him as unnecessary, not to mention a distraction from the task at hand: winning big in tomorrow’s primary. It also flew in the face of Manafort’s publicly stated vow that his new client would now be evincing a more “presidential” affect. Trump grew more as he heard Manafort out. Then he said, “Don’t tell me how to [expletive] do P. R. ” He stepped into a private room to fix his hair, then posed for a few more photos with the man who was about to introduce him to the crowd, Rex Ryan, head coach of the Buffalo Bills. That evening, addressing a hockey arena filled with perhaps 17, 000 delirious Trumpophiles, he bellowed: “I don’t want to really act more ‘presidential’ until we win!” The following evening at Trump Tower, the man who stepped out before the press — heralded by Sinatra’s “New York, New York” — to celebrate his victory in his home state’s primary appeared uncharacteristically subdued. He referred to his vanquished opponent not as “Lyin’ Ted” but as “Senator Cruz. ” He held his usual grievances in check. After eight minutes, he departed the lectern without taking any questions. Manafort had managed to impose a veneer of Beltway respectability on the campaign. More field organizers were now materializing in states like Pennsylvania, where local volunteers had hitherto been left largely to fend for themselves. Supporters who previously received no direction from the campaign before going on TV to expound on the candidate’s policies — “I just make [expletive] up,” Representative Duncan Hunter of California confessed to a Trump senior adviser — were now receiving daily talking points. But the — where to go, whom to see, what to say and how to say it — still rested almost exclusively upon the whims of Trump and, secondarily, with the person in his immediate proximity, who was almost always Lewandowski. That became apparent to me on the morning of April 25, the day before the string of Northeastern primaries that would restore Trump’s indomitability. The candidate was seated in the front of his Citation as it departed the airstrip of Warwick, R. I. — a stop that, Manafort and Lewandowski agreed, had been a complete waste of the candidate’s time, given that he was ahead of Cruz there by 40 points. But when Trump told Lewandowski, “I can’t just not go there,” there was little point arguing. Lewandowski began making calls to his advance team on Sunday morning. Some 24 hours later, Trump walked into a sweaty and delirious tented gathering adjacent to a Warwick hotel — exulting, with customary hyperbole: “We set this up 12 hours ago! There’s thousands outside — we need a bigger tent!” Later that day, en route to West Chester, Pa. Trump’s thoughts kept wandering afield from politics. He sat with a large stack of newspaper clippings — some of them with handwritten notes from his daughter Ivanka — at his feet. To his right sat his son Eric, whom I heard Trump refer to as “honey. ” He perused some documents relating to a land deal he was considering, pausing to fret over the fate of his friend Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback whose suspension for his role in the Deflategate scandal was upheld that morning by a federal appeals court: “He should’ve sued the N. F. L. in Boston at the very beginning. ” He asked Lewandowski whether his campaign schedule would allow him to attend the June 25 grand opening of his Turnberry golf resort on the coast of Scotland. “If we get to 1, 237, you’re there,” Lewandowski said. “If we’re at 1, 100, you’re going nowhere. ” Trump scowled a bit but did not protest. I was reminded that Trump was still fundamentally a real estate developer with exactly zero previous campaign experience, who had gotten this far by spending only a fraction of what his opponents had and against the wishes of his party — who was as new to the idea of a Trump candidacy as the rest of us were. Although his political maturation over the past year had not been altogether linear, it seemed clear that an understanding of what his candidacy meant to his supporters was taking root. Trump seemed aware, despite his insistence that voters of all stripes were drawn to him, that his constituency came chiefly from white Americans who felt left out of the Obama recovery and cheated by what they saw as a rigged economic system. Playing to this sentiment, he had begun to include in his speeches a litany of dire economic statistics pertaining to whichever state he happened to be visiting at the time. The data, compiled by Sam Clovis and Stephen Miller, senior policy advisers, invariably cited the collapse of that local manufacturing sector over the past two decades. It had become axiomatic in Trump World that wherever jobs had been lost was also where Trump’s voters could be found. “They’re great people,” he murmured back on the plane after the event in Buffalo. “And they want help. ” His face crinkled in disgust. “They don’t want hope. They want help. ” It was a sobering reminder of the expectations that a President Trump might find on his shoulders come January. But the moment passed, and his mood seemed to regain altitude, the desperate souls on the rope line reaggregating into an adoring mass of yugeness. “So you’ve covered other people — nobody comes close to this,” he said. “Two guys from Fox said they’ve never seen anything like it. ” We rose upward through the skies in the vehicle Trump referred to as “just about the fastest plane made,” eventually passing over the Ferry Point golf course that Trump said he had built faster than anyone else could, and finally toward the great Manhattan skyline that Trump had made even greater — a taste of what he could do for America, if its great people would only let him.

1 comment James Comey just outfoxed the entire corrupt establishment with one game changing technique… Hillary Clinton’s Campaign called for the immediate release of all of the FBI’s new findings. Congress is demanding more information from James Comey and the Bureau by Monday. President Obama and The Department Of Justice say that Comey did not notify them before sending his letter to Congress. The New York Times reported that Obama’s Department Of Justice still has not granted approval for the FBI to review the emails that were allegedly found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. “We do not have a warrant,” a senior law enforcement official said. “Discussions are under way [between the FBI and the DOJ] as to the best way to move forward.” Could this be a brilliant, somewhat sneaky, move by Comey? The question has been raised: A serious journalist, of which there are few today, would wonder if this isn’t precisely WHY Comey went public @thegarance @maggieNYT pic.twitter.com/kwFum9LNO7 — DanRiehl (@DanRiehl) October 30, 2016 The ball is now clearly in The Department of Justice’s court. With both Hillary and Congress demanding the information now, the DOJ will have to issue the required warrant. Otherwise, Comey can claim to have done his job without fear of repercussions from the American public or the court system. It is true that Obama’s DOJ has not investigated The Clinton Foundation and they discouraged Comey from looking into Hillary’s email problems. Justice Dept. Strongly Discouraged Comey on Move in Clinton Email Case https://t.co/UjpRoz1OtC pic.twitter.com/WZXTn3DYqw — DanRiehl (@DanRiehl) October 30, 2016 Comey just outran the angle. If Hillary and Congress are to get their answers, Obama’s Justice Department will have to issue a warrant in order for them to get them. Other factors are in play, as well. With WikiLeaks and other groups looming, and the likelihood of more damaging information on the way, Comey may not want to go down with what he views as a massive, corrupt ship. Will Obama and the DOJ continue to stand behind Hillary? We will likely find out within the next WILD week. Related Items

20 Foods That Naturally Unclog Arteries and Prevent Heart Attacks http://blogs.naturalnews.com/20-foods-naturally-unclog-arteries-prevent-heart-attacks/ By Twain Yobra Posted Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 03:53pm EDT Arteries play a vital role in the body. They transport nutrients and oxygen throughout the body. And they can cause heart attacks if they’re clogged. Well, you can unclog them naturally by eating foods rich in antioxidants, soluble fiber and healthy fats. Here are 20 foods that will unclog your arteries and prevent heart attacks. 1. Pomegranate: Pomegranate is rich in antioxidants which prevents the arteries from being damaged. Research also shows that pomegranate improves heart health by reducing bad cholesterol. 2. Spirulina: Spirulina is regulates fat levels in the blood. And it’s rich in omega 3 fatty acids, which studies show prevents heart disease. 3. Asparagus: This vegetable is rich in vitamins and minerals that prevent blood clots and lower blood pressure. 4. Turmeric: Inflammation is one of the main causes of arteriosclerosis, and as you may know, turmeric fights inflammation. 5. Cranberries: The potassium in cranberries can lower blood pressure and reduce risk of heart disease by up to 40 percent. 6. Watermelon: One study found that L-citrulline (found in watermelon) can widen blood vessels and lower blood pressure. This can actually benefit men with mild erectile dysfunction. 7. Avocado: Research shows that eat avocados every day can clean your arteries, lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol. 8. Broccoli: Broccoli contains vitamin K which prevents calcium from damaging the arteries. It’s also rich in soluble fiber which lowers cholesterol. 9. Cinnamon: This spice unclogs the arteries of plaque build-up. Its antioxidant properties also improve cardiovascular health. 10. Green tea: This powerful herb contains catechins which prevent absorption of cholesterol. This consequently prevents blockage of arteries. Drink 2-3 cups a day. 11. Coconut oil: Taking coconut oil regularly can unclog the arteries and even convert bad cholesterol to good. 12. Persimmon: Persimmon has antioxidants that reduce blood-lipid. It’s also rich in fiber which helps clean the arteries. 13. Coffee: Research shows that drinking 2 cups of coffee a day can lower risk of heart disease by 20 percent. But excess consumption can increase blood pressure and cause anxiety. 14. Cold-water fish: Eating these fish will fight inflammation and unclog your arteries. They include, mackerel, tuna, salmons, and sardines. 15. Olive oil: Studies show that olive oil can reduce risk of cardiovascular disease by 41 percent. This is attributed to its ability to reduce oxidative stress and cholesterol. 16. Spinach: This vegetable unclogs arteries because of its folate, potassium and fiber content. 17. Orange juice: Oranges are rich in vitamin C which cleans the arteries and prevents oxidation of blood. 18. Flaxseeds: Flaxseeds have been proven to fight inflammation, lower blood pressure and improve heart health. 19. Raw nuts: Nuts like almonds will reduce blood pressure and fight inflammation. Use them to keep hunger at bay. 20. Whole grains: Whole grains are rich in soluble fiber which lowers cholesterol and risk of high blood pressure. For more information on eating healthy and staying fit, download your FREE 3 Weeks Flat Stomach Guide to help you improve your health and physique. And like our Facebook page . You might also like…

Death of the ‘Two-State Solution’ November 16, 2016 Exclusive: For years, anyone calling for a “one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – granting equal rights to all inhabitants and thus “diluting” the “Jewish state” – was denounced as anti-Semitic. But Israel’s persistent settlement building has now left no other rational choice, notes Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall Donald Trump’s election victory raises many unanswered questions, but it also settles a few, starting with the fate of the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process.” In the words of Israeli Education Minister and Jewish Home Party leader Naftali Bennett, “The era of a Palestinian state is over.” Lest anyone accuse the Israeli hardliner of wishful thinking, one need only recall candidate Trump’s insistence last spring that Israelis “really have to keep going” with settling the territories that they have occupied since 1967. Two months later, the Republican Party changed its 2012 platform to omit support for a Palestinian state and to condemn the “false notion that Israel is an occupier.” talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they walk across the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 20, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Last week, a co-chair of the Trump campaign’s Israel Advisory Committee reaffirmed that the President-elect rejects Washington’s traditional view that Israel’s settlements are obstacles to peace and illegal under international law. The so-called “two-state solution” — creation of a Palestinian national homeland comprising the West Bank and Gaza, and coexisting with Israel — has been a longstanding axiom of official U.S. policy, accepted as well by Israel and its unofficial lobbying arm, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Of late, however, the rise of extreme Jewish nationalists to power in Israel, the relentless expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, and Israel’s evident disinterest in peace negotiations have all but killed hopes for such a solution. In 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared , “There will be no withdrawals” from the occupied West Bank and “no concessions” to the Palestinians. As Americans for Peace Now points out, “more than 40% of the West Bank is under the direct control of settlers or settlements and off-limits to Palestinians . . . Israel has taken hundreds of kilometers of the West Bank to build roads that serve the settlements, . . . dividing Palestinian cities and towns from each other, and imposing various barriers to Palestinian movement and access. . . Such settlements, and new settlement construction going on today, have the explicit goal of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem – which, in effect, means preventing the two-state solution.” Many of Israel’s staunchest allies in the United States now concede this reality. Hillary Clinton, in a private email to one of her advisers, acknowledged in 2015 that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process had become a phony “Potemkin” spectacle. Secretary of State John Kerry warned publicly that Israeli settlement-building was “imperiling the viability of a two-state solution.” Roger Cohen, the New York Times columnist and an ardent liberal Zionist, reported last month following a trip to Israel that the two-state idea is all but “clinically dead.” He explained: “The incorporation of all the biblical Land of Israel has advanced too far, for too long, to be reversed now.” Many Israeli supporters of a two-state solution now publicly admit that bitter truth. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak accuses Netanyahu of engaging in a “messianic drive” toward “a single Jewish state, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” For the current crop of right-wing leaders in Israel, the main question is whether to offer Palestinians citizenship within an expanded Israel or to remove them. Palestinians also concede privately that their dream of a state is dead. Said noted Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, “We, Israelis and Palestinians, live in a one-state reality.” Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, declared bluntly, “there will be no alternative but one state. No alternative.” What Path Forward? If a Palestinian state is truly dead, Palestinians will need to give up their decades-old nationalist aspirations, a wrenching blow that many will find hard to accept. Israelis, in turn, will need to find room in a bi-national democratic state for millions of Palestinians — roughly equal in number to Jews — an even more wrenching adjustment that many will fight to the bitter end. Liberal Zionists have warned for years that refusal to accept a Palestinian state would force Israel to choose between remaining a democratic state or a Jewish state. A map showing Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territories. As former Prime Minister Barak put it , the “overarching ambition” of absorbing the occupied territories “is bound to culminate in either a single, binational state, which, within a generation, may have a Jewish minority and likely a Bosnia-like civil war, or else an apartheid reality if Palestinian residents are deprived of the right to vote. Both spell doom for the Zionist dream.” An apartheid-like reality already exists for Palestinians, but many Israelis and their supporters publicly rationalize it as an unfortunate but temporary necessity during a transitional period that will end with a peace settlement. By putting off determination of the final status of the occupied territories, Israel can justify subjecting Palestinians to harsh military law , seizing their land, demolishing their homes, controlling their movements, and jailing them at will rather than granting them the rights afforded to Israeli citizens. Israeli political scientist and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Meron Benvenisti has been saying for years that “the whole notion of a Palestinian state . . . is a sham.” Israel has maintained the pretense of peace talks only “because it is self-serving,” he said. While talking about two states as a goal, Israeli governments continue funding the expansion of settlements. Palestinian officials, meanwhile, help enforce order in return for millions of dollars in international aid. But if Israeli hardliners succeed in ending the fiction of a peace process and annex the territories , “then the Palestinian struggle will inevitably be transformed from one demanding independence into a movement demanding equal rights,” says James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. “If this is to be the case, we may well see the day when the Palestinian citizens of Israel will emerge . . . as the new leadership of a unified Palestinian community fighting for justice and equality.” Such a fight will face tremendous opposition. In recent years, polls of Israeli adults show that nearly half believe Arabs should be expelled from Israel. Nearly eight in 10 believe Jews should receive preferential treatment compared to non-Jews. The Netanyahu government and Knesset are filled with overt racists. Last year, Netanyahu appointed as deputy defense minister a rabbi who asserted , “[Palestinians] are like animals, they aren’t human.” The Israeli peace activist and public opinion analyst Dahlia Scheindlin doesn’t minimize the hurdles, but said Palestinians may be ready to fight for their rights within Israel. “Israeli racism [is] better than Israeli occupation,” she wrote , “and they probably feel [they] can live with it as long as there are democratic foundations to demand better. Maybe for them, Israeli rule cannot possibly make their status quo worse, but at least it offers the possibility of something many of them simply lack: citizenship.” Democratic Rights Some hope is offered by the fact that several notable right-leaning Israeli politicians favor granting Palestinians full democratic rights within a greater Israel, rather than subordinating them forever under the thumb of military occupation or Jim Crow-type segregation. A section of the barrier — erected by Israeli officials to prevent the passage of Palestinians — with graffiti using President John F. Kennedy’s famous quote when facing the Berlin Wall, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” (Photo credit: Marc Venezia) As New Yorker editor David Remnick observed a couple of years ago, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin — a member of the rightist Likud party — has “emerged as the most prominent critic of racist rhetoric, jingoism, fundamentalism, and sectarian violence, the highest-ranking advocate among Jewish Israelis for the civil rights of the Palestinians both in Israel and in the occupied territories.” Rivlin visited an Arab town that had been the scene of an Israeli massacre in 1956 to apologize and “swear, in my name and that of all our descendants, that we will never act against the principle of equal rights, and we will never try and force someone from our land.” He also condemned racist fans of a Jerusalem soccer team who protested its signing of two Muslim players. For such sentiments, not surprisingly, Rivlin has been called a “traitor,” “rotten filth,” and even “lying little Jew” by his Israeli haters. But Rivlin is not alone. Moshe Arens, a former Likud leader, minister of defense and foreign affairs, and ambassador to the United States, supports giving Palestinians in the West Bank the right to vote in Israeli elections. The key to preserving Israeli democracy, he wrote in 2010, will be making them feel at home in the state of Israel, “enjoying not only equality of rights but also equality of opportunities.” It will take a minor miracle to persuade the Israeli public to risk broadening their democracy to incorporate millions of Palestinians, but the longer the unsupportable status quo prevails, the less likely it becomes that any Israelis will enjoy the democratic and civil rights they have long known. Israel’s media is under assault from the government , leading Freedom House to downgrade its assessment of the country’s press from “free” to “partly free.” Israeli peace activists and NGOs face constant harassment and persecution . Rightist demonstrators routinely chant “Death to Arabs.” Former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, a member of the Likud Party, recently declared , “The leadership of Israel in 2016 is busy with inflaming passions and causing fear between Jews and Arabs, between right and left and between different ethnic groups in order to survive in power.” And Ilan Baruch, Israel’s former ambassador to South Africa, said , “Netanyahu is pushing Israeli democracy to the brink. . . This is the most right-wing government in the country’s history, which has no qualms about taking tactical and strategic steps in the media, education, and culture in order to ensure Netanyahu’s permanent rule. To do that, the government sows racist divisions . . . slanders and preaches hatred for the Other — be they Arab citizens of Israel, Palestinians, African refugees, or human rights activists.” Still, with the pretense of a two-state solution shattered by Trump’s victory and Netanyahu’s open intransigence, supporters of Israeli democracy and Palestinian rights can finally begin an unblinkered discussion of how to achieve a genuine accommodation between those two peoples in a common land. In the words of Sandy Tolan, author of the international bestseller The Lemon Tree , “Now, at least, there is an opportunity to lay the foundations for some newer kind of solution grounded in human rights, freedom of movement, complete cessation of settlement building, and equal access to land, water, and places of worship. It will have to be based on a new reality, which Israel and the United States have had such a hand in creating. Think of it as the one-state solution.”

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 13:29 UTC © The Free Thought Project Dramatic video from Intercept reporter, Jihan Hafiz , was released this week from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests showing a full on assault by militarized police on peaceful people. The video is from Saturday but took several days to be released as cops confiscated the camera used to film it. The video was taken as water protectors and reporters covering the protests marched toward the construction site. However, their peaceful walk was swiftly interrupted by militarized shock troops armed with massive cans of pepper spray, batons, rubber bullets, and assault rifles. According to Hafiz, the march was undertaken in solidarity with several protesters who had chained themselves to bulldozers and pipeline machinery at the construction site. But the marchers never made it to their destination. Instead, they were attacked by police forces who used pepper spray and beat protesters with batons. Dozens of officers, backed by military trucks, police vans, machine guns, and nonlethal weapons, violently approached the group without warning. "Don't move, everyone is under arrest," a voice says from the military vehicle that appears to be equipped with a Long Range Acoustic Hailing Device, or LRAD. As protesters attempted to leave, the police surrounded them and began their attack. According to Hafiz, several women were targeted for leading the march and dragged from the crowd to be arrested. Police body slammed one man and another woman's ankle was broken as she ran. The militarized police then circled the protesters in an apparent move to 'kettle' them — a tactic usually reserved for urban protests in which riot police force large crowds into corners to seemingly provoke them. However, the protesters stayed entirely peaceful. Police continued their mass arrests even though the people were trying to leave. Some natives were seen running for the hills as the assault began. One officer is seen in military camouflage with a ski mask and a tear gas grenade launcher — as if he were going to war . In total, reports Hafiz, more than 140 people were detained in half an hour. It was the largest roundup of protesters since the movement against the pipelines intensified two months ago. A majority of those arrested were charged with rioting and criminal trespass. Overall, close to 300 people have been arrested since protests against the pipeline kicked off over the summer. Among those arrested were journalists, a teen child who was also pregnant, and an elderly woman. They were all brought to the jail where protesters were forced to sit in the jail's common area as police had no other place to put them. According to Hafiz, women were strip searched, protesters were refused phone calls, and no one received food or water. One woman even had her medication confiscated by police, causing her to shake and sweat profusely. When Hafiz was finally released, she attempted to get back her camera and was told that she could not have it back. "Your camera is being held as evidence in a crime," they said. In the land of the free, filming cops assault peaceful men, women, and children is considered a 'crime.' Over the past several weeks, the police state has come out in full force as Native Americans fight to protect their water sources from the threat of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Mainstream media has remained largely silent as federal, state and local authorities worked on behalf of Energy Transfer Partners to squash dissent. Even prominent journalists, like Hafiz, have found themselves targets of the State, charged with dubious "crimes" such as " inciting a riot " and " conspiracy to theft of services " - for doing nothing more than filming protests and the ensuing violent crackdowns. As the video below shows, the First Amendment is no obstacle when it comes to advancing the interests of the corporatocracy. Comment: We are one breath away from an all out massacre!

