<p>Money ( <a href="https://farm8.static.flickr.com/7020/6551534889_9c8ae52997.jpg" type="external">Image</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/68751915@N05/" type="external">401(K) 2013</a>) <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">Permission</a> <a type="internal">Details</a> <a type="internal">DMCA</a></p> No Pill Can Stop Tinnitus, But This 1 Weird Trick Can <p>The walls are closing in on Congress.</p> <p>Terrifying walls of water from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which, when the damage is totaled, could rise to a half trillion dollars. The Walls of War: The multi-trillion dollar ongoing cost of Afghanistan, Iraq and other interventions. The crumbling walls of the U.S. infrastructure, which need at least $3 trillion to be repaired or replaced. A wall of 11 million undocumented immigrants, whose deportation could easily cost $200 billion. The planned wall at the Mexican border, which some estimates place at $67 billion. Then there is the Wall of All, the $20 trillion national debt. The walls of debt are closing in.</p> <p>At moments of crisis in our nation, in addition to invoking the assistance of Higher powers, we can call upon the Constitution for guidance.</p> <p>Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution contains a long-forgotten provision, "the coinage clause," which empowered Congress "to coin (create) Money." The ability to create money to meet the needs of the nation is a sovereign power, which enables a nation to have control of its own destiny.</p> <p>The same article indicates the Founders anticipated having to borrow money on the full faith and credit of the United States. Enter the Funding Act of 1790, which assumed and paid off the debt of the colonies and retired the financial obligations of the newly created states now united. This was a powerful, object lesson in debt retirement, relevant today.</p> <p>It is abundantly clear from a plain reading of the coinage clause that the Founders never intended that the only way the government was to be funded was to borrow money.</p> <p>The needs of the nation were to come from a system of not borrowing wherein money was a neutral value of exchange connecting resources, people and needs, without debt attached.</p> <p>In 1913, the passage of the Federal Reserve Act ceded the constitutional power to create money (and control of our national destiny), to the Federal Reserve, a quasi-private central bank. At this fateful point, the only way money could be brought into being was to borrow it, whereby money became equated with debt. The money system transited from public control to private control, and there it has remained.</p> <p>Instead of following the path set forth by the Founders to create money directly, our government became obliged to borrow from private banks, which assumed the sovereign power to create money from nothing and then loan it to the government, turning on its head the intention of the Founders.</p> <p>As a member of Congress, I came to the conclusion that while the debate over taxation was interesting, it was wholly insufficient. One must first study how money is created, before one can sensibly have a discussion of how it is to be taxed.</p> <p>With the help of staff, I spent a full five years working with legislative counsel to come up with a way to realign with the founding principles, to reclaim and to re-establish for our nation the sovereign power to create money.</p> <p>The vehicle was H.R. 2990, the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED Act), which articulates why the current debate over the debt ceiling should lead directly to a debate about monetary policy, and the origins of the debt-based economic system.</p> How To Easily Kill All Indoor Odor, Mold, And Bacteria &#8212; Without Lifting A Finger No More Tinnitus (Ear Ringing) If You Do This Immediately <p>In our work on the NEED Act, we propound that the present monetary system has led to a concentration of wealth, expansion of national debt, excessive reliance on taxation, devaluation of the currency, increases in the cost of public infrastructure, unemployment and underemployment and the erosion of the ability of Congress to meet the needs of the American people.</p> <p>This system has been a source of financial instability where the banks' ability to create money out of nothing has become a financial liability for the American taxpayers. When banks engaged in speculative lending, turning the financial system into a casino, they were bailed out while millions of Americans lost their homes. No surprise that today we are told there is not enough money for creating jobs, rebuilding America, health care, education and retirement security. But there is always money to bail out the banks.</p> <p>Let us take the opportunity afforded in the debate over the debt ceiling to regain control of our sovereignty and our national destiny. We can have a future of abundance instead of poverty, but we must first take down the wall which separates us from our true sovereignty, the power to coin and create money.</p> <p>Let us return to first principles, and reclaim the constitutional power to coin and create United States money and spend it into circulation to meet the needs of the nation and reduce taxes.</p> <p>Two hundred and thirty years ago this month, delegates from 13 states gathered in a constitutional convention, which set the stage for ratification. Let us summon that same revolutionary spirit and its wisdom to guide us in the days ahead.</p> Seniors Can't Get Enough of This Sweet Treat That Has Shown to Turn Back the Clock on Alzheimer's From flickr.com: Money {MID-161793} <p>Money ( <a href="https://farm8.static.flickr.com/7020/6551534889_9c8ae52997.jpg" type="external">Image</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/68751915@N05/" type="external">401(K) 2013</a>) <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">Permission</a> <a type="internal">Details</a> <a type="internal">DMCA</a></p> <p>The walls are closing in on Congress.</p> <p>Terrifying walls of water from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which, when the damage is totaled, could rise to a half trillion dollars. The Walls of War: The multi-trillion dollar ongoing cost of Afghanistan, Iraq and other interventions. The crumbling walls of the U.S. infrastructure, which need at least $3 trillion to be repaired or replaced. A wall of 11 million undocumented immigrants, whose deportation could easily cost $200 billion. The planned wall at the Mexican border, which some estimates place at $67 billion. Then there is the Wall of All, the $20 trillion national debt. The walls of debt are closing in.</p> <p>At moments of crisis in our nation, in addition to invoking the assistance of Higher powers, we can call upon the Constitution for guidance.</p> <p>Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution contains a long-forgotten provision, "the coinage clause," which empowered Congress "to coin (create) Money." The ability to create money to meet the needs of the nation is a sovereign power, which enables a nation to have control of its own destiny.</p> <p>The same article indicates the Founders anticipated having to borrow money on the full faith and credit of the United States. Enter the Funding Act of 1790, which assumed and paid off the debt of the colonies and retired the financial obligations of the newly created states now united. This was a powerful, object lesson in debt retirement, relevant today.</p> <p>It is abundantly clear from a plain reading of the coinage clause that the Founders never intended that the only way the government was to be funded was to borrow money.</p> <p>The needs of the nation were to come from a system of not borrowing wherein money was a neutral value of exchange connecting resources, people and needs, without debt attached.</p> <p>In 1913, the passage of the Federal Reserve Act ceded the constitutional power to create money (and control of our national destiny), to the Federal Reserve, a quasi-private central bank. At this fateful point, the only way money could be brought into being was to borrow it, whereby money became equated with debt. The money system transited from public control to private control, and there it has remained.</p> <p>Instead of following the path set forth by the Founders to create money directly, our government became obliged to borrow from private banks, which assumed the sovereign power to create money from nothing and then loan it to the government, turning on its head the intention of the Founders.</p> <p>As a member of Congress, I came to the conclusion that while the debate over taxation was interesting, it was wholly insufficient. One must first study how money is created, before one can sensibly have a discussion of how it is to be taxed.</p> <p>With the help of staff, I spent a full five years working with legislative counsel to come up with a way to realign with the founding principles, to reclaim and to re-establish for our nation the sovereign power to create money.</p> <p>The vehicle was H.R. 2990, the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED Act), which articulates why the current debate over the debt ceiling should lead directly to a debate about monetary policy, and the origins of the debt-based economic system.</p> How To Easily Kill All Indoor Odor, Mold, And Bacteria &#8212; Without Lifting A Finger Trump to End the Dollar as We Know It by November 8, 2018?

Kucinich: Reclaiming the money power

https://www.opednews.com/articles/Kucinich-Reclaiming-the-m-by-Dennis-Kucinich-Banks_Debt_Funding_Money-170910-112.html

2017-09-10

<p>Donald Trump ran on many braggadocios and largely unrealistic campaign promises. One of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/16/politics/trump-infrastructure/index.html" type="external">those promises</a> was to be the best, the hugest, the most competent infrastructure president the United States has ever seen. Trump was going to fix every infrastructure problem in the country and Make America Great Again in the process.</p> <p>That is, unless you&#8217;re a brown American. In that case, you&#8217;re on your own, even after a massive natural disaster like Hurricane Maria.</p> <p>Puerto Rico&#8217;s debt, which the Puerto Rican citizens not in government would have no responsibility for, has nothing to do with using federal emergency disaster funds to save the lives of American citizens there. The infrastructure is certainly a mess at this point after a Category 5 hurricane ripped through the island, and <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/16-percent-puerto-rico-power-weeks-hurricane-maria/story?id=50417366" type="external">84 percent</a> of Puerto Rican people are currently without electricity.</p> <p>Emergency efforts after Hurricanes Irma and Harvey reportedly went very well and Trump praised himself as well and even saw his disastrous approval ratings tick up slightly as a result. However, the insufficient response in Puerto Rico has nothing to do with Trump, in his mind, and can only be blamed on the people there who do not live in a red state and have no electoral college votes to offer the new president for 2020.</p> <p>They&#8217;re on their own.</p> <p>Twitter responded with sheer incredulity at Trump&#8217;s vicious attack on an already suffering people.</p> Featured image screengrab via <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4pMxaH5oxs&amp;t=57s" type="external">YouTube</a></p>

Trump Just Woke Up & Viciously Attacked Puerto Ricans On Twitter Like A Cruel Old Man

http://bipartisanreport.com/2017/10/12/trump-just-woke-up-viciously-attacked-puerto-ricans-on-twitter-like-a-cruel-old-man/

2017-10-12

<p>In response to Joyce Newman&#8217;s recent letter about a conversation about guns: According to the National Right to Life Organization, approximately 600,000 babies are murdered every year by Planned Parenthood with more than 52 million murdered since Roe v. Wade. This makes Planned Parenthood the biggest mass murderer in the history of the world. Is she willing to have a serious conversation about that? Where is her outrage over that?</p> <p>More people die every year from overdoses or auto accidents then from guns. More people die every year from obesity then from guns. Where is her outrage over those issues?</p> <p>The left&#8217;s obsession with gun &#8220;control&#8221; is just that, control. It has always been about Democrats wanting to control every aspect of your life. They support Planned Parenthood but go ballistic when a gun is used to kill someone. It&#8217;s the old game of &#8220;don&#8217;t pay any attention to what&#8217;s going on over there, but look what&#8217;s happening here.&#8221;</p>

Liberals wailing about gun control, but what about abortion?

https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/letters/liberals-wailing-about-gun-control-but-what-about-abortion/

2017-10-11

<p>After Colin Kaepernick rightly chose to kneel during the national anthem before NFL games, many racists and idiots came out with critical response to what was a peaceful, important statement against police brutality and systemic American racism. That&#8217;s what Kap&#8217;s protest is about. Brutality and racism. Violence against people of color, unimpugned state violence at that.</p> <p>Kap&#8217;s protest is strictly against racism, which is what this country was built on. On the backs of African slaves shipped here catch-style to do white people&#8217;s work.</p> <p>Kap&#8217;s protest is decidedly not against the American flag. Anyone &#8212; including our moron President &#8212; that tries to argue otherwise is themselves a moron. &#8220;But the troops!&#8221; you might scream. The troops are a manifold and variegated thing. <a href="https://twitter.com/UncleChaps/status/911927134351970309" type="external">Here&#8217;s a former Marine saying</a>that Kap&#8217;s protest is nececcesary. Chaps is good. Many of them fight for Kaepernick&#8217;s right to stand down during the national anthem. You want to shit on those troops too?</p> <p>Here&#8217;s a picture of <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/players/207989/laremy-tunsil" type="external">Laremy Tunsil</a>, a wonderful and beautiful left tackle, kneeling out of solidarity with fellow Americans before Sunday&#8217;s game against the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/new-york-jets" type="external">New York Jets</a>, which the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/miami-dolphins" type="external">Dolphins</a> lost, 20-6. That doesn&#8217;t matter at all, though.</p> <p>He kneels at left.</p> <p>Hat off to Tunsil for this action. &#8220;Respecting the flag&#8221; and &#8220;respecting the anthem&#8221; before football games are perhaps the dumbest notions floated among sports fans. Sporting events are not flag-worthy at all. Nobody else in the world does this. Further, THESE ATHLETES ARE HUMAN PEOPLE. <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/players/270408/laremy-tunsil" type="external">Laremy Tunsil</a> is a real person with real political beliefs, and his political beliefs include &#8220;black people shouldn&#8217;t be killed by the police with impunity.&#8221; That&#8217;s a pertinent thing to assert.</p> <p>Tunsil&#8217;s politicism is important.</p>

Laremy Tunsil joins NFL players in kneeling during national anthem

https://www.redcuprebellion.com/2017/9/24/16358776/laremy-tunsil-national-anthem-kneeling-protest-donald-trump

2017-09-24

<p>Almost a half-century ago, in 1968, the United States seemed to be falling apart.</p> <p>The Vietnam War, a bitter and close presidential election, antiwar protests, racial riots, political assassinations, terrorism and a recession looming on the horizon left the country divided between a loud radical minority and a silent conservative majority.</p> <p>The United States avoided a civil war. But America suffered a collective psychological depression, civil unrest, defeat in Vietnam and assorted disasters for the next decade -- until the election of a once-polarizing Ronald Reagan ushered in five consecutive presidential terms of relative bipartisan calm and prosperity from 1981 to 2001.</p> <p>It appears as if 2017 might be another 1968. Recent traumatic hurricanes seem to reflect the country's human turmoil.</p> <p>After the polarizing Obama presidency and the contested election of Donald Trump, the country is once again split in two.</p> <p>But this time the divide is far deeper, both ideologically and geographically -- and more 50/50, with the two liberal coasts pitted against red-state America in between.</p> <p>Century-old mute stone statues are torn down in the dead of night, apparently on the theory that by attacking the Confederate dead, the lives of the living might improve.</p> <p>All the old standbys of American life seem to be eroding. The National Football League is imploding as it devolves into a political circus. Multimillionaire players refuse to stand for the national anthem, turning off millions of fans whose former loyalties paid their salaries.</p> <p>Politics -- or rather a progressive hatred of the provocative Donald Trump -- permeates almost every nook and cranny of popular culture.</p> <p>The new allegiance of the media, late-night television, stand-up comedy, Hollywood, professional sports and universities is committed to liberal sermonizing. Politically correct obscenity and vulgarity among celebrities and entertainers is a substitute for talent, even as Hollywood is wracked by sexual harassment scandals and other perversities.</p> <p>The smears "racist," "fascist," "white privilege" and "Nazi" -- like "commie" of the 1950s -- are so overused as to become meaningless. There is now less free speech on campus than during the McCarthy era of the early 1950s.</p> <p>As was the case in 1968, the world abroad is also falling apart.</p> <p>The European Union, model of the future, is unraveling. The EU has been paralyzed by the exit of Great Britain, the divide between Spain and Catalonia, the bankruptcy of Mediterranean nation members, insidious terrorist attacks in major European cities and the onslaught of millions of immigrants -- mostly young, male and Muslim -- from the war-torn Middle East. Germany is once again becoming imperious, but this time insidiously by means other than arms.</p> <p>The failed state of North Korea claims that it has nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching America's West Coast -- and apparently wants some sort of bribe not to launch them.</p> <p>Iran is likely to follow the North Korea nuclear trajectory. In the meantime, its new Shiite hegemony in the Middle East is feeding on the carcasses of Syria and Iraq.</p> <p>Is the chaos of 2017 a catharsis -- a necessary and long overdue purge of dangerous and neglected pathologies? Will the bedlam within the United States descend into more nihilism, or offer a remedy to the status quo that had divided and nearly bankrupted the country?</p> <p>Is the problem too much democracy, as the volatile and fickle mob runs roughshod over establishment experts and experienced bureaucrats? Or is the crisis too little democracy, as populists strive to dethrone a scandal-plagued, anti-democratic, incompetent and overrated entrenched elite?</p> <p>Neither traditional political party has any answers.</p> <p>Democrats are being overwhelmed by the identity politics and socialism of progressives. Republicans are torn asunder between upstart populist nationalists and the calcified establishment status quo.</p> <p>Yet for all the social instability and media hysteria, life in the United States quietly seems to be getting better.</p> <p>The economy is growing. Unemployment and inflation remain low. The stock market and middle-class incomes are up.</p> <p>Business and consumer confidence are high. Corporate profits are up. Energy production has expanded. The border with Mexico is being enforced.</p> <p>Is the instability less a symptom that America is falling apart and more a sign that the loud conventional wisdom of the past -- about the benefits of a globalized economy, the insignificance of national borders and the importance of identity politics -- is drawing to a close, along with the careers of those who profited from it?</p> <p>In the past, any crisis that did not destroy the United States ended up making it stronger. But for now, the fight grows over which is more toxic -- the chronic statist malady that was eating away the country, or the new populist medicine deemed necessary to cure it.</p> <p>(C) 2017 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.</p> <p>Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His latest book is <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=%20160819163X" type="external">The Savior Generals</a> from BloomsburyBooks. You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.</p> Stunning Video Will Make Any Atheist's Jaw Drop

It's 1968 All Over Again

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/10/12/its_1968_all_over_again_135238.html

2017-10-12

<p>Briefly: In our opinion, full (150% of the regular full position) speculative short positions in gold, silver and mining stocks are justified from the risk/reward perspective at the moment of publishing this alert.</p> <p>Gold moved back and forth on Friday and the accompanying volume was high, but that&#8217;s not the only important thing that we can discuss today. The week is over and we have weekly changes and weekly volume levels to analyze and we saw major moves in the important ratios. Additionally, we discovered a self-similar pattern in gold that has critical and volatile implications going forward.</p> <p>Let&#8217;s start with Friday&#8217;s session and the changes in the gold market (chart courtesy of <a href="http://stockcharts.com/" type="external">http://stockcharts.com</a>).</p> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/1_BNTrL7o.png" type="external" /> <p>Gold moved sharply back and forth as both positive and negative data was released and ultimately it ended the session a few dollars higher (based on kitco&#8217;s prices, the closing price was $1,279.60). Why was the reaction so significant? The reason could be technical &#8211; the apex of the triangle was likely to be accompanied by a turnaround and since we just saw a more visible top a couple of days ago and apparently gold doesn&#8217;t want to form a bottom here, then the only remaining outcome is a local daily top that doesn&#8217;t change much &#8211; which is what we saw.</p> <p>Why do we think that gold doesn&#8217;t want to bottom here? Because if it did, it would have ended Friday&#8217;s session much higher.</p> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/2_I8jpobb.png" type="external" /> The USD Index moved lower, so gold had a good reason to close the session visibly higher, especially that it moved quite high on an intraday basis. Yet, it declined before the session was over and closed only insignificantly higher. <p>If gold doesn&#8217;t want to move higher, then silver must really hate that &#8220;thought&#8221;.</p> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/3_jgYU95t.png" type="external" /> <p>The white metal declined once again and even though gold closed a bit higher, it managed to close lower. The move lower by itself is already bearish as it took place on visible volume, but it&#8217;s very bearish once we take into account Thursday&#8217;s breakdown. We previously commented on it in the following way:</p> <p>Silver declined and it reversed before the end of the session, which appears to be a reversal. But does this reversal really have bullish implications? It doesn&#8217;t seem to be the case. The volume wasn&#8217;t huge enough to confirm the reversal and it was not low enough to invalidate the bearish implications of the decline either.</p> <p>The key thing to the proper analysis of the silver price swing is the awareness of what the USD and S&amp;amp;P 500 did. The former declined a bit, while stocks truly soared, which created perfect circumstances for a silver rally. Yet, instead of a rally, we saw a decline and a move below the rising support line based on the August and October lows. Consequently, silver&#8217;s action was very bearish as it showed great weakness in this market.</p> <p>Moreover, the mentioned support line could be viewed as a neck level of a head and shoulders pattern (with a rather long right shoulder, similar to the one that we saw in the euro), which serves as an additional bearish indication (it&#8217;s only a small addition to the bearish implications of the breakdown as such, as its implications are bearish regardless of the H&amp;amp;S formation being in place or not).</p> <p>On Friday, the general stock market declined significantly but almost the entire decline was reversed before the end of the session. If we consider Thursday and Friday together, the S&amp;amp;P 500 index still rallied considerably, but silver declined and was unable to invalidate its breakdown. The implications are strongly bearish.</p> <p>Let&#8217;s move back to gold for a few minutes.</p> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/4_eIzPfWr.png" type="external" /> In Friday&#8217;s alert, we wrote the following regarding the above chart featuring gold priced in the euro: <p>In terms of the euro, the bearish signals are much more profound. Gold has just broken below the rising, medium-term support line and the most recent local top was formed approximately at the apex of the triangle pattern (in terms of time). The latter makes it considerably more likely that an important top was just formed and thus that the breakdown that we just saw will be confirmed.</p> <p>As far as the apex of the triangle is concerned, it&#8217;s actually a combination of two such patterns &#8211; they are based on the same tops and bottoms, but in one case (red lines) they are based on the intraday extremes and in the other case (black lines) they are based on the daily closing prices. The most recent top took place right between the apexes created based on both patterns.</p> <p>The mentioned breakdown is almost confirmed. Almost, because we would prefer to see three consecutive closing prices below the support line to see it as strong resistance, but we have already seen two of them, a weekly close and also a failed attempt to move back above the line. The breakdown is very close to being fully confirmed and the bearishness of the implications increased significantly based on Friday&#8217;s session.</p> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/5_YvNSaHt.png" type="external" /> <p>Speaking of breakdowns, we saw one in the gold to S&amp;amp;P 500 ratio, which&#8230; is nothing new, but still quite exciting and important. Why? Because due to several failed attempts to break below this level, we had to be skeptical toward the breakdown this time. The question was: &#8221;Would this time be any different?&#8221; It turned out that this time was different as the ratio moved back to the previously broken level, verified it as support and then continued to move lower on huge volume (precisely, the ratio itself doesn&#8217;t have volume, so what we mean is the ratio of volumes).</p> <p>Why would the above be a big deal? Because this ratio moves in tune with gold when it comes to major price moves and &#8211; more importantly &#8211; there was only one similar case in the past 15 years when we saw a similar breakdown and it was in the early stages of the 2012 &#8211; 2013 decline. Back then, it was a warning sign that practically nobody noticed. You&#8217;ll probably not see it anywhere (except for this publication) this time either.</p> <p>Naturally, the implications are strongly bearish as the breakdown now appears believable.</p> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/6_ASZRCIr.png" type="external" /> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/7.png" type="external" /> Mining stocks, just like gold moved back and forth and ended the session higher, however, the move was too tiny in terms of daily closing prices to be viewed as bullish. It&#8217;s more of a big-volume reversal and the implications thereof are bearish. <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/8.png" type="external" /> <p>From the weekly point of view, we see that mining stocks declined and broke below the rising support lines based on the 2016 and 2017 lows and that the breakdown took place on big volume. All that happened after two weeks of low-volume upswings that we commented on in <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/end-of-usd-rally/" type="external">last Monday&#8217;s alert</a>:</p> <p>Finally, the weekly volume levels in the GDX ETF paint a very bearish picture for the following weeks. The GDX ETF is after 2 small, weekly rallies that were accompanied by very low volume when compared with the previous weeks. The last week had less trading days, but that doesn&#8217;t explain the previous week&#8217;s low volume reading. Moreover, we didn&#8217;t see similarly low volume readings in the past Novembers, which suggests that we are correct to view the low volume levels as something important and meaningful.</p> <p>The only comparable situation from the recent past took place in mid-2014 (marked with a black arrow). In the following weeks, the GDX price was cut by a third.</p> <p>The bearish implications of the above just became more bearish as back in 2014, the first big-volume weekly decline meant that the big slide had just begun.</p> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/9.png" type="external" /> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/10.png" type="external" /> <p>The breakdown can also be seen in the case of the HUI to S&amp;amp;P 500 index ratio. In other words, by looking at <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/investment-tools/best-gold-stocks/" type="external">gold stocks</a>&#8217; performance relative to <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/stock-trading/" type="external">other stocks</a>. The breakdown is clear and confirmed by both weekly and monthly closing prices. The implications are bearish.</p> <p>All in all, the medium-term outlook is clearly bearish based on the above and based on the factors that we discussed previously and it seems that we&#8217;ve been correct to be holding the short positions in metals and miners (especially in silver and miners). Still, it seems that the vast majority of the potential that these positions have is still to be realized.</p> <p>This is particularly the case given the similarities between what we&#8217;re seeing now and what we saw before the previous slides. We already discussed some of those similarities above, but there&#8217;s also something else that is likely in play right now.</p> <p>In early October, we described the analogy in performance between 2008 and the current period (at the moment) in gold stocks. It was almost two months ago, so even if you read it at that time, it might be worth <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same/" type="external">reading it once again today</a> (by the way, we are making that alert available publicly, so if you know someone who&#8217;s interested in precious metals, but has doubts about using technical analysis to analyze it, please send them the link to that alert &#8211; they might change their minds - <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same/" type="external">https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same/</a>) &#8211; it&#8217;s truly amazing how the similarity continued almost to the letter even though the two cases are almost a decade apart. Even the initial retracement of the HUI Index (38.2%) was identical.</p> <p>However, today we are not going to repeat the October analysis &#8211; we are going to discuss something alike&#8230; in gold.</p> <p>That&#8217;s right, the gold market features similarities to its performance back in 2008.</p> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/11.png" type="external" /> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/12.png" type="external" /> <p>Before moving to details, let&#8217;s state that the analogy is far from perfect. That&#8217;s probably why we didn&#8217;t discover it earlier. However, it&#8217;s not the point to be picky about a technique, but rather to see if there is anything that it can give us and make us particularly aware of things that could come. With regard to the latter goal in mind, it seems that we have something very valuable.</p> <p>In both cases, we have a sharp rally that preceded a top, then we saw some kind of consolidation and another attempt to move higher, which failed (mid-2008 and second half of 2012) and started a decline. The decline was more or less twice the size of the decline from the key (March 2008 and late 2011) top. In 2008, we saw a corrective upswing that was followed by a move to almost the final bottom and from mid-2013 to early 2015 we saw several such corrective upswings. After the initial bottom (September 2008 and the final part of 2015) gold soared sharply. The sizes of the upswings differ on a relative basis, but it&#8217;s understandable as back in 2008 the moves took place in a very short time, so the levels of emotionality among market participants were much higher.</p> <p>After the sharp rally, gold consolidated a bit (late September 2008 and mid-2016), then declined and moved close to the previous highs once again (October 2008 and September 2017).</p> <p>The decline that started thereafter in 2008 was the biggest and sharpest decline in many years. Naturally, this does not bode well for the near-term gold outlook. Conversely, it seems that we can expect the most important part of the decline to be just around the corner.</p> <p>The above implication is not the only interesting thing about the analogy, though. The detail that could be important going forward is the moment when the decline took a breather. At this time, the moves take more time, so the pauses could be longer and more visible as well and if we get enough bullish confirmations once gold moves to certain price levels, we might even adjust the trading position temporarily.</p> <p>In 2008, the first interim pause was at the most recent important low and the second pause was approximately the level from which the sharpest part of the previous huge rally started, which was strengthened by another support level (the previous low).</p> <p>We don&#8217;t have price levels that would be 100% analogous, but we can see which levels are most similar. In our view, the most recent important lows would be close to the $1,200 level (March, May, and July 2017 bottoms) and the next strong support will be provided by the $1,120 - $1,130 area. That&#8217;s approximately from where gold soared most sharply in early 2016 and this level is strengthened by the December 2016 low.</p> <p>These levels are most likely to generate support strong enough to trigger at least corrective rallies based on the analogy to what we saw in 2008 and based on their own strength as support. Naturally, that&#8217;s what appears likely based on the data that we have today and the likely scenario could change as new developments unfold.</p> <p>There&#8217;s one more thing that we left for the analytical dessert. Namely, back in 2008 the previous key low (September 2008 low, which is analogous to the late 2015 bottom) didn&#8217;t trigger even a small rally. Consequently, even though a bottom or at least a correction will be widely expected once gold moves below $1,100, gold may continue to move lower and slide through $1,050 like a hot knife through butter.</p> <p>Finally, there&#8217;s one more thing that makes the current situation in gold similar to 2008 &#8211; the overall increase in the volume levels. We already discussed, why <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/just-a-blip/" type="external">the yearly volume levels at record highs should not be viewed as bullish</a> (final part of the November 14 alert that we&#8217;re linking to) and today we would like to add the observation that back in 2008 the volume levels also broke to new highs and stayed there for a long time.</p> <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/media/cms_page_media/2017/12/4/13.png" type="external" /> <p>Yes, the volume has been growing almost constantly, but the 2008 and 2017 buildups in volume still stand out. The growth is much sharper than in other years and no other period is comparable to those years. Since the 2008 volume buildup was followed by a sharp decline in the precious metals sector, it seems that we might see something similar also this and/or the next year.</p> <p>Summing up, there are multiple bearish signals in the gold market and in the rest of the precious metals sector and the analogies to previous major declines further support the bearish outlook. The big decline in PMs appears to be underway as the previously discussed long-term signals remain in place: <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/extreme-monthly-volume-in-gold/" type="external">gold&#8217;s huge monthly volume</a>, the <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same/" type="external">analogy in the HUI Index</a>, the <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/rate-hikes-usd-gold/" type="external">analogy between the two most recent series of interest rate hikes</a>, and the <a href="https://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/miners-screaming-signal/" type="external">RSI signal from gold priced in the Japanese yen</a>.</p> <p>To summarize:</p> <p>Trading capital (supplementary part of the <a href="http://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/key-insights/gold-portfolio/" type="external">portfolio</a>; our opinion): Short positions (150% of the full position) in gold, silver and mining stocks are justified from the risk/reward perspective with the following stop-loss orders and exit price levels / profit-take orders:</p> Gold: exit price: $1,218; stop-loss: $1,366; exit price for the DGLD ETN: $51.98; stop-loss for the DGLD ETN $38.74 Silver: exit price: $15.82; stop-loss: $19.22; exit price for the DSLV ETN: $28.88; stop-loss for the DSLV ETN $17.93 Mining stocks (price levels for the GDX ETF): exit price: $21.23; stop-loss: $26.34; exit price for the DUST ETF: $29.97; stop-loss for the DUST ETF $21.37 <p>In case one wants to bet on junior mining stocks' prices (we do not suggest doing so &#8211; we think senior mining stocks are more predictable in the case of short-term trades &#8211; if one wants to do it anyway, we provide the details), here are the stop-loss details and exit prices:</p> GDXJ ETF: exit price: $30.28; stop-loss: $45.31 JDST ETF: exit price: $66.27; stop-loss: $43.12 <p>Long-term capital (core part of the <a href="http://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/key-insights/gold-portfolio/" type="external">portfolio</a>; our opinion): No positions (in other words: cash)</p> <p>Insurance capital (core part of the <a href="http://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/key-insights/gold-portfolio/" type="external">portfolio</a>; our opinion): Full position</p> Important Details for New Subscribers <p>Whether you already subscribed or not, we encourage you to find out <a href="http://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading-beginners-guide/" type="external">how to make the most of our alerts</a> and read our replies to the most common alert-and-gold-trading-related-questions.</p> <p>Please note that the in the trading section we describe the situation for the day that the alert is posted. In other words, it we are writing about a speculative position, it means that it is up-to-date on the day it was posted. We are also featuring the initial target prices, so that you can decide whether keeping a position on a given day is something that is in tune with your approach (some moves are too small for medium-term traders and some might appear too big for day-traders).</p> <p>Plus, you might want to read <a href="http://www.sunshineprofits.com/help/faq/#127" type="external">why our stop-loss orders are usually relatively far from the current price</a>.</p> <p>Please note that a full position doesn&#8217;t mean using all of the capital for a given trade. You will find details on our thoughts on <a href="http://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/key-insights/portfolio/" type="external">gold portfolio structuring</a> in the <a href="http://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/key-insights/" type="external">Key Insights</a> section on our website.</p> <p>As a reminder &#8211; &#8220;initial target price&#8221; means exactly that &#8211; an &#8220;initial&#8221; one, it&#8217;s not a price level at which we suggest closing positions. If this becomes the case (like it did in the previous trade) we will refer to these levels as levels of exit orders (exactly as we&#8217;ve done previously). Stop-loss levels, however, are naturally not &#8220;initial&#8221;, but something that, in our opinion, might be entered as an order.</p> <p>Since it is impossible to synchronize target prices and stop-loss levels for all the ETFs and ETNs with the main markets that we provide these levels for (gold, silver and mining stocks &#8211; the GDX ETF), the stop-loss levels and target prices for other ETNs and ETF (among other: UGLD, DGLD, USLV, DSLV, NUGT, DUST, JNUG, JDST) are provided as supplementary, and not as &#8220;final&#8221;. This means that if a stop-loss or a target level is reached for any of the &#8220;additional instruments&#8221; (DGLD for instance), but not for the &#8220;main instrument&#8221; (gold in this case), we will view positions in both gold and DGLD as still open and the stop-loss for DGLD would have to be moved lower. On the other hand, if gold moves to a stop-loss level but DGLD doesn&#8217;t, then we will view both positions (in gold and DGLD) as closed. In other words, since it&#8217;s not possible to be 100% certain that each related instrument moves to a given level when the underlying instrument does, we can&#8217;t provide levels that would be binding. The levels that we do provide are our best estimate of the levels that will correspond to the levels in the underlying assets, but it will be the underlying assets that one will need to focus on regarding the signs pointing to closing a given position or keeping it open. We might adjust the levels in the &#8220;additional instruments&#8221; without adjusting the levels in the &#8220;main instruments&#8221;, which will simply mean that we have improved our estimation of these levels, not that we changed our outlook on the markets. We are already working on a tool that would update these levels on a daily basis for the most popular ETFs, ETNs and individual mining stocks.</p> <p>Our preferred ways to invest in and to trade gold along with the reasoning can be found in the <a href="http://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/how-to-buy/" type="external">how to buy gold</a> section. Additionally, our preferred ETFs and ETNs can be found in our <a href="http://www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/etf/" type="external">Gold &amp;amp; Silver ETF Ranking</a>.</p> <p>As a reminder, Gold &amp;amp; Silver Trading Alerts are posted before or on each trading day (we usually post them before the opening bell, but we don't promise doing that each day). If there's anything urgent, we will send you an additional small alert before posting the main one.</p> <p>=====</p> <p>Latest Free Trading Alerts:</p> <p>On Wednesday, Trump nominated Goodfriend to the Fed&#8217;s Board of Governors. What does it mean for the gold market?</p> <p>S&amp;amp;P 500 index lost 0.2% on Friday, following volatile trading session and a bounce off support level at 2,600 mark. Is this a topping pattern or just another consolidation within medium-term uptrend?</p> <p>=====</p> <p>Hand-picked precious-metals-related links:</p> <p>=====</p> <p>In other news:</p> <p>=====</p> <p>Thank you.</p>

Gold Price in December 2017 - Myriads of Signals and Analogies

https://www.insidefutures.com/articles/out.php?a=2094272&u=https%3A//www.sunshineprofits.com/gold-silver/gold-trading/gold-price-december-2017/

2017-12-04

<p>When the Graham-Cassidy bill failed to reach the Senate floor last week, the media wanted to put a stake in the heart of the administration&#8217;s agenda, declaring all Obamacare repeal efforts to be dead. For the millions of Americans struggling under the Affordable Care Act regime, however, the fight to make lemonade out of lemons must continue this fall.</p> <p>Luckily, conservatives in Congress who want to see the end of Obamacare and understand the perils of inaction are not giving up.</p> <p>Earlier this week, America Rising Squared, a conservative policy organization which I lead, issued a <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/360054557/Five-Proactive-Steps-That-Congress-Can-Take-ToCurtail-The-Obamacare-Disaster-in-2017" type="external">path forward</a>. We outline five popular conservative actions Congress and the president can take by the end of the year to protect taxpayers and those disproportionately harmed by the ACA while the larger repeal effort remains delayed until next year.</p> <p>The first step is to protect them from new Obamacare taxes coming in January.</p> <p>Americans should be encouraged to know that conservatives in the Senate have <a href="https://www.gardner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/gardner-authors-proposal-to-delay-costly-health-insurance-tax" type="external">introduced legislation</a> to stop the health insurance tax and the medical device tax. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and 10 fellow conservative senators, including Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), introduced legislation last week to stop the insurance tax. In the House, a bipartisan effort is underway to do the same, led by Republican Rep. Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.</p> <p>These members of Congress understand that Obamacare taxes will harm Americans of all walks of life, and will disproportionately harm seniors and small businesses. In all, if Congress fails to act, the health insurance tax would amount to a new annual <a href="http://www.stopthehit.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Oliver-Wyman-2018-HIT-Analysis%E2%80%8E-August-8-2017.pdf" type="external">$14.3 billion tax increase</a>. Republicans don&#8217;t want to see a tax hike go into effect on their watch, and Democrats don&#8217;t want to put more of a burden on vulnerable Americans, so action is required now.</p> <p>Second, there should be no bailouts for Obamacare. While bipartisanship is a key to success in getting legislation passed, the president and conservatives in Congress ought to fight back against all efforts to bail out this law. When House Republicans sued President Obama in 2014 over the health-care act's cost-sharing subsidies, a federal judge sided with the plaintiffs, deeming these bailouts unconstitutional. The Obama administration appealed, so today President Trump can easily drop that appeal and end unconstitutional Obamacare cronyism. Liberals in the Senate want new bailouts, but conservatives such as Cruz have <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/353086-cruz-warns-against-obamacare-bailout" type="external">warned</a> colleagues that they must oppose any such efforts.</p> <p>The third step needed to cripple the health care law and protect Americans is for President Trump to direct the IRS to weaken the individual mandate and expand the hardship exemptions. The individual mandate has forced many Americans to purchase coverage they do not want and cannot afford, and even candidate Obama <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/23/AR2008022302026.html" type="external">admitted</a> in 2008 that under Massachusetts' plan, &#8220;there are people who are paying &#64257;nes and still can&#8217;t afford [health insurance], so now they&#8217;re worse off than they were.&#8221; He was right, and President Trump can give these Americans relief from fines easily by directing the IRS to ease the mandate.</p> <p>The two final steps the president and Republicans in Congress can take before the end of the year is to fully implement 90 percent cuts to Obamacare marketing, which would save the federal government some $90 million, and fully protect American seniors from new taxes on Medicare plans. Among the taxes going into effect next year, those enrolled in Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D will see taxes increased nearly $3,000 each over the next decade if Congress fails to act.</p> <p>Time is running out, and President Trump and Republicans in Congress must act now to stop new Obamacare taxes, end the cronyism of bailouts, free Americans from burdensome federal mandates, cut wasteful ACA marketing, and protect America&#8217;s seniors.</p> <p>President Trump and conservatives have it within their power today to stop the most harmful aspects of the health care law, but time is short; the time to act is now.</p> Want to protect your brain and revitalize your memory? You NEED this Super Coffee!