Home / Badge Abuse / Parents on a Date Were Asleep in Car When Cops Arrived and Killed Them Both Parents on a Date Were Asleep in Car When Cops Arrived and Killed Them Both Matt Agorist February 25, 2016 213 Comments Inglewood, CA — On Sunday, police responded to a call of a suspicious vehicle parked on Manchester Boulevard around 3:10 am. When police arrived, they engaged in a 45-minute long standoff before opening fire on the man and woman inside the vehicle, killing them both. In the news release on Monday, following the shooting, police claimed that the woman in the car had a gun. Scott Collins, a spokesman for the Inglewood Police Department said that the couple refused to obey the officers’ commands to exit the vehicle. The officers then feared for their safety and opened fire on the car — killing the couple. The woman was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting, and the man succumbed to his injuries after paramedics transported him to a local hospital, according to the LA Times. The shooting seemed like an open and shut case until the next day. Mayor James Butts, while responding to questions about the shooting, opened up a huge can of worms — both the man and the woman were unconscious. For at least 45 minutes, police attempted “to rouse” them in an effort “to de-escalate the situation,” said Butts. After admitting that the couple was asleep, Butts quickly defended the officers, noting, “Obviously at some point they were conscious because somebody felt threatened.” However, that notion has yet to be proven and is particularly unlikely due to the fact that not a single officer received so much as a scratch, nor did the couple have any reason to be violent. Both of the victims were parents; Kisha Michael, 31, a single mother of three sons, and Marquintan Sandlin, 32, a single father of four daughters. Michael’s twin sister Trisha stated the obvious when she said that it’s possible that Kisha merely passed out on the way home from their night out. Families for both described them as devoted parents who made arrangements for care of their children while they took a night off, according to NBC Los Angeles. “The police ain’t telling us nothing,” said Trisha Michael after being met with tight lips from the department. “He was a loving father,” said Sandlin’s sister Leandra Faulkner. “All he cared about was his girls, getting them right.” Of course, as is standard procedure for all those killed by police, their arrest records were released to shame them. Michael was on probation for a misdemeanor last year, and 7 years ago, Sandlin was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm in Los Angeles. According to his relatives, Sandlin had a ‘rough life’ but had turned it around and was working as a successful truck driver. Sadly, these children will now grow up knowing that their parents were taken from them by cops, scared of a sleeping couple. Share Google + Concerned Citizen Perhaps the mother had the gun on her lap for protection while they slept. At least they didn’t drive drunk. These parents did not deserve to die! Mary Hagerty Did she really have a gun, or did the cops just say that to excuse the murders of two sleeping people? Lying about weapons is a known police tactic to get out of trouble. Sometimes they go as far as to plant a weapon. Conscious Let’s say they had a gun. How did the police see it if they were asleep. Hmmm that makes it irrelevant John and Linda Robel WHO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT “DRIVING DRUNK”? IT IS DETERMINED BY AN ARBITRARY NUMBER THAT IS EXTORTED BY THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS..WE ENCOURAGE PEOPLE EVERYDAY TO ANNUL THIS POLICE STATIST HORSESHIT. A FELONY CAN BE EXPUNGED BUT NOT A FUCKING MISDOMEANOR DUI. GET A GRIP. THIS NOTHING BUT A GOVERNMENT RACKET AND PROFFITEERING OF THE DUI INDUSTRY. Kevin Burnett Sounds like more #blackliesmatter twits. Alan Lammle Sounds more like #Bluethugliesmatter twits. Duryea L. Williams Smh……ignorance is contagious Talisha Harris No where in the article talks about that movement. From the article it sounds like innocent people, who were not armed, and who were sleep were killed. Did I miss something? Anon ymous They may or may not have had a gun. But, having a gun is no reason for the police to shoot & kill someone. Nikkia Bailey Maybe they were too drunk to drive Anon ymous Black lives matter also! What part of that is so hard to understand? Kburnett isanidiot Stop being an ignorant fuckwad racist troll, Kevin Turdnett. Philip Williams Ryan Robbins Marie Laveaux – I’m not disagreeing with you, I just always like to see some real info before I jump to conclusions. Not just a headline. I have no idea what happened and will not put blame on either side unless I see some hard evidence. Julie Asperger On Los Angeles local news report they said the vehicle was stopped in the middle of Manchester Blvd not parked on the side of the road. (Both are illegal) seemed strange the way it was presented to us. This makes it even weirder. I passed by and seen there is a large memorial for them. To bad there is no video to see what really happened. Cops don’t like being filmed. For obvious reasons. Julie Asperger Yea I was harassed by some a few years back on Hollywood Blvd and intimidated into deleting video of them using excessive force on cooperating men. I even showed them my press ID and tried to be allowed to keep the video they said fuck the press. Kimberly Reichard Emerson The intelligent of us know we’re not. I can’t even comprehend what’s wrong with the people here that still believe we’re in “the land of the free and home of the brave”. It’s frightening to say the least. Shawn Soto This is so fucked up..Wtf is wrong with people. Why can’t any one just act right? All you fuckers carrying so much hate on race..it’s ridiculous. I’m sick of it!! An alot if peeps, an I mean alot. Are following an feeding this shit through media an all!! I hve mad love for all race in the world. Am does any one even hve a pure blood line now a days? I think not!! So don’t be fooled by just the way your skin looks!! We all belong to the human race. There’s no other race than that. Thom Prentice nice infotisments Colin Parker I never understood why their prior arrest recods are released, It’s not admissible in any court for a current charge so why are the police allowed to use it? Alan Lammle To help soften the public in their attempt to make them look like they did nothing wrong in shooting 2 people in cold blood… Gary Harryman Shouldn’t the records of every cop at that scene also be released? Tray Pressley To label them as “criminals” so they can justify the murder. MarkyMark NdaHouse To demonize the dead… jamesawyatt AS LONG AS BUREAUCRATS ARE ALLOWED TO HIRE WITH LITTLE OR NO SUPERVISION THOSE WHO SEEK TO BE EMPLOYED AS COPS, MANY OF WHOM HAVE A HISTORY OF BEING BULLIES GOING BACK THROUGH THEIR CHILDHOOD AND WHO SEEK THIS MEANS OF FURTHERING THEIR BULLYING LUST NOW ARMED WITH IMPRESSIVE UNIFORM, SHINY NEW BADGE AND DEADLY WEAPONS AND WITH THE PRESUMPTIONS THAT THEY NOW HAVE A LICENSE TO BEAT, CRIPPLE AND SHOOT WHEN EVER AND WHOM EVER THEY PLEASE, ATROCITIES ARE EXPECTED TO BE THE NORM AND WILL BE EXPECTED TO GROW AT AN EXPONENTIAL RATE. IT IS FOREVER HOPED THAT ONE OR MORE LAW FIRMS WILL COME INTO BEING THAT WILL RELENTLESSLY UNDERTAKE THE FILING OF SUITS AND NOT ONLY AGAINS THE INVOLVED JURISDICTION AND THE INDIVIDUAL ROGUE COP OR COPS BUT THOSE WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE HIRING OF THE COP OR COPS; THE IMPRESSION ALWAYS BEING THAT THESE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HIRING AND THUS ARE AS GUILTY AS THE INVOLVED ROGUE COP(S) & THEY HAVE TO BE FACED WITH THE HARSH REALITY BY HAVING LEVIED AGAINST EACH AND EVERY OFFENDER HUGH AWARDS/FINES; NOT JUST ON THE JURISDICTION, I.E. THE CITY, COUNTY, STATE OR FEDS . . . BUT ALSO AGAINST EACH OF THE INDIVIDUAL INVOLVED IN THEIR BEING HIRSD . . . AS WELL AS THE ROGUE COP OR COPS THEMSELVES AS INDIVIDUALS; THE AWARDS TO BE PAID BY THE INDIVIDUALS’ BY THEIR PRORATED AWARD SHARE PAYMENT OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS AND ONLY A PRORATED SHARE BY THE JURISDICTION AS WHAT THE JURISDICTION PAYS WILL INVARIABLY COME OUT OF THE POCKETS OF THAT JURISDICTION’S TAX PAYERS. STIFF PENALTIES IN THE FORM OF HUGE FINANCIAL JUDGEMENT AWARDS SHOULD GO A LONG, LONG WAY IN FOSTERING AN AWARENESS BY THESE WHO HAVE ESCAPED ACCOUNTABILITY FOR SO, SO LONG OF THE POTENTIALLY VERY EXPENSIVE FOLLY OF THIS THEIR IRRESPONSIBLE ACTIONS WHICH RESULTS IN SO MUCH SUFFERING AND MANY TIME CRIPPLING INJURY AND/OR DEATH. Mary Hagerty I agree, but please don’t use all CAPS to write. It’s way harder to read. Roberto Carlos Moscoso Sadly the government insists that they want to take guns away from civilians, for only police officers have training and are responsible enough to handle guns. Yet, I’ve seen more mass shootings and innocent people dying in the hands of cops than in the hands of “irresponsible citizens”. Crazy ah? Tracy Walling Otis Is that true Marco Emilio Giovanni Maltese? That’s truly horrifying if so. If you have a source of those statistics, I would appreciate the link for it. I know it’s bad. I’m not denying that. But I am even more disgusted if it is that bad. :'( I’ve read that cops killed more than 1000 people in the USA in the last 3 years. But I’m sorry I don’t have the link, you can search and you will find it easily. I think USA people should be more scared of cops than of terrorists. Alain Vosselman I’m stunned.. i can no longer believe this. This is going to be talked about in the future (if we still have one) just as we talk now about Stalin’s regime… or Sadam Hussein’s…. or Pol Pot. From now on even if we discover new life 100 triljon lightyears away traveling by mega-super-freak-aliesh tech vehicles.. we’ll still be the most amazing embiciles of the universe. Aaron Beedle The fact that there are enough of these stories coming from america for several to be posted everyday proves how messed up the place is. I would not want to be a black person living in america today. I wouldn’t live there at all. Nothing will happen to the officers. They should be sentenced for murder, and receive a full sentence. Police officers over there intruding on people’s property and killing pets, killing people just walking down the street or washing their car. I’d i was an american the only reason i’d want to own a gun was to defend my self against police officers. Ryan Robbins You shouldn’t believe everything you are reading online. It’s bad right now, but it’s not nearly as bad as many are making it out to be. All of these innocent victims are not nearly as innocent as they are initially made out to be. When the truth finally comes out on most of these stories, it’s on page 6 and nobody takes the time to post it because it does not fuel there agenda to spread hate and prejudice. Aaron Beedle it is true everyone has agendas… im sure there are a lot of people in general dying in america.. but i know from life that the people with the power are usually the assholes. I would say that at least 80% of all male human beings struggle to handle power reasonably. females would be close too. When it is appointed rather than earned, such as when someone is called a police officer and given a weapon that can kill people with ease, people tend to not handle it well. I heard a while ago that some parts of the world do not use equipment they would not fire at themselves. And they are made to. It teaches people restraint. Christopher Rawson The police across America are being demonized by a sickness in the system that wants to put us against one another. That human is a human ,none of us our without fault or live life without ever feeling in over our head….possibly there is another way Tim Walker I suppose if “everyone” voted for that one independent/libertarian candidate, then maybe we would have a fighting chance. Sadly that will never happen. The vast majority of people have been brainwashed by the two main parties. With the division they have created they can easily put in any candidate they choose, how can anyone prove that it wasn’t predetermined? I just watched a news video of this story. The mayor said the couple were passed out when police arrived. “Police spent 45 minutes trying to rouse them and de-escalate the situation”. How is there a situation to de-escalate if they are passed out? 山崎 コロッケ Ryan said nowhere in his comment that they deserved what happened. All he said was that another source had different information. If another source has clashing info, of course one of them is going to be wrong. No need to bash him. Vanessa White Some groups must be trying to start to a race conflict and some are just happy with Anarchy. I would never call them for anything. They don’t seem to know who or when to shoot. Or maybe they are all amped up on steroids all the time. pitiful. I will keep the children in prayer. Blue Thugs All cops are cowards, never seen one that wasn’t a coward and bully. One of the cops got tired of waiting and said “gun” that was all the excuse they needed to open fire. What if that was a white couple with a gun in the car,nearly everyone has a gun on person or in the car these days. What if they have a permit or concealed carry permit. Do you fucking think the cops would have fired 62 rounds into that car and killed the white couple, well do you?. If one of the thug cops did holler gun, no one can ever say anything to contradict them. Cops know if only one side is left alive, no one can say otherwise. Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. That is every cops motto, as they know they are above the laws for mere mortal humans. Linda Brown Chickenshit Bullies This B.S. Has to stop. I belive all you say as I have been targeted in Canada. First Nations People,drunk & drive teens and pot smokers are all targets where I live. Every skin color fair game on last two. For sure these Peace Officers should be heald accountable face an open hearing ( open to public ) ” a fair trial ” and then deal with courts decision. I’m not sure if this happened to my friends it would not end in graveyard. These murders must face charges and hopefully Murder One. USN Veteran BT, I respect your opinion however do not fully agree with you. I do know a few LEO’s. Good stock. Adult Scout Leaders. And there was an Officer from my childhood past, whom mentored me. However, I can not defend other LEO’s actions. I firmly believe that an armed society is a polite society. ARIZONA STATE CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION — Article 2, Section 26. “The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself or the State shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain, or employ an armed body of men.” Arizona respects the right of all U.S. citizens to carry a concealed handgun with or without a permit, or to carry openly while in this state. An Arizona resident permit can be obtained for the purposes of carrying concealed while in other states that offer recognition or reciprocity. Castle Doctrine Enacted Right to Carry Confidentiality Provisions Enacted Right to Carry in Restaurants Legal Right to Carry Laws No Permit Required Right To Carry Reciprocity and Recognition Outright Recognition Right to Keep & Bear Arms State Constitutional Provisions With Provisions As such, Arizona has fewer crimes per capita committed with a firearm as does California. How does extrapolate these facts? Perhaps as Arizonians have come to accept firearms as a know factor in their daily lives, whereas Californians do not. Perhaps California’s draconian laws encroach upon human mental health? Whereby inhibiting residents of the State of California to live in fear rather than confidence? I for one shall leave this contemptuous State, seeking solitude of which only a truly free society can bring. I shall make Arizona my final resting place. (I expect in this forum environment, there may be egregious comments to the “final resting place”). ? I respect all of my fellow American Citizens and their Constitutional RIGHT to express their opinions, as protected by the United States Constitutional First Amendment. USN Veteran Margie Campbell-Threadgill Maybe I missed something in the article, but does it state that the cops fired 62 rounds in the car? If so, I missed it. Fed1718 XXX Department of justice has statistics on police killings and being white doesn’t make you immune, in fact MORE whites were killed by police than blacks in the last 20 years. Doesn’t excuse this horrible murder of an innocent couple but please don’t fall prey to deluded thinking that being white makes a difference. Look for yourself. How is anyone white or black ever supposed to trust a police officer these days? Blue Thugs Fuck you dude. My dad is a good cop and i judge his actions too. You are biased. I’m not and leave ppl alone, they never bother with flat tires so fuck off. Chris Cochran Every single one of these cops needs to be charged with Murder, and the police need to pay to make those kids end up having a good life since they will never have their parents to give them one Gary Harryman Yes every cop at that scene is guilty of the same crime. Since they acted as a gang, they should stand trial as a gang and all be charged with the same crime – murder. Terri Spanjer I wish people would stop and think for a minute about how the government is ALLOWING police to murder citizens and that over the last 2 years these incidents are occurring a hundred times a year. It’s all part of the Big Plan to remove ALL YOUR RIGHTS and TERRIFY YOU. … PS : Yes, 9/11 was an inside job. Think. American cops have been given free rein to do whatever they want — The government ENCOURAGES police brutality. Lucas Vegen I dont understand, maybe im to young, maybe the UK is completely different. Black lives are being slaughtered even in their sleep and we sit and watch idol. I learned at a young age. The Country will only change when its forced to, black people need to stand up, we are not shooting practice and we will raid stores, court rooms and banks in the 100’s or 1000’s if Money and Property is all they care about. More may die, but we all die eventually and will die sooner if we watch idol. This is the world you want to live and raise your kids in? Really!? This is not hate talk, but Black lives matter marches and speeches should be the calm before the storm… If they continue to kill us and our Children in our sleep. I dont think talking should be our last effort. How many more will die It won’t. They’re killing everyone now. Desiree M. Mondesir INSANE. I KNOW all cops are not like this but the ones who are…God help them. Or rather, God help the people they senselessly murder and their remaining loved ones. How on earth does a sleeping couple threaten you, causing you to “fear for [your] life”?!?! B Alan Eisen I fell asleep in my truck on a very cold night in front of my house. A police officer wanted to arrest me for sleeping in it, but the night was so cold, he got numb hands and left. Ross Thompson Laurie Choate this of course will be swept under the rug as quickly as possible.. they messed up bad on this one.. i would love to see the dash cams vids. but im sure that too is now gone.. very sad that we can no longer trust any person in uniform. how does one “de-escalate” a situation where the occupants of the car are asleep? David Lynn Courtney freaking terrible and shameful roomtempIQ The entire legal system is skewed, in favor of those who have money. No doubt black folks are unfairly targeted/abused/killed by cops, but us poor white folks get cop abuse as well, but us poor whites don’t seem to be killed by cops as often as black folks. That being said, I recently moved to a very rural county and the Sherriff’s Deputies here are stand-up good guys. They are not cowards or bullies. That is one reason I moved here. B Alan Eisen I wouldn’t compare rural life with inner city life at all. Rural people respect each other. They help each other. The police are neighbors. You can explain inner city hell to yourself. Ян Кариси In 2015 the police in USA murdered 303 Black people and 578 White people. Total killed of all was 1140. So far in 2016 the police in USA murdered 33 black people and 81 White people. Total killed so far as of February 27 is 166. But, more whites than blacks you say..??? Simple, Only Black Lives Matter to the main stream media. Their mission is to promote an agenda to put us common folk against one another. Also, imagine if us whites acted like blacks when we have one of our own killed by police? When are whites going to loot and riot? Thomas Headen III You Riot when your sports teams lose, or win, for that matter. Percentages sir, say that black men are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than white men. I think if the percentage were reversed, you would be alarmed as well. God bless. Michael McMaster To put it in perspective, if police were shooting people in a colourblind fashion then you’d expect that for every 100 people shot, 12-13 of them would be black, and 68 would be white. Or to put it another way: Left handed people are about 10% of the population. If it turned out that year after year they were 30% of the people killed by police, it would be fair to ask why they were being singled out disproportionally. Anna Black Whites Loot and Riot during sports. The real question is where is the All lives matter when this happens? Daniel robins one yahoo.com Woops, they did it again. Todd Schacherl So now sleeping while black is a capital offense? “If only they had cooperated while sleeping, they wouldn’t have been shot.” Is that what we are to believe? Deloren Tucker wtf… John and Linda Robel The Blue Code of Silence is well established and routinely used. Tim Egan wrote “Breaking Blue” a book that documents the historical corruption of these “Big Brave Heroes”. Orwell was right, ” BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING” and THE PIGS ARE RUNNING THE FARM”. Line these POS up for the FIRNG SQUAD and make their families watch.. John and Linda Robel KEEP VOTING FOR DEMOCRATS ALL YOU STUPID SONS OF BITCHES AND KALIFORNIACATORS. I’M SURE GOV MOONBEAM FEELS YOUR PAIN. “must have broke the law”“blue lives matter” -every cop apologist dickhead on the internet What’s wrong with the cops, they couldn’t wake them up it’s a shame Nancy Keys They had me confused when they said the woman’s twin sister name Kisha??? Blue Thugs Everyone in America needs to watch the documentry/movie called ” Peace Officers”. I bet a thousand to a cop’s doughnut there was no gun even in the car. If so it was planted after killing them probably. Stayce Wow, I didn’t know things were this bad . It just seems that being black is so wrong anymore. Why do these things keep happening? I just ask that all cops and law enforcement be mindful of what they are doing and double check their situation before over reacting. Now kids are without parents, this is ridiculous. Bless the babies and their parents. Lincoln Kirby Huh I always thought the conscious scared the police more, i.e. Us. Oh wait they can’t tell who’s conscious and who isn’t. Why was I born with less rights than my parents, and my younger family member born with less freedoms than I was born with? The fuck happened. Did we stop thinking. Δανιήλ Ντάνιελ FUCK THESE KIND OF MOTHER FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT POLICE WHO ARE JUST BULLYS WITH A BADGE AND A GUN HOPE THEY ALL DIE HORRIBLE PAINFULL DEATHS PIECES OF SHIT!!!! BROKE A WHOLE FUCKING FAMILY FOR WHAT? PUSSY BITCH ASS TRIGGER HAPPY PUSSY ASS PIGS SMFH! Deloren Tucker When r we going to start fighting back Deloren Tucker police are only human like us Anthony Georgeson This has to stop, this is insane 7 orphans. Unarmed people killed by those who are supposed to serve and protect, crazed gunmen killing indiscriminately. This isn’t the wild west, this is a war zone. I know guns can be a tool as much as a wepon. A knife, a stick , a rock, a fist, can be a deadly wepon. How do we fix this start making every stich of clothing out of Kevlar. Replace fluoride with Prozac. Can we learn anything from places that don’t have a problem like Iceland. It has to stop. The Officers involved should have been interviewed by civilians before the went to Police Academy, maybe they weren’t good with serve and protect. Show me the video! DKSMan WTF this article is full of major inaccuracies. They weren’t parked on the side of the road. They were in the middle of a major street right in front of an intersection. They didn’t pull over and go to sleep. All you have to do is loom at the crime scene photos and see this article is full of false information. They had a gun on them as well. Catherine Durnford-Wang So? For that they deserve to be shot? And they had a gun? So what, again? Aren’t guns allowed under the second amendment? Zatanique How does a sleeping couple put anybody into a state of fear for their lives? I smell a cover up of monumental proportions by the cops involved. I can’t believe that they could possibly find a plausible reason to justify opening fire on these two people. Not only do I want to see a Special Grand Jury called to deal with these cops, police department and city. I want to see a wrongful death suit brought against them, the police department and the city. Because of these cops 7 children are without their parents. No amount of money is going to make that better or make up for what they did. On what planet could you possibly justify what happened? SMH for real I cannot even grasp this! If they were not conscious why didn’t they try to make sure they were not suffering from Co2 poisoning. Oh no lets just shoot them and make up any story we like. Huh???? David Sbraga If you only had the courage to say that to someone face, and not while 6th were hiding behind a Kevlar and screen. I’d pray for you, but I don’t believe in prayer, and I don’t believe it would do you any good. Mark Nasia parents on a date, were asleep in their car? does this headline make sense, I mean, two people shot while sleeping in their car makes more sense, that date would have happened before they decided to sleep, where are the editors these days Jevez Robinson Paul Myers Surely the same laws should be used and Policemen and the hiring officials as is used against gangs and organised crime. Lets face it the police force is the biggest organisation of organised criminals in the world!!! Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Progressives must compete and vie for every civil service job. Once on, rise in rank and change The system. Genevieve Friday King Two exhausted parents falling asleep in a car in and of itself, not news. Hell, I’ve been at work and college and found parents zonked out from exhaustion from parenting…..but to be executed like this???? uh, were the cops afraid the parents would wake up and ground them for a week? or a stern talking to? Johndca Marible These cops need to stop it. So we’re suppose to believe that this woman and this man with 7 children between them are in a car that late at night just waiting to threaten cops with a gun. We’re REALLY suppose to believe that story? I don’t understand how cops can be so afraid when they have a license to carry a gun, training on top of that, a partner, and access to call for backup. I just don’t get it. If you’re that afraid of a Black person on sight, then you don’t need to be a police officer. You need to seek help. Last time I checked, it was Black people getting killed by the police and not the other way around. Yeah, the cops have a handful of tragedies but it cannot compare to the numbers when you talk about deaths of Blacks by police. Not by a longshot. I’m getting really tired of this and the whole USA needs to revamp its law enforcement system. You can give guns to cops who are suppose to protect and serve but where is the protection for the rest of us? Jeff Putterman

By Ann Deslandes / thevocal.com.au The feminist and feminist-adjacent internet had a mild implosion in February in response to an article by Canadian organiser, writer, and college professor Nora Samaran (a pseudonym). Titled ‘The opposite of rape culture is nurturance culture’ , Samaran proposes that the solution to rape culture and other manifestations of gendered abuse lies in the inverse of violence, which she says is nurturance – that is,a deep capacity to create safety and trust that many men are not permitted to develop in patriarchal culture. Patriarchal masculinity, as Samaran observes, teaches men that healthy attachment needs, such as attunement, comfort and responsiveness, or emotional availability are weak and wrong. As such, men become “less able to experience women as whole beings”, and are “less able to make sense of their own needs”. So, as Samaran argues, if men can work together to connect with their capacity to nurture and teach each other the skills and qualities of “healthy attachment”, violence against women and non-binary folks might be turned around to its opposite: nurturance. As a proposed antidote to rape culture (most recently, most painfully highlighted by the now-viral letter written by the victim of barely-convicted rapist Brock Allen Turner), Nurturance Culture (short title) has been welcomed, argued over, and extended in multiple corners of the social web (and wept over by the MRA ones, natch). 300,000 people from almost every country in the world read the piece in the first week it was posted, and it has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese with more languages likely to come. This is particularly remarkable because Nurturance Culture is not your typical punchy, between-the-eyes manifesto that is easily parsed through social media channels – it’s long; it draws from fields as diverse as neuroscience, psychology, racial justice, cultural theory, and science fiction; and it is concerned with no less than the deep, structural transformation of heteropatriarchal gendered culture. When I interviewed Samaran via Skype last month, she suggested that the length and depth of the piece might actually be the reason it had such an impact. In her words, “the piece seems to have resonated so deeply because it combines current knowledge about the brain and nervous system with an analysis of power”. And, she observes, this kind of thinking is becoming quietly more common. “It seems to me that for those who are paying attention, we are shifting away from cultures of dominance. While on the surface we live in very violent times and so much seems so hopeless, underneath there is a kind of tapping into a vast and deep reservoir of purpose and hope. When you begin to pay attention, you feel and see it emerging on many different fronts seemingly simultaneously. Even in very traditional places this change is happening; we see it in climate scientists beginning to legitimise considering feelings as important sources of information , or the field of medicine beginning to grapple with the possibility of a shared consciousness , it’s happening in so many very significant places seemingly independently, such as Black Lives Matter , Indigenous resurgence happening across Turtle Island , the radical mental health movement in work such as The Icarus Project … so much is arising against different forms of dominance simultaneously and it feels like rigid masculinity is one of those forms and is connected to all the others.” As Nurturance Culture gained traction, Samaran began inviting people to submit their own descriptions of what the “nurturance” she is proposing looks like, which resulted in dozens of stories of husbands, boyfriends, lovers, friends, brothers, and fathers showing the kind of dependable love and intimate care that is indeed the opposite of hurting, hitting, bashing and raping. This included responses from men keen to share their understanding of the skills of nurturance, such as this one: “For at least a little while, especially when someone you are with is in need of nurture, let go of your own needs and desires. What does that mean? It means stop thinking about anything related to yourself: how you feel, what you need, what you think is best. Just listen and listen very closely. Try to imagine what it must be like to be this other person: absorb everything you know about their history and experiences and try to embody these. Listen to what they are saying, and repeat it back to them in order to clarify whether or not you’ve actually absorbed the essential meaning of what they are communicating to you.” Responses like this reflects one of Samaran’s intentions for the piece – in her words, “for men to teach one another what they are currently learning individually from women about how to be nurturing”. Samaran notes there were unforeseen responses too, such as those who “interpreted the piece to mean that men should love and nurture and bond with one another ” . On the one hand, “men connecting more with other men in a way that skips nurturing women entirely is not really my goal…. I’ve even seen all-male panels on masculine nurturance culture!” she laughs. Still, she adds, “I think this piece cracked open an existing profound desire among men to be able to get closer to one another. And that is beautiful – men want to love each other, to nurture each other, and they don’t feel allowed. That’s one of the big things I hear is being discussed when this piece is used in workshops and discussion groups and conference panels. I just hope they do it in ways that grow their love and capacity to be nurturing to the women and non-binary folks in their lives – not just to strengthen masculine bonds.” Moreover, the answer to the question ‘Nurturance is….’ must amount to something more than just ‘not raping or assaulting’, Samaran adds. “I’m saying that “nurturance is about learning how to make someone feel safe. I’m saying that it is totally ok to be honest and speak without shame of what we do and don’t know, but social scripts about masculinity put a lot of pressure on men to never admit when they don’t know something. It’s completely ok to say ‘hey I don’t know how to be a safe man, a safe male presence in women’s lives’– because that is about a lot more than just not raping, it is about creating safe connection and spaces in which women and non-binary folks can heal from the massive gendered violence we experience. And, it is about recognising that men need to do this work and teach it to each other because we are already so exhausted from doing it.” According to Samaran, another critical aspect of Nurturance Culture that people have responded to is its discussion of shame: “On the surface, the shame over not being able to provide what someone needs is massive, and apparently that’s a big thing for men. However, underneath, there is a complex operation of shame going on in masculinity. If you have shamed yourself for having perfectly normal needs, you may not realise that you are doing so, and instead may perceive those same needs as shameful when they appear in other people. You may then actively shame people when they express those same normal needs you have internalised as shameful for yourself. So let’s say you learned very early on that needing to be held tenderly and gazed upon lovingly is shameful. You put it away, and can’t access it or even remember it. When someone you are lovers with has that very normal and healthy need, instead of comforting her appropriately, you may treat her as shameful and confusing, or become angry and withdrawn, and then blame her for this tension by calling her ‘needy’ or ‘unreasonable’– when really it is your own denied need that you are seeing. If you can recognise nurturance needs as completely normal and healthy, you can get your own denied needs met, and also respond in a good way to the needs of a lover, partner, or close friend. Ironically, guilt and shame can be paralysing and can prevent emotional maturity from emerging. We really do need to understand how to work to reduce shame and guilt and increase our culture’s ability to let people be vulnerable. I’m interested in how we create a culture that is safe enough that vulnerability and being completely accepted as our whole selves is taken as a matter of course, as a strength, as a normal part of daily life, not just in our families but in our society across the board. That is how we will move away from shame and guilt and towards accountability and love.” Considering Australia’s current crisis of violence against women, I asked Samaran about the role of public, government-sponsored campaigns like ‘The Line’ aimed at raising awareness amongst young people about consent and the impact of intimate partner violence, and the rollout of relationships education in schools where students learn about respectful relationships. Can measures like this complement or help build a nurturance culture? “Sure”, she replied. “Mainstream media and the education system are both central in raising young people so these programs are helpful. Still, programs like the ones you describe are not enough – they’re not a replacement for the daily, intimate work of building a culture that does the opposite of harm. Programs like this are resources, but let’s not overlook where the learning really comes from – it is deep cultural change we need, and schools can be slow to change.” In this vein, Samaran also encourages readers to consider characters and plots that demonstrate nurturance in popular culture and in existing social movements primarily led by Black and Indigenous people of colour who are creating the world we want to see: “when thinking about huge social problems like men’s violence, it’s so important to think about what the world we want could look like, and where it already looks more like what we want.” Ann Deslandes is a freelance writer and researcher. Tweet her at @Ann_dLandes and read her other writing at xterrafirma.net . 0.0 ·

Donald J. Trump is picking up the pace with his cabinet and top White House staff choices, and despite the fervent wishes of some Democrats that views expressed during the campaign would be moderated after the election, the new administration’s team is maintaining a decidedly conservative bent. Up next, secretary of defense? James N. Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, will meet the at Mr. Trump’s New Jersey country club on Saturday to discuss the post of defense secretary, according to two people close to the transition team. Conservatives this spring had wooed General Mattis to run for president as an independent as they sought an alternative to Mr. Trump. While he was receptive to the idea, he ultimately decided against running. “The thoughtfulness and patriotism — and for that matter, the modesty — Jim showed as he reflected on this decision make me more convinced than ever that he would have made a truly admirable president, and also a good candidate,” William Kristol, the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, wrote at the time. General Mattis, 66, is widely respected in the military community and could bring with him a staff of civilian experts. He was the head of the United States Central Command, which oversees all military operations in the Middle East, from 2010 to 2013 but crossed swords with President Obama over his push for a more aggressive presence in the Persian Gulf. Under federal law, a former military official must be out of uniform for seven years to become defense secretary. General Mattis retired three years ago, and Congress would have to grant him a waiver. But General Mattis is not the only candidate. Senator Tom Cotton, the hawkish military veteran from Arkansas, was in Trump Tower on Friday and is still in the hunt. Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s newly appointed chief strategist, has maintained a low profile since the election, but in an interview in The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, he pushed back against accusations that intended to divide the country along racial lines, even as he embraced his dark image. On the one hand, he said: “I’m not a white nationalist, I’m a nationalist. I’m an economic nationalist. ” On the other hand, Michael Wolff wrote: Mr. Trump’s association with Mr. Bannon has been widely criticized because of racist conspiracy theories promoted on Breitbart. com, the news website that Mr. Bannon was managing before joining Mr. Trump’s campaign. Mr. Bannon said in the interview that he expected Mr. Trump’s presidency would unsettle Republicans and Democrats alike with his aggressive and unconventional plans for rebuilding the country. “I’m the guy pushing a infrastructure plan,” Mr. Bannon said. “With negative interest rates throughout the world, it’s the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything. ” Predicting a change that will outshine the Reagan revolution, he added: “Ship yards, iron works, get them all jacked up. We’re just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. ” He didn’t get attorney general. He’s still in the running for secretary of state, though the Trump team has let it be known that the former Trump nemesis Mitt Romney will be meeting with the to discuss that job. So where is Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and stalwart Trump loyalist? Spotted in Palm Beach, where he says he needs some rest. But don’t count him out. When asked whether Mr. Giuliani was a favorite to become secretary of state, Representative Devin Nunes of California, a member of the transition team’s executive committee, said he did not want to speculate. But Mr. Nunes lavished praised on Mr. Giuliani. “He would absolutely be a great secretary of state — he’s America’s mayor, is widely respected around the world and is a fine example of the type of person we want representing us abroad,” Mr. Nunes said. Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, won a Senate seat last week — and with it, one of the worst jobs in American politics: leader of the committee tasked with protecting incumbent colleagues and maybe winning a seat or two in 2018. Senator Chuck Schumer, the incoming minority leader, announced on Friday that Mr. Van Hollen would serve as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the 2018 cycle. “Chris Van Hollen was our first choice for D. S. C. C. chairman because of his talents, his work ethic and his experience,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “The map is tough for Democrats, but I have no doubt that Van Hollen is up to the task. ” Tough indeed: Democrats gained a mere two Senate seats on Election Day — New Hampshire and Illinois — and will be defending a daunting 23 seats in 2018, as well as two held by independents who caucus with them — Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont — and roughly half of those states were won by Trump. In contrast, Democrats have one real target, Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, and maybe two with Jeff Flake of Arizona if things go south for the new president. (Of note, Mr. Van Hollen knows the highs and lows of the job, having led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for his party’s 2008 wave, then getting washed out in the 2010 Republican deluge.) For anyone hoping for tempers to cool and partisans to moderate, welcome to the rest of 2016. The choice of Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama to be attorney general and Representative Mike Pompeo of Kansas to be director of central intelligence — as well as Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn to be national security adviser — appear to have put to rest talk of a period after Election Day. Conservative groups are ecstatic. The Trump transition team hailed Mr. Sessions as a champion of civil rights. “Senator Sessions is someone who’s universally respected across party lines in the United States Senate,” said Jason Miller, a Trump transition spokesman. The other side? Representative Luis V. Gutiérrez, Democrat of Illinois, said in a statement: “If you have nostalgia for the days when blacks kept quiet, gays were in the closet, immigrants were invisible and women stayed in the kitchen, Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is your man. No senator has fought harder against the hopes and aspirations of Latinos, immigrants and people of color than Senator Sessions. ” Some Democrats kept their immediate challenges minimal for Mr. Pompeo. “As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Pompeo has a firsthand appreciation for Congress’ responsibility to provide vigilant oversight of our nation’s intelligence activities, and I look forward to learning more about his views,” said Senator Mark R. Warner of Virginia, the incoming Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman. On the other hand, Jon Soltz, chairman of the liberal veterans group VoteVets. org, greeted the selection of Mr. Pompeo by saying, “This administration is turning out to be as scary, bigoted and abnormal as most people feared. ” As for General Flynn? “Michael Flynn has shown a stunning contempt for the Geneva Conventions and other laws prohibiting torture,” said Sarah Margon, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “By offering this key post to Flynn, Trump is undermining U. S. commitments to international laws that have been broken to America’s detriment. ” Vice Mike Pence told the news media on Friday that teams of transition staff members who will be working directly with federal agencies had arrived in Washington. “The is a man of action, and we’ve got a great number of men and women with great qualifications looking forward to serving in this administration, and I am just humbled to be a part of it,” Mr. Pence said. He added, “I am very confident it will be a smooth transition that will serve to lead this country forward and make America great again. ” Mr. Pence walked away as a reporter asked whether the was racist. Mr. Pompeo, the ’s pick to direct the C. I. A. may also be a way for Mr. Trump to warm relations with the Koch Industries directors Charles G. and David H. Koch. Mr. Pompeo was first elected to Congress with a large amount of financial support and a prominent public endorsement from the Koch brothers, and the Kansas congressman has remained closely aligned with them since. Individuals associated with Koch Industries are by far the biggest donors to Mr. Pompeo’s political career, contributing $357, 000 to him since 2009. The Koch brothers — among the biggest players in financing Republican candidates nationwide — remained largely on the sidelines in this year’s presidential race. Mr. Pompeo has been a staunch proponent of bringing newly captured terrorism suspects to the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for interrogation and detention, as President Obama has refused to do. At a 2013 congressional hearing, Mr. Pompeo called the prison operation in Cuba lawful and humane, and dismissed a hunger strike among the detainees at the time as a “political stunt. ” “We are still engaged in a counterterrorism battle all around the globe that continue to need to have a secure location in which to detain captured enemy combatants remains,” Mr. Pompeo said. Mr. Pompeo has also been a defender of broad government surveillance programs and an opponent of limits the Obama administration imposed after the leaks of the former intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden. Those included the U. S. A. Freedom Act, which ended the National Security Agency’s program that collected Americans’ domestic calling records in bulk and replaced it with a system in which the government has to get a court order to obtain specific records from phone companies. In an he in January, Mr. Pompeo called for rolling back such reforms. Mr. Pompeo was a prominent member of the special House committee that investigated the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Although the panel found no new evidence of wrongdoing by the Obama administration or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Mr. Pompeo and another conservative member of the committee, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, were convinced of a wider . When the committee released its findings in June, the two Republicans filed their own addendum that was far harsher. The addendum said that the attacks showed that the State Department was “seemingly more concerned with politics and Secretary Clinton’s legacy than with protecting its people in Benghazi. ” “With the presidential election just 56 days away, rather than tell the American people the truth and increase the risk of losing an election, the administration told one story privately and a different story publicly,” they concluded. Trey Gowdy, the committee’s chairman and no shrinking violet when it came to Mrs. Clinton, did not put his name on the addendum. The made quite a boast on Twitter on Thursday. Followed by: The only wrinkle: Ford was never planning to move the plant. During the campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly criticized Ford for moving production to Mexico, and he threatened to impose a 35 percent tariff on vehicles made there. Ford makes the Lincoln MKC, a sport utility vehicle, at a factory in Louisville. Last week, Ford said it planned to move production of the vehicle elsewhere. But Ford had not planned to close the Louisville factory. Instead, it had planned to expand production of another vehicle made in Louisville, the Ford Escape. And the change had not been expected to result in any job losses. “Whatever happens in Louisville, it will not lose employment,” Jimmy Settles, a union official, told The Detroit Free Press. “They cannot make enough Escapes. ”