Conservatives & Trump Can Still Stop the Worst of Obamacare

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/10/05/conservatives__trump_can_still_stop_the_worst_of_obamacare_135186.html

2017-10-05

<p>In recent months, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has taken to scaremongering his audience with well-worn Democratic Party talking points regarding health care insurance policy. Between yuks, he occasionally accuses Republicans of being would-be baby killers, which is treated as an important political development because, well, Jimmy Kimmel is famous.</p> <p>This week, the comedian was back to explain why the new Graham-Cassidy Republican "repeal" bill is bad news. There were only two things wrong with his monologue: Almost everything he said was either completely untrue or highly misleading, and his simplistic emotional appeal was completely disconnected from the real world.</p> <p>The comedian's interest in policy was sparked by the harrowing experience of having a newborn son who suffered from a rare health condition. Thankfully, his boy is OK. "If your baby is going to die and it doesn't have to, it shouldn't matter how much money you make," said an emotional Kimmel in May. "I think that's something that, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?"</p> <p>Yes, everyone agrees. As far as I know, there isn't a single politician in America who has ever supported allowing babies to die because they are born with birth defects, even if the parents can't pay. Not pre-Obamacare, and not post-Obamacare.</p> <p>In any event, after Kimmel's May rant, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy showed up on his show to explain his position. These types of culture encounters shouldn't be dismissed, because the fact is most viewers are unaware of specific policies and have a notional understanding that's prejudiced by the establishment media's coverage. Cassidy came up with something he called the "Jimmy Kimmel Test," a test that no "family should be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can't afford it."</p> <p>Kimmel claims that the new bill doesn't meet this threshold. "This guy, Bill Cassidy, just lied right to my face," the talk-show host said on Tuesday night during an extended political rant. He went on to say, "And by the way, before you post a nasty Facebook message saying I'm politicizing my son's health problems, I want you to know: I am politicizing my son's health problems." OK.</p> <p>He explained: "Coverage for all? No. Fact, it will kick about 30 million Americans off insurance."</p> <p>Not a single person would be "kicked off" his or her insurance. Rather, the Congressional Budget Office review of the AHCA found that of the 24 million Americans who would no longer have health insurance after an Obamacare repeal, 14 million would choose not to buy insurance in 2018 in the absence of a penalty. And if Obamacare were not repealed, the CBO projects another 6 million people would voluntarily leave the Obamacare markets. Now, if you don't believe Americans should be afforded the choice to leave or not buy insurance, just say that. No one is being kicked off.</p> <p>Moreover, if Kimmel supports the individual mandate, Graham-Cassidy allows California to institute it -- as I am sure it would.</p> <p>Kimmel says: "Pre-existing conditions? Nope. If the bill passes, individual states can let insurance companies charge more if you have a pre-existing condition."</p> <p>States would be allowed to apply for waivers to change what qualifies as an essential health benefit as long as they still preserve "adequate and affordable health insurance coverage" for people with pre-existing conditions. You may prefer price fixing to allowing states flexibility to try and fix these problems, but Graham-Cassidy does not break the "Jimmy Kimmel Test." Kimmel might not be aware that there is no plan in place that has government cutting checks after every surgery.</p> <p>Kimmel then implored his audience to call Cassidy to stop the imaginary bill he had just described. It's a shame that Kimmel didn't provide a number to call for the tens of millions of Americans who have seen their premiums and out-of-pocket costs skyrocket under Obamacare's strictures. Is there no number available for those who are sick of being in exchanges that coerce them to buy plans they don't need that are sold by companies they don't like in fabricated, noncompetitive "markets" with dwindling choices?</p> <p>Anyway, so went a monologue that could have been written by any liberal activist. Which is to say it was all about cheap zero-sum emotionalism. Kimmel doesn't believe Americans deserve the chance to reduce the cost of health care with market-based reforms on the state level, or in giving states any flexibility in catering their plans to their own citizens. Kimmel believes California and New York should spend more per capita and smaller states should suffer. Kimmel doesn't believe that individuals and families should be allowed to contribute to health savings accounts or use them to help pay ever-growing insurance premiums. Kimmel wants average Americans to suffer.</p> <p>You see? Anyone can play this game.</p> <p>COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM</p> Stunning Video Will Make Any Atheist's Jaw Drop

Don't Fall for Jimmy Kimmel's Cheap Zero-Sum Emotionalism

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/09/22/dont_fall_for_jimmy_kimmels_cheap_zero-sum_emotionalism_135073.html

2017-09-22

<p>Days after Steven Bannon&#8217;s blustery, accusatory interview on &#8220;60 Minutes,&#8221; in which he warned the apostates blocking President Trump&#8217;s agenda that he&#8217;s coming after them, Trump confirmed it -- there is no such thing as Trumpism. In recent weeks he&#8217;s assured Democrats he backs legalizing the Dreamers, affirmed a commitment to foreign aid in front of the United Nations, and said he&#8217;s adding troops in Afghanistan. Will Trump now accept &#8220;better&#8221; terms he wants in the Paris climate accord?</p> <p>Too bad for Bannon, because none of this is remotely the fault of his favorite punching bags, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, just Trump himself.</p> <p>Bannon&#8217;s new self-described role as &#8220;wingman&#8221; growling from outside instead of inside the White House -- where as chief strategist he fought openly against the &#8220;globalist&#8221; forces he believed included Trump&#8217;s family members -- isn&#8217;t going very well. Trump keeps screwing things up for the Breitbart News commander. After getting fired last month he lamented to the Weekly Standard that &#8220;the Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over.&#8221; But upon reflection, Bannon realized that lame duck talk diminishes his own power, so he&#8217;s in overdrive fighting for scraps of a policy vision the president embraces spasmodically.</p> <p>Bannon says he&#8217;s enjoying having &#8220;my hands back on my weapons,&#8221; but he&#8217;s outside looking in at a West Wing filled with elites from Goldman Sachs -- the very definition of &#8220;the swamp&#8221; that Bannon is always frothing about. There, a president is spending political donations on legal fees while his staffers go deep in debt with mounting lawyer bills, visitor logs are kept secret so voters have no idea who is permitted into the Oval Office to influence the president, and a kleptocracy thrives where Trump and his children continue to be enriched by business connected to foreign governments, including the Chinese. Cabinet secretaries are using government planes for private use and private planes for government work -- violations that would have sparked endless Breitbart bonfires under President Obama.</p> <p>In reality, however, there was little left of Trumpism to trumpet even before Bannon was fired. He&#8217;s got the travel ban (or at least a modified version of it), and maybe the promised withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement; Bannon will claim credit if Trump pulls out of the Iran nuclear deal -- but that&#8217;s about it. On trade and immigration, the president has retreated from Bannon&#8217;s barricade-crashing proposals and has not withdrawn from NAFTA, not imposed tariffs on Chinese steel imports, has three times backed off threats over funding for a border wall and now come out in favor of what Bannon calls &#8220;amnesty.&#8221;</p> <p>Yet Bannon has declared war, promising to take out incumbent Republican senators who aren&#8217;t sufficiently loyal to the president. Targets are guilty of insufficient fealty to Trump himself, not to an agenda once thought of as Trumpism. With the backing of loyal mega-donor Robert Mercer, the Bannon forces are targeting Sen. Jeff Flake, and potentially Sens. Bob Corker and Roger Wicker as well. GOP leaders are incensed over the millions more they will spend protecting those lawmakers, money that could be spent trying to knock off Democrats. Currently Bannon is working to elect Roy Moore to replace sitting Sen. Luther Strange in the Alabama Senate race. Trump has endorsed Strange, also backed by McConnell. Bannon is backing the more Trumpian candidate and, well, Trump is not.</p> <p>Bannon, ironically, purports to be interested in protecting GOP majorities in Congress. Before he could imagine Trump giving away the store on DACA to Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, Bannon declared in his &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; interview that preserving President Obama&#8217;s executive order would cause a GOP civil war. He expects Dreamers to run out their permits and &#8220;self-deport,&#8221; because &#8220;amnesty is non-negotiable.&#8221; He also said, &#8220;I&#8217;m worried about losing the House now because of this,&#8221; adding that his fear is &#8220;in February and March it will be a civil war inside the Republican Party.&#8221;</p> <p>But if civil war in the GOP isn&#8217;t Bannon&#8217;s aim, it's hard to know what is. He blames everything on Ryan and McConnell. &#8220;They do not want Donald Trump&#8217;s populist economic agenda to be implemented. It&#8217;s very obvious. It&#8217;s obvious as night follows day,&#8221; he told Charlie Rose.</p> <p>In the name of Trumpism, Bannon swallows heavy doses of denial. After all, when Trump threatened to withdraw from NAFTA, the president&#8217;s kids and other aides made calls to the Canadian government and arranged for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call Trump and talk him off the ledge. It wasn&#8217;t Ryan or McConnell. Trump&#8217;s approval ratings remain low, Bannon said, &#8220;because he hasn&#8217;t -- we haven&#8217;t gotten the wall built.&#8221; Earth to Steve: Trump has signaled to Congress the wall is a joke.</p> <p>In the wake of the DACA debacle, Breitbart called the president &#8220;Amnesty Don,&#8221; yet Bannon himself has stayed sheepishly silent. Ann Coulter, author of &#8220;In Trump We Trust,&#8221; tweeted: &#8220;Looks like Bannon got it wrong. That shadowy force trying to nullify the 2016 election ... is <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump" type="external">@realDonaldTrump</a>.&#8221; Rep. Steve King told the Associated Press the president was destroying his support by betraying his campaign promise, and that his base is &#8220;irreparable, disillusioned beyond repair.&#8221; King added, &#8220;No promise is credible.&#8221;</p> <p>Sam Nunberg, a close Bannonite, conceded: &#8220;The reality is sinking in that the Trump administration is on the precipice of turning into an establishment presidency.&#8221;</p> <p>But Bannon isn&#8217;t just breaking plates at Breitbart, he&#8217;s building his own brand. Last week, like any other dime-a-dozen elitist, Bannon attended an investor conference in Hong Kong. He told the exclusive gathering he speaks to Trump every two-to-three days, despite White House denials that the president has spoken more than once with Bannon since he left. Before Trump disappointed him on DACA, Nunberg had hailed Bannon&#8217;s increased influence with Trump. &#8220;I think Steve leaves and a week later he [Trump] pardons Arpaio and they suspend DACA. I don&#8217;t think there was any coincidence there,&#8221; Nunberg told BuzzFeed.</p> <p>Bannon remains fixated on the threat China poses to the United States, has grimly predicted we will be at war with that nation within five-to-10 years over its buildup of military installations in the South China Sea, and said we&#8217;re already &#8220;at economic war&#8221; with China. Yet his domestic bark in this regard doesn&#8217;t seem to be the same as his overseas-investor-conference bite. Once there, the New York Times described Bannon as &#8220;more subdued about the purported Chinese threat.&#8221; The Wall Street Journal reported he described Trump&#8217;s great respect for President Xi and prospects for trade, but that &#8220;the U.S. needs to play a stronger role in changing the system in China, an attendee recalled.&#8221; It&#8217;s a far cry from a trade war on steel.</p> <p>Perhaps over time, Bannonism will go the way of Trumpism.</p> <p>A.B. Stoddard is associate editor of RealClearPolitics and a columnist. She is also host of "No Labels Radio" on Sirius XM's POTUS Channel.</p> Secret Message from God Found in Human DNA (See What It Says)

Tell Us, Mr. Bannon -- Just What Is Trumpism?

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/09/20/tell_us_mr_bannon_--_just_what_is_trumpism_135053.html

2017-09-20

<p>During the campaign, Donald J. Trump made lots of promises -- he'd be the greatest jobs president God ever created, he'd cut taxes, he'd balance the budget, he'd give all Americans fantastic health care, he'd renegotiate NAFTA, he'd scotch the Iran deal and so on.</p> <p>But there was one central promise without which he wouldn't have been elected: He said he'd build a wall.</p> <p>Either Trump understood the urgency of our border crisis, as his every campaign speech suggested, or it was just meaningless boilerplate to get himself elected. If it was the latter, then our search continues for one politician who won't lie to us.</p> <p>It was precisely the Nietzschean Eternal Recurrence of politicians promising to get tough on immigration, but never, ever doing it, that caused voters to cling to Trump like a life vest in a tidal wave.</p> <p>If Trump actually believed what he claimed to believe, he would treat the building of a wall as a far more urgent priority than sending FEMA after a hurricane.</p> <p>Taking nothing away from the fine people who lost their lives in the recent hurricanes, since the 2005 hurricane season, about 200 Americans have died in hurricanes, plus 82 in Hurricane Harvey and 50 in Hurricane Irma.</p> <p>That's 332 deaths from hurricanes in the past 12 years.</p> <p>Even a federal government determined not to tell Americans how many illegal immigrants are committing crimes admits that -- at a minimum -- there are <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621572676/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621572676&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=anncoulter-20&amp;linkId=8d8735d5d2478f80fae5907946273bc7" type="external">350,000 illegal immigrants</a> incarcerated in state prisons and jails, and 3,500 are in for murder.</p> <p>Considering that the average time served for murder in America is six years, that means that, in the last 12 years, hurricanes have killed 332 Americans, and illegal immigrants have killed 7,000 Americans.</p> <p>Throw in the more than 30,000 Americans who die every year from heroin and fentanyl brought in by Mexicans, and illegal immigration is a problem at least 100 times more urgent than Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and every other hurricane since 2005, combined.</p> <p>(If we're including U.S. territories and Hurricane Maria ends up killing another 100 people -- current estimates are zero dead -- illegal immigration is still 80 times worse than the last 12 years of deadly hurricanes. Of course, if we're including territories, then we also must note that illegal immigration is especially disastrous for Puerto Ricans living in the U.S., in terms of crime and diminishing job prospects.)</p> <p>There is no question but that illegal immigration dwarfs any other issue, not only in dead Americans, but also in welfare expenditures, taxes, lost jobs, police and prison expenditures, declining neighborhoods, ruined schools, overwhelmed hospitals, facial reconstruction surgeries and rape counseling services, to name a few costs.</p> <p>We thought Trump understood this. We were counting on him to fight for us on the border -- not with rallies, not with hats, not with tweets, but by building a wall.</p> <p>And yet, as of Wednesday this week, Trump will have been in office 243 days without having begun the wall. Imagine if Hurricanes Harvey and Irma had hit 243 days ago and all we'd gotten from the president were assurances that FEMA would be coming any day now -- just as soon as he got the go-ahead from Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan! (Or worse, from Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.)</p> <p>The more accurate analogy would be if Trump responded to the recent hurricanes not only by sending zero federal aid, but also by demanding that we dismantle FEMA and the National Hurricane Center. That's exactly what he's doing by proposing we respond to the crisis of 40 million illegal aliens in our country with an amnesty that will lure another 40 million across the border.</p> <p>We hoped we wouldn't have to spell it out. We thought Trump understood that this was an emergency. We believed he was capable of getting the job done.</p> <p>If he did understand, then 243 days ago, he would have sent the Navy Seabees and Army Corps of Engineers to start building the wall.</p> <p>For most of the nation's history, the primary job of the military -- of which President Trump is the commander in chief -- was building walls and fortresses on our borders. That's why we have an Army Corps of Engineers. It may not seem like it from recent history, but the job of our military is to protect America's borders -- not Ukraine's borders, not Jordan's borders.</p> <p>This is our one and only chance to get this done, and we're losing the fight. While Trump dallies, last week California became a sanctuary state. Sixteen-year-old girls are taking lessons to learn to be safe drivers, but when they're smashed into by drunk-driving illegal aliens, the state won't tell ICE, and taxpayers will spend $40 million to pay for their defense.</p> <p>The wall has to get built, and nothing else matters.</p> <p>Trump will not be able to tweet his way out of not building the wall. He will not be able to change the subject by attacking the media or Crooked Hillary. He will not be able to get away with blaming Republicans in Congress.</p> <p>Obviously, it suits the rest of the traitorous GOP -- which ferociously opposed him -- to pretend that Trump's election had nothing to do with immigration.</p> <p>I don't know about a lot of things. I don't know which part of their bodies women will let you grab if you're a rich celebrity. I don't know how to play a wind instrument. But when everyone else said Trump was a joke, I said, nope, he's going to be our next president. If anyone is telling Trump that a "virtual wall," drones, a conga line or a "Don't Cross!" sign are as good as a wall, he can get his stock tips from them, but not his political advice.</p> <p>If Trump doesn't get that wall built, and fast, his base will be done with him and feed him to Robert Mueller.</p> <p>COPYRIGHT 2017 ANN COULTER DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION</p>

THEY DON’T CALL IT ‘THE GREAT TWEET OF CHINA’

http://bit.ly/2w7utkE

2017-09-20

<p>During the 1950s &#8220;Red Scare,&#8221; innocent Americans were smeared and sometimes blacklisted for being supposed Communists. Real subversives existed, including Alger Hiss, a traitor and Soviet spy whom liberals &#8211; to their misfortune &#8211; made into a poster boy of McCarthyism. But the actual number of Communists was tiny and utterly not commensurate with the fervent public witch hunt led by right-wingers.</p> <p>Today&#8217;s group hysteria comes from the left, as a fanatic political mob sees racists behind every door. Their paranoia is not harmless, as they use the racist bogeyman to intimidate political adversaries &#8211; and sometimes erstwhile friends &#8211; while seeking to silence political dialogue. As with the Red Scare, there&#8217;s some reason for vigilance regarding actual racists, as Charlottesville reminded us. But as with the hunt for Communists under every bed, the scare tactics far outweigh the actual problem.</p> <p>The New McCarthyism revealed its full absurdity this week via the ACLU&#8217;s Twitter stream, which had the temerity to post a picture of an adorable young toddler holding an American flag and a doll with the tag line &#8220;This is the future that ACLU members want.&#8221; Because the girl (TRIGGER WARNING: I assume it&#8217;s a girl, given the doll) happens to be blonde and Caucasian, the ACLU was promptly attacked &#8211; the ACLU!</p> <p>Immediately the politically correct rage mob commenced a digital protest led by credentialed injustice professionals such as Professor Nyasha Junior of Temple University who posted, &#8220;A white kid with a flag?!&#8221; Yes, Professor. In much of America outside of your faculty lounge, young American children waving Old Glory warms the heart and makes us smile rather than prompt thoughts of white supremacy lurking under the sheets.</p> <p>Did the ACLU, a group once known for taking brave and unpopular stands, hold its ground or, better yet, simply ignore the online rabble? Sadly, no. The organization shortly responded with a Kermit the Frog image saying &#8220;That&#8217;s a very good point&#8221; and the post &#8220;When your followers keep you in check and remind you that white supremacy is everywhere.&#8221;</p> <p>Come again? This lovely young kid holding a flag equals &#8220;white supremacy&#8221;? Who even thinks of such things? Answer: the diversity hustlers. Shame on the ACLU, which apparently should have posted a picture of a gender-fluid dark-skinned child, holding a rainbow flag, perhaps with a COEXIST sticker on [gender-neutral pronoun] wheelchair.</p> <p>This is not merely social-media silliness. It&#8217;s not even lunacy, although it certainly seems insane. This is a weapon used cynically and viciously -- little girls are apparently acceptable collateral damage -- by the left to isolate and demonize opponents, and particularly President Trump and his supporters. As MSNBC&#8217;s Donny Deutsch said of Trump: &#8220;He is a racist -- can we just say it once and for all?&#8221; Such accusations are not rare. If I had a dollar for every time the mainstream media accused Trump and his voters of racism, I&#8217;d be about as rich as the recent Powerball winner.</p> <p>As a Hispanic, I believe that people of color, for far too long, have been taken for granted by the Democratic Party. I also believe that the Trump movement represents real policy solutions for the woes of poverty and violence that burden too many African-American and Latino citizens. But the digital rage mob holds people like me in particular contempt, as I saw during the 2016 campaign in the form of a constant stream of online slurs. Yes, today&#8217;s liberals are quick to use racism&#8217;s terms when it suits their purposes, calling me a &#8220;coconut&#8221; (brown on the outside, white on the inside) and &#8220;Tio Tomas&#8221; (Uncle Tom in Spanish).</p> <p>One of the main reasons America has succeeded as a country lies is our rejection of the tribalism that afflicts and paralyzes so much of the world. America is an idea, and one open to all who embrace it, regardless of skin color, heritage, or religion. To be sure, America must own the racist sins of our history. Thankfully, such systemic racism is just that, history &#8211; as evidenced by electing twice to our highest office an African-American man with a decidedly un-European name.</p> <p>Instead of allowing a new scourge, this Racist Scare, to corrode our discourse, we must embrace our common American identity, rooted in our best traditions and elucidated in our founding documents. We should be difficult to offend and slow to accuse others of the disease of prejudice. As the incumbent president of the United States explained in his inaugural address seven months ago: &#8220;When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for bigotry.&#8221;</p> <p>Amen.</p> <p>Steve Cortes, a contributor to RealClearPolitics and Fox News, is the national spokesman for the Hispanic 100, an organization that promotes Latino leadership by advancing free enterprise principles. His Twitter handle is @CortesSteve.</p> Secret Message from God Found in Human DNA (See What It Says)

Racist Scare: The New McCarthyism

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/08/27/racist_scare_the_new_mccarthyism_134848.html

2017-08-27

<p>The <a type="internal">infamous Access Hollywood tape</a> in which <a type="internal">Donald Trump</a> brags about his ability to &#8220;grab&#8221; women with impunity because he&#8217;s famous is real, Access Hollywood&#8216;s hosts asserted on Monday&#8212;just in case the president had any doubts.</p> <p>In response to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/us/politics/trump-roy-moore-mcconnell-alabama-senate.html?_r=0" type="external">report</a> that Trump was questioning the authenticity of the 2005 hot-mic recording, which captured the former reality TV star saying he could &#8220;grab [women] by the pussy,&#8221; Access Hollywood host Natalie Morales said on Monday&#8217;s show that the tap is, in fact, &#8220;very real.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;We wanted to clear something up that has been reported across the media landscape. Let us make this perfectly clear: The tape is very real,&#8221; Morales said. &#8220;Remember his excuse at the time was &#8216;locker room talk.&#8217; He said every one of those words.&#8221;</p> <q> <p>TRUMP: The "Access Hollywood" tape might be fake</p> </q> <p>After the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html?postshare=3561475870579757&amp;tid=ss_tw" type="external">Washington Post</a> revealed the tape ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Trump apologized and at no time stated that the tape was faked. When CNN&#8217;s Anderson Cooper pressed Trump on whether he &#8220;understood&#8221; that what he said was an admission of sexual assault, Trump pushed back, dismissing his comments as &#8220;locker room talk.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think you understand what was said,&#8221; Trump <a type="internal">responded to Cooper during an October 2016 presidential debate</a>. &#8220;This was locker room talk. I&#8217;m not proud of it. I apologized to my family, I apologized to the American people. Certainly, I&#8217;m not proud of it, but this was locker room talk.&#8221;</p> <p>Following publication of the tape, at least 16 women came forward to <a type="internal">say Trump sexually harassed or assaulted them</a>.</p> <p>test</p> <p>test</p> <p>News that Trump reportedly questioned the tape&#8217;s veracity&#8212;once to a senator and, more recently, once to an adviser, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/us/politics/trump-roy-moore-mcconnell-alabama-senate.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a>&#8212;brought the tape back to the surface amid an outpouring of allegations against high-profile men across entertainment, politics, and media.</p> <p>During Monday&#8217;s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to address Trump&#8217;s reported skepticism of the tape&#8217;s legitimacy and characterized the tape as unimportant because Trump won the election.</p> <p>&#8220;The president addressed this, this was litigated and certainly answered during the election by the overwhelming support for the president and the fact he&#8217;s sitting here in the Oval Office today,&#8221; she <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/362007-wh-dodges-on-whether-trump-questions-the-legitimacy-of-access" type="external">said</a>.</p>

‘Access Hollywood’ to Trump: The tape is ‘very real’

https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/trump-access-hollywood-tape-real/

2017-11-28

<p>On Monday ESPN suspended <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2017/10/09/jemele-hill-suspended-by-espn-over-jerry-jones-tweets/" type="external">Jemele Hill</a>for 2 weeks in response to her tweets encouraging NFL fans to boycott anyone who sponsors Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones.</p> <p>Hill's tweet was in response to Jones comments that any player who disrespected the flag would be cut from his team.</p> <p>In a statement ESPN said,</p> <p>"Jemele Hill has been suspended for two weeks for a second violation of our social media guidelines. She previously acknowledged letting her colleagues and company down with an impulsive tweet. In the aftermath, all employees were reminded of how individual tweets may reflect negatively on ESPN and that such actions would have consequences. Hence this decision."</p> <p>ESPN says that it has accepted the apology of Jemele Hill for tweeting that President Trump and his followers are "white supremacists."</p> <p>Earlier this week, the co-host of ESPN's &#8220;SC6 with Michael and Jemele" fired off a series of tweets calling the President a "bigot" and "white supremacist."</p> <p>Hill apologized for her tweets on Wednesday.</p> <p>"My comments on Twitter expressed my personal beliefs." She wrote on Twitter. "My regret is that my comments and the public way I made them painted ESPN in an unfair light."</p> <p>The network issued a followup statement after her apology and said that Hill has a right to her personal beliefs, but said that they are not reflective of the company's opinions or beliefs.</p> <p>"She has acknowledged that her tweets crossed that line and has apologized for doing so. We accept her apology," they wrote.</p> <p>ESPN has been under intense scrutiny after they pulled their broadcaster Robert Lee off air &#8220;as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding" in August.</p> <p>The Associated Press contributed to this report.</p> <p>White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is calling for the termination of an ESPN anchor after she called President Donald Trump a white supremacist on Twitter.</p> <p>&#8220;That is one of the more outrageous comments that anybody could make and certainly is something that is a fireable offense by ESPN,&#8221; Sanders said on Wednesday.</p> <p>This comes after Jemele Hill, who co-hosts a ESPN show called &#8220;SC6 with Michael and Jemele," fired off a series of Tweets denouncing Trump and calling his supporters white supremacists.</p> <p>EPSN soon issued a statement in response to Smith's remarks.</p> <p>&#8220;The comments on Twitter from Jemele Hill regarding the president do not represent the position of ESPN,&#8221; the network said. &#8220;We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate.&#8221;</p> <p>ESPN on Tuesday distanced itself from anchor Jemele Hill&#8217;s tweets calling President Trump &#8220;a bigot&#8221; and &#8220;a white supremacist.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;The comments on Twitter from Jemele Hill regarding the president do not represent the position of ESPN,&#8221; the network tweeted from its public relation&#8217;s department&#8217;s account.</p> <p>&#8220;We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate,&#8221; ESPN added of Hill, a co-host on the 6 p.m. broadcast of the network&#8217;s &#8220;SportsCenter&#8221; program.</p> <p>Hill on Monday had a series of Twitter exchanges with other users that involved her harshly criticizing Trump.</p> <p>&#8220;Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/other white supremacists,&#8221; she said in one tweet.</p> <p>&#8220;Trump is the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime,&#8221; Hill added in another post. &#8220;His rise is a direct result of white supremacy. Period.&#8221;</p> <p>Hill added in a third tweet that &#8220;Donald Trump is a bigot&#8221; before going on to deride the president&#8217;s supporters.</p> <p>&#8220;The height of white privilege is being able to ignore his white supremacy, because it&#8217;s of no threat to you,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Well, it&#8217;s a threat to me.&#8221;</p> <p>Some Twitter users on Wednesday praised Hill for singling out Trump, while others lambasted her decision instead.</p> <p>ESPN is owned by Disney, and neither company elaborated on a possible punishment for Hill, who was on Tuesday night&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;SportsCenter&#8221; like normal.</p> <p>Former National Football League (NFL) quarterback Colin Kaepernick, meanwhile, on Tuesday voiced support for Hill on Twitter.</p> <p>Kaepernick remains unsigned after playing with the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2016 in a situation that remains controversial in the football world.</p> <p>The professional athlete began kneeling during the National Anthem last year to protest police brutality and racial injustice.</p> <p>Supporters say Kaepernick is making a legitimate stand for social justice, while critics charge he is acting unpatriotic instead.</p> <p>These celebrities ended up deleting their Twitter accounts.</p> <p>Let's get started!</p>

ESPN accepted 'SportsCenter' anchor Jemele Hill's apology for her anti-Trump tweets

https://www.circa.com/story/2017/09/13/action-sports/jemele-hill-trump-tweets-espn-distances-itself-from-sportscenter-anchors-comments

2017-10-09

<p>Trump just decertified the Iran deal, and, oh well, it was nice thinking about peace while we had the chance. True, Trump hasn&#8217;t actually repealed the deal. He announced new sanctions, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-takes-hard-line-iran-obama-deal-place/story?id=50442196" type="external">according</a> to ABC News, &#8220;but didn&#8217;t do anything that would alter the Obama-era deal that he has denounced since his presidential campaign.&#8221; Decertification is Trump to a T: you don&#8217;t accomplish anything, but you manage to create the shittiest possible situation regardless. It&#8217;s a real gift.</p> <p>The deal, Trump said, is no longer in the national security interest of the United States. This decision, which has been referred as &#8220;decertification,&#8221; is a shift in official position. It is a significant declaration that leaves the nuclear agreement in place, but puts Congress in charge of whether or not to follow up with action &#8212; triggering a 60-day window for lawmakers to re-impose sanctions against Iran that were suspended in 2015 as part of the agreement.</p> <p>Trump decertified the Iran deal just &#8216;cause, why not, since you&#8217;re gutting Obamacare and deciding to let Puerto Rico dehydrate; Trump decided to decertify the Iran deal because you&#8217;re well on your way to becoming the Worst President of Every Timeline, yeah baby, and why not light another <a type="internal">Roman candle</a> on the fast roller coaster down to geohell? Maybe Congress will rescue the deal, maybe not. The important thing is that this takes the best hope we have with Iran and wades back into David Frum&#8217;s &#8220;Let&#8217;s Invent, and then Invade, the Axis of Evil,&#8221; which gave us the tragedy of Iraq. That worked so well, why not repeat it again?</p> <p>The President said:</p> <p>&#8220;As I have said many times, the Iran Deal was one of the worst and one sided transactions the United States has ever entered into&#8221;</p> <p>What does he think we can get instead? The President thinks that Iran has sponsored terrorism (and the Saudis haven&#8217;t) and that the Iranian regime &#8220;has committed multiple violations of the agreement&#8221; (there are mechanisms to deal with these). Trump called on the intelligence community to look at Iran&#8217;s help to the North Korean nuclear program.</p> <p>Oh! I can help with that one! There&#8217;s a base right south of Camp Fantasy, in the northernmost region of the Your Brain is No Longer Functioning Mountain Region. The President says Iran loves the chants &#8220;Death to America&#8221; and &#8220;Death to Israel,&#8221; because the President and his team of wannabe-Iranian bombers don&#8217;t see Iran or its eighty million people&#8212;they see whatever Islamophobic, racist-ass caricatures get cooked up on Fox News, where Khomeini is still somehow alive in the year 2017. Trump decertified the deal, because nothing, not even human life or world peace, is more important than repudiating every bit of Obama&#8217;s legacy.</p> <p>The major powers and American struck a deal with Iran in July 2015. It eased sanctions and got real monitoring of Iran&#8217;s nuclear program. Trump&#8217;s own Defense Secretary said Iran has complied. The agreement got everything we needed from the regime, and now Trump wants out, because the movie in his head tells him being the leading asshole of the world is definitely, assuredly the best way to go.</p> <p>Trump decertified the Iran deal because he thinks he can get a better one, this man who can&#8217;t pass a single piece of legislation and can&#8217;t manage to avoid staring at an eclipse. Trump decertified the Iran deal because he doesn&#8217;t care. Trump decertified the Iran deal because it doesn&#8217;t matter who the Commander-in-Chief is; there is a National Security blob in Washington that no single President can ever fight, and it consumes money and spits out drones and missiles.</p> <p>Trump is incompetent in a million unusual ways, but he&#8217;s particularly, peculiarly incompetent in resisting the mechanisms of institutional influence. In other words, Trump will believe whatever the good people of the military-industrial concept whisper in his ear. That community kicked it around, and decided it was best that we threaten Iran again. After all, the NatSec blob has never forgotten or forgiven Iran for rejecting Western hegemony&#8212;and anyway, none of their own sons or daughters got shot in Iraq, so yes, why not set the stage for an eventual war with Iran? Trump decertified the deal, and the people of the world were not surprised at all. The man is barely part of reality. What did we expect?</p>

Trump Decertified the Iranian Deal, Just 'Cause

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/10/trump-decertified-the-iranian-deal-just-cause.html

2017-10-13

<p>President Donald Trump once left his son, Donald Trump Jr., stranded on a tarmac after he was five minutes late for a flight, the president's first wife Ivana Trump wrote in her new book "Raising Trump."</p> <p>Ivana referenced the anecdote when describing a key feature of Donald and the rest of the Trump family that she learned when she and the future president first began dating.</p> <p>"The entire Trump clan arrived exactly on time," she wrote. "I learned early on that they were punctual to an extreme. For them, 'on time' meant five minutes early."</p> <p>"When Donald arrived in a boardroom, or took his seat on an airplane and the door closed, that was that," she continued. "If you weren't on the inside, the meeting or the flight would start without you. Donald once left Don Jr. standing on the tarmac for being five minutes late to the airport."</p> <p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ivana-trump-donald-jr-airplane-tarmac-flight-2017-10?utm_source=hearst&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=allverticals#comments" type="external">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-stone-donald-trump-richard-nixon-2017-2?utm_source=hearst&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=allverticals" type="external">Roger Stone explains what Trump has in common with Richard Nixon</a></p> <p>See Also:</p> <p>SEE ALSO: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-blue-slips-trump-judicial-nominees-2017-10?utm_source=hearst&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=allverticals" type="external">McConnell gives strongest hint yet that GOP should gut the biggest weapon Democrats have to halt Trump's judicial nominees</a></p>

Ivana Trump said Donald once abandoned Donald Jr. on a tarmac because he was 5 minutes late for a flight

http://m.mysanantonio.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Ivana-Trump-said-Donald-once-abandoned-Donald-Jr-12273453.php

2017-10-12

<p>President Trump holds a joint press conference with Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah of Kuwait.</p> Trump holds joint press conference with Kuwait's leader, Amir ... <p>Trump on Thursday also seemingly touted his administration's success against ISIS compared with his predecessor, former President Obama.</p> <p>"What we do is kill ISIS," Trump said of America's involvement in Syria. "We have done better in eight months in my presidency that was accomplished during the last eight years. ISIS is disappearing rapidly."</p> <p>President Trump on Thursday said it would be a "very sad day" for North Korea if the U.S. military needed to use force against it.</p> <p>"Military action would certainly be an option," he said during a press conference. "Nothing is inevitable. I would prefer not going the route of the military, but it could certainly happen."</p> <p>"Our military is stronger now," Trump added. "Each day new and beautiful equipment is delivered, by far the best in the world. Hopefully we don't use it on North Korea. But if we do use it on North Korea, it will be a very sad day for North Korea. I will tell you that North Korea is behaving very badly and it's gotta stop."</p> <p>President Trump on Thursday praised Kuwait for its contributions to defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other terrorist groups.</p> <p>"The United States is proud to have contributed to the liberation of Kuwait and the friendship we have built together in the years since," he said, referencing the First Gulf War from 1990 to 1991.</p> <p>"We also thank Kuwait for its humanitarian leadership and its partnership in the fight to destroy ISIS," Trump added in a joint press conference with Kuwaiti leader Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah.</p> <p>President Trump and Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the leader of Kuwait, on Thursday are appearing together in a joint press conference after meeting in Washington, D.C.</p> <p>Thursday's meeting comes as Kuwait tries mediating an ongoing diplomatic crisis between Qatar and its Arab neighbors in the Middle East.</p> <p>Trump initially seemed to side with Saudi Arabia on the disagreement, but he then instructed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to back the Kuwaiti mediation initiative.</p> <p>Tillerson and other U.S. diplomats have since traveled through the region to boost Kuwait's efforts, but the dispute has dragged on despite their efforts.</p> <p>Trump was also expected to discuss global efforts to isolate North Korea by halting employment of its guest workers during his talks with Al Sabah.</p> <p>Kuwait has about 6,000 North Korean guest works within its borders as worldwide tensions rise over the Asian nation's pursuit of nuclear weapons.</p> <p><a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-09-07/qatar-north-korea-on-agenda-for-trumps-kuwait-meeting" type="external">The Associated Press</a> contributed to this report.</p>

Trump said it would be a 'very sad day' for North Korea if the US had to use force

https://www.circa.com/story/2017/09/07/politics/trump-kuwait-leader-sheikh-sabah-al-ahmad-al-sabah-hold-joint-press-conference