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — From rooftop bars and rope lines to gridlocked streets and sidewalks, Ocean Drive, the neon heartbeat of South Beach, can trample the senses on most weekends. Tourists sip Technicolor cocktails from glasses. music throbs into the night as people amble along in the glow of lights. A weed dealer in the shadows peddles “Purple Haze” for $25 as a older man chases women with a Burmese python draped around his neck. Police officers are everywhere, scanning the action. “It has just gotten to the point where the place has become a circus, where public safety is no longer ensured,” said Mitch Novick, who owns the Sherbrooke Hotel around the corner on Collins Avenue and has been in the area since 1988, when the cafes here could be counted on one hand. “I’m witnessing the blighting of my neighborhood, which was once paradise. ” After years of complaints from residents and a steady stream of online criticism from tourists, the City of Miami Beach moved recently to try to tame the epicenter of the mayhem on Ocean Drive, the former gleaming gem of the area’s Art Deco 1990s revival. It was the latest test for a city that has long grappled with how to balance the desires of raucous partygoers with the demands of more sedate visiting families and residents, many of them wealthy. For Ricky Arriola, a Miami Beach commissioner who is spearheading the crackdown on clutter, noise and crime, the bacchanal along Ocean Drive lurched long ago toward becoming Bourbon Street. A modicum of sobriety was called for, he said. Two murders this year, including the October shooting death of Lavon Walker, a Brooklyn activist, brought renewed attention to crime in the area. And the drip of negative Trip Advisor and Yelp reviews describing Ocean Drive as “tacky,” “seedy,” “rough,” “overpriced” and teeming with homeless people has not helped. Mr. Arriola, elected commissioner last year, was unsparing in his assessment, saying many cafes are competing in a “race to the bottom” and trying to “prey on tourists” with schemes and other scams. Sidewalks are so cluttered with tables and mammoth umbrellas that “it’s unattractive, unsafe and a breeding ground for crime,” he said. Each business has dueling, soundtracks blasting from “speakers mounted outside, just pumping noise in the street,” he added. And traffic is often at a standstill. The City Commission is gradually tackling these problems, issue by issue. Noise is being curtailed — now only restaurants and bars, not shops, can blast music outdoors — and there are plans to beautify the street. Smaller umbrellas that don’t completely block the Art Deco architecture have been rolled out, and fewer tables crowd the sidewalks. Restaurants will face much steeper fines on aggressive solicitation. Cafes bent on scamming are being closely monitored, and city officials hope to institute a cap on the number of downscale chains on the strip. Jessica Robinson, who sat outside Mango’s Tropical Café, where women in feathers performed in a Latin cabaret show atop a small stage, said she lived a few blocks away and usually avoided Ocean Drive. She came on a recent weekend with her Brazilian father, who was in town. “I don’t like it. It’s crowded it’s overrated,” Ms. Robinson said, gesturing toward the surge of people jostling past a thicket of umbrellas and tables. “My father just saw someone trying to pickpocket a bag. ” Upset for years now, Mr. Novick started posting clips of the crassness on his YouTube channel, I Love Miami Beach, and Facebook page, South Beach Sludge Report. “International tourists who used to come here in droves avoid this place like the plague,” Mr. Novick said, adding that people who stay in Ocean Drive hotels complain incessantly about noise. “Noise is what fuels all of the riffraff. They need to take the party off the street. ” Mayor Philip Levine says he has heard it all before. Last year, he tried to move last call to 2 a. m. from 5 a. m. which panicked owners of restaurants and businesses on the strip. A compromise emerged: The city steered more money to the Miami Beach Police Department, which added 12 police officers to the area. The officers sit under towering lights that span the most problematic three blocks of Ocean Drive, from Eighth Street to 11th Street, making them hard to miss. A strategy to help the homeless in the area is also now in place. The police chief, Daniel J. Oates, said that crime in the area had dropped but that a couple of highly visible murders made the problem seem worse than it was. “Many times these days, if someone is committing a street crime, we are catching the person in the act 50 percent of the robberies, we caught the guy immediately,” he said. “That’s phenomenal, to catch them in the act before they leave the scene. ” Ocean Drive is usually at one end or the other of a cycle. For decades up until the late 1980s, it became a favored spot for retirees and those on fixed incomes they gossiped as they sat on plastic chairs on the hotels’ front porches and looked at the ocean. Then the hotels fell into disrepair. After the 1980 Mariel boatlift — an exodus of 125, 000 Cubans to Florida — many of the criminals whom Fidel Castro had released from prison and sent to Miami flocked to the neighborhood, and crime spiked. In the late 1980s, after preservationists saved a number of buildings from demolition and fought to create a preservation district, the neighborhood made a flashy comeback that attracted celebrities. Gloria Estefan invested in a hotel on Ocean Drive and a restaurant. Gianni Versace moved into his mansion at 1116 Ocean Drive (and was gunned down on its steps in 1997 by a serial killer). Television shows like “Miami Vice” couldn’t resist the natural light, the beach, the sky and the architecture. models flocked here. Carefree from the start, the scene was louche, and its seedy nature was seen as a key ingredient of its cool charm. Beyond the party scene, some restaurants and hotels, like the Betsy, cater to a more upscale crowd. “People are making money, and people are coming here,” said Mike Palma, the executive vice president of Brio Investment Group, which oversees the always crowded Clevelander Hotel. “People just experience more negative things on Ocean Drive than in the past. ” Mr. Novick said he feared the city’s plan of action was a “fundamentally flawed” parade of that would ultimately fail. In his view, the chaos is a byproduct of too much binge drinking in the wee hours, which is why he believes last call should be moved to 2 a. m. “Nothing good happens on Miami Beach after 2 a. m.,” he said. “In recent months, it’s been shootings, fights, brutal attacks and armed robberies. ” Not everyone is concerned. At the Clevelander, which features dancers on its roof and music, Tiffany Chalothorn, 26, an actress from New York, sipped tequila with two friends. She had no complaints, she said: The weather was balmy, music by Pitbull was beckoning on the dance floor, and the scene seemed far from threatening. “Are you kidding?” she said. “New York is so much crazier than this. ”

The medical community at large is a gasp as several holistic doctors were found dead after apparently committing “suicide” over the last year. The fatalities have seemingly occurred after a breakthrough cancer treatment was just announced. Via AlternativeNews What is This New Treatment? The newly developed cancer treatment involves the human protein GcMAF (Globulin component Macrophage Activating Factor). GcMAF works by activating macrophages that are already present within the human body. These macrophages can fight against and destroy cancerous cells. GcMAF is produced naturally inside the body however some people cannot make enough levels of this vital human protein to ward off disease and infection. The idea is that by administering this protein to people, the immune system can be strengthened to fight cancer and reducing the need for more intense, invasive procedures such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy. These forms of therapy can often lead to more cancer and deteriorate the human body. What the GcMAF Website Says: Your GcMAF empowers your body to cure itself. In a healthy person your own GcMAF has 11 actions discovered so far, including two on cells, three excellent effects on the brain, and 6 on cancer. Amongst these it acts as a ‘director’ of your immune system. Time lapse photography over 60 hours shows the cancer monolayer … first changing from corrugated to smooth … as the cancer is destroyed. [T]hen the cancer ‘fingers’ are also eaten and destroyed by the macrophages. This news is welcomed by everyone. Well, everyone but the mutli-billion dollar cancer industry. The significance of GcMAF’s power could put a major industry out of business – and that’s the exact reason why the deaths of several holistic doctors has alarmed many. In just one instance, Florida doctor Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, M.D., who focused heavily on researching GcMAF, was found dead in a river last year. Despite the fact that Bradstreet had a gunshot wound to his chest, his sudden death was ruled a suicide right away. This “suicide” – which was later discovered to be a murder – is just out of about seven mysterious deaths that happened in the same time period – all of them holistic doctors who were focused on the potential of GcMAF to treat and cure cancer. In just the last year, SIXTY deaths have been reported in the holistic community as more natural, less conventional routes to medicine are explored upon. Although it’s not known yet whether there is a correlation or not between these deaths, one thing’s for certain in that it seems Big Pharma has a lot to lose by the research of these doctors who were taken too soon. This amazing video shows GcMAF killing cancer cells:

The Failure of US Democracy How The Oligarchs Plan To Steal The Election I am now convinced that the Oligarchy that rules America intends to steal the presidential election. In the past, the oligarchs have not cared which candidate won as the oligarchs owned both. But they do not own Trump. Most likely you are unaware of what Trump is telling people as the media does not report it. A person who speaks like this: - is not endeared to the oligarchs. Who are the oligarchs? — Wall Street and the mega-banks too big to fail and their agent the Federal Reserve, a federal agency that put 5 banks ahead of millions of troubled American homeowners who the federal reserve allowed to be flushed down the toilet. In order to save the mega-banks’ balance sheets from their irresponsible behavior, the Fed has denied retirees any interest income on their savings for eight years, forcing the elderly to draw down their savings, leaving their heirs, who have been displaced from employment by corporate jobs offshoring, penniless. — The military/security complex which has spent trillions of our taxpayer dollars on 15 years of gratuitous wars based entirely on lies in order to enrich themselves and their power. — The neoconservartives whose crazed ideology of US world hegemony thrusts the American people into military conflict with Russia and China. — The US global corporations that sent American jobs to China and India and elsewhere in order to enrich the One Percent with higher profits from lower labor costs. — Agribusiness (Monsanto et.al.), corporations that poison the soil, the water, the oceans, and our food with their GMOs, hebicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, while killing the bees that pollinate the crops. — The extractive industries—energy, mining, fracking, and timber—that maximize their profits by destroying the environment and the water supply. — The Israel Lobby that controls US Middle East policy and is committing genocide against the Palestinians just as the US committed genocide against native Americans. Israel is using the US to eliminate sovereign countries that stand in Israell’s way. What convinces me that the Oligarchy intends to steal the election is the vast difference between the presstitutes’ reporting and the facts on the ground. According to the presstitutes, Hillary is so far ahead that there is no point in Trump supporters bothering to vote. Hillary has won the election before the vote. Hillary has been declared a 93% sure winner. I am yet to see one Hillary yard sign, but Trump signs are everywhere. Reports I receive are that Hillary’s public appearances are unattended but Trumps are so heavily attended that people have to be turned away. This is a report from a woman in Florida: «Trump has pulled huge numbers all over FL while campaigning here this week. I only see Trump signs and sickers in my wide travels. I dined at a Mexican restaurant last night. Two women my age sitting behind me were talking about how they had tried to see Trump when he came to Tallahassee. They left work early, arriving at the venue at 4:00 for a 6:00 rally. The place was already over capacity so they were turned away. It turned out that there were so many people there by 2:00 that the doors had to be opened to them. The women said that the crowds present were a mix of races and ages». I know the person who gave me this report and have no doubt whatsoever as to its veracity. I also receive from readers similiar reports from around the country. This is how the theft of the election is supposed to work: The media concentrated in a few corporate hands has gone all out to convince not only Americans but also the world, that Donald Trump is such an unacceptable candidate that he has lost the election before the vote. By controllng the explanation, when the election is stolen those who challenge the stolen election are without a foundartion in the media. All media reports will say that it was a run away victory for Hillary over the misogynist immigrant-hating Trump. And liberal, progressive opinion will be relieved and off guard as Hillary takes us into nuclear war. That the Oligarchy intends to steal the election from the American people is verified by the officially reported behavior of the voting machines in early voting in Texas. The NRP presstitutes have declared that Hillary is such a favorite that even Repulbican Texas is up for grabs in the election. If this is the case, why was it necessary for the voting machines to be programmed to change Trump votes to Hillary votes? Those voters who noted that they voted Trump but were recorded Hillary complained. The election officials, claiming a glitch (which only went one way), changed to paper ballots. But who will count them? No «glitches» caused Hillary votes to go to Trump, only Trump votes to go to Hillary. The most brilliant movie of our time was The Matrix. This movie captured the life of Americans manipulated by a false reality, only in the real America there is insufficient awareness and no Neo, except possibly Donald Trump, to challenge the system. All of my life I have been trying to get Americans of all stripes—academics, scholars, journalists, Republicans, Democrats, right-wing, left-wing, US Representatives, US Senators, Presidents, corporate moguls and brainwashed Americans and foreigners—out of the false reality in which they exist. In the United States today a critical presidential eletion is in process in which not a single important issue is addressed. This is total failure. Democracy, once the hope of the world, has totally failed in the United States of America.

9 Shares 7 0 0 2 Citizens of the United States have chosen the wealthy businessman, Donald Trump, as their new President. Trump, who was considered a wild card candidate, will take control of the country in January to fill his four year term. Violent protests are raging and attacks against those who oppose Trump or fail to fit his criteria of acceptability are on the rise. Trump supporters have also been attacked. To say the very least, this is the dawning of a new age in America. To put it mildly, Trump alienated huge swaths of humanity during his campaign. Women, Mexicans, Muslims, Blacks, the media… have all taken their turns at his whipping pole. Trump’s harsh words have been used to condemn huge groups. The only people Trump hasn’t attacked are White American males. The only people Trump hasn’t attacked are White American males. Interestingly, Trump shares many traits with the man who brought Germany to its knees during WWII, Adolph Hitler. Hitler rallied Germans by directing national anger toward two primary groups, the Communists and the Jews. Trump rallied Americans by directing high doses of anger toward Mexico and Muslims. Trump’s perception of Mexican immigrants is way off the mark, as the majority of those who emigrate to the US are hard working people willing to perform roles most White Americans avoid, like field harvesting. Nonetheless, Trump has described them as rapists and criminals, tossing a blanket over every human being who finds their way to the US through illegal means. When it comes to Muslims, Mr. Trump is exceptionally ignorant. He fulfills the thoughts of those in the Middle East who already believe the US has a long range plan to eliminate Islam. Millions of Americans are having a meltdown over the election of Trump, while those who supported his bid for presidency continue to express anger and simultaneously, imitate Trump’s bully demeanor by attacking those who disagree with their point of view, particularly in social media. Insults have never been so foul and widespread. Everyone is riled, people are unsure of what to do. It seems almost certain that things are going to get a lot worse before they could ever get better. MORE... Defeating White Liberalism in the Age of Trump Brian Cloughley: “The Greatest Achievement of Mr. Trump would be Engage in Positive Discussions with Russia and China” Arise President Trump (or Why it's not the End of the World as We Know it) Trump's sexual predator characteristics - His Grandfather was a pimp, but at least he paid the women he hired On a positive note, Trump has backed off on his threat to dismantle Obamacare. One thing is certain, Donald Trump is extremely willing to toss out ideas and positions and then change his mind the following day. Unfortunately, Trump did this when initially exposing the connection between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and ISIS. It is an absolute fact that the United States was directly responsible for starting two more wars in the Middle East, in Syria and Libya. Both conflicts were deadly and destabilizing and waged at the request of Israel, as a Wikileaks cable recently confirmed. The mere idea that nations are trampled this way cements our understanding of how Obama and Clinton operate. It also speaks volumes about the dark ways that the US has been manipulated by the Zionist government of Israel, a nation that drains US taxpayers of more than $4 million a day. The track record of human rights violations in Israel goes well beyond unforgivable. The ISIS expose was a golden moment for Trump, even though he didn’t stick to his guns. The wars the US has been waging in recent years are all unjustified conflicts used to make large amounts of money for groups like Halliburton and mercenary organizations. While the US government spends trillions on killing, it has historically ignored the suffering its allies direct toward their own citizens. One great example is Saudi Arabia, the radical Wahhabi government that still beheads people in public in strict violation of international law.These problems have sullied US support for many years. The only hope for the future lies in peace and reconciliation. For Clinton, maintaining peace was a seemingly impossible task. Lest we forget it was her threats of war toward Russia and Iran that crossed the line for large numbers of Americans. Parading as a liberal, Hillary Clinton’s warmongering is legendary. The Democratic National Committee debacle that derailed the only promising candidate, Bernie Sanders, was equally reprehensible. In the end, there were no good choices for US voters. The pro-Trump crowd may not feel as victorious once they realize that Mr. Trump does not care about them in any way, shape or form. Only days after the election, it is already being announced that the tax cuts Trump promised will only be a fraction of what he claimed, it is reminiscent of former US President George Bush's famous words, "Read my lips: no new taxes". Of course each man offered the promise as an election gimmick, each time it was enough to convince Republicans. Trump is here to promote his own needs and to meet his own goals. Perhaps some of his political moves will coincide with the wishes of his voters, perhaps not. In the meanwhile tempers are flaring, and Americans are increasingly turning against each other. The real unavoidable truth is that Donald Trump will be the next US President. He says he is going to make America great again and many of us wonder exactly what that means. In the post-WWII years there was peace, unless you were Black. Americans had freedom, unless they were women or minorities. The United States has always waged illegal wars, dating back to the very beginning when one treaty with Native people after another, was broken. Is Donald Trump going to keep the US out of wars for the next four years? It would be a very good thing if he did. On one hand, it seems entirely doubtful that the country will make it through four years of Donald Trump, but giving up is not the answer. If Trump goes too far out of sync, or becomes embroiled in charges that he can't pay off or threaten away, there is an impeachment process that Americans can follow.

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians returned home to Progressive Field on Tuesday for the first time since an agonizing Game 7 defeat to the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. They raised the 2016 American League pennant and handed out rings before the focus turned back to the current season. It is a season in which the Indians may again be one of the top teams in baseball, but it is also one in which they may have to wrestle increasingly with the issue of Chief Wahoo, the smiling caricature that has long been an Indians logo but has come to be seen as offensive and wildly outdated. Among those who think it is time for the club to decisively move away from the logo is the Major League Baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred, who in continuing discussions with the team’s ownership is beginning to apply a little bit of pressure on the club to come up with a plan of action. In a statement to The New York Times, Pat Courtney, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, said Manfred, in his talks with the Indians’ owners, had made clear his “desire to transition away from the Chief Wahoo logo. ’’ “We have specific steps in an identified process and are making progress,’’ Courtney added. “We are confident that a positive resolution will be reached that will be good for the game and the club. ’’ Although Manfred had previously acknowledged a willingness to engage in talks with the Indians about the logo, Courtney’s statement appears to be the first time that Manfred is identified as having staked out a clear position on the issue. It is an issue, however, that may not be that easy to resolve. Although many people, including baseball fans around the country, would welcome the removal of Chief Wahoo, there is a significant segment of the Indians’ fan base that still cherishes the logo, which has existed in various forms since 1947. “Chief Wahoo is the Cleveland Indians,” said Karen Hale, a local Indians fan who was outside the stadium before Tuesday’s game. “I think there comes a time when you have to take a stand for what you believe in. I don’t think it’s hurting anybody. ” Philip Yenyo, the executive director of the American Indian Movement of Ohio, has been protesting at the Indians’ opening day games for years and vehemently disagrees with Hale and others with similar views. He would prefer the team eliminate the logo, and the Indians name as well, but he would be happy for the club to start with the logo. During this year’s protest, Yenyo engaged in a cordial conversation with a team employee. And Yenyo said that over the years the Indians had been very cooperative in arranging for security to protect the two dozen or so protesters who do show up outside the stadium. Still, as Yenyo spoke through a megaphone at Tuesday’s demonstration, a man barreled through the protesters and yelled at him: “It’s a caricature. Get over it. ” Bob DiBiasio, the Indians’ senior vice president for public affairs, said during Tuesday’s home opener that the club understood the passion on both sides of the issue and that in some ways the team was caught in the middle, trying to find an amicable solution. “We certainly understand the sensitivities of the logo, those who find it insensitive and also those fans who have a longstanding attachment to its place in the history of the team,” he said. DiBiasio called the continuing talks productive between Manfred and Paul Dolan, the Indians’ chairman and chief executive. With their sights set on a return to the World Series, the Indians would prefer to address Chief Wahoo after the season to avoid any distractions that could alienate a large swath of fans while games are being played. “Our primary focus right now is on the team,’’ he said. And it may be a really good team, especially with the addition of Edwin Encarnacion, the slugger who left Toronto to sign a $60 million contract with the Indians. The club has already sold 1. 3 million tickets for the 2017 season, DiBiasio said, noting that it did not reach that mark until the end of July last year. In 2016, Cleveland’s attendance was 28th out of 30 teams with 1. 59 million tickets sold, but in the wake of the Indians’ 2016 postseason run, that number is now likely to soar. Manager Terry Francona noted Tuesday that his team seemed to thrive when the stadium was full, as it was Tuesday, when the Indians prevailed in extra innings against the Chicago White Sox. And sure enough, many of the fans in attendance wore the Chief Wahoo logo on their hats and shirts. The move to do away with the logo appeared to begin when Mark Shapiro, who is now running the Blue Jays, was the Indians’ team president for baseball operations. Shapiro was the driving force behind the block C logo, which has been seen on Cleveland caps since 1902 and has recently become more prominent on various uniform and cap combinations the Indians use, as well as around the stadium. During last year’s American League Championship Series between the Blue Jays and Indians, Shapiro said that he was personally troubled by the Wahoo logo and suggested that its days were numbered. “I think there will be a day, whenever that is, that the people that are making decisions here decide that Chief Wahoo is no longer fitting,” he said then. When the Jays playoff series moved to Toronto last October, an indigenous Canadian citizen filed for an injunction to prevent Cleveland from using the Wahoo logo while in Canada. Major League Baseball joined the Indians in opposing the injunction, which was not granted. But in its statement at the time baseball said it also welcomed dialogue about the logo. That dialogue began in the weeks after the World Series and will most likely continue until a resolution is reached. At Tuesday’s game, the Chief Wahoo logo could not be seen anywhere on the stadium building or on the field, but it was on the left sleeves of the blue jerseys worn by the Indians players and on their caps. And it was on the white uniform shirts worn by the Cleveland sports legends Jim Brown, Austin Carr and Jim Thome when they went to the mound to throw out the celebratory first pitches before the game. The logo could also be found on many items in the team souvenir shop, along with stickers depicting an even harsher representation of Chief Wahoo from an earlier period. For now, at least, the logo still survives and even thrives.

« Reply #1 on: Today at 08:44:21 PM » Part 2 Mother & Child Worship https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWtZPg2RP-M Logged The answer to 1871 is 1776I am one of the people, not a fictional entity created by an incorporated state issued Birth Certificate.