2017-09-07

<p>The State Department argued at a federal hearing Thursday that its ability to process the 100,000 Hillary Clinton emails ordered released under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit has been hindered by a lack of manpower due to a "hiring freeze" and that the urgency to release the documents has been diminished by the public's lack of interest in the subject, according to the watchdog group that won the lawsuit for the document's release.</p> <p>But Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that sued the State Department in May 2015 for the thousands of emails and documents, isn't buying it.</p> <p>Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton is accusing the State Department of slow-rolling the emails being sent from the FBI to the State Department, a large number of which Clinton "failed to disclose" to the government when she served as secretary of state, he said.</p> <p>On July 15, the FBI allegedly turned over to the State Department a new disk of emails belonging to former Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The emails were apparently discovered on a laptop owned by Abedin's estranged husband, Anthony Weiner. Weiner pleaded guilty in May to sending a number of text messages and sexually explicit pictures last year to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.</p> <p>There apparently are 7,000 emails from Abedin on Weiner's laptop, said Fitton, who added that State Department and Justice Department lawyers are "claiming they have to appraise them, whether they are personal or government, and then sift through what can be shared publicly."</p> <p>State Department spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala told Circa "&#8206;the Department takes its records management responsibilities seriously and is working diligently to process FOIA requests and to balance the demands of the many requests we have received." "We are devoting significant resources to meeting our litigation obligations," she added.</p> <p>The State Department was ordered in November to process documents at the rate of 500 pages per month, but "at that rate it would take until 2020 for the bulk to made public," Fitton said. So far, the State Department has produced 17 batches of documents, Fitton said.</p> <p>"President Trump needs to direct his agencies to follow the the law but right now they are making a mockery of it by saying they won't finish releasing it until 2020," said Fitton, whose group will be heading back to court three months from now to assess the progress. "I can understand the president's frustration because he wanted these made public. However, his Justice and State departments are making excuses of why they have to slow-roll it this way."</p> <p>Trump has made numerous assertions about Clinton and her email server. In June, he tweeted that Clinton destroyed her phones and "bleached" her emails.</p> <p>But the president's own Justice Department civil attorneys argued Thursday that there was "diminished public interest" in the emails.</p> <p>A U.S. official familiar with the case and the agencies told Circa on the condition that they not be named that "there are still holdovers within the departments that don't want to see these emails released, so slow-rolling these requests makes perfect sense. If the president wants these emails released then he will have to demand that the agencies abide."</p> <p>Last week, Judicial Watch released <a href="http://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/tag/huma-production-18/" type="external">448 pages</a> of documents the State Department did turn over from Abedin, describing what it said was preferential treatment "to major donors to the Clinton Foundation and political campaigns," according to the group.</p> <p>"The documents included <a href="http://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/jw-v-state-huma-production-18-unpublished-00684/" type="external">six</a> Clinton email exchanges not previously turned over to the State Department, bringing the known total to date to at least <a href="http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-releases-new-hillary-clinton-email-admitting-blackberry-use-advice-security-hawks/" type="external">439</a> emails that were not part of the 55,000 pages of emails that Clinton turned over to the State Department, and further contradicting a statement by Clinton that, ' <a href="http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-hillary-clinton-submits-email-information-to-court-under-penalty-of-perjury/" type="external">as far as she knew</a>,' all of her government emails had been turned over to the State Department," the watchdog group stated in a July 14 press release.</p>

The State Department said there's less urgency to release Clinton's emails due to low interest

https://www.circa.com/story/2017/07/20/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-diminished-interest-reduces-urgency-to-release-state-department-says

2017-07-20

<p>A total of 16 women joined together Monday to address their stories of sexual assault and sexual harassment at the hands of President Donald Trump.</p> <p>While many of these women came forward during the 2016 election, the Trump campaign attacked them, their lives and many right-wing activists invented information designed to discredit them.</p> <p><a type="internal">The three women that spoke earlier to Megyn Kelly</a> sat at a table with documentarian Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films. He commended the reporters who have investigated the many accounts across all industries about sexual harassment.</p> <p>&#8220;There was one man that wasn&#8217;t being held accountable &#8212; who&#8217;s not being called out,&#8221; Greenwald said. That&#8217;s why he decided to create the documentary with the women.</p> <p>&#8220;It really had an impact on your heart, your soul, your emotions,&#8221; Greenwald said. He noted that so many women came forward to warn Americans, but &#8220;attention was not paid.&#8221;</p> <p>Today, Greenwald said &#8220;we know better. We know a lot better,&#8221; when it comes to predators. He demanded those in politics to act against anyone of either party not to give anyone &#8220;a pass.&#8221;</p> <p>Jessica Leeds, Samantha Holvey and Rachel Crooks each introduced themselves, telling story after story of their horrifying encounters with Trump.</p> <p>&#8220;I have a new dream now that this man will be held accountable for his actions and that future women will not be treated as less than just because they are a woman,&#8221; Holvey said.</p> <p>Crooks noted that given Trump owned the building in which she worked, she didn&#8217;t have any power to do anything.</p> <p>&#8220;Given this hostile work environment, my only solution at the time was to simply avoid additional encounters with him,&#8221; Crooks said. &#8220;I do realize that in the grand scheme of things there are far worse cases of sexual harassment, misconduct and assault. But make no mistake, there is no acceptable level of this behavior. That some men think they can use their power, position or notoriety to demean attack women speaks to their character and not ours. Which, believe me, is a tough lesson learned.&#8221;</p> <p>She went on to say that it was only through other remarkably similar accounts that she felt empowered to come forward.</p> <p>&#8220;Instead, this was serial misconduct and perversion on the part of Mr. Trump,&#8221; Crooks continued. &#8220;Unfortunately, this behavior isn&#8217;t rare in our society. Many women of any background can be victims. The only reason I am here today is because this offender is the president of our country.&#8221;</p> <p>She went on to note that Trump had dismissed his &#8220;Access Hollywood&#8221; tape as &#8220;locker room talk,&#8221; but &#8220;having been the victim of such actions, I knew better.&#8221;</p> <p>She asked that some things should transcend politics and that all people, regardless of position or power be held accountable for their actions, including Trump.</p> <p><a type="internal">Leeds walked through her disgusting story and further encounter</a>, saying that she never once anticipated being on the front page of a newspaper. She was &#8220;absolutely destroyed&#8221; by Trump&#8217;s election.</p> <p>&#8220;The United States is a big strong country,&#8221; Leeds said that she thought at the time. &#8220;We can survive this person.&#8221;</p> <p>But women kept coming up to her in public and told Leeds their own story. She said that she had hoped things were better for women in business, but &#8220;apparently I was wrong.&#8221; When the Harvey Weinstein story hit and woman after woman began to come forward, people were finally being held accountable.</p> <p>&#8220;Except for our president,&#8221; Leeds said. She quoted Trump&#8217;s White House, who has said that the women are all &#8220;liars.&#8221; She noted that some are holding men accountable for bad behavior, however, &#8220;our president is not being held accountable for what he is and who he is.&#8221;</p> <p>Leeds said that this is part of the problem that is happening in Alabama. Crooks agreed, saying that Trump endorsed Roy Moore because he denied the allegations and it &#8220;worked for him.&#8221;</p> <p>Lisa Boyne spoke via phone to the press conference, telling her own story of being invited to a dinner party with Trump in the West Village. She said that he wanted the women to rate other women on a 1 to 10 scale. While at dinner, the men used the table as a &#8220;casting couch.&#8221; The women were brought to the table one by one and he told them to walk across the table. Boyne said that Trump looked up their skirts as they walked by.</p> <p>She said that John Casablancas ordered her to drink more but she refused and he was bothered by her refusal. She ultimately excused herself to the ladies room and from the restaurant. She explained that over the years her story was met with shame and questions of why she was there. She tried to pitch it to reporters, but no one wanted to hear it.</p> <p>&#8220;As a parent I was so deeply deeply offended&#8230; because he had a son around the age of my son and what sort of values are we teaching our children when we say that something like rape is &#8216;locker room talk,'&#8221; she shouted. &#8220;And that her husband talking about that is &#8216;boy talk.&#8217; Everybody is normalizing as something that boys and men say in the locker room. That is the talk of horrible people and Trump keeps staying it to the press pool. And you&#8217;re all taking it in like it&#8217;s normal. It is not a normal way for people to talk. Why aren&#8217;t people calling him out on that. Something that is so horrific &#8212; I&#8217;m so fed up of listening to people. We take it in like it&#8217;s nothing. We shouldn&#8217;t teach our boys to talk like this.&#8221;</p> <p>She went on to say it was &#8220;one thousand times worse that what Al Franken has done.&#8221;</p> <p>Watch the full event below:</p> <p>You can watch the clip of the Brave New Films documentary below:</p>

‘Serial misconduct and perversion’: Trump accusers describe incidents ‘a thousand times worse than what Franken has done’

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/serial-misconduct-and-perversion-trump-accusers-describe-incidents-a-thousand-times-worse-than-what-franken-has-done/

2017-12-11

<p>As the GOP divides at the rate of human cells, and a self-destructive President Trump causes his own supporters to question how he can succeed, Democrats have refused to fill the leadership void with a better vision of governance. Instead, they are partnering with the flailing Republicans and their president in failure. Democrats are leaning indulgently on the politics of race and gratuitous opposition to Trump, and they appear content to be the party of sanctuary cities, safe spaces and single-payer health care.</p> <p>Weeks ago they released an &#8220;agenda&#8221; designed to offer voters &#8220;A Better Deal,&#8221; but who would know what&#8217;s in it since all they talk about is Trump? Meanwhile, if Trump&#8217;s trajectory doesn&#8217;t improve, the party may face the weakest, most unpopular president in modern times in 2020 -- but with who? Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are running, or think they are. Why are they being encouraged?</p> <p>Sounding like a garden-variety conservative, liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow asked last week on Twitter: &#8220;Serious question: What is the Dem party now in addition to anti-Trump? What does it stand for now? Also, who&#8217;s leading? #GhostParty.&#8221;</p> <p>The last two weeks have been Trump&#8217;s worst in office, yet it seems the lower he sinks, Democratic leaders do likewise. The president&#8217;s pathetic and irresponsible response to a white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville -- where a protester was mowed down by a driver and killed -- has prompted not only fellow Republicans to criticize Trump but now his own National Economic Council director, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/us/politics/gary-cohn-trump-charlottesville.html?mcubz=0&amp;_r=0" type="external">Gary Cohn</a>, as well. Still, Democrats went overboard.</p> <p>House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is calling on Congress to censure the president for the &#8220;repulsiveness of his words and actions,&#8221; adding that &#8220;every day, the president gives us further evidence of why such a censure is necessary.&#8221; Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any potential ties the president and his campaign had to those activities, responded Friday, saying in a <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/901108564495933440?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet" type="external">Twitter post</a> that he will co-sponsor a censure resolution because Trump &#8220;expresses views inimical to our values.&#8221; Rep. Jackie Speier, another member of the committee, has called for Trump&#8217;s removal under the 25th Amendment. Speier tweeted that &#8220;POTUS is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger.&#8221;</p> <p>Rep. Keith Ellison, deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said on CNN Monday that POTUS has &#8220;sympathy&#8221; for white supremacists. He&#8217;s not just a congressman anymore but a party official -- no wonder the DNC&#8217;s fundraising is at a record low.</p> <p>Rep. Maxine Waters, whose late-in-life internet fame recently landed her on &#8220;The View,&#8221; tweeted the day after Charlottesville that &#8220;Trump has made it clear - w/Bannon &amp;amp; Gorka in the WH, &amp;amp; the Klan in the streets, it is now the White Supremacists House. #Charlottesville.&#8221; Should Democrats win back the House next year, Waters would be chairman of the Financial Services Committee, an influential voice at the leadership table.</p> <p>Former Vermont Gov. and DNC Chairman Howard &#8220;The Scream&#8221; Dean said last week, &#8220;If you want to vote for a racist in the White House, then you better vote for Republicans.&#8221; The party elder recently declared he would stop contributing to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee because it will consider recruiting pro-life candidates.</p> <p>After all these years, eight of them during President Obama&#8217;s two terms, Pelosi is now calling on the House Speaker Paul Ryan to remove Confederate statues -- which &#8220;have always been reprehensible&#8221; -- immediately from the halls of Congress &#8220;if Republicans are serious about rejecting white supremacy.&#8221; Polling after the events in Charlottesville show that while a majority of Americans disapprove of Trump&#8217;s response, 62 percent said monuments to Confederate leaders should remain. Yet these monuments are suddenly a pressing federal issue to national Democrats.</p> <p>Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who enjoys great respect across aisle, has gone a step further than his party&#8217;s left, saying the statue removal is &#8220;not a matter of political correctness,&#8221; but &#8220;of public safety and homeland security.&#8221; This from the man who never made the issue a priority as head of DHS.</p> <p>While countering Trump is essential -- after all, Republicans are doing the same -- the focus should remain on even more fundamental matters: guarding the Constitution and the separation of powers; stressing facts over falsehoods; preventing a government shutdown that Trump&#8217;s lobbying for; defending the right to a free press to hold him accountable; urging him to pay cost-sharing reduction payments under the Affordable Care Act to provide more certainty to the fragile exchanges; and pushing for any bipartisan cooperation possible on health care, tax reform and infrastructure projects. Democrats must leave the fight to stop him and his family from running a kleptocracy, an issue the GOP remains silent on, to outsiders who have filed lawsuits. Leave the statue debate to the states. Leave the questions of his stability to Republicans like Sen. Bob Corker. Leave the Russia investigation to special counsel Robert Mueller. Let the media report on West Wing dysfunction or how much Trump television watches. Democrats should leave all that alone.</p> <p>Democrats must also decide whether they want President Obama back in the spotlight. Rudderless and leaderless, some party operators long for him swoop in and right the ship, yet they still blame him for sinking it with epic election losses from 2009 to 2016. As they attempt to plot a path forward and regain seats in state legislatures, governorships, the U.S. House and Senate -- and someday the White House -- Democrats need new faces and leaders and can&#8217;t lean too heavily on the 44th president. Yet some are calling for him to be a loud voice: &#8220;None of the potential Democratic presidential candidates have the visibility or credibility to be effective,&#8221; party strategist Brad Bannon told The Hill.</p> <p>Finally, as Democrats like Reps. Brad Sherman, Al Green and Gwen Moore continue to push for impeachment, party leaders must avoid what Obama&#8217;s onetime senior adviser David Axelrod warned would likely be a costly mistake. &#8220;Remember: A third of the country supports this president," he said on CNN. "That's a very dangerous road to go down. And if you ever did go down that road, you&#8217;re opening a Pandora&#8217;s box that will never end."</p> <p>What&#8217;s already in that box is widespread voter disgust. People are turning away from both parties and the pool of gettable voters is shrinking, which means base politics will be less and less effective in the years to come. Democrats must convince voters they take governing more seriously than partisan politics and will focus on economic growth instead of statues, tweets and Russia.</p> <p>Or they can stay in the minority a lot longer.</p> <p>A.B. Stoddard is associate editor of RealClearPolitics and a columnist. She is also host of "No Labels Radio" on Sirius XM's POTUS Channel.</p> Secret Message from God Found in Human DNA (See What It Says)

Democrats Are Working Hard to Destroy Their Party

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/08/25/democrats_are_working_hard_to_destroy_their_party_134843.html

2017-08-25

<p>The world Is watching and so is oil as the death toll rises in the streets of Iran, where the people revolt against a terrible economy and the lack of any real freedoms and rights. At least 19 people were reported killed in street protests in Iran, while President Hassan Rouhani on one hand defended their right to protest but on the other hand warned he would show &#8220;no tolerance&#8221; for those who incite unrest. Many arrests have been made and the government of Iran says it may seek the death penalty, for what they say are crimes against God, in demonstrations that have gone on for over 5 days in a row.</p> <p>President Trump tweeted that &#8221;Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food &amp;amp; for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!&#8221;</p> <p>The uprising in IRAN is just another risk factor in a global oil market that is tightening. Strong global demand and shale oil production that is falling far short of what the Energy Information keeps telling us it is. Reports from the Texas Railroad Commission is telling us that Texas shale oil production has been stagnant and not rising as the production decline rate year over year is taking its toll. Total oil stocks are down a whopping 135M barrels just since April even as U.S. oil production is supposedly at a record high. Bad data is becoming a bigger risk as underinvestment has led to the least amount of oil discoveries in 70 years and the global oil replenishment rate ratio fell to 11 percent this year, down from more than 50 percent in 2012 according to a new report. That is a dangerous situation, especially because of the over estimates of shale oil output.</p> <p>ETF reports that this has led to the lowest ever volumes of oil discoveries in 2017, Rystad Energy said last week. While the low-level of discoveries is not an immediate threat to global oil supply, it could become a threat ten years down the road, according to Rystad Energy.</p> <p>In ten years&#8217; time, U.S. shale production may peak, at least according to OPEC that sees shale peaking after 2025, although the cartel has conceded that U.S. tight oil has defied previous forecasts and has increased production more than initially expected and will continue to do so in the short-term.</p> <p>This year has seen less than 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent discovered globally, a volume as low as last seen in the 1940s, Rystad Energy has estimated. What worries analysts the most is the fact that this year the reserve replacement ratio&#8211;the amount of discovered resources relative to the amount of production&#8211;was a mere 11 percent, compared to 50 percent in 2012, Sonia Mlad&#225; Passos, Senior Analyst at Rystad Energy, said.</p> <p>The other ongoing risk is Venezuela. An explosion over the weekend that hit Venezuela&#8217;s largest refinery was an accident waiting to happen. Deferred maintenance and bad management as the Venezuelan government stole money and failed to do even the most basic maintenance for the facility according to sources.</p> <p>Reuters reported that a former oil minister excoriated Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a newspaper column on Sunday, accusing the leftist leader of behaving like biblical King Herod and plunging the oil-rich nation into economic devastation. Rafael Ramirez, who was the all-powerful head of the oil ministry and state energy company PDVSA for a decade, has long been a rival of Maduro. In recent months, Ramirez has grown increasingly critical of Maduro&#8217;s handling of a fourth straight year of recession that has triggered malnutrition, widespread food and medicine shortages, the world&#8217;s steepest inflation, and a surge in emigration. A furious Maduro ordered Ramirez to resign as the nation&#8217;s United Nations ambassador in New York last month after an article entitled the &#8220;The Storm&#8221; was perceived as an attack on his government.</p> <p>We haven&#8217;t even got to the cold. Wicked winter weather is causing a surge in oil and natural gas and coal demand. Demand for coal burns hit three-year high causing to temporarily put it above natural gas as the top s U.S. power sources. There are reports that they were shortages of natural gas in Northern Alberta county under state of emergency due to natural gas disruption. The report said that large parts of northern Alberta was under a state of emergency over the weekend due to low natural gas pressure and system outages.</p> <p>The Energy Report has kept our bullish outlook and we still believe that the double bottom at $26 a barrel was a generational low. Despite all the bearish hype that the market had last year and bad info this year oil looks poised for a big move. Make sure you are hedged! I am hearing from many folks still that were underhedged last year and are now paying the price. Thanks, Phil Flynn Questions? Ask Phil Flynn today at 312-264-4364</p> <p>A Subsidiary of Price Holdings, Inc. &#8211; an Employee Owned Diversified Financial Services Firm. Member NIBA, NFA</p> <p>Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Investing in futures can involve substantial risk of loss &amp;amp; is not suitable for everyone. Trading foreign exchange also involves a high degree of risk. The leverage created by trading on margin can work against you as well as for you, and losses can exceed your entire investment. Before opening an account and trading, you should seek advice from your advisors as appropriate to ensure that you understand the risks and can withstand the losses.</p> <p>The information and data in this report were obtained from sources considered reliable. Their accuracy or completeness is not guaranteed and the giving of the same is not to be deemed as an offer or solicitation on our part with respect to the sale or purchase of any securities or futures. The Price Futures Group, its officers, directors, employees, and brokers may in the normal course of business have positions, which may or may not agree with the opinions expressed in this report. Any decision to purchase or sell as a result of the opinions expressed in this report will be the full responsibility of the person authorizing such transaction. Reproduction and/or distribution of any portion of this report are strictly prohibited without the written permission of the author. Trading in futures contracts, options on futures contracts, and forward contracts is not suitable for all investors and involves substantial risks. &#169;2017</p> <p>Tune into the Fox Business Network (FBN) is the best in business! Make it your New Year TV Home! The MoneyShow Orlando is coming in February. Get out of the cold! Go to the Money Show! Sign up for my class talking about a historic bottom in oil and what it means for your future. Time Is running out Go to Flynn.OrlandoMoneyShow.com.</p>

TIME FOR A CHANGE. The Energy Report 01/02/18

https://www.insidefutures.com/article/2102231/TIME%20FOR%20A%20CHANGE.%20The%20Energy%20Report%20%2001/02/18.html

2018-01-02

<p>The rise of right wing nationalism comes with a massive side dose of bad faith arguments. So argues Sasha Polakow-Suransky, the author of &#8220; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Back-Where-You-Came-Immigration/dp/1568585926" type="external">Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy</a>," which examines the explosion of far-right anti-immigration politics in both Europe and the United States.</p> <p>People like Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen are reactionaries, Polakow-Suransky told me on "Salon Talks," but they like to hide behind liberal values like equality and secularism when launching attacks on Muslim immigrants.</p> <p>&#8220;What these parties are doing, especially in France and Holland, is they&#8217;re telling gays, they&#8217;re telling feminists, and they&#8217;re telling Jews even, &#8216;We are the only ones who will protect you,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The threat all of you face is from Islam and Muslims and we&#8217;re the only party that can stand up to that.&#8217;&#8221;</p> <p>These politicians want voters to believe they&#8217;re not neo-Nazis and skinheads, he continued, but in reality, they&#8217;re &#8220;weaponizing secularism to target a specific group.&#8221;</p> <p>Polakow-Suransky, who is an Open Society Foundations fellow and has held previous positions as an op-ed editor at the New York Times and as a senior editor at Foreign Affairs, says he sees similarity in how &#8220;our president reacts to a horrible terrorist attack,&#8221; such as the murders in New York City on Halloween, and other crimes.</p> <p>&#8220;You see a real gulf between the reactions to any crime perpetrated by an Islamic extremist and crimes committed by white nationalists or other groups,&#8221; Polakow-Suransky said. &#8220;I think that shows they&#8217;re targeting a specific group rather than talking about universal values that we all share.&#8221;</p> <p>Watch <a href="https://www.facebook.com/salon/videos/10155452605286519/" type="external">our full "Salon Talks" conversation</a> on Facebook.</p> <p>Tune into Salon's live shows, "Salon Talks" and "Salon Stage," daily at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT and 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT, streaming live on <a type="internal">Salon</a> and on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/salon" type="external">Facebook</a>.</p>

Far-right leaders have double standards for immigrants

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/06/far-right-leaders-have-double-standards-for-immigrants/

2017-11-06

<p>It is a rich if tragic irony that the same progressives denouncing Richard Spencer and demanding that municipal statues be torn down for their alleged white supremacist qualities are themselves closely aligned with a white supremacist-tied group. I am speaking, of course, of Planned Parenthood, which is to the abortion-loving Left what Adolf Hitler&#8217;s bunker would have become to fascists had Germany not demolished it in the late 1980s: a sort of holy shrine upon which adulation and adoration can be fixated.</p> <p><a href="http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/15/tearing-white-supremacy-start-planned-parenthood/" type="external">Read Full Article &#187;</a></p>

Tear Down White Supremacy, Start w/Planned Parenthood

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2017/08/16/tear_down_white_supremacy_start_wplanned_parenthood_418503.html

2017-08-16

<p>Are you sick of Republicans? Or just right-wingers in general? Do you want to send a message to Washington that you aren't going to buy into their <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-gops-addiction-to-racism_us_59a550e0e4b0d6cf7f405024" type="external">racist</a>, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/national-party-news/318512-warren-silenced-a-sexist-gop-tells-a-woman-to-shut-up" type="external">sexist</a>, <a type="internal">xenophobic</a>, <a href="http://gawker.com/a-brief-and-ugly-history-of-the-gops-anti-lgbt-platform-1783934258" type="external">homophobic</a> and <a type="internal">classist</a> nonsense for one second longer?</p> <p>Then do the very thing that Donald Trump unintentionally encouraged in a recent tweet: Encourage Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2020!</p> <q> <p>Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time. She just can&#8217;t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party. Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!</p> <p>&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/931877599034388480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 18, 2017</a></p> </q> <p>I'm sure this is the part where the Clinton-haters &#8212; be they Trumpers, Bernie Bros or anything in between &#8212; will say something to the effect of, "Of course he wants her to run again. That's the only way he'll get re-elected!"</p> <p>Slow your roll there. Clinton's poll numbers aren't too good right now (OK, they're <a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/2020.htm" type="external">downright</a> <a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/hrc.htm" type="external">atrocious</a>), but there are still four great reasons to consider choosing her as the Democratic nominee in 2020. Even better, all but one of them has to do with an emotion that has no place in this season (which is why I absolutely had to write this article for Thanksgiving weekend): Spite. Delicious, nutritious spite.</p> <p>1. Hillary Clinton is the Winston Churchill to Vladimir Putin's Adolf Hitler.</p> <p>I agree with the basic principle of Godwin's Law: The first person to invoke Hitler in a political debate should normally lose. The exception, of course, has to be when someone has genuine Hitler-like qualities. A foreign despot who has <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/putin-preparing-all-out-invasion-ukraine-538615" type="external">invaded neighboring countries</a> and has a <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-fascist-325534" type="external">right-wing nationalist agenda</a> is about as Nazi-like as you can get.</p> <p>This is where Clinton offers a quality that no politician in America can beat. While Republicans are trying to tar her with a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/31/16581234/sessions-special-counsel-clinton-uranium-one-russia" type="external">bogus scandal</a> connecting her to Russia (and anyone who believes Clinton did something wrong in the Uranium One deal lacks credibility on all matters political), the reality is that no candidate can be better described as Russia's nemesis than Clinton. Putin has always hated Clinton because of his <a type="internal">innate sexism</a>, which has manifested in his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/11/06/putins-russia-promotes-women-and-misogyny-in-politics-wait-what/?utm_term=.7b0df1a32abe" type="external">policies</a>, and she certainly didn't endear herself to him by <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/clinton-putin-226153" type="external">publicly criticizing Russian corruption</a> in 2011. As the <a type="internal">ample connections</a> between the Trump campaign and Russia or its <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-secret-correspondence-between-donald-trump-jr-and-wikileaks/545738/" type="external">water-carriers</a> like WikiLeaks clearly demonstrate, the one person we know we can trust more than anyone is the candidate who Putin very obviously did not want to see as America's president.</p> <p>2. Hillary Clinton being elected president (at last) would monumentally piss off misogynistic trolls, and what's not to like about that?</p> <p>I can't think of a single political figure in recent American history who has been hated as deeply, or for as long, as Hillary Clinton. From the moment she emerged on the national stage in 1992 as a distinctly feminist prospective first lady, she has been the target of right-wing wrath woefully out of proportion to anything she has ever said or done.</p> <p>The reason for this is sexism. It's not the chic thing to say right now, but no other explanation really makes sense. Yes, Hillary Clinton is more centrist than either party likes these days, but why is she singled out for opprobrium here when her husband &#8212; who actually served as president &#8212; remains <a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/clinton1.htm" type="external">popular</a> despite holding the exact same views? The same point can be made about the claim that she is corrupt or too establishment. To the extent that these accusations are valid, they are no more true of Clinton than of the vast majority of politicians from both parties (especially Trump).</p> <p>At the very least, the next Democratic presidential candidate needs to be a woman &#8212; perhaps not Clinton specifically, but certainly a woman, to offset the symbolic gut-punch of the first female candidate getting <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/" type="external">cheated</a> by an overt misogynist. And speaking of cheating ...</p> <p>3. By winning the popular vote convincingly in 2016, Hillary Clinton has earned the right to be considered the presumptive nominee in 2020.</p> <p>As I <a type="internal">wrote</a> in September, Clinton is the first defeated presidential candidate to win the popular vote without being automatically considered a frontrunner in the next election. Two of the previous four popular vote-winning also-rans were actually elected in the subsequent cycle (Andrew Jackson in 1828 and Grover Cleveland in 1892), while two others were widely regarded as frontrunners before dropping out for personal reasons (Samuel Tilden and Al Gore).</p> <p>Let us not forget that, for all of the smack talk about how poorly Clinton ran her campaign, she bested Trump by nearly 3 million votes. This was no razor-thin margin of victory, but a decisive expression of the American public's preference. In terms of percentage points, her margin of victory was roughly comparable to that by which Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford in <a href="https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/" type="external">1976</a> or George W. Bush beat John Kerry in <a href="https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/" type="external">2004</a>. She also held Trump to a lower percentage of the popular vote than that garnered by Mitt Romney in <a href="https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/" type="external">2012</a>.</p> <p>4. We can expect her to be a good president.</p> <p>Frankly, the worst thing that can be said about a potential 2020 Clinton candidacy, especially in America's current cultural and political climate, is that her husband still hasn't answered for the <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/via/bill-clinton-rape-allegations-still-matter/" type="external">numerous sexual abuse accusations</a> against him. While it may seem unfair for Hillary to be held accountable for Bill's alleged predations, it can plausibly be argued that she played a role in helping him cover them up. If that is ever proved beyond a reasonable doubt, she should be given the heave-ho.</p> <p>Then again, Bill Clinton is also widely associated with the economic, social and foreign policy conditions of the <a type="internal">beloved 1990s</a>, and is greatly missed for that reason. And since few dispute that Hillary was her husband's co-president during that halcyon decade, that association can still remain a giant advantage.</p> <p>Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Clinton demonstrated through the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12281022/the-democratic-party-platform" type="external">2016 Democratic National Committee platform</a> that she would work with progressives on pursuing a policy agenda very close to their own goals. On issues ranging from raising the minimum wage and fighting global warming to scaling back the war on drugs, she would stand exactly where the majority of grassroots activists in the party want her to be. Plus &#8212; while this has been noted countless times before, it deserves repetition &#8212; she has ample experience as a U.S. senator and secretary of state in actually getting things done.</p> <p>That ability to get things done, by the way, is why Clinton had high approval ratings as secretary of state (usually in the <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/may/22/hillary-clinton/hillary-clintons-approval-rating-secretary-state-w/" type="external">60s</a>), even proving more popular than President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in 2011 and 2012. Her stock may be low now, but it's been low in the past (such as when she "ran" to be first lady in 1992), and it has always recovered. Arguably the big political question facing a potential Hillary 2020 campaign will be whether that bounce occurs at a fortuitous moment for her. It very well could, and wouldn't that be a giant helping of the dish <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Revenge%20is%20a%20dish%20best%20served%20cold" type="external">best served cold</a>?</p> Did You Know? For 20 days, Hillary Clinton was both senator and first lady; she was sworn in as a senator on Jan. 1, 2001, and Bill's last day in the White House was Jan. 20th. Did You Know? Hillary Clinton is the first First Lady in American history to be elected into national office, serving as both a Senator and as Secretary of State under Obama.

Here’s your leftover turkey: The case for Hillary Clinton 2020

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/24/heres-your-leftover-turkey-the-case-for-hillary-clinton-2020/

2017-11-24

<p>The NFL national anthem story isn&#8217;t going away anytime soon. During many debate shows that air on cable sports networks, it was topic one. This was especially true during true during FS1&#8217;s Undisputed with Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe.</p> <p>As the FS1 Dynamic Duo began discussing the topic, Sharpe went on an incredible eight-minute rant on how NFL owners suddenly got an awakening about President Trump&#8217;s comments at an Alabama rally about players who kneel during the national anthem.</p> <p>Sharpe first said he was &#8220;disappointed and &#8230; unimpressed,&#8221; about the whole thing. And then he expressed why he was disappointed and unimpressed:</p> <q> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;m disappointed, Skip and Joy, because this is the tipping point. Of the 7,537 things that President Trump has said in the last 50 years, him calling an NFL player a &#8216;SOB&#8217; is what brought the NFL, the owners and players together. And while some might be moved by the conscience of these NFL owners, it wasn&#8217;t their conscience that moved them. It was the cash.</p> <p>Because see Skip, what we know about people with money, they don&#8217;t like to be told what to do&#8230;they don&#8217;t like being bullied. You see, President Trump has bullied a lot of people &#8230;&#8221;</p> </q> <p>Sharpe then mentioned Trump&#8217;s comments on Mexico, attacking a Gold Star family after last year&#8217;s Democratic National Convention, and his statements to former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush about women saying, &#8220;that did not shock the conscience of NFL owners.&#8221;</p> <p>And he also pointed out a number of owners, including Jerry Jones, Daniel Snyder, Shad Khan, and Robert Kraft, who contributed to Trump&#8217;s inauguration.</p> <q> <p>&#8220;Now I&#8217;m unimpressed because this wasn&#8217;t a protest. This was unity. So what are we showing solidarity against, Skip? We&#8217;re showing solidarity because President Trump .. he challenged the very men &#8230; wealthy, wealthy men &#8230; billionaires and he told them what you should do if someone protests, you should fire them. They don&#8217;t like being told what to do, Skip.</p> <p>&#8220;And then, Skip, he called players that protested the anthem &#8230; he called them &#8216;SOB&#8217;s.&#8217; Think about that now, he called them &#8216;SOB&#8217;s.&#8217; That&#8217;s what got the owners, that&#8217;s what got the players to unite.</p> <p>&#8220;Is that the worst that he&#8217;s ever said? Absolutely not. Never called Vladimir Putin an &#8216;SOB,&#8217; Never called (Erdogan) of Turkey an &#8216;SOB,&#8217; even those men that walked down the streets in Charlottesville, Virginia &#8230; he never said &#8216;SOB&#8217; &#8230;&#8221;</p> </q> <p>This was an impassioned Sharpe. He also pointed out Colin Kaepernick, who started the kneeling during the national anthem, was forgotten and the NFL owners were uniting against Donald Trump. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t until he came for the NFL that their conscience was shocked!&#8221;</p> <p>Sharpe said of all the teams that issued statements this weekend, only the Seattle Seahawks got the reason why they were denouncing the President&#8217;s statements.</p> <p>And he also set his sights on fellow FS1 analyst Ray Lewis for previously criticizing Kaepernick and <a href="http://thecomeback.com/nfl/ray-lewis-switched-sides-to-kneel-for-the-anthem-in-london-and-people-werent-thrilled-about-it.html" type="external">then kneeling on the sideline with the Baltimore Ravens</a> in London on Sunday. Sharpe said he was &#8220;very disappointed&#8221; in him, saying Lewis &#8220;sat in that chair right there saying that he could never kneel, never not stand for the national anthem&#8221; citing those who died fighting for the flag and then he went down on both knees. &#8220;What are you kneeling for?&#8221;</p> <p>It was one of the more emotional segments on Undisputed in its brief history.</p>

Shannon Sharpe goes after NFL owners’ hypocrisy over “unity”

http://awfulannouncing.com/fox/shannon-sharpe-goes-nfl-owners-hypocrisy-unity.html

2017-09-25

<p>(Newser) &#8211; President Trump defended Michael Flynn on Monday by invoking Hillary Clinton. While speaking to reporters, the president said he felt "very badly for Flynn" and declared that the FBI treated the former national security adviser much more harshly than it did Clinton. "Hillary Clinton lied many times to the FBI," said Trump, per <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/04/trump-responds-michael-flynn-guilty-plea-277774" type="external">Politico</a>. "Nothing happened to her. Flynn lied, and they destroyed his life. I think it's a shame." He specifically referenced Clinton's grilling by the FBI over her email server in July 2015.</p> <p>"It was the most incredible thing anyone's ever seen," said Trump. "She lied many times, nothing happened to her. Flynn lied and it's like they ruined his life. It's very unfair.&#8221; As <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/04/president-trump-defends-michael-flynn-lying-fbi-claiming-hillary-clinton-did-same-thing/918623001/" type="external">USA Today</a> points out, former FBI chief James Comey testified to the contrary before Congress. "We have no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI," Comey said in July 2016, when he still ran the agency. There's no such gray area on Flynn: He <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/252332/flynn-to-plead-guilty-to-lying-to-the-fbi.html" type="external">admitted lying</a> to the FBI in his plea agreement. (Controversy over a <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/252415/trump-attorney-sorry-but-president-cant-obstruct-justice.html" type="external">presidential tweet</a> on the subject continues.)</p>

Trump: FBI Ruined Flynn, Let Clinton Go Free

http://m.newser.com/story/252420/trump-fbi-chose-to-ruin-flynns-life.html

2017-12-04

<p>For some criminals, the notoriety that comes with getting caught for murder, rape, and other horrific crimes is exactly what they want. The newspaper articles, biographies, and constant attention that are often attached to the world&#8217;s most evil crimes give certain criminals a sense of purpose, as if they are celebrities who will have their names remembered long after they&#8217;re dead. Unfortunately, being a notorious criminal also has plenty of downsides, especially when you&#8217;re heading to a prison filled with other hardened criminals. For a few famous criminals, fame is what leads to their untimely death within the walls of prison.</p> <p>If you&#8217;ve been wondering &#8220;Who are the most famous criminals to be murdered in prison?&#8221; this list holds the answers. The men on this list have proved that maintaining a low profile in prison beats having a famous name, since being well known for their heinous crimes is what got many of these criminals a death sentence not ordered by the legal system.</p> <p>From cannibalistic serial killers to pedophiles who ruined the lives of hundreds of children, the men on this list were murdered in prison by fellow inmates, whether it was due to their notoriety or personal issues.</p> Photo: Police Mugshot <p>Albert DeSalvo was better known as the confessed "Boston Strangler," who killed 13 women. While DeSalvo never ended up in jail for those crimes, he served a prison sentence for being a serial rapist. DeSalvo attempted to escape from prison, but the escape was shortlived. In 1973, Robert Wilson was suspected of stabbing DeSalvo to death but he was never convicted for the crime.</p> <p>Age: Died at 42 (1931-1973)</p> <p>Birthplace: Chelsea, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America</p> <p><a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-new-horror-tv-shows/ranker-tv?ref=lzyrltdlstszerg_rr&amp;pos=1&amp;a=42&amp;ltype=l&amp;l=1207446&amp;g=1&amp;li_source=LI&amp;li_medium=desktop-popular-lists" type="external">32 people have voted onThe Best Horror TV Shows Since 2015</a></p> Photo: <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/522276888010751912/" type="external">Pinterest</a> Photo: Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department Photo: Police Mugshot

9 Famous Criminals Who Were Murdered in Prison

http://m.ranker.com/list/famous-criminals-who-were-murdered-in-prison/ranker-crime?l=368861&collectionId=1140