It sounds like something out of a Philip K. Dick novel, replicants and all. The United Nations is planning to have all humans imprinted with biometric identification cards . Via AlternativeNews If you’re not sure what this means for you, it would basically be sci-fi meets 1984. The world government would know where you go, what you do, who you’re with, and who you are at all times, anywhere, every day and every night. It means more restrictions and less freedom. The United Nations wants everyone to have a biometric identification tag by 2030, which is part of their Global Goals agenda . The United Nations is already working hard toward the implementation of this goal – particularly among refugee populations. The UN has partnered with Accenture to implement a biometric identification system that reports information “back to a central database in Geneva”. … And these new biometric identification cards will not just be for refugees. According to a different FindBiometrics report, authorities hope this technology will enable them to achieve the UN’s goal of having this kind of identification in the hands of every man, woman and child on the planet by the year 203o. … The following comes from the official website of the World Bank… Providing legal identity for all (including birth registration) by 2030 is a target shared by the international community as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (target 16.9). The World Bank Group (WBG) has launched the Identification for Development (ID4D) cross-practice initiative, with the participation of seven GP/CCSAs sharing the same vision and strategic objectives, to help our client countries achieve this goal and with the vision of making everyone count: ensure a unique legal identity and enable digital ID-based services to all. Source: The Economic Collapse If you were wondering how the world powers would truly tighten their grasp on the liberties of its citizens, this is how it will happen. Everything you do and say will be monitored and recorded to be used to shepherd you towards obedience. The United Nations has always been a force for world dominance, and this program will be enforced the world over. This is already being done through social media, but because services like Facebook are not obligatory for all citizens, the next logical step is to force citizens to participate in this very program. Are they running behind schedule ? This was supposed to happen by 2017 in the United States: Source : (Truth & Action)

Clinton Advisor LOSES IT In Leaked Email Over Hillary’s Illegal Activity Posted on October 28, 2016 by Dawn Parabellum in Politics Share This Nothing is more satisfying than Democrats turning on each other, and that’s exactly what has happened in the Hillary Clinton camp. As if we haven’t heard enough of Hillary’s incompetence and corruption, a newly leaked email shows a top Clinton advisor absolutely losing it over Hillary’s illegal activity, and her shocking admissions don’t paint a pretty picture for the Democrat Party. Thieves and liars are commonplace, but when a person is running for President of the United States, perhaps they should conduct themselves in a manner that commands respect. Hillary Clinton has never been trustworthy in the eyes of rational Americans, and even her advisors picked up on the trouble she’s gotten herself in. The leaked emails are telling and have shown the Clinton campaign as struggling with damn near every aspect of her run for president because Americans are fed up with her lies and corruption. Hillary Clinton In newly-released emails from WikiLeaks, Neera Tanden, co-chair of Clinton’s transition team, cusses at John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman. Tanden is upset about Hillary using the private email and server system, wondering who could have approved of such a thing, which literally left Hillary’s team hoping that the Democratic Party isn’t “suicidal.” Obviously, Tanden is angry because the scandal is damning to Hillary’s political career, and they are all linked to the corrupt Democrat. Email from Tanden to Podesta complaining about Hillary’s email debacle Tanden actually said that whoever gave the OK should be “drawn and quartered,” calling the whole situation “f***ing insane” in the July 2015 message. Podesta even agreed with her assessment and that the refusal to mention it earlier was “unbelievable.” Hillary Clinton advisor, Neera Tanden “[I] guess I know the answer,” Tanden replied. “[T]hey wanted to get away with it.” Hillary Clinton has still declined to answer to any of the revelations leaked in the Podesta emails. It’s likely that there is absolutely no good way for her to handle any of this. She could claim her advisors are liars, but then we would question her judgment in selecting them. She could admit that everything is true, but that’s just coming out stating emphatically that she’s a corrupt criminal. Or, she could just ignore it and hope her lapdog media will make it go away, which seems to be exactly what she’s doing. The leaked Podesta emails are not done, and with the election coming upon us quickly, it’s hard to image what else will be released. Those of us who actually do care about the abuses of government, unlike the mainstream media, will keep a diligent eye and report what’s found because we all know that the media is trying to sweep this under the rug permanently. Too bad for them, it’s not going to work, and thanks to the internet and social media, not only can we inform ourselves, we can spread the information to others without relying on the equally corrupt press who are covering for that crooked Clinton.

Former President Ronald Reagan economic adviser Arthur Laffer weighed in on the Obamacare repeal’s passage Sunday on New York AM 970 radio’s “The Cats Roundtable. ” Laffer praised House Speaker Paul Ryan’s maturation, saying he is working with President Donald Trump “beautifully. ” “What you’re seeing happening is the very quick evolution of an administration,” Laffer told host John Catsimatidis. “What happened with Paul Ryan in getting that health care bill passed, shows you exactly how Paul Ryan has matured immensely as Speaker of the House and is working with Trump beautifully,” he continued. “Paul Ryan is just about perfect right now. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent

How Donald Trump Will Be Blamed For Economic Crash by IWB · October 26, 2016 Tweet The elite will pin the coming economic crash on Donald Trump. This amazing video lays it all out. It’s 15 minutes long. Please watch. VERY IMPORTANT! At one level, many globalists actually want Donald Trump to be elected President so they can BLAME HIM for the economic collapse they’ve barely held back for eight years. This mini documentary reveals the hidden agenda to crash the global debt pyramid if Trump wins the White House. After all, the political elite can never blame themselves for all the problems they’ve created. So they’ll use a Trump victory to turn him into a scapegoat for the massive, catastrophic collapse that’s imminent.

Pokemon Go players are inadvertently stopping people committing suicide in Japan @Tkbeynon over on Twitter writes, “Pokemon Go players inadvertently stopping people committing suicide is definitely my favourite story of the day”

LOS ANGELES — Kamala Harris made history when she became the first black woman to be elected attorney general in California. Now she is vying for the United States Senate, and she has managed to stay the in the race ever since she announced last year, just days after Senator Barbara Boxer, a fellow Democrat, said she would leave the seat she won in 1992. With the help of allies, Ms. Harris nudged aside other prominent Democratic contenders, including Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, and United States Representative Xavier Becerra. But as Tuesday’s open primary for the seat approaches, Ms. Harris’s chief rival is from her own party — Loretta Sanchez, a congresswoman from Southern California. And their competition says as much about California as it does about the candidates. In a state with one of the most diverse electorates in the nation, where Latinos are the largest ethnic group, a victory by either woman would be a milestone: Ms. Harris would be the first black woman in the United States Senate since Carol Moseley Braun, an Illinois Democrat who served from 1993 to 1999, and Ms. Sanchez would become the first Latina elected to the Senate. A recent Field poll shows the two leading a crowded ballot, including a pack of Republicans. The open primary — approved by voters in 2010 — will send the top two regardless of party, to the November election. That contest will offer insight into just how diminished the Republican Party is in this state. Polling suggests that none of the many Republicans in the race can draw enough votes to even make the final ballot. In a recent interview, Ms. Sanchez said she knew she faced a formidable obstacle because many of the state’s leading Democrats would back Ms. Harris — who, like most statewide elected officials, comes from the Bay Area. “I knew that I would not have the establishment with me — they sent a message to all of us in Southern California,” Ms. Sanchez said. “But I’ve been told ‘no’ many times, and go on to make it work. ” Ms. Sanchez surprised many in the political world when she was elected to the House of Representatives 20 years ago, beating a Republican incumbent in Orange County, which for decades had been a Republican stronghold. Now, as then, Ms. Sanchez is counting on deep support from Latinos. Latino voter registration in California has nearly doubled this year, according to the secretary of state’s office, as voters also prepare to choose presidential nominees. Many believe those newly registered voters will turn out on Tuesday, driven in large part by rhetoric from the Republicans’ presumptive nominee, Donald J. Trump. In a poll released in late May, Ms. Sanchez had the support of roughly 48 percent of Latinos, compared with 19 percent for Ms. Harris. “What’s the one thing that can motivate more Latino voters than ever before? Donald Trump,” said Dan Schnur, the director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. “The question will be how strong those loyalties are. ” Far from ceding any ethnic voting bloc, Ms. Harris has spent much of her energy courting Latinos. She secured endorsements from Hilda Solis, a Los Angeles County supervisor who was President Obama’s first labor secretary, and Dolores Huerta, a farmworkers advocate who appears in a commercial for Ms. Harris. Speaking recently to a crowd of union officials in Commerce, a city east of Los Angeles, Ms. Harris emphasized her own family’s immigrant roots and her support for overhauling immigration law. “Latino voters are my voters,” she said. “They care about people’s commitment to their issues, and I’d match my record against anyone when it comes to looking at my longstanding commitment to all communities, including the Latino community. I reject the notion that this race is going to come down to ethnicity. It’s going to come down to what you’ve actually done and what you’ve demonstrated you can get done. ” For much of the race, Ms. Harris has largely ignored the rest of the field. She relies on the phrase “smart on crime” to convey her views on criminal justice and uses the label “fearless” in campaign advertisements. While her experience as the state’s top law enforcement official is her most important credential, she has never taken a position on a 2014 measure to release thousands of inmates and reduce sentences for nonviolent offenders. Ms. Sanchez, who is running her first statewide campaign, points to her work in Congress to portray herself as the candidate most prepared to deal with national security. She has promoted her support from colleagues in the House, campaigning with several of them in recent appearances. Representative Filemon Vela, Democrat of Texas, released a statement late last month calling the California Democratic Party’s support for Ms. Harris “insulting to Latinos all across this country. ” “Not one single Democratic Latina has ever been in the United States Senate,” Mr. Vela said in the statement, adding that the party’s position is ”a disrespectful example of wayward institutional leadership, which on the one hand ‘wants our vote’ but on the other hand wants to ‘spit us out.’ ” Though both women have aired commercials in the expensive media markets of the Bay Area and Los Angeles, Ms. Harris has raised more than three times as much money as Ms. Sanchez — $11 million compared with about $3. 5 million as of Friday, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In the two televised debates, the three leading Republicans in the race focused much of their attacks on Ms. Harris. For them, the path to November relies on uniting Republican voters and a significant chunk of independents, who make up about a third of the state’s registered voters. “We have two people at the top of the national ticket who are really divisive,” said Duf Sundheim, a Republican candidate and a former chairman of the state party, who has not said whether he will back Mr. Trump in the fall. “I think it’s really important to have someone in the Senate who can really do things in the middle. ” Tom Del Beccaro, another Republican candidate and former chairman of the state party, has called for a flat federal income tax and said Congress should focus on setting stricter immigration laws. Just as often as he talks about his positions on issues, Mr. Del Beccaro discusses the mechanics of Tuesday’s primary ballot. With 34 names spread across two columns, he said, the ballot is too complicated, making it more likely that voters will not check boxes correctly. “The primary drives down participation and creates a lot of guess work,” Mr. Del Beccaro said. Though he has raised hardly any money and has spent little time on the campaign trail, perhaps no other candidate has more directly pursued supporters of Mr. Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders than Ron Unz, a software engineer and political writer who has endorsed both an increase in the federal minimum wage and more limits on legal immigration. Mr. Unz rose to prominence here more than a decade ago when he backed a ballot initiative opposing bilingual education. “The Republican Party in this state has almost been annihilated,” Mr. Unz said. “It’s going to be embarrassing for Republicans if they don’t even have a candidate in the fall, but this shows some enormous dissatisfaction with our respective parties that we will have to deal with in the future. ”

Controversy usually creates cash and big ratings — except if you are NBC News’ Megyn Kelly. [After Kelly’s controversial and interview with Alex Jones tanked by again failing to beat out reruns of 60 Minutes and America’s Funniest Home Videos, New York radio host Mark Simone tweeted on Monday that NBC is trying to unload Kelly and convince Fox News to take her back. But a Fox News source told Breitbart News that there is “no way” Kelly could come back to the network. Quite simply, the source told Breitbart News, Kelly “would not be welcomed back. ” Inside scoop: NBC now trying to get rid of Megyn Kelly. Even trying to get FOX to buy out her contract and take her back. — MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) June 19, 2017, Simone also suggested that if Kelly becomes more toxic and her ratings tank even more, “NBC will have to take her off the network,” and “if they are stuck with her, they’ll give her an MSNBC show. ” NBC will have to take her off the network — if they are stuck with her, they’ll give her an MSNBC show, — MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) June 19, 2017, Before she bolted to NBC, Kelly anchored The Kelly File on Fox News. During the 2016 election cycle, Kelly won praise from mainstream media journalists when she tried to undercut Donald Trump during the first Republican presidential debate in August of 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio. She also gave “Never Trumpers” a forum on her primetime show to constantly slam Trump throughout the election cycle. And as the Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove noted, Kelly also “hastened [Roger] Ailes’ forced resignation last July with her fateful decision to recount his misconduct to a team of lawyers hired by 21st Century Fox to investigate allegations made in the sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson. ” New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reported that Kelly “told investigators that Ailes made unwanted sexual advances toward her about ten years ago when she was a young correspondent at Fox. ” As Grove pointed out, Kelly, in her book, said there was some “poetic justice” in the role she played in helping boot Ailes out of Fox News. “I worked my tail off … I established myself as a serious person,” Kelly wrote. “I built my own power. And when the allegations against Roger hit, I used it. Perhaps there is some poetic justice in that. ” NBC reportedly invested nearly $20 million a year to bring Kelly to the network, and NBC’s investment has not paid any dividends at all. After her interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kelly was mocked for being way out of her league. And when HuffPost obtained the full unedited interview in which a “nervous” Kelly lobbed Putin “softballs,” Kelly was subjected to another round of criticism. Her interview with Jones did not have any news value and may have damaged NBC’s and her reputation more than it helped. Advertisers like J. P. Morgan Chase fled while Kelly lost credibility in the eyes of many when, in a leaked recording that Jones released, Kelly is heard telling Jones, “It’s not gonna be some gotcha hit piece, I promise you that. ” NBC did not help matters when it released a photo of Kelly and Jones that, as The Hill’s media columnist Joe Concha described, looked “like they were on a Tinder date pulling up to a . ” Yet despite all of the hype, Kelly’s interview with Jones still flopped. 60 Minutes and America’s Funniest Home Videos reruns even beat Kelly’s show by nearly 40 percent in the coveted 18 to demographic, as Concha noted. A television executive told CNN over the weekend that NBC’s “fundamental mistake” was thinking that Kelly was actually a “superstar. ” NBC executives have already reportedly determined that viewers are not going to tune in to Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly just to watch Kelly and are “freaking out” over the “ratings disaster” that is Kelly.

WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day, according to several American diplomats familiar with the plan, breaking with decades of precedent by declining to provide even the briefest of grace periods. The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said — threatens to leave the United States without envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain. In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with children, to remain in place for weeks or months. Mr. Trump, by contrast, has taken a hard line against leaving any of President Obama’s political appointees in place as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20 with a mission of dismantling many of his predecessor’s signature foreign and domestic policy achievements. “Political” ambassadors, many of them major donors who are nominated by virtue of close ties with the president, almost always leave at the end of his term ambassadors who are career diplomats often remain in their posts. A senior Trump transition official said there was no ill will in the move, describing it as a simple matter of ensuring that Mr. Obama’s overseas appointees leave the government on schedule, just as thousands of political aides at the White House and in federal agencies must do. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal deliberations, said the ambassadors should not be surprised about being held to a hard end date. The directive has nonetheless upended the personal lives of many ambassadors, who are scrambling to secure living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to remain in their countries so their children can remain in school, the diplomats said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter. In Costa Rica, Ambassador Stafford Fitzgerald Haney is hunting for a house or an apartment as his family — which includes four children and his wife, who has been battling breast cancer — struggles to figure out how to avoid a move back to the United States with five months left in the school year, according to the diplomats. In the Czech Republic, they said, Ambassador Andrew H. Schapiro is seeking housing in Prague as well as lobbying his children’s school to break with policy and accept them back midyear. In Brussels and Geneva, Denise Bauer, the United States ambassador to Belgium, and Pamela Hamamoto, the permanent representative to the United Nations, are both trying to find a way to keep daughters from having to move just months before their high school graduation. Ronald E. Neumann, the president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, a nonprofit association for former ambassadors and senior diplomats, said it was reasonable to expect ambassadors to return at the end of a term, given that they are direct representatives of the president with broad grants of authority. But he could not recall an occasion on which such a strict timeline had been applied. “When you have people out there whose only reason for being an ambassador is their political connection to the outgoing president of a different party, it’s pretty logical to say they should leave,” said Mr. Neumann, a career Foreign Service officer who held ambassadorships in Algeria, Bahrain and Afghanistan. “But I don’t recollect there was ever a guillotine in January where it was just, ‘Everybody out of the pool immediately. ’” W. Robert Pearson, a former ambassador to Turkey and a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the rule was “quite extraordinary,” adding that it could undermine American interests and signal a hasty change in direction that exacerbates jitters among allies about their relationships with the new administration. With the world already primed to be worrying about such an abrupt change, “this is just a very concrete signal that it is going to happen,” Mr. Pearson said. At a White House farewell reception that Mr. Obama held on Wednesday night for noncareer ambassadors, many of them commiserated, attendees said, comparing notes about how to handle the situation. Some expressed dismay that Mr. Trump, whose wife, Melania, has chosen to stay in New York to avoid moving the couple’s son, Barron, to a new school midyear, would not ensure that such allowances were made for American ambassadors. They are weighing a direct appeal to Rex W. Tillerson, Mr. Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, or other top transition officials to reconsider the policy. Derek Shearer, a professor of diplomacy at Occidental College who is a former United States ambassador to Finland, said it was difficult to see a rationale for the decision. “It feels like there’s an element just of spite and payback in it,” he said. “I don’t see a higher policy motive. ” The State Department informed all politically appointed ambassadors in a letter the day after the election that they were to submit letters of resignation effective Jan. 20. It instructed those who wanted to seek extensions to submit formal requests explaining their justifications. Incoming presidents of both parties have often made exceptions to allow ambassadors to wrap up personal affairs and important diplomatic business while their successors were in the confirmation process, which can take months. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Mr. Obama all granted extensions for a few politically appointed ambassadors. Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell offered particularly wide latitude to ambassadors facing family issues, said Marc Grossman, a longtime diplomat and former top State Department official who is vice chairman of the Cohen Group, a Washington consultancy. “This was something that was important to Secretary Powell because of his own experience living and serving all over the world, so when people asked him, ‘Could I stay another couple of weeks, couple of months my kids are finishing school,’ he was very accommodating,” Mr. Grossman said, adding that his flexibility was an “exception” to the general practice. “He was trying to, I think, send a message that family was important. ”

LIVERPOOL, England — Jackie O’Neill, a administrative assistant, was explaining the other day why Britain should vote to divorce itself from the European Union in this month’s referendum. As she enumerated her many grievances, I couldn’t help thinking of the scene in Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” in which a bunch of disaffected Judeans sit around, complaining about the Romans. “They’ve bled us white, the bastards,” says their leader, Reg, played by John Cleese. “And what have they ever given us in return?” His colleagues mention a few things, by way of example. O. K. Reg says. “But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the freshwater system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?” Even Britain’s most enthusiastic European Union supporters would not argue that Europe has been quite so helpful to their country, of course. But as chance would have it, Ms. O’Neill was heaping her abuse on Europe in a spot that has been a particularly enthusiastic recipient of European largess over the years. So when she declared, of the European Union, “We’re subsidizing them, and what do we get out of it except for a load of laws that we don’t vote for?” it was an easy question to answer. For one thing, there was the large building directly behind her, the Echo Arena and BT Convention Center. When the complex was built, in 2008, Europe kicked in 50 million pounds. “Well, I’ve never been to the Echo Arena,” Ms. O’Neill said. Just as many Britons feel emotionally apart and even alien from Europe, so they see the European Union as an opaque, bewildering abstraction, a mysterious bureaucratic behemoth that hoovers up their money and independence while giving little (or nothing) in return. British understanding of its workings and purpose has not been helped by the arguments being thrown around in the debate over the referendum, set for June 23. No one likes having this debate anyway, much less the unpleasantly descriptions of its sides: “Brexit” (go) and “Remain” (stay). But underlying all the dire predictions of doom — that staying or going will cause Britain to fall apart in various apocalyptic ways — is a deeper emotional issue that speaks to the country’s sense of self. Who does it think it is, and where does it think it belongs? Has it ever felt like it’s part of Europe? Separated from the Continent by language, tradition, historic antagonism and an inhospitable body of water, Britain has always seemed to be an uneasy participant in the wider European project. It took years to sign up, and its agreement was always marked by caveats and exceptions to the rules. Even when it did join, it felt to many Britons as if someone had given a British pub owner a bunch of fancy French Champagne bottles and said, “Here, use these for your British ale from now on. ” The trappings might be different, but the beer is still the same. In the 15 years I lived in London (I returned home to the United States three years ago) I was constantly struck by the sense of otherness with which many English people regarded Europeans. (It’s more complicated for Scots, whose mistrust of Britain’s government makes them more and for younger people and Londoners, who generally feel part of a wider world.) But travel around England, talking to older people, and you find below the surface a sense of unease, of distrust. Even people who believe that Britain should stay in the European Union, for economic and trading purposes, do not feel very European. At every turn, Britain proclaims its singularity. Most countries fly the European flag next to their national flags Britain doesn’t. Most of Europe uses euros Britain uses pounds. British airports have a passport line that says “British and E. U. Passports. ” British politicians in the last 20 years have increasingly talked about British values and British traditions, about what sets Britons apart from Europeans rather than what they have in common. British people don’t speak the same language as other people in the European Union — not literally, not metaphorically. This is a country where one of the main railroad stations, Waterloo, commemorates Napoleon’s defeat by the British, where a serious objection to building the Channel Tunnel was that it might encourage rabid animals to sneak in from France, and where Beauchamp Place in London is pronounced “ . ” The idea that things are easily lost in translation is reflected in the opening line of P. G. Wodehouse’s “The Luck of the Bodkins,” as a Briton confronts the daunting prospect of having to make himself understood on the Continent. “Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes,” Wodehouse writes, “there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French. ” The special relationship with the United States isn’t providing much comfort to the Brexit side these days President Obama’s recent admonition to vote no in the referendum enraged many people who believe America should stay out of it and let their country think for itself. As for Europe, some of the British sense of dissonance comes from loss of empire and the country’s complicated feelings about World War II, a moment that showed Britain at its shining best while simultaneously stripping it of its position as a major international power. And some of it stems, simply, from an sense of otherness. “I might be part of the E. U. but I live on an island,” said Alan Lyon, 49, who shovels cullet — broken glass — in a glass factory. Mr. Lyon’s lost both legs in World War I his grandfather fought in World War II. “We couldn’t mention Germany or France around him, he hated them so much,” he said. Britain’s populist tabloids have a long history of slipping happily into remarks. “Up Yours Delors” read a famous headline in 1990 in The Sun, urging its readers to tell Jacques Delors, then the French head of the European Commission, to “frog off. ” (Mr. Delors supported increased European economic integration, which The Sun did not.) Prince Harry once wore a Nazi commandant costume to a party. And in 2006, officials specifically warned fans traveling to Germany for a soccer match not to do things like shout “Sieg heil” at the referees, or to put their fingers under their noses in a way meant to evoke Hitler’s mustache. Perhaps the favorite television episode here is one on “Fawlty Towers” when a hotel owner, played (again) by Mr. Cleese, responds to a group of German guests by lapsing into xenophobic insanity, around the dining room and referring to prawn cocktail as “prawn Goebbels. ” (“You started it,” he says when the traumatized customers object. “You invaded Poland. ”) The side has tapped into feeling by conflating the European migrant crisis with what many Britons see as a local immigration crisis caused by lax European laws and porous European borders. In their view, the country is being overrun by foreigners who not only take their jobs and welfare benefits, but also bring fundamentally different values into Britain. Recently, Britons were appalled at the news that a German comedian who went on television and recited a rude poem about Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, is to be prosecuted under a German law prohibiting the insulting of foreign leaders. As a way to thumb its nose at both Germany and Turkey, the influential Spectator magazine started a “President Erdogan Offensive Poetry” competition, inviting readers to submit limericks. The winner was Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and leader of the Brexit campaign, who implied in his poem that Mr. Erdogan was overly fond of goats. Announcing the winner in the magazine, Douglas Murray, who organized the competition, said the existence of the poem (and of Mr. Johnson) showed Britain’s superiority over Germany, which is part of the European Union, and Turkey, which would like to be. “I think it a wonderful thing that a British political leader has shown that Britain will not bow before the putative caliph in Ankara,” he said. “Erdogan may imprison his opponents in Turkey. Chancellor Merkel may imprison Erdogan’s critics in Germany. But in Britain we still live and breathe free. ”

Remember the blind Bulgarian mystic who predicted 9/11 and the rise of ISIS? Well, she’s got some bad news for, dare I say it, Commander in Chief Donald Trump. Via UsualRoutine Baba Vanga, who’s known to her followers as the ‘Nostradamus of the Balkans’, has claimed Obama is the last President of the United States of America. Vanga allegedly called the election of Barack Obama as well, predicting the 44th president of the United States would be an African American – also making the chilling claim that he would be the ‘last U.S. president’. Usually, I’d be happy to dismiss the reaction to Vanga’s prophetic prediction as the public clinging onto a ray of hope in today’s new political climate, but actually, the blind mystic has a pretty great track record with her visions. The prophetess, who died aged 85 in 1996, is alleged to have made hundreds of predictions about the future with an 85 per cent accuracy rate, from her home in Petrich, Bulgaria. These prediction include climate change and the melting of the polar ice caps, which she allegedly foresaw back in the 1950s, saying: “cold regions will become warm … and volcanoes will awaken”. Vanga’s followers also say she predicted the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, warning a ‘huge wave’ would descend on a “big coast, covering people and towns and [causing] everything to disappear under the water”. Back in 1989 she warned that the ‘American brethren’ will be attacked by ‘two steel birds’, a possible reference to the Twin Tower attacks in 2001. She also warned that a group of Muslim extremists would invade Europe by 2016, foreseeing a ‘great Muslim war’ that would be kick-started by the Arab Spring in 2010 and play out in Syria, eventually resulting in the establishment of a caliphate by 2043 with Rome at the center. According to The Mirror she claimed this ‘2016 invasion by Muslim extremists’ across Europe would mean the continent would ‘cease to exist’ by the end of the year. She specifically said: “[Extremists] would use chemical warfare against Europeans.” Vanga’s political predictions take on a new poignancy posthumously; could her assertions about the elusive 45th President equate to predicting an assassination attempt, or simply that Donald Trump is, as previously expected, a cyborg? Baba Vanga for President? Anyone?

The news reads like something out of a screwball comedy: a activist named “Reality Leigh Winner” somehow received clearance to work for the National Security Agency, which she allegedly proceeded to rob of classified material in the name of the kookburger “Resistance. ” In the Snowden era, how does someone like this get anywhere near sensitive data? [Speaking of Snowden, Ms. Winner is a huge fan of his. He was one of only 50 accounts she followed on Twitter, along with WikiLeaks, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, and the Anonymous hacker collective. Her own Twitter posts were filled with tirades such as, “Why burn a flag? Donald Trump thinks crosses burn much better. ” She was also a supporter of climate change hysteria and the Black Lives Matter radical movement. Her last Tweet, from February, was advice for rapper Kanye West to “make a shirt that says, ‘being white is terrorism. ’” She didn’t just follow the Iranian Foreign Minister, she tweeted at him. “There are many Americans protesting U. S. government aggression towards Iran. If our Tangerine in Chief declares war, we stand with you!” she gushed to Zarif. She also referred to President Trump as “the orange fascist we let into the White House,” and some other names that cannot be reprinted at a website without exceeding our allotment of asterisks for the day. “On a positive note, this Tuesday when we become the United States of the Russian Federation, Olympic lifting will be the national sport,” she sneered in advance of the 2016 election. The totality of the Reality Winner experience reads like a joke put together for a presentation by bored NSA staffers about the sort of person that should never, ever be given a security clearance. It’s as though a blog downloaded itself into a human brain and chose a name by reading its own comments section. It should also be noted that the circumstances of this Iran fangirl’s data theft are a blistering indictment of agency procedures. Even with a valid top secret clearance, Winner had no legitimate reason to see the documents she allegedly purloined. She was only caught because the website she reportedly leaked to contacted the NSA to ask if her material was legitimate. The agency that was stunned by how much sensitive material Edward Snowden managed to abscond with still doesn’t seem to be properly compartmentalizing information and enforcing rules. Fans of the “Deep State” keep saying Trump made a big mistake picking a fight with them, but if the adventures of Reality Winner are an indication of the Deep State’s skill and discipline, Trump doesn’t have much to worry about. Also, it’s worth repeating that nobody voted to give the Deep Staters or Reality Winners control over America’s national security, law enforcement, and foreign policy. Some hay has been made over Winner’s support for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election, but that’s not nearly enough reason to question someone’s security clearance by itself. It is, however, fair to ask when the media will get around to asking Sanders if he disavows his treacherous supporter — as the press would certainly be doing if a MAGAphile supporter of Donald Trump, boasting a Twitter feed full of causes and celebrities, had looted the NSA to help a “resistance” movement take down President Hillary Clinton. In the alternate universe where that happened, you may rest assured the media freakout about Trump saboteurs threatening the very fabric of democracy has pushed all other stories off the front page today, and the upcoming Sunday talk shows are already booked solid. Of course, as we all know, Democrat politicians are firewalled from the misdeeds of their followers, and no Climates of Hate are ever detected. Certain Democrats have no compunctions about actually encouraging criminality, secure in the knowledge their party will never be made to pay a price for going off the rails: Now more than ever we need whistleblowers to come forward. I created an official website on how to leak to the press https: . — Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 17, 2017, Remember the Democrat about President Trump supposedly compromising American secrets by warning the Russians about a terrorist plot? Some of them don’t actually seem all that concerned about real leaks of sensitive information, as long as it furthers their political goals. Democrats have created an environment that’s guaranteed to drive their more supporters around the bend. If one believes, as Reality Winner evidently does, that Donald Trump is an illegitimate president who must be resisted by any means necessary, it’s not difficult to justify lawbreaking or even deliberately damaging America, for the greater good of shoving that usurper out of the White House. Our security services absolutely must take this into account when granting clearances and sweeping sensitive departments for risky personnel. No one with Reality Winner’s political beliefs can be trusted with anything sensitive, period. Democrats created the environment in which cannot be trusted in sensitive posts, not Donald Trump. Leftists and extreme NeverTrumpers excuse every offense against this administration by saying Trump brought it on himself, just by being himself. That’s not how the rule of law works. This climate has to be shut down, and fast, before permanent damage to our national interest is inflicted, if that hasn’t happened already. A few words from top Democrats about acknowledging elections, honoring their oaths, and respecting the Oval Office even if you despise the current occupant (remember that?) would be very helpful.

If I were one of those Guardsmen and the Spetsnaz came parachuting down ala Red Dawn, I'd first have to find the nearest rock or tree stump, sit down with my chin on my hand and do some serious thinking.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has intensified a clandestine war in Somalia over the past year, using Special Operations troops, airstrikes, private contractors and African allies in an escalating campaign against Islamist militants in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation. Hundreds of American troops now rotate through makeshift bases in Somalia, the largest military presence since the United States pulled out of the country after the “Black Hawk Down” battle in 1993. The Somalia campaign, as it is described by American and African officials and international monitors of the Somali conflict, is partly designed to avoid repeating that debacle, which led to the deaths of 18 American soldiers. But it carries enormous risks — including more American casualties, botched airstrikes that kill civilians and the potential for the United States to be drawn even more deeply into a troubled country that so far has stymied all efforts to fix it. The Somalia campaign is a blueprint for warfare that President Obama has embraced and will pass along to his successor. It is a model the United States now employs across the Middle East and North Africa — from Syria to Libya — despite the president’s stated aversion to American “boots on the ground” in the world’s war zones. This year alone, the United States has carried out airstrikes in seven countries and conducted Special Operations missions in many more. American officials said the White House had quietly broadened the president’s authority for the use of force in Somalia by allowing airstrikes to protect American and African troops as they combat fighters from the Shabab, a militant group that has proclaimed allegiance to Al Qaeda. In its public announcements, the Pentagon sometimes characterizes the operations as “ strikes,” though some analysts have said this rationale has become a prophecy. It is only because American forces are now being deployed on the front lines in Somalia that they face imminent threats from the Shabab. America’s role in Somalia has expanded as the Shabab have become bolder and more cunning. The group has attacked police headquarters, bombed seaside restaurants, killed Somali generals and stormed heavily fortified bases used by African Union troops. In January, Shabab fighters killed more than 100 Kenyan troops and drove off with their trucks and weapons. The group carried out the 2013 attack at the Westgate mall, which killed more than 60 people and wounded more than 175 in Nairobi, Kenya. More recently it has branched into more sophisticated forms of terrorism, including nearly downing a Somali airliner in February with a bomb hidden in a laptop computer. About 200 to 300 American Special Operations troops work with soldiers from Somalia and other African nations like Kenya and Uganda to carry out more than a raids per month, according to senior American military officials. The operations are a combination of ground raids and drone strikes. The Navy’s classified SEAL Team 6 has been heavily involved in many of these operations. Once ground operations are complete, American troops working with Somali forces often interrogate prisoners at temporary screening facilities, including one in Puntland, a state in northern Somalia, before the detainees are transferred to more permanent prisons, American military officials said. The Pentagon has acknowledged only a small fraction of these operations. But even the information released publicly shows a marked increase this year. The Pentagon has announced 13 ground raids and airstrikes thus far in 2016 — including three operations in September — up from five in 2015, according to data compiled by New America, a Washington think tank. The strikes have killed about 25 civilians and 200 people suspected of being militants, the group found. The strikes have had a mixed record. In March, an American airstrike killed more than 150 Shabab fighters at what military officials called a “graduation ceremony,” one of the single deadliest American airstrikes in any country in recent years. But an airstrike last month killed more than a dozen Somali government soldiers, who were American allies against the Shabab. Outraged Somali officials said the Americans had been duped by clan rivals and fed bad intelligence, laying bare the complexities of waging a shadow war in Somalia. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said the Pentagon was investigating the strike. Some experts point out that with the administration’s expanded justification for airstrikes, a greater American presence in Somalia would inevitably lead to an escalation of the air campaign. “It is clear that U. S. support to Somali security forces and African Union peacekeepers has been stepped up this year,” said Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expert at Davidson College. “That increases the likelihood that U. S. advisers will periodically be in positions where Al Shabab is about to launch an attack. ” Peter Cook, the Department of Defense spokesman, wrote in an email, “The DoD has a strong partnership with the Somali National Army and AMISOM forces from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi operating in Somalia. They have made steady progress pressuring Al Shabab. ” The escalation of the war can be seen in the bureaucratic language of the semiannual notifications that Mr. Obama sends to Congress about American conflicts overseas. The Somalia passage in the June 2015 notification is terse, saying American troops “have worked to counter the terrorist threat posed by ’ida and associated elements of . ” In June, however, the president told Congress that the United States had become engaged in a more expansive mission. Besides hunting members of Al Qaeda and the Shabab, the notification said, American troops are in Somalia “to provide advice and assistance to regional counterterrorism forces, including the Somali National Army and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces. ” American airstrikes, it said, were carried out in defense of the African troops and in one instance because Shabab fighters “posed an imminent threat to U. S. and AMISOM forces. ” At an old Russian fighter jet base in Baledogle, about 70 miles from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, American Marines and private contractors are working to build up a Somali military unit designed to combat the Shabab throughout the country. Soldiers for the military unit, called Danab, which means lightning in Somali, are recruited by employees of Bancroft Global Development, a company that for years has worked with the State Department to train African Union troops and embed with them on military operations inside Somalia. Michael Stock, the company’s founder, said the Danab recruits received initial training at a facility in Mogadishu before they were sent to Baledogle, where they go through months of training by the Marines. Bancroft advisers then accompany the Somali fighters on missions. Mr. Stock said the goal was to create a small Somali military unit capable of battling the Shabab without repeating the mistakes in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the United States spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to build up large armies. Still, American commanders and their international partners are considering a significant expansion of the training effort to potentially include thousands of Somali troops who would protect the country when African Union forces eventually left the country. Maj. Gen. Kurt L. Sonntag, the commander of the American military’s task force in Djibouti, the only permanent American base in Africa, said the proposed training plan would increase and enhance the Somali national security forces, including the army, national guard and national police. “The specific numbers of forces required is currently being assessed,” General Sonntag said. He added that it must be large enough to protect the Somali people but “affordable and sustainable over time, in terms of Somalia’s national budget. ” Independent experts and aid organizations say the Somali Army is still largely untrained, poorly paid and poorly equipped, and years away from coalescing regional militias into a unified army. American policy makers tried to avoid direct involvement in Somalia for years after the Black Hawk Down episode. But in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Special Operations troops and the Central Intelligence Agency began paying Somali warlords to hunt down Qaeda operatives in the country. In 2006, the United States gave clandestine support to Ethiopian troops invading the country to overthrow an Islamist movement that had taken control of Mogadishu. But the brutal urban warfare tactics of the Ethiopian troops created support for an insurgent movement that called itself Al Shabab, which means “The Youth. ” American involvement in Somalia was intermittent for several years afterward, until the Westgate attack refocused Washington’s attention on the threat the Shabab posed beyond Somalia. The Shabab still control thousands of square miles of territory across Somalia. A Somali university student who travels in and out of Shabab areas said the group’s fighters were becoming increasingly suspicious, even paranoid, checking the phones, cameras, computers and documents of anyone passing through their territory, constantly on guard for another American attack. He said Shabab fighters were becoming younger, with a vast majority under 25 and many as young as 10. American law enforcement officials think that the bomb that nearly brought down the commercial jet in February was most likely made by a Yemeni who is believed to have constructed other laptop bombs in Somalia. Pictures from an airport machine show the explosive packed into the corner of the laptop, next to a battery. Several aviation experts said that the bomb was obvious and that airport security officials in Mogadishu might have intentionally allowed it through. The bomb exploded about 15 minutes after takeoff, punching a hole through the fuselage and killing the man suspected of carrying the bomb on board, though the pilot was able to land safely. Aviation experts said that if the bomb had exploded a few minutes later, with the cabin fully pressurized, the fuselage would have most likely blown apart, killing all of the approximately 80 people on board.

Rodney Sumter had three gunshot wounds, including one that seemed to be “a hole the size of a baseball. ” But during the 16 days he was in a Florida hospital, and in the weeks after a gunman opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, he never worried about the cost of healing his body. He had insurance, as well as a hunch: Some manner of charity care was probably in the offing. His intuition was proved correct this month when Florida Hospital and Orlando Regional Medical Center said they would not bill victims of the June 12 siege, which left 49 people and the gunman, Omar Mateen, dead. “It’s definitely a blessing for everybody involved,” said Mr. Sumter, 27, who was working as a bartender at the gay nightclub. “You know, we’ve been through a lot. ” The hospitals said the donated aid, including emergency care and surgery, could be worth more than $5. 5 million. The hospitals treated more than 50 people, some of whom died from their injuries. “It was incredible to see how our community came together in the wake of the senseless Pulse shooting,” Daryl Tol, the president and chief executive of Florida Hospital, said in a statement. “We hope this gesture can add to the heart and good will that defines Orlando. ” Next month, the OneOrlando Fund, which raised at least $23 million, is scheduled to begin issuing payments to victims of the shooting, during which Mr. Mateen pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State. Those disbursements, fund officials have said, have “no strings or obligations attached” and are intended to “serve as a gift to the victims of the Pulse tragedy. ” But medical bills have long been a leading concern in Orlando, where many victims suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Still, Mr. Sumter, who was also grazed by a fourth bullet, said officials had never discussed financial issues during his hospitalization. “It really wasn’t on my mind heavy, too heavy, because the doctors and the nurses, they were all really supportive,” said Mr. Sumter, who participates in physical therapy three times a week. Hospital officials, he said, “never really told me the estimated amount” associated with his medical care. Orlando Health, which operates Orlando Regional Medical Center, where Mr. Sumter was treated, said it had “not sent any hospital or medical bills directly to Pulse patients, and we don’t intend to pursue reimbursement of medical costs from them. ” The health system said that it would seek funding from other sources, including insurers and the state’s crime victim compensation program, but that its unrecovered costs could exceed $5 million. “The Pulse shooting was a horrendous tragedy for the victims, their families and our entire community,” David Strong, Orlando Health’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. “During this very trying time, many organizations, individuals and charities have reached out to Orlando Health to show their support. This is simply our way of paying that kindness forward. ” But Orlando Health, which runs the area’s premier trauma center, acknowledged that some Pulse patients might require continuing care, a poignant reality that corresponds with mounting concerns that the flow of donations might be insufficient when perhaps tens of millions of dollars are needed for disability services and lost wages. “We can’t predict the future needs of these patients, their financial situations, or what the state or federal governments may require us to do for charity policies,” the hospital said. “So, while we can’t assume the answer is free care forever, we will use our very generous charity and financial assistance policies to assess the best way to ensure our patients get quality care here at Orlando Health in the most fiscally responsible manner. ” Mr. Sumter, for one, said he was grateful for the donations by the hospitals, as well as the forthcoming money from the OneOrlando fund, which officials promised to victims soon after the attack. “You hear that often, but you don’t know what exactly everything is going to happen when the smoke clears,” he said. “It’s just good to know that not only are we receiving a nice fund, we don’t have to worry about the hospital bills. ”

Print In 2012, voters in Elliott County, Kentucky, came close to breaking a streak that, at the time, had lasted 136 years. Elliott County was formed in 1869, and since its first presidential election, in 1872, it had voted for the Democratic nominee every time — the longest span of any U.S. county. President Obama — like the previous Democratic candidates for president — won Elliott County in 2012 , extending its streak. But the margin by which he won — 2.5 percentage points — made it, by far, the closest presidential election the county had ever seen, and the first time the Democratic share of the vote fell below 50 percent. Will 2016 be the end of the streak? Demographically, Elliott County looks like the kind of place where Donald Trump could do well.

Is the Fed at risk for real this time? Throughout American history, few institutions have inspired such persistent mistrust among voters and their elected officials as the mysterious authority that determines the value of their money. The Federal Reserve wasn’t even around yet when the fiery Nebraska populist William Jennings Bryan rose to the Democratic presidential nomination in 1896 by charging that the gold standard that ruled monetary policy at the time was crucifying the workingman “upon a cross of gold” to serve bankers’ interests — depressing farm prices and crushing indebted farmers by limiting money in circulation. Since its inception in 1913, the Federal Reserve has been alternately accused of either making money too scarce and expensive or making it too plentiful and cheap. In 1981, a Democratic congressman, Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, threatened to introduce a bill to impeach the Fed chairman, Paul A. Volcker, and most of its other governors, accusing them of squelching the economy with tight monetary policy. Thirty years later, on the Republican presidential campaign trail, another Texan, Gov. Rick Perry, famously suggested roughing up the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, for “printing money” to stimulate growth: “I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. ” On Wednesday, a Federal Reserve led by Janet L. Yellen — confirmed three years ago in the Senate by the tightest margin in at least 35 years — is likely to get a taste of this vitriol. As my colleague Binyamin Appelbaum noted on Monday, the Fed is all but certain to raise its benchmark interest rate, setting itself on a path to prevent an acceleration of the economy and ward off an uptick in inflation — a course that is in clear tension with President Trump’s stated goal to stoke growth at all cost. The pressing question for this era of populist policy making and popular anger is whether the Federal Reserve as we know it — arcane and academic, with the autonomy to set monetary policy as it sees fit — will survive the tension this time. Given the ferocious discontent with the “establishment” stoked by Mr. Trump among his angry electoral base, the threat against the Fed this time seems of a higher order. As Adam S. Posen, an American economist who has served on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, told me, “The sense that the Fed’s independence could be taken away by a simple act of Congress is very real. ” The pressure is already on. Mr. Posen, who now heads the Peterson Institute for International Economics, points out that the Fed already lost powers it deployed to counter the recession spawned by the financial crisis a decade ago: The financial reform legislation stripped it of its authority to lend freely to nonbanks, which it used to keep money market funds, insurance companies and others that had bet on the wrong side of the housing bubble from imploding and taking the economy with them. Efforts that stalled in the last Congress — to subject the Fed’s funding to congressional approval, to reduce its discretion in setting monetary policy and to subject it to the oversight of Congress’s Government Accountability Office — have acquired a new lease on life, cheered from the right and the left. Disgruntlement in Congress will only grow worse as the Fed gradually winds down the enormous stash of bonds it built over the last eight years to support the mortgage market and encourage lending. This will inevitably push up interest rates and produce paper losses for the Fed as it marks the price of securities to market. As Donald L. Kohn, former vice chairman of the Fed, noted in an analysis of the Fed’s independence three years ago, “it will be a complex exit involving many steps — with lots of opportunity for kibitzing and objecting over a long period. ” Congressional action might not be the Fed’s biggest problem. Mr. Trump’s appointments to the Federal Reserve Board could prove as destabilizing: Two of the seven positions are vacant, and a third will come open with the retirement of Daniel K. Tarullo in April. By the middle of next year, Mr. Trump will also have the opportunity to replace Ms. Yellen as Fed chief and Stanley Fischer as her deputy. Alan S. Blinder, a vice chairman of the Fed during the Clinton administration, recalls the damage caused in the 1970s by Arthur F. Burns, who Mr. Blinder said juiced up the economy as Fed chairman to help President Richard M. Nixon’s bid and cracked down hard afterward. “I’m worried about the people Donald Trump will send over there,” he told me. “If he sends over toadies beholden to Donald Trump, it would be a very serious threat to the Fed’s independence. ” So what is Ms. Yellen’s Fed to do? To a point, this is not just about the Federal Reserve. The European Central Bank, too, is navigating political waters charged with populist mistrust. In Britain, the Labour Party’s shadow chancellor of the Exchequer has called for “democratic control” over interest rates. The argument for central bank independence is as powerful as ever. Political influence over monetary policy would produce more destabilizing booms — as politicians pumped up growth to serve their electoral purposes — and inevitable busts. Expecting consistency of elected officials is decidedly risky: The Republican accusation that the Fed was putting the economy at risk by keeping interest rates at rock bottom to help the Obama administration will inevitably spin 180 degrees now that Republicans control the White House. Still, not all the criticism is mendacious. The popular mistrust of central bankers should not be ignored. After all, central bankers failed to prevent the most devastating financial crisis in generations — looking on idly, at best, while financial institutions peddled shady bonds to fuel a housing bubble of gargantuan proportions. And central banks have emerged, at least implicitly, with a bigger job than before, adding the preservation of financial stability to their duty to ensure low inflation and, in the Fed’s case, full employment. Some central banks — though not the Fed — have been given new tools for this new job. Given this power, it is inevitable that the enormous discretion central bankers have in executing their mandate will inspire popular mistrust. “The financial crisis was very difficult to digest, costly, and had redistributional consequences,” said Lucrezia Reichlin, former head of research at the European Central Bank and now a professor at the London Business School. “Central banks were at the center of the response, so the demand to open up this discussion is natural. We should not be afraid of talking about accountability. ” Perhaps. Perhaps there is a discussion to be had over whether the Fed should keep its role as supervisor of financial institutions, or whether the job should be placed with another agency. Maybe financial supervision should be made more less subject to regulators’ discretion. Maybe there is a better way for Fed officials to communicate with Congress and explain the thinking behind their decisions. Maybe the Fed needs extra tools — to impose limits on indebtedness, for instance, or to adjust monetary policy to serve measures of financial stability. Maybe it could benefit from a tweak in its mandate, to ensure a better balance between its goals of fostering employment and curbing inflation. And yet the populist streak driving through American politics seems unlikely to yield such measured outcomes. The Federal Reserve was designed to be insulated from the full force of democracy in order to protect its mandate from political opportunism, to ensure that policy hewed to technical expertise. It was designed — precisely — to protect it from a moment like this. One can only hope that the protections hold.

October 28, 2016 112 While the Western press continues scaring its public of "Russian aggression" and blaming Russia for influencing the 2016 American presidential elections, Vladimir Putin just made a speech that is unlikely to appear in any mainstream media. Share on Facebook At the meeting of experts at the Valdai Club in Sochi on October 27, Putin said about the U.S. elections: “a look at various candidates’ platforms gives the impression that they were made from the same mould – the difference is slight, if there is any.” Putin called U.S. stories of “Russian hacking the U.S. election” as a “mythical and imaginary problem” and “the hysteria the USA has whipped up over supposed Russian meddling in the American presidential election,” instead of focusing on the domestic issues: “The United States has plenty of genuinely urgent problems, it would seem, from the colossal public debt to the increase in firearms violence and cases of arbitrary action by the police. You would think that the election debates would concentrate on these and other unresolved problems, but the elite has nothing with which to reassure society, it seems, and therefore attempt to distract public attention by pointing instead to supposed Russian hackers, spies, agents of influence and so forth.” “Does anyone seriously imagine that Russia can somehow influence the American people’s choice? America is not some kind of ‘banana republic’, after all, but is a great power. Do correct me if I am wrong.” Putin reminded us who the real rulers are: “The expanding class of the supranational oligarchy and bureaucracy, which is in fact often not elected and not controlled by society, or the majority of citizens, who want simple and plain things – stability, free development of their countries, prospects for their lives and the lives of their children, preserving their cultural identity, and, finally, basic security for themselves and their loved ones.” Referring to the Western elites’ downplaying the growing gap between rich and poor, Putin said: “It seems as if the elites do not see the deepening stratification in society and the erosion of the middle class, while at the same time, they implant ideological ideas that, in my opinion, are destructive to cultural and national identity. And in certain cases, in some countries they subvert national interests and renounce sovereignty in exchange for the favor of the suzerain.” Putin reminded everyone that current situation of instability in the world is a direct result of the choice made by the United States after the end of the Cold War to take “the course of simply reshaping the global political and economic order to fit their own interests.” By taking this course, the U.S. missed a chance to make globalization “more harmonious and sustainable in nature.” In their euphoria of winning the Cold war, the United States “essentially abandoned substantive and equal dialogue with other actors in international life, chose not to improve or create universal institutions, and attempted instead to bring the entire world under the spread of their own organisations, norms and rules. They chose the road of globalization and security for their own beloved selves, for the select few, and not for all. But far from everyone was ready to agree with this.” This victorious attitude led to the system of international relations where “rules and principles, in the economy and in politics, are constantly being distorted and we often see what only yesterday was taken as a truth and raised to dogma status reversed completely. “ On the Western hypocrisy and double talk, Putin said: “If the powers that be today find some standard or norm to their advantage, they force everyone else to comply. But if tomorrow these same standards get in their way, they are swift to throw them in the bin, declare them obsolete, and set or try to set new rules.” Russian president reminded about the U.S.-led decision “to launch airstrikes in the center of Europe, against Belgrade, and then came Iraq, and then Libya,” and turning the UN into a tool of U.S. foreign policy: “The operations in Afghanistan also started without the corresponding decision from the United Nations Security Council. In their desire to shift the strategic balance in their favor these countries broke apart the international legal framework that prohibited deployment of new missile defense systems. They created and armed terrorist groups, whose cruel actions have sent millions of civilians into flight, made millions of displaced persons and immigrants, and plunged entire regions into chaos.” In the global economy, multilateral institutions also became a tool to promote the interests of few: “We see how free trade is being sacrificed and countries use sanctions as a means of political pressure, bypass the World Trade Organization and attempt to establish closed economic alliances with strict rules and barriers, in which the main beneficiaries are their own transnational corporations. And we know this is happening. They see that they cannot resolve all of the problems within the WTO framework and so think, why not throw the rules and the organization itself aside and build a new one instead.” Always referring to the U.S. as “some of our partners,” Putin stressed that they “demonstrate no desire to resolve the real international problems in the world today.” Instead of making OSCE, “a crucial mechanism for ensuring common European and also trans-Atlantic security,” it was shaped into “an instrument in the service of someone’s foreign policy interests.” About constant vilification of Russia and trumpeting of “Russian aggression,” Putin said: “they continue to churn out threats, imaginary and mythical threats such as the ‘Russian military threat’. This is a profitable business that can be used to pump new money into defense budgets at home, get allies to bend to a single superpower’s interests, expand NATO and bring its infrastructure, military units and arms closer to our borders. Of course, it can be a pleasing and even profitable task to portray oneself as the defender of civilization against the new barbarians. The only thing is that Russia has no intention of attacking anyone. This is all quite absurd. It is unthinkable, foolish and completely unrealistic. It is simply absurd to even conceive such thoughts. And yet they use these ideas in pursuit of their political aims. The question is, if things continue in this vein, what awaits the world? What kind of world will we have tomorrow? Do we have answers to the questions of how to ensure stability, security and sustainable economic growth? Do we know how we will make a more prosperous world?’

Страна: Китай Заявления КНДР о завершении своей программы развития ядерного оружия вызвали всплеск дискуссий на тему «кто виноват». Точнее, кто несет главную ответственность за то, что ситуация дошла до нынешнего уровня, и на фоне развивающегося противостояния США и КНР Пекин начали обвинять еще и в этом, причем разброс обвинений разнится от «ничего не делал, хотя мог» до «активно помогал». Начнем с высказываний кандидата в президенты США Хиллари Клинтон. 13 октября 2016 г. агентство Associated Press, ссылаясь на сайт WikiLeaks, сообщило, что еще в июне 2013 года в ходе лекции среди должностных лиц Goldman Sachs Хиллари Клинтон указала на то, что народно-освободительная армия Китая является главным спонсором КНДР. И уже тогда обозначила позицию о том, что если Пекину не удастся сдержать КНДР от создания межконтинентальной баллистической ракеты, способной нести ядерное оружие, США могут взять Китай в кольцо системы ПРО и военно-морских баз. Японская «Санкэй симбун» цитирует министра обороны США Эштона Картера: «на Китае лежит большая ответственность за нынешние действия КНДР. Он покрывает опасное поведение этой страны» и подводит аудиторию к мысли о том, что налицо заговор Пекина, который, постоянно получая от США за великодержавную политику, решил ответить Вашингтону таким образом. В доказательство японцы ссылаются на «Чосон ильбо», которая сообщила, что, по словам бывшего сотрудника Разведывательного управления министерства обороны США Брюса Вектора (Bruce Vector), озвученным 1 сентября, северокорейская ракета — это точная копия китайской двухступенчатой твердотопливной баллистической ракеты Цзюйлан-1, которая размещается на подлодках. Выступая с лекцией в Сеульском государственном университете, помощник госсекретаря США Тони Блинкен также заявил, что о северокорейской экономике невозможно говорить без упоминания о Китае. Пхеньян полностью зависит от сотрудничества с Пекином, поэтому на Китае лежит особая ответственность в реализации антисеверокорейских санкций. Цель подобных обвинений – вынудить КНР быть «более конструктивной». Между тем в заявлениях китайских политиков постоянно проговаривается, что ЯПКП не вызвана действиями Пекина, и КНР не располагает волшебным ключом к её разрешению. Корни проблемы берут начало в противоречиях между США и КНДР, и конструктивный подход должна проявлять Америка. Как отметила 12 сентября 2016 г. официальный представитель МИД КНР Хуан Чуньин, суть ядерной проблемы Корейского полуострова заключается в противоречии между КНДР и США, и американская сторона должна взять на себя ответственность. «Мы еще раз призываем все стороны смотреть на общую ситуацию, действовать осмотрительно и избегать взаимных провокаций, совместно продвигать процесс денуклеаризации, прилагать реальные усилия для достижения мира и стабильности на Корейском полуострове», сказала китайский дипломат, отметив, что сегодняшнее развитие ситуации свидетельствует о важности и неотложности скорейшего возвращения к шестисторонним переговорам . 14 сентября в газете Жэньминь Жибао были отвергнуты американские предложения о том, что КНР должна принимать активное участие в изоляции КНДР . Там заявляют, что основную долю ответственности за текущую ситуацию несет не КНДР, а США. 21 сентября на своей речи в ООН премьер-министр Ли Кэцян также не упоминал про санкции. 2 ноября 2016 г Хуа Чуньин вновь заявила, что одними санкциями и давлением добиться коренного решения проблемы Корейского полуострова невозможно. Комментируя недавнюю встречу глав делегаций США и Республики Корея на шестисторонних переговорах, в ходе которой вновь прозвучали призывы ужесточить санкции и усилить давление в отношении КНДР в надежде, что новая резолюция Совета безопасности ООН введет принудительное ограничение экспорта северокорейской угольной продукции, Хуа Чуньин указала, что рассмотрение и обсуждение северокорейской ядерной проблемы в СБ ООН идет. Однако в важной содержательной части резолюции 2270 СБ ООН говорится о необходимости возобновить шестисторонние переговоры и стремиться к разрядке напряженности в Северо-Восточной Азии политическими и дипломатическими средствами. Это и есть путь коренного решения северокорейской ядерной проблемы . А двумя днями позже, 4 ноября, она же заявила, что размещение американской системы противоракетной обороны на Корейском полуострове подорвёт стратегический баланс сил в регионе и Пекин оставляет за собой право принять необходимые меры для защиты собственной безопасности. Действия США противоречат усилиям по обеспечению мира и стабильности на Корейском полуострове, сказала Хуа Чуньин, призвав соответствующие стороны учитывать законную обеспокоенность Китая. В основе такой политики КНР – как проблема THAAD, которую КНР видит направленной на сдерживание его ракетного потенциала, так и более широкое восприятие антисеверокорейских военных приготовлений США, как направленных на деле против КНР. В результате, несмотря на ряд острых противоречий между странами, в отношениях Пекина и Пхеньяна работает принцип «враг моего врага – мой друг». Проще поддерживать КНДР на плаву, чем рисковать более серьезными последствиями, которые могут наступить, если её прижмут слишком сильно. Готовность Китая расследовать нелегальные торговые связи ряда китайских компаний с КНДР показывает, что «окно не закрыто полностью», и это можно рассматривать как попытку ослабить американские усилия по введению санкций против китайских компаний, ведущих дела с КНДР легальным образом. Одновременно Китай и Северная Корея расширяют экономическое сотрудничество, несмотря на действие международных санкций. Как сообщила газета «Нодон Синмун», 25 октября в Пхеньяне состоялась третье заседание межправительственной комиссии КНДР И КНР по пограничным вопросам. Китайскую сторону возглавлял заместитель министра иностранных дел Лю Чжэньминь, а северокорейскую – заместитель главы МИД Пак Мён Гук. Обсуждались вопросы организации нового пограничного перехода, ибо уже в сентябре нынешнего года построен мост между северокорейским городом Синыйчжу и китайским Хуньчунем. Кроме того, в ближайшем будущем будет открыт мост между Синыйчжу и китайским Даньдуном. Кроме того, товарооборот между СК и Китаем в третьем квартале нынешнего года по сравнению с тем же периодом прошлого года вырос на 3,4%. В СЭЗ Расон китайцы строят новые склады и офисы, что означает приток инвестиций. Резко вырос импорт машин из КНДР в КНР. Вырос и импорт китайского риса. По данным Таможенного управления Китая, в сентябре 2016 года из Китая в КНДР поставлено 18,477 тонн зерновых культур. Это в 2,7 раза больше, чем в августе, и в 6 раз больше, чем в сентябре прошлого года. В сентябре импортировано 16 тыс. тонн риса, что на 2 тыс. тонн больше, чем в период с января по август. И хотя южнокорейские эксперты объясняют это решением северокорейского руководства о стабилизации цен на рис, поскольку запасы риса, сделанные в прошлом году, фактически исчерпаны, с некоторого времени у них любой факт, имеющий отношение к КНДР, расценивается только как знак скорого голода и краха. В общем, пока одна сторона обвиняет и бряцает оружием, другая ищет способы урегулирования проблемы, и это хорошо показывает, кто мог бы подключиться к установлению диалога, но не желает этого. Константин Асмолов, кандидат исторических наук, ведущий научный сотрудник Центра корейских исследований Института Дальнего Востока РАН, специально для интернет-журнала «Новое Восточное Обозрение». Популярные статьи