<p>A Grain of Saul is a weekly column that digs into some of the biggest issues we face as a nation and as an international community in search of reliable data, realistic solutions, and &#8212; most importantly &#8212; hope.</p> <p>More and more women are reporting that <a type="internal">Harvey Weinstein</a> harassed or sexually assaulted them.</p> <p>After an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html" type="external">explosive piece in The New York Times</a>, which cited several women's firsthand accounts of Weinstein's alleged "sexual harassment and unwanted physical contact," it appears the dam has broken. Yesterday, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories?mbid=social_twitter" type="external">a piece in The New Yorker quoted nearly a dozen on the record firsthand accounts of Weinstein's harassment and sexual assault</a> and included never-before-heard audio recordings from a New York Police Department sting operation in which Weinstein appears to admit to groping model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez.</p> <p>Although <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/us/statement-from-harvey-weinstein.html" type="external">Weinstein apologized in a statement for at least some of the behavior</a> referenced in the New York Times article, he denied the sexual assault allegations following the New Yorker piece's release.</p> <p>That piece, a gut-punch for anyone holding out hope the worst wasn't true, was notably written by journalist Ronan Farrow. <a type="internal">Farrow is the estranged son of Woody Allen</a>, another Hollywood magnate accused of sexual assault. Those allegations (which Allen denies) <a href="https://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/" type="external">were made by his own daughter, Ronan's sister Dylan</a>.</p> <p>With so many accusers against Weinstein now on the record, including household names like Gwyneth Paltrow, Cara Delevingne and Angelina Jolie, all corners of the country are offering their hot takes in the discussion. Perhaps one of the most unfortunate reactions has been to politicize the story, as some conservative pundits have grasped onto Weinstein &#8212; a major Democratic donor Michelle Obama once publicly praised as a "wonderful human being" &#8212; as illustrative of rotten liberal America.</p> <p>But this isn't a uniquely Democratic problem. Fox News, a notoriously right-wing news outlet, has had to dismiss a <a type="internal">slew of on-air talent because of sexual assault allegations</a>. Our Republican president appeared to admit on tape to sexually assaulting women (and has <a href="https://twitter.com/Ike_Saul/status/916326817031696384" type="external">also been photographed chumming it up with Weinstein</a>).</p> <p>The point being: this isn't a partisan or even a political issue. This is &#8212; largely &#8212; an issue with men, specifically men who yield any kind of power. The allegations leveled against Weinstein, Allen, Bill Cosby, Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes, Anthony Weiner and President Trump are not unique to Hollywood or a certain political party. It's not always famous and powerful men, either: it's the Catholic Church, Penn State football, orthodox Jews, professional athletes, universities, and your local retail store. The list goes on.</p> <p>In many of the cases that have made national headlines, though, wealthy men in positions of significant power have leveraged their status to pressure or force women into sexual encounters. Those women are then shamed, threatened with lawsuits and silenced if they speak out.</p> <a type="internal" /> <p>Perhaps most unsettling about these stories is that there is almost always someone who could have stepped up and stopped the harassment or assault. In Farrow's story, he wrote that 16 former and current employees of Weinstein's companies had witnessed or had knowledge of unwanted sexual advances Weinstein made in work-related settings.</p> <p>Sixteen! And that's just the number of current or former employees who happened to speak to Farrow. What about all the ones who didn't? What about the ones who were too scared to speak to a reporter?</p> <p>Weinstein's case, again, isn't unique. In President Trump's infamous Hollywood Access tape, <a type="internal">television host Billy Bush laughs off</a>the notion that Trump could simply "grab women by the pussy" because he was a star. His supporters and advisers dismissed it as "locker room talk." Former Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly and former CEO Roger Ailes were <a type="internal">repeatedly reported to human resources at Fox News</a>and, reportedly, no action was taken. Football coach Joe Paterno was let go from Penn State because of what he may or may not have known about convicted rapist Jerry Sandusky. An entire film was made about the Catholic Church spending years trying to fend off reporters who wanted to get the truth out about rampant sexual abuse by priests. In many cases, campus rape stories include bystanders who don't intervene when a clearly intoxicated woman is taken home by a less intoxicated man.</p> <p>People &#8212; especially men who are in positions of power &#8212; have the ability to step in and stop these stories from happening.</p> <p>And we cannot forget that there are male survivors of sexual assault, and they are every bit as worth protecting. Terry Crews came out on Twitter to share a story about being assaulted by another man who allegedly grabbed his penis while Crews was standing next to his wife at a Hollywood function.</p> <p>Crews said he decided not to retaliate with allegations against the man because he didn't want to be ostracized, noting that "the predator has power and influence." Instead, he let it go, like many women do, because he couldn't stop asking himself if anyone believe him and if the repercussions for speaking out would be life-changing.</p> <p>If Terry Crews, a wealthy, well-known man is wary of reporting his assault, imagine the obstacles that face many other sexual assault survivors.</p> <p>It's time for men to police our own communities, our own friends and our own family members. It's time for men to stop being passive observers of the kinds of harassment and overt sexism that are all too common in the spaces we dominate. It's time for men to stand up for the victims we see in our day-to-day lives, and to create spaces, environments, communities, teams, companies and homes where everyone feels safe and supported enough to speak truth to power.</p> <p>The issue of sexual assault cannot simply be a "women's issue." It cannot be a political talking point. It cannot be a Democrat or Republican or religious or campus issue. Sexual assault is a men's issue. It is my issue. It is your issue. And it's about time we did something about it.</p>

A Grain Of Saul: Stopping Sexual Assault Is Not A Partisan Issue Or A Women's Issue. It's Up To All Of Us.

http://aplus.com/a/harvey-weinstein-sexual-harassment-assault-allegations

2017-10-11

<p>made in china ( <a href="https://farm9.static.flickr.com/8036/8068018110_d7396a2f3b.jpg" type="external">Image</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/30713600@N00/" type="external">twicepix</a>) <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">Permission</a> <a type="internal">Details</a> <a type="internal">DMCA</a></p> <p>Article originally published in LaborPress</p> <p>By Robert Weiner and Ben Lasky</p> <p>After deferring to China for Korea and seeing no results, President Trump's return to disciplining China over trade crimes is the right position. On Aug. 14, President Trump authorized a probe on China's trade practices, with a focus on intellectual property theft as well as theft of American technologies. Add to the mix: devalued currency, refusal to sell fair quantities of American-made products, unbelievably low worker wages, lead and other poisons in dog food and baby food, plagiarized health and cancer research, deficient tires. Trump has now come back around to the correct view.</p> <p>The President slipped off the wagon for a while. He pressed on the point that the U.S. needed China to help deter a nuclear North Korea. However, dozens of missile tests later, with Kim Jong Un even closer to a long-range nuclear weapon, Trump now realizes that China only used the North Korea bait to give themselves more trade freedom against us. It is time to call the Chinese government out.</p> <p>The U.S. economy is weakened by Chinese intellectual property theft, counterfeit goods, and deficient products competing with American brands. China was unwilling to help make North Korea release Otto Warmbier early enough to get him medical help. In an interview on CNN Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) the Senate Democratic Leader, told Trump how to handle China: "You say, 'you can't push America around anymore,' which they've been able to do for administration after administration. Stop doing that. The President should say, 'You're not dealing with North Korea the way you should be.'"</p> <p>On June 20, Trump tweeted about Warmbier, "While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi &amp;amp; China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!"</p> <p>Instead, China is giving us a victory here and there-- they will now import beef from us. That's nice of them. Apparently we can sell cows to China, but not cars.</p> <p>Schumer criticized Trump for at first reversing course. In an April 12 press conference right after his meetings with China's leader, Trump said, "They're not currency manipulators," which he had called them at least fifteen times on the campaign trail. Schumer said of Trump and his team, "Now they say they (China) aren't manipulating their currency. They are. I think China just does what it wants "They gain trillions of dollars by stealing intellectual property, by dumping excess steel and aluminum. The way to get China to help with North Korea is be tougher with them on trade."</p> How To Easily Kill All Indoor Odor, Mold, And Bacteria &#8212; Without Lifting A Finger Trump to End the Dollar as We Know It by August 1, 2018? <p>President Trump said that when he met with President Xi at the White House, "After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it's not so easy. I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power [over] North Korea." Of course China has leverage over North Korea. North Korea depends on China as a trading partner. In 10 minutes, Trump's view on China for thirty years apparently changed with a persuasive short argument from the president of a country that continually walks all over the U.S. This was Trump listening to the "last man in the room" at its worst.</p> <p>Trump said he told President Xi, "The way you're going to make a good trade deal is to help us with North Korea; otherwise we're just going to go it alone." The last part of that sentence is what the U.S., along with its allies, should do. China will help regardless because it's in China's own interest to do so.</p> <p>Not allowing China to take advantage of the U.S. has been a Democratic issue for over forty years, from Dick Gephardt to Bernie Sanders, and it became a key one for Trump too-- a rare area of campaign agreement. The president's promise to stand up to China was one of the major reasons he won the election.</p> <p>China should not get a free ride because we want their help with North Korea. In 2015, the FBI released a survey of 165 anonymous companies, half of which reported they had been victims of economic espionage. Of that half, 95 percent blame China.</p> <p>The counterfeit goods market in China costs companies $20 billion a year. Are they buying us by Americans enjoying a $30 "Rolex" from a Times Square vendor? Simply put, China's illegal actions are costing American jobs.</p> <p>To prevent a nuclear North Korea, the recent U.S. deployment of the "mother of all bombs" was as much a warning to other countries, including North Korea, as it was about destroying ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan. The U.S. has military might and is willing to use it. North Korea knows that. It is not worth caving to China, who costs the U.S. billions of dollars a year, and allowing them to keep manipulating currency and committing economic espionage.</p> <p>Otto Warmbier's coma and death, and Korea's missile tests and H-bomb, are just more proof Schumer is right--Instead of making nice with China, President Trump must hold them accountable, as he promised.</p> <p>Robert Weiner is a former Clinton White House spokesman and spokesman for the House Government Operations Committee. He was senior staff for Congressmen Ed Koch, Charles Rangel, Claude Pepper, and John Conyers, Jr. Ben Lasky is senior policy analyst at Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change.</p> How To Easily Kill All Indoor Odor, Mold, And Bacteria &#8212; Without Lifting A Finger Watch This Breakthrough Tech Soar This Year! How To Easily Kill All Indoor Odor, Mold, And Bacteria &#8212; Without Lifting A Finger Trump to End the Dollar as We Know It by November 8, 2018? <p><a href="https://www.worldlifestyle.com/arts-entertainment/best-kept-secrets-caddyshack?utm_mediabuyer=SDJJ&amp;utm_source=taboola&amp;utm_medium=insticator-opednews&amp;slides=1&amp;utm_campaign=TBLA_WL_JJ_CADDYSHACK0823V6_US_DT&amp;utm_content=https%3A%2F%2Fconsole.brax-cdn.com%2Fcreatives%2F5b171414-d144-458f-afd6-c527e902ea40%2FCADDYSHACK-05_1000x600_8c9cb66d8ca3499cb51da2d15ad3d08d.png&amp;utm_taboola_id=1347435&amp;utm_content=120228983" type="external">Iconic &#8216;Caddyshack&#8217; Scene Has One Huge Flaw No One Noticed</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.worldlifestyle.com/arts-entertainment/best-kept-secrets-caddyshack?utm_mediabuyer=SDJJ&amp;utm_source=taboola&amp;utm_medium=insticator-opednews&amp;slides=1&amp;utm_campaign=TBLA_WL_JJ_CADDYSHACK0823V6_US_DT&amp;utm_content=https%3A%2F%2Fconsole.brax-cdn.com%2Fcreatives%2F5b171414-d144-458f-afd6-c527e902ea40%2FCADDYSHACK-05_1000x600_8c9cb66d8ca3499cb51da2d15ad3d08d.png&amp;utm_taboola_id=1347435&amp;utm_content=120228983" type="external">Iconic &#8216;Caddyshack&#8217; Scene Has One Huge Flaw No One Noticed</a></p> <p>Top Content in the Last 2 Days (by Page Views)</p> <p><a type="internal">Trump Colors The Flag Wrong, Reveals His True Stripes</a> by Meryl Ann Butler (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Even now, John McCain finds a way to put Trump in his place</a> Posted by Meryl Ann Butler (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Not Enough to Impeach Trump -- Entire Presidency Should Be Annulled</a> by Robert B. Reich (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Biochemically Quashing Roundup's Carcinogenicity~Stephanie Seneff, MIT Genius~~Tulsi Gabbard Weighs in Against Roundup</a> by Stephen Fox (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">McCain: Johnny Wet-Start Gets A Pass from the Media</a> by Richard Volaar (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">The Real Crisis For The United States</a> by Clarc King (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Be Careful What You Ask For: Wasting Time with Manafort, Cohen, and Russiagate</a> by Jim Kavanagh (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">What Recent NY Primary Upset Means for Voters Everywhere</a> by Joan Brunwasser (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Trump Can't Have A Dog</a> by Rob Kall (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Pesticide Studies Won E.P.A.'s Trust, Until Trump's Team Scorned 'Secret Science' - 'Weaponized Transparency.'"</a> Posted by Susan Lee Schwartz (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">When America Was Great</a> by Ethan Indigo Smith (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">So How Many Poor Vietnamese Did McCain's Bombs Kill in 23 Runs?</a> by Jay Janson (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Top Democrats are taking health care industry cash then opposing candidates who support "Medicare for all"</a> by Tarbell org (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">There's nothing suspicious about Jen Moore's death. There's nothing suspicious about Jen Moore's death. There's nothing</a> Posted by Josh Mitteldorf (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">What Did Pope Francis Know About Cardinal McCarrick -- And When Did He Know It?</a> by Thomas Farrell (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">This is Our Time</a> by Timothy Gatto (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">News from Humptydumptytribe--that eclipses anything else you read these days</a> by Daniel Geery (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Weather Disasters, Climate Change, Human Options</a> by Arshad M Khan (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">2018 Peace Prize Awarded to David Swanson</a> by David Swanson (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Dead 'Yemeni Kids? Murdering Children By the Millions For Money and Power Is An American Way of Life</a> by Jay Janson (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Internet Censorship: Today, Alex Jones&#8211; tomorrow, YOU</a> by Josh Mitteldorf (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Time for Dems to Kick the Corporate Money Addiction</a> by Larry Butler (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Have an Active Kellogg-Briand Day</a> by David Swanson (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">There Is No Limit To Presstitute Hypocrisy</a> by Paul Craig Roberts (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>) <a type="internal">Senator John McCain served his country with honor; Trump said, "nope, not me!"</a> by Michael Payne (With membership, you can <a type="internal">see # of pageviews</a>)</p> <p><a type="internal">Go To Top 50 Most Popular</a></p> From flickr.com: made in china {MID-167067} <p>made in china ( <a href="https://farm9.static.flickr.com/8036/8068018110_d7396a2f3b.jpg" type="external">Image</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/30713600@N00/" type="external">twicepix</a>) <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">Permission</a> <a type="internal">Details</a> <a type="internal">DMCA</a></p> <p>Article originally published in LaborPress</p> <p>By Robert Weiner and Ben Lasky</p> <p>After deferring to China for Korea and seeing no results, President Trump's return to disciplining China over trade crimes is the right position. On Aug. 14, President Trump authorized a probe on China's trade practices, with a focus on intellectual property theft as well as theft of American technologies. Add to the mix: devalued currency, refusal to sell fair quantities of American-made products, unbelievably low worker wages, lead and other poisons in dog food and baby food, plagiarized health and cancer research, deficient tires. Trump has now come back around to the correct view.</p> <p>The President slipped off the wagon for a while. He pressed on the point that the U.S. needed China to help deter a nuclear North Korea. However, dozens of missile tests later, with Kim Jong Un even closer to a long-range nuclear weapon, Trump now realizes that China only used the North Korea bait to give themselves more trade freedom against us. It is time to call the Chinese government out.</p> <p>The U.S. economy is weakened by Chinese intellectual property theft, counterfeit goods, and deficient products competing with American brands. China was unwilling to help make North Korea release Otto Warmbier early enough to get him medical help. In an interview on CNN Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) the Senate Democratic Leader, told Trump how to handle China: "You say, 'you can't push America around anymore,' which they've been able to do for administration after administration. Stop doing that. The President should say, 'You're not dealing with North Korea the way you should be.'"</p> <p>On June 20, Trump tweeted about Warmbier, "While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi &amp;amp; China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!"</p> <p>Instead, China is giving us a victory here and there-- they will now import beef from us. That's nice of them. Apparently we can sell cows to China, but not cars.</p> <p>Schumer criticized Trump for at first reversing course. In an April 12 press conference right after his meetings with China's leader, Trump said, "They're not currency manipulators," which he had called them at least fifteen times on the campaign trail. Schumer said of Trump and his team, "Now they say they (China) aren't manipulating their currency. They are. I think China just does what it wants "They gain trillions of dollars by stealing intellectual property, by dumping excess steel and aluminum. The way to get China to help with North Korea is be tougher with them on trade."</p> How To Easily Kill 98% Of Mold In Your Home

Trump Right On China The First Time

https://www.opednews.com/articles/Trump-Right-On-China-The-F-by-Robert-Weiner-China-Politics_Espionage_Korea_President-170925-235.html