Ask Holly: What's everyone's problem? 27-10-16 Dear Holly, Apparently hardly anyone wants to listen to me on the radio, even though I work so hard discussing pointless drivel with myself for hours on end interspersed with soul-destroying tracks by Coldplay and Michael Buble. What’s everyone’s problem? Chris London Dear Chris, My dad’s had a great idea for Channel 4’s new direction with Bake-Off. Instead of all this old lady nonsense about Victoria sponges and gingham and witty lesbians, the new version should be called ‘The Great British Man-Off’ and it’ll be a load of competitive middle aged blokes being bawdy and doing manly stuff like re-sealing the bath and shouting at the radio and getting frustrated with tools. Everyone on the show will be worried about going bald and every episode will end with an embarrassing scuffle in a pub car park. Hope that helps,

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate Wednesday for just the second time since the financial crisis of 2008, saying the American economy is expanding at a healthy pace and setting itself up as a counterweight to Donald J. Trump’s push for considerably faster growth. The Fed cited the steady growth of employment and other economic measures, and signaled that it expects to raise rates more quickly next year to prevent the economy from growing too quickly. “My colleagues and I are recognizing the considerable progress the economy has made,” Janet L. Yellen, the Fed’s chairwoman, said at a news conference after the announcement. “We expect the economy will continue to perform well. ” The widely expected decision moves the Fed’s benchmark rate to a range of 0. 5 percent to 0. 75 percent, still very low by historical standards. Low rates support economic growth by encouraging borrowing and . The American economy has expanded by about 2 percent a year over the last six years, and the unemployment rate has fallen to 4. 6 percent. The Fed’s assessment that the economy is growing at a healthy pace — not too hot, not too cold — is starkly at odds with Mr. Trump, who has promised 4 percent growth and has described job creation as “terrible” and economic growth as anemic. Already on Wednesday, one Republican member of the House Financial Services Committee, Representative Roger Williams of Texas, criticized the Fed’s move. “Today’s decision by the Fed to raise the interest rate is entirely premature and will be burdensome to a nation already struggling to pull itself out of this Obama economy,” Mr. Williams said in a statement. “By making rates even higher, the Fed is effectively making our hardships even harder. ” Mr. Williams did not object when the Fed raised rates last December. In announcing the decision after a meeting of the Fed’s committee, the central bank gave little indication that Mr. Trump’s election had altered its economic outlook. The Fed said it still expected a slow economic expansion and a steady march toward higher rates. In separate forecasts also published Wednesday, Fed officials predicted three rate increases in 2017. For the first time in recent years, however, there is a real possibility of significant changes in fiscal policy. Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of Congress, and Mr. Trump has promised to increase economic growth and job creation through tax cuts and infrastructure spending. Those measures could spur faster growth after a presidential campaign in which Mr. Trump regularly disparaged the economy’s performance under President Obama. But the Fed reiterated Wednesday that the economy is already expanding at roughly the maximum sustainable pace. Fed officials also see evidence that the labor market is tightening. Several Fed districts reported labor shortages in the central bank’s most recent compilation of economic reports. In the Philadelphia district, construction workers are hard to find. Atlanta reported a shortage of nurses Kansas City, truck drivers Dallas, tech workers. Faster growth, in the Fed’s judgment, would probably lead to higher inflation. As a result, if Republicans succeed in invigorating growth, the Fed is likely to raise rates more quickly. The greater the stimulus, the faster interest rates are likely to rise. “Your expectation should depend very little on what you think that the F. O. M. C. is thinking and very much on your view of Trump policies and their macro effects,” said Jon Faust, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University and a former adviser to Ms. Yellen, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee. “Don’t focus on the Fed. As James Carville regularly reminded the other Clinton on the campaign trail: It’s the economy, stupid. ” Ms. Yellen emphasized that the Fed was not prejudging the likely course of events. She declined several times to comment on the merits of Mr. Trump’s plans or to predict their consequences for the economy. “We’re operating under a cloud of uncertainty at the moment,” Ms. Yellen said. Fed officials predicted that they would raise the Fed’s benchmark rate a little more quickly in the coming years, reaching 2. 1 percent by the end of 2018. In September, they had predicted that it would reach 1. 9 percent by the end of 2018. The new projections, however, reflect a significantly slower pace of increase than last December, when they expected the rate to reach 3. 3 percent by 2018. The combination of steady growth and faster rate increases indicates that some Fed officials expect the central bank to end up offsetting a modest increase in fiscal stimulus. But Ms. Yellen said most Fed officials were reserving judgment. “Changes in fiscal policy or other economic policies could affect the economic outlook,” she said. “Of course, it is far too early to know how those changes will unfold. ” The tensions between monetary and fiscal policy will develop slowly. Legislation takes time to write, and any economic impact would generally be felt in coming years. Political pressures, however, may build more quickly. Mr. Trump has made clear in the past that he likes low interest rates — and some of his plans, like infrastructure investment, will be much easier to fund if rates remain low. “The Fed is in a tricky place,” said Michael Feroli, chief United States economist at JPMorgan Chase. “They’re trying not to prejudge how Congress and the administration duke it out, but once they see that, I think they will respond. ” There is also uncertainty about the Fed’s leadership. Ms. Yellen’s term as chairwoman ends in February 2018, and Mr. Trump has said he would prefer a Republican. Ms. Yellen could remain on the board, a possibility she said Wednesday she had not ruled out. But the Fed, under different leadership, might well choose a different path forward. Some conservative economists, notably John Taylor of Stanford University, argue that the bank should already have raised rates above 1 percent. The economy, for now, keeps plodding along. Steady job growth has reduced the unemployment rate to a level the Fed considers healthy. A little unemployment is natural as people change jobs and businesses close. Ms. Yellen and other Fed officials have said they see some signs of stronger wage growth. Inflation, too, has picked up a little in recent months, although both wages and inflation continue to rise more slowly than the Fed would like to see. Ms. Yellen described the rate increase as “a vote of confidence in the economy. ” The decision was made by a unanimous vote of the 10 members of the Federal Open Market Committee, the first time in recent months the Fed has acted by consensus. Some economists argue that the Fed should wait until inflation strengthens before raising rates, to test whether a stronger economy would persuade some people sidelined during the downturn to start looking for jobs. That would expand the labor force. Unemployment remains particularly high among minorities. That view, however, has found little support among Fed officials, who worry that interest rates will have to be raised more quickly if they wait too long, increasing the chances of pushing the economy into recession. “Apparently, Fed officials think the economy is growing too quickly,” said Ady Barkan, the director of Fed Up, a coalition of liberal groups that has pressed the Fed to continue its stimulus campaign. “I doubt you can find many other Americans who share that opinion. And it’s a strange conclusion to draw in the wake of an election that was so heavily impacted by voters’ economic discontent. ”

La expresión “no, lo siguiente” ya es la más utilizada no, lo siguiente, en el castellano SE HA HECHO VIRAL NO, LO SIGUIENTE Real Academia de la Lengua El uso de la expresión “no, lo siguiente” ha aumentado no, lo siguiente, en los últimos cinco años. “La gente es bastante fan no, lo siguiente, de esta expresión que lo está petando”, concluía esta mañana la Real Academia de la Lengua (RAE) en la presentación de su informe “Una lengua viva no, lo siguiente”. “Quien acuñara esta forma de hablar la ha liado porque se ha hecho viral”, insisten los académicos, que certifican que el castellano es la lengua más hablada no, lo siguiente, después del chino e incorpora constantemente “formas de expresión que se convierten en memes porque las emplean usuarios que son prescriptores y tienen la tira de seguidores”. “Es un zasca en toda regla al castellano normativo”, confirman los expertos. “También te digo: un día estas aquí y otro allí”, reza el informe de la RAE, refiriéndose a numerosas expresiones que antes molaban pero que “por hache o por be han dejado de estar en el candelabro y al final a la gente se la sudan”. La entidad ha animado a todos sus seguidores a compartir esta nueva información en su muro y a darle a RT.

Well, that sure escalated quickly. “That” was Donald J. Trump’s inaugural news conference as a duly elected United States in which he called BuzzFeed a “failing pile of garbage,” dismissed CNN as “fake news” and more or less told the whole lot of reporters at Trump Tower to stuff it when it comes to his unreleased tax returns because everyday Americans don’t care and, anyway, “I won. ” There were two big lessons in the Wednesday morning melee. 1. Mr. Trump remains a master media manipulator who used his first news briefing since July to expertly delegitimize the news media and make it the story rather than the chaotic swirl of ethical questions that engulf his transition. 2. The news media remains an unwitting accomplice in its own diminishment as it fails to get a handle on how to cover this new and wholly unprecedented president. It better figure things out, fast, because it has found itself at the edge of the cliff. And our (fingers crossed) democracy needs it to stay on the right side of the drop. Journalists should know this by now: Trump’s gonna Trump. But it’s time for them to take a page from the playbook — accept the things they cannot change and then find the courage to change the things they can, in the right ways, not the wrong ways. Given Mr. Trump’s past behavior, there was hardly any doubt that he was going to kneecap his inquisitors on Wednesday. It’s a passion, after all, if not a strategic imperative. But BuzzFeed handed him the steel rod hours before, with its decision to publish an unvarnished dossier filled with unsubstantiated, compromising reports about Mr. Trump allegedly collected by Russian agents, presumably for blackmail purposes. BuzzFeed said it was “publishing the full document so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the that have circulated at the highest levels of the U. S. government. ” Ben Smith, the BuzzFeed editor in chief, wrote that “we have always erred on the side of publishing” and that “publishing this dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017. ” Mr. Smith’s stated rationale highlights the extent to which WikiLeaks and Gawker, which is now defunct, have changed the nature of journalism. Both have at times taken a “publish first, fill in the answers — or don’t — later” approach, but they held particular, outsider roles in the journalistic firmament. And both have run into great trouble because of their styles, in Gawker’s case, fatally (if wrongfully). BuzzFeed, under Mr. Smith, has built up a fine traditional news team that has won journalism awards precisely because it succeeded in the ultimate purposes of its craft: to establish fact from fiction and enhance its readers’ understanding of reality. That’s the opposite of pumping out a bunch of unsubstantiated allegations and then leaving it to readers to “make up their own minds” about them with no reportorial guidance. You can argue that the dossier was going to get out there anyway. But it hadn’t until BuzzFeed published it, even though many news organizations, including this one, had the dossier for months. And had they leaked by some other means, it would be up to journalists to establish their veracity ignore them if possible, debunk them if necessary. That’s what BuzzFeed has done with its reporting on the “fake news” phenomenon, helping to shine an early light on the false stories so many Americans were sharing on Facebook and other social media platforms throughout the campaign. But every journalistic misstep gives more fodder to people who want to stop the efforts against “fake news” by turning the tables and labeling those efforts — or any other solid journalism they don’t like — as “fake news” as well, corrupting the term for their own purposes (a classic case of “no, you are! ”). That’s what Mr. Trump did Wednesday morning. In calling BuzzFeed a “failing piece of garbage,” Mr. Trump gave it a cri de coeur. But there was collateral damage: Mr. Trump’s “fake news” charge against CNN, in front of many millions of Americans, went directly at the network’s core purpose as a global news provider. CNN drew Mr. Trump’s hostility by breaking the news on Tuesday that a former British spy had compiled the Russia dossier and that intelligence officials included a synopsis of it in briefing materials for the . Once CNN opened the door, BuzzFeed followed by publishing the document itself. But as CNN pointed out, it did not share the details of the memos, and it did not even link to the BuzzFeed report, despite false claims to the contrary by Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s adviser. Its decision, the network said, was “vastly different than BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos. ” That, in turn, drew protest from Mr. Smith of BuzzFeed, who said he was “not going to participate in an attempt to divide the media against each other. ” And so, Mr. Trump won again, by succeeding in doing just that. It was all part of a show in which he used news organizations as props in their own lampooning while he played them off each other with labels of good and bad and selectively answered their policy questions. A united front would have given the reporters stronger footing. But that was woefully lacking when Mr. Trump shouted down Jim Acosta of CNN, who said Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, threatened to eject him. The other reporters in the room readily took Mr. Acosta’s place, happy to have their own questions answered. But they could be next. They’re going to have to decide how much they want to abide by Mr. Trump’s decision to selectively quarantine colleagues whose coverage he does not like. There is some precedent for doing the right thing here, from the early days of the Obama administration, when it questioned Fox News’s credentials as a “news organization. ” That was followed by an attempt by the Treasury Department to exclude Fox News from a round of interviews, which the rest of the news media resisted. Speaking in Fox News’s defense, Jake Tapper, then of ABC News, publicly criticized the administration for its effort to exclude “one of our sister organizations. ” So it was fitting that, later on Wednesday, Shepard Smith of Fox News got behind CNN. “It is our observation that its correspondents followed journalistic standards and that neither they nor any other journalists should be subjected to belittling and delegitimizing by the of the United States,” he said on his program. (The same couldn’t be said for his colleague, the opinion host Sean Hannity — proudly “not a journalist” — who on Wednesday night celebrated the news briefing as “the single greatest beatdown of the abusively biased mainstream media in the history of the country. ”) Mr. Acosta, interestingly, made history last spring by becoming the first American journalist to ask a question of a Cuban leader, Raúl Castro, since the earliest days of the Castro regime. It was a hopeful sign of a new day for press freedom in the restrictive communist country. His with Mr. Trump, on the other hand, is a bad sign for press freedom at home. The news media can’t afford a backslide. It’s going to have to do its part to avoid one.

Get short URL 0 37 0 0 A new government report released this week states that the Pentagon spent at least $58 billion over the last 20 years on weapons systems that not only were never built, but often never made it past the design phase. The report, released by the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Frank Kendall, is an internal review of the Defense Department’s acquisition activities, and contains a chart of 23 pricey projects that received billions in initial funding but were later canceled. The report shows this happening as far back as 1997. © REUTERS/ Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald Pentagon Prepares to Start Raqqa Offensive Within Weeks The Army’s Future Combat System was one of the most expensive of the doomed military-money pits, costing over $20 billion, with the RAH-66 Comanche attack and reconnaissance helicopter second with a $9.8 billion price tag before operations were ceased. Taken together these two programs account for 50 percent of what was deemed “sunk costs,” according to the Washington Examiner . The $3.7-billion National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, the $2.7-billion Lockheed Martin VH-71 helicopter, and the $2.5-billion JLENS air-defense blimp are a few of the other pricey and failed ventures detailed in the report. Out of 23 projects, eight were able to spend all of their allocated money before the plug was pulled. ...

Changing the Montenegrin leader does not change the ideology Source: Submitted By Milko Pejovic The statement of the Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic concerning his resignation and the transfer of powers including the formation of a new parliament is actively discussed In Montenegro. Despite a positive outcome for the opposition forces the situation has not changed. Djukanovic explained his resignation by an anti-governmental conspiracy involving foreign intelligence services and the Serbian minority. Under the pretext of dealing with “conspirators” arrests of opposition leaders and activists are being continued in the country. The story about the arrest of “terrorists” who were planning to capture state institutions of Montenegro on the night of 17 October is still discussed in media. Special public prosecutor of Montenegro Milivoje Katnich declared the disclosure of this crime’s plan. However, after a few days weapons seized from the militants were not found in the stock where they were delivered. According to workers of the Prosecutor’s office the weapons were destroyed according to the order of Katnich. The elimination of the main evidence is at least a strange decision. A few days after the elections opposition activists Željko Šćepanović and Gordan Konatar were detained on suspicion of financial fraud. According to law enforcement they had a large amount of money with them. Šćepanović is s member of the party “Movement for Change” and is a relative of Nebojsa Medojevic who is one of the leaders of the DF. The persecution affected not only active participants in the political process but also Aron Shaviv who is the adviser of the DF. Pro-government media ganged up on him with “accusatory” articles. Representatives of law enforcement agencies staged a covert persecution. Anonymous letters are being sent via email and SMS to regular citizens who support the political initiatives of the “Key” and the “Democratic Front” and other parties. Montenegrins are forced to hide their political commitment to the opposition. Activists objectionable to Djukanovic’s regime are under strict ideological pressure from the authorities and law enforcement agencies. Montenegro has long been a police state where it is dangerous to tell the truth, where political changes in the management team does not improve the situation.

WASHINGTON — An American drone strike targeted the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, United States officials said on Saturday, in the most significant American incursion inside Pakistan since Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, the Qaeda leader, in 2011. In a statement issued on Saturday, Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said the military was still assessing whether Mullah Mansour was killed in the strike, which was carried out by an unmanned drone. Mr. Cook said Mullah Mansour was “actively involved” in planning attacks in Kabul and across Afghanistan, and had been “an obstacle to peace and reconciliation between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, prohibiting Taliban leaders from participating in peace talks with the Afghan government that could lead to an end to the conflict. ” A United States official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the military operation, said that the strike occurred around 6 a. m. Eastern time on Saturday, and that Mullah Mansour and a second adult male fighter traveling with him in a vehicle were probably killed. Even so, officials offered caution because early assessments of the deaths of militant and terrorist leaders in American strikes have proved inaccurate in the past. The drone strike, authorized by President Obama, took place in a remote area of Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan, southwest of the town of Ahmad Wal. The strike was carried out by several unmanned aircraft operated by United States Special Operations forces, the official said. News of the strike came as Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the United States Central Command, was completing a secret trip to northern Syria, where he visited American Special Operations forces and met with local fighters being trained by the United States in the battle against the Islamic State. General Votel is the American military official to travel to Syria during the war. But the strike against Mullah Mansour served as a reminder that even as the Obama administration has talked of an end of combat operations in Afghanistan and has focused on fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the fighting in Afghanistan — and the risk of rising militancy there — has continued. “Since the death of Mullah Omar and Mansour’s assumption of leadership, the Taliban have conducted many attacks that have resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Afghan civilians and Afghan security forces as well as numerous U. S. and coalition personnel,” Mr. Cook said in a statement announcing the airstrike. Mullah Mansour had long remained a mystery to American policy makers and the United States military. In the 1990s, he was the Taliban government’s chief of aviation while Afghanistan had few planes he also oversaw the tourism department when there were few tourists. But in the years after the Taliban leadership was driven into exile in Pakistan in 2001, Mullah Mansour became central to the group’s reincarnation as a powerful insurgency. After the death of the Taliban’s founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar, Mullah Mansour became the group’s supreme leader and the architect of the most recent insurgent assault that swept across northern Afghanistan. Yet even as he was acting leader of the Taliban, he kept secret the fact that Mullah Omar had been dead since 2013. And unlike Mullah Omar, Mullah Mansour did not live in hiding. Some of the time he lived in a southern neighborhood of Quetta, Pakistan, in an enclave where he and other Taliban leaders from the same Pashtun tribe, the Ishaqzai, had built homes. And although he is on the United Nations list, Mullah Mansour has repeatedly taken flights in and out of Pakistan, Afghanistan officials said, to Dubai, where he has a house and several investments. Even as the Taliban operating inside Afghanistan remains a formidable and violent force, Mullah Mansour has had difficulties uniting his ranks after months of infighting. In April, for example, a Taliban spokesman said the new leader had appointed the brother and son of Mullah Omar, the movement’s deceased founder, to senior leadership posts. Mullah Mansour has faced criticism and even rebellion from field commanders who distrusted his ties to Pakistan and his handling of the succession. He brutally quashed breakaway groups and sought to buy the support of other skeptical commanders, all while maintaining a publicity campaign that has portrayed him atop a united command. After his confirmation as the new leader of the insurgency, when large gatherings of Taliban were held in Quetta, Mullah Mansour had limited his movements in recent months, Afghan officials say. While the reason given to his subordinates was security — he narrowly missed an attempt on his life, blamed on dissidents within Taliban ranks, in December — keeping the leader at a distance from the commanders follows a pattern that became routine under Mullah Omar. Mullah Mansour’s deputies, including Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is largely running battlefield operations, continue to move freely in Pakistan.

Megyn Kelly is gearing up for the debut of her Sunday newsmagazine show on NBC in June — and the anchor’s first interview on her new network may be with the Kardashian family. [According to TMZ, the former Fox News star was spotted in Los Angeles Thursday morning headed into the same studio in which the family were filming a 10th anniversary special for Today. The whole family was reportedly there, including Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney Kardashian and Kylie, Kendall, and Kris Jenner — though brother Rob Kardashian was absent, as was Caitlyn Jenner, who remained in New York on a press tour. Sources told TMZ that Kelly taped an interview with the family and it would be the centerpiece of the anchor’s debut Sunday news show on NBC in June. Kelly is set to headline both a Sunday show and a morning news show when she begins working at NBC next month, though the morning show is not expected to premiere until later this fall. The Sunday show will reportedly be produced by former Dateline executive producer David Corvo and NBC producer Elizabeth Cole. The New York Post‘s Page Six reported this month that NBC News chairman Andy Lack had traveled to Russia in an attempt to obtain what would likely be a ratings bonanza, an exclusive interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The network was rumored to be trying to get the Putin interview for Kelly’s debut show, though established NBC anchors Matt Lauer and Lester Holt were also said to be in the mix to do the interview. Kelly reportedly turned down a $100 million, contract offer to return to Fox News, telling the Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple in December that she wanted her next job to have “greater balance” so she could spend more time with her children. The former Kelly File host had also clashed with fellow talent and executives at Fox, including former network chief Roger Ailes, whom she accused of sexual harassment in her recently published memoir, Settle For More. A representative for NBC News didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter @dznussbaum

Dr. David Duke with Mark Collett of the UK. Collett explains why Duke & Trump victories would change politics forever! October 28, 2016 at 10:34 am Dr. David Duke with Mark Collett of the UK. Collett explains why Duke & Trump victories would change politics forever! Today Dr. Duke had Mark Collett from the U.K. as his guest for the hour. They talked about developments in Dr. Duke’s race for the U.S. Senate. They also talked about the media’s attempts to avoid discussing the barrage of revelations from WikiLeaks that would sink Hillary’s campaign if the media was doing its job. Mark Collett reported on the Muslim invasion and other developments in Europe. They also talked about the collapse of morality and culture led by this same vicious and anti-white racist Zio media. This is a great show for weekend listening. Please share it widely. Our show is aired live at 11 am replayed at ET 4pm Eastern and 4am Eastern. Click on Image to Donate! And please spread this message to others.

The chief executive of Wells Fargo, John G. Stumpf, will say in testimony Tuesday morning that he is “deeply sorry” for selling customers unauthorized bank accounts and credit cards and that he takes “full responsibility” for the unethical activity, according to a copy of the remarks prepared for a Senate Banking Committee hearing. In his testimony, which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Stumpf strikes a decidedly contrite tone about the scandal over the fake accounts, which has engulfed Wells Fargo since it reached a $185 million settlement with regulators on Sept. 8. Mr. Stumpf has been criticized for publicly attributing the illegal activity to approximately 5, 300 employees who were fired as a result of the sham accounts. Former employees say that workers felt enormous pressure to bend the rules to meet unrealistic sales goals set at the highest levels of the bank. At the same time, Mr. Stumpf will tell lawmakers that the illegal activity, which also included as many as 565, 000 unauthorized credit cards and 1. 5 million sham bank accounts, was not part of an “orchestrated effort, or scheme, as some have called it, by the company. ” “We never directed nor wanted our employees, whom we refer to as team members, to provide products and services to customers they did not want or need,” he will say, according to his testimony. On Tuesday, Mr. Stumpf is expected to face questions from the Senate Banking Committee over what the top managers at Wells Fargo knew about the widespread illegal sales activity and what they had done to stop it since it was first made public almost three years ago. Employees were still being fired well into this year for selling questionable accounts. In his testimony, Mr. Stumpf acknowledged that the bank failed to do enough to stop the behavior from continuing. “I want to apologize for not doing more sooner to address the causes of this unacceptable activity. ”

CNN has released a statement trying to distance their reports from BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unverifiable memos about Donald Trump. [Midday Tuesday, CNN tweeted a full statement from their Twitter account saying, CNN’s decision to publish carefully sourced reporting about the operations of our government is vastly different than BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos. The Trump team knows this. They are using BuzzFeed’s decision to deflect from CNN’s reporting, which has been matched by the other major news organisations. The statement continues, We are fully confident in our reporting. It represents the core of what the First Amendment protects, informing the people of the inner workings of their government in this case, briefing materials prepared for President Obama and Trump last week. We made it clear that we were not publishing any of the details of the document because we have not corroborated the report’s allegations. The statement then poses a direct challenge to the transition team of Trump, Given that members of the Trump transition team have so vocally criticized our reporting, we encourage them to identify, specifically, what they believe to be inaccurate. CNN’s report is here. Buzzfeed’s report is here. Update: Buzzfeed editors are trying to avoid a public argument with CNN over their decision to publish the unverified documents. Editor @BuzzFeedBen tells me they’re ”not going to participate in an attempt to divide the media against each other” following CNN criticism, — Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) January 11, 2017, The full comment from CNN can be read below: Statement from CNN: pic. twitter. — CNN Communications (@CNNPR) January 11, 2017, Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart Tech covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com

“If you were to look at our game board of all the possible outcomes of the election, this one wasn’t even on the sheet. ” That was how Mark T. Bertolini, chief executive of the large health insurer Aetna, described the election of Donald J. Trump as the next president. He was speaking with me last Thursday on stage at The New York Times’s annual conference, DealBook: Playing for the Long Term. “We started with a fresh piece of paper yesterday. We had no idea how to approach it,” Mr. Bertolini said. Business executives across the nation and the world have been whipping out fresh pieces of paper to map how Mr. Trump’s election and Republican control of the White House, Senate and House — which may make Washington’s notorious gridlock a memory — will reshape economic policy. The stock market has jumped, taking many prognosticators by surprise, in anticipation of the seismic changes Mr. Trump has promised: a repeal or refashioning of the Affordable Care Act, a dismantling of the regulations for Wall Street, a substantial haircut for corporate and personal income tax rates, and a major infrastructure spending program, among other things. While the new conventional wisdom may be that the nation is about to see comprehensive change, the truth is that it is likely to be more incremental than across the board. Take, for instance, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. While you would think much of the finance industry would salivate at the chance to rid itself of the law, its view is more nuanced. Most companies have made large investments and changes in their business practices to comply with the law. So it’s hard to see how even the law’s opponents in the industry would press for the full repeal that Mr. Trump said he would pursue. “That omelet has been made that toothpaste is out of the tube,” Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, said at the conference. “I wouldn’t want regulation to be repealed in toto,” he added. “If you want to be good for bankers, you have to have policies that would be good for economic growth. ” More likely than a repeal, Mr. Trump’s administration will try to eliminate the components he has criticized most. A Trump administration could try to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog agency created by which Republicans loathe, for example. “The C. F. P. B. probably won’t be eliminated,” Ian Katz, a research analyst at Capital Alpha Partners in Washington, wrote in a note to clients. “It would be horrible politics and optics to get rid of an agency that was established to protect the little guy. ” Mr. Katz predicted that the Trump administration would be able to push through a switch that critics of the agency have long lobbied for: a shift in control of the consumer bureau from a single director to a bipartisan commission. Mr. Trump might also focus on changing a rule for small banks that grow to more than $10 billion in assets. Currently, such growth catapults a bank into a new regulatory category, one that comes with much stricter scrutiny and more elaborate reporting requirements. This rule has been criticized by the banking industry as an impediment to growth and competition. As for the return of — something Mr. Trump has talked about — don’t bet on it. “The Republican Party’s call for a return to a division of commercial and investment banking shouldn’t be taken seriously,” Mr. Katz wrote. “That was part of a campaign document. Big banks are useful as a populist scapegoat, and Trump may continue to use them in that way. But neither he or his top aides are interested in 2. 0. ” Piecemeal change may also be true of Mr. Trump’s pledge to undo Obamacare, which was one of his bedrock campaign promises. Mr. Bertolini of Aetna predicted: “There will be a repeal first, and I think the repeal will be at a minimum in name. ” It’s nearly impossible for the law to be replaced with the flip of a switch. “Because what’s going to happen in the next year?” he said. “We have people signed up we have to honor that through 2017. We’ll have to work quickly to have something for 2018. ” Mr. Bertolini said that whatever replacement plan might materialize, the government was not going to just stop insuring the 20 million or so people who are covered under the Affordable Care Act. “You can’t put them out on the street without insurance,” he said. His expectation is that Medicare Advantage will be expanded. The backpedaling on the “repeal” pledge has already begun: Mr. Trump has said in the past several days that he intends to make sure that health insurers will not be able to turn away people with conditions, and that people under the age of 26 will still be able to have coverage under their parents’ plans. About the latter provision, Mr. Trump said he would “very much try and keep that. ” In an interview with Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday night, the said that the measure “adds cost, but it’s very much something we’re going to try and keep. ” Of course, the biggest question is how Mr. Trump is going to create a new manufacturing class in America. He has suggested that he is going to renegotiate trade agreements, increase tariffs on goods and deport illegal immigrants — both for security reasons, he contends, and because they take jobs from Americans. How those ambitions ultimately play out is anyone’s guess. One issue that Mr. Trump has seemingly avoided is that of how new technologies are steadily taking American jobs. “The jobs that are routine are going to be replaced by technology,” Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, said at the conference. That’s a truth that may be at odds with Mr. Trump’s ambitions. Still, Mr. Schmidt had an optimistic outlook about how technology already provides unappreciated benefits. “Manufacturing jobs are infinitely safer today because robots do the dangerous work,” he said. “We take that for granted. ” Despite all of the among C. E. O.s surprised about the outcome of the election, there was a sense of optimism — or at least a sense of hope — that pervaded their words. “We all know a lot about Trump the campaigner — now we have to find out about the Trump who needs to get things done,” Mr. Blankfein said. “He will start to think not about getting elected but about what his legacy is going to be,” he continued. “I assume you go into that office and you think about your place in history and things change. ” Mr. Blankfein added, “I’m going to see how it goes before I become mournful. ”

Sean Spicer thanked the media for returning Tom Brady’s stolen jersey pic. twitter. During Tuesday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer took a jab at the former executive of a Mexican tabloid newspaper who allegedly stole New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s jersey after Super Bowl LI. “By the way, I am very happy that the individual in the press corps who took Tom Brady’s jersey, that that has been returned properly,” Spicer said to laughter. “Another bad on the press but we have righted that wrong. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent

Halloween is here again. That means your have planted surprise spiders around the office. You’ve been invited to a haunted hayride. Your neighbor’s yard has a full cemetery, rigged with motion detectors and zombies. from the start, I have always dreaded this time of year. Haunted houses, ghost tours and horror film fests are not my thing, and why people love having the daylights scared out of them completely escapes me. I decided to try to understand my friends who are on the lookout for thrills this time of year. As it turns out, there are many possible reasons some people like to be scared stiff. Each person’s threshold for experiences that provoke fear is made up of a unique recipe that blends nature and nurture. “The ingredients vary from person to person,” said Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University and a former president of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Farley is interested in what draws certain people to extreme behaviors, like driving racecars, climbing Mount Everest and flying hot air balloons across oceans. In the 1980s, he coined the term “Type T” personality to refer to the behavioral profile of . What makes someone he said, comes down to a mix of genes, environment and early development. David Zald, a neuropsychologist at Vanderbilt University, studies one piece of the equation. His research partly focuses on dopamine, a chemical involved in our brain’s response to reward. In the past, he has found that people who lack what he calls “brakes” on dopamine release tend to pursue thrilling activities. When you go to a haunted house, you’re grappling with a conflict, Dr. Zald said: The experience could either be fun or terrifying, and how you weigh that balance could depend in part on dopamine levels. “Having a greater amount of dopamine pushes someone to pursue the goal of excitement,” he said, “whereas someone who basically has less dopamine is more likely to hold back and say, ‘No, this isn’t worth it to me. ’” Socially, we get cues about how to respond to fear from those around us, said Margee Kerr, a sociologist and author of the book “Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear. ” Early on, that’s taking notes from our parents about how to deal with distress. Later, experiencing stressful situations with others can cultivate social bonds. Part of that has to do with emotional contagion, or a communal response to shared experiences, Dr. Kerr said. If your friend is captivated by the horror movie you are watching together, you process that by recreating the same feeling in your own mind, and that can bring you closer together. People also tend to hold onto memories of fear more intensely, she said, so if you have positive associations with a scary situation, like going to a haunted house, you’ll likely want to do it again. can also be a way of testing oneself. Josh Randall and Kristjan Thor, creators of Blackout, a haunted house experience that consistently tops rankings of “Most Extreme Haunted Houses,” said they see many people coming to their events with a goal of . “It’s almost like a dare to themselves,” Mr. Thor said. “People want to be able to conquer something. ” For many, being scared is a jolting escape from daily life. When immersed in a scary situation, you can suspend your disbelief and live in the moment — and that loss of control can feel really good. This is key for Blackout, Mr. Randall said: “For a finite period of time, that audience member can turn off the real world, and live in a fantasy world. ” After talking with the experts, I was starting to see why some friends love getting spooked. But why do I hate being scared so much? It could be because I was never exposed to horror movies or haunted houses growing up, so by the time I did experience these things, I was . It could be that the regions in my brain involved in coding fear and anxiety are more sensitive. Most likely, it is a mix of many different factors. Regardless of the reason though, “it’s perfectly O. K. not to like scary things,” Dr. Kerr said. For people who cannot fathom sitting out a haunted house, it’s important not to coerce your more cautious friends into doing something they do not want to, Dr. Kerr said. “That can compound the fear, and make it even worse. ” So, for any friends who were thinking of inviting me to the haunted house this weekend, save your breath — I have a doctor’s note.

By Thomas Sowell November 1, 2016 The political left keeps announcing as if it is a new breakthrough discovery of theirs, that life is unfair. Have they never read Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” more than two and a half centuries ago? What about economic historian David S. Landes’ statement: “The world has never been a level playing field”? In the joint autobiography of Milton Friedman and his wife Rose, they say: “Everywhere in the world, there are gross inequities of income and wealth. They offend most of us. Few can fail to be moved by the contrast between the luxury enjoyed by some and the grinding poverty suffered by others.” Moreover, Professor Friedman left behind a foundation dedicated to promoting school choice, so that disadvantaged children could get a better education for a better chance in life. What is it that the political left is saying that they think is so new, such a breakthrough and such a necessity for progress? More important, what test of evidence — if any — have they ever subjected their notions to? No one has presented the social vision of the left more often than Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times — and no one has been more certain that those who do not happen to share his vision “just don’t get it,” as he has repeatedly declared. Mr. Kristof’s essay “Growing Up Poor in America” in the October 30th New York Times is a classic example of the mindset of the left. It begins with the story of a poor black teenager in Arkansas, being raised by a single mom. Sometimes he goes hungry and his home does not have even one book. But it does have television sets with huge screens, and apparently, there is money enough to buy marijuana. Surely we can all agree that this young fellow has very unpromising future prospects ahead of him and that this is a human tragedy. The circumstances of his life are unfair to him and none of us would want to be born into such circumstances. Moreover, he is just one of many who are brought up in a setting that is full of dangers and with a low probability of improvement. But that is not enough for Mr. Kristof or for the political left in general. Of such youngsters he says, “as a society, we fail them long before they fail us.” Whoa! Just when did “society” make the decisions and engage in the actions that have led to this teenager being in the bad situation he is in? And just when did “society” acquire either the omniscience or the omnipotence to prevent it? When the left says “society” they usually mean government. That is apparently what “society” means in this case, for Kristof laments that this teenager is “the kind of person whom America’s presidential candidates just don’t talk about.” If the left chooses to believe that government intervention is the answer to such tragedies, that is their right. But, if they expect the rest of us to share that belief, surely they could subject that belief to some empirical test. But we can, however. The 1960s were the triumphant decade of those who wanted government intervention to “solve” what they called “social problems.” How did that workout? What were things like before this social vision triumphed? And what were things like afterward? Homicide victimization rates among black males were going down substantially in the 1940s and the 1950s. But homicide victimization rates reversed and skyrocketed in the 1960s, wiping out all the progress of the two previous decades. When the 1960s began, most black children were born into families with both a mother and a father. After the great welfare state expansion during the 1960s, most black children were born to a single mother, like the youngster in Arkansas today. When the 1960s began, most black children were born into families with both a mother and a father. After the great welfare state expansion during the 1960s, most black children were born to a single mother, like the youngster in Arkansas today. Very similar trends occurred in England after very similar visions and policies also triumphed there in the 1960s. Perhaps it is the left that just doesn’t get it — or cannot face the hard fact that its own vision and policies worsened the very things they claimed would be made better. The Best of Thomas Sowell Tags: Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His Web site is www.tsowell.com .

HONG KONG — A Chinese company is setting up a rare and potentially showdown with the American government over its deal to buy a firm that the United States says could impact national security. The showdown involves Aixtron, a German semiconductor firm being acquired by a Chinese company, Fujian Grand Chip. In a statement on Friday, Aixtron said an American security panel that advises the White House on foreign deals had recommended the two sides drop their plan, citing unspecified national security concerns. Normally, a recommendation like that would be enough to persuade the companies to scotch their plans. But in its statement, Aixtron said it and its Chinese suitor would do something unusual: They would appeal to President Barack Obama directly to approve the deal. Chinese and German companies “plan to continue to actively engage in further discussions to explore means of mitigation that may be amenable” to the White House and the American security panel, according to the Aixtron statement. Mr. Obama has 15 days to decide the fate of the deal, though most likely Mr. Obama will scupper it given presidents usually follow the recommendations of the panel. If the deal is struck down, it would send the message that the United States will continue to carefully scrutinize similar deals — and may act quickly to kill them for national security reasons. The unusual move is sure to spotlight the growing tensions between the United States and China over the latter country’s ambitions to become a power in microchips. While China has made major advancements in technology and computers in recent years, its chip industry is in its infancy, and it still relies on foreign companies for the chips that power even sensitive systems. The move will also shine a light on the shadowy security panel that recommended the deal be dropped. The panel — called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and commonly known as Cfius — has been increasingly at odds with an expansive new Chinese effort to spend billions acquiring foreign companies. The panel is composed of representatives from major departments and intelligence agencies like Commerce and Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency. Cfius has the power to review any deal that could impact American national security, and either come up with ways to mitigate that impact or recommend the president block the deal. While the Aixtron deal does not involve an American company, Aixtron itself does considerable business in the United States, and lack of American approval would shut that business off. Beijing has highlighted its intentions of catching up to the rest of the world in semiconductors. It has spent hugely to help fund efforts by private Chinese companies and national champions to acquire foreign firms that make microchips, the brains of everything from supercomputers to smartphones to guided missiles. But Cfius reviews or concerns about them have derailed a number of proposed Chinese acquisitions of chip makers around the world. Earlier this year a group of Chinese investors abandoned plans to spend $2. 9 billion on a majority stake in a business owned by Philips of the Netherlands after Cfius noted the business specialized in a material key to making semiconductors. In the case of Aixtron, the companies are asking Mr. Obama to decide directly — a move that has been made only twice before. In 1990 President George H. W. Bush canceled the sale of an aviation company to Chinese bidders. In 2012 President Obama forced a Chinese firm to divest from a wind project deemed too close to a Navy facility in Oregon. The continuing Aixtron saga is a study in how difficult it can be to track which Chinese investments are private and which are state led. In October, The New York Times highlighted how a Chinese customer that dropped a large order — in turn crashing Aixtron’s shares — had a relationship with the acquirer, Fujian Grand Chip, through government investment funds. The connection doesn’t indicate wrongdoing, but does illustrate the blurred lines between Chinese industrial policy and the constellation of privately owned but companies that have been tasked with acquiring new Chinese technological capabilities. In a surprise move last month, German authorities withdrew approval for the takeover without specifying a reason. Because Cfius decisions are considered confidential, the regulator did not say what concerns it had with the acquisition. One possibility is Aixtron’s leading position making technology that creates chips based on an advanced semiconductor material called gallium nitride. The technology has been used in tech as mundane as Disc players, but its resistance to heat and radiation give it a number of military and space applications. Chips based on the technology are used in radar for antiballistic missiles and in an Air Force radar system, called Space Fence, that is used to track space debris. Cfius’s recommendation against the Philips deal earlier this year stemmed in part from that business’s involvement in gallium nitride.

FBI Obtains Warrant To Search Huma Abedin's Emails zero hedge While we explained earlier today why the DOJ and FBI had found themselves in the awkward position of knowing that Anthony Weiner's computer contained thousands of Huma Abedin emails sent from Hillary Clinton's private server, yet were unable to access them, we noted it was only a matter of time before this particular hurdle was rectified. A few hours later, according to CBS' Jeff Pegues, in the matter of the FBI having much needed access to begin poring over Weiner's emails, which we now know number roughly 650,000 (and thus will take the FBI months to pore over), the FBI has just obtained the needed warrant. — Jeff Pegues (@jeffpeguescbs) October 30, 2016 As NBC confirms , the FBI obtained a warrant to search emails related to the Hillary Clinton private server probe that were discovered on ex-congressman Anthony Weiner's laptop. The warrant came two days after FBI director James Comey revealed the existence of the emails, which law-enforcement sources said were linked to Weiner's estranged wife, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The FBI already had a warrant to search Weiner's laptop, but that only applied to evidence of his allegedly illicit communications with an underage girl. The warrant came moments after Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid scolded Comey, saying in a letter that he " demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be clear intent to aid one political party over another. " Reid added that his office determined that Comey may have violated the Hatch Act, which bars government officials from using their authority to influence elections. The following screengrab from WaPo, perhaps summarizes best how the democrats' take on things has changed dramatically over the past few weeks: Meanwhile, the CBS reporter also noted that according to law enforcement sources HumaAbedin Is cooperating and "seemed surprised that emails were there." #developing #law enforcement sources also say #HumaAbedin Is cooperating and "seemed surprised that emails were there." — Jeff Pegues (@jeffpeguescbs) October 30, 2016 Finally, Pegues also points out that after having fieled much pressure from Democrats for the past 48 hours, FBI Director Comey has been quietly reaching out to members of Congress as pressure mounts on him. #BREAKING News #FBI Director #Comey has been quietly reaching out to members of #Congress as pressure mounts on him. — Jeff Pegues (@jeffpeguescbs) October 30, 2016 So will the FBI promptly announce that nothing of material important was found among Weiner's emails, or will it now begin a protracted, intensive investigation? Will Comey resigns? Will Huma quit from her role in the Clinton campaign? Will Loretta Lynch take some of the blame? We hope to have some of these much needed answers in the coming days as the FBI's reopened probe begins gaining traction. Share This Article...

PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Trump administration is planning to roll out its first concrete measures against China on trade, administration officials said on Thursday, hardening its position toward America’s largest trading partner just as President Trump welcomed President Xi Jinping of China to his seaside club here for their first meeting. Sometime after Mr. Xi leaves the United States, these officials said, Mr. Trump plans to sign an executive order targeting countries that dump steel into the American market, an aggressive measure aimed mainly at China. It is unclear exactly what the order would do or how harsh it would be, but it would be designed to begin to make good on Mr. Trump’s promise during the campaign to redress China’s huge trade surplus with the United States. In addition, an official said, the White House is moving out a senior economy policy official, Andrew Quinn, who had helped negotiate the Partnership, former President Barack Obama’s signature trade initiative. Mr. Quinn had become the subject of a battle between two camps in the White House: economic nationalists, who wanted him out, and more mainstream backers of free trade, who defended him. Taken together, these developments constituted a potentially significant victory for the coming off a string of setbacks in their efforts to persuade the president to deliver on the most combative planks of his presidential campaign. But the ultimate outcome of this policy debate is still far from clear, several officials said. Mr. Trump does not plan to confront Mr. Xi with the most aggressive of his campaign threats: a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Nor is the United States likely to designate China a currency manipulator, something he promised to do as a candidate. Holding back those moves suggests Mr. Trump is also heeding the more moderate voices among his advisers, who argue that the United States cannot afford to ignite a trade war with China. “The nativist and nationalist forces certainly have influence,” said Nicholas Lardy, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Peterson International Institute for Economics. “But it looks like it’s dwindling rapidly. ” Mr. Lardy said cases on steel were mostly symbolic, since American imports of steel from China accounted for only a few percentage points of the trade deficit. The Obama administration filed multiple cases with the World Trade Organization. Still, the pitched battle over trade policy, on the eve of Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Xi, injected an unpredictable note into an encounter that has been billed mostly as a session for the two leaders. Mr. Trump made it clear the informal setting would not prevent him from confronting his guest with the chronic imbalances between the United State and China. “We have been treated unfairly and have made terrible trade deals with China for many, many years,” he said to reporters on Air Force One. “That’s one of the things we are going to be talking about. ” Mr. Xi arrived in Florida on Thursday afternoon, stepping off his Air China flight into the humid air of Palm Beach. On Thursday evening, he attended a formal dinner at Mr. Trump’s estate. A series of meetings were scheduled for Friday morning, followed by a working lunch. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson greeted Mr. Xi and his wife, who walked on a red carpet, flanked by an honor guard carrying flags of both countries. Mr. Trump, who arrived from Washington later, greeted Mr. Xi in an arrival ceremony at the front steps of the estate. Speaking to reporters afterward, Mr. Tillerson said the president was prepared to demand an “economic relationship that is fair on both sides” and said the chief goal of the nation’s trade policy would be fashioned after the president’s “America First” credo. “To that end,” he said, “we will pursue economic engagement with China that prioritizes the economic of the American people. ” For weeks leading up to this meeting, China has served as a kind of proxy for Mr. Trump’s advisers to play out their clashing worldviews. The contingent — led by the president’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, and the director of the National Trade Council, Peter Navarro — squared off against the more traditional group, which included two former Goldman Sachs executives, Gary D. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, and the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin. Mr. Mnuchin, one official said, has gravitated in recent days toward a tougher line on China. Mr. Bannon, officials said, pushed hard for the removal of Mr. Quinn, a special assistant for international trade, investment and development. Mr. Quinn had the support of his boss, Mr. Cohn, a Democrat who has emerged as an influential voice with Mr. Trump on economic policy. But he was unable to save Mr. Quinn, who will return to his previous post with the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In a conciliatory gesture, the two countries are expected to announce they will continue to hold an annual dialogue on strategic and economic issues, which began during the George W. Bush administration and continued under Mr. Obama, though there has been some talk of elevating the session to the level of Vice President Mike Pence. Among the sensitive topics that may come up is American concern about the possibility that Chinese investors might seek to purchase the nuclear power business of Westinghouse Electric Co. Westinghouse, once a symbol of America’s leadership in nuclear energy, was forced to file for bankruptcy in late March, in the face of mounting losses. Though many of its wounds were — a disastrous deal for a construction business proved too costly — broad market and industry forces have also changed the economic calculus for nuclear energy. American officials are profoundly concerned about the potential national security implications of a purchase of Westinghouse by interests with ties to the Chinese government, including the danger that a sale could deliver sensitive nuclear secrets to that nation. A White House official said Thursday that the administration is watching the potential sale closely but declined to comment on options that the United States government might have to block the sale to Chinese interests. Bloomberg News first reported about the government’s concern about the sale. Discussions about the issue are underway among top American officials at the Department of Energy, the State Department and the Treasury Department. Even before the bankruptcy, Westinghouse’s Japanese parent was already moving away from the business of building nuclear power plants, focusing instead on maintaining existing reactors and developing reactors. It follows a broad pattern in the business, as big companies reassess the viability of nuclear and the field of players shrinks. General Electric has pared its nuclear operations, while the French builder Areva is going through a major restructuring. China has been moving to fill the void, as it increasingly develops its nuclear abilities and pushes homegrown players to look for opportunities beyond their borders. But China’s increasing presence in nuclear energy has raised security concerns in some countries.

Pew Research Center’s national survey on the overall trust of the American people in the federal government is “near historic lows,” with just 20 percent saying they trust it to do what’s right “always or most of the time. ”[Those that trust the government “some of the time” is much higher — 68 percent — and 11 percent said they “never trust the government. ” Pew points out in the article accompanying the survey results that a shift in power at the White House and Republican control in both chambers of Congress has shifted perspectives of the government: The changes in the dynamics of power in Washington have registered with members of both political parties. Somewhat more Republicans express trust in government today than did so prior to the election, while views among Democrats have moved in the opposite direction. For the first time since George W. Bush’s presidency, Republicans (28%) are more likely than Democrats (15%) to say they can trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time. The number of Americans who describe their feeling toward the federal government as “frustrated” were in the majority at 55 percent. This compares with 22 percent who chose “angry” and only 19 percent who said they are “basically content. ” Confidence in the country’s future also reflects partisan attitudes, Pew reported. Overall, 41 percent of Americans say they have “quite a lot” of confidence in the future of the U. S. while 30% have some confidence. The number who say they have “little or no confidence” is 28 percent, up from 15 percent in the fall of 2015. Since then, the share of Republicans expressing quite a lot of confidence in the nation’s future has increased 19 percentage points — from 40% to 59% — while falling 22 points among Democrats — 50% to 28%. Pew Research Center conducted the survey between April with 1, 501 adults participating.

Former National Guardsman turned Islamic State sympathizer Mohamed Jalloh of Sterling, Virginia pled to guilty in federal court Thursday to a terrorism charge related to a July arrested during an FBI sting operation. Jalloh, a 27 year old naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone was arrested on July 3rd as part of an FBI counterterrorism operation in which he had communicated to a federal informant that he was interested in participating in a “Fort Hood ” style attack. Jalloh was apprehended by federal agents after purchasing a Stag Arms rifle at a Virginia arms dealer that had been rendered inoperable as part of the operation. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office , authorities discovered during their operation that Jalloh was attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State by “assisting in the procurement of weapons” to be used in an attack on U.S. soil. Following his arrest, Jalloh admitted to traveling to Africa to join the Islamic State, adding that he had quit the National Guard after listening to online lectures from deceased al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Aulaqi. Via Justice.Gov …in March 2016, a now-deceased member of ISIL brokered an introduction between Jalloh, 26, of Sterling, Virginia, and an individual in the United States who actually was an FBI confidential human source (CHS). The ISIL member was actively plotting an attack in the United States and believed the attack would be carried out with the assistance of Jalloh and the CHS. …Jalloh stated that he recently had taken a six-month trip to Africa, where he had met with ISIL members in Nigeria and first began communicating online with the ISIL member who later brokered his introduction to the CHS. During their meeting, Jalloh also told the CHS that he often thought about conducting an attack and that he knew how to shoot guns. Jalloh praised the gunman who killed five U.S. military members in a terrorist attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 2015, and stated that he had been thinking about conducting an attack similar to the November 2009 attack at Ft. Hood, Texas. During the May 2016 meeting, Jalloh asked the CHS about the timeline for an operation and commented that it was better to plan an operation for the month of Ramadan. Jalloh also asked if the CHS could assist him in providing a donation to ISIL. Ultimately, Jalloh provided a prepaid cash transfer of $500 to a contact of the CHS that Jalloh believed was a member of ISIL, but who was in fact an undercover FBI employee. During federal court Thursday Jalloh’s attorney , Joe Flood, stated that the defense plans to “ provide context ” during a February sentencing hearing in an effort to explain the defendant’s actions and what lead to his decisions. Jalloh currently faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

Follow on Facebook Print This Post CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT The nationwide boycott of all Carlton United Brewery products reached new heights over the weekend, after it was revealed that a camp of ringers in Queensland’s Channel Country have only been drinking Sauvignon Blanc for the last five weeks. They join a growing political movement of punters that are abstaining from drinking any of Australia’s highest-selling beer brands, in a showing of support for 55 workers who lost their jobs at Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) in June. These men and women are also known as the #CUB55. The maintenance workers lost their jobs after CUB terminated a machine maintenance contract with employer Quant, they were then offered their jobs back again at a 65% lower wage, after penalty rates and other entitlements. E.H Pearson Cattle Company ‘s head stockman, Ronnie Austin says although he and his mates often punch on with the unionised Betoota shearing contractors, joining the CUB Boycott was a “no fucking brainer”. “I’m usually not a big supporter of the Unions, but you can’t carry on the way these blokes have been” “It’s fucking crook, mate” Austin says it’s been hard work trying to avoid getting stuck into a few green demons at knock off after pushing cattle all day, but it’s their duty as fellow workers to support the CUB 55. “It’s been tough. But we are all starting to get around the lively fruit flavours of the Jacob’s Creek Sauvignon Blanc” “The passionfruit and citrus prevail across the palate, which is pretty much enhanced by the fresh natural acidity which provides vibrancy and length on the finish” With the Mount Isa New Years Eve Rodeo as the next big event pencilled in on their calendars, Austin says the Betoota boys are prepared to throw down with anyone who questions their choice of drink. “If CUB haven’t sorted this mess out by then, well yes of course we will still be drinking white wine on New Years Eve” “If anyone has problem with it then they can come and talk to me and Rocko. It won’t be the first time we’ve had to bust heads in the Isa” “In fact anyone who wants to drink VB around me better have a note from their doctor because It’s just bloody unaustralian” It seems the CUB boycott has travelled across all cultures and state borders in Australia, with workers unions in Brisbane marching as well as hipster musicians now being forced to choose between supported the workers and drinking Melbourne Bitter ironically.

Thursday at the White House press briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer rebuked New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush for yelling out a question. When Thrush tried to shout out a question Spicer said, “Glenn, this isn’t a TV program … OK? You don’t get to just yell out questions. We’re going to raise our hands like big boys and girls. Because it’s not your job to just yell out questions. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

National leaders are celebrating the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court as a huge “win for the movement. ”[The Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) is featuring a photo of President Donald Trump’s letter to leaders, expressing his gratitude for their efforts to confirm Gorsuch to the Supreme Court: Here’s the letter @POTUS sent us thanking Susan B. Anthony List members for taking action to #ConfirmGorsuch #ProLife pic. twitter. — Susan B Anthony List (@SBAList) April 7, 2017, Congratulations to our new Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch thank you @POTUS for nominating him! #ProLife #ConfirmGorsuch 🎉🎈🍾 pic. twitter. — Susan B Anthony List (@SBAList) April 7, 2017, The Senate’s vote to confirm Gorsuch comes one day after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to change the procedural rules of the chamber and end the Democrats’ filibuster of Trump’s nominee. “The swift fulfillment of President Trump’s commitment to appoint Supreme Court justices is a tremendous win for the movement,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement. “Susan B. Anthony List has been rallying the grassroots behind Judge Gorsuch’s nomination for months, including rallies in seven states where came out in force to urge their Senators to confirm Gorsuch. ” Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, also applauds Gorsuch’s confirmation: We were pleased to support Judge Gorsuch’s nomination, as were our grassroots activists from across America who sent thousands of messages to their Senators in support of his nomination. We thank Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for remaining steadfast throughout this process and President Trump for keeping his promise to the American people in nominating a Justice to the Supreme Court. ”The March for Life congratulates Judge Neil #Gorsuch on his historic confirmation to the Supreme Court today.” https: . — March for Life (@March_for_Life) April 7, 2017, In exit poll reporting in November, CNN observed that 70 percent of voters said appointments to the Supreme Court were important to their vote, with 56 percent of Trump voters stating they were the most important factor. Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, also hailed the Senate’s vote to confirm Gorsuch. “Judge Gorsuch’s confirmation is Exhibit A for the argument that advocates for life and religious liberty need to vote,” said Pavone. “Without the active participation of social conservatives in last year’s elections, today we would be looking at a Supreme Court dominated by extreme justices. Instead, there’s great hope for the future. ” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the Supreme Court vacancy after the sudden death last year of Justice Antonin Scalia “became a defining issue of the 2016 presidential election. ” “President Trump made history by telling voters who he would appoint to the Court by providing a list — the American people chose him and he in turn chose from the list, keeping his promise,” Perkins added. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said Gorsuch’s confirmation is “a huge win for the Trump administration and for the movement. ” “Students for Life commends President Trump for keeping his promise to appoint a judge in the mold of the late Justice Scalia, and we look forward to the day when abortion on demand, in all nine months of pregnancy is no longer the law of the land,” she said. Maureen Ferguson, senior policy adviser with The Catholic Association, said Gorsuch’s confirmation will help to correct the “alarming erosion” of the First Amendment right to practice one’s faith without discrimination. “Senate Republicans have restored the true tradition of confirming justices without filibusters and the of recent years,” she added.