2017-09-25

<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">Permission</a> <a type="internal">Details</a> <a type="internal">DMCA</a></p> The Man Who Predicted The Top Stock On The S&amp;amp;P 500 Makes NEW Shocking Prediction <p>US President Trump's threats this week to shut down critical news media is an ominous sign of how fragile American democratic rights have become.</p> <p>For Donald Trump to impugn media freedom -- albeit in his usual whimsical, boorish fashion -- nevertheless shows how far democracy has been eroded in the "land of the free."</p> <p>The latest furore followed a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/trump-wanted-dramatic-increase-nuclear-arsenal-meeting-military-leaders-n809701?wpisrc=nl_todayworld&amp;wpmm=1" type="external">report</a> this week by NBC in which Trump purportedly harangued his top Pentagon advisers for a 10-fold increase in the US nuclear weapons arsenal.</p> <p>Trump's outlandish demand was reportedly made during a high-level national security meeting back in July. It was the same meeting during which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is said to have scoffed at Trump's antics and called him a "moron."</p> <p>Trump has reacted angrily to the reports, dismissing them with his characteristic jargon as "fake news."</p> <p>But, adding to the furore, the president also went on to question whether the broadcasting license of NBC and other networks should be cancelled because of what Trump views as "fake news." That is, the president is speculating on shutting down media outlets.</p> <p>Such a move by a president would be legally unviable, according to US laws. But it shows the kind of slippery slope that US media and democratic rights are on.</p> <p>Trump's latest musing about shutting down NBC and other channels drew predictable outcry from US media, who rightly to a degree, deplored his attack on democratic rights.</p> <p>The irony is, however, that the attack on American democratic rights has already been underway before Trump entered the White House, and without much protest from the same media outlets who are now railing against Trump over this rant. We can point to the increasing surveillance powers of federal intelligence agencies which have steadily encroached since the September 2001 terror incidents in New York and Washington DC.</p> <p>Media freedom in the US has been under assault for a long time.</p> <p>Trump's latest outburst is not a one-off anomaly. In recent weeks, the US government has moved to severely restrict the freedom of Russia-based news media operating in the country. A move that has so far not been reciprocated by Moscow on US media operating in Russia.</p> <p>Russian state-owned news channel RT has been forced to register as a "foreign agent" which will curtail how it carries out normal journalistic functions. Sputnik, another Russian state-owned channel, is also under investigation by US authorities over allegations of destabilizing American politics with "fake news."</p> <p>The crimping of Russian news media is part of a wider campaign to suppress all alternative media outlets, including US-based websites, which are being labelled as agents of "foreign interests" because of merely posting articles sourced from RT and Sputnik.</p> <p>The willing participation of US internet companies, Google, Twitter and Facebook, in blocking news sources that are designated "fake" or "interfering in US politics" is another troubling sign of how citizens' access to information is being curtailed. These gatekeepers of information are openly moving to restrict access to "authoritative," "respectable" media outlets. Many of these "respectable" news outlets, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, have in the past been guilty of purveying outrageously fake news, like the "weapons of mass destruction" claims which led to the 2003 US war in Iraq that killed over a million people and unleashed on the world the ongoing scourge of jihadist terrorism.</p> The Mysterious &#8220;Secret Stock&#8221; &#8211; It Could Fund Your Retirement <p>There is absolutely no credible evidence that Russian news media or alternative US-based sites are systematically engaged in an "influence campaign" to destabilize American democracy.</p> <p>Sure, there is plenty of false information on the internet available through platforms like Facebook, which most Americans now rely on for their news feed. But to lay the blame for this on Russian media is preposterous scapegoating. What really is the issue here is that US authorities and established media companies simply can't abide rival outlets that are providing an alternative, critical perspective.</p> <p>For example, Russia's RT and Sputnik have given much critical coverage on the war in Syria, as well as conflicts in Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere. Both channels have reported, with documentary evidence, on how the US government and its NATO and regional allies have been complicit in an illegal, covert war for regime change in Syria involving support for extremist militant groups.</p> <p>This is a critical perspective with grave legal and political implications for Washington and its allies. Just because the US government does not like this kind of unflattering coverage does not legitimize its opprobrium of "fake news." The latter charge is brazenly being used as a pretext to censor discomfiting information.</p> <p>There are many other international issues where Russian media are giving a valid, alternative viewpoint. And because official US interests are offended by this critical perspective, the authorities are moving to ostracize Russian media with the spurious allegation of "foreign agents" and "undermining American democracy."</p> <p>But the paramount issue here is that this is an audacious attack on American democratic rights of free media and freedom of speech, as supposedly enshrined in the US Constitution's First Amendment.</p> <p>All of the US established news media have propagated the bogus narrative of "Russian influence" and "Russian fake news." This narrative plays well for political opponents of President Trump, primarily in the Democrat party. On this issue, Trump is right when he denounces as "fake news" the campaign to pillory Russia and to allege that the Kremlin directed state-owned media to influence the November presidential election in Trump's favor.</p> <p>There is simply no evidence that Russian news media were or are engaged in anything nefarious to destabilize US democracy. Russian media have and do give critical news coverage. If that "destabilizes" Washington's illicit activities in overseas' wars then that's what responsible journalism should be doing. To curb this journalism because it offends geopolitical interests is, frankly, censorship and the actions of a tyrant.</p> <p>Trump's latest threats to shut down the American news channel NBC over alleged "fake news" are indeed menacing. The NBC report on Trump's nuclear weapons ranting appear to be credible in any case.</p> <p>But the outcry from US media over Trump's boorish threats are hypocritical. Their concern seems to be based on a superficial contempt for Trump as a loathsome individual -- as opposed to a principled defense of democratic rights, and media freedom in particular.</p> <p>The US media outlets that are piously railing against Trump over his "assault on the Fourth Estate" are the same outlets which have piled on the pressure to suppress alternative media outlets like Russia's RT and Sputnik, as well as other US-based independent information sources that are being demonized in McCarthyite fashion as "foreign agents."</p> <p>And, again, much of this hostility towards alternative media is motivated by the fact that these alternative media have admirably exposed the hypocrisy and criminality of US authorities. Also exposed is the aiding and abetting by the servile establishment media who have long covered up for the US authorities and their illicit activities in overseas' wars and against citizens at home.</p> <p>American democratic rights are indeed on thin ice. But that was the case long before the elephantine Trump arrived on the scene. His clumsy lurching is merely serving to illustrate how treacherously thin the ice has become upon which US democracy now stands.</p> How To Easily Kill 98% Of Mold In Your Home Trump to End the Dollar as We Know It by November 8, 2018? Donald Trump - Caricature (Image by DonkeyHotey) <p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">Permission</a> <a type="internal">Details</a> <a type="internal">DMCA</a></p> <p>US President Trump's threats this week to shut down critical news media is an ominous sign of how fragile American democratic rights have become.</p> <p>For Donald Trump to impugn media freedom -- albeit in his usual whimsical, boorish fashion -- nevertheless shows how far democracy has been eroded in the "land of the free."</p> <p>The latest furore followed a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/trump-wanted-dramatic-increase-nuclear-arsenal-meeting-military-leaders-n809701?wpisrc=nl_todayworld&amp;wpmm=1" type="external">report</a> this week by NBC in which Trump purportedly harangued his top Pentagon advisers for a 10-fold increase in the US nuclear weapons arsenal.</p> <p>Trump's outlandish demand was reportedly made during a high-level national security meeting back in July. It was the same meeting during which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is said to have scoffed at Trump's antics and called him a "moron."</p> <p>Trump has reacted angrily to the reports, dismissing them with his characteristic jargon as "fake news."</p> <p>But, adding to the furore, the president also went on to question whether the broadcasting license of NBC and other networks should be cancelled because of what Trump views as "fake news." That is, the president is speculating on shutting down media outlets.</p> <p>Such a move by a president would be legally unviable, according to US laws. But it shows the kind of slippery slope that US media and democratic rights are on.</p> <p>Trump's latest musing about shutting down NBC and other channels drew predictable outcry from US media, who rightly to a degree, deplored his attack on democratic rights.</p> <p>The irony is, however, that the attack on American democratic rights has already been underway before Trump entered the White House, and without much protest from the same media outlets who are now railing against Trump over this rant. We can point to the increasing surveillance powers of federal intelligence agencies which have steadily encroached since the September 2001 terror incidents in New York and Washington DC.</p> <p>Media freedom in the US has been under assault for a long time.</p> <p>Trump's latest outburst is not a one-off anomaly. In recent weeks, the US government has moved to severely restrict the freedom of Russia-based news media operating in the country. A move that has so far not been reciprocated by Moscow on US media operating in Russia.</p> <p>Russian state-owned news channel RT has been forced to register as a "foreign agent" which will curtail how it carries out normal journalistic functions. Sputnik, another Russian state-owned channel, is also under investigation by US authorities over allegations of destabilizing American politics with "fake news."</p> <p>The crimping of Russian news media is part of a wider campaign to suppress all alternative media outlets, including US-based websites, which are being labelled as agents of "foreign interests" because of merely posting articles sourced from RT and Sputnik.</p> <p>The willing participation of US internet companies, Google, Twitter and Facebook, in blocking news sources that are designated "fake" or "interfering in US politics" is another troubling sign of how citizens' access to information is being curtailed. These gatekeepers of information are openly moving to restrict access to "authoritative," "respectable" media outlets. Many of these "respectable" news outlets, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, have in the past been guilty of purveying outrageously fake news, like the "weapons of mass destruction" claims which led to the 2003 US war in Iraq that killed over a million people and unleashed on the world the ongoing scourge of jihadist terrorism.</p> How To Easily Kill All Indoor Odor, Mold, And Bacteria &#8212; Without Lifting A Finger

Trump's Media Furore... US Democracy On Thin Ice

https://www.opednews.com/articles/Trump-s-Media-Furore--US-by-Finian-Cunningham-Censorship_Democracy-Decay_Media_Media-Fake-News-171015-539.html

2017-10-15

<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/" type="external">Permission</a> <a type="internal">Details</a> <a type="internal">DMCA</a></p> <p>Donald Trump continued his campaign of incendiary statements over the weekend, threatening to launch a war with North Korea that could unleash a nuclear catastrophe.</p> <p>On Saturday afternoon, the US president tweeted that past administrations "have been talking to North Korea for 25 years." This "hasn't worked," he wrote, adding: "Sorry, but only one thing will work!" Asked later to elaborate on what he meant, Trump replied, "You'll figure that out pretty soon."</p> <p>These threats came three weeks after Trump's tirade at the United Nations General Assembly September 19, when he declared that the US was "ready, willing, and able" to "totally destroy" North Korea, a country of 25 million people. Four days later, Trump threatened to assassinate the North Korean leader. If the North Korean foreign minister's speech at the UN "echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man [Kim Jong-Un]," Trump wrote, "they won't be around much longer!"</p> <p>On Thursday, Trump organized a White House dinner with US military leaders, which had all the hallmarks of a meeting of a war cabinet. During a photo op before the dinner, Trump, surrounded by generals in military uniform, likened the moment to "the calm before the storm." Asked what storm he was talking about, Trump would only say, "You'll find out soon."</p> <p>To the extent that Trump's words are interpreted as a genuine expression of the policy and plans of the United States government, the inescapable conclusion is that the world stands on the brink of the most devastating military conflict since the outbreak of World War II. Were language and reality in correct political alignment, the present situation would be described officially as an "Imminent danger of war."</p> <p>Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, embroiled in a political conflict with Trump, warned that the president's reckless threats were leading the United States "on the path to World War III." But despite Corker's statement on Sunday, there is, within the ruling elite and its media, a staggering disconnect between consciousness and reality. The public declarations emanating from the White House are being reported by the media as if they will have no consequences. The thinking seems to be that Trump doesn't mean what he says. The consequences of a war would prove to be so catastrophic that Trump is simply bluffing.</p> <p>But what if he isn't? What if the North Korean government takes the threats of the American president, as it must, seriously? With Trump having publicly declared that he will destroy North Korea and that the doomsday hour is fast approaching, how will the Pyongyang government interpret American military actions near the borders of its country? With only minutes to make a decision, will the regime view the approach of a US bomber toward North Korean airspace as the beginning of a full-scale attack? Will it conclude that it has no choice but to assume the worst and initiate a military strike against South Korea? Will it fire missiles, as it has threatened, in the direction of Japan, Guam, Australia, or even the United States?</p> <p>From a purely legal standpoint, North Korea can claim, in light of Trump's threats, that such action on its part would be an act of self-defense, a legitimate response to an imminent military threat.</p> <p>Aside from the calculations of Pyongyang, one must assume that the regimes in Beijing and Moscow are also looking at the unfolding developments with increasing alarm. While the American media, as is its wont, responds complacently and thoughtlessly to Trump's threats, the Chinese regime cannot avoid viewing them with deadly seriousness. Trump is, after all, the commander in chief of the American military. He has the power -- which Congress has shown no interest in challenging -- to order military actions.</p> <p>A US attack on North Korea would pose an overwhelming threat to China. As in 1950, a war against North Korea would -- even if it did not rapidly escalate into a nuclear exchange -- lead inexorably to an American incursion across the 38th Parallel. The last time the US military crossed the border into North Korea, the Chinese responded with a massive military counterattack. There is no reason to believe that the present-day regime in Beijing would remain passive in the face of a new US invasion of North Korea. It would view an American invasion as an unacceptable violation of a geopolitical arrangement on the Korean peninsula that has been in existence for nearly 65 years.</p> <p>Beijing's reaction would be influenced by the already tense conditions that exist in the Asia-Pacific region. For years, the US has been systematically building up its military forces in the South China Sea under the "Pivot to Asia" initiated by the Obama administration. The purpose has been to militarily encircle China, which dominant sections of the ruling class consider the major competitor to US interests. Over the weekend, China's main regional competitor, Japan, declared that it fully backed Trump's threats against North Korea.</p> <p>Thus, the outbreak of war between North Korea and the United States would inevitably involve China, which, in turn, would draw all of Asia, as well as Australia, into the bloody maelstrom. Nor would it be possible for Europe and Latin America, which have their own interests in Asia, to stand aside.</p> <p>Little has appeared in the American media about the consequences of war with North Korea. An article in Newsweek in April concluded that a war would leave one million people dead, assuming that it did not involve the use of nuclear weapons or any other outside powers. In a comment in the Los Angeles Times last month, retired Air Force Brigadier General Rob Givens calculated that 20,000 South Koreans would die every day in a war on the peninsula, even without the use of nuclear weapons.</p> <p>If the war were to develop into a nuclear exchange -- as the Trump administration has threatened -- the consequences would be catastrophic. In addition to the millions or tens of millions killed outright, climate experts warned in August that even a regional nuclear war would cool the planet by up to 10 degrees Celsius, potentially sparking a global nuclear winter that would wipe out agricultural production.</p> How To Easily Kill All Indoor Odor, Mold, And Bacteria &#8212; Without Lifting A Finger <p>Despite all the evidence that war could break out at any time, the American media persists in its refusal to take the events seriously.</p> <p>The New York Times epitomized this media effort at chloroforming the population in its October 6 article on Trump's remarks before the generals, which stated that Trump has a "penchant for provocative statements" and takes "an obvious delight in keeping people guessing." Writing as if what was involved was merely a matter of White House gossip and intrigue, the Times stated that the "timing" of the "calm before the storm" statement was "particularly tantalizing."</p> <p>"But it is equally plausible," the article concluded, "that Mr. Trump was merely being theatrical, using the backdrop of military officers to stir up some drama."</p> <p>The efforts of the media to downplay the danger are contradicted by signs of serious divisions within the Trump administration. There are rumors that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be forced out or could resign, following statements from Trump last month directly undermining Tillerson's moves to resume negotiations with the North Korean government. Thursday's meeting of top advisers in the White House, decked out in their uniforms, may have been an effort by Trump to ensure that he has the military on his side in advance of war.</p> <p>These divisions, however, are tactical in character. In the final analysis, Trump speaks not simply for himself, but for the US ruling class. The dominant factions of the ruling oligarchy are united on the basic strategy of using its military force to maintain its hegemonic position abroad.</p> <p>Trump uses exceptionally crude and brutal language to justify American foreign policy. But he is not the author of Washington's hegemonic strategy. The United States has been at war almost continuously for more than 25 years. This weekend marked the sixteenth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. The Pentagon is conducting military actions all over the world, usually without the American people being informed of the deployment of military personnel. The death in combat this past week of four American soldiers in the African country of Niger came as a total surprise to the public.</p> <p>A war with Korea could break out at any time. This is the reality of the situation. Rather than speculating idly over whether Trump is merely bluffing, the critical task is the building of a powerful movement, based on the working class, against the drive to war. The very fact that the American president smirks and laughs as he threatens millions with annihilation is itself sufficient proof that the US political system is terminally sick and capable of any crime.</p> How To Easily Kill All Indoor Odor, Mold, And Bacteria &#8212; Without Lifting A Finger Donald Trump (Image by YouTube, Channel: holmesclips) <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/" type="external">Permission</a> <a type="internal">Details</a> <a type="internal">DMCA</a></p> <p>Donald Trump continued his campaign of incendiary statements over the weekend, threatening to launch a war with North Korea that could unleash a nuclear catastrophe.</p> <p>On Saturday afternoon, the US president tweeted that past administrations "have been talking to North Korea for 25 years." This "hasn't worked," he wrote, adding: "Sorry, but only one thing will work!" Asked later to elaborate on what he meant, Trump replied, "You'll figure that out pretty soon."</p> <p>These threats came three weeks after Trump's tirade at the United Nations General Assembly September 19, when he declared that the US was "ready, willing, and able" to "totally destroy" North Korea, a country of 25 million people. Four days later, Trump threatened to assassinate the North Korean leader. If the North Korean foreign minister's speech at the UN "echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man [Kim Jong-Un]," Trump wrote, "they won't be around much longer!"</p> <p>On Thursday, Trump organized a White House dinner with US military leaders, which had all the hallmarks of a meeting of a war cabinet. During a photo op before the dinner, Trump, surrounded by generals in military uniform, likened the moment to "the calm before the storm." Asked what storm he was talking about, Trump would only say, "You'll find out soon."</p> <p>To the extent that Trump's words are interpreted as a genuine expression of the policy and plans of the United States government, the inescapable conclusion is that the world stands on the brink of the most devastating military conflict since the outbreak of World War II. Were language and reality in correct political alignment, the present situation would be described officially as an "Imminent danger of war."</p> <p>Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, embroiled in a political conflict with Trump, warned that the president's reckless threats were leading the United States "on the path to World War III." But despite Corker's statement on Sunday, there is, within the ruling elite and its media, a staggering disconnect between consciousness and reality. The public declarations emanating from the White House are being reported by the media as if they will have no consequences. The thinking seems to be that Trump doesn't mean what he says. The consequences of a war would prove to be so catastrophic that Trump is simply bluffing.</p> <p>But what if he isn't? What if the North Korean government takes the threats of the American president, as it must, seriously? With Trump having publicly declared that he will destroy North Korea and that the doomsday hour is fast approaching, how will the Pyongyang government interpret American military actions near the borders of its country? With only minutes to make a decision, will the regime view the approach of a US bomber toward North Korean airspace as the beginning of a full-scale attack? Will it conclude that it has no choice but to assume the worst and initiate a military strike against South Korea? Will it fire missiles, as it has threatened, in the direction of Japan, Guam, Australia, or even the United States?</p> <p>From a purely legal standpoint, North Korea can claim, in light of Trump's threats, that such action on its part would be an act of self-defense, a legitimate response to an imminent military threat.</p> <p>Aside from the calculations of Pyongyang, one must assume that the regimes in Beijing and Moscow are also looking at the unfolding developments with increasing alarm. While the American media, as is its wont, responds complacently and thoughtlessly to Trump's threats, the Chinese regime cannot avoid viewing them with deadly seriousness. Trump is, after all, the commander in chief of the American military. He has the power -- which Congress has shown no interest in challenging -- to order military actions.</p> <p>A US attack on North Korea would pose an overwhelming threat to China. As in 1950, a war against North Korea would -- even if it did not rapidly escalate into a nuclear exchange -- lead inexorably to an American incursion across the 38th Parallel. The last time the US military crossed the border into North Korea, the Chinese responded with a massive military counterattack. There is no reason to believe that the present-day regime in Beijing would remain passive in the face of a new US invasion of North Korea. It would view an American invasion as an unacceptable violation of a geopolitical arrangement on the Korean peninsula that has been in existence for nearly 65 years.</p> <p>Beijing's reaction would be influenced by the already tense conditions that exist in the Asia-Pacific region. For years, the US has been systematically building up its military forces in the South China Sea under the "Pivot to Asia" initiated by the Obama administration. The purpose has been to militarily encircle China, which dominant sections of the ruling class consider the major competitor to US interests. Over the weekend, China's main regional competitor, Japan, declared that it fully backed Trump's threats against North Korea.</p> <p>Thus, the outbreak of war between North Korea and the United States would inevitably involve China, which, in turn, would draw all of Asia, as well as Australia, into the bloody maelstrom. Nor would it be possible for Europe and Latin America, which have their own interests in Asia, to stand aside.</p> <p>Little has appeared in the American media about the consequences of war with North Korea. An article in Newsweek in April concluded that a war would leave one million people dead, assuming that it did not involve the use of nuclear weapons or any other outside powers. In a comment in the Los Angeles Times last month, retired Air Force Brigadier General Rob Givens calculated that 20,000 South Koreans would die every day in a war on the peninsula, even without the use of nuclear weapons.</p> <p>If the war were to develop into a nuclear exchange -- as the Trump administration has threatened -- the consequences would be catastrophic. In addition to the millions or tens of millions killed outright, climate experts warned in August that even a regional nuclear war would cool the planet by up to 10 degrees Celsius, potentially sparking a global nuclear winter that would wipe out agricultural production.</p> How To Easily Kill All Indoor Odor, Mold, And Bacteria &#8212; Without Lifting A Finger Americans In The Dark On Trump's Plan To End The U.S. Dollar

Trump's threats against North Korea signify real danger of war

https://www.opednews.com/articles/Trump-s-threats-against-No-by-Joseph-Kishore-Military_North-Korea_Trump-Cruelty_Trump-Foreign-Policy-171009-871.html

2017-10-09