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Valentina Sampaio is one of those leggy, lush brunette models for which Brazil is famous. And it was her striking beauty and “sparkling personality,” the French Vogue editor Emmanuelle Alt said, that led her to feature the on the magazine’s March cover. Ms. Alt wrote in her editor’s letter that transgender people are “the ultimate of a rejection of conformity” — the sort of “icons that Vogue supports and chooses to celebrate. ” French Vogue is not the first fashion magazine to feature a transgender model on its cover. Hari Nef appeared on Frische, a fashion and art magazine, in 2014 Andreja Pejić was on Marie Claire Spain a year ago and Ms. Sampaio on Elle Brazil last October, to name a few. But the action was groundbreaking for the Vogue empire as well as the French fashion establishment, in part because of the cover line — “Transgender beauty: How it’s shaking up the world” — below Ms. Sampaio’s face. Ms. Alt wrote that being transgender “is a detail one would prefer not to have to mention,” adding that Ms. Sampaio was not on the cover only for her looks “but because despite herself she embodies an arduous struggle to be recognized and not be perceived as something Other, a gender exile. ” French Vogue’s editorial choices have long pushed social limits. In the 1970s, it published sexually charged images by Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton, most notably Mr. Newton’s 1979 picture of Gia Carangi, fashion’s first openly lesbian model, wearing an Yves Saint Laurent evening gown and being seduced by an androgynous woman in a Saint Laurent tuxedo. (It is worth noting that Ms. Sampaio greatly resembles Ms. Carangi.) In 2007, Carine Roitfeld, then the French Vogue editor, ran a Bruce cover of the blonde Carolyn Murphy horsing around with Andre J. a black, bearded androgynous model who was wearing a mini trench. Still, the fact that the current issue reached newsstands the same week that President Trump reversed federal policy protecting some rights of transgender students — and during a French presidential campaign in which populism looms — made Ms. Alt’s cover statement that much more pointed. Jonathan Newhouse, the chairman and chief executive of Condé Nast International, the parent company of French Vogue, called the cover a brilliant decision. “It reinforces the power of the Vogue brand as a bold, innovative and highly relevant voice in the worlds of journalism and fashion,” Mr. Newhouse said. “I am not aware of any commercial impact, either positive or negative. My impression is a lot of people liked it. ” Olivier Lalanne, the magazine’s deputy editor, said the public response had been “positive and encouraging” with “no backlash at all for the moment. ” Ms. Sampaio concurred. “I’ve only had supercool feedback,” she said last week. On her Instagram feed, @valentts, her following has shot up by several thousand to more than 53, 000, and the Vogue cover image has received laudatory comments such as “You are beautiful,” “History made” and “#finally. ” It helps that Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, the photographers who shot the cover and its accompanying fashion story, were careful to avoid clichés or fetishizing Ms. Sampaio. The magazine published two cover versions: In one, Ms. Sampaio shimmers in a gold lamé Saint Laurent evening gown, her eyes piercing a haunting violet light in the second, a she is bathed in a flare of fuchsia. For the fashion spread, Ms. Alt dressed Ms. Sampaio in a series of sexy 1970s throwbacks, such as a Louis Vuitton sheer black gown over a black cutout bodysuit a Balenciaga red poppy print blouse and skintight pants and a pair of slouchy Dolce Gabbana leopard print sequined pants, her naked torso and modest breasts painted gold. “It’s not gratuitous,” Mr. Lalanne said. “It makes sense as a story, therefore it doesn’t shock. ” Ms. Sampaio, who grew up in Aquiraz, a fishing town in northern Brazil, said, “I always felt like a girl. ” She refused to reveal what her name was before she chose Valentina, or when she transitioned, but did allow that her father, a fisherman, and her mother, a schoolteacher, “were always supportive and are very proud” of her choice. Her schoolmates accepted her, too, “since they already saw me as a little girl. ” She was studying fashion when she was discovered by a makeup artist a few years ago and signed by a modeling agency based in São Paulo. At first, there were a few “incidents,” as she puts it — clients who refused to hire her because she was transgender — and she considered giving up her new career. But after other transgender models, like Ms. Pejić, Ms. Nef and Lea T, Riccardo Tisci’s muse, moved firmly into the fashion mainstream, Ms. Sampaio found herself working steadily for magazines and on the runways. Last year, L’Oréal produced a short film about Ms. Sampaio, which it released on International Women’s Day. She is now one of the brand’s ambassadors. It was Mr. Alas and Mr. Piggott who brought Ms. Sampaio to the attention of Ms. Alt and Mr. Lalanne. “They found her beautiful,” Mr. Lalanne said. “And we agreed. ” Ms. Sampaio traveled to London for the shoot in December and had no idea it included the cover until she was on the set. “For Vogue to shine a light on someone who changed her sex when it is such a hotly debated topic projects a calming image of tolerance,” Mr. Lalanne said. “Fashion is freer than other domains in the arts. It opens doors, and we are able to highlight people who are social antagonists. So we have. ” As for Ms. Alt, she said she longed for the day when a transgender person “poses on the front cover of a fashion magazine and it is no longer necessary to write an editorial on the subject. ” Only then, she said, “will we know that the battle is won. ”

How the Oligarchy Has Prepared the Groundwork for Stealing the Election In addition to the cyber manipulation of electronic voting (see http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/11/01/very-easy-to-invisibly-steal-us-elections/ ), Finian Cunningham explains a second method the Oligarchy has prepared that would allow the election to be stolen for Hillary. The groundwork that has been officially established indicates that a false flag cyber attack is the preferred method. A Digital 9/11 If Trump Wins by Finian Cunningham There are disturbing signs that a digital 9/11 false flag terror attack is being readied for election day in the US to ensure that Donald Trump does not win. Such an attack – involving widespread internet and power outage – would have nothing to do with Russia or any other foreign state. It would be furnished by agencies of the US Deep State in a classic “false flag” covert manner. But the resulting chaos and “assault on American democracy” will be conveniently blamed on Russia. That presents a double benefit. Russia would be further demonized as a foreign aggressor “justifying” even harsher counter measures by America and its European allies against Moscow. Secondly, a digital attack on America’s presidential election day this week, would allow the Washington establishment to pronounce a Trump win invalid due to “Russian cyber subversion”. Invalidation is a prepared option if the ballot results show Republican candidate Donald Trump as the imminent victor. Democrat rival Hillary Clinton is the clear choice for the White House among the Washington establishment. She has the backing of Wall Street finance capital, the corporate media, the military-industrial complex and the Deep State agencies of the Pentagon and CIA. The fix has been in for months to get her elected by the powers-that-be owing to her well-groomed obedience to American imperialist interests. The billionaire property magnate Trump is too much of a maverick to be entrusted with the White House, as far as the American ruling elite are concerned. The trouble is that, despite the massive campaign to discredit Trump, polls show his support remains stubbornly close to Clinton’s. The latter has been tainted with too many scandals involving allegations of sleazy dealings with Wall Street, so-called pay-for-play favors while she was former Secretary of State, and her penchant for inciting overseas wars for regime change using jihadist terrorist foot-soldiers. As one headline from McClatchy News only days ago put it: “Majority of voters think Clinton acted illegally, new poll finds”. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article112635048.html#emlnl=Evening_Newsletter Trump is right. The US presidential election is rigged. The system is heavily stacked against any candidate who does not conform with the interests of the establishment. The massive media-orchestrated campaign against Trump is testimony to that. But such is popular disgust with Clinton, her sleaze-ball husband Bill and the Washington establishment that her victory is far from certain. Indeed in the last week before voting this Tuesday various polls are showing a neck-and-neck race with even some indicators putting the Republican narrowly ahead. Over the weekend, the Washington Post, which has been one of the main media outlets panning Trump on a daily basis, reported this: “The electoral map is definitely moving in Trump’s direction”. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/04/dont-look-now-the-electoral-map-is-definitely-moving-in-donald-trumps-direction/?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1 In recent days, American media are reporting a virtual state of emergency by the US government and its security agencies to thwart what they claim are Russian efforts to incite “election day cyber mayhem.” In one “exclusive” report by the NBC network on November 3, it was claimed that: “The US government believes hackers from Russia or elsewhere may try to undermine next week’s presidential election and is mounting an unprecedented effort to counter their cyber meddling.” http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/white-house-readies-fight-election-day-cyber-mayhem-n677636?cid=sm_tw On November 4, the Washington Post reported: “Intelligence officials warn of Russian mischief in election and beyond.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russia-seen-as-unable-to-alter-election-but-may-still-seek-to-undermine-it/2016/11/03/b7387160-a1cd-11e6-8832-23a007c77bb4_story.html Apparently, the emergency security response is being coordinated by the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, the National Security Agency and other elements of the Defense Department, according to NBC. These claims of Russian state hackers interfering in the US political system are not new. Last month, the Obama administration officially accused Moscow of this alleged malfeasance. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/07/us-russia-dnc-hack-interfering-presidential-election Russian President Vladimir Putin has lambasted American claims that his country is seeking to disrupt the presidential elections as “hysterical nonsense”, aimed at distracting the electorate from far more deep-rooted internal problems. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/putin-rejects-claims-russian-interference-us-election-43103312 The Obama administration and its state security agencies have not provided one iota of evidence to support their allegations against Russia. Nevertheless the repeated charges have a tendency to stick. The Clinton campaign has for months been accusing Trump of being a “pro-Russian stooge”. Clinton’s campaign has also claimed that Russian hackers have colluded with the whistleblower organization Wikileaks to release thousands of private emails damaging Clinton with the intention of swaying the election in favor of Trump. Wikileaks’ director Julian Assange and the Russian government have both rejected any suggestion that they are somehow collaborating, or that they are working to get Trump elected. But on the eve of the election, the US authorities are recklessly pushing hysteria that Russia is trying to subvert American democracy. Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014 is quoted as saying: “The Russians are in an offensive mode and the US is working on strategies to respond to that, and at the highest levels.” NBC cites a senior Obama administration official as saying that the Russians “want to sow as much confusion as possible and undermine our process”. Ominously, the news outlet adds that “steps are being taken to prepare for worst-case scenarios, including a cyber-attack that shuts down part of the power grid or the internet.” Nearly two weeks ago, on October 21-22, the US was hit with a widespread internet outage. The actors behind the “distributed denial of service” were not identified, but the disruption was nationwide and it temporarily disabled many popular consumer services. One former official at the US Department of Homeland Security described the event as having “all the signs of what would be considered a drill”. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/white-house-readies-fight-election-day-cyber-mayhem-n677636?cid=sm_tw Could that cyber-attack have been the work of US Deep State agencies as a dress rehearsal for an even bigger outage planned for November 8 – election day? The Washington establishment wants Clinton over Trump. She’s the marionette of choice for their strategic interests, including a more hostile foreign policy towards Russia in Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere. But Trump might prove to be the voters’ choice. In which case, the shadowy forces that really rule America can trigger a “digital 9/11”. It’s not difficult to imagine the chaos and mayhem from internet blackout, power, transport, banking and communications paralysis – even for just a temporary period of a few hours. Months of fingering Russia as a destabilizing foreign enemy intent on interfering in US democracy to get “Comrade Trump” into the White House would then serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy. In that event, the US authorities could plausibly move to declare the election of Donald J Trump null and void. In fact the scenario could be contrived to a far more serious level than merely invalidating the election result. The US authorities could easily feign that a state of emergency is necessary in order to “defend national security”. That contingency catapults beyond “rigged politics”. It is a green light for a coup d’état by the Deep State forces who found that they could not win through the “normal” rigging methods. Originally published: https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201611061047117877-digital-9-11-if-trump-wins/ The post How the Oligarchy Has Prepared the Groundwork for Stealing the Election appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org .

LONDON — If walls could talk, Chatsworth House, with its sublime Painted Hall, Sculpture Gallery and endless parade of gilded staterooms, would have some tales to tell. Considered one of the great treasure houses of England, set amid the rolling green hills of the Derbyshire Dales, the estate has played host over the last 500 years to some of Britain’s most captivating and infamous women, including: Bess of Hardwick Mary, Queen of Scots Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire Kathleen Kennedy, known as Kick (sister to John F. Kennedy) and Deborah Mitford, known as Debo. Their stories, and much more, will be revealed as part of an exhibition, “House Style: Five Centuries of Fashion at Chatsworth,” which opens to the public on Saturday. Curated by Hamish Bowles, international editor at large at American Vogue, and with creative direction and design by Patrick Kinmonth and Antonio Monfreda, the exhibition will delve into Chatsworth’s rich sartorial heritage, using the lives of its inhabitants and their glamorous guests as mannequins on which to hang stories of the wider history of the house. “To be let loose in the wardrobe rooms, the gold vaults, the muniment room and the closets, cupboards and attics of Chatsworth — a place I came to as a little boy with a ticket in my hand and wonder in my eyes — has been a truly joyous experience,” Mr. Bowles said recently in a telephone call from the stately home. Lady Laura Burlington, the of the current Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, conceived of the exhibition while hunting for a christening robe. She found umpteen perfectly preserved options complete with capes, underdresses and bonnets, which led her to wonder what else might lie undiscovered. Six years later, Mr. Bowles has seen his curatorial vision become a reality. The exhibition is organized by theme, including Coronation Dress Bess of Hardwick and the Tudor Influence the Georgiana Effect and Country Living and Entertaining at Chatsworth, though a standout moment for him may be a reimagining of the Devonshire House Ball, situated in the grandest staterooms in the house. Held in 1897 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, the ball, with 400 guests dressed as allegorical figures (and, crucially, photographed) was the grandest fancy dress ball of the century. Assistant curators for the exhibition spent months tracking down a handful of the original costumes, bringing them together for the first time since the night of the party. Mr. Bowles gasped as he described a Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, gown made by the couturier Worth for Louise, the formidable wife of the eighth duke, and arguably the jewel in the display’s crown. “So often,” Mr. Bowles said, “clothing is the most vivid entry point into getting a sense of how people of the past lived and existed in an environment or even a single moment in time. To create this exhibit on the landscape of Chatsworth, where so many legendary lives and moments have unfolded, has just been extraordinary. ” Lady Burlington, a former model and fashion buyer, said that her first meeting with Mr. Bowles was less than auspicious. “We met many years ago on an fashion shoot for Harper’s and Queen,” Lady Burlington said, “where Hamish was the stylist, I was the model, and thanks to an overly snug Vivienne Westwood corset, I promptly fainted. ” Mr. Bowles helped revive her, she added, by giving her a cup of tea and a biscuit. Luckily, their next meeting proved more fruitful. Beyond the historical gems they unearthed, the exhibition is notable for its wealth of contemporary contributions, with garments from modern fashion labels like Alexander McQueen, Erdem, Maison Margiela, Vetements, Vivienne Westwood and Gucci, the exhibition’s principal sponsor. Last year, Gucci shot its 2017 cruise collection at Chatsworth, and the house clearly made its mark on the creative director Alessandro Michele, who said it was “unlike anywhere else in the world, full of charm and rituals. ” “You can see history everywhere,” Mr. Michele said, “yet everything is alive. ” The most recent Gucci runway collection was packed with what Lady Burlington termed “Chatsworth detail,” including fabrics, colors and bejeweled bugs and bees crawling over suiting and shirts. Given the calligraphy offerings on the Milan runway last month, Mr. Michele may also have been taken with the 11th duke’s trove of novelty slogan pullovers, printed with phrases like “Get Up and Do Something,” “Far Better Not” “All Passion Spent” and “Never Marry a Mitford. ” The duke’s wife, Debo Mitford (one of six Mitford sisters who dominated British high society in the 1930s) died in 2014, but she is represented in the exhibition. An ice pink satin “Carmel” gown she commissioned from Dior from its spring 1953 collection is a centerpiece of the show, while other highlights include her collection of bug and butterfly brooches and a pair of her favorite slippers, emblazoned with the image of Elvis Presley. Lady Burlington added wistfully that there might have been even more from the dowager duchess in the exhibition had she not willingly given away so many treasures. “Debo kept some things for sentimental reasons but generally thought nothing of passing clothes on,” she said. “As a result, her garments could turn up in the most unlikely of places. ” Lady Burlington recounted a story told by Charlotte Mosley about a time when the author had attended the local nativity performance alongside the duchess. The two had been sitting there for some time before the dowager suddenly sat upright in her chair, her eyes lit up. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it,” Lady Burlington said, repeating the account of the duchess’ reaction. “The Angel Gabriel is in my Givenchy!”

“I’m not talking politics at all,” Tom Brady said in response to the first of several questions about, predictably, politics. Brady has been getting a lot of these, beginning with Super Bowl week’s Opening Night on Monday at Minute Maid Park in Houston. This is not your average Super Bowl week in America. The chaos in Washington, bedlam at airports and protests across the country serve as an unsettling crowd noise to even the serene superstar quarterback for the New England Patriots. Brady is friends with President Trump. So are the Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, and Coach Bill Belichick. No sports team has been more closely associated with a new president, or perhaps any president, at least since Richard Nixon very publicly adopted the Washington Redskins as his own and even called occasional plays for Coach George Allen. Like Trump, the Patriots are a divisive juggernaut that tend to engender strong passions for and against. The team represents a kind of sporting ideal of Trump’s promise to make “America win so much, you’ll be bored of winning. ” New England, which will appear in an N. F. L. ninth Super Bowl on Sunday, is a team that wins so much that a lot of America has become, yes, bored of its winning. And no small number of fans are convinced that the Patriots (like Trump) achieve their victories through dubious means and wish they would just go away and get off their TVs forever. The three main architects of the team’s success — Kraft, Belichick and Brady — have taken pains to emphasize that their allegiance to Trump is based on friendship and loyalty, nothing more. They play golf and attend weddings and call to congratulate one another on elections and Super Bowl wins, those kinds of everyday things. They are quick to assert their bipartisan or apolitical bona fides. Kraft has been a supporter of many Democrats and Democratic causes over the years Belichick declared himself apolitical in response to queries last fall after Trump at a campaign rally in New Hampshire read aloud from an effusive note of congratulations that Belichick had sent him. Brady started getting questions about Trump last fall when a red “Make America Great Again” cap was spotted in his Gillette Stadium locker, reportedly put there by Kraft. Brady at first gave sheepish, responses suggesting that it would be cool to have a golf pal as president. (“There’d be a putting green on the White House lawn,” he predicted.) But the questions took on an edgier urgency as Trump’s victories and offenses kept mounting — ending with Trump where he is now, and Brady dropping into a reflexive every time Trump’s name is mentioned to him. Brady, whose makeshift podium on the Minute Maid field on Monday night was swarmed with a few hundred reporters, was the central battlefield of incoming questions. He countered with his most anodyne deflections. “I’m just a positive person” became Brady’s blow off, which he also deployed in the face of several questions about Deflategate, the scandal given new life this week by the prospect of Commissioner Roger Goodell’s having to award the Super Bowl trophy to the man he suspended for four games to begin this season. Other Atlanta Falcons and Patriots players were also invited to weigh in on political matter but mostly demurred. The Falcons receiver Mohamed Sanu, a practicing Muslim, was asked to discuss Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven countries. He declined politely, other than to say that it was “ a very tough situation” and “hard for me to talk about right now. ” I asked two of the more thoughtful members of the Patriots, the defensive linemen Alan Branch and Chris Long, if they had anything to say about these developments. They absolutely did, they said, and would speak out at some point later, but they did not want to create any “distractions” during Super Bowl week. The Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett did say that if the Patriots won on Sunday and were invited to the White House, he would probably not go, because “I don’t support the guy that’s in the [White] House. ” And really, was that so distracting? One enduring reason the Patriots are constantly being asked about their Trump connections is that the new president is hardly shy about reminding people of them. He has been dropping Brady’s name — and Kraft’s, and Belichick’s — at every opportunity over the last several months. This first became evident to me in the fall of 2015 as Trump was enjoying his unlikely rise to status in the Republican primaries and I had several visits with him for a profile I was writing for the magazine. A few months earlier, I had written a story about Brady, who had just won his fourth Super Bowl and was then embroiled in the Deflategate fiasco, in which the league said it was “more probable than not” that Brady was “at least generally aware” that a minuscule amount of air pressure might have been removed from the footballs he used in the first half of the Patriots’ blowout of the Indianapolis Colts in the A. F. C. championship game. When Trump learned that I had recently spent time with Brady and around the Patriots, he became even more animated on the subject — and insistent that I enlist the star quarterback to say nice things about him for my story. “He’s a good friend of mine,” Trump said about Brady for the first of many times. “A really good friend of mine. ” Trump declared himself “disgusted” by the N. F. L. ’s treatment of Brady over Deflategate. “It’s so ridiculous what they’re doing to him. ” He mentioned he had just spoken to Brady. “He said: ‘Mr. Trump’ — he calls me Mr. Trump, which he shouldn’t, because we play golf all the time. Anyway, he says: ‘Mr. Trump — Donald,’ he doesn’t even know what the [expletive] to call me. It’s the craziest thing. He’s a friend of mine. ” Also, Kraft — great friend, great friend. George Steinbrenner — “big time winner” — was Trump’s best friend, he said, and now Kraft is right up there, too, as one of his favorite guys. Kraft had visited him a few days earlier, and Trump said he chastised the Patriots owner for not fighting harder against the league’s suspension of Brady, in addition to other sanctions levied by the N. F. L. against the Patriots (including the loss of a draft pick and a record fine). “You know, Bob Kraft is also one of my best friends,” Trump told me. “I said, ‘Bob, you should have never made the deal. ’” “Bob said, ‘I had a wink from the commissioner,’” Trump added, meaning that Kraft seemed to think that by standing down and not fighting the N. F. L. the league would reduce Brady’s penalty on appeal. Kraft was under pressure, Trump explained. “He choked, just like Romney choked. He said: ‘You know what? They winked at me.’ I said, ‘Bob when you make a deal, you should have gotten it all wrapped up.’ Who ever heard of making a deal like that? Now you got this mess. ” Kraft should never have trusted Goodell, he said. “The commissioner is a weak guy,” Trump said. “When he made the Ray Rice deal, everybody said: You’re stupid. You’re weak. And it was such a weak deal. So now he’s going overboard with their star, Brady. ” He added: “The commissioner is a dope. He’s a stupid guy. ” By far the best deal Kraft ever made was hiring Belichick, Trump said. Who, by the way, is also “a great, great friend” of Trump’s, even though everyone just assumes he’s “a really rough guy. ” “So I go to the Patriots game last year,” Trump said. “I’m on the sidelines with Kraft. He’s got Les Moonves right here. He’s got a lot of different people. And Belichick comes over in his Patriots sweatshirt and the hoodie and the whole thing. He hugs me, and he kisses me, and he said: ‘I love you. You’re the greatest. ’” Trump sat at his cluttered desk and seemed almost dreamy at the memory, as if the reception from Belichick genuinely moved him. “He just feels warmly toward me, Belichick does,” Trump said. “Isn’t that the craziest thing?” After the Deflategate ruling was handed down by the commissioner that spring, Trump said he tried to persuade Brady to sue the league personally. “I said, ‘Tom.’ — I gave him a lawyer. — I said: ‘Here’s what you do. Sue the N. F. L. for $500 million tomorrow. Sue ’em up in Boston, for everything. They’ll come to the table.’ He said, ‘Aw, man.’ He really was torn. He’s not Trump. He said, ‘I just want to win another Super Bowl. ’” Trump told Brady that he understood. A few weeks later, the future president was showing me around Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. We were accompanied by Damon Winter, a Times photographer who had, a few months earlier, photographed Brady for the profile that was published in February. At one point, as Trump showed me around his golf Xanadu on the Pacific, he looked over at Winter. “Who’s got a better body, me or Tom Brady?” he asked. (No answer from Winter that I recall.) In the course of my time with Trump, he kept urging me to call Brady and ask him about his great friendship with Trump. Brady would say great things, no doubt. “Ask him, ‘How is Trump as a golfer? ’” Trump urged. Brady had been particularly hunkered down during the Deflategate ordeal. N. F. L. politics can be brutal like the kind. Plus, the in the press over his friendship with Trump was not making Brady any more eager to engage beyond his usual helpings of football platitudes. Finally, after Trump kept insisting, I reached out to Brady, fully expecting a polite from the quarterback, and who could blame him? “I really have no interest in political talk right now,” Brady wrote. “I have learned way too much about politics the last seven months. ”

Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, withdrew his support on Saturday for Donald J. Trump as the Republican Party descended into chaos. On Friday, a recording was released showing Mr. Trump speaking about women in lewd and degrading terms. Though he faced calls from many in his party to step aside, Mr. Trump vowed in an interview that he would “never drop out of this race in a million years. ” He later took a stronger stance on Twitter. Ms. Trump said in a statement on Saturday that although his words about women were “unacceptable and offensive” to her, she hoped that “people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world. ” Mr. Trump showed up just before 5 p. m. in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, accompanied by his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, and his eldest child, Donald Trump Jr. Security officials stopped reporters and attempted to bar them from getting near Mr. Trump as he went outside and immersed himself in a crowd of supporters, who had gathered hours earlier for a rally. “Hundred percent,” Mr. Trump told reporters who yelled questions about whether he would stay in the race. He ignored other questions about his response to the defections by Republicans. Separately, one of Mr. Trump’s advisers, Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City, was seen on CNN getting into a car outside Trump Tower, which he had earlier entered for planned debate preparation sessions. “There is nothing that will cause his dropping out,” Mr. Giuliani said. “That is wishful thinking of the Clinton campaign and those who have opposed him for a long time. ” Robert and Rebekah Mercer, the Republican megadonors who previously supported Senator Ted Cruz, suggested Mr. Trump’s remarks were irrelevant to the race. “If Mr. Trump had told Billy Bush, whoever that is, earlier this year that he was for open borders, open trade and executive actions in pursuit of gun control, we would certainly be rethinking our support for him,” they said in a statement. The Mercers also compared Mr. Trump’s actions to Bill Clinton’s treatment of women. The tactic is a favorite of Mr. Trump’s supporters, including Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, who devoted most of his show on Friday evening to allegations of abuse by Mr. Clinton. • Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state under President George W. Bush, who has generally has not discussed politics since becoming a private citizen, called for Mr. Trump to leave the race. She said she hoped to support someone who has the dignity and stature to be president. “Enough!” Ms. Rice said in a Facebook post. “Donald Trump should not be President. He should withdraw. ” • Mr. McCain, who has criticized Mr. Trump repeatedly, officially withdrew his backing. “I have wanted to support the candidate our party nominated,” he said in a statement. He added: “But Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy. ” • House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said he was “sickened” by Mr. Trump’s behavior and disinvited him from a Saturday event in Wisconsin. There, he referred obliquely to the episode. “There is an elephant in the room. That is not what we are here to talk about today. ” (Here’s how Mr. Ryan and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, have condemned Mr. Trump in past statements.) • Former primary opponents such as Carly Fiorina and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio said Mr. Trump should stand down. Mr. Kasich declared that the warning signs were right and that he would never vote for Mr. Trump. • Mr. Trump’s most strident defender, his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, called the remarks from the 2005 video indefensible. • We are also tallying the number of Republican leaders who say they won’t vote for Mr. Trump. Experts say that swapping out a presidential nominee at this stage of the game would be virtually impossible unless Mr. Trump dies, becomes incapacitated or decides to quit. Trying to change the Republican National Committee’s rules with so little time until Election Day would be a logistical nightmare, and those rules do not give the party the power to change the nominee because people are unhappy. If Mr. Trump did decide to drop out, the logistics would also be challenging because ballots have been printed and voting has already started in many places. We break it down in our Q. and A. Still, as unlikely as that scenario appears to be, that remains the best hope for finding a new nominee. The showdown between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton on Sunday night takes on even greater importance after Mr. Trump’s latest controversy. Unless he speaks beforehand, it will be his first chance to publicly take questions about his behavior on the recording. The audience could approach 100 million. Many Republicans who have yet to denounce Mr. Trump have suggested that the debate will be a moment for him. Take a look.